well. wolf a lot of people know. washington orders u.s. officials in iraq to evacuate as soon as possible after raising the alarm on the international stage over a suppose it increased threat coming from neighboring iran. security in the future of russia's relations with washington lead the way in discussions in sochi president putin calls out washington for quitting the iran nuclear deal in tehran as the bad guy. also the u.s. attorney general investigate the legality of evidence used in the russian collusion probe although it doesn't question the findings of the more the report. is

coca-cola its latest campaign in norway spots anger from some as if it is a crescent moon as part of its logo to coincide with the ramadan. thanks for joining us this evening this is r.t. and. leave iraq now as fast as possible that is the somewhat dramatic warning issued by washington to u.s. employees in the country comes amid a heightened sense of urgency from the american side over what it calls the increase that coming from iraq's neighbor iran. has been following the story joins me in the studio it's very dramatic very get out now rym feel lives almost what is this suppose that increase in threat from iran or u.s. or on relations of there have been short of drama have they it seems now although. have reached new heights the u.s. has issued. security alert all its non-emergency personnel in iraq asking them to

immediately depart from the u.s. embassy in baghdad and from the consulate bill that's an order that relates to all non-emergency personnel now why the sudden panic well this security alert mentions no specific threats or reasons u.s. officials have of course previously referred to what they describe as substantial threats to personnel relating to reign activity in the region in particular their iranian proxies in both iraq and syria it's unclear though as to what exactly these threats are or indeed why the threat level has jumped now what is quite clear is that the u.s. does want to show it's taking things seriously and that there is a clear and present danger from iran or its proxies to americans in the region. we'll see what happens 9 with the run if they do anything it will be a very bad mistake if they do anything i'm hearing little stories about iran if they do anything they will suffer greatly we'll see what happens with the right of

course u.s. forces and other u.s. workers in the region do face a level of background threat it's a volatile area rife with conflict and armed groups on all sides of hostilities nevertheless though officials haven't explained these recent developments and how any sort of iranian threat would actually manifest itself to harm u.s. personnel now tensions were wrapped up last week when the u.s. deployed an aircraft carrier group complete with bombers to the region iran has described all such moves as psychological warfare. stating that they're not looking for confrontation or war but they would respond to anything made viewed as u.s. aggression that some. view of echoed by washington as well now the root of all of these recent troubles this reason this collation was of course trumps withdrawal from iran nuclear treaty that was criticized roundly by the other signatories party to that agreement it was followed by threats of sanctions saber rattling and rhetoric on all sides now germany and the netherlands have also suspended their

military training operations in iraq interesting enough also citing the risk of potential attacks from iranian proxies although i do have to out the german defense ministry have also added there's no concrete threat once again and the situation is of international concern to many countries moscow one state may have received no sort of reassurance from what compare on the resolving these tensions and that they are predicting an escalation in the gulf in the coming weeks and months so certainly no sign of things calling down anytime soon yet certainly a concern has been expressed but not just that you know details as usual put forward many thanks then hawkins giving us the story there so we mentioned it there alarm raised over iran but a senior general in the u.s. led coalition in syria and iraq appears to have somewhat refuted the idea there's actually a high threat level with more details is on these kate partridge. the does seem to be rather a difference of opinion a breakdown in communication between u.s.

military central command and the coalition's 2nd in command over the threat posed by iran though there's been no increased threat from iranian backed forces in iraq and syria we're aware of their presence clearly. and we monitor them along with a whole range of others because that's the environment we're in we're british major general chris cake of the coalition's deputy commander for strategy and information seems to refute the trumpet ministrations claim iran is mobilizing groups in iraq and syria to attack american forces with his comments also seem to contradict the claim terrine is an escalating threat u.s. national security adviser john bolton has long promoted action against iran but the british general says there's little to fear there are a range of threats to american and coalition forces in iraq or syria we most of them all about forces is clearly one of them. and i'm not going to go into the

detail of it but there are a substantial number of militia groups in iraq and syria and we don't see any increased threat from many of them at the station press to explain the discrepancy gekas seem to limit his earlier remarks to a group of militia in iraq called the popular mobilization forces while some are backed by iran but the coalition considers them compliant yet later a u.s. military central command made a terrifying statement stressing iran is a threat well if both a senior british commander and america's central command share the same intelligence have similar information on terrorist locations airstrikes and danger zones how can i give statements that are so different the u.k.'s ministry of defense has distanced itself from the remarks made by the british major general claiming he spoke in the capacity of a military officer in the u.s. led coalition in iraq and syria it added that his remarks speak about a. syfy garia not the overall geopolitical situation in the region major general

great guy was speaking about a very specific area in which the u.s. led operation inherent resolve operates he wasn't speaking about the weight of geopolitical situation in the region but considering the specific area he's talking about is iraq and syria think his words might hold some weight. former u.k. army officer and security analyst charles shubert joins me very good evening charles situation in iraq so to member a time when it wasn't unstable but apparently things are getting worse u.s. talking about the substantial risk coming from iran do you believe that assessment a substantial risk. the problem is that this is unverified intelligence and its source isn't known or at least isn't publicly known. it's so so because it's so vague and it seems to be also coincided with indeed many of the u.s. claims that it's actually the cause of us to promise to the region that it could

actually provoke the attack it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy so to speak because the problem is a sin as you say as the us said just a few days ago that if there are attacks by iran or by what the us calls us by iran backed proxy is then iran will be held responsible of course at that moment you give if you like you let off the leash a whole range of actors who could gain benefit from provoking that kind of conflict iran for example as mentioned israel is a player in this saudi arabia might be another. party that might want to provoke disputes between the world's most powerful nation the us and their enemy that's iran who is the enemy of course of israel and of saudi arabia saudi arabia israel of course are allied on this and in that context we then look at the instance that of tried or ramped up the tension which is of course largely the attacks on these

tankers these mysterious attacks on these tankers that took place in usa waters just over the last few days where u.s. officials have in the last couple of days declared that these were the acts of acts of iranian backed boxes but we again without putting any particular evidence and of course giving without giving any motivation to iran would have for carrying out these kind of attacks when you've got a situation when you've got british generals or british general the most senior british general in iraq in syria seemingly contradict at least within that specific area what you're saying when you've got actually u.s. some u.s. defense and intelligence officials on. the record briefing u.s. and u.k. and other media that trump not trump actually but of course hawks such as bolton and others are either fabricating or exaggerating the intelligence as coming to them we've got a situation where it appears that once again we've got a very incoherent us foreign policy military policy here where some actors are

briefing against each other and it's difficult to know and i think even within the security establishment the veracity of the acts that are taking place for example these attacks on the tankers or whether the intelligence itself that led up to that is actually true or trustworthy i mean you've even got the b.b.c. the state broadcaster of the u.k. in the last day or so for the 1st time in my memory actually even suggesting that a false flag may have taken place you don't often get a b.b.c. accepting or even describing that false flags could be being carried out to provoke conflict but sure enough even the b.b.c. yesterday said that this could have been a false flag these attacks on these tankers to try and provoke a war and so in that respect as well you can see as well with spanish warship being withdrawn from escorting us kyra with this british general now speaking and it's notable that although the british minister of defense as you say have distanced

themselves from his comments they didn't actually denied those comments they didn't say they weren't true and then when you get even the b.b.c. as i say suggesting that this might be some kind of false flag again you've got a good example or an illustration of the degree to which the united states or certainly actors within united states such as john bolton are isolating the u.s. increasingly from even their european allies i just wonder if you get that the same sensation a lot of people do for example my 1st reaction when i heard this story was i feel like we're being prepared for something and the events have been kind of piling up over the last few days even including reports. i'm just reading something in the new york times claims from the acting defense secretary that as many as 120000 troops could be sent to the middle east should iran attack u.s. forces the claims of the attack on the oil tankers it feels as though we're hearing repeated claims if this happens there's going to be trouble america will react

ringback do you feel like we're being prepared for the public the public being prepared for something. yeah i think there's no doubt about that but it's a question as to and also iran i think is correct its leadership has said that this is a huge psychological warfare operation and we remember we have to put that into context this isn't just the actions can been carried out in isolation they're being carried out these military pressure is being carried out in the context of extremely severe sanctions that are being applied. on the iran by the united states those sanctions are of course not just affecting u.s. trade but trade of any companies around the world especially in europe that want to trade with iran and that's having a crippling effect on ordinary people and i think what's it's trying to do it it's trying to build up a an atmosphere of fear with the end result undoubtedly in the minds of some american policymakers at least off provoking some kind of revolt of regime change of dissatisfaction with the government in iran itself but also we come back to this question the degree to which the u.s. is following a coherent foreign policy even within its own ranks because once again you've got

trump for example denying this report about 120000 troops being readied today he categorically said that in the same way that trump himself just a few days ago said that if only iran would abide by the nuclear treaty that it signed then that america is reneged upon of course then of course the sanctions could end of course that's actually what iran is doing has abided by those agreements that he undertook and of course that isn't what the u.s. policy as promulgated by people are pompei or by porton is about of course they want to extend far beyond what the iranians actually in the treaty so once again you've got the overarching question who actually is running u.s. policy because it doesn't seem to be trying it seems to be at the moment at least not even the military as such busy or the intelligence agencies but the power structure is almost sort of being created solely on intelligence matters by the

likes of john bolton. and. those whose iran agenda has been very long known charles appreciate you joining me this evening former u.k. officer and security analyst charles bridge. not speaking of iran it's also dominated conversations in the russian resort of sochi president putin and the russian foreign secretary but old in bilateral talks with the chinese u.s. and european counterparts question how around this global reputation has been damaged by a situation initiated by washington ordering all details from the black sea city later this hour. the u.s. attorney general's launched an investigation into possible misconduct relating to the report specifically william barr will see if the law was broken when trying to establish whether donald trump colluded with russia but given the give the same

scrutiny to the part of the probe concluding there was meddling by moscow and the morgan expects. since 2016 the democrats have been pushing an investigation of donald trump for allegedly colluding with russia in order to win the $2016.00 elections well now the report is out and the verdict is no collusion and at this point it looks like cable news will not stop the noise about trump and russia despite the report being released well now we've got a new investigation to cover it seems the republicans are now pushing to investigate the investigators u.s. attorney john durham he is not a rookie by far he investigated the cia and revealed that they had destroyed tapes and evidence of their torture program he also investigated the f.b.i.'s relationship with mafia boss whitey bulger so when it was announced that he would look into whether or not federal officials broke the wall when investigating donald trump the democrats got antsy so did former f.b.i. director james calming and feared personally i feared as

a citizen investigate what investigate that investigations were conducted what would be the crime you'd be investigating so it's a terrible cycle to start perhaps the f.b.i. does have a reason to be concerned after all they did send an informer who posed as an assistant in order to meet with trump's aide now this informer stephon helper has a long history in fact he was involved in cia spying during the 1980 elections trump says that his campaign was spied on however those who oversaw the operation strongly object to that wording you know. the dictionary definition of spies surveillance or spying a term i don't particularly like it's not a term of war used by intelligence people that has a negative connotation of a rogue operation out of control not in compliance with the war and that's not the case at all now let's not forget that the feds clung to the now discredited steel down ca in order to apply for a warrant to surveil donald trump now

a full 10 days before they applied for the warrant they were already questioning christopher steele's credibility and here's some language from a memo that surfaced. there is a technical him an operation run out of moscow targeting the election payments to those recruited and made out of the russian consulate in miami it is important to note that there is no russian consulate in miami but the intel community presented christopher steele as being credible when they applied for a warrant to spy on trump now at durham will no doubt be looking into whether or not that is legal now let's also not forget that chuck schumer waived his fist on behalf of the american spying agency's take on the intelligence community they have 6 ways from sunday of getting back after everything related to the trump russia investigation seems to be a widely contested the words presented by one side are presented as false and by the other side and amid all these allegations of dishonesty biased partisanship

we're expected to believe by both wings of the establishment that what they are saying about russia and their allegations that it meddled in the 2016 elections is absolutely true. well i guess the american people will have to decide what they want to believe cable blup and r.t. new york let's go on with says those little u.s. public appetite to question the russian meddling narrative. they all know there's no evidence republicans democrats moller. bar i know that there are a lot of americans who have same view i do want to know where the evidence is. but i think the you know the is the establishment the media both political parties. they're all saying one thing and i don't know that the american people will ever see it will they demand it like to think that they would but i'm i'm afraid i don't

believe i'm afraid this is just going to go on and on and on and pompei oh bolton. and the administration the democrats the republicans and congress the media they're all being the same drum and they're all lawyering and we just have to hope that. president trump will pull back. we just have to see now 3 days of high profile talks of ramped up in the russian missile city of sochi and she said the russian president met with the sec to state venezuela syria and iran for discussion and speaking at a press conference today alongside his austrian counterparts president putin gave his feel and how washington is playing the wrong caught. makes the decision to withdraw from any kind of a deal everyone will forget the us initiated the collapse of the deal and global opinion will be iran's fault i've said this to iran on many occasions i don't think

they have any reason to withdrawal from the deal huge 3 days here in sochi very big talks high profile talks 1st we had the chinese foreign minister then the u.s. secretary of state today the president a lot of topics almost every major crisis in the world now was discussed here of course they talked about iran. the in the middle east syria yemen they talked about financial markets about oil about gas you know all sorts of things but of course front and center was iran because it is really getting into the dangerous phase now the phase where everybody fears an escalation and today putin was asked about what russia plans to do to help resolve this crisis. among them when you were a foreign brigade i cannot just go around saving everything that is around us we

have played our part and we are ready and willing to play this part in future but it depends not just on us. on the europeans on the us and on iran itself the europeans the russians and the chinese have similar views in the iranian crisis they believe it's gone too far and that the best option for the world for all the countries involved is to stick to the iranian nuclear deal of $2015.00 and even the europeans have called what the united states is doing is dangerous and provocative . personally have is that any additional pressure on iran is only going to undermine political relations even further. no matter how much we argue about the probability of this happening if the u.s. continues putting pressure on iran to lisa the risks of a crisis as happened in iraq several years ago and in europe no one wants that to happen unfortunately this new easy solution to the radian crisis but they they at

least talk about it not by the way was the take away yesterday when might compare with the u.s. secretary of state visited they've had me putin said that you know he he now has a sense that there's some willingness in washington to repair restart relations with russia they agreed yesterday that you know they disagree on many things they also agree to start repairing various communication channels hotlines for example counterterrorism intelligence financial political. putin was also asked about a potential meeting with donald trump and he replied that at the g 20 summit if the americans are willing if they want to start serious serious you know take serious steps towards repairing relations russia is always willing.

ukraine is offer to free a journalist working for a russian news agency as part of a prisoner exchange with moscow a real vision skee who is ukrainian was arrested in kiev on charges of treason or just presidential human rights council express concern over his treatment journalists and public figures rallied outside the ukrainian embassy in moscow to support journalist is the head of the real news agencies ukrainian office he was imprisoned in 2018 accused of supporting separatists in eastern ukraine donbass region at the time he appealed to the russian president vladimir putin for support asking to be made a russian citizen. yes so when you're on of what france today it's the years since our colleague was imprisoned on a monstrous charge on lee because he carried out his journalistic work it is a shameful page in the history of modern ukraine we hope that the new president will dimmers alinsky will find the strength and be able to read this shameful creature from the history of modern ukraine that's not right now or tomorrow will be the start of korea's 2nd year in the ukrainian tool to chambers without medical

assistance in conditions equivalent to torture this brings shame on the country shame on legal authorities and shame on you korean society and we do hope that there will be forces inside ukraine that can say pick up the keys to his cell and sit the journalists free. a storm of controversy has erupted around a lengthy an m.e.p. that's after she burned a dress which resembled the russian symbol of the st george where been on the day the country commemorates victory of a nazi germany so 100 callier to is claiming she torched that clothing just because she didn't like the colors of the fact she invited the press along has led to claims of provocation particularly when she explained what she used to feel janice reinhard the father of my husband was a renowned eye doctor and during world war 2 he was a latvian legionary medic this alcohol is frontenac from his private stock. that vin legionary referred to there acted during the 2nd world war as part of the

german for s.s. it was created in $943.00 on a written order from other hitler and fought against the soviet union european commission is racism inequality recommended to the latvian author. any attempts to commemorate the group some of link the actions of the last me an m.e.p. with the upcoming european elections. she bought a dress for a crazy some and then decided that this dress reminded her of the st george's ribbon and that's why it had to be burnt she showed it to the tabloid press it seems all means are on the table to get some pay our head of the european parliamentary elections writes colleague oh yes it was a deliberate insult to russians and to russia. and the the russians living in the ethnic russians who are left in citizens living in let me love law one

a little ask her what was her goal what was it to incite. into ethnic tension to provoke russia was that in fact to do something to make herself important because now she's very well known. and she's a high profile person. just propaganda seeking from her point of view this is certainly a way to provoke. a great media interest so that everyone is aware who she is and a point of view of what she's done and so on. to convince many foreign. coca-cola saw state of ramadan version of its logo in norway if it is the quest moon to celebrate the muslim holy month but not everybody is welcome the idea shame on you for promoting women oppressing homosexuals terrorizing islam do you also

make adverts with a cross in saudi arabia an easter this is getting too stupid if your company's using the crescent moon of islam in norway as a marketing tool during ramadan i will have no choice but to boycott your products according to the pew research center the number of muslims in norway is on the rise in 2016 they represented almost 6 percent of the population. coca-cola defended the ramadan logo saying it's part of the brand's commitment to diversity and inclusion and it's not the 1st time the company's tried to appeal to muslims in its promotion campaigns. example last year it starts wearing run a facebook out in which a muslim woman gets schooled for looks but ends up making friends with the stranger political and social commentator mo and so i believe coca-cola wants to be seen as engaging with muslim communities. i think at the end of the day most modern

progressive multinational companies around the world would have policies to reach out to diverse communities of color in particular you know their history you know they've had a history of about 30 odd years of being boycotted in the arab league nations after the us were seen to been supporting israel since then they've tried very very hard to try and reach out to diverse communities and i think those people who are complaining about the faith of islam or their misunderstanding of the faith of islam really haven't got a leg to stand on and remember that norway is you know 5 or 6000000 people we're talking about 5 or 6 percent 2 or 300000 people muslims really this is a relatively minor thing there are lots of marketing campaign whether it's to do with the olympics whether it's to do with different times of the year so i think i have had a fair crack they want to be seen as somebody engaging with most in communities where traditionally they've got a very low penetration and very low traction. staying with us here in our to international joined me for updates on our top stories in half an hour.

they were going underground $48.00 hours after swedish prosecutors reopened their investigation into wiki leaks founder julian assange we are currently waiting for a response from britain's crown prosecution service as to whether they once again contacted the swedish government in an argument attempt to change the course of justice in the case of the most famous publisher in the world coming up on the show on neck with a casserole south africa's former intelligence services minister who fought apartheid alongside nelson mandela about why the new enemy of his country is neoliberalism backstabbing spying in the struggle for power from the west to the british parliament with game of thrones your only move ahead of the show's final episode but how soon before trump's warplanes bombed to be unprecedented deployment of the u.s.s. abraham lincoln to the persian gulf all the support coming up in today's going on the ground a 1st to britain's old colony of south africa whose apartheid regime was sponsored by both main u.k. parties until the fall of the berlin wall.