down in the poll shows light on how top american officials have been routinely distorting facts and figures on the war in afghanistan and tend to convince the public that drawn out war is winnable. u.s. president donald trump says he looks forward to more dialogue with russia after meeting with foreign minister sergey lavrov at the white house nuclear arms reduction was a key focus on those talks are meeting with u.s. officials triggered a wave of democrats accusations of trumped russian leaks in the foreign minister brushed off as if. he might as well throw his asians against russian diplomats involving the case with the athletes and call for our criminal bill.

which doesn't pushes forward with its new pension reform which has already led to days of mass demonstrations civil unrest and strike action. a very good morning to you you're watching r.t. international with me. our top story this hour a suicide bombers detonated his car outside one of america's main military outposts in afghanistan at the airfield local media report a powerful blast hit a medical facility located in the immediate vicinity of the airbase is main gate at this point is unclear if there are any casualties initial reports however suggested the suicide bomber had targeted a u.s. military convoy the american officials have rejected those reports against this backdrop a scathing report has been released which details the use of deliberate disinfo mation on the part of top u.s. officials who it transpires have been putting on

a brave face despite there being the unpalatable truth about the afghan war. hundreds of thousands dead trillions of dollars lost generations traumatized but you know what nothing good comes easy nothing in afghanistan we helped liberate an oppressed people. and we will continue helping them secure their country rebuild their society and educate all their children boys and girls. over i set to defeat al-qaeda and deny it a chance to rebuild is within reach and we're doing a tremendous job. and as you know a big part of the job is isis certainly the biggest and al qaeda and we. we've got them down very low numbers you didn't need to be nostradamus or clairvoyant to know that someone was telling bull it's just logical fallacy you can't keep fighting the

same guys for 20 years and claim the jewel winning but then appearances must be kept up it's important that everyone thinks you're winning right up to the moment you admit you lost why well it's obvious no one has the remotest clue would trying to do here we didn't have the focus notion of what we were undertaking there is a fundamental gap of understanding of the front and overstated objectives. in the military and the lack of understanding of the resources necessary and we'd never have known if it hadn't been thousands of secret and classified documents on afghanistan stuff from the white house from the pentagon the un and various n.g.o.s well we would have known it's pretty damn obvious that the war is going terribly but who says mouth and all that it is worth considering what the president the

deficient said and what they actually believed when i called our troops in action i did so with complete confidence. their courage and skill and tonight. thanks to them. we are winning the war on terror. and. today we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror are we capturing killing or deterring a dissuading more terrorists every day than the mid russ's on the radical clerics are recruiting training and deploying against us does the us need to fashion a broad integrated plan to stop the next generation of terrorists the us is putting relatively little effort into a long range plan but we are putting a great deal of effort into trying to stop terrorists the cost benefit ratio is against us see when you're in your 2nd term and you started a really messy war that you just realized you can't hope to win there only so many ways to save your own but here's a list of words you should use courage democracy kids schools and hospitals

and for the people that don't buy your baloney get a hope in there as well thanks to the courage of these military and civilian personnel a nation that was once a safe haven for al qaeda is now a young democracy where boys and girls are going to school new roads and hospitals are being built and people are looking to the future with new hope also poor in money into huge infrastructure projects to obligate money that was appropriated to so we could spend it through building infrastructure in ways that have again instant could never sustain or even the use in some cases if you're a nato country taxpayer i honestly don't believe you can comprehend how much of your money was poured into this adventure you 1st need to understand the sheer degree of incompetence that these leaked documents show imagine for example

someone's putting together a crew for a bank heist they invite a bunch of people give them a time and place and tell no. one what their rule is no plan so everyone shows up thinking that everyone outs knows what to do and things go as you would expect now is the time to save your own heidi let's add a few more words difficult days human rights confidence success we will reward good governance work to reduce corruption and support the rights of all afghans men and women alike. there will be difficult days ahead but i am absolutely confident we will succeed you just cannot put those amounts of money into a very fragile state in society and not have if you corruption you just can't a legacy of mass corruption that's putting it lightly what else did you expect the

guys on the ground they saw disaster they were ported it back to washington washington with its countless departments that now have the courage to stand up and say they screwed up so they put up appearances everyone was doing what made them look best rather than what worked best interesting enough many of the documents were published with the name lessons learned perhaps an effort to extract something anything of value from this unmitigated disaster but you know as it has got a star not long ago and after seeing what i saw there i can tell you all especially i can guarantee you that while they may have learned their lessons they sure as heck are putting them to use. and writes a retired u.s. army colonel told us the american leadership was informed but went ahead with the war in 2001 we got less. well like so many government officials they hate to admit

failure and the idea that the united states military and the us foreign policy could possibly fail was something that they personally could not accept and so they kept pouring billions of dollars into afghanistan in the hopes that maybe it would be a success the senior leadership of the united states government did not have a real clue on the history of foreign involvement in afghanistan they all should have known but they felt that for domestic political concerns they had to do something after $911.00 so the easy thing was to go to afghanistan a country that had essentially no real military and that which they thought the u.s. forces would be able to overwhelm very quickly. of russian delegation headed by the country's top diplomat visited washington on tuesday much to the

irritation of democrats that u.s. president donald trump though seemed happy about the visit. just had a very good meeting with foreign minister sergey lavrov and representatives of russia discussed many items including trade iran north korea and if treaty nuclear arms control and election meddling look forward to continuing the dialogue in the near future. the russian foreign minister also held talks with the u.s. secretary of state mike pompei it the issue of alleged election meddling was raised but the meeting wasn't all about us russia disagreements on of explains from the outset it became clear how much room for improvement there is in the relations between russia and the united states for instance one of the cases election meddling the secretary of state my campaign has been very adamant that any interference in america's relations is unacceptable by a foreign power to which russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov stressed that all

such accusations still exist in the realm of speculation. now as remembering or not you suggested simply to read the report we did and there was no proof of any collusion. also has repeatedly said that russia is ready to release full transcripts as to what was said by the russians and by the members of the trump team by a special communication channel that had been established back in 2618 but according to the russian foreign minister those attempts to make those transcripts see the light of day have so far been stopped by the trumpet ministration. after the integration of donald trump we suggested to our colleagues that in order to dispel all the base the suspicions of let us publish this close channel of correspondents will be starting from october 26th until nov 27th so this administration has become very clear to me but unfortunately the current administration refused to do so now the bone of contention between russia and the

united states is the i.m.f. or rather the absence of the deal now and both parties of both ministers have kind of clashed as to how they see the moving forward for instance the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov has again said that the countries could use the start treaty that had been signed back in 2010 but might bump a.o.l. . it's made it clear what the united states don't like about that deal that's agreement that was entered into many years ago when powers were very different on a relative basis around the globe. it was at a time when the weapons systems the threats were very different than they are today today so we believe not only do the conversations need to be broadened to include the chinese communist party it was year was that the russian president spoke again about russia's preparedness right now to agree want to secure ingenuity to relieve the tension in the global community given the last instrument of arms control between the united states and russia will stop operating we are prepared to do that

even today on the other hand circular has reiterated that russia has been making unilateral steps of good faith for instance the russian president had previously said that russia wasn't going to deploy any weapons that had been found under the i.n.f. treaty in europe unless washington or its allies decided to do that 1st but it wasn't all negative there are some points where russia and the united states do see eye to eye on where they do see each other as valuable partners syria afghanistan north korea all those aspects all those political price easy to see russia and the united states working together and both countries and seeing did their best both ministers at least did their best to try and move that train forward as much as they could but jenny a state senator richard black thinks the russian foreign ministers trip to washington comes at a difficult time for president trump. pompei or by his very nature is not

a diplomat he's a rather part of nature so individual rather confrontational i would have preferred a more courteous and less confrontational person keep in mind that. all of this is taking place with the backdrop of the impeachment hearings and it has been one of the strategies of the administration to appear to be as tough with russia as possible and it's very unfortunate but that's just the domestic policy ramifications of this. and for us democrats the meeting between russia and america's top diplomats was one more reason to suspect secretly links between trump and moscow. trump is meeting with russia's foreign minister in the oval office again i'm visser he's invited in he's locked out last time they laughed about

troops firing of komi today they can celebrate the success of russian propaganda reagan wouldn't recognize this g.o.p. tromp lavrov and compare our meeting in private this afternoon what conspiracy are they cooking up today congress congress seems to have been captured by a desire to destroy us russian relations used to splurge and shoot at him she describes normal bilateral contacts between countries in particular the reception of the foreign minister on one country by the president of another country as a triumph of russian diplomacy well he might as well throw dogging accuse ations against russian diplomats on the following the case with the athletes and call for our criminal liability to me position is just such that we will force the specific panic of a trump russian lynx was that the only thing that got democrats excited earlier democrats housemate is officially called for the us president's removal from office they claim he's ignored and even in the interests of the country he's head of more pain picks up the story. now the meeting focus. just on nuclear nonproliferation as

well as other international issues but it appears that negotiations and moving forward on these vital international matters is being held back by some internal turmoil within the united states of america and it just so happens that this meeting is taking place on the very day that articles of impeachment have been drawn up against donald trump over a phone call he had with the ukrainian leader and allegations that he obstructed the congressional investigation into that phone call the 1st article is for abuse of power it is an impeachable offense president should be engaged in an unprecedented categorical and indiscriminate defiance of the impeachment inquiry. this gives rise to the 2nd article of impeachment for obstruction of congress i think it's a disgrace that people could make it be true that if the thing that was a perfect conversation they were perfect cover say here is the thing. and i think

it's great this is somewhat of a pattern whenever a high level meeting takes place but it seems that it's followed by a harsh attacks on the president and accusations of some kind of inappropriate relationship between trump and russia or cia director john brennan was among the 1st to float the t word treason officials and pundits even begin speculating whether russia had something on trump that would cause him to so publicly side with you have been watching perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an american president donald trump's actions just today were quote appalling and shameful shocking and sad damaging and a threat to american democracy those harsh words related mainly to the investigation conducted by bob muller regarding allegations of collusion now interestingly a new report has just been released regarding how that investigation was carried out the new report seems to indicate that the f.b.i. made great errors and how they what about investigating donald trump during this

this probe into alleged collusion donald trump spoke critically of the f.b.i. and pointed toward the report the report actually and especially when you look into it and the details of the report are far worse than anything i would have even imagined this was an overthrow of a government this was an attempted overthrow the report shows is that the democrats are not even the democrats but any government official that did not want donald trump that wanted to support hillary clinton but that does not want donald trump in office or donald trump as president united states will do anything including lie lie to congress light a senate questions feed stories to the media break protocol violations of confidential investigations in order to feed those. stories of the media to create certain narratives to harm trump the report effects the impeachment process in general and hopefully you know most americans probably are going to read every single word but i hope that they do it's far more damning and then some of the outlets have made it sound there are lots of facts in there remember the report the

i.g. report was never supposed to 5 indict anybody or bring criminal charges it was supposed to show that there was wrongdoing and how these investigations started in the 1st place how the russia trump lie started in the 1st place. the french government is pushing ahead with its controversial pension reforms in the face of mass protests strike action over the issue promised to add water phillipe will present the plans to the economic social and environmental council on wednesday the day before more than 300000 people took part in demonstrations across wrong according to the interior minister but labor unions said the number was almost 3 times higher with more from the french capital brasilia patrick. well as you can see we are in the thick of it the country is trying to deliver their message to the government before and now says there are far no ones for the pension reform in france although we did

hear from the country's prime minister that for them for now there is no intention to change their plan if we don't make serious profound and progressive reform to date someone else will make much need brooky reform to morrow i hope that we can convince a majority of french people that our reform is fair it is universal it makes the special pension plans gradually disappear and is financially balanced not just for a moment let me give you a clearer picture of who these people are for and we've already been used to the yellow vests but as you can see these are orange it what it says on them is s.n.c.f. this is the french railway company which is by the way one of the. driving forces of the protest you can imagine what happens if the entire system the. way the road workers what if they go on strike all the fun like that has already happened they

say that at one point almost 85 percent of the railway staff members white on strike and this really caused chaos in the country's transport system. about iran and world war i can tell you that the professions range from air traffic controllers to actually police officers and lawyers so this is just how vast it is. like i said before even police union support the strike and actually in fact different opinion polls say that from 50 to 70 percent of the french population are supporting what's going on in the street in the streets of france right now but i do have to mention though that a last week protests in various cities of these country did turn ugly and violent.

i can tell you that most of the slogans that we are hearing in these protests are aimed directly against the president emanuel macron one you can see right here it says. macro don't touch my retirement i can tell you that the pension reform is pretty much his brainchild and that's why so many people are angry at him specifically over borders come soon may be. everybody those do

not come here through money 1st but the reforms we impart to everybody see idea for the pension reform is to introduce a universal point system which will make the pension sums universal for different layers of the society but some of them here in france do fear that they will lose their privileges they want to give us a town hall food system you have every year you will die you chords but all much. you know wouldn't bring you a point never knows more now this is just a warning for the government but it's not hard to predict what's going to happen if emanuel macron and his team decides to stick to the plan of. the show as wealth inequality in the u.k.

is in focus again not after i receive a put my palm in travail that the number of food banks in the country is greater than the number of mcdonald's restaurants their 1st detail of a course. i mean i love the slogan of the world's most famous fast food chain but it seems in the u.k. many can't afford to love it figures show there are now more food banks in this country than branches of mcdonald's sun given the fast food chain can be found on pretty much every corner that's an awful lot of food banks for too many people it's becoming harder and harder to keep their heads above water we can't shy away from the changes that would make the real difference to and the need for food banks going hungry and one of the world's richest countries seems almost unbelievable but data shows more people than relying on food handouts one antipoverty trust distributed a rack or number of food parcels this year up 23 percent from 20 teen even more

concerning for many is that always hall of those parcels went to children recession of 2008 and the subsequent or stare at the program that was over the last 10 particularly the last main years to be honest has had a significant impact on. specifically people experiencing poverty so i think that we see that minor fish in the increasing use of the increasing levels of homelessness across the country the u.k. is living through an unprecedented time of political division this week's general election is being billed as the vote of the generation and it's unsurprising than that the issue has been seized upon by politicians on the campaign trail and a final bid to swing the vote on approved everybody who gets involved with running food banks mcclure leeds is wrong the people should be dependent on them. in the world 6 who just contrary it is a scandal that people are going hungry produce

a basic human right but this is just part of a wide uptake of spiraling inequality in the country the full extent of which was exposed by a recent report but this is just part of a wide up paper of spiraling inequality in the country the full extent of which was exposed by a recent report says huge huge gap between rich and the vast majority of the country is dangerous thanks jim val from the hands of so few people demonstrate just how broken the economy system is this country has become more unequal it's greater levels of inequality she's been for 3 long time just terrible levels of poverty if you want to do i want to tackle poverty in your area yes i certainly do the government says it's not holding back on welfare programs like free school meals so the disadvantaged but as the wealth gap continues to widen it's little wonder frustrations are growing moving forward to the whole country is

a joke nothing other than the challenge of. our 3 year old revolving on the streets the wild strongest economies in which the 5 richest families have a combined while 3 quid for lent to bahrain's t.t.p. and yet one in which so many are forced to get out that begging bowls just to put food on the plates just discovered that 6 but we are stuck at the scene where full of wealth of the world's poorest there are 2000000 i think what the high awaits as the equality crushed hope of said is that such extreme wealth in the hands of some few people demonstrates just who can be economic system as and i would completely agree with. 6 people including a police officer. killed after 2 men opened a opened fire in jersey city in the u.s.

the shooting started at a local cemetery and continued a kosher markets 2 suspects were killed by police just as you city's mayor says the kosher stores thought to have been deliberately targeting. students and trade union members clashed with police in the colombian capital of the go to demonstrators there were calling for an increase to the minimum wage colombia's been rocked by protests since the government changed its economic policy in late november. a mouse county election rally took place in the algerian capital on shoes day thousands flooded the streets to oppose the whole the holding of any vote before the political system is reformed in april the country's aging president resigned after 2 decades in power under pressure of months of mass protests. thanks for joining us here on r.t. international we're back at the top of the hour with the latest headlines.

a lot of you. ask i would name a. guy. that did not trouble getting. your show morning. you want to lose your life. trying to make it if you don't want to. know what to do out there with a kook on the scene do it in the out now as you hijacked on. the clique. the local people. i knew of those

little known to the cynics thrown in one on the. so would you hire them and what he tried to use in there. for just. one i mean with your house on the net. join me every day on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you there. is this a realistic prospect in 10 years and you understand why it kind of creeps people out of. especially i think there's there's what i call the creepy line and the google policy about

a lot of these things is to get right up to the creepy line but not cross it i would argue that implanting things get in your brain is a is beyond the creepy line of yes at least for the moment.