for food and media and quail hunt for truth on the border between iraq. syria and it's possible that the british forces have being lifted out with them because that is a very quick area football that the americans have and it's a. complicated if we stabilize the action of syria by libyan government forces were also involved from jordan office in jordan who are helping we organize the actor with the coalition forces in southern syria. our footprint on the government will not give any account of them. well in fairness the minister defense certainly said is not seen any evidence of r.f. warplanes or drones causing any civilian casualties that is not really the question and the question is whether these forces are involved in the be

a polite version of syria. which the answer could only be yes the course because they are heavily indebted inside this coalition going along on as usual on america's coattails finally if one believes critics of british policy that the britain could arguably be contravening the u.n. charter on british media we hear every day of chemical attacks by the syrian government which surely gives britain the right to keep bombing from the air the nation of syria well no it doesn't. begin to it's not one of please. later it's accusation being very high and i thought that that information that the jihadi and now on the gentleman. in his bedroom in i think.

the syrian observatory for human rights. who very pro revel. in the playing of this not that i've been bore hole a record by people like the guardian and the liberal interventionist but why helmet footage is broadcast daily on british media. all right now but really this credit white helmet we would have seen demonstrated by independent media to be overstimulated of the jihad and the sickly of it i'm not so i would say are colocated. it's a good transparent masquerade that certainly does not go as active. former ambassador thank you. thank you after the break fighting money with the queen's lead guitarist brian may why he's an enemy of privilege and how he plans to

dismantle the ukase system and a u. turn from tourism a on a defacto war with russia and iran by syria britain's pm appears to say she supports syrian government protected christians in a civil war in which she backed those who would do them a poem. coming up in part two of going underground. apply for many clubs over the years so i know the game in saudi guides. football isn't only about what happens on the pitch pull the funnel school it's about the passion from the families it's the age of the super money billionaire owners and spend each year to do the twenty million and one player. it's an experience like nothing else want to because i want to share what i think of what i know about the beautiful guy great so what chance with. the base

is going to. that's in american interest to not see any russians die in terrorist attacks as it is in russian interest to prevent any terrorist attacks in the united states or elsewhere in the world so i don't think there's any dispute on that in congress and i think maybe some of the posturing is frankly political as opposed to substantive . welcome back as the mainstream elite media in britain speculates on breaks in negotiations with little evidence it continues just support historic u.k. policy on syria the defacto backing of isis and al-qaeda linked groups responsible for persecuting christians at this week's pm cusick made it all the order when minority u.k. government leader tourism many claim to be supporting the christians of syria so

protected by president assad before britain defacto entered the war in places like lib i was pleased a matter of weeks ago to meet father daniel from nineveh and italy who talked about the very real persecution that his. congregation that suffered the worst suffering had suffered in the past and he presented me with a bible which was burnt which was had been rescued when a church had actually been set on fire no one thought to ask where the british taxpayer money of the kind even the state mandated b.b.c. is uncovered going to al-qaeda linked militants set church on fire but while there is money for is the missed weaponry one labor m.p. presented her with a solomon type dilemma on future local council cuts created by her collective economic punishment here at home which are the following things with the prime minister recommend they cut the next cancer i know the person with dementia and

saying that means providing for school meals unfundable children libraries leisure centers for me in. supporting the twenty four percent of children living in poverty your choice prime minister may batter her away i notice that the honorable lady should be welcoming the improvements that have taken place in her constituency and when it comes to law and order in an age of austerity the leader of the opposition jeremy corbyn gave her the latest figures. this is speaker recorded crime is up by one fifth since two thousand and ten violent crime up by twenty percent during the period the prime minister was home secretary two point three billion was cut from police budgets her majesty's inspectorate of can starve everyone's neighborhood policing risks being eroded and the shortage of detectives is a real national crisis the prime minister think the inspectorate to scare mongering

but to raise a many had alternative facts prime is now down at record. that. that is what that was to be achieved and it's been achieved by a conservative government that at the same time has been protecting police budgets who do believe while one actor is a lifelong supporter of science and the arts legendary queen guitarist and astrophysicist dr brian may is campaigned against alleged corruption in britain's parliament we went to london's royal society to discuss why he believes britain's class system is inherently damaging to progress brian may we're in the or suspicious royal society in london how beautiful it is that have steeped in tradition eric israeli and dog to go to israel you know the storm was first of all old friend of the program and this band he had some influence over your astrophysics work as you know his home of course well yeah i mean we go back a long way garrick and me and i've helped him put the stammers together but he

definitely helped me get my ph d. done thirty years later it's a long story you know i was a layman but i study a coal dust as they like it. is basically dust which is going around the sun as are the planets you can regard them small planets these grains of dust if you like so my mission was to find out. where these grains of dust are going there are they were getting the same direction as the planets or opposite directions it has a great bearing on how the solar system was formed how the sun came into being and how life was formed on the. linked in together you know the more information you can get about this the more we understand what we are and where we came from donald trump. is going to send people to mars as far as we know that's his plan and he's going to try yeah what was your reaction to him saying according to leak draft budget that the administration will end financial support for the international space station well that's politicians for years and you know they're saying one thing over here and another thing over here yeah i think everybody in our circles

doubted that funding was going to be put in you know the money is going to go where the mouth is trump is trumping over politics his policies and people say things for expediency and they say things to to get a reaction so i don't think there's a great belief is there there that this is going to happen in the near future how important is pure science funding some nobel prize winners told us will end up on mars and will know which experiments to perform because the people it was originally my wife would say why do we do this at all the other people starving on this planet how can you possibly justify any of this you know i personally think that pure science and pure art of the highest things to which humans can aspire and it's good to be doing this but there's a balance to be had i think and i was the first person to say at the first star mous that if we're going to continue going into space as a species we should clean up our own planet first you know i think we've made such a mess of the planet. the floor and the foreigners you know and we have treated our

fellow creatures so poorly badly that needs to be sorted and i was thrilled that neil armstrong in his speech referred to that and said yes we need to make this an era of being more human than we have before so that to me that's important you know it's not just about knowledge. it's about being human beings and one of the themes of the stormers festival next time is on fake news how scientific collaboration may foster. combating so-called fake news it's a very big subject i don't think it's been approached properly and we're hoping it will be as part of this festival yeah because the truth is so hard to find it i guess it's easier to lie on a big scale now than it ever was in the past you can drop a little fact here instantly going around the world and treat it as news when it finds its fake and. you know the this whole sort of conspiracy theory of people didn't actually go to the moon is a great example people have dropped these very stupid actually and very false

assertions out there but people take them go is true it's true they never went in. it bothers me i'm not saying you know how do you find the truth how do we do this in the future i think is a really interesting discussion and very urgent discussion you said that one of the major issues facing humanity is fake news from world trade yes what they want to exist is full of people there for the wrong reasons that's myself i spent a lot of time lobbying in our own parliament in england and i have to say so many people are there for reasons that you don't want to know. and it's hard to find people who actually have a mission to make the world a better place and look after. people and animals rather than look after themselves i mean i hate to be critical but i do think the whole system encourages the wrong kind of people because it encourages people who want power and and make money for

the themselves and their friends you know i would love to see it all shaken up i wish you were using of your involvement in the common decency project as well that would be encouraging you to be more encouraged what is the common goal comedies which is about exactly that it's about not voting for a political party but voting for people who are actually decent terms like of the. a simple thing to do is actually not that simple because you have to ascertain what you mean by decency and i would like to see a parliament in the future which is based on empathy and actual quality of life rather than economics and money and power but of course lobbying costs money you are fighting big money yes you are but you don't necessarily have to fight money with money you can find money with them with art if you like that is what we try to do and the truth you know we have the truth on our side and we see the government says that we must spend more money bailing out banks and so forth than on science research you do see the importance to fund our city of london it's a very big question you know i'm not sure that we should we should have been

bailing out the banks in the way we should or least we should have got more return the tax base we got more return for what was done. really rejuvenating a common decency project if there's an imminent threat as usual action we would be common decency and again yes we will and we'll be supporting all our friends in parliament who have proved to you know have come through for us in supporting the the quest for decency if you like but how far we've come as a society britain particularly in bridging this traditional science arts divide and it's something you're very keen on bridging yeah it's a process i think it's happening and i see it everywhere certainly my generation was taught you can't be artists and scientists at the same time and i resented that i found it kind of damaging because i wanted to be a computer complete human being i was passionate about science i was passionate about music and and the natural world as well so i wanted everything and i was told no you can't do that you know if you can be a scientist country music and so now you don't see that anymore you know little bit

but i think it's changing and if i look at matt taylor who's the biggest heavy metal i know probably the most informed about heavy metal is covered in tattoos and he's the guy of the amazing mission that went to rosetta the rose it is comet. so i said he was wrong and he went you know and and these people you know i'm so fortunate because i got my ph d. eventually and became a kind of legitimate scientist again if you like i'm able to mix with people like that and i feel very privileged to be accepted into the community and i was for instance with alan stern when they got their data back as they were doing the fly by pluto and i hope to be with them again when they do the flyby of the next objects which they have roamed the feeling with which is the cape. kuyper belt object very exciting no one's ever done that before of course some people watching i should add may think there isn't a lot of close here to have someone from

a poor background social economic background they wait feel how can i get involved in science research in these sorts of things like i'm from a poor background only my mum was putting coins in different jars for the gas meter in the election you know you don't it's not about money it's about having conviction and i guess it takes a bit of belief in yourself which takes on to build but i think it's about commitment no i don't think it's about money i mean a lot of things are in britain and i i'm a real enemy of privilege you know i don't think that's a positive thing in pretty society and i think when the beatles came along everybody thought that's all swept out wilson i think it didn't happen it was in the mine but it was in reality and the class system is there loud and proud in britain at the moment and i think needs to be dismantled really to i wouldn't be about money and you know opportunities are still about money in many ways if you

think that contradicts what i said about science i don't think it does because i think if you believe you have something to offer eventually you'll get there i should also congratulate you on the on the queen grammy arguably arguably asteroids colliding with the earth as being more a story in main. stream media as regards astronomy is no sign of the asteroid five two six six five in the bryan way or seven zero four nine three freddy we're going to hit the end there then and then they're not going to hit us but they're in the asteroid belt so none of them in normal circumstances come anywhere near the our own planets i thought you can say there's no sign of the in the grammys owner and a music already going that it was well that no they know they never did before but they've given you the lifetime achievement which is very nice thank you very much dr brian may thank you very much. after a physicist and rock guitar legend dr brian may that's speaking to me at london's

royal society and that's it for the show but we'll be back on monday to speak to the director of a raisin forget profiling depending on who you believe a mass serial killer or an american hero in central america special for the veteran vote brits in the cinema you know him as you know that's just alone in the rambo film still and he's been called back with us by social media we'll see on monday sixteen years to the day the trial of slobodan milosevic began in the hague while u.k. media compared him to hitler his country was sanctioned torn apart and thousands were killed by nato gives an actual criminal court would exonerate him off the bench deciding that was not enough evidence to convict him of the ethnic cleansing claimed by nature nation media and politicians. despite its time given the history of the soviet union has dominated international

sport however this is not about the numbers of those champions from the. right on the children number. one will be there with the ball over me. you have a new theory brother this guy who is from the order of your workers was the first computers after your you were building the first soviet a limpid team with nine hundred fifty two with the polluted siege survivors concentration camp prisoners and frontline soldiers. maybe even that's good to go from here if you're sure you could use a much needed new ship because you're bursting with it you're in for the one fall through shall go in to get out of here with you if you think that the area we're going to go with. the variations your bush will go through personal first enthusiasm will you do when you're at the national mourning period but in your

world the workers here we are in the world now as you can we. across europe municipalities are taking their water supply back from private companies to me to keep our distance with simple song alone even if i company guess from elsewhere though they invite private companies to take over the utilities anybody tell us drop us. laxness you guys you've got to be violent up going to go by been this is a map of us to quote them out of political office and more years than both the left bill brought up locals are ready to stand up for the basic human right of access to water it's about water but it's also over much more than the water it's about to hurt and the regis tribulation of all of west birds on their debt

downwards we want our. headlines off the international it's whale strikes twelve targets inside syria after the syrian military balance one of its fighter jets however. damascus says it was responding to an act of aggression by. south korea's president says he is ready to accept an invitation to visit pyongyang from the north korean leader in just the latest sign of a thawing of relations between the two countries. and less than a month before general election rights supporters clashed with police and italian city that suffered a racially motivated shooting we hear from the increasingly popular right wing

party. in the next election. we use it. and this is the only we. are the program here on our international we have the latest well things have. syria defense has responded to new israeli raids near the capital damascus israeli military confirms it attacked twelve targets in syria including both syrian and iranian facilities the i.d.f. is striking new syrian in rainy military targets in syria in response to rein in aggression more to follow the perspectives of syria and israel on the situation. so respects. thus morning the syrian army commander should just statement

confirming that syrian air defenses intercepted israeli fighter jets that were carrying out an airstrike on location in central part of the country and then later on sunday news agency the state news agency said that israel carried out subsequent strikes on locations west and south of the syrian capital damascus also said that the fences from the tsunami have been intercepted thief attacks according to my sources. by nine thirty local time and all airstrikes stopped we all we can also confirm that the sites that were targeted in earlier the attack that took place on don't today is the t four air base in central syria in the deserts of central syria near palm iran my military sources are saying that there has been no casualties only three want to talk to us in this don't attack but there

is no official confirmation so far and the positions that were hit today and the subsequent attacks are in the mouth of the mouthpiece and in the south of the mouth because because we have been hit before by israeli airstrikes. earlier this year and back then israel said that it was believed to be and a gathering of iranian advisors and the command building of the syrian army's first armored division well it's a play in three acts it all started with any iranian drone a remotely piloted vehicle which entered israel proper we don't know yet where they are for surveillance or attack and it was shot down by an israeli armed apache helicopter now following that particular incident the israeli air force has retaliated against the. i'm sure of this particular

drone. hitting the. command and control of vehicle and perhaps the launcher itself and during this attack one of the israeli f. sixteen s was idea of heat by syrian ground defenses or the pilots got the impression that they are about to be hit and bailed out so israel has lost one x. sixteen and following that israel has again retaliated heating the it twelve targets several of them being iranian and several syrian this is the most serious incident. between israel and syria and definitely between israel and iran in many years perhaps in ten or fifteen years we have not seen the like afraid.

of the south korean president says he's ready to accept an invitation to visit pyongyang from the north korean leader if certain conditions on that invitation was delivered by kim jong un sr who was attending the winter olympics in south korea she was the first member of the north korean leading families to visit the south since the one nine hundred fifty s. she met with president moon for talks that wound up lasting three hours in the opening ceremony of the winter games also seoul signs of thawing ties between north and south the country's teams marching together.

the recent friendly relations between the two countries are widely seen as a breakthrough that's off for the countries held talks in at least two years hong kong city university's joseph chang a political science professor believes this invitation is a breakthrough this is a small prick foules president moon all cells korea and the fans that his feet cold would like to see the escalation of tension in the korean peninsula the conditions normally will be cessation all nucleotides and miss out paris on the pop all north korea and north korea in tune on terminations all last scale military exercises on the power of south korea and and the united states.

the french defense minister says there is insufficient evidence of chlorine gas use by the syrian government that contradicts previous claims by a number of western politicians including france's foreign minister. when i designed it guess you. do. absolutely. the french defense minister saying that there is no reliable evidence to suggest that koori mail was used by the syrian government contradicting what we heard just a few days ago from the french foreign minister who had stated that for an attack it been carried out by the syrian government. and the syrian government has been accused of carrying out during attacks in the areas in the country in january it was accused of doing so by

a number of groups including the syrian observatory for human rights which some people have questioned the organization which is run by a businessman in the u.k. and also by the white helmet so voluntary group which some people have accused of aiding with the terror executions that have been carried out in syria by taking away the bodies at the end of the execution will the u.s. government has also spoken out about these alleged attacks in syria with the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson when he was in france last month the same regardless of who carried out these attacks the blame was on russia whoever conducted the attack. russia ultimately burrs responsibility for the victims and. countless others targeted with chemical weapons since russia became involved in syria well the secretary of defense in the u.s. james mattis actually went even further than that suggesting that it's not just

chlorine attacks but also that sarin has been used in another chemical agent in these attacks although he did also admit that they were in your dreams that could back up those claims now the u.n. is of course invest. gating the allegations all these attacks in syria on some of the areas in the country but it remains to be seen whether the probes will ever be able to identify any concrete evidence as to whether those attacks indeed took place in who indeed was behind them and of course whether they will be able to agree and find a result give enough for everybody to agree on the international probe into syrian chemical weapons stalled late last year in fact until november it was handled by a body called the joint investigative mechanism that probe that was shut down when russia vetoed a u.n. resolution to extend its mandate moscow criticized the body for using second hand

sources and failing to send weapons inspectors to the various sites of the alleged chemical incidents in syria now back then russia drafted a u.n. resolution calling for a new investigative body to be created the document says for example that experts must visit the sites of alleged attacks to collect samples and conduct eyewitness interviews but the plan collapsed after the u.s. said it would block that resolution defense analyst ivan eland thinks the whole issue has become highly politicized the problem is with these things is that one never knows for sure there are multiple sides on the battlefield it takes a long time to get the investigations done in the stray should always likes to. put on a tough facades the one is we don't care who did this but the syrian government is responsible for it that's kind of a strange statement i think if they accuse.