people. sometimes there's no explanation. the top stories of the week on our team international russia's top athletes invent . after the world anti-doping agency banned for the country from major tournaments for years. how could the contrie all athletes no matter whether they are not. guilty britain's conservative party sweeps into its biggest election victory in more than 30 years. party makes an almost clean sweep north of the border raising the prospect of independence from the u.k. . talks between the u.s. and the taliban are put on hold after a suicide bombing outside an american air base in afghanistan visited just 2 weeks

earlier. this is r t international certainly glad to have you with us this week russia was barred from all major sporting events for the next 4 years the world anti-doping agency says the country is being punished for tampering with a key database of athletes test results. this is about against russia that protects the right of russian us each. entry for major events to able to demonstrate that they are not implicated in any way by the non compliance what is important thing today's decision is that we are really sanctioning those who are responsible for this many politicians and leave doors open for those who

had nothing to do with dipping scandal in russia clean. plates being able to experts who provided convincing on says unfortunately they haven't heard us responder has time to appeal initially when we handed over the database we said let's investigate the database together so that we can make a full decision we wanted to have a kind of mechanism if we want to me objective decision let's do it like this with saddam has all the necessary opportunities they could have taken a different approach despite the ban clean athletes will be able to compete but only under a neutral flag but russian officials are prohibited from attending major sporting events in the country cannot host any tournaments. the ban includes the 2020 olympics and paralympics in tokyo and the football world cup in qatar qatar in 2022 and also covers the world hockey and volleyball championships matches alexy breaks down the road for us. it is quite unclear how

exactly stripping a nation of its flag in a major sports competitions across the planet can actually solve the problem of fighting against doping you know on innocent until proven guilty and i'm in and it's who you're guilty and he can prove you're innocent a complete reversal justice system on but it's always been that way you've got to think about what's on the world anti-doping agency has jurisdiction but it doesn't at yours dictionary to the russian authorities become sanction russian politicians and all it can do is censure resign and take actions relative to schools so it's come up with this international standard to code compliance by signatories which is used to sanction russia this time around. on top of everything it seems that what is decision from monday was made in such a haste that they have no clue how to actually navigate in that decision the biggest example of that is probably the situation with the way for anthy for

tournament's well where you are where you are quite expected that. these sanctions will not affect in any way russian part of the upcoming euro. 1st of all it's a continental tournament not of world qualification for or for compartmented to. is again within the competence of us for sure that make it to the 2022 world cup in qatar it may be stripped of its flag of its anthem and it may be participating as a neutral country. and if you are not yet confused enough they already said directly that should russia appeal to cast the court forbids racial sports and this process takes longer than the official preparation for next summer's olympics russia will go to next summer's olympics in tokyo as a full fledged nation but then if the band is implemented late it might miss out on

the 2024 some big games in paris from whichever side you look at it monday's decision by water looks like a vocal and very harsh indictment of russian sports it might send shock waves and reverberations in the country sport for many years to come but it might actually be the beginning of a new struggle of a new battle the legal one when russia takes its case to the court of arbitration for sports in switzerland and we are expecting this to be made quite quickly before the end of this year this is a punitive action against the law including begin to shoot once a month. more and just if you. think you're right if it's not it's particularly with there's no evidence of this against them this may be raising a human rights issue with. they're going to raise this before the court of protection order i'm not entirely certain we have to accept but there is a when we think of them and the involved. thing they're actually applying a very ambiguous more and emotive crusade here there once was in terms of

collateral damage to the russian the initial russian roots of the expect with great anticipation to see what the i.o.c. is and should be. and in the essence of what is doing it's like saying i'm going to come into your state because somebody from you and i will decide who comes and goes out. and some of the big names in russian sports have been sharing very reactions with us on the ban. but on the doping scandal lasted for a few years i expected something like this after rio. to be honest it was expected it's a pity the athletes have to suffer it's terrible it's terrible for all russian sports that's what i feel about it. just i don't want to make a link between sports and politics but it looks like good for those sanctions imposed by the west for the last few years. someone just wanted to punish our country but

this is without reason a country is not a 3 year old child. under the neutral flag somehow they don't want to see the russian colors. as something irritating and someone doesn't want to see us competing. in our own anthem. i have already hired a lawyer and even if they don't allow me to participate while i'm already a grandmother sports maybe this is our fate. begin you will somehow unite us and those below to participate and additional boost but it does. i'm sure more than 90 percent of all athletes are. that i guess but if. we support you and i'm sure you have enough patience together we will do it. johnson's

conservative party won resoundingly jordi in the u.k. general election on thursday and it was the worst result for the labor party in more than 80 years meanwhile no. for the board of the scottish national party won by a landslide reigniting calls for independence from the u.k. here's how the party leaders reacted to a dramatic night i'm proud to say that members of our new one nation government a people's government will sit out from constituencies that have never returned a conservative m.p. for 100 years and yes they will have an overwhelming mandate from this election to get it done and we will honor that mandate by general the 31st of all not lead the party in any future general election campaign i will discuss with our party to ensure there is a process now of reflection on this result and on the policies that the party will

take going forward the stunning election win last night for the s.n.p. renew this reinforces and strengthens the mandate we have from previous elections to offer the people of scotland a choice over their future that monday says that's it is for the scottish parliament nor a westminster government to say whether and when the should be a new referendum on independence and a quick look at the numbers there are 650 seats in the house of commons so a party needs 326 to hold a majority the conservatives took 365 seats while the labor party got 203 and he's asking taylor breaks down how it all happened. thursday saw the 3rd general election in just 4 years so how did we end up on this roller coaster again it was well my friends it's the usual suspect yeah you guessed it. sits

to play it turns out that decision taken by those 17400000 people in june 26th exit the e.u. set off a chain reaction that's led to this moment but i'm guessing ahead of myself let's start from the beginning the british people have made a very clear decision to take a different part of my view we should aim to have a new prime minister in place ok so now we're down one prime minister let's see how the next one fat a couple of weeks later to resume a tick on the and then double role of finding a way through the process that wilderness and she was very clear about her goal bricks it means bricks it rex it means bricks it and we're going to make a success of it the original deadline was set for march 29th teen oh those early days of optimism but this is possibly the most divisive political issue the u.k. has faced in recent memory and peace have never felt so important all powerful so

it's unsurprising that may was thwarted at every turn by those less willing to cut ties with our european friends fed up she decided to go in and call a snap election in june 2017 we need a general election and we need one now but it was a gamble that just didn't pay off the conservatives lost the majority they'd been counting on tide already me to also taught at this point every single british citizen your charge of the infighting your charge of the political games and the arcane procedural rounds but disappointment in the polls was really the least of may's prop. the opposition tried to get rid of her own m.p.'s tried to get rid of her and then she said she'd get rid of herself if only they'd back deal which they didn't and it just ended up being too much for may she decided to finally hang up. i do so with no ill will but with

enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country i love ok so now we're down to prime ministers whose our lucky introducing boris johnson former mayor of london a bit of a daft man just like his predecessor he was absolutely adamant that he'd be the one to get it done can you make a promise today to the british public that you would not go back to brussels and ask for another delay to practice it yet and so you've done and. to his credit he's really gone for it he was sick of parliament blocking his ideas so dissolved. dissolved so then he went to the e.u. and negotiated a new deal which parliament defeated and then they forced to quest and not the

extension which really really really didn't want to do but to do anyway and then he just decided enough so not so wasn't she taunted the opposition party after facing off at a general election in order to quote get. which my friends i think brings you up today. from around the u.k. for their views on the election results and the possible repercussions. now boris can go into a meeting to negotiate and the you can be certain that what's agreed in that meeting will actually get through parliament the big problem that we've had so far is really any suggestion that was made seem to run into this blocking wall in parliament who were determined to vote against just about everything the labor party used to say they were voting against against different solutions and in terms of general election then they voted against an election as well as a small force i think is the sentiment of the people of scotland not based on the

views of any one politician this period to the sentiment of people scotland has been moving gradually and no rapidly towards independence but at least an overwhelming view that scotland should have the right to determine its own future that is the chain suck and stance that is the better system will force the a movable object is bought as johnson though it may well be that. bought us jobs and can put these things out and that they can hold back the floods generally speaking that sort of politics gives out eventuality and i would have my money is on the other system will force as opposed to the movable object in terms of standing the test of time and of course of the last 2 years the unionist political electoral majority was ended as a result of this election unionist political representation in the north has been reduced to a minority and not quite safe to make and the context not only of the bracket issue

but also with respect to the unfolding constitutional debate in ireland north and south. mass unrest is gripping india over a new citizenship law which critics say discriminates against muslims on sunday as shooting was reported at a university campus in new delhi police had earlier stormed the campus due to violent unrest but they deny using gunfire video of the incident was posted online i. told. as mentioned it comes as protests have intensified nationwide over a new law which granted millions of migrants in india citizenship status but excludes muslims in one demonstration in the north east coast to neighboring appalled people were seen burning an effigy of the country's home minister and

protesters claim the law is not only discriminatory but also unconstitutional and the country's opposition has threatened to take the case to the supreme court hundreds have joined a hunger strike in india's northeast where troops have been deployed and the internet shut down earlier we heard from a new delhi journalist who told us fear and confusion is gripping the country. that we have no we are the police into the university something we did you see which in itself it is a huge violation you do to please do an end to university grounds you might have all the provocation. to police you and now could use them all because the police claimed that this was in response to violins that the that group this does it done well you know what you know there's really no one for me to know who did that violet because this is a fundamental change 7 to how india is as a country it's a constitutional change this act makes it a point. to figure out who's been it's it's

a very concerted attempt to leave islam out all that meat. should reason given for this. it is is to give shelter to religious minorities so you know this bill is really pleasing to the ruling party so we don't know right now you know it's all up in v.a. that's far all you need to study right now that is there is confusion within the government it is not clear messaging on what the end of this bill are building in the. united states this week announced a pause in peace talks with the taliban after a suicide bomber killed 2 civilians outside the air force base the attack came just 2 weeks after a surprise thanksgiving visit to that same base by president trump and a powerful blast in medical facility near the main gate and more than 60 people were injured in that explosion initial reports suggested the suicide bomber had targeted a u.s. military convoy though washington denies that and during president trumps

a visit to the base he struck a rather upbeat tone despite afghanistan continually being close to or topping the world's most dangerous countries list. with the help in the devotion everyone. has given here tonight america is winning again we are winning like we have not won in a long time. and you know what we're respected like we haven't been respected in a long time america is winning again and america is respected again and respected at the highest level declassified interviews with key figures in the us military campaign in afghanistan have revealed a pattern of deliberate misinformation on the conflict transcripts of the interviews have been released by the us media after a legal battle but i guess you have had commentary 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 tonight a chance to rebuild is within reach and we're doing a tremendous job. and as you know a big part of that 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 that your 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 we were trying to do here we didn't have the focus notion of what we were undertaking the reason fundamental gap of understanding of the front and over stated objectives an overreliance in the military and the lack of understanding of the resources necessary and we'd never have known if it hadn't been thout. of secret and classified documents on afghanistan stuff from the white house from the pentagon the u.n. 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 deficiency said and what they actually believed when i called our troops in action i did so with complete confidence in 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 done them addresses 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 role 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 and society and not have if you corruption you just can't a legacy of mass corrupt trip that's putting it lightly what else the jew expects the guys on the ground they saw disaster they were reported back to washington washington with its countless the patents and now 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 honestly i can guarantee you that while they may have learned their lessons they sure as heck putting them to use. lebanon is in the grip of its worst of violence in 2 months of demonstrations protestors in beirut were out in force on sunday with tear gas deployed by police and rubber bullets fired intense clashes between demonstrators and the authorities were triggered by opposing groups of protesters confronting each other dozens of people were reportedly injured as well the nation wide movement against alleged high level corruption started back in

october with anger also being vented against public services and the economy. we'll be back with another look at your weekly in about 30 minutes stay with us. kind of financial for language on money laundering 1st to visit this just a different. oh good this is a good start well we have our 3 banks all set up here maybe something in your something in america something overseas in the cayman islands or do we do all these banks are complicit in their tough talk received a soft ball and say hey i'm ready to do some serious money laundering ok let's see how we did while we've got a nice luxury watch for max and for stacy oh beautiful jewelry and how about.

for a match you know what money laundering is highly. watched kaiser of course. join me every thursday on the alex island sure and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see the. world and welcome to worlds apart after 17 months of acrimony the united states and china have decided against slapping each other with additional tariffs but with

major differences in aims perceptions and values still remaining it looks like the relationship is set to be dysfunctional or at least troubled for years to calm while one quarrel might have been defused by bigger more dangerous fights still on the cards well to discuss that i'm now joined but salon hahn denizen chair of international history and diplomacy at deflector school tufts university professor han it's good to talk to you thank you very much for your time thank you very much for having me on it's a pleasure to be here now we are recording this program on friday evening moscow time when the american and chinese media bazin with the news that the 2 countries have agreed against introducing additional tariffs and potentially cutting the existing ones where do you place this quarrel and its timely resolution that within the grand scheme of things of the us china relationship. that's

a great question to start with i think there are a few things to say 1st of all if the agreement holds. that's a terrific thing and it can lead to building on the agreement to improve the relationship in other areas which we'll get to. i think one of the things that's been interesting for people watching us china relations in the age of trump is that it deals tend to be. difficult to sustain if you look at the negotiations over trade with china if you look at u.s. negotiations with europe the deal seemed to be on and then they seem to be off i think the chinese have been more or less prepared for this given what's happening and if you looked at the diplomacy as particularly the trade diplomacy they were conducting during the trade negotiations with the united states there was a sense that the united states was not the only game in town the brics mattered

african countries mattered courting japan mattered and china's sense of its foreign relations was that while achieving a deal with the u.s. was important one would also have to prepare for. a non deal or a deal that made life much more difficult and this is where the broader context of u.s. china relations comes and the 1st thing to remember is that the last few years have seen a deterioration of relationships not just on the trade front but if you think of the security front if you think of the changes in chinese society under xi jinping there are sources of tension that extend well beyond the trade deal whether they are technological whether they are political whether they have to do with systemic change the idea that china as a rising power in the u.s. is a status quo power that the 2 sides at least for now have decided to you ex change small deals and we're yet to know. who benefits from more because i mean some could

argue that on the on the eve of the christmas sales and in the light of the overall dacor of domestic politics both in the united states and in china at temporary deal would be better for both than no deal at all do you agree with that. i would agree with that a temporary deal politically at least it's in trump's interest certainly given that the electorate the potion of the electorate that suffered under this was farmers many of whom were critical to his success for xi jinping facing all sorts of trouble at home whether it's over hong kong whether it's over shin jiang whether it's over disagreements on environmental politics some sense of achievement would be important over here so yes a temporary deal is better than none at all and the other thing about a temporary deal is if it holds it allows you a platform for communication that can be used to talk about the other areas we were

discussing now the trumpet ministration began its 1st.