now. so you should be seen here and a whole lot more than you're saying if you don't take that advice easy going to dig yourself. a decades old territorial conflict between armenia and azerbaijan reignites with both sides blaming each other. for pulls from the disputed territory. all street lights have been switched off it is a disguised tactic a smog blackout. and it is done to make this place more difficult. expresses its support for azerbaijan with president there one adopting a hardline on the conflict. will continue to. immediately lease the territory it is occupying with breach of the return to peace

and. the west is getting ever more deeply involved in the political crisis gripping as the french president meets with the country's exiled opposition leader who wants him to mediate. and 2020 hopefuls donald trump and joe biden will clash in their 1st presidential debates crotty november's election but voters appear to be having trouble policies. that really. are you just crushing. good morning and thanks for joining us here on r.t. international. a decades old territorial dispute has seen its most serious flare up since

a truce was established in 1904 violence erupted between the nations of armenia and azerbaijan on sunday morning with both laying claim to the book now. i armenia and azerbaijan have both declared martial law and reporting increasing civilian and military casualties amid violent clashes the defense ministry of nagorno-karabakh says $84.00 of its soldiers died in battles during the 1st 2 days of the conflict with the latest his artie's done. this is the city of step on the curb the capital of the disputed nagorno-karabakh autonomy and well we are filming in infrared here because this is one of the darkest places on earth all street lights have been switched off residents people who are living here while also

trying not to turn on any unnecessary lights it is a disguised tactic a smog blackout if i may say so and it is done to make bombing this place more difficult and it is being bombed for the 1st time since 1992 on our way here we actually tried counting all the ambulances that were rushing outside the city and while we lost count on 25 it was simply too many that as columns of military hardware were rolling into the city now according to military officials here more than 80 people have been killed here during the clashes karma like this is a life and death struggle and we will win it be sure that we are fighting the turkish azerbaijani foursomes on a large scale war is underway maybe tomorrow and we will have to retreat launch an offensive we must be prepared for the difficult and how long he's got both armenia

leaders and the as there by john the leaders have been blaming each other for the escalation for instigating this conflict the warring parties here make no distinction if it's the light of day or the darkness of night it seems the fighting doesn't stop for a minute and well we will be staying here bringing you all the latest including from the front lines. meanwhile journalists from international media organizations are waiting for permission to report from us a bunch among them our correspondent ron because the if he's currently in turkey. well there's been a problem with gaining entry to his head but john we've made repeated requests to the authorities that the government in azerbaijan to grant us access entry to the country to cover the conflict unfortunately these requests hasn't been 2 a response whatsoever we've heard of in direct you to sort of excuses about what saddam urgency that has been declared in azerbaijan's and we may see a reversal

a reversal and we're hoping for to be able to gain entry and gain a permit accreditation to work in azerbaijan otherwise there has been another day of escalation many more dead reported on both sides the latest is that our john has released a new video showing many soldiers of the god and union apparently armenian soldiers killed in the action the day's action there we will succeed of course many videos and photos it really does seem like a tremendous escalation and we've got to say now it is very difficult at this stage to verify any of these videos there's been reports of old videos being posted many many fake news stories as well nevertheless there's been a growing chorus an international chorus cooling the both sides to cease hostilities if the international community is resoundingly say from from the u.n. which is called for an immediate halt to violence from the european union for the

united states russia iran and neighboring iran has come out and said this is no good that both sides should stop and dialogue is the only option noticeably missing from from these this huge course is turkey where we are now president edouard has taken a very hard line on the conflict and he has thrown his support in behind the as that of a johnny side. azerbaijan i once again condemn a media who attacked the sword on sunday turkey will continue to stand by its friend and brother in azerbaijan by all means and with all its heart it is time to bring an end to the regional crisis started with the occupation of karabakh. immediately leave the territory it is occupying region will return to peace and harmony the president said about john leave his said that the only way forward is to ease by the 9093 un resolution regarding the garlic about which recognized many

parts of it is occupied by army and forces and i live has said that that is the only way for armenian soldiers and their god to care about the breakaway states force us to to withdraw and to give up control over the area to to is there a budget this is an ancient conflict there has been much blood spilled in this in these war and i was there in 2016 when there was another flare up another escalation of the hostilities fortunately it ended in a matter of days but it was again brutal judging by what i've seen so far the footage that we've seen the casualty lists reported by both sides this is even worse than what happened when we were there in 2016. and i'm going to come back is a landlocked region in the south caucasus most of the territory there is governed by the nagorno-karabakh republican defined independent state however their publics

not widely recognized are going to care about one of several border disputes left over from the collapse of the soviet union the republic receded seceded from john in 1988 and declared itself independent this was followed by a bitter war in 1980 through to 994 then closed predominantly populated by armenians more than some as a writer an independent journalist told a small about the underlying reasons behind the conflict. doesn't sound from the rhetoric that's coming out of either side that either side are particularly keen to talk and you know this would be a problematic conflict even without outside forces potentially being drawn in on both sides the escalation we're seeing today is a bit of a mystery because it seems to have blown up out of a blue sky but they'll see the conflict itself goes back to the ninety's initially and also of course to the drawing a bone drees between azerbaijan and elmina during the soviet period and previously

what you had in this situation is a situation where nagorno-karabakh was effectively the independence of azerbaijan armenia obviously help their fellow citizens as they saw as in a golden karabakh during the conflict in the ninety's even if you can't come to a final conclusion about who who gets what bits of the party as long as people aren't being killed and then that's that's good and you know for many years that has been the case here and certainly no longer the case. here is getting ever more involved in the internal affairs about the roof french president a man you're micron is currently meeting with by the russian opposition leader solana taken off scot press office says that he will discuss holding new elections in a country auntie's shala devinsky reports. we know that she has called for emmanuel mack want to be a mediator with belarusian president alexander lukashenko this is what she had to

say i've been into this mediators now and maybe mr mccraw along with other countries with the leaders of other contras can. be there or this mediators in starting off so me and maybe he would be able to influence mr putin to participate in this mediators because i know that as i have heard the. relationships this of course follows the disputed elections in belarus that have seen widespread processed as a result of that with the belarusian opposition leader herself having been accused of sparking some of those protests now the question is is president back on the right person to act as a mediator here a mediator needs to be unbiased and president michel has made his views about the belarusian president plainly clear he has talked about on the one hand there not

being any foreign interference in belarus and on the other hand he has said that he supports sanctions against the country. our position is very clear we do not recognize the election of president looking. and therefore we don't recognize his status as president i learned. that as soon as possible and i hope we can take the necessary sanctions on but also reengage in indispensable mediation where there is diverging opinion as to shew supports president lukashenko who doesn't russia for its part has supported the new term that he has taken president putin has talked about the fact that the opposition in belarus have dismissed any idea of the proposed reforms that have been put forward the you. it's part doesn't support president lukashenko it described his inauguration which took place recently as a lacking any democratic legitimacy it's also described the protesters out on the

streets as having courage and it's called for fresh elections now present back on has said presently has to go but president has hit back at that saying if that is the logic the president back on has that he perhaps should have stepped down during the yellow vests protests what is happening in baton rouge is a power crisis and all storage cerium power that can accept the logic of democracy which is hanging on by force it is clear look to shanghai has to leave based on the principles of mr macro himself following his own logic he should have resigned 2 years ago when the yellow vests started to appear on the streets of paris as an experienced politician to an immature one and want to advise mr micron to look around less and instead finally deal with the internal affairs of france she of course has been enjoying support from western leaders and all of that comes as e.u.

leaders due to meet later this week where they will discuss what's happening in belarus and there are also possible sanctions against the country in the mix. it is round one of the us presidential debates coming up on tuesday night the 2 main heavyweight candidates will clash over several issues and while her performance will be hampered somewhat by new code rules there's been plenty of trash talking or heard of the fight killer morgan has the building. in the year of covidien out with the old and in with the new when it comes to presidential debates there will be no handshake between the 2 candidates there will be no live audience there will just be 2 presidential contenders going head to head in front of t.v. cameras but aside from the staging everything looks to be pretty normal donald trump is revving up his old insult comedy routine accusing joe biden of having poor mental health and being doped up i would be strongly demanding

a drug test of sleepy joe biden prior to off to the debate on tuesday night naturally only agreed to take one also his debate performances have been record setting uneven to put it mildly only drugs could have caused this discrepancy now the biden camp is taking down old trump quite literally and demanding a drug test meanwhile biden is certainly not short of a bargain or 2 he has just compared donald trump to hitler's chief propagandist you know he says sort of like goebbels you say is a lie long enough keep repeating repeating repeating it becomes common knowledge when it comes to trading blows in the debates biden hopes they will be murder ball rather than physical at least this time now the 1st debate is going to cover just a few major issues you've got coded the u.s. supreme court racism violence and election integrity but can anyone really tell the difference between the 2 major candidates.

probably the truth is very. young but really. i'd say 5. i'm going to say don trump but it could be biden. it seems to me to. confirm no. no no no. it's not a. job or you just crushing polls show biden has a pretty solid lead over donald trump however there's still over a month laughs before the final vote however some media outlets have already called and said there's really no point in even having debates he and his henchmen are a danger with their comments i mean danger to our democracy so i don't want to give

him you know why bother. you know he doesn't tell the truth he isn't committed to our constitution presidential debates are a kind of american tradition now at this point it's pretty unlikely that the millions of viewers will learn anything new other than some nasty nicknames or a one liner jabs but that won't stop millions from tuning in. art see new york meanwhile u.s. t.v. host and journalist larry king says the debates who might little difference to what people think. it's impossible to pick a winner in debate i do not think that joe biden and biden will fare poorly i think trump is making a mistake by thinking that all he has to do is just go into the arena and he wins the that's not the way it works biden will surely press him the members of the day to day about his income tax is the aggressor let's see how aggressive he is

this is not a real debate in that each side i go 3 minutes you go 2 minutes i get one minute you get one minute nobody fact checks as to who's telling the truth and who's not. but it is what it is i remember the kennedy nixon 1st counting nixon debate in 1960 the 1st televised debate and i heard that debate on the radio and i thought nixon won the debate but if you're sort on television everybody was selling wow did you see that nixon look gray kennedy look strong so a lot of this depends on how you look i don't think the public watches this open mind you if you have a biden you're for biden tonight tomorrow and if your from your for trump how many people are undecided now that's a question political pundits have asked for years i know of no one undecided in this race sure i think they'll be a tremendous audience for this debate now how much will it count and they'll be

polling the next couple days as a vice presidential debate coming in the end. i don't think they matter very much i think they're a wash so we'll see what we shall see. when you coming away after this short break.

as election day approaches there are growing concerns whether the will be contested whether the election will be we're told this election matters we're always told however this time around there's a different feel there's an. election how many voters will say not my president. could have been propaganda infrastructure designed to promote support for the syrian opposition was allegedly created with the help of u.k. government contractors that's the claim being made following

a huge leak of secret documents obtained and published by the activist group anonymous and it picks up the story. 2 blog posts with an impressively long list of links we cannot confirm the documents are real but i know most is confident they've exposed how british taxpayers cash was being splashed on dirty schemes for regime change in syria only small particles of information about covert operations of british intelligence in syria have leaked into the media until today we have everything from criminal programs and tenders to bitters complete proposals so the leaks point to 10 programs or projects all logically put together inside government offices in london all united by a mission to nurture a trained and equipped moderate opposition with a polished image capable of overthrowing bashar al assad nothing to do with the terrorists under each program come bettors and documents supposedly describing how

they plan to do the job fascinating stuff there from military training camps to diagrams outlining the structure of the desired post assad government plus you'll be amazed by the extent of the alleged p.r. effort check out this bitch the reason i am an urgent need to provide a counterbalance to the regime's narrative to build trust and confidence in the supreme military council in the free syrian army within syria and among the international community remember how at one point in the civil war the anti a sad f.s.a. clearly won the media attention pedestal the bike is trying to free syria from the grip of the. soldiers pledged to defend the syrian people against the assad regime poorly armed exhausted but i'm bowed some of these men have spent more than a year on the run from the syrian regime sophisticated and ruthless security forces we cannot say if that was somehow thanks to what the bidders were up to but

a number of projects claim to have been launched by the u.k. foreign office were purely about information. ors dubai based a r k f c which among others lists the state department and the european commission as its clients sought a contract with all such programs the firm's claims to be pretty much unmatched when it comes to its propaganda resources connections with the most influential networks piece of cake a.r.k has provided regular branded and unbranded content to key syria focused satellite t.v. channels such as al-jazeera hour a beer b.b.c. arabic aryans t.v. aleppo today syria our god and syria shaab since 2012 a mission to turn a group that was once caught staging a rescue operation into international social media darlings done the white helmets are world famous ok created and continues to run

a twitter feed and they facebook page on behalf of the syrian civil defense teams posting photos and updates of their activities in english throughout the day bring up a battalion of activists turn reporters to deliver the right message roger that. more than 150 activists have been trained and equipped by ok on topics from the basics of camera handling lighting and sound to producing reports journalistic safety online security and ethical reporting a.r.k which boasted a wide presence and all 14 of syria's regions wasn't the only p.r. prodigy listed the leaked docs show that virtually every aspect of the syrian opposition was cultivated and marketed by western government backed firms from political narratives to branding from what they said to where they said it but it's all hard to believe right london and its allies would never stoop so low.

the u.s. has rebukes the e.u. and its top diplomat years of burrell for acting alone in venezuela without the approval of the blocks across the atlantic this will make relations with the e.u. bureaucracy more difficult it's not useful to have barrels office working on its own it's fair to call it cowboy diplomacy. the e.u. sent a mission to venezuela ahead of its legislative elections there in december the country's opposition leader called for a boycott that it will be rigged in favor of the current ruling party bloc hopes to provide minimum democratic conditions during the vote we believe there is a window of opportunity to support a peaceful and democratic transition in venezuela. venezuela's is in a political impasse with 2 politicians scrambling for control 2 years ago a controversial presidential vote resulted in the reelection of nicolas maduro and in suing nationwide protests opposition leader wang goto accused him of rigging the

election and declared himself the interim head of state more than 50 countries including the u.s. and most of the european nations recognized by those the legitimacy and as well in leader washington also slapped sanctions on the madeira administration where the loop correct professor from george mason university says that the latest u.s. criticism of the shows that it wants to be in charge of the global agenda. it is not surprising considering the current diplomacy of the united states directly in the past few years week shows of chorus of the day the negative response of the united states with regards to the possibility of opening a dialogue it's kind of like a leg on more of that that shows sometimes birth weight who only established that there are rules that they are willing to to follow and everybody to follow so definitely i don't believe that their approach that right

now being taken by the u.s. government it's the appropriate one i believe that dialogue of the best way to deal with us here to ation like the one that venezuela has there's a possibility that that there will be protests after after this election but at the same time right now the government does not run stronger the 2080. about has been raging against huge wildfires in the veronese region of western russia an area the size of $300.00 football pitches has gone up in flames with teams of firefighters are struggling to contain the and further.

go about with a book for you would half an hour's time hope to see that. you know back in 2008 when the have a global financial crisis and banks brothers bear stearns and some european banks are going to go under and that all of. the policy was not to reform banks but to give them a bigger credit line 1020 times bigger at the time we said you know in 10 or 12 years. happened where we are 12 years later and. the u.s. economy was booming growing numbers of people when they need us. you can work 40 hours 'd in a week and still not have enough to get housing everybody believes america still

has the lead up to the reality of it we're not financially quality and the lack of affordable housing living minimum wage give many people no choice you know that's been the problem with the city you know those turn out and told you stay way out a little bit. because you have some recourse resource the most vulnerable or abandoned on the streets to become the invisible comes. the sort of amazing country with so many friends in russia and i'm very excited to be here. i love that idea i think i can do that. different to make a lot of money with. millions and hundreds of me.

here is the nice. nobody bills will better than me believe and i'll build a very inexpensive a great great wall. 'd just in case you're worried about who's going to face what mexico will pay for. it was the one. who knows those who know so we'll see on the field with the success. greetings and salutation. flyers protests past tiger kings just about sum up the 1st 3 quarters of the year that is the double twenties

but if 2020 was a series on netflix it certainly appears that the season finale is going to leave many of us truly breathless. and jobless and more than likely pretty hopeless at least that's what the series show runners in the u.s. congress appear to be angling for roll call is now reporting that according to their latest capitol insiders survey of congressional aides and lackeys a majority of respondents on both sides 78 percent of republicans and 52 percent of democrats said they did not expect congress to pass another relief measure before the election instead as johnson for common dreams observes senate republicans are preparing to leave washington d.c. for the campaign trail while congress has been perfectly willing to move ahead with business entirely unrelated to the pandemic from confirming a raft of right wing federal judges to forming a plan to force through troubles you had to be named.