hopes for peace in afghanistan where the u.s. and the taliban are expected to sign a deal to end america's longest war. also this hour u.s. air force veteran a former drone operator and whistleblower brennan bryant is jailed on charges of threatening city officials certainly started a fund raising campaign to get him released. and researchers at mit say reports alleging fraud during the bolivian election short on evidence president evo morales left his post in mass protest over the supposed that vote violations.

good morning and welcome to the program this is art international coming to you live from the russian capital bring you your live news update. us on the taliban are poised to sign a peace deal which may bring washington's longest war to an end the deal is expected to be negotiated on saturday or in the coming days what the u.s. initially portrayed as a major success has now outstripped 4 presidential terms are just up and looks back at the years of war. back in 2003 u.s. officials were telling a story of success when it came to afghanistan listen to donald rumsfeld we're at a point where we clearly. major combat ready to a period of stability and stabilization and reconstruction. activities but 17 years and 4 presidential terms later one of the great powers of

military history is about to sign a peace deal with the taliban warlords they've been fighting all this time and the peace treaty looks an awful lot like outright surrender so 1st we have to be realistic and proud of our gains but our generals have determined that this war is unlikely to be won militarily with tremendous additional resources all sides are tired of fighting for the past years you've heard nothing but reports of progress u.s. officials were singing a happy song and also replacing one another we're making progress right now an array of areas that are critical to our combined success with afghanistan the progress is real and importantly that progress is sustainable make no mistake the progress there i think is very roles myself. and it's very substantial 2016 has been a significant year for afghanistan and progress has been made but this was all just hype documents reveal interviews with people that were actually on the ground and

the material ironically labeled less than warrant seems to present a narrative of the u.s. defeat in afghanistan the operation is described as a self looking ice cream cone u.s. officials giving reports of progress we're telling bold faced lie the problem is there is a disincentive really to tell the truth we have created an incentive to almost require or for people to law there is an odor of mendacity throughout the afghanistan issue and i know congressman connelly has heard me talk about this years ago mendacity and who bruce the original plan was to defeat al-qaeda in afghanistan and overthrow the taliban that was sheltering al qaeda all of that was arguably achieved but then washington moved on to the nation building phase. is that a cost of billions of dollars and at that point it starts to look like no one had a clue what they were doing would trying to do here we didn't have the full goose

newsham that would ruin the taking there is a fundamental gap in distancing of the front end of the stated objectives and grew lines in the military and the lack of understanding of the resources necessary and then the drone started flying many instances of success were recorded on that front but in many instances things also went terribly wrong. somewhere along the way it seems like some folks have just had enough in the coming months all announced the next phase of our drawdown and by the end of next year america's war in afghanistan will be over needless to say it was not over a trillion dollars spent and over $4000.00 u.s.

military personnel and contractors killed and at this point the taliban still controls a little less than half of the country and under the new peace deal the taliban will be part of the new government they'll be in the government just like they were you know before the us invasion back in the eighty's i was in charge of. military affairs for the middle east back then i could have gone over i could have i could have rented a motor scooter and i could have driven all over the middle east in roma to safety you don't do that today i don't think you can identify any particular thing that we have done where we can say this is a real way cheap meant this has really brought about a change for the better in some way and they talk about you know it's so difficult to get out and all of that. the best way to get out is to leave. anticipated deal falls a weeklong reduction in violence agreement between the 2 sides succeeded in

reducing hostility is however afghans view the expected peace still both with skepticism and hope we heard from locals if it was me this peace deal would be permanents not like before i wish this peace deal of been signed 10 years ago thousands of our people were killed many more wounded disabled and also many women were widowed. girl the 3rd of. the u.s. dollar bill and peace agreements but i wish the species deal had been signed when the us came to ghana but now it is also not too late we told the taliban to stop the conflict you want the us to leave our country as soon as possible. push out into the us we will be happy if the deal brings peace but i wish this peace deal had been signed 10 years ago because back then most of our brothers and sisters hadn't lost part of their bodies and they were well i myself lost my leg in a bomb explosion so. we're gone both the state and the

conflict so that we. can live in peace we were born in war and we don't want to be healed by the war anymore. the u.s. invasion in afghanistan began in response to the tragic events of $911.00 it was aimed at defeating al qaeda and toppling the taliban which harbored the terrorists ok this founder and leader was killed in a u.s. operation in pakistan in 2011 washington still has thousands of troops deployed in afghanistan tasked with preventing terror we spoke to a 911 survivor who says the war could and should have ended years ago. well mixed feeling number one because as a survivor of 911 we were in there looking for osama bin. laden with the taliban and was basically they were supporting al qaeda both at the same time you know we killed off some of the land and many years ago we should have been

having this occupation for so long as a survivor i didn't need these actually we didn't have remember when we were going to war we went to places we were in you know gary stern and then we went to iraq and iraq didn't have anything to do with 911 and they tried to hold us the idea that the the rocky people would walk with that he was in so this scene way over what we're doing right here in afghanistan we were in the year we don't main purpose that main purpose was a change of a survivor i won the award to win not only because of the people that we lost but of the people that were killed in the process because there were many civilians that were killed in afghanistan do we know our occupation of that country. over to the u.s. state of montana now where a total of 4 city council officials have now asked the prosecutor's office to drop charges against whistleblower brennan bryant who lifted the lid on civilian

killings and u.s. overseas drone operations there for us veteran had been charged with threatening city officials and a you tube video and is currently in detention for the past few months he's attended multiple city council meetings criticizing the way tax money is being used brent's mother though claims his incarceration is politically motivated she's launched a campaign in the hope of raising $100000.00 for his bail. my son was the u.s. air force whistleblower who broke the code of silence on the drone program now he's in jail in the missile accountant facility he has no criminal record and yet he is being held on one $100000.00 bail under detention he is isolated from his family. friends. mediated in mosul support. brought in bryant served as a u.s. air force drone operator from 2006 until 2011 having left the military he began

exposing cases of what he alleged to be civilian deaths resulting from american drone strikes bryant claimed commanders often prioritize the elimination of a target over accuracy resulting in innocent people being killed in the process as revelations won him a german whistleblower award in 2015 and also intensified debate over the use of a german air base by american drones here's how brennan described his experience to us back in 2015. i actually talked with a lady whose husband. was killed whose has been in brother was killed in a drone strike and talked to her face to face and she asked me why her husband and brother had to die and they weren't bad guys and i just looked at her and i said i don't know and that's not really the best thing that i can tell someone who is asking questions about why someone that they cared about was killed and they

need to know the answers and the really true hard answer to say is that i'm sorry that. the mistake happened and i'm doing everything that i can to prevent further mistakes from happening. authorities say bryant was arrested on a felony charge after he had allegedly exhibited threatening behavior during city council meetings and on top of that he threatened to eliminate its members in a you tube video however former f.b.i. agent and whistleblower coleen rowley says bryant's current predicament is connected to his past revelations. this does seem to be more retaliation for his having spoken out about the drone operations and the fact that they were killing innocent civilians more so than what he's now done typically with the whistleblower they look back in your personnel files 1st to see if there's anything bad that they can use to discredit the messenger and if they can't find anything bad bad in

someone's background or personnel file then they wait for the whistleblower to you know make a small error or mistake and the draw was a blow or are in a fragile emotional state already as you can see with all the veterans they suffer from p.t.s.d. and we know from many other cases retaliate ing and persecuting was of lors that that seems to be the the standard oh the government is in perpetual war and so the war goes on for ever that means that even if you speak out even years ago and it's especially if you continue to speak out about the wrongful actions in the war crimes it's going to continue this is not to negate the fact that brandon certainly he erred if he made any threatening remarks or comments he certainly should be corrected in the should receive more treatment but i don't think he should be

punished the way he's being punished. researcher that america is at mit university have found that a report into irregularities during the bolivian election didn't provide sufficient evidence allegations of election fraud sparked mass protests which led to president evo morales quitting the report was made by the organization of american states and looked at the bolivian general election result of november when there was a break in voting and it appeared more else with significantly in front of his rival the report found irregularities and claim that the election results were not accurate one of the mit researchers jack williams explained what made them doubt the findings. we wanted to specifically look at the portion where they claim that there is significant difference in the results following the interruption and then also in the last 5 percent of result of the unofficial vote count. during this process me and my colleagues were unable to find the evidence that the oas had

created here results are out there and. having an effect on the world without any methodological or even like even just the code that they used to produce the results that they created we find it extremely difficult to naturally find the breaks that they found and used for their results following the release of the oas report some media outlets spoke of election fraud like it was a proven fact and audit indicated there was a clear manipulation in the country's elections last month accusations of irregularities in last month's presidential election was raised of americans put out a report saying that. they felt that. the whole she was actually. jack williams again believes the media and opposition use the oas report for their own ends the statistical claim was the one that was able

to be tied to the results and to claim the results that were being presented were illegitimate and that's what the opposition party and the media has also used to justify the people knew that there was problems with the oas research but maybe didn't have the technical expertise do it center for economic and policy research had released a report prior but it had not gained much traction among especially the media so i think they really wanted someone to evaluate this and take it seriously. and the essay written by bernie sanders in the seventy's trump's visit to india and alexandra because it cortez's dress have gotten the internet riled taylor shares her thoughts on this week's wolk outrage. day diary what a wreak of distressing stories there's new evidence suggesting that back in the seventy's buddy was a loony rate front assist such a disappointment on his visit to india donald trump managed to vadim every single

engine was that came his way and alexandra because there cortez were $580.00 sequined dress during the day but the thing that really got my anxiety levels peaking was this tweet to be so. that someone somewhere is drawing lines to shoot joyousness of these people is a saying to behold these pilots. should be kept as far away from cultural power as possible joyousness is this a joke this is a classic case of conservative debbie downer is waning on our parade this is so literally no evidence to support it so unfair yes ok the university of arizona is basically begging students to run each other out if back or being. triggering insensitive well you get it i know some would say that fosters an environment of paranoia censorship and so sucking depression but i just don't see it and yes the

school in seattle said easter eggs should be renamed springs fish is a spring spear hunt count me in i possibly think it's got a real fun ring to it. little to lose it really. but you going completely out of the. i'm sure i did read about how now it's not ok to expect people to turn up on time because in some cultures time is a fluid concept who knew i just heard of the people who signed up for this lesson and witness in time to get the most out of it all so they could have the decency to . mr rabbit so you just have to walk up such a sweat. also slightly killing the vibe of the walls fashion he says a company down on hoop earrings no longer for white people apparently so gone at

this carefree days when you saw him today long hair in the gentle worship and the wind. ok not the best news for me argent approaches out because oxford university did cancel clapping but why are people making such a big deal about it there are loads of other ways to show your appreciation like. jazz hands super fun but wait on the culture appropriation. we've got a problem. and what is seen by some as a landmark free speech case an appeals court in the us has ruled in favor of you tube and its parent company google and the censorship lawsuit filed by conservative media company prager university. addressing the 1st amendment claims the panel held that despite you tube's ubiquity and its rule is

a public facing platform it remains a private form not a public forum subject to judicial scrutiny under the 1st amendment in the lawsuit praeger you claim that you too violated the 1st amendment by barring the company of its right to free speech after some of its videos were deleted from the platform praeger you suggested that youtube should be viewed as a public forum and blame them for false advertising as a platform that supports free speech the company believes their clips were banned because of the conservative nature of the content but the court rejected the claims after the court's decision google the parent company of youtube also stressed that there was no political bias involved and that claims were meritless but the company maintains that the tech company has become dangerously powerful. so it appears as if even the 9th circuit is afraid of calliope google we're not done fighting for free speech and we will keep pushing forward this is a significant decision because the effect of it is that the court of appeal

is stating that social media companies such as google and facebook have a ride to make a decision. walt people are going to be exposed to the reach of those companies is unprecedented but we ducked read today it's not been an equivalent in imposition of responsibility the risk of course is that those companies will be able to control the political agenda so in order for this to change the rules be a need for additional laws to be to be brought in in order to ensure that social media companies are not placed in a position where there are effectively controlling the entire political system.

and they report and the u.k. has found that minority groups are being over were presented in the media black asian and other ethnic minorities have been twice represented on t.v. than they actually have on the streets of britain the same also applies to the l.g.b. community but one of the channels looked at in the report says it's simply trying to reflect reality channel 4 s c claims its main goal is to reflect modern diversity in its output the critics say it's gone too far. grow bar in diverse characters to reflect demographics or will provide again you know what else is over represented on t.v. the hate for white people that's even worse. there are 4 characters here well 2 have to be nonwhite and one must be gary the country isn't 50 percent nonwhite and a quarter again. put the issue up for debate with new york new york observer columnist under walker and human rights activist peter tatchell. highlights the

ludicrous idea of having quotas for everything i genuinely believe that in television like all the rest of life you should have the best people for the job but you know what if you can have quotas that when the white middle class heterosexual man represents it then you've got to throw somebody else out but we don't have a quota system in british t.v. there are attempts and have been successful attempts according to these statistics to redress the marginalization exclusion and clicked the past decades and i think that's a great thing to celebrate because it does show that we are a more accepting understanding inclusive society this is about normalizing the fact that we live in a diverse society this is not about diversity it ought not to be about diversity what it should be about is the best person for the job television is bad to tell humans so you pick the best guy for the job or the best woman for the job who acts in the best way all the social change that peter tatchell is talking about all of this let's get a gay person could look at your black person has a black it's just a load of 970 s.

i'm certain that all those black and gay actors are chosen not because of their race or sexuality but because they happen to be good actors we need to fight discrimination we need to ensure that people who are disabled or gay or black and not discriminate against but the idea of just let's just pick the person whoever they are just in order to fill a quota is that all doesn't so pretty that everybody's doing the right. pretty good after you get a piece of pizza i love you to pieces if you're out of date. that's a news wrap up for now but i'll be back at the top of the hour with the latest thanks for tuning it. is you'll be via reflection of reality.

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world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then. q. train reaction process in the reactor a tremendous heat which scientists have learned out of control. really. keen to harness the. i was so excited about nuclear engineering because i thought

it would solve the world's energy crisis is exciting science to realize you've got the power of the sun inside that reactor and they are so all inspiring when everything works. to refer when making energy the problem is that everything does work japan's a nuclear nightmare continues a 2nd hydrogen explosion at the fukushima daiichi nuclear complex destroyed the reactors exterior all 3 daiichi reactors have nuclear fuel rods that have been exposed to some degree so they are teetering on the edge of a meltdown i mean you need to say. there was. no heat. then you think you were in. the more serious one now concerning that situation in japan i'm now joined live from vermont to boil. to some that we're reporting at the moment that that all suggestions that

a partial nuclear meltdown is now under way this is not a nuclear chain reaction this is not a nuclear bomb this is the radiation left over after the chain reaction is started because sort of sorts of interrupt but you say this is not a nuclear bomb but would the effects be the same as a nuclear bomb if obviously it does reach meltdown and there is an explosion. the chemicals that are going to be released are similar actually the chemicals released from other the radioactive chemicals released from a nuclear bomb disappear quicker then the radiation that is released in a nuclear power plant all we're looking at an apocalypse this is true and noble on steroids do you think it's definitely going to happen or do you think crisis could be averted no i don't think crisis can be averted.

her containment building a big baby space the nuclear reactor could keep that power plant shut down longer than expected 1st energy says it will be stored in the plants controlled or cracked displaced those who live in the shadow of deep especially see any problem can be alarming i don't give a whole lot of thought back to once in awhile when you hear something like that the concern should. be nuclear regulatory commission is monitoring the situation. indian point nuclear energy center in a condition no one wants to see with black smoke pouring out of these photos were posted on social media as responders on site once plus these firefighters nearby like went in to find a transformer turning. new york governor andrew cuomo came to see the response up close for himself this was

a relatively minor situation but when you're talking about a nuclear power blooper aren't really minor situations. radioactive tritium is leaking from 3 quarters of all u.s. commercial nuclear power sites and a cancer causing material often seeps into groundwater from corroded buried piping and that's what the sociedad press concluded after a year long investigation. southern california edison says it will be closing the troubled 703 nuclear power plant for good. to all and san diego county has been offline for months because of the mechanical. to back that lead to trace amounts of radiation being leaked at that just the latest in a number of environmental problems at 7 o 3 olivia.