Our criminal liability but the. French government pushes forward with this new pension reform which has already led to days and months demonstrations have a long dress down strike action. So i welcome you watching r. T. International with me the caring not top story this hour so side bomber has detonated his car outside one of americas main military outposts in afghanistan the airfield the time comes hot in the hills of trump surprise thanksgiving day visit to the very same base the american president s lou to afghanistan and visited the airbase in late november for thanksgiving speaking to the military personnel their tribe struck a rather upbeat tone. With the help in the devotion everyone is given here tonight america is winning again we are winning like we have not won in a long time. And you know what were respected like we havent been respected in a long time america is winning again and america is respected again and respected at the highest level. Against this backdrop a scathing report has been released which details years of deliberate december mation on the part of you top u. S. Officials who a child spies have been posing on a brave face despite knowing the unpalatable truth about the afghan war. Hundreds of thousands dead trillions of dollars lost generations traumatized but you know what nothing good comes easy nothing in afghanistan we helped liberate an oppressed people. And we will continue helping them secure their country rebuild their society and educate all their children boys and girls. All that i set to defeat al qaeda and and i had a chance to rebuild is within reach and were doing a tremendous job. And as you know a big part of the job is isis certainly the biggest and al qaeda and we. Weve got them down very low numbers you didnt need to be nostradamus or clairvoyant to know that someone was telling bull its just logical fallacy you cant keep fighting the same guys for 20 years and claim the joule winning but then appearances must be kept up its important that everyone thinks youre winning right up to the moment you admit you lost why well its obvious no one has the remotest clue we were trying to do here we didnt have the focus notion of what we were undertaking there is a fundamental gap of understanding of the front and overstated objectives. In the military and the lack of understanding of the resources necessary and wed never have known if it hadnt been thousands of secret and classified documents all have got to start stuff from the white house from the pentagon the un and the various n. G. O. S well we would have known its pretty damn obvious that the war is going terribly but who says mouth and all that it is worth considering what the president the deficient said and what they actually believed when i called our troops in action i did so with complete confidence in their courage and skill and tonight. Thanks to them. We are winning the war on terror. And. Today we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror are we capturing killing or deterring a dissuading more terrorists every day than the mage asses on the radical clerics are recruiting training and deploying against us does the us need to fashion a broad integrated plan to stop the next generation of terrorists the us is putting relatively little effort into a long range plan but we are putting a great deal of effort into trying to stop terrorists the cost benefit ratio is against us see when youre in your 2nd term and you started a really messy war that you just realized you cant hope to win there only so many ways to save your own but heres a list of words you should use courage democracy kids schools and hospitals and for the people that dont buy your baloney get a hope in there as well thanks to the courage of these military and civilian personnel a nation that was once a safe haven for al qaeda is now a young democracy where boys and girls are going to school new roads and hospitals are being built and people are looking to the future with new hope also poor in money into huge Infrastructure Projects to obligate money that was appropriate to so we could spend it would Building Infrastructure in ways that have again instant could never sustain or even the use in some cases if youre a nato country taxpayer i honestly dont believe you can comprehend how much of your money was poured into this adventure you 1st need to understand the sheer degree of incompetence that these leaked documents show imagine for example someones putting together a crew for a bank heist they invite a bunch of people give them a time and place and tell no one what their role is no plan so everyone shows up thinking that everyone outs knows what to do. And things go as you would expect now is the time to save your own heidi lets add a few more words difficult days human rights confidence success we will reward Good Governance work to reduce corruption and support the rights of all afghans men and women alike. There will be difficult days ahead but i am absolutely confident we will succeed you just cannot put those amounts of money into a very fragile state in society and not have if you corruption you just cant a legacy of mass corruption thats putting it lightly what else did you expect the guys on the ground nay sought disaster they were ported it back to washington washington with its countless departments didnt have the courage to stand up and say they screwed up so they put up appearances everyone was doing what made them look best rather than what worked best interesting enough many of the documents were published with the name Lessons Learned perhaps an effort to extract something anything of value from this unmitigated disaster but you know as it has got a star not long ago and after seeing what i saw there i can tell you all asleep i can guarantee you that while they may have learned their lessons they sure as heck are putting them to use. Were turning to our top story now a powerful blast has rocks an area in the immediate vicinity of the u. S. Background a military base in afghanistan can now bring in a local journalist. Ali this is a time comes right off to trying to visit can you tell us more about the significance of the timing perhaps in about the bombing itself. The bombing itself took place early in the morning around 5 36 am. And essentially it was reportedly meant to target a u. S. Military convoy a nato convoy and what ended up happening was that a hospital that the u. S. Was building that was meant to treat local residents you know when they had illnesses and things like that that was badly damaged and now we have reports of dozens of casualties of injuries 5060 the number keeps going higher and you know thats because in these areas there are so many people in such a small. Physical space passing by you know starting their day if youre in a more rural area youre starting your day earlier and so this is how you end up with such a high civilian casualty toll or at least injured. Because i want more about how the bombing is being felt locally how its being reported in the local media. Its really been followed up on all day today people are talking about it obviously the big issue is that you know the number of civilians affected by it theyre affected both by the damage done to the hospital that could have provided a much needed service to the area and also to the fact that people have been injured there may be deaths as well. And its just another example of how much of a toll this war is taking on civilian life and of course it was less than 2 weeks ago that donald trump was at a military base and now this is happened can we read into the timing of it or so. In what sense i mean because donald trump left 2 weeks. I mean no i mean the only thing we can say is you know is that the u. S. Taliban talks are going on in doha but theres no confirmation that the taliban carried out this attack so in terms of timing anything special no no theres nothing you know unique about the timing. Of course we dont know who is responsible for that attack at this point assuming it was the taliban or we still dont know it would come in as peace talks between the u. S. And the taliban resumed only a few days ago you know what kind of message would they be trying to send if it was the taliban that was behind this attack. I mean i mean the thing is when you when you look at sort of this this issue of the peace talks there are no preconditions to the peace talks theres no one saying that while youre talking peace to us you should be stopping your attacks obviously when President Trump came last week he did say that he felt a cease fire was imminent although theres no actual proof of that. And theres also been no real pressure at this point to call for any kind of a cease fire on either side because you also have the u. S. And Afghan Military as you know carrying out their operations and you have if it turns out to be the taliban the taliban carrying out their operations as well. Thank you for your time. Russian delegation headed by the countrys top diplomat visited washington on tuesday much to your taishan of democrats that the u. S. President although trump those seem top be about the visits. Just had a very good meeting with foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and representatives of russia discussed many items including trade iran north korea i. N. F. Treaty Nuclear Arms Control and election meddling look forward to continuing the dialogue in the near future the Russian Foreign minister also held talks with the u. S. Secretary of state might pump a if the issue of alleged election meddling was raised but the meeting wasnt all about u. S. Russia disagreements as he calls don of explains. From the outset it became clear how much room for improvement there is in the relations between russia and the United States for instance one of the cases election meddling the secretary of state might bump a way has been very adamant that any interference in americas relations is unacceptable by a foreign power to which russias foreign minister Sergey Lavrov stressed that all such accusations still exist in the realm of speculation. Now as for meddling or not you suggested simply to read the report we did and in it there is no proof of any collusion. Also has repeatedly said that russia is ready to release full transcripts as to what was said by the russians and by the members of the trump team via a special communication channel that had been established back in 2618 but the quoting to the Russian Foreign minister those attempts to make those transcripts see the light of day have so far been stopped by the trumpet ministration. After the integration of donald trump we suggested to our colleagues that in order to dispel all the bases suspicions let us publish this close channel of correspondence starting from october 26th until november 27th teen so that everything would become very clear to people unfortunately the Current Administration refused to do so now the bone of contention between russia and the United States is the i. M. F. Or rather the absence of the deal now and both parties of both ministers have kind that clashed as to how they see the moving forward for instance the Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has again said that the countries could use the start treaty that had been signed back in 2010 but might bump a has made it clear what the United States dont like about that deal. That was entered into many years ago when ours were very different on a relative basis around the globe. It was at a time. The Weapons Systems the threats were very different than they are today today so we believe not only do the conversations need to be broadened to include the Chinese Communist party it was year that the russian president spoke again about russias preparedness right now to agree one of 6. Inches in the Global Community given that the last instrument of arms control between the United States and russia will stop operating we are prepared to do that even today on the other hand circular has reiterated that russia has been making unilateral steps of good faith for instance the russian president had previously said that russia wasnt going to deploy any weapons that had been found under the i. N. F. Treaty in europe unless washington or its allies decided to do that 1st but it wasnt all negative there are some points where russia and the United States do see eye to eye on where they do see each other as valuable partners syria afghanistan north korea all those aspects all those political price easy to see russia and the United States working together and both countries that seem did their best both ministers at least did their best to try and move that train forward as much as they could and for us democrats the meeting between russia and americas top diplomats was one more reason to suspect secretly links between trump and moscow. Trump is meeting with russias foreign minister in the oval office again im visser hes invited in im always knocked out last time they laughed about trumps firing of komi today they can celebrate the success of russian propaganda reagan wouldnt recognize this g. O. P. Trump lavrov and compare our meeting in private this afternoon what conspiracy are they cooking up today Congress Congress seems to have been captured by a desire to destroy Us Russian Relations used to splurge and shoot at him she describes normal by literal contacts between countries in particular the reception of the foreign minister of one country by the president of another country as a triumph of russian diplomacy well he might as well throw doping accuse a sions against Russian Diplomats bowling the case with the athletes and call for our criminal liability to me position is just such that you can see for the panic of a trumped russia links wasnt the only thing that got democrats excited democrats housemate is officially called for the u. S. President s removal from office they claim hes ignored it even in jest the interests of the country. Can pick up the story. Now the meeting focused on Nuclear Nonproliferation as well as other International Issues but it appears that negotiations and moving forward on these vital International Matters is being held back by some internal turmoil within the United States of america and it just so happens that this meeting is taking place on the very day that articles of impeachment have been drawn up against donald trump over a phone call he had with the ukrainian leader and allegations that he obstructed the congressional investigation into that phone call the 1st article is for abuse of power it is an Impeachable Offense president should be engaged in an unprecedented categorical and indiscriminate defiance of the impeachment inquiry. This gives rise to the 2nd article of impeachment for obstruction of congress i think its a disgrace if people could make it be true that if nothing that was a perfect conversation they were perfect cover say here is the thing. And i think its great this is somewhat of a pattern whenever a high level meeting takes place but it seems that its followed by a harsh attacks on the president and accusations of some kind of inappropriate relationship between trump and russia or cia director john brennan was among the 1st to float the t word treason officials and pundits even begin speculating whether russia had something on trump that would cause him to so publicly side with you have been watching perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an american president Donald Trumps action just today were quote appalling and shameful shocking and sad damaging and a threat to american democracy those harsh words related mainly to the investigation conducted by bob muller regarding allegations of collusion now interestingly a new report has just been released regarding how that investigation was carried out the new report seems to indicate that the f. B. I. Made great errors and how they what about investigating donald trump during this this probe into alleged collusion donald trump spoke critically of the f. B. I. And pointed toward the report the report actually and especially when you look into it and the details of the report are far worse than anything i would have even imagined this was an overthrow of a government this was an attempted overthrow the report shows is that the democrats are not even the democrats but any Government Official that did not want donald trump that wanted to support Hillary Clinton but that does not want donald trump in office or donald trump as president United States will do anything including lie lie to Congress Light a Senate Questions feed stories to the media break protocol violations of confidential investigations in order to feed those. Stories to the media to create certain narratives to harm trump the report effects the impeachment process in general and hopefully you know most americans probably are going to read every single word but i hope that they do its far more damaging than some of the outlets have made it sound there are lots of facts in there remember the report the i. G. Report was never supposed to 5 indict anybody or bring criminal charges it was supposed to show that there was wrongdoing and how these investigations started in the 1st place how the russia trump lie started in the 1st place france more they stop top stories coming up off this very short break stay with us. Join me every socially on the alex im unsure and ill be speaking to get us to the world of politics or business im show business ill see you then. Welcome that the french government is pushing ahead with its controversial Pension Reforms in the face of mass protests and strike action over the issue from mr Edward Felipe will present the plans to the economic social and Environmental Council on wednesday the day before more than 300000 people took part in demonstrations across france according to the interior minister but labor union said the number was almost 3 times higher with more from the french capital hazier patrik. Well as you can see we are in the thick of it the country is trying to deliver their message to the government before now says their final plans for the pension reform in france although we did hear from the countrys Prime Minister that for them for now there is no intention to change their plans if we dont make serious profound and progressive reform to date someone else will make much more brutal reform tomorrow i hope that we can convince a majority of french people that our reform is fair it is universal it makes the special Pension Plans gradually disappear and is financially balanced not just for a moment let me give you a clearer picture of who these people are for instance i mean weve already been used to the yellow vests but as you can see these are orange and what it says on them is s. N. C. F. This is the French Railway company which is by the way one of the driving forces of the protest almost 85 percent of the Railway Staff members white rice said this is really causing chaos in the countrys transport system i just thought oh you know about all real world workers i said. The professions range from air Traffic Controllers to actually Police Officers and lawyers so this is just how vast it is but i do have to mention though that last week protests in various cities of these countries did turn ugly and violent. I can tell you that most of the slogans that we are hearing in these protests are aimed directly against the president emanuel macron one you can see right here it says macro dont touch my retirement the idea for the pension reform is to introduce a universal point system which will make the pension sums universal for different layers of the society but some of them in france do fear that they will lose their privileges they want to give us a town hall food system you have everyone who die you forms but all much. So with brings you a point never knows where now this is just a warning for the government but its not hard to predict whats going to happen if emanuel macron and his team decides to stick to the plan. And unless they can look at some unease in brief on the ground the wild. Thank you. 6 people including a Police Officer were killed also to learn open fire in jersey city in the u. S. The shooting started at a local cemetery and continue to push the markets 2 suspects were killed by police jersey citys mass is the kosher store is whats being deliberately targeted by. Students and trade Union Members clash with police in the colombian capital of bogota demonstrators there were calling for an increase to the minimum wage colombias been rocked by protests since the government changed its Economic Policy and making them but. Down to the election rally took place in the algerian capital on choose day thousands flooded the streets to oppose the holding of any vote before the political system is reformed they told the countrys aging president resigned after 2 decades in power under the pressure of months of mass protests. Im here at r. T. We love to hear your thoughts on all of our stories so do get in touch by following us on social media and leave your comments there were back of top of the hour. Facebook and google started with a great idea and great ideals unfortunately it was also a very dark so. They are constructing a profile of you and that profile is real its detailed and it never goes away turns out that google is manipulating your opinions from the very 1st character that you type into the search for it will always favor one dog food over another one comparative Shopping Service over another and one candidate over another they can suppress certain types of results deiced on what they think you should be see if they have this kind of power then democracy is an illusion the free and Fair Election doesnt exist the more we give them the sooner we are all pain. When the bailouts came in 20080 theres a lot of money printing going on people said well wheres the inflation the government says theres no inflation you know and then a lot of people say well actually health care and education are skyrocketing in value you dont count those and thats why youre misreading inflation and this has been going on for years new evidence suggests. That we found it we found the missing inflation. Seemed wrong but. Just dont hold. Anything that is yet to stamp out disdain become educated and in gains from it equals betrayal. When so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. This is going on the ground from london ahead of what is billed as the most important u. K. General election since the 2nd world war its also the 1st christmas election since 923 in all the head of u. N. Security Council Discussions on the birthplace of jesus palestine occupied with anger American Military support coming up in the show is israel trying to destroy the birthplace of jesus we asked the 1st female mayor of bethlehem via a boon about Israeli Occupation and accusations of the ethnic cleansing of christians from palestine. And fighting for justice in the middle east and one of britains most celebrated composers how it played on his Legendary Music for the snowman and composing for everyone from Princess Diana to the United Nations ahead of his performance tomorrow with welsh met so soprano Katherine Jenkins at the Royal Albert Hall possible coming up in todays going on the ground a 1st after tomorrows u. K. General election let alone the fallout from the u. S. Inspector generals report into obama corruption in the usa will come christmas when millions of people of the book all around the world look to bethlehem in palestine to celebrate the birth of jesus christ but is what is happening in bethlehem arguably just as political as the Major International stories we have covered on this program this year we can go now to bethlehem in palestine joining me is bethlehem former mayor of vera and thanks so much vera for you coming on to if you could just paint as a picture of what beth them is like to this year because obviously theres a wall is the aida refugee camp banksy so tell the woman in black the woman in black jewish Womens Organization protesting Israeli Occupation tell me what its like this year christmas this christmas this fight all the chant and kids and christmas this year was. Very beautiful very like in the Christmas Tree at the end of me than berry number of atlantis where there