player. business d w news live from berlin escalating tension between russia and the q.k. the russian foreign ministry gets back at london's response to a chemical attack on an expiry on british soil we will ask the british m.p. about the prime minister to rescind base decision to kick twenty three russian diplomats out of the country. also coming up thousands of syrians to leave besieged eastern good time as government forces close in the battle for the rebel held on place has been one of the deadliest in the country seven years civil war. plus it

is now officially the happiest place on earth and no we are not talking about a disneyland find out which country has topped the u.s. happiness rankings this year. i'm sara kelly welcome to the program thanks for being with us. britain is getting international backing in its route with russia over an assassination attempt on a former double agent the us france and now germany have all expressed solidarity with the british prime minister theresa may she says that the kremlin is behind the poisoning of sergei script and his daughter with a nerve agent in response she's decided to kick twenty three russian diplomats out of the country but moscow is heading back it says the u.k. has no evidence and warns it will retaliate against london's measures.

until recently britain's prime minister to resign may had to tone being accused of not being hard enough on russia on wednesday she got her redemption standing before parliament may and equivocally accuse the kremlin of attempting to murder a former russian double agent living in the u.k. what followed was a series of punitive measures against russia the united kingdom will now expel twenty three russian diplomats who have been identified as undeclared intelligence offices they have just one week to leave this will be the single biggest expulsion of over thirty years and it reflects the fact that this is not the first time that the russian state has acted against our country. with russia u.k. relations now soured london is rallying its allies for support. he used donald tusk has said he believes the attack was most likely quote inspired by moscow and

will table the matter at an e.u. summit next week but it was at an emergency meeting of the u.n. security council that britain got its strongest backing yet the united states stands in absolute solidarity with great britain the united states believes that russia is responsible for the attack on two people and the united kingdom using a military grade nerve agent russia though is sticking to its script denying any involvement in the poisoning the kremlin has now promised to hit back of britain. after the united kingdom announced unfriendly actions against russia were challenged tory measures can be expected as we said on wednesday. superdelegates but there are currently under consideration and will be taken in the near future such as any of the hosts of study would keep the thing in the british. while most go contemplates its response police in the u.k.

are working to establish the events which led to the attempted murder. and for more we're joined now by conservative m.p. tom to get hot the chairman of the parliament's foreign affairs committee he is in westminster and london thanks so much for joining us this afternoon and. as we've just heard there britain has announced serious punitive measures against russia is this not a little early considering that there is no proof of russian involvement or do you know something that we don't. there is proof of russian involvement this is a russian defector who's been threatened by the president on several occasions this is a russian made weapons grade nerve agent made in a large tree in moscow which is now being confirmed by british intelligence and ratified by american and french this is a very clear pass and we know in germany for example of russian information

operations and indeed espionage operations that have been extremely active in recent years we know of the invasions of ukraine the destruction and murder of several hundred people in m.h. seventeen yet crofter ukraine yannick sation of crimea the occupation of georgia the attempted murder of the montenegrin from as i can go on this is part of a very long pattern of russian aggression and it's got to stop so it's not just about this one specific incident russia for its part it has actually just responded to this and i just want to bring and what sergei lavrov just had to say and he said the russian response will come very soon he promises us that he also said that your ak accusations are absolutely borish if british diplomats are expelled from russia do you care what is borish is to allow a chemical that although it's left three people in hospital and thirty people seeking medical treatment how did you know going to london underground for example

would have killed hundreds of people and to use it next to a children's playground where i have the children mean that it would have killed thirty or forty children this is this is a completely unacceptable war i can't buy a violent and deranged regime that he's weakening and lashing out this is a corrupt dictatorship that has to stop. i'd like you to respond also to something else that russia has said in response to your accusations russia has implied that theresa may is trying to look strong in front of her own people to distract from political problems at home is this true. no what is true is that the president of russia is knows that he has completely failed to rebuild the a russian economy he's stolen hundreds of billions of dollars off the russian people he and his acolytes and even his cellist has got assets of a few billion dollars and he didn't get that for recording rights got more money than elton john his son in law just had to hand over two billion dollars his only qualification was to be the son in law of the president or rather the exile in will this is a man who has looted the russian people and destroyed the russian economy over

twenty years and he knows it and so what he's doing is he is lashing out and he's trying to hide it by playing a hyper nationalist called we know this schoolbook we read this play before we've seen the movie we've seen it in sadly we've seen it across europe before we've got to stand up to it because the alternative is if we do not step up to it now we will be forced to stand up to it in the future and when it comes to standing up to it we know that both the united states the french have come forward to back britain and its accusation accusations toward moscow how much is britain the overlying on its allies at this precarious time because we know for example and the united states when it comes to u.s. foreign policy that has often been shall we say in flux recently. the united kingdom has always relied on her allies we have been a very strong international player and that's exactly what the kremlin is trying to undermine what they're trying to do is to destroy the multilateral system that has kept us safe for seventy years that has kept us working together so we are working

with our allies we're working with countries like a stone year in germany and france and sweden we're working with the united states with the finalized community of canada and australia are we working with nato and we are absolutely standing together on this because we know that we are stronger than a failing russian regime it's a weakening state it's barely capable of deploying its military anymore as we saw in the rather second rate troll of that went through the english channel that calls itself the russian aircraft carrier we are seeing a failed regime and a failing government and it's a tragedy because russia is a great country and should have a great leader and instead it's going to be for a liar and a warmonger pointed where it's india tonton had conservative m.p. for tonbridge and malling joining us from westminster in london we thank you so much for your perspective that's accurate. and a little later on today u.k. prime minister to resign may is due to visit the city of salisbury where the nerve agent attack was carried out we will continue to keep you updated here on t.w. but in the meantime we'd like to head to syria where it looks like the siege of

rebel held eastern could be coming to an end a monitoring group says that at least seven thousand civilians are now leaving the area and crossing over into government controlled territory footage from a state run broadcaster that you're watching here it purports to show hundreds of residents leaving the town. as the syrian army closes in it comes seven years to the day since security forces violently cracked down on a protest against president bashar al assad beginning the war hundreds of thousands have been killed since then and to the u.n. estimates that fourteen million have been displaced and many families like those in our next report are living as internal refugees and fear that they will have to move on again they have banned and aleppo back in twenty sixteen and are now living in it live one of the last rebel strongholds in syria. musri is fifteen years old and he's already supporting

a family of six his father was killed in an airstrike now fuad sells vegetables and it lives earning twenty euros a month that leaves no time to go to school. i have to provide for the whole family i read from morning to night to make ends meet . the war planes are approaching a gun. is used to the sound of sirens. that shoot at us every day. it live is the last province in syria to be controlled by islamist rebels two million people live here many of them fled the syrian government's assault on aleppo. musser and her nephew fu escaped after wafa husband died in an airstrike and she lost her

three sons in the fight against government troops. now mainly women and girls are left they lead a meager existence for wafa musri the seventh anniversary of the uprising against president assad is not a happy occasion when the fed well this. is how the fed has nothing to celebrate it was celebrating when the uprising began because we had reason to other than in the fall of a hurry well of no interest to the streets for our freedom but the regime responded with violence but i lost so much well i did have an army but i was. the government sent in tanks to crush protests in twenty eleven. the civil war escalated across the country. aleppo was besieged in twenty sixteen and was cut off from food supplies amid constant shelling. and her family got on a bus evacuating civilians. there were no horny but they brought us here on the

green buses but we don't feel safe here either it doesn't feel like a home and we didn't know it and there was no what care we've taken a good metaphor. now the family's new home is under fire from the syrian government and russian forces. so had no. jets and tanks have been shooting every morning and evening for days the little bit where am i supposed to go and that the young when that's all. this time there's no way out. and his family can only hope that this seven year war will finally come to an end. hella thorning schmidt is the c.e.o. of save the children and former prime minister of denmark and she has been monitoring the situation facing displaced people in syria this is

a war that's lasted for seven years and now we are seeing that this is been taken to a new level reassessing record numbers of the displacement of the girls the girl we heard about here two hundred fifty children are displaced every day we're seeing a new numbers of casualties which are also breaking the records again we are seeing bombardments of places where children should be safe schools and hospitals and the fourth thing we are seeing which is also looks like a new weapon of war is the law of access for humanitarian help for these people meaning food and medical supplies so the people stuck in a good time right now they are experienced new levels of horrors we save the children have asked these people what they're seeing and the experience you got from this young girl here is this is one of many other stories that we hear inside syria. that was the c.e.o.

of save the children let's get a quick check now of some other stories making news around the world so cocky is prime minister robert so has offered to resign from office this after criticism of the handling of a probe into the death of investigative journalist john could siac could siac and his fiance were murdered as he prepared to publish his findings on links between top slovakian politicians and the italian mafia. a suicide bomber has killed nine people and wounded twenty seven others near lahore in pakistan officials say that the explosion occurred at a police checkpoint outside of an annual religious gathering the pakistani taliban have claimed responsibility for that attack and in brazil unidentified attackers have shot and killed a leftist member of rio de janeiro city council mariel franco and her driver were in a car when men in another vehicle opened fire frankl was an expert on police violence and known for her work in rio slums.

water everywhere needs it and everyone needs it but increasingly this is how people are getting it in plastic bottles but could those bottles be contaminating the water that they hold a new study shows that many leading brands of bottled water contain tiny plastic particles they're called micro plastics and the health implications of ingesting them are largely unknown. most people think of water as something clean and pure but research by the nonprofit organization or media suggests that even the bottled kind often contains microscopic plastic particles researches analyzed bottled water from a total of nineteen locations in nine different countries the results came as a surprise. every brand of bottled water that we looked at had plastic every single brand. the occurrence varies kind of kind of dramatically

certain brands had much higher counts than than other brands are the highest concentration of plastic particles was found in nest lays pure life brand of bottled water. the indian brand business was next with about half as many particles per liter that was similar to germany's. and which is owned by french food giant done on. nestlé and have rejected the study's findings vaneta us is a research over the life of its institute of freshwater ecology he says it's not yet clear whether my quick plastics of the kind found in bottled water are harmful to humans. we're just starting a research chemists biologists and toxicologists still need to conduct tests we don't even know what kind and size of micro plastics are to be found in the environment and in the food chain. as long as we counter certan there we don't know

what we're talking about this is the tip of the iceberg of this icebergs micra plastic contamination appears to be widespread but it's not clear where it comes from all these particles from cosmetics and plastic trash that a found their way into the water system or other plastic bottles themselves the problem and importantly what exactly do these particles do to the human body whatever the answer it's likely to be harm rather than good. you're watching d.w. news still to come on the program it is now officially the happiest place on earth and no it is not disneyland find out which country has topped the un's ranking this year. but first germany has a new government and gary hart is here to tell us that one man is in the spotlight at least in the business world that's sure his name is all off shots and he is the new german minister of finance there are many open questions about him will the

social democrat continue the policy of nicely balanced books that is conserve the predecessor of a short that was famous for and more importantly will he continue to demand fiscal discipline from other spendthrift eurozone members. i think that. he's the new guy in charge of all of shots seen here on the left is leaving his position as mayor of hamburg to step into the shoes of the. procedure in his time as finance minister known for his face fiscal discipline his ability to save billions of euros and balance germany's budget for the first time since one thousand nine hundred sixty nine but his stingy policies also attracted a wealth of criticism sparked tension within the coalition government choiceless hardline stance on austerity during the euro zone financial crisis was heavily criticized especially in greece but years later the greek economy does appear to be

recovering and sure is taking the credit for it to buy stuff you know this is a this is proof of the top policy to stabilize the year right has been a success. the reason is that we've managed after eight years of crisis in the eurozone despite some doubts to keep the euro stable. and or do so it's quite a good conclusion for me to finish this off for me you're going to go to our sources now it's. one thing he's already revealed is that he'd like to keep the balance budget brought about by his predecessor. well our markets buying that forthcoming was all of the financial world one person who knows that and that's of course. the frankfurt stock exchange corner what's the word there about all of shorts. you know get people i talked to here reminded me that how borg a city in the north of germany is

a very important financial center as well a city with a long history of merchants and with a long tradition of conservative politicians conservative mayors who often come from the social democratic parties and mr sholes is one of those mayors he is really a man of the political center not a left leaning socialist and that's why most people here expect that his approach to fiscal policies will not fundamentally change from the one of his predecessor will come shortly mr scholtes won't have a lot of time to relax and be happy about his new job he will have to get to work next week for example where he will meet his american counterpart stephen mission at a meeting of the g. twenty they will have a lot to talk about trade i guess. i think you're getting quite rightly there and there's another man we should have a look at is donald trump's new economic advisor larry kudlow the washington post

called him the man who was quote more publicly consistently wrong about the economy than any other person alive do people there in frankfurt agree. well some people do and many people here know mr kudlow he's a bit of a celebrity celebrity because he's a commentator for the business t.v. channel c. and b. c. he has a reputation of being very entertainment it's entertaining on the air he also has a reputation to be you know supplies side reaganite which means he's a big fan of the tax cuts and spending policies of the reagan era and you're right he also has a reputation of not often being exact and precise when it comes to predicting. the future and economic developments. but only precise he's often wrong. that's not the reason why many people here are concerned about his nomination they're

concerned that his nomination might increase the conflict with china. set to c. and b. c. that he would like to see a trade coalition of the willing in the conflict against china and that's not exactly wording that has a nice ring to european is garbos new in frankfurt for us thank you. six months ago iconic toy store chain toys r us filed for bankruptcy in the u.s. now the retailer has announced it will close all seven hundred thirty five of its u.s. stores is an end of an era and will affect thirty three thousand employees across the country toys r us also said it will shut down all of its one hundred stores in the u.k. as well as sell off its canadian and potentially all its international business poser ross was formerly the largest toy retailer in the u.s. but in recent years in front of the increasingly increasingly difficult to keep up

with online competition. now every year the un releases a study ranking of the world's countries by happiness absolutely a lot of sad kids out there care hard but there is some cause for joy because. no surprise here nordic countries dominate the list once more finland is now officially the world's happiest nation up from fifteenth place last time around the study looks at factors such as life expectancy income social support and corruption the finns tops neighbors like norway and denmark who were also in the lists top five while germany was fifty. you see days long winter nights and a wide social safety net is it the stuff of happiness the finns seem to have at least some of the answers. will our politics and economics i think we have the basics softies quite good in finland so it makes

a great like face why it's why we're doing so good here no that sounds strange are we friends really that happy we're going in on the list you. want to be able to follow we have all the services that we need here daycare is nearby. and the parks as well we can play and slide down hills if we want just like here see the last of. the study also says being happy seems to be contagious it found a high correlation between the happiness of citizens and that of immigrant newcomers. but what explains those countries with less fortunate rankings like the u.s. which fell for places to number eighteen. i think it's the general uncertainty and political unpredictability people don't know what to expect in their future i don't know if that's my guess but. for now the finns and their nordic neighbors know what their future likely holds more sterling scores on quality of life indexes even if

their heat indexes don't always play along. and economist jeffrey sachs is one of the authors of that report he told us why when it comes to happiness nordic countries are the world champions. yeah the nordic countries are the heavyweight champions of the world it well being i think it is what germany you call the social market philosophy what it scandinavia they call the social democratic philosophy it is that everybody should have decent luck that there should be a good benefits cation time leave time for for every worker that society should look after each other and i contrast that with the anglo american view which is you're on your own it's a competitive world it's a tough world and the united states it just keeps falling down in the rankings so

scandinavia that the nordic countries more generally have really earned their position with the a good to political social system as well as the good traits that their culture and society that was jeffrey sachs from columbia university a quick reminder of our top stories thousands of civilians are escaping the siege to buy a humanitarian corridor that says syrian government forces step up their assault on the rebel held on clay. and russia's foreign ministry has warned its preparing to retaliate against britain's decision to expel twenty three russian diplomats over the poisoning of a former spy british prime minister two weeks of may has claimed to moscow for the chemical attack on servant scared thanks for paul and his daughter in the city itself. and a short time ago nato chief stopped back spoke to media and brussels here's part of what he had to say we do not want

a new cold war. we do not want to be dragged into a new form straits. arm strays no winners it is expensive it is risky. it is in nobody's interest but let there be no doubt nato will defend all allies against any threat. that was the head of nato speaking a short while ago keep it here and e.w. we will have more at the top of the hour on those escalating ties between the west and russia i'm sorry kelly in berlin thank you so much for watching i hope to see you again. cut. play.

cut. cut cut cut cut cut cut cut. cut cut cut cut cut. cut. my guest this week long conflict so i'm going to. colleagues on the ground a model close to her being. chris for a breeding ground zero for arms are going to come. monks in cold blood may come on a lot of great get. close. to saddam islamists want to keep the full

plate in the large cross to see a mob played by oscar winner elisia the candle flame to rader she plays the tough and clever archaeologist take to the. public to look the part of the solution that just took on a hardcore workout schedule od your moment in sixty minutes. two w.'s program guide. highlights. dot com highlights. with some junk and instructions from a book. william coming. wanted to build a wind turbine to provide his village with electricity. listening

deal changes like a cricket match to exciting journey. hero story. and the winter starting march twenty first in w. . my guest this week on conflicts is alexander downer my. idea not chris abraham guyandotte the rajah comebacks you can. really ebro him cry shoot him a stage and now we can import since south say make mangwana law greg barack not bill shuster so much. as sonny alfonso das days.