stories this week. one of the city's worst hit by the syria. war. almost ceased to exist. the russian embassy in the u.s. says maria who was jailed on charges of being a foreign agent is being subjected to conditions that. border.

international you're just in time for the weekly welcome to. the syrian army reestablishing control across the country efforts are underway to rebuild the shattered nation and the latest in a series of reports. to the city of aleppo to see how locals are. picking up the pieces. much of the city of aleppo still ruins reviving it to its former glory is a task of gargantuan proportions and of immense political and economic importance the citadel of aleppo has become the symbol of the city's resistance.

but aleppo is much more than just a maze of antique streets and attractions from history books. the militants have stolen computer units with chips for the machine they destroyed the factory on purpose they wanted to damage syrian industry as a whole and specifically industry in aleppo reviving this that. would. see one rebel go over this area. and feed and basically rebuild this hunger. he's. going to be immense but now that the former

industrial hub is slowly getting back on track things are finally looking up for the people of aleppo. two years ago during the war we couldn't even open our shops the shelling snipers were everywhere you couldn't live under such circumstances we covered the roof of the building back then so that we could take cover it was unbearable we took shelter for about half an hour whenever the shelling started we just locked ourselves in here thank god now we can work peacefully day and night we just hang around smoking just like the. good old days the under joe hello the atmosphere is really good around here the weather is nice everybody is feeling safe and it's only getting better you can see getting better day by day. i was lucky enough not to leave my home the wind this is the district the rebels couldn't get to at the time there was a blockade once but it was firmly defeated now saying god things about or despite all those things we've been through we're no better. when you know it's safe you

can return home if your house lies in ruins you can still fix it the main thing is it's safe now. just a couple of years ago these tents used to protect people in the street from falling shows and debris well now they're sheltering them from the sun historically the city of aleppo has been the economic capital of syria and now with the word gone finally some traders are coming back to the streets. don of reporting from aleppo in syria. meanwhile donald trump has tweeted that the u.s. has cut its development funding for syria asking other nations to pick up the tab the u.s. state department says it will redirect its stabilisation budget plan for syria to other foreign policy efforts washington insists though this will not affect its humanitarian assistance program now it comes as saudi arabia pledges one hundred million dollars to syria reconstruction efforts however the money will only go up

to the northeast of the country or region under the control of u.s. backed kodesh forces. and while some programs are cut others remain in place but the u.s. saying it will stay in syria for some time yet to fight against the last pockets of terrorists. we're remaining in syria the focus is the ensuring defeat of isis we still have not launched the final phase to defeat the physical caliphate this is actually being prepared now and that will come at a time for choosing but it is coming the united states does not want assad to become too strong there you are hoping to keep leverage in order to try to push iran out of the country to get a better deal for the kurds and and of course they're also worried about what's going to happen if they're province where there is very complex negotiation sense and russia is at the heart of that so there are many competing agendas in

washington and as long as president trump is not spending a lot of money there i think he's happy to keep a few thousand troops if that increases america's leverage. and with the economic standoff between the u.s. and turkey gaining momentum after both sides impose further tariffs on each other over the one now it says ankara is ready to challenge washington there's some believe they can threaten us with the economy sanctions exchange rates interest rates inflation here's what we tell them we've uncovered your skills and we challenge you what was aggravated when i grow to attain that american past of a possible links to terrorism and long other measures washington slapped additional tariffs on turkish island many and steel sending the turkish lira plummeting to record lows against the u.s. dollar turkey in turn hiked rates on american products like cars and alcohol the

u.s. though now says that sanctions will remain in place even if the pastor is released . what fortan is this one american to put global financial stability at risk. put u.s. base presence in turkey at risk put a nato ally alliance with a nato partner at risk for one american who's being put through the churches just so you're saying this is our fault turkey is the financial situation has been in the works for quite some time and it dates prior to the imposition of sanctions on august i believe was august the first so this is been in train for quite some time and even up when the u.s. government for that but then all of a sudden stepping in on the side is qatar which has suddenly approved fifteen billion dollars in aid to help prop up the turkish economy i think it's one quarter now takes a look at how the decades old alliance between the u.s.

and turkey spiraled to this point. country was built the entire entire if so now leading us to great new trade deals as opposed to the horrible food trade deals the drawing heritage as your president of the country should not be allowed to come in and steal the wealth of all great you and me. what countries could he mean are stealing could be turkey the countries lira shed a quarter of its value against the dollar in just one week after trump's tweet about doubling existing tariffs investors are running away screaming inflation surging and turkey's leadership is bracing for an all out trade war the reason for such a calamity against an old nato friend was ankara's refusal to release an american pastor accused of both terrorism and espionage it's punishment time for a rebellious ally that tariffs that are in place on steel would not be removed

with the release of pastor bronson and president her to want lashed out in defiance calling the u.s. move an attempt to force turkey to surrender and make them a slave to the greenback this is come through of doing things then. to come more. and do you want to use this for political purposes but turkey is just one example of how the trumpet ministration treats longtime allies in fact many of america's friends have already been forced into the fray in a war of tariffs and sanctions canada had heavy steel and aluminum tariffs imposed earlier this year and trump perhaps thought the stars and stripes needed some protection from its northern neighbor who didn't take too kindly to it that it's kind of insult to move forward with retaliatory measures on july first applying equivalent tariffs as if that wasn't bad enough the us president went and

slapped tariffs on europe today i'm defending america's national security. by placing tariffs on foreign imports of steel and aluminum brussels tried to hit back with restrictions of its own tried to appeal to the transatlantic solidarity special relations bonds of friendship but to no avail and it begs the question with such a long list of enemies the us is currently fighting from iran to north korea russia china why can't your allies i think this has become a real tit for tat thing and i do not for a new york minute think that the pastor is really what is going on here of course are washington's times with that group been strained for some time ever since the coup attempt against terror go on i suspect there's something going on with regional politics maybe with regard to syria that is really the reason behind this competitors like beijing and moscow attempting to pack as much heat as the u.s.

these days sanctioning and scaring everyone in view may be the only way for the u.s. to impose its will on friend and foe alike donald quarter r.t. . meanwhile some talks have chosen a rather unusual way to show that protest against washington's so cold economic will. thank you the no i don't want to give the money. and another twist in the latest alleged russian spy scandal in america the russian embassy in the us says that maria is being subjected to conditions that are tantamount to torture she was jailed on charges of being an unregistered foreign

agent and was recently transferred to another prison. has launched a crowdfunding campaign to pay for her legal defense and how lawyer updated us on her condition. i was unaware that she was transferred until last night at around midnight i received a collect call from her at home and the phone was disconnected before we could get through but i knew it was from alexandria jail so i drove down and tried to get in last night and could not but i was able to get in this morning and visit her so she is in alexandria detention facility at least for now for this weekend it's a smaller facility than the d.c. jail as respected facility but it's hard to know why the move was made where there was made for medical or other reasons or in response to complaints about the conditions in d.c. she does have arthritis in one of her legs kind of a history of problems with that leg so she sought treatment for that and so far has just received tylenol and nothing else and i think she has also been a little bit frustrated by policy when people are in protective custody they do bad

checks every fifteen minutes at night to check on detainee safety and i think sometimes depending on who the guard is you know the lights are turned on every time there's a check and so it's very hard to get proper sleep when you're being woken up every fifteen minutes she's segregated from the general population of the prison facility you know no contact really with outside people besides her lawyers and occasional phone calls and when you're being held and it's in some isolation like that it's difficult because every everything i think you want to do is kind of a one off request there isn't a very set schedule and so it was very difficult to make sure she was getting her proper exercise and. trips to the library and things like that because everything she did she had to do by herself and doesn't anyone would have an easy time in prison but in this is an accomplished student you know someone who i don't think ever envision spending a day in jail or a life to be in you know it's a pretty tough facility. the alleged russian agent was arrested over

a month ago she was refused bail after pleading not guilty two weeks ago she's also accused of offering sex in an attempt to get a job in an unnamed special interest group if convicted boudinot could face up to fifteen years in prison and no date has been set for her trial but her lawyer remains optimistic she's in very good shape she's helping actively with us to prepare the defense she's confident in her innocence there's no allegation of espionage there's no allegation of classified information childish and she was paying anyone off there's no allegation she was recruiting spies none of the things you would typically see in an espionage case the allegations are fairly banal that she attended meetings of various groups that were public that she had dinners with various people and she took a lot of selfies as i think a lot of people are twenty's do with with people she met and posted them on facebook so this is not a kind of a typical this is no comparison to what the allegations were against for example had a chapman or others where there was actual whether they were true or not their actual

allegations about use of sophisticated equipment and payoffs and spy ring and things like that there's none of that here with some point maybe try to get her released pretrial again we're just looking through documents trying to find the proper evidence to do that and i think we may be able to do that hopefully the next couple of weeks are just about helping through the weekly here when i see international plenty more of the program just a much. good call existence to do something good to. put themselves on the lawn. they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president or injury. or somehow want to preserve. it's a right to be for us this is what before us three in the morning can't be good that

i'm interested always in the waters of my. question. give you to join us here

a true palestinians were killed and at least two hundred seventy injured at this during fresh protests in gaza on friday the demonstrators still demanding the return of territories seized by israel gaza based reporter he could garner he has details. just to news continue to protest for the twenty first friday they israelis continue to fire tear gas canisters and live ammunition on the palestinian protesters. that the situation now is escalating as the palestinian protesters are trying to bring you to bring some tires to their division of those ready snipers that israeli forces continue to fly more to gas canisters on the palestinian protesters to disperse them and to keep them away from the friends at least two palestinians injured in a very very critical condition as you see palestinians are are bracing the palestinian flag. throwing stones on the israeli snipers and this is how the

palestinians have been gunned down by is right the snipers and the israeli forces oh my god i mean this unit you just got to start are now being fired that gun on the palestinian protesters. i doubt you see it to be fired on the part of student protesters where your gas canisters are being fired from directions as you see the place is filled with with white smoke everyone except the casing so much air guns fired this is also one of the injuries that from the tear gas fired just right now . still sounds like the first time i see this there is no sense when the palestinian protesters had that meeting to break the funds probably just hours i'm sorry it's hardly ever was. fire has that done a thing in time that been easy to break that fence i'm sorry but i still think the

sooting live ammunition on the part of the problem that everyone is going back to. the israeli defense forces said the response of the troops to palestinians trying to break through the fence was in accordance with standard operating procedures the great march of our time on the israeli gaza border started back in march and around a hundred and seventy palestinians have since been killed.

afghanistan. and has been hit by a string of attacks this week as taliban forces launch an offensive against government soldiers hundreds of people including civilians were killed also an education facility in the country's capital was targeted by a suicide bomber dozens of students killed in the explosion islamic state said it was behind that attack. my friends and i were sitting in exam in class the first period finished and we went out for break time afterwards all the students return to class just two minutes later the bombs suddenly went off when i heard the sound i couldn't feel anything but on the back of the.

united nations continues to maintain that could be no military solution to the conflict in that country and. i have escaped from gaza province where the fighting is still ongoing it's been about five days since the conflict started. here many people including one of my neighbors were killed there i saw my friend dying and he was among thirteen people including children and women who were killed during an air strike in gaza in the province of. the city of gaza any where the offensive by taliban forces started has long been considered

a very strategic area due to its close vicinity to the capital and fighting there escalated on friday when the taliban attempted to storm gaston and take control our correspondent now looks at how almost two decades of the american led war in afghanistan seems to somehow have led to a resurgence in violence. this is what's happening just a little more than a hundred kilometers from the capital kabul. there's barely a camera in gaza any available to film this dreadful battle locals say there are stronger descriptions than simply the tele bed is back in action and if it wasn't for u.s. airstrikes the afghan army could have been in far worse trouble so it makes you wonder do american diplomats and their military keep in touch there is nothing that precludes us from gaging with the taliban we're doing everything we can to ensure

that our actions help that's on the front and the afghan government does the same table everything they can only a few weeks ago the state department said talking with the taliban was a good idea and regardless of how hostile their actions the extremists say they're forward to this is what we wanted and were waiting for to sit with the us directly and discuss the withdrawal of foreign troops from afghanistan the rumor is there's already been some direct contact at least we know for sure alice wells went to qatar last month where the taliban's got a political office i'm confused the armed group has all but regained its might which not so long ago or in them a reputation of out reich islamist barbarians in america and pretty much all over the world we acted and the taliban no longer is in power in afghanistan which is

not only good for the security of the free world it is incredibly good for the people who suffered in afghanistan on the barbaric rule time flies us administrations come and go fair enough but the things the people in charge say about insurgents today could be totally different tomorrow taliban this taliban that the taliban are fighting isis and we encourage that because isis needs to be destroyed. oh so they're good for something at least if it's about knocking out islamic state he had just a few months earlier general nicholson said the taliban's fight against diana was a piece of russian propaganda we see or a narrative that's being used that grossly exaggerates the number of isis fighters here this narrative then is used as a justification for the russians to legitimize the actions of the taliban and provide some degree of support complicated hol of ghana's stan business as usual

and the american strategy for afghanistan see above the american strategy a strategy from the beginning of the so-called war on terror which was launched off to the september eleventh attacks as this war has turned out to be an utter failure . you know i was we all know it was in a stronger position than it ever was in two thousand and one. so and so i think it's proof that the u.s. has been pursuing a wrong strategy in defeating terrorism on the contrary i think that the u.s. involvement up until now when the focus on military force in the region has the growth of terrorism the taliban is not just pulling out a gun it's firing it it could be time for the pentagon and the state department to hunt for ideas together and be more precise twenty five minutes past the hour here

in moscow thank you for sharing your sunday with us here at the international more of the weekly at the top of the hour if you can join us. infinitely. from. the from from. it's a very rough terrain a sort of profit motive and you have to fight to be able to the flag. it was gunshots on top him and so very fresh he would have been only one of many and even not. looking any will. you know i don't want. to see it but a body in the shoe and it's ready to put you straight in the hood is both to me

a good mood and. you don't think about these movies so good on no you got three teeth like that and you know and the other patients. previously on the great american pilgrimage specific to texas please don't think oh everything's going to be fine there are people in need tell me about deshon charity when the storm hit but i decided to focus funds to the hurricane relief be prepared what you're about to see. everybody i'm stephen baldwin gosselin task hollywood guy you know suspects everybody proud american first of all i'm just george washington and r.v. enthusiastic uncle steve to me it's good to drive the big board bus this is my buddy max famous financial guru and we'll she's

a little bit different on this day abraham lincoln i know that you're well i know we know the last but not least my larger than life. the night an aspiring star rio. with all the drama happening in our country i'm shooting the road have fun. meet everyday americans calling and what's america our ancestors suffered the most and see how things got so crazy i was made. but we need to keep my finger on hopefully start to bridge the gap this is the great american pilgrimage. with. stephen in max continued their pilgrimage through texas. and they've teamed up with

denny from the crypto show to further war and how dash is helping to bring some relief to those affected by hurricane harvey and the floods that followed. something has been removed. and the thing that's what the government there you know . the stuff that was under water. was no longer. saying it's. water just some. waste in the water. as our heroes make their way through the aftermath they had to meet with a family that survived the hurricane but is still in some need of a little help our heroes are also joined by allie a friend of the show and fellow pilgrim and. ellie i see even higher only

these are my friends amy and jacob are you. aiming steven jacob jacob. cerebrum no max i am trying to get any take of him in these are called my friends we're all working together on the great american pilgrimage. i'm from new york ok. cool. we're on the great american pilgrimage you know. dastards will cash is one of our sponsors but really friends because they share the same heart we do which is wanting to be in the business of impacting or connecting with folks so that's why we're here today. when it first started is rolling through corpus christi and send in tony over and over here would still bed yet you know we're still trying to get through the kind of headed zone in between is just not certain if we.