i. r.t. shows unique footage from the russian defense ministry first public test from the new hypersonic strategic missile called. the times newspaper interviews a kitchen fighting against anti-government forces in eastern ukraine he says there are members of islamic state in his ranks or a leader of his battalion earlier admitted being part of a terrorist group meeting atrocities in russia. also ahead tensions growing just syria reportedly masses troops in the northern city of turkey also reinforces positions in the area held by u.s. backed kurdish rebels.

who are joining us this is our. major new missile delivery system called god's will and to russian service next year he's the first channel to show unique footage from the defense ministry is first public testimony the weapon which is capable of firing nuclear missiles. the are. speaking off to the launch of russia's oven guard ludmer putin who oversaw live personally from defense ministries control and command center here in moscow to

explain the importance of wednesday a vent saying it was great success as it was excellent new year's eve to the entire nation adding a tooling sure russia's security for generations to come and i'm good. you use the more. vulnerable to any current perspective missile defense system of a potential enemy this is a big victory for a country. russia claims that is a unique equipment and it is better than anything that any country in the world at face moment has let's take a look at some of the best features of of on guard. as

russia's president puts it it's all about protecting the country and its population in the vanguard sounds indeed like a very powerful weapon if you words about what happened exactly today the weapon that was launched from the virus military base in russia than. as kremlin reported successfully heat the training target on the. six thousand kilometers away of course there were different concerns over the use of the launch of a guard guard weapon in the west with critics say it does not comply with global treaties especially the so-called i n f treaty intimated range nuclear treaty requiring the us and back then the u.s.s.r. 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 kilometers

but russia says it does not now violate the treaty in any way and putin said today after the launch that vice a. it restores the global balance the global security balance just to remind you of unguarded was a month due to the nuclear weapons that putin presented during their march say in the dry shahad to develop its military industry in response to us says success in this fear and developing their own anti missile defenses so definitely putin sees. floor inch and developments of military industry in russia as a response to us is moves but definitely not everybody sees it the same way we discuss this issue with difference. to believe that the current political

climate could spark a new arms race. well i think the u.s. is also working on these types of things on the first one to launch one doesn't always get to win the contest as the as we saw in the age and also in the space race so but certainly. the u.s. existing u.s. is defenses can't deal with them but existing u.s. and defenses aren't that good against regular missiles so it is start this. doing away with the a.b.m. treaty is start a new arms race but i think you know we're just building more and more nuclear weapons when we should be trying to limit them and the new start treaty is coming which is the arms limitation for the longer range missiles is coming up in twenty twenty one so you know that would be a good time to cool you know cool off the arms race and you know lock in some limits on these types of weapons as well. britain's the times

newspaper has printed a highly controversial interview with the chechen fighting against antique of mint forces in east ukraine the head of his battalion earlier admitted his fight his ways jihad in syria and that the leader was even part of a terror group committing atrocities in russia. so a big piece in the times on chechens on east ukraine front lines from a few dozens to more than one hundred there shoulder to shoulder with kiev's army but technically aren't part of it they're absolutely frank and open about their background saying we've been to syria in iraq we've been taught to kill by jihad it's there here's an extract from the times some of the potential ians gunman admit to having home the combat skills and islamic state training camps in iraq and syria this horrific background does get a mention what the times journalists don't mention is other elements of the

commander's biography like being part of an underground movement behind the past terrorist attacks in russia which took hundreds of lives earlier another british newspaper reported that the very same commander was against murdering civilians however he said those bloodbaths were understandable and were the only way to make moscow hear something as to why he and his fighters are in donbass now here's what it says in the times report be it a church and have a simple explanation for fighting for ukraine against kremlin backed separatists putin is our enemy he said he brings a really evil we did hear about ethnic chechen groups fighting on both sides of the front line a long time ago so why would the times bring it up now the peace follows plenty of articles on ukraine versus russia that came out lately here are some of the headlines moscow's always been described as an aggressor think the kurds straight

naval clashes first of all yet when it comes to this report on chechen militias ukraine's deputy minister of information policy is thinking putin's propaganda on purpose or maybe not literal people who home the ukrainian media space and play along to. putin's propaganda recruit agents some are just useful idiots when i asked russian diplomats about i saw linked fighters siding with kiev's forces i was told after years of various external attempts to radicalize ukraine there isn't really much of a surprise come through you could prolong military conflicts especially supported by arms and money from outside have always attracted people different views the same happened in syria we've all the support religious fundamentalism is coming from far away and who ows will do fine in ukraine these jihadi fighters help ukraine realise its agenda of suppressing dissent all parts of quite

a familiar story with a couple of new twists. and we have asked the ukrainian government and military to comment on the times reports about them working with terracing chechen fighters we'll let you know the response from when we receive it. tensions going in the northern syrian city of mumbai which held by u.s. backed kurdish rebels the syrian army is gathering that according to latest reports while turkey also sends forces to the area the man big bird that comes amid alleged israeli air strikes on syria tuesday night that are reported to have injured three has more. this has been confirmed by r.t. sources that syrian troops have arrived in the province of man bridge which is in northern syria and it is an area that is controlled by the u.s. backed kurdish fighters they've arrived with some forty pickup trucks two tanks alawi's and armored personnel carriers it follows

a request that was given last week by the kurds to the syrian soldiers to come and assist them and we are hearing. that they are planning an offensive so certainly the situation on the ground is intensifying not only between the troops but also between those who support them in other words the united states versus turkey now this comes hot on the heels of the surprise announcement by the american president that the united states will be withdrawing american troops from syria. we do not support and we would oppose efforts to move south and engage in activities against the syrian democratic forces kurdish commanders have made commitments that they will turn over areas to local populations as they have been so tremendously says successful in liberating those areas from dash.

we noticed more movement from the euphrates shield along the front line as turkey before its military operation on a free and threatened that manned beach would be the next target as i said before our relationship is a critical juncture either we must put it back on track or move further deteriorate . is one that is going to be given priority in our joint work is there for him this is one of the information a good one of the issues fresh to work together with. we are a part of syria and we don't support. what you want an agreement to be reached and saw from the street as part of a free syria at the same time tensions are also increasing between israel on the

one hand and syria and lebanon on the other the lebanese are drafting and urgent complained to the united nations security council over what they say is israeli military jets infringement of lebanese airspace it follows his waiting strikes overnight tuesday in which israel hit a number of targets in the damascus area this is what the lebanese transport minister has to say humanitarian disaster which could have affected passengers of two civilian aircraft in lebanon airspace during the israeli air cross invasion force strikes on the south of damascus was there we avoided now at the same time the russian defense ministry has issued a statement in which it says that when those israeli strikes were happening there were two civilian planes that were coming in to land in beirut and in lebanon and that the israeli operations endangered or could have potentially endangered civilian lives the israeli operations happened an act and saw the syrians having to

activate their ground to air missile defense systems at the same time we syrian soldiers were injured and an arms depot was badly damaged. israel's alleged actions are not the only serious escalation in the region turkey is warning fronts against backing goodish militias in syria assisting the french soldiers there are no benefit to anyone lots of the fronts pledged to keep troops in syria despite the us announcing it was pulling its forces out. if fronts a string to contribute to syria's future great but if you're doing this to protect the militia this will bring no benefit to anyone mcraney doesn't want to leave right after trump 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 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 when we look at french the french role and it's basically been

non-existent they've played second fiddle to the united states if they 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 a 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. a stranger in the name of blackwater suggests that the notorious mercenary group could be making a comeback after this break. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race. spearing dramatic probably the only move. i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and

talk. or 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 right in 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 always built on the backs of the poor america was built on the slave market america was built on prison labor. day the good times of america the ne'er do wells it's all very well that's over we got to go back to basics.

president. made a surprise trip to iraq his first since taking office announced that he won't reduce the u.s. military presence that will in five thousand american troops are still in the country they've been fighting islamic state terrorists since twenty fourteen trip comes amid critical changes in his middle east policy including pulling troops out of syria as well as talks to slashing the military presence in afghanistan. the policy shifts come right after u.s. defense secretary james mattis resigned last week he also advised donald trump to keep troops in afghanistan opposing the idea of using private contractors in war of though it seems that that's precisely what could happen next is not because the of experience. 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 in which you keep it it's not among the dead bodies lying on the street that's which was in the middle of seven years old.

just last week a former blackwater contractor was charged with first degree murder for his part in that slow thought 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 is 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 contract a 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 glue 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 breach these reputation to merck's to guys willing to kill for money when the american put to put their mission credibility on the line privatizing it is probably not a why it's idea every prince has 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 gotta start will no longer be entirely their responsibility if blackwater whoever else messes up at the beyond their heads and it'll all be written off to plausible deniability and corporate bureaucracy so what do you think worth a try letting mercenaries run an entire war. because congress is expressed concern over a new cooperation deal between the associated press and the chinese news agency agencies in why it's worried that china might exploit the american al it is in his rant of propaganda it is done of explains the u.s. government is on red alert this time quite literally after the a.p. news agencies signed a memorandum of understanding with chinese counterparts who are the letter

lawmakers sent to the boss of associated press explains that senior journalists are well basically all spies and shouldn't be dealt with at all. seeing who was serve some of the functions of an intelligence agency by gathering information and producing classified reports for the chinese leadership on both domestic and international events the congressmen and women who signed the letter seem to be a bit out of the loop though because here's a newsflash a.p. and seeing who are have been partners since nineteen seventy two this memorandum is something of an official pinky promise to stay friends and make each other's jobs easier the reason them all of understanding updates a relationship that has been consistently the same since one thousand nine hundred two and opens the possibility for future commercial interactions it does not include or invision any sharing for its official intelligence information or any

other technology and normally this indeed would be way under the radar of the us government but this time the chinese are involved democrats and republicans often seem like they're ready to rip each other's heads off but as soon as breaching gets in the picture oh they sing in tune i mean is effort over take the united states as a world preeminent superpower china is totally eating our lunch they intend not just to supply america but all countries on earth and the west china is ruthless in how they go after us we're in a fight with china we had to ride to china tyler earlier this year the wall street journal reported that washington was mewling branding seen who are as a nasty foreign agent this is what happened without seeing the us this is what al-jazeera has so far been avoiding the letter to the a.p. chief seems to continue the trend when the american government tries to sketch over

the media landscape the mighty still stand for now at least but the foreign agent label begins to loom over the horizon. or christmas sadly past than the end of the year is getting close across the stories that made twenty eight is our cooking media analyst lionel here with his personal look back. that what i think. maybe you could read it all please stop it you know we're talking about. mars as zucker berg his testimony regarding facebook social media and the loss of

data his appearance before the face of before congress was a disaster nothing short of a disaster next mainstream media news in general took a hit from every conceivable angle and i believe that one of the readers might have been. the jim acosta moment next. marco and globalist in general good to disaster and it was a template and a learning lesson for i think most of the world. our own senator elizabeth warren also called liaquat are foca hondas a woman whose native american ancestry was completely unraveled in just proved via d.n.a. . it was

anything short of miraculous considering the fact that everybody in the world of politics both democrat or republican everybody the media print otherwise everybody was against him his family his legacy name and how even survived is another story but he was no regular. there was a revolution going on in the world right now we guarding the new platforms the new bases rupert mation delivery and platforms such as this are proving that this is the best source of new again why the ability to not be limited by a commercial the ability to speak freely the ability to question more. you saw the president drum in control with chuck schumer dissolve being in

the. sofa or the couch in the settee whatever you were just being lectured to with nancy pelosi saying i think we should maybe take this elsewhere and it was a chance for people to see what politicians sound like when they're really getting into it. the initial screech and clamor of revolution. we saw with the yellow vest we saw it elsewhere we saw different beginnings of what will be a cataclysm a change in the structure of the world in what was intended to be this global even of polar type of concretization of the world

that changes. the truth hurts. more news for you and often else either. well i think it certainly makes sense for for moscow to think pull strong in its context with the united states i just fear that the dominant view in this city is that it is merely impossible until the united states kind of settle this domestic divide of the environment and in d.c. he's you know i hate to see these laws work toxic but that's exactly what it is and then i think it's in a way you know you're damned if you do if you're down to film. where

is that country called russia no one is ever no one has ever heard of and never even heard about most school.

when all were mine when the comb temple over my. knees changed there are these eco . of the level of the physiology that is at the level of the brain the brain as a formal plasticity can rewire itself and not just the brain levels the rest of the body responds. oh and welcome to crossfire all things considered i'm peter lavelle long ago the political left are the guardians of free speech along.