making headlines today the u.s. continues its strong and to iran rhetoric now accusing tehran of attacking saudi oil facilities despite considerable saying they did it iran slams the accusations of law i. mean while washington stance on iran has softened even after u.s. national security advisor john bolton was fired by donald trump. also in the stories that shaped the week an american t.v. network sues the top percentile of the not the channel for describing them as paid russian propaganda the track record of the i must have seen host in question when it comes to making things about the kremlin.

the latest developments and the look back at the last 7 days you're watching week on r.t. . u.s. secretary of state mike compare has accused iran of launching a quote unprecedented assault on the walls energy supply saying that iran is behind attacks on saudi arabia's oil production terror on denies any involvement in the attack or in the u.s. accusations ally has the exact wording from the u.s. we call on all nations to publicly and unequivocally condemn iran's attacks the united states will work with our partners and allies to ensure that energy markets remain well supplied and iran is held accountable for its aggression. having failed at max pressure secretary of state pompei is turning to max to seat the us in his clients are stuck in yemen because i'm illusion that weapon superiority will lead

to military victory blaming iran won't end disaster except april 15th proposal to end the war and begin talks may or refining in saudi arabia has now been hard as a result fawaz a 2 major state run cities as experts expected or oil prices have jumped significantly more than 13 percent following the incident u.s. president trump fries the release of oil from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve highlighting the importance of keeping markets well supplied the 2 saudi facilities damaged by fire were attacked on a saturday i witnesses a video on social media of a huge blaze while gunshots can apparently be in the background the u.s. claims it was a result of drone strikes with one of them being launched from iraq but backed out said there is no possibility its territory was used. earlier yemen's who see rebels claimed responsibility for deploying drones to attack that saudi oil processing

facility and also a major oil field they say the strikes were in response to the saudi led war in yemen backed by the u.s. washington has also previously charged iran with lending support to those who sees how much mousavi professor of political science at the university of tehran believes these latest accusations from the u.s. are most likely baseless. how long michael has a very long history of making accusations without providing any actual evidence butties i've already claimed responsibility for these attacks and although the scale of these attacks are on precedented we have to remember that the hutus have launched drone attacks deep inside saudi arabia for months now so i think there's no surprise there and the u.s. has accused iran of sending weaponry to the hutus but we also have to remember that yemen has been under a very severe 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 let alone weaponry so i think he's just trying to come up with excuses to charge iran of crimes that iran has actually not committed so the very moment they're meant until iran at rhetoric from the u.s. continues even after one of terrans most outspoken critics national security advisor john bolton was fired by president trump on tuesday it was one of the big headlines of this week mr trump claimed he disagreed with bolton on several foreign policy issues as yet there's no word on who will be replacing him john bolton is renowned for his aggressive hawkish approach to foreign policy he supported the u.s. intervention in syria and was staunchly against in some pressure on north korea he also adopted a tough stance on iran and backed scrapping the nuclear deal daniel hawkins has been taking

a closer look at his record. scandals resignations and dismissals are part and parcel of trump's presidency a few policy disagreements a swift tweet from the presidents and another administration official bites the dust it was clear from the outset that trump and his national security advisor would have their disagreements i'm the one that tempers him but that's ok i have different sides 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 squabble led to bolton's exit the failed talks on afghanistan the question of russia are all 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 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 madeira government 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 for symbolic photo op the right intentions seems to be their bet it will make it clear that they won't i don't like sanctions

because. this 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 non productive meeting we have very much in mind the libyan model from 20032004 while bolton boiled that north korea had violated un sanctions off the missile test and may trump downplayed the incident saying he wasn't spooked north korea fired off 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 u.s. 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 iranian 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 speculations been rife on possible talks between trump and the rain 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 touted by leaders account 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 term and not a lot to aspect of peace is what we're focused on in the program even though the u.s. shut down the heartbroken peace talks the afghan

a taliban still wants donald trump to get back to the table as all to find out in an exclusive interview with that negotiating team that's ahead this hour. senior u.s. john so once again fighting over russia with one t.v. network now suing the host of another for describing them as paid russian propaganda artie's has the story. here comes a familiar voice which becomes even more familiar if we hear words like russia or russian the most obsequiously approach trump right wing news outlet in america really it literally is page correction propaganda for those who still didn't recognize that that was really literally rachel maddow speaking about the one american news network on her and this n.b.c. show i'll get to the point of reminding you how she keeps seeing russia everywhere in a moment but don't you think there must be someone out there who won't just swallow

what the m s n b c star anchor says without hitting back with a decent jab well oh a ed is filing a defamation lawsuit they want 10000000 bucks one america is wholly operated and financed by the herring family in san diego they are as american as apple pie they are not paid by russia and have nothing to do with the russian government this is a false and malicious libel and they're going to answer for it in a court of law to tell you about the reason for when rachel maddow said really literally which is supposed to mean definitely no doubt shares staff with the kremlin that's another thing she said it's just that a one america journalist freelance work for a russian based news agency sputnik she got him busted so bad but as i've said earlier the number of times rachel maddow turned her show into

a grand russian paranoia episode is just difficult to. 1 are about to find out if the new president of our country is going to do what russia wants. f.b.i. is under attack from the president from the presidents republican supporters and congress and the president conservative media supporters and also from the ongoing russian influence operation that is still. what happened if russia killed the power in fargo today and what would happen to all of the natural gas lines that that surface and falls just on the coal to stay in recent memory and it wasn't in our power whether or not to turn them back on no wonder that when some folks decided to put the m s n b c hosts russia gate obsession into a mathematical perspective they found she spent more time talking about russia than all other topics combined over a certain period. now you know what it takes to become the most watched hosts in

all of cable news she got to that milestone last year but when step by step it gets revealed a lot of what you were saying was just a flow of blah blah you make up to when views the consequences do start haunting you 1st the ratings gradually went down and then the actual conclusions of the pro blood to whet their this is what the viewers saw when rachel maddow 1st realized the probe wasn't going the russia gaiters way and so we know the logistics of how we got the notification that it did and obviously right now we have mostly just a ton of questions as to what miller's report says how complete it is who gets to see it who gets to decide who gets to see it and when. now here comes the lawsuit the one i mentioned nothing's decided yet but probably even more people will think twice next on the here really literally in that familiar voice.

to a mystery that has puzzled mind the past 60 is in 1959 a group of soviet hike in the euro mountains to separate 9 parties covet various theories around the deaths and now a special project launched video. we can chronicle the fateful incident. interactive project allows you to follow the hike has

a 10 day trek you can explore what the group did each day so through photos and maps and also what they wrote you'll also discover more about the unexplained injuries on the bodies on the various theories as to what exactly happened added to that you can put yourself into the shoes of one of the team members as they walk along the route and then vote on your suspected of what happened after weighing up the evidence you're presented with. in an exclusive interview with the taliban has donald trump to return to the negotiating table over the war in afghanistan they were in moscow for talks with the russian officials this week off to the u.s. president shut down a year long process with the minutes group despite hopes that the negotiations

might and almost 2 decades of conflict the taliban command was supposed to go to the united states for signing an agreement that deal was to include washington with touring troops in exchange for a commitment from the militants not to shelter terrorists donald trump justified and negotiations by citing is a must attack on the afghan capital that resulted in the death of an american soldier but suicide car bombing killed 10 people in total and injured dozens more it was one of 3 assaults claimed by the taliban in a 2 week period in addition to attacks which have taken place over the 12 months that the peace talks ongoing altie also the group how they expect trying to negotiate with them while they can make his troops. next deal with mr tucker so this is a. negotiation he mr bobbitt what is the problem is that he says he admitted that he. doesn't want to go so if to give those of us why we cannot kill one of

the other daughters who are most. american soldiers there you know what it is throw in the soldiers and worship never ever was one of us but still we. proved. to be set up with some through the season but unfortunately i need to retrieve some sort of proof i don't even know it was cancer going inside. sense if the american side is not really in the position in did not want peace on the dual so we compared to defend our civil liberties to do this for a 100 years. i do know that there is a behind that we can still work hard but we are still committed to the leadership issues we see the i would stand our policy from this very minute to understand is

that there's no solution for one conflict except negotiations and accept the peace on the table so we were revitalize the whole day to mr duncan. smith in here come back to where we were and we just sat there with after the fact to give it to me because i know there are. democratic politicians are increasingly speaking out on the issue of fracking with many calling for the process to be completely banned fracking involves draining deep into the ground to a couple well and that gas critics claim it's dangerous a bad environment on top us democrats shot those fears to ask a lot more pain reports. the usa is now the world's top the oil exporting country check out these words from the international energy agency booming shale production has allowed the u.s.

to close in on and briefly overtake saudi arabia as the world's top oil exporter president trump says that this is a huge achievement he's ready to celebrate success becoming more and more energy dominant i don't want to be energy free we want to be an engine dominant in terms of the world but not everyone shares donald trump's energy market enthusiasm in fact most of the people who want to run against him in the 2020 alexion want to outlaw the practice of hydraulic fracking that's the reason the usa has so much oil and gas any proposal to avert the climate crisis must include a full fracking ban on public and private lands. on my 1st day as president i will sign an executive order that puts a total moreau tarm on own you fossil fuel leases for drilling offshore and on public lands and i will ban fracking everywhere it's not just the left progressives you've got the centrist kemal the harris there's no question i'm in favor of

banning fracking so at this point roughly 59 percent of america's oil is extracted from the shale so if you outlawed the practice of hydraulic fracking you would knock down the oil sector of the u.s. economy pretty hard the same for natural gas now check out this headline. kremlin kemal or harris and other democrats are embracing vladimir putin's preferred us energy policy the new conspiracy theory even went viral on twitter many in fracking and use of natural gas would do more damage to america and make them or putin happier than anything donald trump has ever said or done so good job democrats your being pro russia pro putin and program wind by wanting to ban natural gas of course the senator isn't the only 2020 democrat calling for this from russia with love ban on fracking the most reliable of k.g.b. useful idiots bernie sanders is even clearer that this notion that opposition to hydraulic fracking is all a big plot from moscow is nothing new in fact we've even heard it from the halls of

the us congress we have seen evidence of campaigns targeting our culture and energy as 2 to. industries of interest to foreign powers on energy we've seen anti fracking narratives so it seems like nowadays the only way to really play it safe in american politics is to find out what the why they are putting once and do the exact opposite so let's hope that the russian president doesn't talk about say fixing up america's crumbling roads and bridges or addressing the opioid epidemic. r.t. new york. now some pop culture before it's even been released hollywood's latest comic that comic book movie is facing backlash it's been accused of glorifying violence.

the choke us time where king phoenix documents the early years of the villain from the potman franchise and shows him as a loner who descends and. it's not yet on public spot a screening at the venice film festival scott people arguing online with many saying it encourages a few was to sympathize a problematic theme. i don't want to have sympathy for a man best known for his robbery murder and arguably rape shoved down my throat for 2 hours it was not that long ago when a socially isolated described chilled white man who felt wronged by society quite literally dressed up as a joker and shot up a movie theater in colorado joke of a film where you're supposed to sympathize with a mediocre white man radicalising to do range violence will no doubt be appealing to the wrong audience for the worst reasons millions of children will see the

upcoming film joker to laugh at a clown millions of children will be taught that crime violence and mayhem of the stuff of jokes one will howl with take responsibility for promoting a culture of crime. we spoke to a filmmaker who believes that censorship should be a last resort. the problem with criticizing a film before it comes out for what it's supposed to say is that we're starting to . a lot of people like to do in this country self censor art and creative expressions of art and i have a big issue with pure and simply because it's really difficult to comment on something that you've not seen and if you're already saying that something is going to be the way you think it's going to be and you don't want to see it then we have a problem we have a problem that we have in this country with polarization at a political level at a cultural level we don't want to see what we think is going to be different from

what we think about what we support i don't think that video games or movies will encourage people to commit acts of violence i think the issue is at the source of education of many things that are going on in this country when it comes to too much shootings and role violence i think intertainment if something is an expression of something that is happening in this society that we need to deal with and it's a reminder as there is a lot of issues that are not dealt with and i feel that a lot of people like to put those issues under the carpet instead of dealing with them head on. the u.s. budget deficit is expected to hit one trillion dollars next year and questions are being raised over how american taxpayer money is being used a new report by a kentucky senator has highlighted some of the more the saw examples of government spending.

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so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy for them to you shouldn't let it be an arms race on all fronts clearly dramatic developments only really engaging resists are those strategies will be successful very critical . to sit down in.

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 do you hear so often that wash the independence referendum on here remains both a thorn and bargaining chip in spanish politics and that's the acting government imagery that just average clone so to the worst elections in 4 years what does it leave the secessionists cost i'll be putting this question to alfred bosch minister for foreign action institutional relations and transparency of patel on am. a 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 foreign the action of foreign policy it's 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 try. like that in english so that you understand that i'm part of a government the catalan government is not an independent government belonging to recognise state but still we do have a government minister like lenders in germany have or other governments also have and yes we've been seeing how the spanish government especially the ministry of foreign affairs lay 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 won't 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 have cut a lot of support independents 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 vote the regardless of which way the boat go 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 were 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's 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. so we don't think we are better than any other nation but we're not less than any other nation that the e.u.

know that the problem with referenda and i think the bracks of station shows that the independents moment it's called. is that as well. is that people may change their mind the circumstances may change. are you sure that if you have international a recognized 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 is a yes we expect the 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 a 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. the police troops being sent to him.