kurdistan plays a critical role. currently provides the federal government electricity and gas and can provide it a lot more, as well as turkey. but again, if the above-ground problems can be solved politically, the below-ground problems are easily solved commercially. in terms of gas capture. iraq is so critical to the climate objectives that we all are very cognizant of. and this has got to be solved. being the only country in the world that is in that gas importer. it's just not a sustainable model. and something that the entire united states has iraq overcome. >> thanks. >> really great, around the horn for folks. i'd like to turn for the next question. the question is, how do you ensure localized actors, build expertise on foreign involvement investment. and i would like to add more to that. on the china and iran piece. the dependency on foreign involvement. building up the foreign capacity. but also the geopolitical piece, that folks have mentioned with iran and china. i would just add to the question. how does

everybody sing the kurdistan region has very big potential to impact the iraqi economy and i want to ask you on this you have been trying to ease the relationship and educating for reforms. >> i think of he made a critical point here and of course i relationship with the kurdistan regional government is an important part of our overall relationship and we want to make sure there is a strong and resilient iraqi government and that means also economically prosperous. so it is important that there are not only effective coordination but i think improved coordination and communication. certainly being gauged with their friends and herb you to see how we can help support this goal. >> and the challenges on this can you elaborate is it a governmental problem? since you were engaged on this topic itself the specific topic. >> i think the challenge between herb you and baghdad terms of government are well-known and we continue to engage with all elements both in baghdad and herb deal to improve relationships and at the end of the day we cannot resolve issues for either but we can be a good c

we want to make sure that there is a strong and resilient iraqi/kurdistan region. that means, also, economically prosperous. and so it is important that there are not only -- this not only effective coordination, but i think improved coordination and cooperation. we engaged with baghdad and our friends in urbil to see how we can support this group. >> the challenges, can you elaborate a little on the challenges? is it a government problem? there's a government challenge here, not about this topic especially, but since you were engaged on this topic itself, specific topic, the relationship. >> i think the challenges in terms of governance are well known and we continue to engage with all elements, both in baghdad and urbile to see how we can facilitate an improved relationship. at the end of the day, we cannot resolve these issues for either, but we can be good counterparts and good friends to both to trying to support improved communication between all parties. >> thank you so much. i move to -- can you hear me? >> yes, i can. >> can you elaborate on this topic? >>

he advertises openly as a people smuggler based in iraqi kurdistan.lls our undercover reporter, who we're calling aram, to talk to him on whatsapp, where messages are encrypted. aram tells him he's living in france and wants to get to the uk in a lorry. he's quoted £4,500 for the trip, and he's promised that he'll get a good service. aram wants to know where he needs to take his money and asks if he can pay in the uk. the people smuggler tells aram to pay the money in erbil. translation: send someone to that agency in erbil. - it's a transfer agency. 0k, brother? they finally agree a price of $5,000 to cross from france to england in a lorry. 0ur undercover reporter didn't go through with this, but all too often, these kind of deals can end in tragedy. farhad's eldest son, safa, wanted to be smuggled across the channel. this is him and maybe about 50, 60 people on a boat. safa had been seeking asylum in germany, but that was eventually rejected, and he was making his way to the uk — first by train... ..and then by dinghy. he'd paid people—smugglers to

we had provincial elections and the kurdistan election is coming up. this is a big change for iraq. the big topic is the security agreement where the coalition's military role is being rolled out by 2025 in iraq 2026 and syria and the transition to a bilateral relationship. those are the key changes looking at the relationship of the two countries going forward in the next one or two years. >> great. thank you very much. we'll go to you next, lee. >> thank you for the invitation to be here. and, you know, i'm looking at the topic and the question in front much us through the prism of the economic relationship which is where we tend to focus at the chamber and the chamber, tom, as you noted, we are very proud to be part of the u.s.-iraq council. we will focus on bringing more u.s. companies to the table to get engaged in the commercial opportunities in iraq. i think the one thing that we think about is that, you know, oftentimes the focus in watching top and bad dagg is on the geopolitical relationship and the roles that security plays, but as investor romanowski and others like to s

turkey's priority has been to contain and repress the pkk, the kurdistan workers party which is alliedthe us and the west are not really involved in this except the us has a small contingent of special forces. has a small contingent of specialforces. in the has a small contingent of special forces. in the east of the country, they are there to keep an eye on isis. they had a five year reign of terror, at one point they owned and controlled at area the size of belgium. 8 million people, they were defeated. but there is always a fear they could be resurgent and they will be looking to take advantage of this current situation. the us has a big ally in the region and that is the syrian kurds. the syrian democratic forces. turkey does not like them. it sees them as an analogy oh ally of it. stay with me, it is complicated. turkey, a nato country bombs the kurds on occasion. yet those same curves that come under attack from turkey are allies of the united states. the us will not be particularly comfortable with anything that weakens the kurds because the big risk here is that the syrian kurd

the other issue that's very interesting is the position of the kurds in kurdistan of course, if turkey gets a larger role in the region, they consider that most of the kurdish groups are enemies 25% of turkey was kurdish and so it's been a decades long struggle for some recognition for kurdistan and so forth. and so they're going to be there on the sidelines, right now. they're expanding their area of control where they can, as are the syrian democratic forces that we've supported. and this will have to get shaken out at some point based on relative strength. yeah and what eventually the u.s. says to turkey. >> general. general, i'm so sorry. i have to interrupt you. we're just we're running out of time here, and i. and i am so sorry to do that to you, but but we really do appreciate you being here tonight and giving us that analysis. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. and i want to thank you for joining me this evening for this special hour of breaking news coverage. i'm jessica dean. i'm going to see you again tomorrow night starting at 5:00 eastern. giuliani what happene

health territories. sophia, is treating the car as terrorist with potentially deadly force until the kurdistan workers party people's defense units. terrorist organization, dis, arms, and it's foreign fighters leave syria. our preparations and measures will continue within the scope of the fight against terrorism. meanwhile siri as a new leadership there, the un designated terrorist organization had headed a shop, has been surprised. surprise. welcome to by the u. s. washington. has he been remove this generous, $10000000.00 bony that it had previously offered for the capture of the groups. neither apple, how much is it on a prolong, last shot or seems for this regime brutalized and tortured and killed? literally hundreds of thousands of innocent series of fathers is a fundamental lack of justice. it's a moment of historic opportunity for long suffering. people with syria to build a better future for the proud country. it's also a moment of risk and i started this all sounds all too familiar, almost to him was one of what went down in libya, the murder of but definitely prompted positive react

the largest decline reported in kurdistan is thereby john bella, roost iraq and zimbabwe. what about western democracies? supposedly the beacon of free speech, where people lost followers, accounts, jobs, and were platforms were banned and blocked. to discuss were joined up today by a poll, bigger software engineer in founder of tech for palestine. saima austin, former meta data analyst, and founder of the meta stopped censoring palestine initiative and tech door and list naomi brussel president on the low institute. a non profit focused on advancing freedom through technology. thank you all so much for your time before starting the conversation though, we were also suppose to be joined by me. cod dot has sent us this message. instead, i the only thing i'm recording this message because of a censorship that we are discussing in this slice, live stream has to be silenced. my ability to but dissipate live. but just to give a little bit of sense that what, what has been happening is over the past many months. and now for the last few days, a focus on has phased a yet another

notjust by the time they get to the channel but as far away as thousands of miles away in iraq and kurdistanhere a lot of this trade has been developed from. let's have a listen to her saying what she says is evidence of progress. i think we're being very clear and straight with people - about the complexity of this, because the gimmicks- did not work. what we had previously was a load of gimmicksj and everybody promised it| would solve it immediately and what we're doing - is the very serious action. we've already substantially increased, we've had overl 25% increase in terms - of the returns, we've had over 30% increase in enforcement raids so we've already- increased, step—by—step, - but of course, this is complex and of course this takes time. what she wouldn't do... is put a number on it. not even give a number, wouldn't give any shape or form of a timetable about when they hope to achieve. sunak completely got that wrong. yes, and she does not want to be another home secretary with what she described as bad history of making a promise on immigration and then spectacularly failing on it

but turkey sees them as an extension of the outlawed pkk — kurdistan worker's party. who is the director of the istanbul—based think tank edam which focuses on turkey's foreign, security and economic policy. thank you very much forjoining us on bbc news. how do you think this message from the new defector leader of syria will go down with those kurdish forces? ~ , , ., ., forces? well, they should have been essentially _ forces? well, they should have been essentially prepared - been essentially prepared because, ultimately, with this new transitional government, the aim is to set up a fully functional state unlike the assad error in the fully functional state means that the damascus is to have monopoly over the use of power, which means the disarmament of different groups within syria, including the stf. d0 different groups within syria, including the stf.— different groups within syria, including the stf. do you think the are including the stf. do you think they are likely _ including the stf. do you think they are likely to _ including the stf. do you think they ar

notjust by the time they get to the channel but as far away as thousands of miles away in iraq and kurdistanom. �* , :, this trade has been developed from. �* , ., ., this trade has been developed from. �*, :, ., , ., from. let's have a listen to her saying _ from. let's have a listen to her saying what _ from. let's have a listen to her saying what she - from. let's have a listen to her saying what she says . from. let's have a listen to her saying what she says is evidence of progress. i think we are being _ evidence of progress. i think we are being very _ evidence of progress. i think we are being very clear - evidence of progress. i think we are being very clear and l we are being very clear and straight _ we are being very clear and straight with— we are being very clear and straight with people - we are being very clear and straight with people aboutl we are being very clear and i straight with people about the complexity— straight with people about the complexity of _ straight with people about the complexity of this _ straight with people about the complexity of this because - strai

. $122,000 to teach kids encourages damn to go in in kurdistan. the national endowments for the arts to the bearded ladies cabaret. health and human services determining if lonely rats see cocaine more than happy rats. usa spent 20 million on a new "sesame street" show. you have to go to iraq for that. department of state drop more than 2 million bucks for border security in paraguay. paul says he has identified a lot of wasteful spending. >> a trillion dollars. it's everywhere. it's on to recoat the big departments, department of state, nih, national science one nation. they will wonder why does it exist. we have this apar department of. the only way to get rid of it is to spend less money. >> the new department of government efficiency will look at federal spending, what the government spends is up to congress. the bulk of the projects come from what's called the nondefense discretionary side of the federal budget which is pretty small compared to what the government spends each year on entitlements. medicare, medicaid, social security. back to

against turkey and you want to take a piece of turkey back that you believe is yours to establish kurdistan, that is not the motivation of the syrian kurds in eastern syria. their motivation is to get rid of isis and make sure that they don't rise again. but that's that's beside the point. it is a complex situation. we don't need to get involved in any consequential way in syria other than to protect our own interests and make certain that isis does not rise again in eastern syria, which they have the potential to do. >> general, thanks so much. your your knowledge is really unmatched, and i appreciate it every time you come on. god bless you, my friend. >> great talking to you and your audience as always, mark. >> thanks, general. >> we'll be right back. >> if you're living with dry amd, you may be at risk for developing geographic atrophy or ga. ga can be unpredictable and progress rapidly, leading to irreversible vision loss. now there's something you can do to slow it down and get it going slow. ask your doctor about i survey. i survey, it's ga going slower i survey is an ai injection.

and some of my friends in the region say, you have to understand that turkey's real ambition is kurdistanand the presence of the u.s. troops, there is another complicating factor in this. and the fact that these we have our our kurdish allies ypg, up there in northeast syria and they're also on the move so lots of moving parts here. >> i want to talk about russia's role that you just brought up so russia, the assad regime had had a lot of help from russia since the civil war began. but now is russia unable to help them as much? why are they backing off? >> well, i think russia can help. i think it's a matter of, uh, there's a lot of distraction going on for russia. right now. they're they're pushing really hard in ukraine. they're contending with the demonstrations in georgia and georgia could become another maidan situation. uh, an overthrow of the parliamentary election. you know, romania has just thrown out its recent presidential election results. it's going to have to have a new election because of russian interference. so russia is juggling a lot of issues as well as this. but you s

against turkey and you want to take a piece of turkey back that you believe is yours to establish kurdistan, that is not the motivation of the syrian kurds in eastern syria. their motivation is to get rid of isis and make sure that they don't rise again. but that's that's beside the point. it is a complex situation. we don't need to get involved in any consequential way in syria other than to protect our own interests and make certain that isis does not rise again in eastern syria, which they have the potential to do. >> general, thanks so much. your your knowledge is really unmatched, and i appreciate it every time you come on. god bless you, my friend. >> great talking to you and your audience as always, mark. >> thanks, general. we'll be right back. >> i love pickleball, but it was taking a toll on my body. then a friend told me about multi collagen protein and she's been beating me ever since. >> that is why we're all taking it now. >> ancient nutrition's multi collagen protein clinically studied ingredients with results you can feel. >> my range of motion is much better. >> my joints a

and syria were involved in these intense negotiations to essentially eliminate the presence of the kurdistan national security through to ankara. it has been for 40 years. erdogan has been clear he wants the kurds gone from this area. assad is treating turkey like a peer when he has mortgaged his country to russia and iran. erdogan said, you know, i'm going to let the rebels i've been protecting for eight years in idlib led by hts, a former al qaeda franchise, i'm going to let them off the leash and go on this offensive. nobody, not turkey, not hds, and certainly not assad thought that they would blitz right into aleppo, almost without a shot being fired because the searion-arab army evaporated into the air. from there basically this thunder run into damascus in the space of, what, eight or nine days. now he's lost his regime. and even iran and russia are engaged in negotiations with hts for normalization. >> let's talk -- spend a minute on those two countries. obviously devastating blow to them what has just happened. what do you think the future for tehran and moscow is in syria? >> it's v

of course, there's some small uh, forward operating bases that are associated with the fight in kurdistan portion of syria. and those bases are very, very, uh localized, very small but all those 900 people are there for the anti-isis mission i that is one thing that neither the united states nor any new government that comes from comes out of syria would want to see resurface. they don't want isis to resurface. and that's the primary mission of the u.s. forces. there all right, colonel cedric leighton, thank you very much. >> we'll leave it there. let's turn it over now to cnn's betsy klein at the white house. and, betsy, tell us more about the tone you are hearing in reaction to these events. uh, is it one of cautious optimism more unease. what are you hearing well, amira, this has been a very fluid and fast moving situation. >> and president biden has been briefed just every step of the way in recent days as these rebel groups have advanced on damascus. now, officials are taking great care to emphasize that the u.s. is not planning to be involved in this conflict. and that is in part be

the kurdistan workers party, known as pkk , banned in the uk known as pkk, banned in the uk since 2001ged an armed separatist campaign in turkey since the 1980s. officers have thanked the kurdish community in london for their patience during their ongoing inquiries. israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, is set to begin testifying today in a trial over charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery. it's taking place today after a court rejected a request to postpone it until march 2025, despite the ongoing war in gaza. he's expected to arrive very shortly in court. netanyahu is facing charges in three cases, known as case 1000 2000 and case 4000. the trial venue has been moved from jerusalem to tel aviv for added security, with his testimony to be heard in a fortified underground hall . and fortified underground hall. and back here at home, hundreds of tractors are set to roll into westminster this week as farmers protest changes to agricultural inheritance tax. rally organisers say that october's budget proposal is a death knell for british farming , limiting for british farming

long viewed the kurdish sdf, which controls the north and the east, as an extension of turkey's kurdistanboth are listed as terrorist organisations. until the negotiated ceasefire earlier this week, the turkish backed groups were bombing kurdish areas around manbij near the border and in the oil rich city of deir ezzor on the euphrates. hts quickly took control, a move the united states did not oppose. it is not clear whether washington will withrdraw the 900 troops it has in syria and abandon the kurds altogether. maybe that is part of secretary blinken's discussions in ankara tonight. but it does major implications for europe. because here are thousands of isis fighters and their families still being held in ne syria, under the guard of the kurdish sdf and us forces. we will talk about the kurds specifically in a second. joby warrick is the national security reporter for the washington post. he has written two books on syria and the downfall of assad. one of them titled �*black flags: the rise of isis�*. you are very welcome to the programme. you are very welcome to the programme-— you