come, ah, the mystery of the poison school girls in iran, hundreds of girls across the country, were allegedly subjected to gas in deliberate and orchestrated attacks in their schools. dozens were hospitalized with respiratory problems on tuesday, the city of parties near tehran, according to reports adding to the hundreds of cases of poisoning since november, iran's government is investigating and says it could be an attempt by extremists to force the closure of girls schools. the usa department has urged iran's government to investigate. i am glad l. f, as in this is the day. ah . when i stand up i feel dizzy in my entire body feels lane. none. which means i

can't walk. in one of the workshops there was a smell that was like the smell of paint. so we evacuated the students. i feel pain in my chest, and when i walk my legs shake a bit with assigned a special committee to investigate this matter. and this committee is comprised of the best toxicologists at the university professors of the damage. ah, also on the day the americans helping migrants to survive the difficult and dangerous journey from mexico to the u. s. pal, texas brooks county is a barrow ground for a lot of my this the work that has to me that nobody else is doin, it will continue it. you know, hopefully, you know, they'll be more resources for this type of work to our

viewers watching on p b. s. in the united states. and to all of you around the world, a one welcome. iran's health minister says an investigation is under way and to allegations that religious groups may be targeting school girls and a series of what a here to be deliberate poison attacks. hundreds of girls, our thoughts have been attacked with toxic gas, a dozens of schools. the incidence began in november. several politicians have suggested the attacks are being carried out by groups of religious extremists, opposed to girls education. a school day that ended in the hospital. oh i feel pain in my chest and when i walk my legs shake a bit. when i stand up i feel dizzy and my entire body feels very numb. which means i can't walk off 30. you can call her back. in one of the workshops there was a smell that was like the smell of paint. so we evacuated the students side muscular. these are the latest victims of alleged poisonings that have sickened

hundreds of female students from dozens of schools since november. many have been taken to hospital with respiratory problems and report smelling something strange before falling ill. the government has announced an investigation into what officials are saying could be an attempt to close down girls schools. comp, j a, b j. o. we've assigned a special committee to investigate this matter, and this committee is comprised of the best toxicologists at the university professors we can shred referred to the donna score. but parents say authorities have been slow to act or answer their questions. some have suspicions that the girls may have been targeted in an act of revenge. young women were at the forefront of anti raging protests that of rock to run in recent months. iranian activists say, this footage shows a concerned mother outside of school being attacked by a man who they believe is

a plainclothes officer. something terrans police force have denied parents continue to hope for answers, but few expect clarity any time soon. of a more this mystery. i'm a joint now from london by other they present. she's an iranian researcher at so us university in london as a day. the iranian health minister says he's investigating how can the regime be trusted to examine these alleged attacks? is thank you for having me a short time sent you a question. is that no i, i declined the public's regime has no credibility or legitimacy among the iranian public, among human rights organizations and, and in the international community in order to be trust that even remotely with its

capability. and it's a willing to conduct any kind of an independent investigation that will result in that in an objective finding and a preventative measure, you know, to stop what is happening against school girls. you know, the timing is suspicious, isn't it? do you think this is happening now because young women and girls are playing a prominent role in the anti government protests of recent months? yes, many of us in the us community are of the belief that there is a high likelihood, if not certainty, that you know, this is essentially yes. and not there intimidation technique by the islamic republic regime that, that shows that it does not shy away from using violence against not only adults, but also children in order to suppress the protest in recent minds. and for those

of us will follow that situation of human rights near on in the past few decades. you know, we also are convinced that this seems to be a pattern of abuse and discrimination against women and girls girls. but of course, i have to say because you know, of the situation and the fact that we believe that information and evidence is, is being withheld from the iranian public. you know, talking based on evidence is difficult at this point. but this, thank you lation and the pattern and the precedents. i think they speak volumes about the intentionality of this law makers at this point. so do good at this, right. are you saying that the iranian government could actually be behind these attacks? yes, that's one of the speculations and, and with higher likelihood or less for a 2nd. imagine a scenario where you know,

we can, it's difficult but i can trust the fact that they're saying these are potentially shia extreme groups that are behind this as well. in my opinion, the public is as yeah, extreme group with jurisdiction. so even if there are certain elements affiliated with the power structure of the public that are as they call, she had extreme groups. you know, there's like going public has had since november attack started until today to properly investigate and to prevent these attacks so that they don't escalate that they have in the past few weeks and days. as a result, i believe, even if they are not directly behind this, we don't know that they are. but even if they are and they have a pattern and the systematic crime against school girls at this point.

now unfortunately, we've been hearing that girls have been targeted girls that iteration establishment . i've been talking to them close enough. got to stop by the tale bond that's been going on for quite some time, regrettably, but not to me. wrong. is that boring you? this a good public has no, has not a policy of the priming girls from education. and so in that sense, maybe they're not comparable. however, you know that iranian society, ever since the 20, as a beginning of the 20th century have had a long history of struggles for girls education. and this goes way beyond islamic republic. and so we cannot really put that credit on this line a good public, a high rate of growth education in iran. but i also would like to mention that,

you know, even when i, let's say, like, as someone progressive as. * small leftover of things from the previous regime that stays such as the girls education and the public has maintained it one day they decide that this is not to their interest. history has shown that they don't shy away from you know, from reversing that policy. we have seen with the family planning, for example, iran was a good public, was at the forefront of family planning and was receiving lots of appliances from the international community. years ago, when the, when i a telecom and they decided this is actually to empowering for iranian women . and he reversed that policy and he ordered the iranian women to start making babies as fast as possible. and criminalize, basically, the system could criminalize birth control. and now they are one of them, you know,

backward countries when it comes to family planning, so that you know that there is no guarantee that the public right now is not thinking maybe these grounds. and iranian women in general have become excessively m powers. and therefore, they are in protesting their rule and, and thinking perhaps, you know, depriving them of education or at the very least making schools unsafe play says, you know, is, is that, and can be an effective intimidation technique at this point as the present from so us university of london, thank you very much. ah, to the us now, we're an investigation by intelligence services concluded. it is, quote, very unlikely that the foreign adversary is responsible for the so called havana syndrome. the term is used to describe an ailment that has affected us. diplomats

and operatives all over the world. the symptoms 1st appeared in u. s. embassy officials work in the capital of cuba. havana in 2016. hundreds of u. s. government employees reported numerous symptoms leading to speculation that a foreign adversary had caused them by some form of energy. well, now when this story 1st broke, many scientists war that the most likely explanation was mass hysteria. and 2 of them wrote this book together. havana syndrome must psychogenic illness and the real story behind the embassy, mystery, and hysteria. and i'd like to welcome robert w barrow. the co author of that book is ameritas, professor of neurology at the u. c. l. a. medical sandy joins us from los angeles. dr. battle, welcome back to the show. i must say you were on the bay over a year ago and you set back then havana syndrome was a mass secret psychogenic illness to these intelligence findings. now prove you

right. you think? oh, certainly. i believe that the report is pretty much exactly what we've been saying for the last several years. i think it may be more complex than simply saying it's mass psychogenic illness. first of all, because that's difficult to define exactly what we mean by, but the report concluded that there was a series of possible explanations from a preexisting conditions, conventional illnesses, environmental factors, and then also what they called hyper vigilance, which would be. busy like pure psychogenic, that there is a range of illnesses that may be occurring in these people. and i, and i think the most important thing is that we recognize their real symptoms. these people are experiencing real symptoms and it's very frustrating. whenever i hear people say, well there's, these are strong people, how could they have psychogenic illnesses or soccer and symptoms just suggest

a complete lack of understanding of psychogenic illnesses. so is it, am i understanding you correctly there? that is saying that the fear and thoughts can cause real symptoms. of course, yes, i mean we know psychosomatic symptoms are extremely comp there been studies suggesting about 50 percent of visits to physicians end up with no objective laboratory test abnormality where no explanation for the symptoms and the vast majority of them are psychosomatic. so psychos, my symptoms are extremely common in the, in a general population. and they can, they can be arranged from, for example, there's no question that many of these people had migraine. next describe symptoms of very characteristic of migraine headaches and other migraine symptoms. and we

know migraine is complicated and it has a lot of genetic components, but it's triggered by stress. in fact, many consider it the prototypical psychosomatic illness of psychogenic illness. so someone has a migraine headache triggered in the circumstances, is very stressful. circumstances working in an embassy and they were told to, to beyond the law, what for unusual sounds triggering symptoms. they would then relate the migraine headache to the st. busy busy the sounds that they heard or some other patterns symptoms. so going to happen. now we also saw studies backing up, claim, self directed energy injuries. what do you make of those? i just don't agree with them either. i believe there's any object to the evidence. in fact, the studies concluded that they really didn't have objective evidence like them all i scan abnormalities. hearing test down amount is tested,

are very reliable and reproducible. the types of abnormalities they described were for functional and maladies that were nonspecific and occur in the general population. the, the reports that were published did not have adequate control samples. so i do, i think that it is clear now there, there really would have been no objective studies showing there's either brain damage or in your damage fill. what's left simply what's, what's curious in my view is that so many people have been affected by these real symptoms that you describe in so many places around the world. it was as eating on p b. s. they said something like 1500, more than 1596 country. so consider that. how would any foreign government be going around to $96.00 countries with some mysterious weapon over met

now 5 years with no one finding any hint of such a weapon. and i think the, the conclusion of this report is, at this point in a, we've been saying that right from the beginning, i mean, even after a few years with everybody looking, nothing was found. there is no weapon being use here. and all of the consequences of that, including setting the embassy in cuba and all of the subsequent events i think were just inappropriate. now, why do you think it has taken? are the authorities so long to come to the same conclusions that who have come to years ago? well, it's a difficult problem and then you see, even though i mean there was a real backlash. what should weren't just reading in the newspaper today, and i'm hearing the news last evening. most reporters just aren't willing to accept that yet. i know it's difficult. i think our news is mostly now testimonials

and, well it's, it's difficult to deal with this kind of a problem because it's, it is, i started people think that if, if they are said to have psychosomatic illness there, but there must be facing it or the symptoms are real, there are, they are real, they have their suffering from symptoms that are israel's, if they had a brain to, they're just not due to trauma to the brain. or the other explanations that they'd described from about other emeritus professor of neurology at the u. c. l a medical center. thank you very much for your insight. that you ah, america, southern border with mexico has become a flash point for illegal migration and people willing to risk their lives to get to the u. s. one, county and south texas knows the human price of those illegal crossings only to

well. brook's county is where most undocumented migrants die after crossing the border as their make their way north. many get lost in the vast texas wilderness as they try to avoid security checkpoints. but the combination of high temperatures, a lack of water can prove fatal. d. w reporters, carolina temp, and julie pinella. investigate a sign of death. walter is hover above the you saw the border. i see a lot of bone and the my phone. this time it was just animal bones. but often eddie canal is finds the bodies or remains of migrants. a decade ago, he founded the south texas human rights center. it's volunteers help migrants who risk their lives in the desert. to day a group of new volunteers has come to find out how they can help. we need other

pros that doesn't cause myers to that. his approach is to set up water stations along the migrants routes in the desert. many die of dehydration. snake bites are from drinking contaminated water is up in the local school. eddie, the water boy are constantly people are coming through. this is one of the ranches where people come through a lot, migrants ah, for some reason another they touched this ranch once they weighed and circum circumvent the checkpoint. whereabout, i would say 5 miles away from the checkpoint. to this day, the organization has installed more than 100 water stations in the desert. cali fernandez, help installed the 1st one rating. he's been able to save many lives, many have perished,

but he has been able to save many lives in less than 2 decades. brook's county has recovered the remains of nearly other 1000 migrants. oh line families of the missing turned to sherry if benny martinez asking for help. some have been searching for their loved ones for months or even years. within 72 hours, it will be like that. right, so for body everything still and takes too gutless for shave martinez. the solution to the problem is clear. we have the drawback insecure. the water for ok. you stop them at the water. this we all have all this missy persons because actually were in the top 5 instead of texas for miss purser foot 80 things simply close in the border. once the migrants from coming is that he fears it will push them on even more dangerous routes, increasing the death door and the pain of the families south texas brooks county is a barrow ground for a lot of my this

a work that has to be that nobody else is doin, it will continue and you know, hopefully you know, they'll be more resources for whatever work. he needs resources until then, eddie hopes his efforts ring a sense of relief to a national tragedy. ah, today. so another example of claim and counter claim in russia's war with ukraine, which news outlets by this one d. w. unable to independently verify the kremlin, used ukraine of a cross border incursion into the russian region of pre unscrew, causing the death of a civilian ukraine, denied the allegation and said it was a provocation by moscow. and from all this, i wanna bring in the roman such look who has been monitoring the information war in ukraine since it began for the atlantic council's digital forensic research lab,

he joins me now from keith rahman, you have just published a report on dis, information in the war in ukraine, one of the main findings you have discovered? sure, yes. so what we found, 1st of all, is that russians use both old approaches and the new ones to influence different audiences. so for instance, they continue to over inflame the information space with false theories and denials of they are, let's say war crimes like it was with m h 17. and after the invasion, it was the case of butcher massacre or the majority hospital bomb been but own side this thing. they're also using something you like full full debunking, for instance, like the website war and fakes. that actually uses the fact chicken toolbox to actually promote propaganda and create this information like it was as it

was, which i'm africa when they claimed that there were people moving in that really famous video from the city when the russians would do from the city. and in reality, it isn't, but in the u, many case, rush and emily be amplified the video and claimed that it's all of the false information by the spring and when the reality wasn't. and the other thing is that they tied their messages to the specific audiences, meaning that for different regions, they use available infrastructure. so you repeat union the r t m put mc r band. so they needed to find some another ways to reach the audience to some french positions or just use their social media, their injecting those different narrative and for the places where the r t and we are still actually in place. they're using them because they are available. and other thing is that they use the branding of the well known media like b, b,

c, concord ali, my title and i just among others and promoted their messages like with the bomb, been off from those railway station. so they created this which put the creative or like different logos of this media that seems legitimate in order to find an external confirmation of their information. and tell him that look even the rest of the media group with us. when in reality, those media never publish those stories in the 1st place. so i need to interrupt you that, you know, not ask. another question is very important here. if we look at both sides who's winning the inflammation war in your opinion? i mean it's, it's a great question because well, i honestly believe that it's impossible to win information more as it is because it's like continuous thing that goes for

a while and that there is no such thing as like winning definitively. if we're talking about the european union, we probably could say that ukraine is better represented in promoting the truth in what's happening on the ground in the way that the russians cannot promote their version of what's happening. because through the prevails and the real food of the places of the bomb beam of the war crimes, they are prevail in the information faith. so in that case, you might say that probably ukraine is a half. but again, if it's not a whim and not the week, 13 information war, thank you very much. the roman a such a and that's it from me and the day team. that's the day as we saw it, but the conversation continues online. you'll find us on twit up, either at dw, so you can follow me at 11, b r s c it. and that's it. again from me on the team. thanks for watching us. it's

ah, with to the point, strong opinions and clear positions international perspectives. the war in ukraine is becoming a clash of systems. western democracies are feeling challenged by autocracies, like russia and china, and they are all, cording,

non aligned countries like india. so on to the point we ask war and you crate our new alliances, dividing the world to the point one next on d, w. russia. one is the most secretive organizations of the world, the east raising national intelligence agency, massage feeds and controversial for the 1st time, insiders and witnesses are willing to provide exclusive insights into the workings of them aside. in 45 minutes on d. w. oh, mine is with getting ahead,

using tech as our documentary series and founders valley foliage africa to meet the founders, empowering their continent through digital innovation, transforming work and health and living conditions in their country and inspiring the world with their ideas. founder valley africa. watch now on w documentary, the war and ukraine has global implications and is increasingly becoming a clash of systems. western democracies are feeling challenged by a talk receives like russia and china. both models can want to prevail. so far china's piece plan for ukraine has found little favor in the west. instead, they are warnings from the u. s.