we reached. breaking news this hour the turkish president announces a military operation in the syrian province of idlib is quote a matter of time a turkish military convoy has been seen crossing the border into syria. and in other news australian m.p.'s visit julian assange in jail and call on the u.k. government to stop his extradition to the united states warning about the wiki leaks founders deteriorating condition. use exhibiting signs of abuse only. he did tell us about being kept. on going lost a lot of the site. and the u.s. house of representatives speaker nancy pelosi warns the european union against

working with huawei branding china's tech giant a major security threat she does not mention however her own reported role in mass american spying including on the leaders we ask people in new york and london whether china or the u.s. is a bigger surveillance threat to them over to us to us anybody having. access to our data. you're watching r t international bring you your live news update from our studio here in moscow welcome to the program and we start with breaking news this hour as the turkish president has announced that the start of the military operation in the syrian province of idlib is quote a matter of time out and he's been dissatisfied by talks with russia on the situation in the area clashes between the syrian government and armed groups occupying the province i mean going on for months now moscow says turkey has failed

to separate the moderate opposition from terrorists in the area. after library action we cross to alley risk contributor for the l monitor news website you're very welcome to the program that russia has responded already saying that turkey attacking syrian army positions is in fact the worst case scenario what could be the consequences of that scenario. well this is indeed a major and a very dangerous development there were previously that things would not reach this phase particularly when moscow went turkey were trying to settle down or trying to work out the differences in syria and syria but i think the main obstacle the main sticking point is the fact that the turkish government the turkish president rose up to it will do it on still has not to recognize or still doesn't admit to the fact that the this syrian government is a legitimate government i.e.

it is still taking a hostile policy towards a legitimate government inside syria he has not been done that project so i wouldn't bend that particular approach epicenters the beginning and are pushing this is continuing and i think that is the main obstacle this is what is leading to the developments which we are seeing right now just you know ongoing rejection obvious here an army ongoing cost committee towards the the syrian government interesting to me this comes after some big developments which took place in aleppo we all know that the syrian army made some big big score incident big points in aleppo practically obliterating that city retrieving retaking control of the strategic m 5 why why now these comments by or do come up to this so one can't help but to ask questions about how this links up this syrian army succeeding in how the

turkish president now made up his mind to prevent it from liberating other territories like that. we have this initial reaction coming from russia what else do you expect from the international community and their reaction to this. well i think that when you refer when you refer to the international community if you're referring to not to target states to european countries i think that they will take the side of turkey when it comes to this particular issue but maybe at the same time i don't think they will be supporting and whole house wolf meaning conventional war between the syrian army and the turkish that could prove to be disastrous even for the european continent itself now the americans we heard secretary of state my point recently stating that nato will stand by turkey no doubt the other states will probably be very pleased with it is with these latest statements from the turkish president is a lot of

a lot of concern as it makes press recently inside the u.s. about the increasingly cross ties between turkey and russia now this development that i think will be woken by u.s. officials and james jeffrey the u.s. special envoy is one who also hopes to draw it to drive a wedge between turkey and russia so i think that when you refer to the international community i think that the u.s. where we were coming in i think in europe it will be you know kind of supporting tokyo on the one hand rhetorical aid at the same time i don't think that the europeans would want to go all out war between turkey and syria that would mean you know knights are coming in and i'm sure that they were paid countries are in no shape whatsoever to intervene into or get involved in a military will i what do you make of the comments coming from the kremlin that turkey hasn't been fulfilling agreements on syria that they came to last year. yes

well. at the 100 ish which was previously old chap that most of these forces still remain the predominant force they still. afraid to operate in him and that was not the agreement which was reached between moscow and on cross so most of the sorry one cannot continue so either support or to turn the blind eye to these radical extremist groups maybe because it views and these radical extremist groups and it's leverage leverage which which it can use in any further negotiations now when or do and says it's a matter of time it might very well be that it might go ahead with this operation at the same time it might be that he's trying to put pressure on the other so it's on russia or russia to get some concessions on. allies like syria and iran to get some concessions and then hold on might end specter on a no go ahead with the operation so what might be more so. in the way to put

pressure in the negotiation process but going back to your question i think that in the end yes. the turks have continued to wipe least at the very least turned a blind eye to terrorist groups if not support them and again this is linked to the ongoing hostile stance which has been taken from the turkish government towards the syrian government. i think you're quite right there when you are suggesting that this could in fact be a strategic move he was saying you know this is a last warning warning that he's going to put out before anything happens that it's a matter of time but without any real concrete details i know do you think a turkey suggestion of a put an end to one meeting actually ease tensions. that's possible that that is possible hope that meeting doesn't take place but i think the key here the they were in mining obstacle and it's subsequently isn't overcome i think that in the end the problem will continue is that for the turkish government to recognize lead

to the legitimacy of the leadership of president bashar al assad in syria now as long as this turks doored come to this recognition they will to continue to be differences and disagreements with tween to look you know want to and russia on the other in addition of course to syria and iran so i think that's the key and that's something which the turks have failed to do up until now so we wait and see what go on but i myself you know unfortunately i'm not optimistic that the turkish leadership is now ready in the near future to recognize they did to the missi office here in government we've been speaking with allie risk contributor for the monitor news website thank you for your time and your comments. are to host afshin rattansi discuss the issue with the syrian president's media adviser with a mash up on the latest episode of going underground siobhan said the blame for the current situation lies with the turkish president. turkey apparently killed 51

syrian soldiers last week more soldiers on valentine's day what's your message to turkey which of course under article 5 is protected by nato i wouldn't say it didn't keep it as a chair do gun because where neighbors would push people but i would tell you that the gun was spared all of this terrorist war that has taken place in syria without. without him as allowing all these terrorists to grasp the borders it would have been impossible to make all these terrorists come to syria and now that he has failed in syria he's moving his terrorist or into libya i think added to gun is a very dangerous man because of 2 factors 1st is that he thinks he would restore the autobahn empire and 2nd because he is

a muslim brother and he's feeding muslim brotherhood not only in the middle east but also in europe and in asia and i mean what he can. in other news australian m.p.'s have called on the u.k. government to stop doing a songes extradition to the us a visit the australian citizen in the london prison where he's being held ahead of an extradition hearing. he's beyond belief that someone who is a science friday and overnight so. should be rewarded by facing extradition and sitting to counsel these few nudge in one town called computer had. a very crucial . for the show. very concerned in the body of a few strong government one of the lawmakers george christensen told us about the wiki leaks founder is deteriorating condition. spike in this wake with professor

mills mels of the un special rapporteur on torture. who come to the opinion along with a number of medical experts that julian assange was exhibiting the symptoms of psychological torture oh i've visited julian assange. and are going to side there's nothing that i saw or that actually. discredited what those doctors and what mils muliaina said he is exhibiting saw ends of disorientation. he did tell us about being kept in severe us alive and ongoing us a large notice i take lay within belmarsh prison the conditions of the subject to apparently out but when you kept by yourself a 20 to 22 as a die with that minimal human contact you're effectively oss alloted so all of that has led to i guess at the plated state of health for julian

a songe and i don't think it's fair atoll to extradite an australian citizen. at of one foreign country into another foreign country to face charges for what for reporting on the facts. doctors around the world also condemned the u.k.'s handling of the case warning a songe is being subjected to psychological torture in jail rather than $100.00 medics signed a joint letter urging authorities to take action and also called on the australian government to intervene to protect its citizens it's the 4th such letter from doctors meanwhile the guardian newspaper has published a feature article on plans to tackle media repression penned by the government's envoy on press freedom clooney however one key detail has been left out when these links to julian assange arguably the most high profile media repression case in the world today clooney proposed to sanction all those who take part in jailing

journalists for their work including ministers and prosecutors but says nothing about the fact that no such action is being prepared or the treatment of a songe the article did not even mention that clooney was actually a songes lawyer in the 2015 swedish extradition proceedings against him many have been angered by the guardian's convenient mission congratulations are in order to the guardian's patrick wintour who's managed to write a whole article on global media suppression without mentioning the phrase julian assange the foreign office will no doubt continue to be delighted the u.k. currently has julian the son she looked up at the behest of the us because he exposed war crimes the guardian publishes an article in press freedom failing to mention this. unbelievably and unforgivably no mention of julian a songe journalist and broadcaster neil clark believes the astonish case is too shameful for the u.k. government to bring up. to the journalist apparently apparently we are not 100

percent sure but apparently didn't see the need to actually brace the the case of the most famous persecuted journalist in this interview about the persecution of goodness a massive elephant in the room it's quite extraordinary how anybody could write an article about the persecution of journalists without mentioning. a sound for the establishment this whole case now is a big embarrassment. and a song it's either someone who could be attacked or to be ignored he's a price to be ignored a way to get talking about it in this context press with journalists. is a non-person you know good journalist being persecuted oh let's talk about other countries official enemy countries and that's fine but not what we've actually got the guy just a few miles away down the road with us back at the jail for doing journalism. on a trip to brussels the u.s. house of representatives speaker has warned you allies against weiwei and

simplicity insists the chinese corporation is a major threat to security and should be barred from developing 5 telecom networks in europe by pelosi mentioned nothing about the far more wide scale and probing u.s. global surveillance network artist come up and explains now that the impeachment debacle is all wrapped up guess who's going to europe in order to promote one of the trumpet ministrations key policies it's the speech ripper herself nancy pelosi the speaker of the u.s. house of representatives is urging european countries to drop plans to use while away as their 5 g. carrier for the benefit of a few corporations you cannot sell the privacy of the people of your country down the river as i said before it's like having the state police. right the chinese state police right in your pocket you see nancy pelosi just cares about your privacy odd that she's one of what edward snowden called the gang of 8 key figures

that are overseeing surveillance in the united states is for and snowden he did as you know on the in the in disagreement with you he did violate the law in terms of . releasing those documents we don't know i understand and i understand odd timing as well it's just been revealed that the cia was the secret owner of a swiss company that was offering people encrypt people's privacy was compromised because the cia had a backdoor what the u.s. government speculates that china might be doing they have been caught doing themselves while the e.u. might be more apt to listen to a top democrat then to the donald it seems they still aren't buying nancy's song and dance her euro 2 were is a flop. well

he will be able to. beat stupid like she believes and so in the district of texas i see so we decided to ask people what they think of this supposed danger of china spying on them are they more afraid of china spying on them or the american probity us and i'm not so much worried about china i'm worried about anybody had having access to our data. to be more. ready to spy on you to the chinese it could come from anywhere in the world u.s. . you can you would guess just the us given say the alignment of interest from over the us probably you know well the us is far as i'm concerned. you can go to hell i don't know trump along with them it's a common pattern of human behavior sigmund freud called it projection nothing drives us crazy or thinking that someone else might be doing that naughty thing

that we know we are doing ourselves up an artsy new york artie's boom bust spoke to wall way usa is any party who notes the us has been spying on the world for years not least weiwei itself you can watch the full interview at r.t. dot com but for now here's a quick preview. it was interesting the u.s. government says that they declassified the information so we welcome the opportunity to see what the evidence is but we really have to look at this in the broader context of the ongoing geo political dynamic between the u.s. and china the u.s. has some major issues with china and right now the u.s. wants to hurt china so badly that they're going to hurt america in trying to her way and that's really a shame you look back some years ago when i brought snowden revealed information about the u.s. program prism and about the 5 year campaign of the u.s. government to spy on operation shop giant where they monitored all while we network for 5 years and could not find any improper communications and in the prison program they found that the u.s. government used for example cisco equipment to spy around the world most recently

the washington post crypto a.g.d. a swiss company that turned out is controlled by the cia so they've been monitoring encrypted communications of all the countries in the world except for china and russia so the fact is it is important to recognize the role of the equipment vendors and the telecom and mobile operators there is a lawful backdoor by the telecom the mobile operators that is triggered by lawful action by governments such as the u.s. government or china government we don't have that access we don't control that data . after the break we'll be joined live by our correspondent with the latest details on our breaking news this hour the announcement of a military operation in syria by the turkish president so stay with us. what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line. to get accepted or

rejected. so when you want to be president i'm sure. some want to be rich. but you'd like to be closer to see what the 3 of them more people. interested in the waters it may. seem wrong. just don't all. get to shape out. and engagement equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

we're going back to our breaking news this hour the turkish president says he is dishonest fine by talks with russia on syria and is getting ready to start a military operation in the province of idlib. no it's all mind you for your problem a military operation is a matter of time. now we're joined live in the studio by maria from national with all the details house of surprising is this announcement coming from let's be honest there is no any surprise actually we have been hearing indications of things rising turkish dissatisfaction of how things develop in syria's no than province of in the last couple of weeks for different from different turkish politicians and let's be honest again it has been the matter of time to hear from the turkish

leader that the military operation is the matter of time and here we go we can hear it right now so i can say there is no any surprise it has been just a matter of time to hear such a statement from mr erdogan so we have him saying that this sort of ambivalence announcement as a matter of time the last warning what kind of reaction have we had from russia at this point well russia's position regarding military operation in syria is province of remains the same and we have been hearing about this all the time all throughout the conflict in that part of syria that the military operation would be the worst case scenario and russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov earlier today just less than an hour ago commented already on the ground statements saying that. as a gun is not happy with syrian forces a t.v. in syria is north of syrian forces that russia supports clearly

but mr lavrov said that this is just a reaction to terrorist activity and terrorist attacks in the province of and it is turkish responsibility to separate terrorist from turkey back and career back armed forces in syria's north something that mr av the gun hasn't been doing very well and this is what turkey should do according to memorandum and all the. greenland's that. earlier last year in sochi when. we're very happy and satisfied so not clearly but i think mr ryan to say that turkey instead of accusing russia of attacking turkey back forces in syria's province of turkey better mind its own commitment to agreements between russia and turkey both sides are not satisfied at this point reflection lasting across the latest for us thank you. u.s.

presidential candidate michael bloomberg will sell his media empire if he becomes president that announcement came ahead of the latest round of democratic debates being held on wednesday in las vegas bloomberg well for the 1st time face rivals who criticize the billionaire is massive spending on campaign ads it's estimated bloomberg has splashed out more than $400000000.00 on television radio and online ads that's 10 times more than current party front runner bernie sanders now for comparison donald trump spent around 325000000 on his whole 2016 campaign my colleague and i discussed voters views on bloomberg campaign with legal analyst jennifer de master libertarian presidential candidate and political analyst dakota lily. because if i could start with you. says that bloomberg is buying is that a fair comment i do think it's a fair comment even if you look at the rules that the d.n.c. has instituted this is a complete change of what they've done so far this complete you know this late

runners coming into their campaign spending $400000000.00 with perhaps he's spending so much money and so that he can make up for the fact that he doesn't have any real grassroots support but i think it definitely amounts to vote buying it's not so problematic that bloomberg is spending money on his own campaign the bigger problem is the d.n.c. what rules is the democratic national committee democratic national committee making with superdelegates and with everything else because the way the d.n.c. seems to be operating is that you're allowed to run for president play if you have the money or if we at least approve of you it's not against bloomberg it's not it's not his fault that he's need to spend this kind of money because that's the way campaigns are the bloomberg campaigns views would be massively unpopular with a lot of the democratic base and a lot of the american people and by fixating on this sort of minor non-issue i mean in politics you ought to spend as much of your own money as you want to by trying to get people to fixate on this non-issue the bloomberg campaign is affectively

distracting america from the positions that bloomberg holds that are at odds with the majority of both the democratic base and the american people this is a very unpopular person with very unpopular opinions according to the democratic party base and also the general population he's polling you know i haven't seen one poll where he's polling above 5 percent this is really showing the corruption of the d.n.c. what there is nothing illegal about what he's doing but i think really that's part of the larger indictment of the american political system more than anything else as well as the rules of the d.n.c. as has been stated that this is an indictment that was a perfect description of the american political system of course you can look at the republican party a lot of republican candidates had a. a lot of money back in 2016 and yes donald trump spent his own he was not favored to when he was not going to when hillary clinton had tons of funding between hollywood between lots and lots of billionaire billionaires so the american people could still vote but that also raises the question when there are lots of

different candidates within one party like we're seeing with the d.n.c. and i think the american people deserve to see who the candidates are and what their actual viewpoints are and how they stand on things democrats and republicans they control the presidential debates they change the the commission on presidential big debates has changed the debate threshold they do everything they can to keep 3rd parties and independents out of the debates and you can see this in the way that they mistreat any candidate that opposes a massive military overage so they've shut out sanders gabbert all the 3rd party candidates who oppose it the united states is definitely an oligarchy and i think that most of the people the united states know this a lot of these people who voted for obama and that are voting for trump but both of these people received plenty of money from fossil fuel companies from banking institutions from financial institutions from all these different entities but in a true oligarchy not much has been done about it. that's a global news update for this hour but don't forget you can always head to our

website are to dot com for the details on all those stories and more and of course we'll have more on our breaking news at the top the hour so determine for the latest. you know. for our. intentions revived. in the christening tank and maybe even 40 years ago and have simply evaporated to the notes of the. lead.

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play. play very well now continue watching us and see us. hello and welcome to crossfire for all things considered i'm peter lavelle the atlantic alliance the bedrock of the post world war 2 global security order is slowly but surely unraveling more and more.