the. president says it'll be just a matter of time before his country launches a military operation in the province of something described as a worst case scenario. where australia please visit julian assange in jail and call on the u.k. government to stop his extradition to the us warning about the weekly found his. condition. is exhibiting signs of disorientation. he did tell us about kept in severe isolation and ongoing. u.s. house of representatives speaker nancy pelosi warns europe of the security risk of

working with while away but fails to mention her own reported role in massive u.s. surveillance including on e.u. leaders people in new york and london whether china or the us is the biggest threat . probably to us probably us anybody having. either thanks for joining us here on r.t. international. turkey's president says it is only a matter of time until he launches a military operation in the syrian province of idlib. added he's been dissatisfied by talks with russia on the situation. he has made all kinds of preparations to implement its operational plans and it looks as in every operation we see. we can come suddenly one night to put it more

clearly. is now a matter of time we will not leave to the regime that still does not understand our country's determination in this matter and to those who encourage it we never intend to shoulder the burden that the developments of this region to place on our country. the syrian army is currently on an offensive in a dalit trying to drive the militants an islamist out of the province of. the moderate opposition from terrorists as the lib is the last rebel bustin standing in syria and home to a number of militants but it shows a turkish military convoy crossing the syrian border a large line of tanks armored vehicles and supply trucks are reportedly moving towards the outskirts of it live. for national joined me earlier to explain how this sudden escalation occurred. the situation on the ground remains very dramatic terrorist activity there is very high and you have to remember it's a bar streeton in syria's north home to up to 3000000 people including civilians

and they're very often used by terrorist as a human shield it's clear for everybody that actions are needed urgently to protect these people from the other hand the attacks by turkey backed armed forces based in egypt against the syrian army continue and this also should be stopped and countering that is something what damascus military operation on the ground in basically a ad and it's not that mr out of the gun is not happy with how things develop on the ground no one is in fact happy if no one. is to blame for the situation that's a good question but it depends on who you ask both sides are are blaming each other we hear from russia and its position is quite clear remains the same that turkish military operation on the syrian soil it's another state you have to remember would be the worst case scenario we heard that from president spokesperson earlier on was that me. peskov and russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov also commented on mr

van statement in the similar way. offerings of fail to separate militants from terrorists in the timeframe on the 2018 agreements at the same time provocations from the zone shearling of the syrian armed forces civilian targets and the russian base have continued naturally the syrian armed forces reaffirming their commitment to the original green months including cease fire agreements respond to such an acceptable provocations and we support them in this what mr lover of is talking about is last year's soldier agreement that turkey and russia came to this is when both sides were equally happy and satisfied and according to these agreements turkish responsibility to i repeat it again to separate so-called like hardline terrorists and islam is based in and so-called moderate opposition and talk to that and force them believe these area and it hasn't been done properly it hasn't been

achieved never so it's in turkey it's turkish responsibility so turkey is failing 1st the russian standpoint how does turkey see the situation while turkey is very clear turkey is accusing mosco and damascus of escalating the situation of. agreements and this is the turkish president just recently. the syrian regime as well as the russian forces and iran backed militants acting with an adlib continuously attacking civilians committing massacres and causing bloodshed. and we hear that despite numerous talks that turkish and russian sides have been having in the last days including between foreign and defense minister is so it's really interesting why change so dramatically raster a good we can remember that some. ironically klein sided with

a dramatic shift in ankara washington relations with sanctions lifted with mr paul as the police say that america is ready to stand by its nato ally and mr trump openly and directly backing of the guns actions in syria had a very good job or say shit with president or was i respect him we have a very good relationship yes i agree he's a tough guy but we have a very good relationship i see you do better with the people but the fact is that he's fighting audit he doesn't want people to be killed by the thousands and hundreds of thousands that he called me about that and other reasons but we spoke about it live and we're working together on what you mean so here is something new for mr trump for mr they're gone both america and turkey change their raft the rake and it's not helping things on the ground. like speak now to each other still

international affairs commentator welcome jonathan this change of rhetoric that's just been talked about the correspondent more confrontational from the turkish leader would you think has brought this about. well it does look as though it's with the u.s. backing a new u.s. support but it's a terrible mistake by turkey turkey is losing all its allies in the middle east you know a few years ago turkey thought it would be as a strong power in the middle east again but it's doggone very poor relations with iran it's got poor relations with egypt saudi arabia and ury which now recognize that assad to the president of syria is not going to fall so the sooner that turkey rick recognizes that too realizes it's got to live with the syrian government wasn't trying to overthrow it the better does not really strengthen take the situation having having us back i mean it's hard to imagine that this would come to some kind of military confrontation. now but the u.s. backing has been is important because there was a period a few months ago

a very poor relations between washington and ankara and the russians of course were terry trying to take advantage of that to bring turkey over to their side much more to go off to a nato country of washington i think is realize the danger of turkey splitting away from nato from the western alliance completely so they are now giving him backing but as i said at the beginning it's a terrible mistake for turkey to think he's going to fall of the stage there should try and recognize that the new realities of the situation do what they promised to do it sort of which was to deescalate to try and do some the militants the terrorists particularly the al qaeda involved terrorists hiatt all tarrell sham and also except local ceasefire as. do you think there's any chance that iran is using this situation and the fact that it seems like he's getting more support from the u.s. to negotiate better terms to bring russia to the negotiating table. no

i think the russians is clearly behind our side to defy assad decides to push forward to try to take a city. about half a province already in the last few months and i think the russians will continue to back him on that so the danger of a clash between russian and syrian government forces and sort of between turkish syrian government forces is still very high but i think turkey will back down spite of the tough rhetoric from had one other one said he's determined to make it a secure zone no matter the cost security it will cost is that a position that the nations would support. well you can't really have an enclave in a foreign country that you occupy without it being against international law so turkey is doing by this invasion of the last few weeks and really outrageous do to be taken up with u.n. security council turkey's invading syria it has no right to be there there are some

turkish speaking groups or a syrian citizens who are legitimately but the turkish army is not legitimate. i guess is our jonathan steele international affairs committee thank you so much. in other news some australian piece of called on the u.k. government to stop and julian assange his extradition to the u.s. that's after they visited the wiki leaks co-founder he's an australian national in the prison where he's being held ahead of an extradition hearing. he's beyond belief that someone who is so bright and overnight so bright. 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 little makes you so that jules christensen says

that the song his condition is deteriorating fast. spike in this wake with professor nils melzer 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 visited julian assange. and are going to side there's nothing that i saw or that actually. discredited what those doctors and what mills melzer said he is exhibiting saw ends of disorientation. he did tell us about being kept in severe isolation and ongoing loss a large negative side technically within belmarsh prison the conditions of the subject to apparently. but when you kept by yourself for 20 to 22 as a die with that minimal human contact you're effectively ocelot and 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. well that says doctors around the world also condemned the u.k.'s handling of the case warning of sciences being subjected to psychological torture in jail more than $100.00 medics signed a joint letter urging all thirty's to take action they also called on the australian government to intervene to protect citizens it is the 4th such letter from doctors meanwhile the guardian newspaper has published a feature article on plans to tackle media repression penned by the u.k. government envoy on press freedom that's among clooney however one key detail was left out clooney links to julian sounds arguably the most high profile media

repression case in the world today clearly propose to sanction all those who take part in jailing journalists for their work including ministers and prosecutors but nothing was said about the fact that no such action has been prepared over the treatment of the wiki leaks founder the article in question didn't even mention that clooney was actually assigned his lawyer in the 2015 swedish extradition proceedings against him and many are angry at the guardian's a 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 assange is locked up at the behest of the us because he exposed war crimes the guardian publishes an article on press freedom failing to mention this unbelievably and unforgivably no mention of julian

a science journalist and broadcaster neil clark says the assigns case is shameful for the u.k. government. would to the journalist apparently apparently we know 100 percent true but apparently didn't see the need to actually brace the raise the case of the most famous persecuted journalist in this interview about the persecution of journalists it's a massive elephant in the room it's quite extraordinary 'd how anybody could write an article about the persecution of john this without mentioning julian assange for the establishment this whole case now is a big embarrassment. in a song it's either someone who could be attacked or to be ignored his plight is to be ignored and when you're talking about it in this context press that the persecution of journalists is an armed person is a non-person you know good journalist being persecuted oh let's talk about other countries official enemy countries that that's fine but not what we actually got the guy just

a few miles away down the road from us banged up in jail for doing journalism. still at presidential hopeful michael bloomberg a set to take to the stage for the 1st time in a democratic debate but it comes amid criticism from rivals that he's using his vast wealth to effectively buy. more on that after the break. the atlantic alliance the bedrock of the post world war 2 global security order is slowly but surely unraveling more and more often washington in brussels by virtue of importing foreign policy issues today europe has a choice to defend its interests or feed into oblivion. join me every 1st week on the alex simon sure and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see you then.

we're still in an era of resource colonialism again this is a big risk and the one big thing that could really inhibit the kind of electric vehicle revolution that a lot of us want to see is if we can't resource the battery components in a sustainable ethical way then it's not going to be a successful revolution. to brussels the u.s. house of representatives speaker has warned e.u. allies against huawei nancy pelosi insists the chinese tech giants

a major threat to security and should be barred from developing 5 g. networks in europe plus emitted to mention the far more wide scale unproven u.s. global surveillance network elim open 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 write 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 this far and snowden he did

and there 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. while he will be able to continue in crimes and will not be excluded from flying we will

send such numbers destruction to texas or c. 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 probably us and i'm not so much worried about. china i'm worried about anybody having access to our data to be more. ready to spy on you know in the chinese it could come from anywhere in the world over us. you can you would guess just in the u.s. given say the alignment of interests that program for the u.s. probably you know well the u.s. is far as i'm concerned. you can't have 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 and r.t.

new york auntie's boom bust spoke to the wall way usas and de purdy who notes that the u.s. has been spying on the whole world for years not least while way itself you can watch the full interview is a 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 i networked 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 8 g.

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 . u.s. presidential candidate michael bloomberg will sell his media empire if he becomes president head of the latest round of democratic debates being held on wednesday in las vegas if you will for the 1st time faces rivals who've been crying foul over the billionaire spending on campaign ads it's estimated bloomberg splashed out more than $400000000.00 on t.v. radio and online it's 10 times more than current party front runner bernie sanders and for context on trump it's been around 325000000 on his entire 2016 campaign

my colleague andrew farmer discussed voters views on bloomberg campaign with legal analyst jennifer the master libertarian presidential candidate all of them for political analyst dakota lily. 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 of 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 changed the the commission on presidential debates has changed the debate the rush the do everything they can to keep their 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 they're 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. british environmental activist group extinction rebellion has dug up the lawn of one of the world's most prestigious universities in cambridge claiming it invests in fossil fuels a number of activists have been arrested following criticism of the failure of police to act over similar protests in the past.

trinity college has invested 9100000000 pounds in oil and gas companies the most of any of the 45 oxbridge colleges they are complicit in the climate and ecological crisis. the college respects the rights of free speech and nonviolent protest but draws the line of criminal damage and there's liaison with the police. see what they want to do 3 to 4 if they should pack up and go. that's over.

that's the thing with someone so all they're doing is a mason pay for they're not getting anybody on the side of this they just annoying people. with r.t. they stick around a bit but with a place on our top stories in half an hour. i can't show you my face but i'm going to teach you my story in 9093 this man was sentenced to death. they could charge kenny with capital murder even though he didn't have the gun didn't pull the trigger didn't intend to kill anybody imagine living in your bathroom for the week with the sound of a $23.00. act out that had to serve to be. confined within 4 gray walls he'd find it's using. to help him to leave

dents room. and we're going to fulfill the repeated promises. to the people i promise you know we've all pots to. be. pretty rough. cut. pretty good. now you want to 1st. know.

all. i can link up. in the troubled 19 seventies a group of killers rampage through parts of northern ireland that was court. needed loyalists attacks to take the only population tens of thousands are forced to flee their homes come up with strike and put these attacks was a p.r. you see the police actually took part in the attacks so instead of preventing it they were active participants in the burning of coal streets in belfast at the time more than a 100 innocent civilians were. as the review can seniors found out more i was surprised about the extent and its occurrence which the collusion was involved in some of those cases the killers would lead to be named to the now we're getting i think it went to the very very top i think if the phones.

there was here where all the taishan so you. give the go ahead. hello and welcome to crossfire for all things are 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 often washington and brussels diverged on important foreign policy issues today europe has a choice to defend its interests or fade into oblivion.

crosstalk in the atlantic alliance i'm joined by my guest mark allman in oxford.