it's eleven in the morning here of. international news happening right now but russia's foreign ministry. of a potential syrian chemical attack. a moscow the foreign ministry spokesman speaking live. in the next thirty minutes of this news program also coming up to. another scandal hit c.n.n. political commentator this time was caught on camera apparently ridiculing the channel's russia coverage. but. really. to syria in the north of syria developments there this morning to

america's allies in the region a fight to get. u.s. support for both the kurds. in the region the stories ahead. i think late thursday morning in moscow just ten eleven in the morning those thursday ok will begin with the breaking news russia's foreign ministry spokesperson speaking as i speak she's just slammed washington's claims that the syrian government is planning a chemical attack she says it's a provocation against both syria and russia. it is evening and we knew about statements from washington we all sing you there u.s.

officials refused to confound the claims with any facts so we don't know what these conclusions are based on the situation looks like a massive provocation both military and information it is targeting not only syria but russia as well. so that's the official low russian liner systems at the moment earlier russia's foreign minister said that washington's claim could encourage terrorists to use chemical weapons of the war in some kind of false flag attack that would then be blamed on president assad so he made the remarks during a meeting with germany's foreign minister peter all of us got more on that reaction it was certainly very workman like there wasn't so many of the pleasantries that you usually find at these type of diplomatic talks very straight speaking from the russian foreign minister in particular he said that russia would react to u.s. provocations towards the syrian government we also encourage the united states not to look for a pretext in order to attack syrian government forces the overarching message was

though that the words coming out of washington at the moment that a a chemical attack would warrant a response from the united states well the message coming from russia is that could be playing directly into the hands of the extremists and terrorists. i look at the u.s. experts and they say openly that extremists could use these claims by washington provocations and shift blame on to the syrian government or want to stay the statement came out of washington that they said they knew that in u.s. intelligence circles that there was and that chemical attack being planned by assad and that if that was carried out then there would be repercussions in the form of an attack from the united states well what that is prompted is journalists in america asking questions from. in washington and from the senior figures in the administration over where they got that information from and what evidence there

was for it. evidence to share with us about this potential preparation for these chemical weapons is that was an absolutely right and nor would that be laid out because that would be considered an intelligence matter when you guys believe that it's in your interests you do what you say is evidence or proof of intelligence i'm not going to get it out with you but this is a very serious and grave matter not a great deal coming from the state department spokesperson there but washington insists that the threat it laid down against syria has perhaps stopped an attack now that comes from james mattis the u.s. defense secretary he says that it's possible that an attack may not happen and that is as a result of the threat that the u.s. laid out so as it stands we haven't heard any evidence presented from the state department as you just heard there or from anywhere within the u.s.

government we haven't heard any proof that a chemical attack happened the previous time that the u.s. launched missile strikes against syria that attack in a blip we heard about this meeting in crescent our say that he wanted to see the u.n. chemical weapons watchdog allowed to carry out a full investigation on the ground there as he pointed out they haven't been allowed to do that as of yet you know all of it will on the u.s. side of this the united states u.n. ambassadors join the pentagon chief in linking a lack of any recent chemical incidents in syria to washington's threat of retaliation. i can tell you that i do to the president's actions we did not see and i would like to think that the president saved many n.s.a. men women and children well they just get more and more comical really i don't think anybody who follows the situation seriously can take what making the helio saying with any. with any credibility it's it's almost laughable that one day they

claim to know that it's the syrians are preparing a chemical weapons attack and then the next day they say well what didn't happen it must have been because the president issued this threat it's really getting kind of silly be have mr madison and bassett or haley essentially claiming credit for the non occurrence of an event that was unlikely to have occurred in the first place it's very strange and it makes you wonder if this was all some kind of a big what we call a kabuki dance a big show in noise to make them look tough and effective maybe in advance of mr trump's meeting with mr putin at the g. twenty. will continue to follow that story on this one to another undercover video has been released from feeling attitudes at c.n.n. apparently towards russian related stories this time one of the american news channels political commentators seems to thrive in a well off. what do you think's going to happen this week with the rest of. it was going to be really. emotional of what she was yesterday this is the second video

then in as many days phone investigative journalism group project veritas with more details about it. yet another leak related to c.n.n. from james o'keefe and project veritas that was van jones who briefly served in the obama administration and is now a commentator for c.n.n. in the clip he says that the russia thing is a nothing burger and now it's important to be clear here we don't exactly know what he's referring to about the russia thing could be the russian investigation could be the allegations about trump the context of the clip is not exactly clear who this leak comes on just in the aftermath of another recent leak from project veritas and jon bon a field an important producer for c.n.n. says the russia story is the polite term is nonsense that was just recently released as well now we here at r t reached out to c.n.n. to ask for their comment and they have not replied that it's important to know that

these videos that are coming out are not without controversy james o'keefe is personally facing a million dollar lawsuit at the hands of a contractor he interviewed after he interviewed them posing as someone else and this was a contractor allegedly working with the democratic party so there's a lot of questions that still remain with us the people behind the video what the russian thing refers to actually. we put the entire video out there i mean people can judge for themselves. earthlings from the conversation but that's certainly my interpretation and i think that's the way the mainstream media. the way the drug war and the headline strikes again in the president of the united states just two of our videos on earth in the instagram which you know so i'm assuming you're well c.n.n. it seems to be struggling to get a grip on its russia coverage of late with stuff quick to publish without solid evidence a couple of cases in point a few days ago three journalists quit to say and then retreated to the story of an

alleged senate investigation into links between a russian investment fund and a confidant of donald trump and back in january said and broke that story you may remember it claiming russia had some compromising personal information about president trump based on some kind of dull see written by a former british spy was later admitted that the dossier was flawed and filled with unverified allegations the group behind the latest on the cover video says cnn's not the only outlet landing in hot water either. not just c.n.n. i want to make clear if you were in the mainstream media in america or in and you are telling why you are defending people you're keeping stories you're keeping them in public for not going through you're on our list and we may be in your board room right now we are watching you and your c.e.o. at one of those organizations probably would be sleeping well at night because it might be on the planet mars. meantime russian media has been single for cheering a senate hearing devoted to alleged russian meddling in the u.s.

presidential election of course. nick made their effort to have a a an effect on the election. so just the fact that maybe r t and nick had a narrative that was different in britain then maybe the mainstream press that would be a sign of russia trying to influence outcome would it not. watching across the aisle here in the next year jeff skate washington. nothing burger has becoming a very firm term in the political lexicon in the united states and another one has been served on the senate floor today despite all the scary sounding things like russian meddling in the elections worldwide and this whole two and a half hour session was dedicated to that talking not only about their past election where russia allegedly meddled but even the future ones while russia will

definitely meddle and some of the wording of course on the floor was very tough russia's blatant interference in the united states twenty sixteen presidential elections was unprecedented in both scale and scope and many have said this is actually the crime of the century. if you think about it it is russia has interfered temp to interfere in elections from france to the netherlands from the balkans to the baltics russian interference in european political space is strategic you have any doubt that russian interference is driven by himself no doubt about it. this is a mauser no doubt. no doubt. so somehow without any shred of evidence they have linked this all to putin himself nonetheless the list of countries i've heard is a very rare very why those countries allegedly affected by the so-called russian meddling hacking and all those things those countries obviously included france and

france was actually voiced on the senate floor today the only problem is that as we know they had of the french intelligence recently said that russians apparently had nothing to do with and hacking off across campaign. is not possible to say. they did so with the a criminal group it really can be anyone in the it's like it's still the simplicity of the technical part can make us think is just the person who created it and so this person can be in any country with any kind of motivation so you know generally for all. covering the story for a long time this is just another day in the office reverting back to accusations without presenting any proof that it seems like when anything goes wrong anywhere it's russia's fault or russia splay book to describe democracies across the world and this was just another day on the sounded like this with no actual substance produced indeed american private investor and author charles alltel summed up his thoughts on the allegations against russia but you have here is clear evidence of just how dysfunctional the american legislative branch of government is now of

course to arrange these type of hearings they're done in advance this is long been schedule i doubt they planned to have these hearings just following what happened recently on c.n.n. you know we've now had multiple different people even james komi himself under oath multiple times has said that. no foreign power successfully meddled in effect of the election results in two thousand and sixteen and the general reaction that's coming out inside america is another fall ready with this russia which at which now admittedly is a witch. of the headlines this morning israel's launched a missile strike against a syrian government military position there are no reports of any injuries but the attack came after a stray syrian mortar shell landed in the north of the disputed golan heights which is occupied by israel the israeli military later confirmed its retaliation in response to the project launched earlier from syria towards israel i.d.f.

targeted the syrian military position that far the mortar there has been an increase in border fire exchanged between israel and syria recently the israeli prime minister says his country quote won't tolerate errant shooting and will respond to all firing middle east based journalist martin j. told us the golan heights situation demonstrates that the syrian conflict is still evolving. tensions beginning to mount some what's happening in that particular part of southern syria right on the border with israel is that is that the israeli prime minister is getting very nervous about something which wasn't supposed to happen which is that these sorts skirmishes were not supposed to go as far down as to go hi it's a strategic city jackley important in the war that's going on now or that the war is not reported them so much by international media which is that the war between assad regime assad's partners on the west so it's

a political war which is which is evolving and that's why there's all this tension in that particular area is so much going on there let's try and unravel some more of it while serious southern border faces strikes me as well as northern borders being told by fighting as well turkey's launched an artillery barrage against the kurdish militia in one of the many syrian hotspots the town of afrin. so let's take a close look at that on a map this is where the fight between kurdish and turkish forces is concentrated because after an exhibit on the side that most of the battle is on territory claimed by the white p.g. fight is something the strongly disputed by turkey main town the other twisted and complication the u.s. acquits considers both sides as allies in the fight against islamic state next to daniel hawkins looks at how the u.s. support for these rivals may actually lead to more instability in the region. it's

turkey versus the kurds both of them u.s. allies and it's left washington walking a delicate tightrope between its two friends which happen to be you shall have sworn enemies. we should be using we should be looming that we do not need terrorist organizations like the p y d n y p g and the rock operation we could have a lot of great success over the next coming years a difficult balancing act to say the least but lately the scales seem to have tipped to favor the kurdish side after all kurdish groups have been washington's weapon of choice in the fight against islamic state the us government to supply them with arms and even sent special forces to support them we have already started to provide the weapons and equipment in the area nation to or syrian democratic forces both the syrian arrows in the syrian kurds so what happens to the kurds when i saw on the brink of defeat is taken out of the equation will the us remain such

a faithful friend probably not it turns out the weapons washington has given to its kurdish allies were actually just loaned out temporarily when the fighting is done the guns will have to be returned at least that's what was promised to turkey what we gave them were weapons for urban fighting basically and yes we will recover the gear when it's no longer needed by them now syrian kurds might dream of autonomy in their country but if they think they'll be granted this reward for being the most effective and full force on the ground they just need to look at the iraqi kurds across the border this is how the us responded to very calls for independence we support a unified stable democratic and a federal iraq we understand and appreciate the legitimate aspirations of the people of iraqi kurdistan even leaderless is an internal wracking matter but first and foremost we have to defeat isis if the kurds in syria were hoping to at least keep the territories they've liberated from islamics. that's also not likely to

happen judging by previous u.s. the mines that those areas be returned to locals as soon as the fight is over we do have a commitment as we've spoken to before from kurdish leadership that those forces who stabilize the area will mirror the local population they will turn over areas to local population as long as the specter of syria kurdish fighters will spearhead the front line but six months down the road and it's anyone's guess. thanks peter this is a war games for peace will tell you all about what the break. people with stories to tell.

it still. says. they're here to speak their truth here. crisis in america killing thousands of people every month or so you've got people walking around those. trying to. run america. i mean. it's quite shocking but it saves the pharmaceutical companies want to pay themselves huge bonuses executive bonuses are what matter not . much in mexico there's a slightly different approach to people's well being they think health care may be part of the package of human rights and of course they're right about that but the culture is richer.

the story was the piece was talking about well if he wants time sweden is set to conduct its biggest military exercise in twenty years its coincide into with russia holding large scale drills as well but there's a third of that in the pipeline on a very different mission they're described as the first peace seeking war games thirty swedish and russia not going to take part in a two day exercise called island seventeen with the goal of deescalating a hypothetical conflict one of the organizers told us that someone to go to reach with a message of peace. they are of course not physical that you would have if you were exercising i mean you are because ice is to be prepared if the escalation continues but we have bigger and bigger military exercises on the russian side to begin to begin military exercises on this we are we are getting closer to nico on the swedish side and we have the capability of the swedish and russian politicians to

to make meets ends meet to somehow among themselves make agreements then we have to have some kind of civil society that does the job for them so we are preparing for this with bearing in mind though in neighboring finland the country's former ambassador to russia suspects that the peace groups event is a moscow ploy to sway public opinion is what the organizer thinks of that he wants to claim that we are something that we are not because he wants us he wants to show that we are agents of a foreign power like as soon as you stand up for peace people within your own country will say that you're a traitor. but you somehow work for the other side. let's get out he surely next going against the grain actually in the us one right wing artist has put his creativity behind the president and he's determined he says to get his message across that trump and the republicans are as punk rock as they get.

for right wing guerrilla artist as far as i'm concerned as far as i know i'm the only person that does it on the other side you've got shepard fairey bag she robbie carr well pretty much the only one on my side that does this twenty four seventh's . but i couldn't trump supporter ever since i've seen him kicked media in the teeth but when you see hollywood their heads are exploding i just fell in love with that guy but i think he's this punk rock is park rock it's ever been. my goal what i do is is to let kids understand that there's another side out there

no political side out. recapping the breaking news these russia's foreign ministry slamming us accuse ations of a potential syrian chemical attack as a provocation against a mask is a moscow you can continue following the online. here's what people have been saying about redacted in a video the senate is full on awesome the only show i go out of my way to launch you know what it is the really packs

a punch out yampa is the john oliver of r t america is doing the same thing we are apparently better than food. and see people you never heard of love redacted tonight president of the world bank so take. many serious look send us an e-mail. with more make this manufactured consent to public wealth. when the right wing plus a some protect themselves. with the famous merry go round. we can all middle of the room. real news.

there. welcome to worlds apart despite president the pace of scientific breakthroughs humanity still seems to be as far away from the age of reason as ever with really just extremism and political infantilism spreading around the globe aiding each other has the idea of governance based on critical thinking already become a delusion to discuss that amount evolutionary biologist richard dawkins mr dawkins it's great to talk to you thank you very much for your time now this is your first time at the russia in st petersburg and this is a city that has long traditions of critical thinking of secularism but also a very in the jet

a religious community which called for the cancellation of your visit did you have any second thoughts about coming here no i was not aware of any consolation if i had been i'd have been more determined what is the reception that you has been receiving so far do people know about here in this country has a magnificent reception huge crowds at the picnic and the gigantic books i think you i don't know how many books. now you know you come here at a time when the city ease galvanised over the phaedo for its largest cathedral beach also happens to be the fourth largest cathedral in the world and it has a very interesting history because back in the early soviet times it was turned into the museum of atheism there was even the fuko pendulum there to install to demonstrate compared to say the is but now the church wants it back and i wonder if that really demonstrates that the neither atheism nor religion can every decisively win this battle for hearts and minds in the way your own cause will never be will

be fully realized i look forward to seeing the very much i love because he calls him i don't want to enter into a neat look who disputes but local is global these these days if you speak about the value of i ran across a village and died. i mean i despise all religion and you know had a beautiful cathedral is a beautiful cathedral and i value the artistic contribution that religion has made of the centuries but i don't think that despite all your efforts to popularize critical thinking to popular atheism religion seem to be having some sort of a comeback not only in this country but also around the world well give us a few more decades. in america for example which is one of the most religious countries in the western world it's winning in the number of religious people it is going down i'm aware of as a bit of

a backlash in russia i take it that's about national games the communist regime in its atheism and say it's because atheism was the of official state doctrine under communist rule i can easily imagine that people would rebel against that because they rebelled against against the of oppression of communism i know that when believers went to rebuff your intellectual attacks and religion they often bring up communism or stalinism as an example of atheism growing and growing and i know that you always refused to blame atheism for the excesses of communism why it's ludicrous to blame atheism of communism is nothing to do with it most of a blame astonishes because stalin and hitler both had missed. it is and has absolutely nothing to do with the excesses of communism well it's interesting you say that because you know stalin in particular was an interesting person because he in his early years he was trying to be

a precise and they're still doubts why they here fully abandon those beliefs because later in life he was protected from certain religious hallmarks so i wonder if one person can really combine both the belief let's say either atheism or at least critical thinking and scientific way of development and some. sort of superstition well stoughton may have done time is starting as one of the most evil people who have lived and so i wouldn't want to hold up as an example of anything he clearly was just doing bad things both for sorts of queer reasons whether or not stalin was it was an atheist you cannot blame atheism for stalin now if you studied the early soviet history it wasn't only about atheism it was also about scientism this believe that science will dramatically change the makeup of this country and then make up all five of its people to talk about homo seventy if it was being a new stage of human.