the leadership panel has identified bison responsible for the use of sulfur mustard in. and the syrian arab republic was responsible for the use of sarin. in. the u.n. backed joint mission blaming syrian government forces for the chemical attack in the country's elite province back in april and also this hour the chiefs dismissed media claims is premature that the russian national anthem will be banned at the upcoming winter olympics and revelations about the offshore tax avoidance a money making scheme to the super rich become a goldmine for the media with many publications rooting out and focusing on links to russia.

hello welcome watching r c international start with breaking news to you because the u.n. backs joint mission investigating the chemical attack in syria is it lead province back in april has found government forces to be responsible the watchdog says they've looked into various scenarios questioned hundreds of witnesses and examined thousands of pieces of pictures sorry and files however they did stress they never made it to the site of the attack the leadership panel has identified. responsible for the use of sulfur mustard in harsh and the syrian arab republic was responsible for the use of sarin. in the studies showed that the samples from handshake koon match with a particular chemical from the syrian arab republic stockpile that is required to

make sarin. ok where you can get more details now from our correspondent who's been following events callup just bring us up to date then on some more detail of what was said at the u.n. . well the meeting opened with admin molé from the o.p.c. w. making his presentation and from there we heard u.s. ambassador nikki haley who endorsed the report congratulated the o.p.c. w. for their work and then went on to escalate rhetoric against the syrian government this is what the us ambassador nikki haley had to say in the council chamber. thirty nine. gen has fulfilled its mandate to identify the perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks in syria it had produced a report that concludes that the assad regime is responsible for the april fourth two thousand and seventeen sarin gas attack time taken.

after that we heard from various representatives to the united nations of the fifteen member body and then we heard from the russian envoy and he was very critical of the report now he pointed out that at no point did members of the o.p.c. to actually visit the site of the chemical attack and khan's shaikh kuhn pointed out that you know what i imagine a criminal investigation in which the the scene of the crime was never investigated furthermore he pointed out that that much of the testimony from witnesses that was relied upon and many of the samples that were received came from from the less than credible sources he pointed out that figures in groups like the white helmets that have links to terrorism are relied upon and he criticized also some of the aspects of the report how the how how the munitions the chemicals were not tested for munitions that could show how the chemical weapons of the sarah and were dispersed

he was very critical of the report in the methodology used by the o.p.c. w this is what he had to say. and so these investigators kiddo the. the report is full of our missions inconsistences and discrepancies very mid air corps quality. news the good news now at this point the united states has said it is open to negotiating with russia and china about a possible new resolution regarding the conflict in syria and we have also heard from the european union that is calling for new sanctions against the syrian arab republic in the aftermath of the o.p.c. w. report. ok thanks. for following events there in the states where we can discuss this a bit further to you because the over here on my left is. helping us now with this story he's the director of going to assist the british think tank that focuses on crises in syria and also the middle east i know this is sort of

a story that's just unfolding a moment but what's your reaction to the findings of the investigation. were we weren't surprised by the findings. if we look at this. you know rather less technical than everybody's talking about we've heard a very good you know critique of of the report by the russian envoy however we view this as probably the western countries trying to insist on keeping some sort of an international body inside syria probably they want to keep check on what is happening if you ask any syrian any ordinary syrian on the street whether the. the united states or other countries who play monday give it here the statements as well that they are very much concerned about the lives and welfare of

the syrian people any ordinary syrian would not believe this and they would dismiss all these theories they would tell you they were interested about the use of chemical weapons and weapons they should have probably dispatched an investigative committee right when her last one took place in april two thousand and thirteen and not wait five months. to do so obviously when they arrived the syrian government decided apparently to religiously to carry out the most heinous chemical attack in so there are a lot of discrepancies all along the way this isn't about this report also again the russian envoy stressed it was a little new report nobody heard about this and apparently right seven months ago now they say started to threw it into the mix in order to say well this committee is important and we need to continue. supporting this and give it a british mandate and supposedly if somebody objects and this mandate

isn't given then they could lay the blame on this party for example if it is russia or china who could. or who would use their veto right so suddenly we realize that or actually it's easy to realize that all of those countries or those parties want from this is to keep pressure is to keep diplomatic pressure they don't care much for the syrian people or they are suffering other wise they wouldn't have been interfered in the first place in the way they did is an example of that the you know just i think just very recently be you now i'm talking about today says it's considering new sanctions against syria in the wake of this report is that an example of the pressure you're talking about. there's been pressure on longer way and if you visit damascus like for example i do you or any other part of syria that is on the government controlled let alone those that are outside

government control people are really suffering because of these sanctions but what is important for these countries is to keep themselves in the game and you know they probably believe that if we amount more pressure then. you know we would get some. you know the book force the syrian government force the russians force whoever is backing that sort of alliance to back down and give us some benefit. and that's not that's not about caring about the syrian people me yes they might have refugees yes they might have issues they want all those refugees to go back to syria but then they need to let go of syria you know the government is not going to fall there are enough syrians who support the government and they want very full and they probably should listen to their very wise and my personal opinion words of the chinese invoice in the security council that he's just finished and he said that there is a certain momentum in the political process that they can place right now but you

know the members of the security council should actually focus on making that a success but nobody probably cares about that all they want to do is to maintain influence and keep themselves at the table and they're willing to use every single opportunity at their disposal so what would you anticipate will happen next them next then i would you expect allegations of war crimes being leveled against the sadden action must be taken with regard to that i mean what what are you anticipating. well we don't think that this is going to pass nobody i mean there are lots of reports a lot of analysis the suggests that this is not going to pass obviously the russians have made suggestions that they don't trust and they've proven well i would say brought all the technical evidence is all questions in their minds to say well this is not credible enough to you know to lay blame you know why didn't

you visit the site where did you visit the source of the alleged lane immediately after the incident you could have probably collected some evidence the head of the commission sort of head of the joint committee. and he said that we wanted to go to share at the airport but we did not want to investigate samples we did not we didn't think that it would. contain any source or a trace of saturn if you would like six seven months it or we won't and he said that the you know the the airport is so big well it's easy you know he would have been easy to get to go to the runway sniff around where the plane is flown or probably go to the munitions store and he you know the try to trace something you they probably i mean i'm not technical but they probably have some equipment they could do that but they didn't want to apparently they didn't want to go there and

not find sarin six months that the lie they could go there and take pictures and say well this is the munition that was used and let's try to match that with whatever a creator there is in a home now going back to a question. we have we have two issues at hand now first of all is the security council going to incriminate the syrian government most probably not because. as in the words of the report you know it's most likely most probably but it's not really definitive. i mean as you would you know respect experts with not to that extent. and the second question which is do we you know give a fresh mandate to this investigative committee or they did the you know the jim the mechanism story and apparently the russians have another idea to make it even more. you know sensible productive because russia they

made the russian envoy made a very distinctive. notion by saying this should have been a preventive measure and it actually didn't prevent anything so we need to look at it in a different way was probably the other parties of the security council want to keep it as it is in order to track down and news use it as a tool to you know maintain influence so there is a bit of a battle we don't know which we have two issues here and there really two different resolutions proposals and we'll see ok yet certainly not black and white is it or we're going to have to leave it there for now i really appreciate your thoughts what cafferty rect of the going off this think tank thank you. now the international olympic committee has dismissed reports that the russian national anthem could be banned from the twenty eighteen winter olympics the claim was made in the new york times ahead of the i.c.c.

decision on what action to take against russia for alleged state sponsored doping charlotte reports now from the lympics headquarters in switzerland. well the article by the new york times suggests unnamed sources from the international olympic committee have said that they are discussing a possible ban on the russian national anthem at the winter games in twenty eighteen there also it says in the article discussing a menu of other possible penalties against russia including not allowing delicate and athletes to take part in the opening ceremony now we are asked the i.o.c. for a response to that report and whether those suggestions of those possible sanctions being discussed was actually true this is all premature speculation before the world and schmidt commissions have even completed their work and before due process to which any individual or organization is entitled has been followed what it all comes amid allegations of widespread doping following the sort she games in twenty

fourteen against russian athletes that led to the the russian track and field team being disqualified and barred from the rio twenty sixteen olympics and the entire team being barred from the rio paralympics in the same year now the i.o.c. is currently investigating some of the allegations against russian athletes from the sochi games in twenty fourteen and so far they have removed two medals from russian athletes both from the skiing events now the athletes in questions have said that they will appeal those decisions and their lawyer has described them as being a scandalous the i.o.c. is also due to decide next month whether or not the russian team will be able to participate in the next winter games in twenty eighteen well a bit earlier i did speak with sports radio host alan moore from capital f.m. moscow and he believes the i.o.c. president does know that a blanket ban is the wrong move. it's wrong he understands that in terms of human

rights it's a wrong thing to buy an entire country because he knows himself and the insiders know that there's a very small group in every country who are able to facilitate this with doctors who are coaches so in your to band people already as we know russia have tens of thousands of athletes by and from competing from track and field especially so he knows the o.c. movement knows well what the early group knows all of a blanket ban is just completely wrong now excuses and embarrassment appear to be the order of the day for some of the world's wealthiest people and companies too that comes in the wake of the leaking of a massive trove of financial files the so-called paradise papers have exposed where the richest are hiding their money and how they dodge paying taxes.

trillion dollars. are sure. that hundreds of billions of dollars worth of taxes go on collected and you end up with what i would call apartheid but the billionaire relating we know this and meanwhile the poverty level of our continuing to rise because people are being gouged they're being ripped off . into the mix comes the social uprising more violence because naturally if you

have everything stolen from you you have nothing to lose so you become violent so then there are whole host of famous faces involved in this not least five here queen elizabeth two she's got millions invested apparently in the cayman islands and then next to her we've got to rex tillerson he is the u.s. secretary of state and he is named as a director of an offshore firm used in all reeling gas deals and then the man next to him is the billionaire george soros he is using a law firm based in bermuda to help manage offshore companies and a couple of other famous people at the end there the pop stars veterans bono and madonna they have made investments through companies and also the media but for the mainstream media it's also about finding a political scoop amongst the mass of information another member of the trump white house is now under scrutiny for his ties to russia to be here and if he fails to

provide a convincing and compelling explanation he ought to resign but it probably won't surprise you that a lot of news outlets have been trolling through the paradise papers in an effort to find the fairest links between russia and the us i know hawkins looks now at how they've been getting on. it's one of the biggest leaks of private documents in the world revealing the financial dealings of the super wealthy and powerful four royal families to global corporations but for most media the focus has been east putin's cronies kremlin meddling team trump's ties to putin's family all the elements to grab the reader's attention so let's break it down meet wilbur ross u.s. commerce secretary and investor now he has interests in a shipping company called navigator and one of that company's clients is russian energy for siebel now two of the shareholders there are fish alley under u.s.

sanctions with another claim to be putin's son in law and those alleged ties to the russian president and his family could create a conflict of interest for ross now the commerce secretary himself left navigator's board back in twenty fourteen having joined it two years before that he's adamant he's done nothing wrong i don't know any of those individuals who've never met them so there's nothing wrong with the firm that happens to be a russian company does not mean that there is only evil in it now it's important to note to see war as a company is not subject to sanctions and it's been left pretty buffel by the reaction so i bore it sort of was there in saying sion is. expresses its surprise at the politically charged interpretation in certain media publications of regular could push your activities over many years which from the

outset were reflected in the company's published accounts now if all this sounds complicated and confusing it's meant to be offshore dealings through third parties often aim to avoid regulation and taxes but that's not the main thing find a connection any connection to russia and you. you have a catchy headline now if you're still with me the evidence of russian influence goes even further from these airlines one might think the kremlin all but owns these social media giants but again let's take a closer look to banks controlled by the kremlin provide the cash to third parties or investment vehicles to buy stakes in some of the world's biggest companies russian tech investor your email or is a key link in these operations also invested in cards that's a start up founded by jared donald trump's son in law surely there's

a smoking gun on russian meddling and here's what the protagonists in this conspiracy have to say themselves we announced via an august twenty first that d.s.t. global lead a round of investments in twitter they have since divested their interest from twitter in me twenty four to the investment was made eight years ago in d.s.t. global has since sold all of their holdings in facebook their stake ended five years ago when we went public and if russians apparently influence your social media do they also control your music taste and your holiday bookings d.s.t. global's investments in facebook and twitter were just two of the more than thirty internet companies around the world that d.s.t. global funds have invested in including air b.n. b. spotify g.d. dot com the lando and alibaba offshore financial machinations are seen by many as morally questionable at best this doesn't stop the wealthy and influential from engaging in them but money has the final say business is business unless you have

any link to russia then it's political. now nato is set to boost its mission in afghanistan with an additional three thousand troops bringing the total number of service personnel to sixteen thousand in the country well here's what the nato secretary general confirmed. and then after that our correspondent peter oliver fills in the details we have decided to increase the number of troops the current level the sound of thirteen thousand the new level would be around sixteen thousand. trained assistant wise nato is set to increase their contingent on the ground in afghanistan they strip increase had been rumbling along since may it also came alongside room is that each of the member states would be asked to kick in an extra one billion dollars to the the ground to nato part but that hasn't been spoken of any more just just at the moment

we understand that half of those three thousand troops will come from the united states the other half coming from the other twenty eight member states that make up nato and they will be in addition to the three thousand extra u.s. troops that were announced back in september by u.s. defense secretary jim mattis this was all part of trump's strategy on how to tackle the taliban in afghanistan sixteen years u.s. and nato have been on the ground that we have seen that in some areas the taliban have been rooted out they've been rather catered in some areas plain others they've i think gained ground all they've proved particularly troublesome to out from particular tribal areas of the country and just this year alone in twenty seventeen the taliban's claimed responsibility for around one hundred attacks which is killed nearly a thousand people. well

it's not just the taliban the islamic state of also been operating within afghanistan and it's the people of that country that bear the brunt bear trapped on one side with terrorists trying to kill them while on the other many have been killed as the result of u.s. airstrikes. u.s. forces bombarded everyone including children men and women our houses have been destroyed and the children and women were killed there are houses left are

gone some homes were burned by islamic militants and others were hit by u.s. drone strikes. the fight that is ongoing islamic state militants came and started the clashes they wanted to cut our heads off when u.s. troops bombed the area so we left and came so an extra three thousand nato troops will be making their way to afghanistan we expect that statement from the end stoltenberg to be rubber stamped and confirmed when the nato defense ministers meet in brussels this coming thursday. these are all over there now hundreds of anti donald trump protesters are out in force in the south korean capital to show their disapproval for the american presence visit although at the same time rallies are also taking place trump's trip to seoul is the second stop on his historic twelve day asia tour got underway in japan where did outline what appears to be the major

topic of the trip the sale of u.s. weapons and it has left some asking if these actions sticking to exactly the same script from country to country. the prime minister. is going to be purchasing massive amounts of military equipment as he should. we make the best military equip. for. you make the greatest military equipment in the world whether it's planes whether it's missiles no matter what it is we have the greatest military equipment in the world and south korea will be ordering billions of dollars of their equipment and them while in japan on monday trump did ask congress in washington for an extra four billion dollars for missile defense announcements to counter the north korean threat and another billion to support his plans for the wider region so america now reviews trump's tour of asia

so far. after meeting with trump the japanese prime minister said it was time to apply maximum pressure on north korea suggesting that intercepting pyongyang's missiles was possible through coronation to which trump responded that if tokyo purchase arms from the us they'd be capable of shooting him down he will shoot them out of the sky when he completes the purchase of lots of additional military equipment from the united states he will easily shoot them out of the sky why because north korea is apparently a dangerous state most importantly were working to counter the dangerous aggressions of the regime in north korea. the regime continued development of its unlawful weapons programs including its illegal nuclear tests and outrageous launches of ballistic missiles directly over japanese territory are a threat to the civilized world at international peace and stability. we will not

stand for that the era of strategic patience is over while this is expected to be a major theme on his sweeping asia tour and it all sounds too familiar in essence almost identical to what he had said throughout his middle east if it really is the here and we will be sure to help our saudi friends to get a good deal from our great american defense companies this past summer trump signed the largest arms deal u.s. history saudi arabia worth one hundred ten billion dollars but who's the enemy in this scenario for decades around has fueled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror threatening the region and causing so much of by alliance all nations of conscience must work together to isolate there is a growing realization among your arab neighbors that they have common cause with

you and the threat. posed by iran then it is indeed a threat there's no question about that so the solution sounds fairly simple buy u.s. weapons and the world would be a better place i would love to be able to get along with everybody right now the world is a mess but i think by the time we finish i think it's going to be a lot better place to live for selling weapons as diplomatic outreach has been an age old tradition of u.s. presidents the question is doesn't this just add fuel to the fire. samir khan parked in washington d.c. . thanks for being with us saving that's how the news looks a fox a day or not a more and half an hour.

in case you're new to the game this is how it works not the economy is built around corporations corporations run washington washington controls the media the media and the voters elected the businessman to run this country business equals power boom bust it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before. in terms of foreign policy donald trump has already earned himself the title the low expectations president this title is now being put to the test during his tour of asia because the us a status quo power in the asia pacific region for oil challenging china.