you need to protect yourself and get in for. the fun of. probably the heaviest shelling since we arrived here the main city in the. conflict between armenia and azerbaijan our correspondent is in the area. russian from the militants from the middle east are being brought into the conflict zone in the caucuses the warring sides. also ahead on the program the. president suffering mild symptoms after he and the 1st lady test positive for dean just a month ahead of the u.s. election. and his french counterpart on fields

a plan to cut. through a new law the secular value. of the world this is our team international pleasure to have your company this hour mining as you know. we begin with the deadly standoff between armenia and azerbaijan in the south caucasus to large explosions been heard within the past number of hours in the disputed province of. earlier the region's main city was bombed from the local something hearing the regular sound of sirens. several buildings were damaged including the emergency ministry where the windows were shattered and holes blown through the walls the armenian defense minister. he

has blamed azerbaijan for the earth strikes on its army units on full combat dirt. has not confirmed nor denied the bombing raids and has itself also seen sizable damage a border region was hit by mortar fire and several buildings were destroyed or donna for ports not from a corner covered by. stepanek has come under probably the heaviest shelling since we arrived here 2 massive explosions in the very center of the city usually what we could hear what we could see the smoke from the explosions on the outskirts in the suburbs this is the very city center and moreover this is the building of the ministry of emergencies so it has been obliterated i mean look look at this everything is gone windows are gone the whole wall there's a hole in the whole wall and it's not just this building there's a whole complex it's a large it's a large complex and it's everywhere like this it's obliterated not raised to the

ground but it's gone i don't see any way how it can be fixed all renovated we don't know what we don't know what exactly caused the explosion but we didn't hear any sirens and sirens so probably wasn't a drone but some really heavy artillery and with a very long range as well but we have to go they are telling us it's not safe because sometimes as the azerbaijanis are using these so-called double tap so that they not only they destroy the building but also the kill soldiers who arrived here we've arrived here with the soldiers as well so we have to go this is the crater that was made by one of the rockets and this is a piece from a the military here is telling me that this is a 250 cal about 250 millimeter caliber so it is a massive rocket they don't know exactly what it is they're telling me these these are not laws but that this one is also israeli made journalists covering the

conflict area getting caught in the crossfire who are injured in a shell strike on whedon's thing killing 2 french reporters they were lifted to you're a fan for treatment as we're watching here they're not back in front and on thursday a car carrying 4 other reporters including russians was hit by an artillery shell but no one was injured. let's bring some background to this the current conflict is one of several border disputes still unresolved since the collapse of the soviet union the enclave populated mainly by armenian christians broke away in 1900 from observation which is majority muslim but the area has not been widely recognized as a sovereign state and another aspect to this conflict front and russia have accused turkey of funneling just how the militants are from syria into the conflict zone armenia is backed up by plain saying turkey is using terrorist to help. along

with direct military support azerbaijan for its part denies the allegations saying it's armenian that's doing foreign mercenaries. there is much historic evidence for minas use of terrorists and mercenaries during the occupation of nagorno-karabakh and adjacent regions of his arabic john there are many and leadership continues this policy today mercenaries are pumped into the conflict zone disguised as volunteers according to our information about 4000 militants have recently been deployed by turkey from syria to azerbaijan they are already fighting for azerbaijan they are trained in militant camps and then transferred. russia france some of the us have urged the warning signs to end the fighting they've called for negotiations involving the c e minsk group which has been overseeing peace efforts for the past 30 years turkey though has rejected pleas for a truce president erdogan has said he hopes will continue its offensive until the bike is freed from what he calls the armenian occupation one more point in an

already complex situation armenia has accused of using cluster munitions in color back and has published photos allegedly proving it. has not yet responded to that allegation both sides however released a string of videos to back up their planes tactical victories under making contradictory claims about the damage inflicted. by looks at how distant from nation has become one of the key weapons in the standoff. deception full of military victories are as old as wolf heart south but in the digital age the distance from ation can be tough charged the military propaganda machine of armenia which found itself in a stalemate after a series of successful hostilities by the us or by johnny army began a large scale provocation in the information space though the armenian side as always presents old video of battles as new ones the goal was to present their

failures to the population successes the ongoing conflict in the want to care about is an example of how information is deployed just as powerfully and destructively as guns claiming victory can play as important a role as physically claiming territory it's all about the image you project so one surprise in that just as azerbaijan tried to discredit armenians claims of success yaron shot off its own attack the enemy both at the front and in the information space is making its last efforts is running out of steam and therefore threw everything all possible weapons into and even fakes and falls hoods over the past few days there has been a relentless stream of accusations from one side followed by denials from the author and this exchange of fire has made finding the truth almost impossible for example armenia says one of its su 25 warplanes was shot down by tucker's fighter jet talkie and by john denounce this is law is on with no footage or i want to says

it's one side's was against the others so was the truth but even when evidence is put forward the truth proves to be just as elusive the car back to france ministry sit down and sorry helicopter a photo of a burning helicopter into the ground is posted on social media a small victory is claimed it turns out the photo was actually of a helicopter shot down over syria back in february but it doesn't matter because people were. thought it was a scary and that will stick as way john uses the same tactics to post about a successful strike bridge on his i did not publish any images of the strikes and their mean in positions of military equipment it turned out it was for those from the war in syria these videos were shad thousands of times and so without being the truth they become a version of the truth so we're letting this has this war of information become that journalists have been put on high alert. is all members of the media in

armenia and azerbaijan to not take part in the ongoing information war journalist should avoid manipulation and official propaganda. it is important to cross-check information even when it comes from official sources journalists should never become soldiers in the information war one of russia's most famous authors once compared finding the truth to looking for gold he said the only way is fast to wash away all that is not gold then you will find your signing not get well when it comes to car that's still a knot of sifting through the muddy river of misinformation to be done before we even get close to the truth. president trump is suffering mile symptoms after contracting dean that's according to the white house he and the 1st lady tested positive for the virus with just over 4 weeks to go before the election

in the wake of the diagnosis a number of top officials have been tested including vice president mike pence he's tested negative don't charms rival for the presidency joe biden who's at results came back negative too along with his running mate come along horace incidentally if trump on pence were ruled out of action a democrat high speaker nancy pelosi would enter the oval office she's now waiting her results and reports on the shake up call is that by mr trump's diagnosis. the white house has now confirmed that both malani of the 1st lady and u.s. president donald trump have tested positive for coded 19 now according to the white house they are both starting to show mild symptoms at this point now this is pretty big news is in a high risk group as he is overweight and 74 years old now many are pointing out that donald trump has somewhat downplayed the danger of covert 19 over the past few months looks like by april you know in theory when it gets

a little warmer miraculously goes away i hope that's true we have a very much younger group right here in the united states is lowest in numerous categories. were lower than the world they wanted me to come out and screw . with. so we did it just the right way now we're weeks away from a vaccine we're doing therapeutics already fewer people are dying when they get sick far fewer people are dying we've done a great job with just about a month left until the presidential election is to take place on november 3rd this is a pretty dramatic event to have the president of the united states testing positive for covert 19 now dozens of campaign rallies have been canceled as the president goes into a tional and foreign policy however it's unclear what will be happening with that debate as we proceed the democrats have been quick to criticize donald trump and say that he has mishandled the coded 1000 crisis and downplayed the very serious

dangers posed by coded going into crowds unmasked and all the rest the sort of a brazen invitation for something like this to happen though they have not done so in the postes the administration must now full of the science and recommended health person in order to not put additional people at risk and they must be completely transparent media is rampant with speculation about how this could affect the election results now at this point if donald trump were to be unable to perform his duties as president fall ill or die he would be replaced by mike pence or if mike pence were unable to do so by nancy pelosi now both of those individuals are also in the high risk group for coded 19 so at this point the question remains will the u.s. public become more sympathetic to the president now that he has fallen ill or will they become more outraged about his handling of the coded 19 pandemic that will be

seen on november 3rd when u.s. voters head to the polls. we journalist and author done english are told us there's plenty of uncertainty right now over donald trump's actual condition. no one really trusting of action coming out of the white house you have no idea how sick is he 74 years old he's overweight he's in a high risk group and he may become us to be early ill or may even die if it goes into intensive care the way force johnson did in april that could lead to a constitutional question as to who actually will run the white house and the constitutional mechanisms extremely slow extremely inefficient and. maybe faulty in design it's hard to believe nancy pelosi taking over the white house but that's what the law says though it may very well happen the situation is unprecedented the u.s. is that trying to a period of extreme turmoil things were already turbulent enough as they were now

they are doubly so. the french president is proposing a new law to find running cool islam on religious separatism and money will mccrone made in one spent in the speech on friday r.t. charlotte dubin ski picks up the story. this has been a long awaited how the french government would seek to defend the country's secular values against radical islam present like on friday has set out his stall. increases islam is a religion that is in crisis today all over the world we don't just see it in our country it is a deep crisis that is linked to tensions between fundamentalism specifically between religious and political projects that as we have seen lead to radicalism even in countries where islam is the majority religion well the draft glory's due to be presented in december and it will seek to strengthen the secularism here in france now present much ringback talked about france liberating is

from foreign influences and some of the ways it intends to do this with this law will be for example more oversight in how mosques here off funded there will be stricter scrutiny of schools and associations that so serve religious communities and when it comes to homeschooling which is rather popular amongst the muslim community that will only be allowed when there are health related issues involved sometimes they do not receive any education but go to unofficial structures very simple structures walls with no windows children who arrive at 8 am every day and who leave a 3 pm women in carbs welcome them and teach only prayers and certain classes that's their teaching there was immediate reaction on social media to president michel speech with many decrying it. the destruction of france has been written by

the hands of the president of france crown houses them in crisis all over the world today do you realize is the leader of a nation the ramification of your words especially on french citizens who follow islam mccann's latest comments on crisis and islam is nothing and then a shill to the crisis in europe of their identity and liberal is on the other hand many people feel that this is needed to stop a slide away from france's secular values it has forced the country in the last few years with the terror attacks that france is seen to take stock of what its core republican values are and some of the things that have come out have been concerning to many french people for example a recent poll found that 3 quarters almost 3 quarters of the young muslims under the age of $25.00 thought that their values of islam were more important than the french republic and that really worried many people just in the last week we saw

fresh terror attack here in paris and the man who carried out that attack did so because he was unhappy with the satirical magazine charlie ever don't we publishing controversial cartoons of the muslim prophet mohammed and the idea of islam and how that sits with those values of secularism in the french republic is a thorny issue will this still the debate or will it settle it well that's yet to be seen go ahead this news are that you use lobsang sions on bell a russian officials over election rigging claims but leave location go off the list of the details when we return. 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 the things that are going on and on right now this is not the best 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 but i. just don't. get to shape out these days educate and indeed train equals trail. when something find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

let's start the program back in spain where the regional authorities in madrid have challenged a legal challenge against the spanish government's new law dawn order they filed an appeal in the national court claiming that the measures violate local laws on self and will cause unnecessary economic harm the madrid area has one of the highest corona virus infection rates in spain on the health minister insists the shutdown is all of or double. what i can tell you is that we have to act with determination to take control of the pandemic in the madrid region and this is the most important thing we have to do in this moment because health comes 1st. we believe this document contains decisions that concern the entire national health system and above all the fundamental rights and freedoms of millions of people the minister is

imposing measures that go against the will of many citizens. under the new restrictions residents in madrid will not be allowed to leave the area unless they have to make an essential journey social gatherings limited to 6 people bars restaurants they have to close by 11 pm parks playgrounds they're off limits to the measures have already led to mass protests over 2000 people gathered to denounce them last friday protestors pushed rubbish bins into wrote chanted slogans demanding freedom we asked madrid residents what they think about the new law. and the regulator turned it into a political war with an airplane with us and they should be aware that they have to see this is a pandemic not a political one but i think there is a real threat and this could be improved a lot if the necessary measures are taken with more transport put on to avoid growing here you know if you lock people up at home for the virus for the flu for a cold everything will get better but people don't have anything to eat and you

just have to take a walk through madrid to see the shops are all closed people will eventually have to grow their own potatoes because i don't know what we're going to eat if madrid closes again. the united states sounds impose sanctions on 8 bad russian officials including the interior minister over the country's disputed election earlier the e.u. blacklisted 40 belorussians in response to allegations of election rigging and violence against protesters minsk responded in kind with measures against the list of european officials artie's peter all of the reports now from berlin. it was a long time coming but the european union have agreed sanctions on bello russian officials following all gifts this putin election the reason for the delay was a standoff between cyprus and pretty much the rest of the e.u. bloc cyprus wanted to see action taken against turkey over an kriz exploration for

energy resources off its coast before it would agree to any form of sanctions against bella ruse that action against turkey it was agreed eventually and therefore they were able to proceed with the better russian sanctions so dozens of senior officials 40 in total will be. facing sanctions this is to do with their being accused of falsifying election results and a crackdown on protests following that election back in august now notably absent from this list is. you gays bell russian president alexander shank his name not being there is raised a few eyebrows however underlying the e.u. commission president says these sanctions send the right message there will be no impunity for those who are responsible for the crackdown on demonstrators and opposition politicians tsui important is this

a clear signal through since we are critical and we repeat that we would like to to to consider the people of the has that the right to do to mean what's the only future french president emmanuel microamp back not putting sanctions on television president alexander lukashenko saying that if they did that it could see him retreat into a bunker mentality and refuse any future talks angela merkel the german chancellor said the result came after a long night of discussions but called this a real step forward minsk for their part they aren't happy about this at all as you would imagine they say that no nation on the planet would've agreed to the demands that were being made of it by the european union and that they'll be countering the sanctions with sanctions of they were saying sions have been imposed as a punitive measure for the belorussian failure to comply with a set of ultimatum requirements that not a single self respecting sovereign state would ever meet moscow which has

a key role to play in the future of belarus to to the longstanding and close ties between the 2 countries has responded to the news of the sanctions to meet the press goal of the kremlin spokes person less than impressed with the moves made by brussels to say these sanctions are a manifestation of weakness not of strength and could be included on the list that would have deprived the e.u. the chance to maintain dialogue including on topics of interest to both sides we have a very negative attitude toward sanctions in general the u.k. and counted obote. out sanctions against belarus previously the u.k. issued a asset freeze against alexander lukashenko the reason for this delay from the european site is a touch embarrassing it highlights some splits within the union it requires unanimity to impose sanctions for the e.u. to impose sanctions on the nation basically the baltic states and in particular

lithuania were demanding action immediately while cyprus said no no no hang on there we'll get to your problem once ours is sorted so belorussian officials 40 of them in total will have sanctions placed upon them notably absent from that list so alexander lukashenko. our europe correspondent peter all of our well geo political analysts runaround 1st sees that any sanctions are likely to have a knock on effect on the public. so i think it's just a game are slightly stepping up the tone against. against look i think oh. i see the difficulty that. usually when we have reached a stage of sanctions once it's like a one way road and we will never never get out of it so we can take years and that was sanctions 1st may harm or made seem to harm the political elite but in the air and we know from enough experience in this world iraq syria venezuela and cetera

that it's the normal people it's most of all the poor people who are hit very very severely by those sanctions as soon as they got really tough that is the latest lobel news update from r.t. h.q. here in moscow more great programs get their start in moments and back at the top with all the day's developments do stay close. the 1st presidential debate exhibited lots of like not much one can argue neither candidate last night there was a perfect reflection of the nation's politics put the campaign coming to an end do the debates have any meaningful impact is there such

a thing as an undecided voter. always be polite never engage with a negative a good or confrontational. don't get into any conversation or start answering questions just ask for an attorney. to survive and tear a dish. definitely don't want to be going to the jumpsuit one cup. you're more likely to walk free if you're rich and guilty or if you're poor and. you've got 2 eyes 2 ears and one mouth. so you should be seen in here and a whole lot more in your sand if you don't take that advice easy going to dig yourself a hole. is

your media a reflection of reality. in a world transformed. what will make you feel safe. isolation community. are you going the right way or are you being. direct. wants his fate. in the world corrupted you need to descend. to join us in the depths. or a make in the shadows. greetings

and sally you take. actions speak louder than words it's an old expression but just as true today as it was over 280 years ago when it was 1st coined back in 1736 especially when observing the actions of our great political and military leaders here in washington d.c. you see well most elected officials and military leaders will tell you that the protection and defense of the american public and the citizenry is their number one top top top tippity top priority their actions show us otherwise especially when it comes to the pentagon and our illustrious war department the washington post and others are now reporting that the $1000000000.00 fund the congress gave the pentagon in march to build up the country's supplies of medical equipment hasn't. been mostly funneled to defense contractors and used to make

things such as jet engine parts body armor and dress uniforms yes my friends while the while most of the country was out of a job trying to make rent and just barely scraping by and trying not to get sick our good friends at the pentagon took our tax dollars our tax dollars given to them with the express intent to help us fight this pandemic and instead they splurged on themselves in their defense contractor buddies apparently the pentagon's top brass are no longer men of honor but in truth they're really just 16 year old girls on amazon with mom's amex card. but it wasn't just our good friends in the war department splurging on taxpayer dollars want to be action hero but real life republican party hack and trump yes man the acting homeland security director wolf well he's under fire this week as n.b.c. news reports that the consult.