president putin alters the withdrawal of russia's forces from syria during a surprise visit to the from a min military base five days after the last go declared the country's liberation from islamic states. the backlash continues to escalate against president trumps the recognition of jerusalem as israel's capital protests around the world include attempts to storm the us embassy and demands for the american ambassadors resignation. graphic bodycount video is released in the us showing a police officer shooting dead an unarmed man he was later cleared of murder and manslaughter. this is r.t. international coming to you live from moscow i'm kate thank you for joining us. but we start with some breaking news president putin has ordered the start of the withdrawal of russian forces from syria dottie's daniel hawkins joins me with a studio in their car to get my teeth when they're down in the studio with the details why they're down so does that mean that russia's mission in syria is over or according to some will be the case in terms of the military phase this was announced by president pu

former dutch special and way to syria. running state is making its final stand in syria shaken by the blows of government and kurdish forces the end of the war against the caliphate is in sight with the main enemy over gone what will happen to the truce between president and the syrian rebels the form of isis the end of the syrian civil war or will it only serve to prolong the carnage. because when dan former dutch special envoy to syria a veteran diplomat author off just storing. and nation the civil war in syria welcome to the show a great pleasure to have you with us jim and that islamic state holds no more than a few small towns in south this serious stunning reversal from the times one that stretched from aleppo to missile now you might expect isis to revert to guerrilla tactics and are ground terrorism now how dangerous well the terror will be after its military is defeated well there will be underground so it's more difficult actually to conquer an underground organization so they will try to do terrorist operations

syria we also discussed syria is the first. almost the whole territory of the country has been liberated from. with. any still at least we knew. we knew the hostilities would react actively and actually we started the political process. on the twenty second of november between the. turkey and iran we agreed on a number of things and today we are implementing these arrangements working together on preparing the congress of syrian national dialogue which will take place next year the first months of the next year and next participants will discuss such matters of vital importance as the but deleterious of the future the state structure a constitution. and elections under the. auspices of the united nations is no secret that today my visit to syria i talked in detail with president bashar assad about that very matter of the outcomes of that congress i hope to push forward on syrian including on. track william a guarantor from work we are on the reinforcement of. syria ensuring a stable operational discoloration zone and confidence

i think nobody wants a partition of syria but the problem is everyone wants to have the power and syria sold them a big question though is that once dominated or defeated militarily and. the americans how much the americans are still prepared to support the people they were supporting before or whether offered has been defeated they will lose their interest and they don't want i think at all and the confrontation with russia star a peace deal is hammered out now we keep hearing about the opposition and what they want but what should we do with those who fight for us at are they going to just accept something they fought so hard to prevent was think that the main forces in syria fighting for. are supporting him are russia and hezbollah and iran and they none of the other allies so they will keep supporting him. supporting they will keep supporting the regime because they don't want to lose a strategic you know syrians who are certainly a partially not all of syria but a lot of people in syria are still supporting assad what about them. well they they will wait until there is a new situat

say,row, the russians ok, you come back to syria. bashar al-assad will give up powers, he'll keep the military, security and others. and leave the economic ministries and others that need a lot of money, if you don't have the money, you'll be out soon. and i think the regime knows that. that is why they are putting their money on that. they think whatever opposition comes, they'll come without enough funds. and then the people, the syrian people will look at bashar al-assad and say, you know, we were better seven years ago. what you people calling for democracy have brought for us, what did you give us? your allies with the u.s. and europe? where is the money? that will be the difficult start. [applause] mr. al-assad: thank you. thank you. thank you very much. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> coming up, efforts to fight online sex trafficking. that is followed by a look at how social media is being used by violent ext

that's how syria's leader wants it. here on the east side of damascus, we're at a football field that's been hit in the past by mortar fire. very few of the national team play in syria, but five star players are here training with their local club side. for a variety of reasons, they've stayed in syria, their career choices complicated by the war. every so often you can hear the sound of an aerial artillery shell going off somewhere in the distance. we're very close here to one of the front lines, even as we are in the centre of damascus. but the players aren't fussed, they haven't raised an eyebrow. this is the sound of war, something they've grown up with. omar al midani is one of the younger players of the national team. does this team really believe it can go on and qualify for russia? the training looks familiar. but that's where similarities between the game here and in other countries ends. the difference is not just the conditions, but the hopes and expectations that are placed upon this team. there is no part o

news coming to you live from berlin president putin says it's mission accomplished in syria a claim of victory and of a partial troop withdraw all troops in surprise visit to syria highlighting russia's expanded influence in the middle east. and the bonus league it is back leipzig is looking to keep up the chase at the top of the table while door clinton their new coach hope to turn their season the rough. hello i'm terry martin good to have you with us russia's president vladimir putin declares victory in syria and announces a partial withdrawal of russian troops during a surprise visit to syria putin said the task of fighting what he called armed bandits was now mostly complete he said many russian troops could now return home. russian soldiers in seti are welcoming their commander in chief at the him in military base and on his first visit to the country vladimir putin announced that the bulk of troops stationed here can no go home. last week the russian military declared victory in syria over quote terrorist groups including the so-called islamic state and al qaeda for president pu

important cards person put in he could to achieve in syria very strategic. targets for russia not only for asia but for the security steps pity in the middle east which is very important for russia and for the report in the solution is specially for syrian people dr. daniel hawkins here in the studio with kate as well just got a question to follow up on something very interesting you mentioned that the political process the americans the other factions evolved here now the russians are now as their troop withdrawal do you think washington will out something similar because they have a very clear where exactly they stand on supporting the kurds particular with the relationship with ankara as well will we see that will draw all of other foreign countries from syria as well. i think until now american is. until now there are different declare asians you know the bento go on. many a time that they want to stay until they will see their political process is going in there and this is you know declaring. ugly declare it shouldn't be because everyone knows that you

could two thousand and eighteen be the year when the war in syria finally ends said he's confident his wisdom is no longer what's and after russia helps him turn the tide but also the military gains what kind of political settlement is possible this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. two thousand and eighteen dawns we're examining a story that has dominated headlines for the better part of the past six years syria is on many minds because of the millions either dead wounded or made refugees two thousand and seventeen was a good year for president bashar al assad's forces recaptured major cities and large areas of rebel held territory the russian resort of sochi is due to host a new round of talks in january but after so many failed negotiations the prospect of peace remains elusive we'll get to our guests in a moment but first zain the whole report from beirut. syrians in search of safety there may be less violence because of russian brokered local cease fires but there are still active frontlines in some areas of the country. over the past year the opposition lost siza

well i think that the main forces in syria fighting for. are supporting him are russia and hezbollah and iran and they none of them wants to news their allies so they will keep supporting him. supporting they will keep supporting the regime because they don't want to lose a strategic ally what about you know syrians who are certainly a partially not all of syria but a lot of people in syria are still supporting assad what about them. well they they will wait until there is a new situation but syria is peaceful so they will keep supporting the regime and many others are opposing the regime and the negotiations are you can better gold interest syrian talks in geneva as long as both sites still want to eliminate woman or the opposition wants to leave at least that although they say we have no preconditions and this is the syrian regime in fact wants to get rid of the opposition so the syrian regime minutes really speaking is getting more and more strong and the country's military speaking on the party that is stronger military speaking the mor

back because syria is a rich country and the people of syria are hard—working. it is devastated at the moment, the infrastructure is devastated, but the point is that there will be those who want to return? there will be reconstruction in syria and iraq. this will attract a lot of capital, a lot of skilled people. it will attract a lot of immigrants. yemen, in egypt, in lebanon, it is very piecemeal. a chequered situation. we are talking about syria and iraq but yemen is important, there is a forgotten war there for the last three years and the west is not paying attention to the destruction of yemen. about! million people facing an epidemic of cholera and 17 million people in yemen facing starvation. britain stayed out because of the saudis. the saudis were bombing them. the saudis could not win this war for the last three years and the international community should intervene and put an end to this war. borisjohnson said it is illegal to keep the sanctions on yemen because people are starving. donald trump's relationship with the yemen is non—existent. they

special envoy to syria nicholas van dam told r.t. so if you have an answer that attempts to take all the credit for defeating i soul are only made for political gain at home i think it's not and the country that is really can claim that they have had their victory because there are so many countries involved in the fight against against islamic state it is the western alliance arab countries the syrian regime dear amy and. so to claim it i think it's a political statement that wants to claim that he or she is the main responsible for winning from dives i did says be in the process of various years. well as a lawmaker states defeat has also been declared in neighboring iraq with a military parade held in celebration in baghdad. and i would like to announce that all armed forces and finally create a new and alan bond for all this is a cool control of the iraqi syrian border. in this case the pentagon welcomed the announcement saying it will continue to support iraqi forces to ensure i suppose defeat and the state department spokesperso

he has been across many of the details of their project in syria. what he's about to tell me could lose him hisjob. he says there is fraud that many of the police stations the british government been funding. translation: it was found that stations didn't exist at all, and still the aid continued. even now, we hear reports about stations that don't exist, and this is still being overlooked. one "ghost" police station is here in koknaya, in northern syria. this is the actual building. it's pretty small, but is supposed to be the base for 57 police officers. partly paid for by us. but our leaked documents show that, when one of asi's staff visited the station last september, there were no police present, and that was causing concern. translation: the police station in koknaya is an illusion. it's just words on paper. so salaries were sent for the officers, but in reality, there were no policemen on the ground. we need to know that that money was going to support actual policemen on the ground, doing a job that met our policy objectives. and certainly

against this comic state targets here in syria. there it's. the pilots are ready to go at a moment's notice. it's quite incredible to be standing here in the pulse of the engine fifty of palmira on people around the outfeed would be reduced to dust in this amphitheater laid down by the romans or most two thousand years ago that isis staged one of its sickest massacres the russian military considers it the crowding jewel of the operation here in syria. you can see had just some of the impressive military hardware that isis have in the possession that has made the battle for palmira so tough we're extremely close to isis positions less than two kilometers away and. we're it's a syrian artillery position overlooking the industrial quarter of their resort the battle is said to be fear isis fired back as we filmed shells began falling well around. we ran but the syrian batteries kept firing. life indeed as order is still far from normal but at least they won't be starving to death and the more. ultimately it wasn't russian or american jets that pla

are there any people in syria that... the it all coming from other side. >> the one that is have my views carry arms.t it's difficult for them to fight he syrian regime and the islamists. from the rian regime beginning let the islamic groups target the people. o make them run out of the syria, they want the international community in two or the extremists. it looks like the international chose the regime. >> if return cut through... landscape. syria...d you envisage is there a possibility of country?c rule in this is it possible? >> it's difficult. it's very difficult. most people who are left inside are the poor regime armse, who are holding the on this side. others.islamists on the most people left and they paid leave. they are - you know, 5 million credited, and there are 2-3 million that left. register. did not there's 7 million internally isplaced people in syria and live in the regime controlled area. they ask them where do live better. they prefer damascus than other sharia law, it's difficult. possibility. but not

that any of this it highlights of russia's going influence in the middle east visiting syria egypt and turkey in just one day. to day i'm julie macdonald this is al jazeera live from london also coming up thousands of hezbollah supporters rally in lebanon against the u.s. recognition of jerusalem as israel's capital. a bangladeshi man targets the new york subway detonating a homemade bomb and wounding himself and three others. scuffles in kiev outside a court which is now ruled to free a physician leader mikhail saakashvili in custody. of their a warm welcome to the program and a solar revolution has helped greece hit its climate targets broken promises on. putting other homeowners off investing i do apologize i think we're on the wrong script there russian president vladimir putin has ordered a partial withdrawal of us troops from syria he made that announcement during a surprise visit to syria where he held talks with president bush. now it was part of a whistle stop tour of russia's middle east allies first stop was the un shuttle visit to the cayman airbase in syria's latakia provi

ambassador to syria and. chatham house also in the british capital welcome to you all if i could start with so where have all the fun i still find it is gone i mean that even if you add up the claims i don't think you can account for all the tens of thousands of its rank and file yeah i think it's right. as an organization continues to exist sure it's lost a lot of its territory at its peak it controlled up to half of syria and one third of iraq so it's lost a lot of the citizens a lot of the fighters have have you know died in the battles a lot of the fighters have are in prison a tradition judicial sort of prisons as well as sort of state prisons and a lot of them have escaped there are pockets they're looking to move house where through the region so i mean it really does depend but i think it's an important point to make that this is not the end of the organization the organization will continue to exist it simply going underground and it's part of the cyclical process of this organization is not linear i

after years of terror are still no longer terror in syria the russian military says the group is.

his prisons in syria. he had to leave the country immediately. the risk of falling into the terrorists' hands once again was too great. and late two thousand and fifteen like hundreds of thousands of others he fled to europe reaching austria first and then germany. even before you arrived my suit akil realized that i as was also active in europe carrying out attacks in brussels and paris. he started researching and writing a book about his experiences in the torture chambers. in vienna humint with journalists in an effort to market the book. he followed events in syria closely communicating with his contacts there daily. i says. this because of him there are some people but the people who doesn't know anything so we can't. use my suitor keil collected all the information he could concentrating on tips leading to terrorist supporters from the i.r.s. his prisons. and it didn't take him long to find them often right on the internet. once in europe voted his days and often and tire nights to his research. he made a shocking discovery some of the i.r.

the first was supporting the wrong allies in syria. hillary clinton took 18 months to realize the so-called syrian national council did not represent the syrian people. but was a turkish backed front for a muslim brotherhood. those were 18 months in which it syria was transformed from a peaceful area to rivers of blood. lessons learned? sadly not. the west transferred its s to the syrian national coalition formed in qatar, which included the muslim brotherhood, but added other groups to please the saudis. it's representation of those on the ground was an army whose supreme military council -- it has been four years since eric holder confirmed that the army was led by an spreading the philosophy of al qaeda, and was chillingly accurate in his forecast that left in check, the spread of violence and terrorist activity emanating from syria would result in a long drawn out conflict that extends from beirut to baghdad to yemen. well, that is where it is now. despite john kerry having bizarrely claimed that there was no al qaeda presence in s

panoramas history in syria let's remember saving syria's children and robert stewart forensic analysis of entire report and its potential to be nothing more than propaganda so i genuinely believe this b.b.c. panorama program is to create a scapegoat which is the free syrian play. adam smith international in this case while ignoring for me the much more important concept of the white home let's now if we compare the white helmet concept to for example the k.l.a. which morphed into the kosovo security corps in kosovo it's a very similar process where saying the british government colluding with al-qaeda affiliates inside syria we're saying running alongside the white helmet organization which we know works hand in hand with no support from various other extremists and stays inside syria it acts as a human share it acts as a protection for the terrorist entity it acts as a. camouflage for the atrocities that they are committing against the syrian people so i think we're not saying a protection of the white home it's themselves per se inside syria what we're saying is a protection of the g

as he's planning to withdraw from syria i think he doesn't want on the one hand to leave syria to be taken over by the iranians the door i mean they are as are his his all eyes right now and and the war in syria but he and the on the other hand he doesn't want actually to get the iranians to take over syria as they did in iraq when the americans withdraw in late two thousand and eleven but on the other hand he wants other parties to help them secure and inboards the cease fire and the deescalation zones particularly on damascus and also in the north and bought off of hamas as far as we know their jeep shares have a bleed a key it all actually in bringing these deescalation zones in the east and go thaw and also in the north in part of hamas into effect so he's now seeking their help. to bring in peacekeeping forces to syria especially to these two areas as he did actually when he allowed turkey to. enter or send its army into it lip which is another deescalation zone in the north. of the town how came with turkey or egypt to be to send peacekeeping forces into syria and how if they d

in visits turkey during his middle east horn announces the withdrawal of russian troops from syria. and the israeli prime minister is in europe seeking support for donald trump's recognition of jerusalem as israel's capital but the eve foreign policy chief makes it clear brussels will not follow suit. you're watching r t international live from our moscow studio with me. welcome to the program new york has narrowly avoided a deadly terrorist attack police have detained one suspect who along with three other people sustained non-life threatening injuries in an explosion at the city's main bus terminal the state governor says the man was influenced by extremist groups including islamic state i would say influenced by i don't like the constitution of the word inspired but influenced by these groups here you can see what's believed to be the moment of the explosion we can't verify the authenticity of this video but you can see a flash followed by a cloud of white smoke and people fleeing as the smoke clears one person is seen lying on the ground. president trump issued a statement sayin

it their interest in syria. in terms of a better future for the syrians political inclusiveness in syria that all syrians would participate in determining their future vidanta foreign intervention based on neighborly help or whatever you want to call it we are supposed as i said to facilitate not to dictate i think the minute we all understand that only the view of the people can be stand the test of time then we will be moving in the right direction i believe all of us in the region have a common destiny i think iran and saudi arabia both live in a very difficult neighborhood we cannot gain security idea expensive in security of one another iran and saudi arabia with something from the same extremist groups we will be to targets of the same extremist groups i think the sooner our saudi neighbors realize that this need that they produce all the stakes that they have produced in the past forty years be it saddam hussein be it the taliban be it isis have ended up turning against them it's now time. for them to sta

how syria is organized. and we can leverage the possibility of reconstruction as a means to try to force a wedge between the russians, as ambassador jones was talking about, and the syrians and the iranians, because ultimately their interests are different. but we have to keep, not just diplomacy, but military presence there, and that means working with turkey, the kurds and iraq and the iraqi government so we can physically get in and out. because we need entree to that region. >> well, my time has expired. but thank you again for your appearances here. and i know some of you have already failed at retirement. to the extent you ever fail again, want to come back into government service, i bet there are a bunch of senators in this committee and elsewhere in the building that would be happy to vote to confirm you in another position in the united states government. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you to our witnesses for being here today. as we have been talking about over the past few months, local for

many in syria want to protection. they were not able to find this protection with the united states come with france, with u.k. colonialism -- minorities were always protected by the british and the french. the only country that provided that where the iranians. before thebefore the russians we only people providing this support were those minorities or iranians. they will tell you, including many shia in lesbian on are not with hezbollah. who will protect us from extremists? you know difficult ? the majority of sunnis are of course -- they're peaceful, sunnis who have nothing to do with extremism. myself, i believe it is wrong to even divide between was loans -- muslims -- divide between people, christians. i have a foundation to remote interfaith dialogue which is very important. i think it is silly that in this day and age we talked about christian and islam and judaism and buddhist -- who cares? we are all human beings. the first question i ask you is not where are you from, what religion are you, i don't care. i

of looks back at what's been achieved in ridding syria of eisel. the sioux called islamic state of syria and iraq is a state no more for all intents and purposes says the russian defense ministry it is being destroyed as a fractured iraq still hot spots and isolated pockets with putin added but with the liberation of the west bank of the euphrates river isis has done seven hundred and ninety days off to russia got involved in september two thousand and fifteen when isis was arguably at its peak fitness lifts . when the russian operation began isis held more territory in syria than any other faction two years in a few months on the caliph it has been reduced to clumps of villages and i don't the habits of dead that most of the russian air force a loon that did this the u.s. led coalition also played a huge pot we've been covering the syrian civil war in depth before isis even had its name before jihad ists hijacked the rebel schools here are some of the more memorable moments filmed by my colleagues and i. are. this is the ad base from which russian

syria. >> i appreciate that. my time is up. >> at the state department and as well as being here today, ambassador crocker, you talked about the fact that we are not even at the table for the discussions in syria right now and i would argue part of the problem is we have a state department is not functioning in the way that we would like it to because we have an administration that doesn't recognize the portions of diplomacy and the role of the state department in foreign policy. i'm not sure how it recognizes the importance of the foreign policy, but i wonder i'm going to ask you, ambassador jones because you were most recently the state department's top diplomat for the middle east and i wondered if you could talk about what he could be doing to better enhance and efforts with our allies and partners in the middle east through traditional diplomatic channels. >> i think this administration has taken a significant step to improve relations with key partners in the middle east. i do think that it was a watershed

to syria and north to make the announcement. by meeting his military commanders on the ground on syria is see important for him because as you know putin is having election next next year and he's planning to exploit this mom. from the vet. the beginning was for him something. external maybe this is something against the united states in the first place but on the other hand it has its domestic incentives for for him his approval rating in after his decision to intervene militarily in syria has soared in fact more than eighty percent approval rate lost last year so i think syria is the most important issue but of course i mean there are other issues here because he's visiting egypt which by the throat ties with each of prussia on both of those is very important but it's also part of his. his way actually to express himself and to exhibit my hopes of project power in the middle east by my by visiting to you as allies we're talking here about egypt we're talking who also about about and to actually has been closing has been has be

methods of visits to the jury his middle east tour and announces the withdrawal of russian troops from syria . so the israeli prime minister is in europe seeking support for donald trump's recognition of jerusalem as israel's capital but the e.u. foreign policy chief makes it clear that brussels will not follow suit. a good evening to you my name's neil harvey this is r.t. . new york narrowly avoided a deadly terror attack after a botched attempt to detonate an explosive device at a subway station near times square police have detained one suspect who along with three other people sustained non-life threatening injuries the governor of new york says that the suspect was influenced by groups such as islamic state i would say influenced i don't like the connotation of the word inspired but influenced by these groups. and you can see what is believed to be a video of the boat attack we cannot verify its authenticity at this point you see a fair leaf in the aftermath of an explosion port new journey into the port authority building and that building so as you see crowds and crowds of people pile

american administration that they should actually pull our troops from syria not only from syria but also from iraq so there is no need for them to be there unless that american actually would like the water in the middle east. tensions around jerusalem amounting israel is attacked a mass positions in the gaza strip that's after the palestinian militants reportedly fired at least one rocket targeting i.d.f. positions so it is fire that in the wake of donald trump's announcement that the u.s. would recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel may have sparked a wave of anger in gaza on monday. the. five. and on sunday hundreds of anti to. demonstrators rallied in need the u.s. embassy in beirut lebanese security forces fired tear gas and water cannon into the crowd we discussed the recent wave of protests with missteps above guzzi from the palestinian national initiative and you're a retired israeli ambassador. stalling the american decision to relocate the embassy to jerusalem for the last twenty two years since congress passed the law of the relocation of the embassy to jerusalem th

about the next for syria following isis. around and syria. or whether he was genuinely conflicted and see again or whether he was just playing the media nevertheless we were put out of our misery when he said you support yes. but you should thank you for your reaction but first of all spoil your work. and i was rumored that this big announcement would come earlier in the day when he attended a volunteers for him here in moscow in fact i was here ready and waiting to bring you the breaking news of his decision however he played quite once again and also seemed to seek validation from the audience there and they seemed very clear on what decision he should make yes yes no way to show you i mean if i make such a decision. and the people close to support it. i. but it still should prove to be an interesting race over the coming weeks and months with quite an eclectic mix of candidates throwing their hats into the ring one of the most prominent being a stock chart she's considered to be the russian paris. and what's also quite interesting about he

northern syria that. the our ultimate goal is to provide aid for the movement from asia to europe and from europe to asia now if we do that it's will be economically more efficient but we would like to make sure that china. makes use of these benefits china is now part of some major projects in the arctic we just launched. the first step. of the line of the first stretch of. project which is it's plain to be sixteen point five million tons. and that's an annual output and china is one of the major investors and there's no coincidence there's a reason for china's interest to the konami clearly and we will also cooperate on other projects. pipeline gaz supplies. we have another great projects on high speed transit well that's what the silk route is all the ballots we do support this. transit link from china. to western europe via russia. who would. increase the speeds of transit of goods and services of goods and people multiple times are also have joint projects seen. in space exploration so i'm sure we ar

this part of northern syria is controlled by four fighters —— this part of northern syria is controlled by fighters from a group called nour al dine al zinki. the americans originally supported zinki in the war against the assad regime, but cut them off in 2015, following accusations of atrocities. last year, the group beheaded a young prisoner. it was clear by 2016 that nour al dine al zinki had committed violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses. for them, violations of summary killings or executions were something very normal. but we have discovered that british aid money was routinely given to the extremists by the free syrian police, or fsp. youssef houran is a lawyer who worked for the civil administration in an area dominated by zinki. translation: zinki used to get a percentage from the salaries of the free syrian police. it was taking a percentage in return for their services, and to create a sort of equilibrium between the police and the fighters. was this practice of sharing the fsp salary between the fsp and zinki — was it systematic in the area?

forces to leave syria. i want to read you a statement from one of the main envoys, the task of defeating the terrorists group in syria by the americans has actually been fulfilled and therefore we believe that are crumbling. we see there's potential for conflict between these two nations in syria. very interesting to see how that plays out in the putin/trump relationship we have been talking about so much on our air, christine. >> absolutely. thank you, fred. >>> the massive thomas wildfire in southern california inching closer to being the largest in state history. as the fire grows, so does the costs to fight it. that brings the total to more than 272,000 acres and the cost to fight it topping $170 million, and it's only 65% contained. >>> and passing a spending plan to keep the government open another month. one more month. hi, i'm mike ditka. and i'm johnny bench. and we've spent our whole lives around professional sports taking hits and catching our fair share of aches and pains. which is why we use bl

in the middle east in know if syria. is a base of ideology called democratic come federalism which is. an ideology the takes a lot from. a case study on the g. is really is something no no go off as a way for the hasn't been able for the last centry mabel on a case to be able to organize to show. politics around what the cuts of done is to make a very good critique of. and to put forward a proposal for how we can engage in politics in this century to be able to. advance the cause of humanity food with all due respect i think when it comes to the struggle in their fight spirit i says it's not really so much about diet geologist much is about their survival i don't thing i says every li thinks much about. can federalism as you explained it i think for them it's just. ethnic and perhaps religious hatred so from what i understand the kurdish fight was primarily for survival rather than their political or social vision. your main drive of the movement is the ideology that's what gives them strength as a movement in the middle

brigham and women's hospital. >> martin smith: syria, january 2011. the arab spring was sweeping across the region. >> thousands of demonstrators... >> a huge step towards democracy... >> smith: a new u.s. ambassador, robert ford, was just arriving in damascus. >> democracy taking place in a lot of these countries... >> demanding change, they're fed up... >> smith: at the time, it seemed syria's dictator would be next to fall. >> protesters in tahrir square drove hosni mubarak out of power... >> mubarak actually left power in cairo the weekend after i got there. and in my first meeting with bashar al-assad, i asked him point blank, "looks like kind of a difficult time for authoritarian regimes. what kinds of steps are you thinking of to get ahead of the problem?" and he kind of brushed it aside and said, "it'll never happen here." not three weeks after that meeting, the arab spring started in the haria market in damascus. >> the uprising of the syrian people was a secular one. one of its slogans was, "wahed, wahed, wahed." >> smith: one, one, one? >>

so what the president has said is in terms of you know you want to help in dawn on ground in syria to deal with some of these jihadists that will have been return impact now with the state ideology you know to bomb you know certain individuals who are going about their daily life with well as you touched upon yourself there i mean only this month president putin called president trump to thank the cia for helping to follow another terror attack and that time is also some patience spec i mean why do you think it is that the militants seem to be stepping up their efforts or are they. i think there's no doubt as most do. for fall and some of these individuals have no hiding place they've been hunted the best thing for them to do. are some of those radicalized that cannot leave you know. where they are. individuals the diaspora most of them individuals from you know other countries who have taken our nationality being pretty. russian citizens from those. allies to this islamic propaganda. more or less don't lean back and look it up a soft target areas of areas that they could attack a doe

large scale anti terror campaign in syria. six months after the start of the russian campaign another major symbolic loss for i saw the liberation of power myra the city where the terrorists filmed one of their most horrific executions. russian as strikes destroyed oil trucks and tankers draining the terrorists' cash source and while i suppose money was burning the u.s. led coalition together with the iraqis and the kurds attacked isis biggest city mosul the battle for mosul turned out to be a long one waged over nine months in victory came a tremendous cost turning a city with two million inhabitants into rubble. after the liberation of mosul the coalition shifted its focus on syria backing its kurdish allies in their push against isis self-proclaimed capital raca in october two thousand and seventeen the city was completely liberated was. the. final nail in the caliphates coffin was the liberation of their resort the syrian city which i so besieged for three years. the last resort there was not much of the states left i see