i. want the afternoon here in moscow making headlines right now the u.s. continues its strong and rhetoric now accusing turan of attacking the saudi oil facilities last few days despite hoofy rebels saying they did it around the accusations of the. washington stance on iran the us and softened even after in the week just gone hawkish u.s. national security advisor john bolton was fired by donald trump. pulp fiction that so the russian government described a c.n.n. report about the cia withdrawing a high level spy from moscow. hello

this is art international son of the 15th of september live from moscow with me kevin owen it is their weekly our roundup of the big stories have brought you over the last 7 days and 1st story happening across into this weekend he. has accused iran of launching a quote unprecedented assault on the world's energy supply saying that iran was behind attacks on saudi arabia's oil production around denies any involvement in the attack calling the u.s. accusations a lie is the exact wording from the u.s. we call on all motions to publicly and unequivocally condemn iran's attacks the united states will work with our partners and our allies to ensure that energy markets remain well supplied and iran is held accountable for its aggression. such accusations as well as blind in inappropriate comments in the diplomatic context are in comprehensible and meaningless it looks like the maximum pressure policy has failed and has now become the maxim lie so as it stands right now all refining and

surly arabia has been half as the result of those fires at 2 major state run facilities eyewitnesses shared a video on social media of a huge blaze were gunshots could apparently be heard in the background the u.s. claims it was the result of drone strikes with one of them being launched from iraqi territory is a new line in baghdad denies any possibility its territory was used earlier yemen's hoofy rebels and claimed responsibility for deploying nearly a dozen drones to attack that saudi or processing facility and also a major oil field they said the strikes were in response to the saudi led war in yemen and demanded an end to riyadh's 4 year long intervention in the country backed by the us or shooters also previously charged around with lending support to the who thiis the professor of political science at university of tehran believes these latest accusations from the us are most likely baseless. how long mike has a very long history of making accusations without providing any actual evidence

there who deserve already claimed responsibility for these attacks and although the scale of these attacks are on precedented we have to remember that the who tees have launched drone attacks deep inside saudi arabia for months now so i think there is no surprise there the us has accused iran of sending weaponry to the who tease but we also have to remember that yemen has been under a very sea year a military blockade by the saudis with the help actually of the americans for over 4 years now making it very difficult to even send food lead to loan weaponry so i think he's just trying to come up with excuses to charge iran of crimes that iran is actually not committed so the very rhetoric from the u.s. continues even after one of 2 rounds most outspoken critics the national security advisor john bolton was fired by president trump on choose day it was one of the

big headlines of the week claimed he disagreed with bolton on several key foreign policy issues there's no word yet on who the next national security adviser as for john bolton he was well known for his aggressive hawkish approach to foreign policy he backed scrapping the iran nuclear deal as well as supporting the idea of regime change in tehran he also bucked the u.s. intervention in syria and was staunchly against easing pressure on north korea hawkins takes a closer look at bolton's track record. scandals resignations and dismissals are part and parcel of trump's presidency a few policy disagreements a swift tweet from the president's another administration official bites the dust it was clear from the outset but trump and his national security advisor would have disagreements i'm the one that tempers him but that's ok i have different sites i mean i have john bolton and i have other people that are a little more dovish than him. and ultimately i make that decision we can speculate

on which exact what will lead to bolton's exit the failed talks on afghanistan the question of rush hour or perhaps iran but it seems the animosity lasted until his final day in office i offered to resign last night and president trump said let's talk about it tomorrow i informed john bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the white house i disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions as did others in the administration the trump views himself as a skilled dealmaker who talked tough when needed for bolton but wasn't enough he needed to walk the walk and actively consistently show strength on all fronts the middle east russia north korea latin america you name it he held out on compromising stance on sanctions military action and regime change. bolton was one of the key advocates of toppling the more durable vermont using any means necessary all options on the table ready to go this troika of tyranny this

triangle of chair stretching from havana to caracas to managua is the cause of immense human suffering this is a time for action. trump showed he was willing to meet to negotiate with even the greatest perceived u.s. adversities even if it meant just a symbolic photo op the right intentions seems to be their bet it will make each day one i don't like sanctions because in his country i think they want to make peace i think it's time for bolton though this was unacceptable so it could be a long and unproductive meeting or it could be a short one productive meeting we have very much in mind the libya model from 20032004 while bolton boiled that north korea had violated u.n. sanctions after a missile test that may trump downplayed the incident saying he wasn't spooked north korea fired on. some small weapons which disturbed some of my people and

others but not me. taking on iran was perhaps bolton's priority number one within a month of his appointment in april 28th in the us have pulled out of the iran nuclear deal and advocate of preemptive strikes he pushed for military action against iran after a u.s. drone was brought down and as ever his thinly veiled threats centered around regime change we hope that these new measures directed at the arabian dictatorship will compel the government to re-evaluate its pursuit of terror at the expense of its people well i think he is on the verge of making a mistake i think his advisors are pushing him in the wrong direction ironically just as bolton prepared to depart speculation has been rife on possible talks between trump and the rein in president rouhani it would have thought that possible after so much hostile rhetoric perhaps the final straw was trump's plans of wind down the longest war in u.s.

history including hosting talks with taliban leaders at camp david it's speculated that bolton this was in comprehensible it seems that with or without bolton's presence u.s. foreign policy may have more surprises in store during trump's 1st well following on from indeed a quick tip off later in the program even though the u.s. shut down the brokered peace talks the taliban still wants donald trump to get back to the negotiating table as r.t. found out in an exclusive interview with the negotiating team when they came into moscow it's ahead this hour. next. the russian government describes c.n.n. reporters pulp fiction after the news channel it claims about the cia withdrawing a high level spy from moscow c.n.n. reported that a u.s. spy inside the russian government was successfully returned to america in 2017 of the concerns about the way donald trump handled classified information but both the white house and the cia say in fact that story's incorrect skewed taylor behl's

deeper. secret missions exfiltration of spies top level intelligence it sounds like the makings of a thriller and in a way it is because this is an elaborate tale recently had by c.n.n. multiple trump administration officials tell me that these are officials with direct knowledge that in a previously undisclosed to secret mission in 2017 the u.s. successfully extracted from russia one of its highest level sources covert sources inside the russian government the c.n.n. report claims a man at the highest level of the kremlin was secretly feeding theeye a information for over a decade that he was so ensconced within the kremlin wall so friendly with and trusted by president putin's inner circle but he even managed to photograph documents on the russian leaders desk u.s. intelligence officials had already expressed concerns about the safety of this by

other russian assets given the length of their cooperation with the u.s. this according to a former senior intelligence official the report is peppered with vague mentions of secret sources mysterious interviews and skips a bit on the facts facts make a thriller indeed the c.n.n. report doesn't even given in playing of the identity of the informant but the russian media was willing to give it a chance and landed on one smiling cough it's been reported that he previously worked at the russian embassy in washington before becoming up thought to stay counselor at the presidential administration not really the pinnacle of influence which is true that smiling cough worked in the president's administration but several years ago he was fired his position wasn't that of a top official all the discussion in the u.s. media about someone urgently extracting someone and saving someone it cetera it is part of as you know a sort of pope fiction genre but c.n.n. probably felt it had

a bombshell report on its hands it found yet another. unverified crum to suggest it was the russians not the american public who lacked a trump and then showing that washington had fix us fully outwitted moscow by sneaking their alleged spy out but what could make this revelation more delicious how about trump also being shown to be an unreliable slipped president now that would be called a person directly involved in these discussions said that the removal of the russian was driven in part by concerns that president trump is it ministration repeatedly mishandled classified intelligence and that there could contribute to exposing the covert source as aspiring so just to clarify the cia gave up its most important source on the off chance that trump might spill the beans a source that's been cultivated for over 10 years in the country is readily says it's almost impossible to infiltrate i could even buy into that if the cia gave me

something to what quits i mean they aren't exactly trump's cheerleaders their response that must have come as a bitter blow at c.n.n. h.q. misguided speculation that the president's handling of our nation's most sensitive intelligence which he has access to each and every day driven alleged exfiltration operation is inaccurate i love a good story but anonymous sources classified information which is impossible to verify trump is incapable of dealing with the discreet demands of office and washington being a step ahead of everyone well it just fits all too neatly so. just a bit of a 2 way for the news feed of the week to tell you this the mystery of what happened to a group of soviet hikers in the ural mountains back in 1959 is still puzzling minds today and now you too could explore the various theories surrounding what's called the idea of person so that it's thanks to

a view nique investigation has been launched by artie's video agency ruptly. so this special but roughly allows you to follow the hike his 10 day trip he could explore what the group did every day through the photos in the maps what they wrote all chronicled it you'll also discover more about the unexplained injuries on the bodies and the various theories as to what exactly happened so about interaction to a cause you put yourself in the shoes of one of those team members as they walk alone that fated route and then vote on your preferred version of what happened

after weighing up the evidence that you'll be presented with. live from the r.t. world news center 14 past the hour still to come the beloved british cartoon character farm and some good as brigade mascot for not being inclusive enough just one of the stories we've got lined up when the weekly. we was a cattle republic because we think it would be feared to our people i want to contribute to the welfare of europe into the european values of democracy of equality of dialogue of peace and we think that we are ready to contribute.

to this new europe but as part of the euro music the european community and constituency what's the big deal what's the problem why can't we accept the possibility of the 20 percent. join me every 1st week on the alec simon shore and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then.

afghan taliban is urging donald trump to return to the negotiating table exclusive into. you with r t they were here in moscow as part of regular talks with russian officials this week donald trump shut down the he along peace process with the militant group that could have seen an end to almost 2 decades of the u.s. war in afghanistan the taliban negotiators were supposed then to go to the united states before signing an agreement the deal was to include american we were american withdrawal of troops in exchange for a commitment from the militants not to shelter terrorists don't try to justify don't you go see a sions citing an islamist attack in the afghan capital resulted in the death of an american soldier in fact it was a suicide car bombing that left 10 dead in all and injured dozens more r.t.s. the taliban direct just how it expected donald trump to negotiate with them when they're killing his troops. the next day with medicine for her cancer this is a. negotiation here mr barak his father is that he says he admitted that he had

a good 1000 other well so if big kill thousands of us why we cannot kill one of the other the what is imposed on us is american soldiers you know it's not our image it of the soldiers. should be out there there was one of those but still we. propose keen to bring peace and i want some political solution but unfortunately i need which we reached some sort of fidelity when it was considered by the americans . if the american side is not really a negotiation in did not want peace on the do it will. be compared to a different course it would have to do this for a 100 years. i don't know the reason behind it we can still work hard but we are still committed to the leadership issues recently that i would stand and i would only see from this

treatment of the studies that there's no solution. for what country except. it's a piece of that to sort. through . to what we were really just. after the. fact that if you're going to go over go right live pictures from hong kong now police clashing with protesters again who threw petrol bombs bricks at offices these live shots you see the stricken mr into the world news center here almost to see the moment check this authorities responded by shooting water cannons with blue dye back at the protesters this is the 15th straight week of protests in hong kong the chaotic scenes full of months of protests that have triggered by the proposed extradition bill that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland china that bill was eventually suspended big concession that but the protests quickly turned into

a broader pro-democracy movement britain saying it's got a legal responsibility to ensure china abides by the one country 2 systems principle was agreed before the handover keep an eye on that this too in from the u.k. next story in the week. a cartoon fireman is being criticized for failing to keep up with modern equality standards the classic children's t.v. character has been axed from his job as a mascot for a local brigade after bosses said he could discourage women from joining. his friends need him more than ever and. oh. susannah i'm the founder of the risky team managed to save the day farm and 1st aired in 1987 as an animation about a firefighter in a small well philip ponty parody since then he's been widely used to promote fire safety and services across the u.k. but now it seems as numbers are up and at least some parts of the u.k.'s artie's

polly boy care explains. generations of kids may have grown up with him but legendary children's t.v. show character fireman sam needs to get with the times that's according to the lincolnshire fire and rescue service for years he was their mascot helping to recruit new fina fighters bots now lincolnshire fire and rescue service say that fineman sound is outdated and non-inclusive and he's putting off potential female recruit firefighters nationally and residents locally have raised some concerns that firemen some doesn't reflect the fire service today in terms of both the job itself and our workforce it's important to us that our open dates and community events don't think anyone feel excluded and therefore we took this decision lincolnshire chief fire officer. fired fireman sam has been

getting where you stood for it does a great job for you as a one thing live as a wind away that's not yours it's not i think you should do is to for yourself that is a leaf i'm a sahm alone this isn't the 1st time that fireman sam has been in hot water many argue that while the show is politically correct and features plenty of female characters it should be renamed to firefighter. no i think you got it right i think it's just somebody taking it she took it so that and stickery really and i think come quite happy with what it is he is the epitome of straight. to my mind. may not be terribly appealing to people who want to be. firemen however if you're to be a farmer you should want to know. why didn't you just stick to the basics and enjoy and get back to the basics so we might have

a nicer place to live. very very happy to have him renamed firefighters and 1st to then become a non gender specific person. but why not some sort of gender specific name but street ok so yes. yes exactly exactly they could be put in here because no. just do. it was just a children's character taking things too far as that music and another british cartoon icon peppa pig was recently been rated by none other then the london fire brigade whose head is by the way a woman for featuring an episode where mommy pig pretended to be a fire man and not a fire fighter mummy pig is dressed as a fireman in a well you dress like. i'm going to the mummy's fire engine practice come on peppa pig we've not been fireman for 30 years you have

a huge influence on kids and using out of date stereotypical gender specific wording prevents young girls from becoming firefighters join our fire fighting sexism campaign women make up just 5.2 percent of firefighters in england and with that in mind lincolnshire fire and rescue service have come up with 3 original new characters to help attract more diverse recruits they're anthropomorphise sized fire extinguishers freddy filberts and penelope. the way some news panned out this last 7 days fans watching the weekly are not international so much more to r.t. dot com here in moscow it's coming up to 24 minutes past one of the off look you know that unit is here for the afternoon for me have a great rest of this sunday. this

is a sticker from the water bottle found in the stomach of the fish the brand is part of the coca-cola company which sells millions of bottles of soda every day the idea was that let's tell consumers there are the bad ones there are the litter bugs are throwing this away industry should be blamed for all of this ways the company has long promised to reuse the plastic. ones at a special projects funded. on the disease. but for now the mountains of moist only grow higher. paying years and cross started 10 years i think it's time to shake things up maybe change the branding maybe the format here is what i've been thinking about next

season related episodes filmed on an island 10 experts cited out for a trophy what do you think ok a more affordable option $25.00 text birds. and one red rose another suggestion political jeopardy parody no political cookout where we will literally. be elites. late night show it's a rare format these days and it's cheap all you need is an old microphone in a printed banner if i actually agree with them i guess i can do this campbell after politics ready gone wild like music. ok crosstalk is not about hype it's about meaning 10 years of talk and still going strong. peter if you want to change something why don't we get rid of the gotye you know

that is too much. on the welcome to worlds apart today we're coming to you from barcelona where thousands of people to go to the streets to celebrate international day without having and nation state to hear stuff to wash the independence referendum on your remains both a foreign and embark on a chip in spanish politics and that's the acting government in madrid that just after a clone said to the worst elections in 4 years what is it believed the secessionist

coffee i'll be putting this question to alfred bosch minister for foreign action institutional relations and transparency of patel on am. all for bush it's good to talk to thank you very much for your time thanks for inviting me. i introduced you as a minister but the spanish authorities you're more like a counselor with an outsized mandate because the spanish authorities don't believe that colony is supposed to have any for in the action of foreign policy and then they'd over independent state why this could to lonny need to have for inaction that you are responsible for or we're not going to argue about words we simply translated like that in english so that you understand that i'm part of a government the catalan government is still the independent government belonging to recognise state but still we do have them in a certain like lenders and germany or other governments also have. yes so we've been seeing how the spanish government especially the ministry of foreign affairs

like the brady has been trying. to stop us from making any foreign action we think we're entitled to that because. nowadays in the 21st century you go to be competitive and have a place in the world otherwise you will prosper i'm sure would agree that the lonnie's not like any other city in spain this dispute has been plaguing this country for 3 centuries and if you look at the recent polls it's not evident that the majority of cut the line support independence i wonder how do you frame this issue is it still about full if independence or do you stop way outsell determination and the right to hold to regardless of which way the vote goes from a pro independence party and our ideas that we can have a better country and better welfare for all people with a cow to learn republic so that's what we're pursuing and regarding how many people

support that you have all kinds of polls some of them where a majority and some of those perhaps not but that's exactly why we want to vote we want to know the real numbers we want to know who's supporting in the pens and who does not and there's no way the kingdom of spain can agree on such a referendum like the u.k. did it for scotland or the so we don't think we are better than any other nation but we're not less than any other nation but the e.u. know that the problem with referenda and i think the back situation shows that the independence moment it's called supports that as well is that people may change their mind the circumstances may change. are you sure that if you have internationally recognised referendum and if the majority of catalan say no to independence is that going to put the issue to rest once and for all. not for me or people like me but we will have

a result and we will accept it obviously the same thing if there's a yes we expect a spanish authorities and the international community but especially the spanish government to do what they didn't do on october the 1st 2017 when such of vote was held and they did exactly the opposite was it which is put people in jail my predecessors in the catalan government we saw columb down and police troops being sent to hit people in their heads and we seen almost 2 years of preventive jill for people who organ a vote and can i ask you specifically about that there are friend the because from what i add this down neither the current cut our on authorities snore these spain authorities consider it legal or free and fair for you it wasn't free and fair a because of the police presence for that meant the was illegal as far as they resolves a concerned then i thing over a 90 percent of people who are