the pain is indescribable it's feels like a really really bad chemical burn but it goes through your skin in your muscle all the way down to the bone and there's no relief. we're not to sure this is just over. joined me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. the russian president. with a g. twenty summit with political flashpoints trade. particularly so. called off his much anticipated switch.

also coming up on the program this hour edward snowden's former lawyer tells us the whistleblower was forced to flee hong kong in twenty thirteen after pressure from chinese authorities. this is this was not an ordinary situation i literally minutes. you know once i was instructed by mr snowden to make decisions that would affect his liberty like. racism in middle earth and claims that works from the front to see lord of the rings maybe victims of the nation. in a warm welcome to our international just four pm here in moscow this friday ten am

in argentina's capital. where leaders of the world's most industrialized economies are getting together. proceedings officially get underway for they g twenty summit in two hours time the annual meeting is expected to be clouded with differences over many issues as the year has seen new alliances formed a longstanding one strained well that's not across to the girl who is in buenos ariz forest looks like a nice sunny day there as well is different here in moscow but tell us how are things shaping up we're almost there only two hours or so and then the talks get going. butin hi there well we have

been watching the arrivals of the g. twenty heads of state and most of them chose to fly in a little bit in advance because indeed the argentinean capital is a really long way from most g twenty countries for instance saudi arabia's crown prince yes the man who's really under pressure now with the rest of the world he's been here since wednesday and i can tell you that trouble for some of the leaders began even before the summit started for example angle marco had to give up the calm for of her own plane for that very long journey because of some technical issues she had to take a regular flight when the american president donald trump was being welcomed by the argentinean leader the translation appears to have been a real mess which made mr trump say i would have understood you better in your own

language than with the translation that he got and then. emanuel macron when he was coming out of his plane the first men who shook his hand was wearing a yellow vest and perhaps that's of course a coincidence but emanuel macron i bet cannot forget about what's happening in his own country for a second and the yellow vests protests against the fuel terrorists have been really intense they're now a union as you're saying the main events will soon be kicking off here in buenos itis and a little earlier i went to the area where the g twenty leaders are actually staying and put together a little summary of what we can expect from them. right now there are two cities a boy and a scientist one behind these fences for the g. twenty leaders and one on this side for everyone else and it does make sense

because those who are attending are the most powerful people in this world these are really the ones that are making our planet spin. well the folks from that point aside us have recently made us realize that we are in the living in a multi-polar world where everyone's holding on to their national interests and that head of the summit has led to a whole lot of problems between those who've been saying my country first. donald trump lately after china all the time he has blamed beijing for stealing to call g unfair trade and even meddling in the u.s. mid terms china has been attempting to interfere in our election i am the first

president ever to. challenge china on trade beijing has been much more careful with what they're saying but they are giving out warnings to in the last century we had two world wars and the great depression these things should never happen again so people have to act in a responsible way. the brutal murder of journalist jamal khashoggi has been taken at stall on how the rest of the world's been dealing with saudi arabia's mohamed bin psalm on by the way has been in bonus not his since wednesday on the snow this year we look at the monstrosity that happened in the sound you made in concert in tukey as long as it's not top there will be no arms exports to saudi arabia. someone else saying hello marco is not a big fan of is us president donald trump along with one of her best european

buddies emanuel macron they're trying to push for a european army and donald trump really hates that idea mr macron who's really been trying to make an effort to become close friends with mr trump it seems is beginning to have issues with the u.s. administration treats said some of trump's recent decisions have been done to the detriment of. the u.k.'s painful divorce might lead to a few awkward moments for. the prime minister will be looking for new friends at the summit and she's convinced other countries will feel the same way we might as well bear all of that in mind when we see team g twenty getting together for the family photo perhaps some of those smiles will have to be faked.

and there in the arch in time company became us right up to date over the next couple of days with all developments now they two leaders speaking about there have already grabbed all the headlines really before the official opening after donald trump canceled his meeting with a lot of our putin essentially at the last minute forty eight hours after he said the opportunity to meet with the russian president was too good to miss out on takes a look at what's behind washington. bated breath the world waited for another announced meeting between the presidents of russia and the united states but then lo and behold the twitter sphere lights up with news that the meeting is off the issue was the maritime incident between russia and ukraine but when trump was leaving for argentina it seemed to everyone that the meeting was still on i probably would.

have been busy. because. we. think it's a very good. that was despite the media beating the drums of war why does this president seems so simple when it comes to vladimir putin a lot of demands on the president right now to get tough on russia we've got to be tough with them it's the only thing putin understands or he just seems incapable of criticizing lattimer putin i don't want him to do that again stand next to putin and said well that was a provocation by the ukrainians that would not be in america's national interest just better not that the media coverage like this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone but last time the two leaders met the media went into a total meltdown hell think he was treated like an abomination now every aspect of the face to face meeting was question there were calls for the interpreter to testify before congress there were some who wanted the ball that putin gave to trump to be inspected for k.g.b. style bugs there were rumors that hypnotism could have been at play and amid all of

this frenzy trump actually backtracked on some of his words about election hacking president putin he just said it's not russian i will say this i don't see any reason why it would be looking for a reason to. send should have been i don't see any reason why i would or why it would be rush sense then another meeting had been in the works for months and the two leaders had plenty to discuss president trump would look forward to seeing you in paris still in order to work in areas where there is a possibility of mutual cooperation president meet with president putin i think it . be a full agenda the issues that we have on security issues on arms control issues and regional issues including the middle east last month the two world leaders opted not to me not wanting to steal the thunder of the world war one commemorations this time they are stealing the thunder of the g. twenty by not having a meeting table mop and r.t. new york a former top u.s.

state department official lawrence wilkerson believes it's the russian collusion allegations that move to council they meeting with and. i think this was all based on domestic politics there is a growing concern in the u.s. congress and growing concern out amongst the american people about the investigation about the possibility of there being collusion between the administration and moscow about trump's russia contacts period and so i think he's doing all he can now to demonstrate that there is no such thing as collusion there's no such thing as a. relationship between him and moscow that is anything other than formal and official and so he uses this in the cancellation of the meeting on the side of the buenos aires g twenty as a way of demonstrating that to his base and to the american people in the congress

. another issue shadowing the summit's for a double trump his former lawyer michael cohen pleaded guilty yesterday to mining to congress in the continuing russian collusion probe and the u.s. leader did not mince his words. he was convicted of various things unrelated. he was given a fairly long jail sentence and he's a weak person. by being weak i'd like other people that you watch oh he's a weak person and what he's trying to do is get a reduced sentence so he's lying about a project that everybody knew about it just flesh out what the projects of by the american president was furring to a proposed idea to build a trump tower in moscow earlier cohen said the talks on the project i mean and little twelve and sixteen you know i say he stopped it was a lie you know that the negotiations continued into june and when trump's campaign was in full swing former wall street journal correspondent jill dougherty has told

us they're helping efforts to stop the meeting with putin ever since their sell it this summer and healthy. time very well timed to release of cowen having lied about want not about collusion to change the election results but about a business deal that have been going on and maybe was still going on and he lied about it because he was afraid that it could be construed that way i don't really know exactly the details of the business deal but there's still no collusion but trump you will see how russia gate even without proof of collusion is having its effect on relations between the united states and russia you had to cancel this meeting and this is a very serious matter it's just it is internal politics that's having an international effect that g.r.u. indictments were far more serious and this summit was far more important terms of its build up very much and trump went to the summit house thank you of course and the reaction here in the u.s. was beyond belief this time i think maybe trump got the message. well if there is

one constant at the g. twenty no matter where it's held it's the days of must mean the anticapitalist protester rounding the summit's when a series is the exception. ah. ok check in more news we're covering this hour there has been an escalation in the latest showdown between moscow and kiev the ukrainian government has announced that russian males aged between sixteen and sixteen will be banned from entering the country their senior correspondent as they have told me more from crimea. well we've seen similar bans put in place over the last several years repeatedly russian men entry into ukraine but this is the first time that they've officially

confirmed that russian men age sixteen to sixty i no longer welcome a no longer allowed entry into ukraine the president has talked about this he has said that one of the justifications is to prevent russia from forming private on these inside ukraine we must remember of course that president poroshenko over the last four years has full cost repeated russian invasions of the ukraine which of failed to materialise but the russian the russians have also reacted the russian foreign ministry they've said that this is merely a political ploy a political play in order to shore up mr parr shanku ratings just four months to go until elections and matias rule being put in place is an attempt by him to radicalize the solidify the base and to guarantee himself more votes russia meanwhile that said that it is not planning on responding in kind that it isn't

going to put it to place any sort of restriction on ukrainians coming into russia for now but we've seen other restrictions put in place by the government in kiev we've seen. for example foreigners banned from moving into from journeying into crimea from the ukrainian side this includes journalists and this is drastically called complicated jobs because now foreign correspondents seeking to cover events in crimea even if they do manage to get into crimea they you know they might be punished by the ukrainians but we've seen a c.n.n. crew for example now in marry you pool which is a ukrainian city in the south of ukraine they've been elected opinions from people and they interviewed for example one woman amongst others who says that she has relatives in russia relatives that you know it's going to be harder to contact because because of this new ban there are millions of russians and ukrainians on both sides of the border that have relatives on the other side and she identified

herself as one of those if we had a normal president she says women work like this in this kind of job yet another she adds good presidents. named the brought the old smile among them. strange while the c.n.n. correspondent may be surprised that there are ukrainians who want friendly relations with russia the situation politically socially economically in ukraine isn't black and white there are many many people who share similar opinions who want three consult who want friendly relations and it's rare that we hear their opinions voiced in the mainstream media and western press nevertheless there are many many ukrainians who share similar opinions and do one thing to wend myself in a program. for more war and you stay with us.

you know world big partisan. 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 smart we need to stop slamming the door. 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 we're watching closely watching the hawks. join me every thursday on the alex simon chill and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then.

hello again mimic protest in belgium has a rep today in clashes the so-called yellow vests spread from front to brussels around five hundred demonstrators gathered in the city center on friday morning they are protesting in solidarity with the french movement against fuel price hikes on what they say are rising living costs protesters started to throw stones up police officers responded by deploying tear gas dozens of people have been detained we will keep across the protests there with the marts expected to move towards the

parliament in brussels a no go zone for relics. the lawyer who defended edward snowden in hong kong has revealed the n.s.a. whistleblower how to flee the city back in two thousand and thirteen because of pressure from chinese authorities robert to talk to us exclusively on his claims that whistleblower was hunted by police. when mr snowden was in hong kong and two thousand and thirteen. it wasn't a situation where the most wanted man on the planet with the world's largest manhunt underway. this is this was not an ordinary situation i literally had minutes. you know once i was instructed by mr snowden to make decisions that would affect his liberty in this life former cia employee snowden leaked a vos trove of classified national security agency to. u.s.

government spying operations he fled to hong kong where asylum seekers helped shelter him from the authorities for two weeks russia later granted him asylum he has lived here since that. china however say it's was edward snowden himself who took the decision to leave quote through a lawful a normal child but robert tibo again insists that it was persecuted as were the other refugees who were sheltering. december two thousand and sixteen when i was in germany speaking at a conference the i received a phone call that the. sri lankan police criminal investigation department had flown into hong kong specifically targeting the snowden refugees so once i received that information from some witnesses i contacted the clients and i advised them to leave their homes immediately and we thought we had serious secure locations for them the first question the police had for my clients was all about. mr snowden and i had to put a stop to this quite frankly i was shocked that the accomplice were focusing on mr

snowden's activities in two thousand and thirteen one in two thousand and seventeen . the issue that the police had to address were the safety and security of my clients. claims that president trumps former campaign chairman met several times with wiki leaks founder julian assange has taken a new twist a former cia officer is questioning the story saying it might have been planted by russia your study hawkins'. it's another link in the chain of the trump russia collusion probe the guardian article exposing alleged multiple meetings between the former chairman of trump's presidential campaign and wiki leaks founder julian assange and naturally it's caused quite a stir in the us media story is shaking washington that is a bombshell man of foreigners are held a secret meeting around the same time that man or for joined the tram campaign a direct connection between the campaign and wiki leaks they actually published e-mails that were hacked by the russians mail stolen by russian spies but doubt

soon began to emerge about the articles content and sources but not to warry politico has the answer even if the guardian story is false it's all russia's fault you know i'm being serious rather than being the bombshell smoking gun that directly connects a trump campaign to wiki leaks perhaps the report is something else entirely a distance from ation campaign is it possible someone planted the story as a means to discredit the john nests that article was written by nick cia agents under a pen name to prove a point the former officer draws our attention. and to those who dare question this bombshell russia's disinflation network has jumped into the ring to promote skepticism of the story sputnik one of russia's propaganda networks called the story into question and bolstered the skepticism by quoting tweets from ever gone and glenn greenwald weekly itself r t also a crime and mouthpiece but neck and wiki leaks d.c.

a pattern here it's clear why there's some skepticism the story raises more questions than answers both x. and metaphor strongly deny the meeting even threatening legal action ok perhaps they're both simply covering for each other you could say but assad has a man under close surveillance with police literally on his doorstep a few days pass yet no other source can confirm or show substantial evidence of manifolds alleged visit to the ecuadorian embassy because i mean these are apparently the washington times says paul minor faults passports show he didn't even visit london in those years the guardian claim and r.t. are the only ones asking for evidence who are the sources if you can see them doubt anonymous source and is dangerous at best striking catalogue of reflexive credulous acceptance of a story that looked shaky from the start and looks more so by the day maybe they've all been duped by russia but what does politico think of this fake news operation

by russian intelligence actually proves someone is nervous and eager to lay the groundwork for yelling fake news out whatever other stories are about to drop so either what the guardian says is true and there is collusion or it's a fake story planted by the russians which also proves collusion win win situation one thing seems clear someone is feeling the heat. story's almost the power to the next cia agent using a pen name says that if the guardian piece on a song in metaphor is false the russians must be behind it anyway you really can't make this up. something a little different. fun to see lord of the rings' know about the beasts like orcs are a force to be reckoned with but one cipher author believes the way they're depicted in the books is racist quote dire consequences for society.

try to beat back on. hard not. hated notion intel. maurice's are. creatures that were sort of already used out of the air or sorry my audience. had not a great deal of choice in the matter what. are

we not allowed to root against treacherous fictional cannibals anymore welcome to twenty in one title. clearly the races of men elves and dogs should have welcomed the immigrates in orcs and allowed them to feast on all the mound flesh they desired how terribly racist often it is just a good triumphs over evil story not meant to be that deep. a part to the rafters watching a hawk starts in moments this is interest. in

fact a recent poll a gallup poll showed fifty seven percent of americans want a more cooperative relationship with russia so there is a disconnect that is smart politician democrat would understand needs to be seen because there's not a lot of hunger appetite for this kind of any russian politics is being fanned by a media political establishment. u.s. veterans who come back from war often tell those same stories. were going after the people who were killing civilians they were not interested in the wellbeing of their own soldiers either they're already several generations of them so i just got this memo from a certain branches officer says we're going to attack and destroy the government and seven countries in five years americans pay for the wars with their money others with their lives if we were willing to go into harm's way and willing to

risk being killed for a war then surely we can risk some discomfort or an easy for us. greetings and salutation is. big news out of the united states senate my auk watchers as senators near and far and across party lines voted this past wednesday to advance a measure that would bring to a vote as soon as next week a possible end to the logistical military support the united states has been providing to saudi arabia's brutal and violent campaign inside the war torn country of yemen the yemen war powers resolution sponsored by senators chris murphy mike lee and bernie sanders was a band by an overwhelming margin of sixty three to thirty seven despite

a strong push by the white house to quell the congressional uprising against the u.s. as role in the barbaric and tragic war in yemen it war that has now conservatively claimed more than five thousand civilian lives and this led to a massive cholera epidemic that is considered to be the worst cholera epidemic in human history affecting at least a million yemeni men women and children secretary of state mike pump aoe sounded off in a wall street journal op ed that the saudi regime is a powerful force spur stability in the middle east and warned us all of us that degrading us saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the u.s. and its allies yeah ya heard me right. dusted off the old vital to national security line that we've heard about one hundred thousand times before to just them by just about any bloodcurdling a horrible foreign policy decision that the.