russian defense ministry first public tests run of a new hypersonic strategic missile. the times newspaper and find against anti-government forces in eastern ukraine he says there are members of islamic states in his ranks while the leader of his battalion. being part of a terror group committing atrocities in russia. lebanon's transport minister.

during alleged israeli airstrikes targeting the syrian capital. in moscow and you're watching ulti international line from all studio with me. welcome to the program. a major new missile delivery system called will and russians already next year is the first child to show unique footage from the defense ministry is first public test run of the weapon which is capable of firing nuclear missiles.

picking off to the launch of russia's of unguarded ludmer putin who oversaw a live personally from defense ministries control and command center here in moscow explained the importance of wednesday event saying it was great success as it was excellent new year's eve to the entire nation adding a twittering sure russia's security for generations to calm them good. you use a system is invulnerable to the current perspective. your defense system of a potential enemy this is a big victory for our country so as russia's president puts it it's all about protecting the country and its population in the oven door it sounds indeed like a very powerful weapon a few words about what happened exactly the weapon was launched from the military base in russia's southern euro montanus and as kremlin reported successfully hate

the training target on the peninsula can chart can russia's east some six thousand kilometers away of course there were different concerns over the use and the launch of unguarded guard weapon in the west with critics say it does not comply with the global treaties especially the so-called i am after treaty intermediate range nuclear treaty requiring the us and back then the u.s.s.r. of the treaty was signed thirty years ago in ninety eighty seven all nuclear and conventional weapons with the ranges of up to fifty five hundred kilometer is but russia says it does not now violate the treaty in any way and putin said today after the launch that vice versa it restores the global balance the global security balance definitely putin sees. floor inch

and developments of military industry in russia as a response to u.s. is moves but definitely not everybody sees it the same way. we spend to defense and political commentator who believes that this test sends a strong message of capability. but the purpose of such weapons terence they are not intended for actual use of course in a third world war everything will be used but the real purpose is to counter what the americans have endured underground silos in their submarines and in their bombers so already. there are enough weapons. and the american. reserve

report by the general accounting office. united states government and. the hypersonic. planes. russia and china it's one of the biggest threats to. americans that. whether they have enough resources that these things and of course there is some. phrase here which was. full all the treaties because he doesn't make sense for the bigger powers to have. ten thousand twenty thousand or so nuclear weapons when to three thousand will do. the times newspaper has printed a highly controversial interview with

a chechen fighting against anti-government forces in eastern ukraine the head of his battalion admitted that his find his ways jihad in syria and that it was even part of a tactic with committing atrocities in russia and he has. first of all we have to make it clear who these people are in these volunteer battalions fighting alongside the ukrainian army and the eastern regions of the country they are too ethnic chechens from a few dozens to possibly more than a hundred who are absolutely frank and open about their backgrounds they've been to syria and iraq they've been taught how to kill by jihad is there and this is what the times writes about it some of the battalion gunman admit to having home their combat skills and islamic state training camps in iraq and syria this horrible background does get a mention however what the times journalists don't bring up is some other elements

of the biography of the group's commander for example being a part of the underground movement behind several terrorist attacks in russia that killed hundreds of people earlier another british newspaper reported dads the very same commander disagreed with murdering civilians however he called these acts of terrorism understandable and according to the man the only way to make the russians listen to these chechen groups as to why these chechen militias with a terrorist backgrounds are in the ukraine they say that they are there to be a part of the war against the people they call separatists in the dawn and skin lugansk self-proclaimed republics those who have been interviewed by the times newspaper refer to these people asked puppets of the chechen president ramzan kadyrov and the russian leader vladimir putin the be the chechen had

a simple explanation for fighting for ukraine against kremlin backed separatists putin is our enemy he said he brings only evil we heard about ethnic chechen groups fighting on both sides of the conflict in east ukraine. a long time ago however if we look at the coverage of the british news out loads of the russia ukraine confrontation recently we can see particularly with the times that they've been emphasizing russia's role there as an aggressor as they call it one particular example is the coverage of the naval incident in the current strait just a short while ago i had a quick conversation with the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman marie is a cloud over and she told me that moscow sees the appearance of ethnic chechen fighters with possible links to islamic state on the east ukraine fighters as part of a wider trend that they've been seeing for years in ukraine now complete prolonged

military conflict especially supported by arms and money from outside have always attracted people different views the same happened in syria we've people who support religious fundamentalism coming from far away and who ows will do fine in ukraine these jihadi fighters help ukraine realise its agenda suppressing dissent. transport minister has revealed a collision with passenger jets and lebanese airspace was narrowly avoided during alleged israeli air strikes on syria on tuesday night is our reporter have injured three people and for more details will cross over live to fall asleep paula what are the latest updates on this. well as you say living on his drafting and complain to the united nations security council over what it says was israeli military jets invasion of lebanese airspace

in the first israeli strikes that happened overnight truce day israel launched a number of rockets at several targets in the damascus region this is what the lebanese transport minister had to say. humanitarian disaster which could have affected person just over two civilian aircraft in lebanon airspace during the israeli air cross invasion for strikes on the south of damascus was there we avoided. now the russian defense ministry has also issued a statement in which it has say is that the israeli operations occurred at a time when two passenger jets were coming into land at airports in damascus and beirut and that they narrowly missed harming civilian lives now israel for its size says that it was forced to activate its ground to air defense missile systems in response to syrian fire but the syrians are saying they had to do the same in response to israeli fire the incident left three syrian soldiers injured and also.

in syria badly damaged now one of this is happening as tensions in northern syria continue to escalate we are hearing from various sources that have been called consumed by our sources on the ground that at least forty pickup trucks to tens lobbies and armored personnel carriers belonging to the syrian army have arrived in the province of money in northern syria now the area is controlled by the kurds and just last week the kurds did issue a cord to the syrian army to come and assist them our sources on the ground saying that these are seen as reinforcements and we understand that when the syrian force winds arrived they were welcomed by the kurds and the area was handed over but just a day before there was a turkish backed syrian fighter dispatch of both fighters and armored vehicles to the front line along man bridge so we have the situation on the ground gearing

itself up for a confrontation we're hearing from and that it is preparing for a major offensive all of this coming hot on the heels of the surprise american announcement that it was withdrawing its troops from syria and at the same time not only the. on the ground gearing up but also the bigger implications of the united states and turkey once again finding themselves at loggerheads take a look. we do not support and we would oppose efforts to move south and engage in activities against the syrian democratic forces so kurdish commanders have made commitments that they will turn over areas to local populations as they have been so tremendously successful in liberating those areas from dash we expect them to live up to those commitments. are the moms each and we're fighting

against the turkish threat was god's will we're going to fight together with them our accounts and the coalition against the turkish army until their withdrawal from one bridge and the surrounding villages this is syrian territory. but this year we noticed more movement from the euphrates shield along the front line as turkey before its military operation on a friend threatened that man beach would be the next target. as i said before our relationship is at critical juncture either we must put it back on track or it will further deteriorate we have agreed essentially to

normalize our relationship again question of man this is one that as i said is going to be given priority in our joint work you are there for in this is one of the four measure it is one of the issues fresh one. we are a part of syria and we don't support separatism but you want an agreement to be reached and soften this tradition as part of a free syria. israel's alleged actions are not the only serious escalation in the region turkey is warning france against backing kurdish militia in a syria insisting that the final soldiers there are no benefit to anyone that's after france plays to keep troops in syria despite the us announcing it's pulling pentagon forces out. if france is trying to contribute to syria's future great but if you're doing this to protect the militia this will bring no benefit to anyone.

two political analysts use. use of welcome to the program firstly now why do you think france. won't pull out of syria like the u.s. if wrong and why is mark on so keen to protect kurdish militia. can you hear me use of can you hear me. i have a feeling that we've lost the connection apologies for the use of her name talking about the militia in syria sorry about that. well i will be back with more news after this break.

you should. put themselves on a lot. to get accepted or rejected. so what you want to be president. actually going to be this is what. people are. interested always at the water's edge.

welcome back to the program the u.s. to spend his christmas working at the pentagon even after donald trump's abrupt decision to remove him from office two months earlier and had planned to resign james mattis wrote this holiday letter to american soldiers in this world awash in change you hold the line storm clouds lose because of you your fellow citizens live so you home james mattis resigned last week after the u.s. president announced his decision to withdraw troops from syria he also advised on trying to keep troops in afghanistan opposing the idea of using private contractors

in war now it seems that it's precisely what could happen that. explains. imagine you're sitting there on your porch reading about guns and huntin and all things good and then you see this ad we are coming blackwater judging by the logo the infamous private security group who is trigger happy antics further disgrace the very name mercenary but i never even heard that. they were dead bodies everywhere and this is the argument going about even with few people in society among the dead bodies ministry and some which was in the middle of the seven years old.

just last week a former blackwater contractor was charged with first degree murder for his part in that slaughter it was then that things went easy for the mercenary group which was then rebranded renamed and resold into obscurity but it's presumably back now nice states are spent dearly in blood and treasure in time in afghanistan every prince co-founder of the original blackwater now that everyone's fearful over

trumps of ghana's stan withdrawal erik prince sees an opportunity the option i was pushing the options that were considered by some of the. white house an irregular warfare option that would use cia capability special forces capability some contracted capability to strengthen to give a skeletal support structure to the afghan security forces prince is selling a new kind of war private war war waged not by governments but by corporations the plan is simple six thousand mercenaries backed up by the few thousand u.s. special forces guys give them a small air force private their force and the blue cost to about five billion dollars a year a year for reference the afghan war has cost on average five billion a month for seventeen years but the pentagon is reluctant you just can't trust national security priest these reputation to merck's to guys willing to

kill for money when the american put put their mission credibility on the line privatizing it is probably not a why it's idea every prince's been absent for years he's been selling this plan since he found out that the president wanted to get out of afghanistan the president was right to campaign against endless wars and he resented her message to him he's going after all the maddest for this to happen if we leave decisions on warfare soley to the pentagon we will be at war for well mr prince had been new year to you james mattis u.s. secretary of defense will leave his post on the first of january and john bolton trumps security advisor is much more pliable there are always a lot of discussions i find helpful i'm always open to new ideas but the issue here is different it's more about principles about morals we know how blackwater behaved

in iraq we know what they did when. they had immunity they ran wild they shot and killed with abandon would you trust the same people to run an entire war every prince's selling point may not be that he's cheaper it's that trump and the pentagon will become less accountable gonna start will no longer be entirely their responsibility if blackwater who have alex messes up at the bill in their heads and it will be written off to plausible deniability and corporate bureaucracy so what do you think worth a try letting mercenaries run an entire war. back to our top story now techies winning from one in france against backing kurdish militia in syrian system that the french soldiers there are no benefit to anybody

starts off to france pledged to keep troops in syria despite the u.s. and iran saying it's pulling pentagon forces out of town will try again crossing live now top political analyst list use of everyman yousif fasher coming into the program now in your opinion why do you think france won't pull out of syria like the u.s. . is and mclean micron is so keen to protect could dish militia. but there's a heavy why p g p k k presence in france and they have a very strong lobby over there not just in france and germany as well and those want to. also he wants to be part of the rebuilding process there's a lot of lucrative contracts that are going to be coming up in syria once the rebuilding process starts and he wants france to have a say in what's going to happen there. obviously france has long historical ties to

syria dating back to the early one nine hundred france syria was basically a french colony so mccrone probably still thinks it's the one nine hundred twenty s. and france can do whatever it wants in syria but when we look at french the french role in there it's basically been non-existent they've played second fiddle to the united states staying there is no benefit to anybody all that all the french can do right now by staying is basically hamper the united states hand over to turkey for the coalition region and hampering the handover will create a power vacuum and that power vacuum will play into the hands of the y.p. g. into shiite militia. isis revival nobody wins there is. i think they can fill in the shoes of the united states and continue the coalition fight against isis without the us france has neither the money to finance

this operation they don't have the boots on the ground to support the operation so it's basically a lose lose situation with france right now if we look in practice though can from stop turkey attacking the. president. specifically said month ago when he announced that turkey was planning on doing this operation there was an american presence in the region and president adly one was still ready to launch an operation despite pressure u.s. troops being in being their president added on was ready to launch an operation with the u.s. troop presence in there i highly doubt french troop presence will be a deterrent to him so whether the french are there whether they're not there it looks like the turks are coming and they're coming sooner rather than later and the only thing the french troops will do is just slow the turks down as they try to secure the region for its original inhabitants and as they try to cleanse terror

from the region decides that there is no upside to the french being there i mean turkey they all furious and they that france is backing the kurds want future. relations. between paris and because of this. turkey is definitely not happy that they're backing the. they've met with france france met with top level as the members just a day or two ago and that didn't fly over well in turkey they you're bringing after all france the e.u. country turkey is trying to on the path to e.u. membership however slow it may be as. the thirty's a nato ally so turkey doesn't understand what this support for the wide. how they should interpret it what what does this mean what is france trying to do why does france not understand turkey's security concerns going forward this is definitely

going to strain turkish french relations if france continues to back this organization. yeah i mean if we look at the long term as well. in syria could it be possible that france will keep troops in syria for long will they eventually leave as well like the us have decided. i definitely think they'll eventually leave mccraw and doesn't want to leave right after trump left because if he leaves right after trump left he's going to look like he's going to look like he's playing follow the leader he's going to look like an american puppet he's going to look like he's on the bad side of a ventriloquist act with president trump and he doesn't want to look like that he wants to look strong but regard the sooner or later the french are going to leave right now they have no vested interest left in syria after the us left the can't handle the burden of doing united states shoes as i said before france has its own problems domestically they have enough problems that is as it is domestically how

are they going to so financing the financing the s.d.f. to the french citizens how is macross how is how is that going to play out with the french citizens when we look at the john movement right now going on when all this there's all this problem with taxation in france it's a very hard sell it's something that macross not going to not going to want to push too much but like i say he doesn't want to play follow the leader so he's probably going to have a little time passed before he bails out on syria as well ok political analyst you safire in thanks very much for coming to the program and sharing your views thank you. this hour neil harvey will take over and around thirty minutes time but do stay tuned now for crosstalk.

were. leaked. the are you looking. for people feed the economy because they buy scratch tickets scratch off lottery tickets you know when i was living in the ghetto in new york you know the red apple grocery store uptown had the highest prices in town and the liquor stores are open and you buy you know more expensive in the ghetto and that's how you build an economy it's almost built on the backs of the poor in america was built on the slave market america was built on prison labor to give them

a look then they'd the good times of america the ne'er do wells it's all very swishy and swell that's over we got to go back to basics. country cool russia nor does it no one has ever heard of a country never even heard about most.