headline stories this hour a brutal toll on civilians over the. region hits small communities hard. party reports from the conflict so. this is what's left of the round this backyard it's really. the territory of another twist with russia and france claiming conclusive evidence that militants from the middle east are being brought into the fight. also russian opposition figure. as the kremlin his alleged poisoning which moscow strongly denies claims coming in the 1st interview since his recovery in the

hospital. again here in moscow and other major restrictions said to be applied next week. from moscow to the world international 30 minutes of views on views ahead with me you know me. well let's kick off with developments from militarized feud between armenia and azerbaijan 300 kilometers from the disputed region on the frontline in a corner of armenia it has shut down for drones near the capital of europe and there's really been 5 days of intense fighting with both nations rejecting calls for a cease fire the show you some pictures from the armenians. filmed by artie's video

agency ruptly as we can see rocket launchers other heavy weaponry as well lined up along the front here. meanwhile local reporters are being caught in the crossfire a cameraman from an armenian t.v. channel severely injured during shelling these are pictures of his car 2 french journalists also injured while covering the conflict are being treated in hospital parties eager shutdown off reports on the impact on local communities. nagorno-karabakh is sandwiched between the 2. and as they're by john but as commanders in chief are deploying platoon after platoon to the frontline it's often civilians who end up in the crossfire on both sides were in a small town in the disputed nagorno-karabakh region the front line is about 5 to 7 kilometers that way and is there by johnny shell flew from over there and made this crater and well there was a bus staying right here has already been cleared the debris and it was bustling

with people as a result because of the strike this strike killed 2 people and 5 more were wounded all of them civilians this is no military complex it's just a building just a house where we live in in fact i'm being told that these these areas are being shelled relentlessly even though the closest military position is about 3 to 4 kilometers away that way what you what you're hearing right now is them firing in fact we could hear just minutes ago a u.s. v. and sometimes even see it as it was making circles above us it was not in armenia and it was in azerbaijan one so this is one of the places where it is as hot as it gets in the going to care about their own many places that have it worse than the town of martinique within the 60 minutes that we were filming there we had artillery infantry drone. all of them had their deadly say.

this was. some of. you would be a new movie the. air raid sirens and the buzz of drones have become the terrifying soundtrack to this war in the gorn a cab back and this frontline town has enduring booms all calibers this is what's left of the round that fell and this backyard it's really heavy and well i'm being told it's about 160 millimeters in caliber which makes it a truly formidable project and you can see the amount of damage that it did here for instance here used to be the gates well there are now completely gone both sides are ready to fight to the bush and rend both sides of the fervid support of their populations sharing an underlying belief that it's them fighting for the right cause and not the enemy with all the horrors that have already haunted this

land this war shows that the you all grievances have only deepened and we've done of reporting from the going to care about. it just some background to all of us in a corner of conflict as well as several border this still on resolve since the collapse of the soviet union the area broke away from us or by shelling 900 $88.00 on the 3rd itself independent however the populated mainly by armenians is not widely recognized as a sovereign state armenia and azerbaijan accusing each other of starting the latest hostilities. on monday. we have only one condition that armenia leaves our lands completely and immediately this is fairly if the armenian government complies with this the fighting will stop there will be no bloodshed there will be peace peace will come to our region. i believe the armenian army can secure our country and the self-defense forces of the golden corral bark or successfully protecting

their region from a political standpoint i believe it's very important for us that international partners know how and who started this military action or those international partners are alarmed with russia and france saying extremist militants brought in from the middle east are arriving to fight back artie's bricks on the findings. these aren't just media reports it is the french president and manual macron making it clear officially that he's got the information that armed fighters from syria are engaged in the battlefield in the door in a car about here's what exactly came from the french leader. today we have information with certainty that indicates that militants from to have his groups who left the field of combat and syria to rejoin the field of qom button carob soon after mr mccraw on the russian foreign ministry followed up and said

that they have similar information as well which follows their own statement from wednesday when the russian diplomats warned of armed militants being moved from syria and libya to the call flags own in nagorno-karabakh but officials in moscow for now are refracting from pointing out who the foreign militants are fighting for i can tell you that the government of us here by john is saying that there is no way that some kind of fighters from outside could be on the battlefield together with their army however the armenian side has previously blamed but who along with allies turkey for doing just that and they're actually saying that turkey and azerbaijan are exploiting terrorists to try and win the battle against the armenian army now in the meantime in

a rare display of unity that doesn't always happen with many international conflicts the presidents of the u.s. russia and france came out with a joint statement in which they are the governments of armenia and azerbaijan to urgently lay down arms and come back to negotiating table without any preconditions but i can tell you that the turkish the. baird on pretty much destroyed this statement by saying that the 3 countries have pretty much failed in their attempts to do something to the crisis over the decades you should do. the fact that america russia and france known as the minsk trio looking for ceasefire in the face of these negative to tell it just because they have been equipped to this problem for nearly 30 years is unacceptable. on the other hand we are hearing from russian in turkish diplomats that for example. foreign minister perhaps chose 'd

a bit more of a diplomatic approach to this we know that surrogate. are in touch over this and they are ready to coordinate their peace efforts that's how they are putin it. from an spokes person to me as a curious russian activists alexina vuln the of working with the cia the russian opposition leader and i threatened to take legal action it follows of all these claim in an interview with german media than london where putin poisoned m r t's peter all of our reports from berlin. alexina valmy used this interview to the german news magazine beagle to thank the german people and in particular angle america for the helping to receive german chancellor visited mist in the valley secretly while he was in the shot at a hospital here in berlin in the interview missed in a volley pulls no punches about who he thinks is behind his alleged poisoning he

points that finger of blame firmly at russia and directly at president vladimir putin the kremlin has responded to this kremlin spokes person dmitri peskov saying the claims made against me if britain against russia were unacceptable and also accused foreign intelligence services of working with mr novell me i claim that putin is behind the crime and i have no alternative versions of what happened i don't say that to flatter myself but on the basis of fact the most important fact is normally chuck the order to use or manufacture it can only have come from 2 men the head of the f.s.b. or of the foreign intelligence service the s.v.r. government and western intelligence services are working with him in particular the cia we believe his accusations against the russian president are groundless and an acceptable his interview reveals that he thinks he's as important as the leader of a state but the real rivals at that level are quite different people germany says

tests that were carried out show traces of novacek were found now the same type of tests that were carried out on alexina family in the city of almost skin russia where he 1st received medical treatment well they showed no sign of any such poisoning alexina valise team sent acquired a bottle from a hotel room that he'd been staying in in the site derian city of tomsk this bottle was then sent with other things he had to germany where tests were carried out on it and that is where the novacek was found now there's a lot of questions about how that bottle got from a hotel room to. here in in germany and how those tests were carried out all of those remain unanswered it's important course because the whole idea that he was report that he was poisoned with an overcharge nerve agent hangs on the results of those tests now the russian prosecutors have sent 3 requests to berlin for the sharing of information relating to those tests and others that were carried out all

mist in the valley so far all of that has fallen on deaf ears well but it is not abuse that we turn to the o p c w which unfortunately was playing for time and then told us we need to go back to berlin can you believe that when we were 1st appealing to believe in it directed our communications to the p.c. w this is a vicious circle it is illogical absent and everyone understand it or go back to the interview and the shriek alexina violently says the russian made attempts to keep him in the country once he was in hospital in siberia i think they were determined not to let me out of the country which is why they publicly stated that i was not fit for transport they waited for me to die in my eyes the chief medical cost bittle is worse than the intelligence officers who kill people for them killing is at least their job or previously russian foreign minister sergei lavrov it said that the very facts alexei of ali was alive right now was down to the quick thinking in the professionalism of the pilot that made the emergency landing the

power medics that arrived on the scene at the airport in almost the medical professionals that gave him treatment in hospital in the siberian city no one was supposed to children so the impeccable work for pilots doctors and paramedics is presented as a lucky coincidence they don't even admit that we acted in a proper way our western partners look at us with arrogance because we dare to doubt their correctness and professionalism that's why they doubt the profession is move our doctors and investigators alexa in the valley was discharged from hospital . in berlin last week he had spent 2 weeks in an induced coma and is currently undergoing physio therapy following that he has said that he wants to return to russia as soon as it's possible. another significant aspect of this story russia has invited experts from the global chemical weapons watchdog to visit the country as part of their probe into the novelli case foreign ministry spokesperson marie as

a horror of us said russia hopes for a productive cooperation with the o.p.c. w. to quote shed some light on b.z. murky events security analyst charles your bridge thinks the o.p.c. the credibility will be called into question if it turns down moscow's invitation. allows the west to say if they want to if they believe. he's actually hiding something here which it may be it may not be this well done of course that it's open to the west and many of those whose course will work for you if you see to be sponsored by and supported by western governments we saw that very much during the syria series of reports of your p.c. to be produced for any i think neutral objective investigative work questionable at best should we say that moving on to the new law in the case it allows the p.c. to view on the west to call russia's bluff if that's what you believe is happening it would be interesting to see what the o.p.c.

to be response to this is because they don't except in detention of course it can stem as an organization has absolutely come to a preordained conclusion. yet another headline story moscow another major russian cities are tightening their coronavirus wrist strictures after a surge in cases artie's donnel quarter takes us through what's going to be happening. over the past several weeks russia seen a significant rise in the rate of new covert cases with nearly $9000.00 new infections over just the past 24 hours of course the country's 2 largest cities have been hit the hardest in st petersburg cases have exceeded those from june worrying authorities that a 2nd wave may have already begun they've already made it mandatory for people to wear face masks on public transport under the penalty of a fine but on the other hand moscow's mayor seems to think the capital has enough hospital beds to handle whatever comes out it but he still introduce new measures to deal with what he considers to be

a very serious situation and i may go to the developments of very serious i expect the daily caseload to predict 3000 in the coming days we've seen an increase in the number of people hospitalized they say was seriously ill patients on the ventilator all these numbers are rising in the daily hospitalization rate has reached 1000 and this is twice as high as 2 weeks ago. so gannon's new measures will go into effect on october 5th and they'll require all businesses to have at least 30 percent of their workforce on an at home work regime people 65 and older and those with serious illnesses will also be required to work from home and as for children the mayor has declared a 2 week school holiday for the beginning of october to curb the rate of infection the proportion of children who've contract it could be 19 has for the 1st time exceeded 900 percent of all cases over the usually have mold symptoms or nonis will they can post the disease on to older family members who are likely to develop much more serious symptoms so far russia sporting the vaccine is going ahead with phase

3 testing as planned with no serious side effects reported the mayor of moscow hopes the 1st batches will be produced either by november or december and perhaps this time around the authorities will have an advantage on keeping new infections low. this is r t international still ahead pope francis is the kleins a request to meet with the u.s. secretary of state votes. story and more after the break. we did a survey just about a month into the pandemic and found that people said they lost 35 minutes a day less to unwanted interruptions at home which was kind of a surprise because you know with all of things that are going on and on right now this is not the best of times to be to be doing it. and so that's one

element the other element is they tend to give back 50 percent of the time that they would have otherwise spent commuting. seemed wrong rowles just don't call. me. yet to shape out these days to come out ahead and in again try it because the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart when she's to look for common ground. right.

the european union is taking legal action against the u.k. over its plan to override the braggs a divorce treaty it comes after the house of commons passed an internal market bill which contradicts they withdraw agreement approve last year picking up the story arteta is out of. the u.k. government have introduced this internal market bill is still in the draft stages awaiting to be truth into politics and normal essentially what it would do is by admission of the u.k. government itself is go against the withdrawal agreement that was agreed by the 2 sides at the beginning of this year and do much of the hard work done by negotiators on both sides of the e.u. commission have now put the u.k. on notice that they could be facing legal action as a result of this latest measure as you know how we had invited our british friends to remove the problematic parts of van draft internal market beyond the deadline lapsed yesterday the and the problematic provisions have not been removed.

therefore this morning the commission has decided to send a letter harmer notice to the u.k. government this is the 1st step in an infringement procedure this bill challenges some of the most important parts of the withdrawal it green meant in particular to do the northern ireland protocol of course the border between the north and the republic of ireland is hugely important to the stability and peace of the island of ireland and yet there are those on the european side who say that this could threaten the good friday agreement this could violate the integrity. of the single market this bill that is but also there was some again even within the british government the northern ireland secretary and themselves admitting that by doing this the u.k. government are violating international peace does great international law in a very specific and limited way we are taking the power to supply the you law

concept of direct effect the strategy in behavior of the british government was one of brinkmanship was one of threatening to crush oshie you know if if you don't if we don't turn agreement we might go kamikaze on you that sort of thing trust has been eroded. tension has been created doubts have been created and that's not conducive to solid because the actions we are less than $100.00 days away from the end of the so-called transition period and both sides and it should be really at this point trying to negotiate a deal to avoid a node an outcome that many economists say would be disastrous for both sides not least the u.k. and yet here we are with one side threatening the other with legal action this is surely not how it negotiates is hoping to be going at this very late stage. unless the international has issued a damning report condemning the french government's brutal crackdown on protesters

and it also alleges that the pandemic is being exploited to bring in repressive measures sharia dubinsky as across the story. amnesty international doesn't hold back in this report accusing authorities of using oppressive laws in the period pre and post the code 19 locked down thousands have been arbitrarily fined arrested detained and prosecuted for peaceful activities which should not be considered defenses peaceful protests have been banned under draconian kovan 1000 powers and hundreds of protesters find the report says that despite the coded lockdown ending in may a barrel all public gatherings of more than 10 people remained in force it claims that this was disproportionate given that other launch gatherings in open spaces were permitted yet even though it was deemed illegal protests did take place

including ones linked to the black lives matter movement was a. good. thing was. the burn was eventually overturned by francis highest administrative court but amnesty says that dozens if not hundreds of protesters were fined for participating in small public gatherings over the past few months it says in the cases that it has documented the fines imposed appear to constitute a disproportionate restriction to the right to freedom of peaceful assembly that includes the case of eleanor a health worker took part in a protest calling for support for the public health system they say the police

stopped eleanor who was alone at the time in front of the closing stores are law enforcement the fish. checked eleanor's backpack which contained a gas mask and a pair of goggles they told her that she would be fined for participating in the band protests they subsequently arrested her and placed her in a pre-charge detention for participating in the group with a view to preparing violent acts in 20182019. more than 40000 people were convicted on the basis of vague laws the yellow vests movement was hit particularly hard.

but it's not just protesters who've been at the receiving end amongst those detained with 1st aiders human rights observers and journalists we were in plaster republique i was filming the priest cordons there were clashes around the square but not where we were walking we decided to leave and suddenly my friend shouted brice watch out several police called me from behind and forced me to the ground they insulted me and asked if i throw projectiles against them i told them that i was a journalist and that i had my student card royce was placed in pre-charge detention before being told that he would be prosecuted for using violence against public officials he was later acquitted amnesty is now calling on the french parliament to review and to repeal all laws that impose

a punishment solely for the exercise. of the right to peaceful assembly it also wants the interior and the justice minister france to offer clearer guidance for law enforcement officials so that in less someone is carrying a pair of goggles or a face mask and this is suspected of being involved in a violent crime they are not subject to detention in light of this report amnesty says it's ironic that a country with such a long and proud tradition of collective action for social change is criminalizing protest in this way. r.t. paris. the u.s. secretary of state turns paid a visit to the vatican where he was hoping to meet with pope francis the holy see decline mount request saying the pontiff does not meet with politicians during

election campaigns my pump out urge the catholic church to join washington in denouncing of religious freedom in china 2 years ago the hooli sea reached an agreement with the chinese communist party hoping to help china's catholics yet the chinese communist party is to be use of the faithful has only gotten worse the vatican and dangerous its more all forward to shoot renew the deal. was referring 282800 deal in which the catholic church agreed to recognize several bishops by by beijing your list seen as a 1st step in reestablishing relations between the vatican and china which were severed back in 1951 in response to criticism from the u.s. the papacy defended the agreement with china saying a direction has been marked by his worth continuing international relations analyst victor garber thinks washington's attempt to pressure the vatican is misguided.

maloney's secretary of state and i all said the wrong thing and tried to interfere in the internal affairs of the holy see but also all the timing is very suspicious a very sensitive right now and this is really troubling to see the secretary of state of the united states not doing diplomacy but actually becoming a warmonger and the rumor monger in the world very much in. the same footsteps with his president and we can see that washington is really losing its moral you are shit suffering from a seizure of the hysteria extremism and hopelessness whatever your college and or it wants to do whatever it can to practice the a tonya harding syndrome to watch the kneecaps of china it wants to see china as an enemy and it wants to rally the whole world behind it by 2 and not succeed because

china is now a very significant force called global girls just a reminder for up to the minute news views and plenty more in between our twitter pages well worth a follow as last they get stuck into their life from moscow my name's union o'neill and this is art international. first presidential debate exhibited lots of like but not much one can argue neither candidate last night it was a perfect reflection of the nation's politics but the campaign coming to an end did the debates have any meaningful impact is there such a thing as an undecided voter. welcome

to the alex salmond show where we look at the westminster often session of parliament under the shadow of the low pandemic this week almost a year after the general election where he swept out to power with a majority of 80 but it's johnson finally lost his opinion poll lead over the opposition labor party and the trouble is now confined to the opinion polls with the restless tory m.p. stephanie another revolt over the way in which the new to corporate regulations are being introduced all this with the economy facing the double cliff edge of another locked and on the interminable lardy cry.