You might as well throw your kids ations against Russian Diplomats in the case with the athletes and for our criminal liability. Youre watching our 2 international bring you your live news update from our studio here in moscow welcome to the program. A suicide attacker has detonated a car bomb outside the back room airbase one of the main u. S. Military outpost in afghanistan the top comes not long after tom surprise thanksgiving visit to that same base local media reports say the powerful blast hit a medical facility close to the bases main gate at least 2 people were killed and more than 70 injured according to local sources issued out quickly followed its being reported 3 of the attackers remain at large and 3 others have been killed and another captured. A local t. V. Channel says the taliban has claimed responsibility the american president visit the air base and late november for the skipping speaking to the military personnel their term struck a upbeat tone. With the help of the devotion everyone. Has given here tonight america is winning again we are winning work 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 donald trump was saying that he was winning that most american president s since the american invaded afghanistan. But they are not winning in fact because the taliban is open tolling half of afghanistan and after 18 years of war with afghanistan and trying to force the taliban from afghanistan the United States has come to the conclusion that they have to negotiate and we negotiate with the taliban the same force that 18 years ago invaded afghanistan was the taliban from the country because they were harboring terrorism and they were harboring Osama Bin Laden what the American Government says it says because theyre taliban are weak thats why they keep sending terrorists but the real truth is that the taliban are the real forces unfortunately in afghanistan and you have to count on them in order to secure afghanistan against all this in articles been published in the u. S. Press detailing years of deliberate disinform ation by top american officials who have been putting on a brave face despite knowing the 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 deny it 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 end of the stated objectives grew lines 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 on afghanistan and 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. 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 appropriated to so we could spend it who Building Infrastructure in ways that have against and 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 the rule 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 and society and not have if you corruption you just cant a legacy of mass corruption thats putting it lightly what else the jew expects the guys on the ground may soon disaster they reported it back to washington washington with its countless partment now 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 have got a star not long ago and after seeing what i saw there i can tell you honestly i can guarantee you that while they may have learned their lessons they sure as heck are putting them to use. The french government is pushing ahead with its controversial Pension Reforms despite huge public hostility resulting in mass protests and strikes earlier today the Prime Minister formally presented those plans now lets get more now and go live to paris and charlotte whos there for us what exactly are the plans for the reforms. Well perhaps one of the most controversial elements that was announced today is the fact that the retirement age will increase by 2 years it will go up to 64 while the legal age will remain at 62 if french workers wont to receive a full pension they will have to work those extra 2 years lets break down some of the detail of how this is going to work the government said today this is a good phillipe the Prime Minister that those who were born before 1975 will not be impacted by these changes at all if youre born after 975 and youre made. Career at the moment then what youll find is around 70 percent of your pension will be based on the system and 30 percent on the new system and that those who turn 18 in 2022 they will be integrated for the 1st time fully into the new system this is a system whereby the 42 current pensions in france will be amalgamated into one universal payment the Prime Minister said some of the big winners as a result of this would be women who for the 1st time would receive 100 percent compensation for the time that theyre all Maternity Leave and would also have points towards their pension from their very 1st child while the 3rd child and he said there would be a guarantee of a 1000 euros a month in pension in retirement for those who had worked a full career lets have a listen to what else it would for me to say. We may disagree on some points but the governments ambition for universal. For social justice there is no hidden agenda were not looking to penny pinch we dont want any one man the country. Power of workers and the purchasing power of pension. Already were getting some reactions from the unions who seem to be very unhappy with whats been announced by the french Prime Minister one union seed you know this is the union that is the major union for the s. N. C. F. Thats the way workers here in france say that they are now calling for reinforcement of the strike which is now in its 7th day here in france weve also heard from Police Unions who are mobilizing before that speech by the Prime Minister this morning saying that they want to hold and not mobilization as a result the suggestion is the unions dont feel that the government has listened to them and hasnt gone far enough theyre all human to all of this is that people will have to work longer and they may receive less pension in the future people off if you are so. This so furious in fact that last week when there was a National Strike some 806000 people took to the streets to let the government know that they will let pensions mess to its own choose day that finkel will still stood at 339000 they know already new calls for strikes on thursday of this week and of tuesday or next week it seems that this announcement by the government in detail of what these Pension Reforms will mean hasnt squirreled the anger the anger that weve seen spilling out into the street particularly in that protest last week where there were tensions and clashes between the police and the protest is it looks like this strike is full from. Hard to charlotte devinsky bring us the latest from paris thank you. Still to come the u. N. Says its not from ties between iran and september is drone attacks on saudi oil plants details after the break. Join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and ill be speaking to guests of the world of politics or business im show business ill see you then. Welcome back a russian delegation headed by foreign minister Sergei Lavrov visited washington d. C. On tuesday much to the irritation of democrats u. S. President those same toppy about the visit just had a very good meeting with foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and representatives of russia discussed many items including trade iran north korea and if 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 u. S. Secretary of state mike pompei o the issue of alleged election meddling was raised but the meeting wasnt all about u. S. Russia disagreements on 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 according 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 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 of 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 my pump 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. In the Weapons Systems the threats were very different than they are today too so we believe not only do the conversations need to be broadened to include the Chinese Communist party its year so that the russian president spoke again about russias preparedness right now to agree on its extension to alleviate tensions 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 labral 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 decide 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 crises 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 for u. S. Democrats the meeting between russia and americas top diplomats was one more reason to suspect secret links between trump and moscow. Trump is meeting with russias foreign minister in the oval office again on this or hes invited in out the last time they laughed about trumps firing of komi today they can celebrate the success of russian propaganda regen wouldnt recognize this g. O. P. Tromp lavrov and compare our meeting in breivik this afternoon what conspiracy are they cooking up today congress or Congress Seems to have been captured by a desire to destroy Us Russian Relations used to splurge and shoot adam schiff describes normal by literal contacts between countries in particular the reception of a foreign minister or one country by the president of another country as a triumph of russian diplomacy well he might as well throw doping accusations against Russian Diplomats following the case with the athletes and call for our criminal liability to me position is just absurd. But panic over trump russia links wasnt the only thing that got democratic side on to say earlier Democratic House leaders rolled up articles of impeachment against the president they claim hes ignored and even damage the interests of the country artist often picks 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 the thing 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 imagine 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. The u. N. Says its found nothing to link iran to the september drone attacks which targeted 2 oil plants in saudi arabia the facilities belong to saudi aramco a company run by the saudi government the un is still investigating the case at this time it is unable to independently corroborate the cruise missiles and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles used in these attacks for radian origin. Now after the attack washington and its allies were quick to point the finger at iran imposing sanctions on the country which included Irans Central Bank called the measures the highest ever imposed on any country however iran denied any involvement and shortly after yemens who through rebels claimed responsibility but that didnt seem to convince the u. S. Or its allies. The did not originate from yemen the attack was launched from the move and was on question be sponsored by a wrong we know precisely who conducted these attacks was iran i didnt hear anybody in the region who doubted there were a single mom there is no evidence that the attacks came from yemen emerging information indicates that responsibility lies with iran we need to deter iran from its malign behavior. Writer and commentator Abdel Bari Atwan believes those countries that sanction iran should apologize. I believe is scandalous actually well United States other european governments will jump to the conclusion that iran was behind bad affair i believe most people who will impose more sanctions on iran should actually apologize and revise their. Position to actually hike and then by a go i gave i can believe that United States well its mistaken come out and say i was well sorry here the United Nation which is a very. Only going to use a short expectable one dissentient is actually a great greeting that ordinary people the poor people in the eye because when you when you impose these kind of sanctions against more than 80000000 people and deprive the country from exporting its only so it leaves a desire some of those poor people who are you know the majority in the arms i think that im a going to are committing that crime that gave the people thats our world his wrap up for now but ill be back to top the hour with the latest thanks for joining us. Today. Impeachment mania has dives drawn on both sides of the political divide the i. G. Report clearly demonstrates the f. B. I. Abused its powers when targeting trump world the Judiciary Committee is hell bent on impeachment articles ideological obsession name again. Going to arizonas johnson. And i just got out of prison for. 41 games. 72 years old now i got arrested for tomorrow for something to. Feel like just everything was taken out of. My work in the hospital it was. Meant to snow man it looks a little bit like me. About. Homicide want to come. Now. Were tough in this unit so youre going. To go. To the moon on a friday try to try to give. Us no good something around do. What politicians do. They put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. So when you want to be president. Or somehow want to be absolute. Whats it like to be cross with what the for the 3 of them or cant be good that im interested always in the waters of our. First sit. 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 Un Security Council discussions on the birthplace of jesus palestine occupied with angloamerican military support coming up in the show is israel trying to destroy the birthplace of jesus we asked the 1st female mayor of bethlehem where 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 Beth Forman 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 is christmas despite all the challenges and christmas this year was. Very beautiful very light and the Christmas Tree at the end up me the bird is huge a number of attendants were there the tree up badly had looked gorgeous the motor was the joy of christmas and the joy of christmas is this year all over the place in every city in the west bank in. Love it for who would but im a large area call everywhere people are celebrating the joy of christmas the last time around we spoke to may around one selman he described christmas celebrations in bethlehem as