mattis is our president trump announces the u.s. defense secretary will step down from his post at the end of february that's our breaking news plus. wrapping up the presidential question and answer session on two thousand eight hundred the biggest events of vladimir putin gives moscow's stance on the threat of nuclear war the ukraine crisis and brags that among much much more. many western politicians and even ordinary people see of our shasta track they even think that you want to rule the world of course i do. and some fund their international journalists even the press the russian leader about potential plans for

a global takeover thankfully everyone sees the funny side of it all. are broadcasting live from our studios in moscow this is arching international i'm sean thomas glad to have you with us and as i mentioned we start with breaking news this hour u.s. defense secretary james mattis has announced his resignation following trumps a decision to withdraw u.s. troops from syria and picks up the story for us is known as mad dog mattis the u.s. secretary of defense one of the military men that trump referred to as one of quote my generals well it seems he'll be leaving the job at the end of february here's what we saw on social media trumps tweets about the departure of the u.s. secretary of defense. general jim maddest will be retiring with distinction at the end of february after having served my administration as secretary of defense for

the past two years during jim's tenure tremendous progress has been made especially with respect to the purchase of new fighting equipment general mattis was a great help to me in getting allies and other countries to pay their share of military obligations a new secretary of defense will be named shortly i greatly think jim for his service now it's being reported that apparently mattis did not agree with trump's announcement to withdraw u.s. forces from syria madison argued that it was necessary to maintain some small u.s. military presence in syria for the purpose of fighting against terrorism he did not agree with it that's what's being reported now the resignation letter of mattis has surfaced and it contains the phrase because you have the right to a secretary of defense whose views are more aligned with yours now the letter makes reference to the fight against terrorism and also makes reference to the rising influence of russia and china around the world now the letter itself doesn't

specifically name a solid disagreement between the president and the secretary of defense but it's been widely reported that there was indeed a disagreement about the decision to withdraw from syria now donald trump is now going to have to announce a replacement for the secretary of defense that replacement will then have to be confirmed by the u.s. congress at the end of february u.s. secretary of defense mad dog james mattis will be leaving the trumpet ministration . president trump announced of the defeat of islamic state in syria on wednesday and of the rapid withdrawal of all two thousand u.s. troops from the war torn country the american president took to twitter giving his nation and himself much of the credit for the victory over the terrorists although his words seem to have perplexed his administration allies and advisors we have one good study says we've beaten them and we've beaten him badly now we've won it's

time to come back. because we remain on the ground there for the physical to be to the caliphate until we have the pieces in place to ensure that the creators and earth. are not get the hell out of isis will become another syria like very soon. to us officials tell n.b.c. news the president reluctantly agreed to keep troops in syria some analysts point out that the u.s. backed kurdish fighters will now be left abandoned and a vulnerable turkey has threatened and offensive in northern syria against the kurds who they view as terrorists the official spokesperson of syrian democratic forces which includes the kurds told us why they oppose trying to move with the american decision to withdraw from syria is sudden and shocking to us and even for the american troops here on the ground and the american withdrawal will surely contribute in one way or another to escalating the continuous turkish threats toward the north of syria in general and towards the kurdish people in particular.

all right we're joined live now by reese erlich who's a freelance of foreign correspondent and author of inside syria you have a unique perspective on this right now. certainly it seems like the president is standing against all of his advisors and all of his allies this resignation from james mattis comes hot on the heels of trump's decision about bringing the troops back from syria was that enough to push madness over the edge. it appears so i don't have any inside information i haven't interviewed him but the there's been widespread disagreement particularly from the neo conservatives and other hawks in the new strain and they basically want to keep u.s. troops in syria permanently so some senators are saying dahl jump shouldn't have pulled out of syria because this only makes russia's president even stronger or their influence they're stronger as well with the removal of two thousand troops

really change the scene on the ground in syria. i don't think so it does present some new contradictions you know the possibility of a turkish invasion to expand they already have military bases in northern syria the possibility is them expanding and really carrying out a strong military campaign against the kurds in the uk but as far as affecting the overall civil war in syria i don't think the u.s. withdrawal the troops is going to make much difference so the white house also said that the withdrawal doesn't mean that they're not that they are not scrapping their campaign against terrorist pacifically it's just moving to a different phase what could that next phase actually be i know that there was some mention of others needing to pick up the slack i guess those others imply there would take some offense to that. it's not clear at all i think it was rhetoric

frankly aimed at trying to appease the hawkish critics in the united states sooner or later the u.s. was going to have to withdraw from syria it was a mistake to go in in the first place i was reporting from the syria iraq border in two thousand and fourteen when all this bombing started i pointed out that there was no legal basis for it there was no un resolution there was no congressional resolution in the united states nothing it was simply a unilateral decision by then president obama and obama has made it even worse troubles made it even worse i ask a lady in the war further so the u.s. is going to have to pull out sooner or later i think trump botched it in terms of some timing issues and letting people know in advance and center but no matter when the troops are going to be pulled out there was going to be this kind of controversy so how do you expect us foreign policy to change after the departure of madison and trumps syria pull out if at all well i don't think overall u.s.

policy is going to change and i think trump himself wants to pull the troops out the problem is he's fighting within his own administration and within the bureaucracies of the cia the pentagon the state department and so on all of whom think current u.s. policy of intervention is a good idea and so we know from books that have been written in testimony here interviews with his top persistence that sometimes he'll make a decision and then no we'll carry it out so we have to wait and see if what in fact happens in the months ahead if suddenly the deadline for pulling the troops out is extended or there's some new incident that comes up that justifies keeping the troops i'm not at all sure that the full and total withdrawal and stopping of the air war is going to take place in the next thirty to ninety days as claimed by the white house all right i appreciate your thoughts razorlight i wish i had more time to talk. because we haven't even touched the whole kurdish situation for you

and her question for you. is russia going to pressure turkey not to attack the kurds if i had those answers then i guess i wouldn't be in the reporting side i'd be on the policymaking side but i guess we'll see how that one plays out as well right we're going to let everyone have their own letter about that one god love it are there are foreign correspondent and author of inside syria thanks for being with us. all right now the russian president has held his fourteenth annual q. and a with media in attendance from all around the globe our t. was front and center for the whole event and our special coverage starts right now . i have led a mere spent almost four hours answering in a ray of questions from both russian and foreign journalists ranging from the economy pensions and education to sniping back and

a question about world domination our senior correspondent reports. not quite the five hours that his record but you know pretty near four hours solid enough but there was so much covered so much from fuel prices to protest to even nuclear war breaks it mentioning those fronts i mentioned relations with various countries charts of conflict but one thing that stood out towards the end was an interesting question of. who can about whether he wants to rule the world and he does. many why some politicians experts and even ordinary people see russia as a threat they even think that you want to rule the world of course i do i just want to know you really want this was a real end of your foreign policy. concerning ruling the world we know where the headquarters are located of those who want to do this and it's not in moscow you

can connect this to defense spending the u.s. spends over seven hundred billion dollars on it or russia only forty six billion. do you really think that's our aim is to rule the world. this is just a cliche that's being imposed by the west in order to resolve their own domestic problems. but i. also asked about the trouble. now and cement resident declaration yesterday resident tweet i suppose that he is going to pull out american troops from syria now that the job has been done and isis has been destroyed it hasn't but. says it has blood in there putin was asked what he thought about that intent concerning the u.s. withdrawal from syria i don't really know what that means for example the u.s. has been present in afghanistan for the past seventeen years and almost every year they say that they are withdrawing their troops the only certain they are still there now is the presence of american troops needed in syria you pushed you quite

don't think so but let's not forget that the presence there is illegitimate. it was not agreed on but it will be there with the u.n. security council them along with the syrian regime so if the us plans to withdraw is the right decision ukrainian journalists are also always welcome at this press conference cept in recent years of the more nationalistic li minded and zealously anti putin ones seem to favor displaying their colors. for everyone to see. flags or banners or indeed provocative questions. about to dinner i just wanted to ask you how much money do you spend on dunbar's people are starving and they've turned into slaves of russian frankly speaking there's a lot of issues where you remember the puzzles to. just tell me this. between the on bus and the rest of ukraine because the russians do know it was done by the

ukrainian authorities they haven't forced a full economic blockade of the territory they consider their own. consider their own citizens almost every day civilians die though we provide humanitarian support for those living mansions but only not to let those people starve to death another important thing that people have been talking about for some years several years now escalation growing tensions in the world armament an arms race and vladimir putin was asked about potential nuclear war and he said that would be catastrophic but the risk is there because the global security order the global security mechanism is unraveling it is failing it is being destroyed nations are pulling out of arms treaties out of arms limitation treaties developing these new weapons capable of defeating all defenses and there is the problem that balance is gone there is no mutually assured destruction there is no parity and so everybody

is trying to make new. weapons this is a global arms race and it isn't going to end well as. the us is now leaving the i.n.f. treaty what's going to happen it's hard to imagine what is the rockets are located in europe what should we do of course we will have to ensure our security with concrete steps but let's not say later we're trying to get some advantage we're not trying to get some advantage with this but merely to seek your pilots to ensure our security so what's more covered that we don't have time to pack in now almost four hours the record as well one thousand seven hundred and two credited journalists in attendance with a lot of questions in the times it was very chaotic with journalists screaming and shouting and jumping to be noticed and to get their question of the crisis and fortunately it's the only one. with many more journalists with time and ticking and

journalists desperate to get their questions to the president those in attendance tried to stand out from the crowd in any way they could. be. sure of our own ilya trying to was among the journalists and talk us through his questions to the president he even brought his own poster though it was

a little bit on the small side. when you're sitting there when you're trying to hold this little thing actually the size of this was the limit to this year for all the journalists when you're desperate to get this question you can feel every minute of it possibly even second and then when it gets closer to the end it really really puts a lot of pressure on you but i was lucky enough to get a chance to ask my questions about ask questions after about one and a half hours while we were there in that room you know if you get a chance it is still not much because it's only thirty seconds maybe a bit more than that if you don't finish your question within that time other people will start screaming at you you know making noises that that's really something that makes it difficult to do the job but then in these thirty seconds what you're really trying to do is squeeze in some kind of stuff about the most important invention of the year so why began is that the my question and when i

mentioned the script all case and also the killing of saudi journalist jamal that was the moment i did that and you can a lot of more potent decided to draw the line between these two immediately i'm sure you would be cautious he was assassinated everyone knows that there is evidence script is a lawyer however there are sanctions against russia and complete silence in the case of saudi arabia is that this politicized russia for you because it is just another reason to attack russia if it was not script they would have thought of something else this is obvious to me and the aim is one to hold russia's growth it's any cost of speaking of other double standards i went on to talk about more things for example the arrest of russian journalist in fact he is he used to be the head of a russian news agency in ukraine carol this is me in the ukraine he's been arrested for months the arrests of maria buttin in the u.s.

and the recent detention. of the wall way financial director in canada by the way donald trump refers to her house of bargaining chips in the trade war game possibly even openly doing that and i went on to ask whether this is possible in russia to detain foreigners whether we'll ever see that on under some dodgy pretext to then possibly exchange the prisoners that are under arrest in the west and if we take the rules of the game that are being set by america and some other western countries in this case whether that is at all acceptable the answer from the russian president was no he said that russia will never try to use this kind of tactic. we spoke to former u.s. congressman ron paul who gave us his take on some of the issues addressed by the russian president. i don't think it means that something

horrible is eminent but i think it's a shame that that has happened because when we do that as american citizens we see our government doing this then there's a response from the russian government and i see that going in the wrong direction but i don't think it should be a great alarm that next month there will be a clash. and trump although he has his ups and downs i think that he has taken a good position he said he wanted to get out of out of syria and he said in the campaign he said that isis is not a threat there and that it's time to come home and i just want to be complete yes move the troops out our couple thousand troops but i want to make sure that you know the cia's out and the special forces are out and that we don't use sanctions and that we move in that direction where we just have hands off and deal with diplomacy and getting along with people but in that philosophy that i just spoke it

also means though for in a way our problem is if we dominate and militarize a country then we finance all that and if we converted into friendship then we send them millions of dollars because we still own you so we still should be concerned it's great to do troops are leaving and as i mentioned as we began that i wanted to be more inclusive to you know i would not say we're going to remove two thousand troops because we've been in a many many countries we continue to be in countries but we start off with our cia agents and we start off with special forces we start off with interfering with sanctions and we just don't we don't need any of that if we're noninterventionist and we just want friendship and trade you don't spend that money because it gets us into trouble. following his press conference where putin was not done with meeting journalists despite spending several hours with hundreds of them

a teenage russian girl who is registered as a blind and hopes to become a top reporter self met the country's leader afterwards. hello how are you. if you put your thumb i would like to ask you some questions did you always dream of becoming president or before you wanted to be for example an astronaut you could. honestly i never dreamed of becoming president and i had no intention this happened by chance. probably at first it was very difficult for you can you describe your first days as president the. yes it wasn't easy these were very difficult years for the country as a whole we were balancing with survival there was a very difficult situation with the economy and security as well clear last what was your most memorable day as president. it is very difficult to say but we just

talked about they set a big press conference the most striking events of this year with the presidential election on the world cup it's really every person is a music lover in their soul what kind of music do you prefer rap classical or maybe have a matter of. well it's very difficult for me to understand is too much although any music is good weather is talent so it should evoke positive emotion i like modern music but most of all so-called popular classical music and who is your favorite singer or group it's. just well we're seeing is this hard to say if we're talking about popular classical then i can recommend the russian composer tchaikovsky i'm listening to schubert serenade by list i'm sure you will love it do you make a wish i mean your. used yes this wish was a secret but i can share it with you i wish all our wishes will come true may had

to actually you of course. you are very handsome. thank you very much. right after the young woman finished her interview with the president artie's it was done off got to turn the tables and find out what she thought of the experience. regain a i was a major in your interview what were your impressions and how do you feel now. i feel like i did my very best to be honest i was shocked at first i didn't understand what was going on i was making a question in asking them almost at the same time how did you prepare for the interview. that you first i was very nervous but that i just sat down and got writing a huge notebook of questions. when i was younger that when i dressed the president for the first time i was extremely nervous. but then i come down he was so kind in answer to question so professionally solid turned out to be

really easy to interview him. to be someone who could quote was the most interesting question you are asked and the best answer you received was that we. know the most interesting answer was the one about music with the president told me a lot of interesting things and it turned out he loves classical music especially russian so it's just. so you've already interviewed by to me. tell me what's next for you as a journalist because the problem is that your book how to live then i would like to continue interviewing great and interesting people which. you say you see yourself as an interviewer yes an interviewer or presenter. well for the first time in have a year julian assange has had visitors to the ecuadorian embassy in london to german m.p.'s met with the whistleblower to express their solidarity and the hopes that they can find

a legal solution to the wiki leaks founders situation which is honest as you're going to pick up a story for us m.p.'s from the german bund to stop and it's committee on foreign affairs who authored a letter in support of we queue leaks founder julian assange signed by dozens of m.p.'s have been visiting him here at the ecuadorian embassy in the british capital they are demanding that the u.k. provide assurances that the song would be able to leave this embassy without being extradited to the u.s. the see the next step in this ever lasting case is the responsibility the united kingdom united kingdom has to take the measures now. to think through the solution which is in the frame of international law and not in the frame off the u.s. at move station who is a gates international law and against actually the u.s. will i mean against the first amendment they are taking measures like the

protection of journalists and freedom of speech and the freedom of press so we have to actually protect them from that of a self. not to violate the first amendment julian assange just father also visited him here on thursday saying he did not find his son in the best of conditions good . morning as you would expect a few. strangers. who. knows someone strict this is. to a communication snow job. for him. the m.p.'s visiting from berlin have demanded that the international community listen off to the united nations ruling that has now quite a long time ago found that julian assange just attention is arbitrary united

kingdom government tried to appeal to the un decision and but they lost and still they are not exceptions and. accepting this un decision and this has to be stopped they have to i mean it's a member of the united nations it's a have a seat in the security council and in my point of view you can't united kingdom is dead jewel except and respect the international law and international rights of someone local who likes to be in a song ecuadorian officials have lately been increasingly indicating that the we can leaks founder has outstayed his welcome behind these walls while the sunshine spent the last sixteen years here fearing that if he leaves the premises he will be extradited to the us and prosecuted for his work as we queue leaks publisher that released information that washington would rather have kept under wraps reporting

from london. with our two. by the dozen from we'll be back with more news that's in about thirty two minutes stay with. what is the pin that's going to pop the global bubble back in two thousand and eight it was the two thousand and eight subprime crisis. today i think we can safely say that the bubble popped but the collapse of daughter back.

a lot of people like to use were to let go smaug very good analogy but when we have cell towers on every to every big building when we are going to put these five g. generators on every light pole on every street it is certainly electro small and it's getting worse. my world became smaller and smaller and smaller until i ended up living it up in a box and shielded my own weight the same person that was helping us to shield found the right material to hold back that particular frequency that was coming in and burning my skin and we built a room it looks like a little foil but it's not it's three layers thickens like a very very fine chicken wire in the middle of it there were days that i didn't

know it the sun came up the sun went down and christmas came around we had christmas inside the cellar room as we like to call it. which you know pending on how you look at it could have been really sad but we made the best of it. having christmas in here meant a lot to all of us it was so many events so many school events so many things that my wife could not. she even missed her daughter's graduation to college it was three four hours away she couldn't take the drive and she could stay overnight. and you know the kind of thing you know really tell people because one don't think you crazy to the death of the warmest in and that's why i bother so for the last. how many years since i've been i think for the last four years now i spent a minimum of ten thousand dollars each year on in a couple years and spent twenty thousand dollars just in our trial going from one

practice.