When the Russians shot Katherina, her parents thought she was dead. “The bullets went through her back, the ribs, the lungs, the thighs,” the mother said. “She suffered the most as she was covering her little brother.” She saved his life. He is 8yo. Pres Zelenskyy met them today:
This 88-year-old woman was sitting by herself, disoriented & frightened. “I’m so afraid, my whole body is shaking,” Praskovya told
@RichardEngel
. She’s lived through WWII and said she doesn’t have the strength to go through another war.
"This is going to be the most vitriolic period in American history since before the Civil War," Steve Bannon predicts of the next few months. President Trump is "going to get off the chain...it's going to be payback," he tells
@RichardEngel
. "People better strap in and watch it."
Tonight we’re looking at an American betrayal. The Kurds fought side by side with U.S. special forces against ISIS. But once the fight was over, many Kurds feel
@realDonaldTrump
abandoned them and paved the way for a Turkish invasion.
Watch On Assignment now on
@MSNBC
.
“Sinkholes of money.” Trump’s Scotland property cost more than $50 million in 2014. He bought it even though it was losing money. Since then, he’s spent more than $85 million on renovations – but the resort continues to lose millions of dollars each year.
Steve Bannon & his allies have leased a monastery in the Italian countryside for 19 years, where they plan to build a school for budding populists and "modern gladiators." But it's ignited protest from locals, who want Bannon to take his right-wing populist agenda elsewhere.
"Behind you, behind you."
This is the moment when
@RichardEngel
witnessed rounds of heavy munition fly in overhead from the direction of Turkey, while on the frontlines of northern Syria.
Catch Richard's full report this Sunday at 10pm ET on
@MSNBC
#AmericanBetrayal
VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: We obtained never-before-seen footage of the MEK's secret base in Albania. The MEK is an Iranian opposition group with a history of terrorism. More recently it's paid thousands to
@AmbJohnBolton
&
@RudyGiuliani
. More tonight at 9PM ET
@MSNBC
@RichardEngel
Kurdish commander in chief
@MazloumAbdi
says that their spy was critical to the mission that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.
#OnAssignmentMSNBC
Former Commander of U.S. Central Command Joseph Votel says the Kurds chose America because they “trusted us.” He says it “doesn’t seem very honorable” to abandon them.
#OnAssignmentMSNBC
In February, Russian mercenaries attacked a US base in
#Syria
. Hundreds were killed in retaliatory airstrikes. The Kremlin tried to cover up the incident, but we got hold of intercepted recordings in which some of the contract soldiers discussed the encounter.
Yesterday
@realDonaldTrump
said “we have a great relationship with the Kurds.”
@RichardEngel
set the record straight on
@Morning_Joe
: “The Kurds in northern Syria say they were betrayed by President Trump.” Watch the report on
@OARichardEngel
this Sunday at 10pm ET on MSNBC
On Assignment with
@RichardEngel
is returning soon, with the latest episode in this special series - American Betrayal.
Tune in next Sunday, 10pm ET, only on
@MSNBC
.
@RichardEngel
comes under mortar fire from Gaza while reporting near the border in Sderot, Israel. The team had about 20 seconds notice before impact as air raid sirens went off followed immediately by incoming rounds as they reported live on
@MSNBC
The leaked emails indicate that Veselnitskaya had a high degree of influence over Kremlin officials. She drafted the response that they supplied to US prosecutors in an attempt to stymie a DOJ civil lawsuit against her client, a wealthy Russian businessman.
@RichardEngel
Russian President Vladimir Putin says that the Russian army is not bombing civilians, but a doctor
@RichardEngel
spoke to at an intensive care unit in Kyiv said, “That’s a lie, it’s a lie, it’s an obvious lie.”
"Our boys and girls fought on behalf of the world."
As Turkey invades northern Syria, Kurdish families burying fighters say they have been betrayed by President Trump.
On Assignment with
@RichardEngel
returns Sunday 10pm ET on
@MSNBC
with our latest show
#AmericanBetrayal
Holocaust survivor Boris Romanchenko has been laid to rest in Kharkiv. The 96-year old Ukrainian Jew survived four concentration camps only to be killed by a Russian bomb last week, in a conflict President Putin launched to “denazify” Ukraine.
1/2
The Kurds in northern
#Syria
now say defending themselves against a Turkish attack will be their top priority—not securing the detention camps that hold
#ISIS
fighters.
@RichardEngel
for
@NBCNightlyNews
Kurdish fighters are facing Turkish-backed militias alone after President Trump ordered U.S. forces to pull back. American troops are still in the region, with a new mission, to protect Syrian oil fields.
@RichardEngel
reports for
@NBCNightlyNews
.
TONIGHT: "On Assignment: American Betrayal" airs again at 10pm ET on
@MSNBC
.
@RichardEngel
investigates the impact of the U.S. decision to withdraw some troops from northern Syria, and how it's left our Kurdish allies feeling abandoned.
#OnAssignmentMSNBC
Praskovya hasn’t been in touch with her son and grandson in a long time. But she seems to be doing better as she receives humanitarian aid, including food.
At a hospital in Kyiv last week,
@RichardEngel
met the Vlasenko family. While trying to escape their home on the outskirts of Kyiv, they were gunned down by Russian forces. President Zelenskyy met the family today, as they continue to recover from the attack.
Now for our scoop: we've got new details on Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with top members of the Trump campaign in June 2016. The
#TrumpTower
meeting is a key part of Robert Mueller’s inquiry into possible collusion between
#Russia
and the Trump campaign.
Who commissioned Black Cube to carry out its Iran-related spying remains a mystery. But according to one of our sources, word in the company was that it was done “for Trump.”
The US can pressure
#Turkey
economically, diplomatically & militarily. But Trump is deliberately not using American power in
#Syria
to aid the Kurds.
@RichardEngel
for
@MSNBC
"In all the years that I've been doing journalism, I've always found the people who are the most generous are the people who have the least to give."
Richard Engel finds generosity in the besieged city of Chasiv Yar, eastern Ukraine.
A Ukrainian woman named Praskovia, 88, crying in front of her home. She’s scared and lonely, alone in her house in a frontline village outside Kharkiv.
“The Syrian Kurds were absolutely essential” in the battle to defeat ISIS, Gen. Votel says of the five-year partnership with US Special Forces.
#OnAssignmentMSNB
2 other Americans w deep Russia ties also gave big in 2016. Leonard Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born billionaire, gave $1m to the inauguration fund. Andrew Intrater, relative of a sanctioned oligarch, gave $250K. Sources tell us the donations have come under Mueller’s investigation.
When we spoke to one of the men, Lev Parnas, on the phone in late September, he said he introduced Giuliani and the Ukrainian ex-prosecutor Lutsenko.
#OnAssignment
Faced with Turkish invasion, Kurdish school teacher Nishti Murad was scared to lose everything her people fought for, and decided to stay put. “I decided if Turkey came here I’ll fight, and I’ll fight to the end.”
#OnAssignmentMSNBC
The offer of dirt on Hillary Clinton from someone connected to the Kremlin should have set off alarm bells within the Trump campaign, says
@John_Sipher
. Instead the campaign demonstrated a “willingness to collude.”
#OnAssignment
As President
@realDonaldTrump
announces his intention to withdraw troops from Syria,
@RichardEngel
reports for
@NBCNews
on the significance of the move for the region and America's allies in the conflict.
Honored to have won a
#Murrow
award for our coverage of
#Putin
's overseas influence campaigns. Unfortunately
@RichardEngel
couldn't be at the ceremony yesterday, as he's covering developments in Syria.
@RTDNA
Russian forces continue their advance into Irpin, a suburb of Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv. But, so far, Ukrainian troops are holding them off.
@RichardEngel
has the latest. 1/4
Welcome back to
#OnAssignment
! We start this hour with our exclusive report along with
@guardian
. We obtained emails that appear to show a major Trump donor communicating with a high-ranking Russian official during the final months of the 2016 campaign.
"Our legal basis for being in Syria is ISIS - not to protect oil, so the mission is very unclear,'' says
@brett_mcgurk
who headed up the U.S. mission to defeat the terror group.
#OnAssignmentMSNBC
“People still don’t acknowledge what happened as bad.”
Three months after the attack, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn reflects on what could have happened if rioters hunting politicians had succeeded. Watch
#OurHouse
tonight at 10PM Eastern on
@MSNBC
.
#OnAssignmentMSNBC
“You’ll never find their name on a contract,” our source said. “I was told by someone familiar with it, whom I trust implicitly that, with a nudge and a wink, ‘We've been hired by Trump.’"
#OnAssignment
“After me, there will be a united Ukraine, a united people,” President Zelenskyy said to
@RichardEngel
in a revealing interview. “And that's what's happening. Our people are no longer divided by where they come from.”
Nshtiman Morad, an English teacher in Kobani,
#Syria
, sums up the view of many Kurds in the country, who feel abandoned by the U.S. in the face of
#Turkey
's offensive. “Nobody but the Kurds could fight ISIS...The thanks [we get] is that we’re left alone,” she told
@RichardEngel
Our source says Black Cube began its
#Iran
-related spying shortly after
@realDonaldTrump
's trip to
#Israel
last yr. Word in the company was that the work was being carried out "for Trump." But “you’ll never find their name on a contract,” our source said.
@RichardEngel
We reviewed Black Cube documents & spoke with sources familiar w the firm's work. They revealed how the company spied on 2 former Obama officials —
@ColinKahl
and
@brhodes
— in an effort to dig up damaging info and discredit the Iran deal.
@RichardEngel
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life," 88-year-old Prasvokya said to
@RichardEngel
. "I was 8 years old during [WWII] but they didn’t bomb us like this.” Tune in for our documentary "Ukraine:Freedom or Death" next Friday April 22 at 10pm ET.
“We always speak as if it’s the fate of the Kurdish people to live like this” says Kurdish activist and academic
@Dlrdrk1
@UniofOxford
, but “genocide is not inevitable.”
#OnAssignmentMSNBC
.
@RichardEngel
with a
#coronavirus
update. Good news out of the UK - a clinical trial of a COVID protein treatment saw a 79% reduction in a patient developing a severe case. Later today, Oxford University will release data from its vaccine trial, early indications seem positive.
Kurdish school teacher Nishti Murad says she “blames the American people for choosing such a crazy person to lead the greatest country in the world.”
#OnAssignmentMSNBC
At a hospital in Kyiv last week,
@RichardEngel
met the Vlasenko family. While trying to escape their home on the outskirts of Kyiv, they were gunned down by Russian forces. President Zelenskyy met the family today, as they continue to recover from the attack.
This is what lack of testing looks like. In Mexico City
@RichardEngel
embeds with Fernando Aviles, a paramedic who runs his own ambulance service. For the past few months, 95% of his cases have been COVID-related. Watch more tonight, 10pm ET on
@MSNBC
.
A Russian missile devastated an entire community in Kyiv early Friday morning. « All the damage here and across this country is only convincing Ukrainians of a need to fight even harder, or lose everything » said
@RichardEngel
on
@NBCNightlyNews
Ivan Mischenko was a judge in Kyiv, he’s now a frontline commander in eastern Ukraine. “At the first stage, [Russia] wanted to invade the whole country,” he told
@RichardEngel
. “It was their mistake.” After Russia suffered heavy losses, the war is now slowing, Ivan says.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper arrived in Iraq overnight and faced new questions about the movement of American troops in the region.
This, as a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s President Erdogan has led to a deal that could mark a major power shift in the Middle East.
Meet the MEK, a fringe Iranian opposition group with a history of assassinating Americans. Now it pays thousands to the likes of
@AmbJohnBolton
and
@RudyGiuliani
to speak at its events.
@RichardEngel
New details are emerging about the informant who helped bring the U.S. military to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and how that informant passed vital information on to the CIA,
@richardengel
reports.
.
@RealDonaldTrump
said, “the worst mistake the United States has ever made was going into the Middle East.” But the unexpected withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria has had deadly consequences. Tune in this Sunday at 10pm ET on
@MSNBC
for the full story
#AmericanBetrayal
#Turkey
is relying on Arab militias in northern
#Syria
that are said to include former Al-Qaeda and ISIS fighters. Meanwhile the Pentagon is removing US forces from the region, leaving the Kurds to fend for themselves.
@RichardEngel
for
@MSNBC
The people attacking Francis "don’t like LGBT people, they don’t like people of color, they don’t seem to like the poor very much," says
@JamesMartinSJ
. And they're waging a "relentless" campaign of "personal vilification" against him and his supporters.
Tonight
@realDonaldTrump
is sleeping at
#TrumpTurnberry
. We’ve been investigating the finances of his golf courses in Scotland and Ireland. They were purchased - and renovated at a cost of tens of millions of dollars– all in cash.
#OnAssignment
Dr
@DenisMukwege
has risked his life to treat tens of thousands of sexual assault victims in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, today he was jointly awarded the
#NobelPeacePrize
. Our team had the honor of interviewing the good doctor at the
@PanziHospital
in 2016.
The United States is seeing a surge in coronavirus cases, while much of Europe is getting back to business. Countries there had national
#COVID
-19 policies, accepted mask requirements and lifted closures slowly.
@RichardEngel
reports for
@NBCNightlyNews
"The rest of the world has been watching the United States in shock and horror."
@RichardEngel
examines the social, political and economic impact of Covid-19, and the spark of injustice that set America on fire. Watch this Sunday, 10pm Eastern only on
@MSNBC
#OnAssignmentMSNBC
In a joint investigation by
@NBCNews
,
@Bellingcat
and its volunteers
@OARichardEngel
takes a closer look at the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th and critical moments of the attack. On Assignment with
@RichardEngel
Our House, tomorrow at 10PM Eastern, on
@MSNBC
. Tune in
Kurdish commander General Mazlum Kobane speaks out to
@RichardEngel
about Turkey’s assault in
#Syria
. “It will be the biggest ethnic cleansing operation in the 21st century and it’s happening in front of the American army’s eyes,” he says.
@NBCNightlyNews
Top Kurdish commander speaks out on Syria to
@RichardEngel
:
“It will be the biggest ethnic cleansing operation in the 21st century and it’s happening in front of the American army’s eyes," General Mazlum Kobane says.
"I feel sorry for Putin's mother who is turning in her grave right now because she gave birth to such a nasty bastard," Nina Yarmolenko told
@RichardEngel
after her home was destroyed by a Russian strike. More on Nina's story on
@MSNBC
's "Ukraine: Freedom or Death" this Friday.
In a joint investigation by
@NBCNews
,
@Bellingcat
and its volunteers
@OARichardEngel
takes a closer look at the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th and critical moments of the attack. On Assignment with
@RichardEngel
: Our House, Sunday at 10PM Eastern, only on
@MSNBC
.
We are delighted to share that
@OARichardEngel
has been awarded a
#Murrow
for our continuing coverage of Putin’s covert war. Many thanks to
@RTDNA
for this great honor, to everyone at
@NBCNews
&
@MSNBC
involved in making the show and to our viewers!
The Vlasenko family is now in Germany, receiving treatment. They were shot by Russian soldiers last month while escaping their home outside Kyiv. “Katya and Tanya are gradually transitioning from treatment to rehabilitation and recovery,” Roman, the father, shared on Facebook.
When the Russians shot Katherina, her parents thought she was dead. “The bullets went through her back, the ribs, the lungs, the thighs,” the mother said. “She suffered the most as she was covering her little brother.” She saved his life. He is 8yo. Pres Zelenskyy met them today:
The latest on indicted Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. Plus details on our original scoop. Stay with us on
@MSNBC
and tune in to
@NBCNightlyNews
for more
APRIL 4: Richard Engel here, with the
#coronavirus
headlines I'm following today. Singapore and Hong Kong reimpose quarantine measures after reported second and third wave infections. This may be a sign of what’s to come for the rest of the world in the months ahead.
Next up: Black Cube — the Israeli private security firm that made headlines for targeting accusers of
#HarveyWeinstein
— is back in the news. Last yr it tried to dig up dirt on former Obama officials who had worked on the
#Iran
nuclear — in an effort to discredit the deal itself.
A troupe of entertainers are visiting the subway stations in Kharkiv, hoping to cheer up the children who have been living underground for over a month. “Our children is our future,” one of the entertainers, dressed as Batman, told
@RichardEngel
.
Russia military units are patrolling areas in Northern
#Syria
, a major sign that Moscow is moving to fill the void left by the withdrawal of U.S. troops as Turkey continues its assault on Kurds in the region.
@RichardEngel
reports for
@NBCNightlyNews
.
The Kurds lost 11K people fighting
#ISIS
. One US general called them “committed, dedicated, formidable.” But with Trump’s desire for a quick exit from Syria, the Kurds feel threatened by Turkey & abandoned by the US.
In a joint investigation by
@NBCNews
,
@Bellingcat
and its volunteers
@OARichardEngel
takes a closer look at the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th and critical moments of the attack. On Assignment with
@RichardEngel
: Our House, Tonight 10PM Eastern, only on
@MSNBC
.