in the stories that shaped the week the twenty eight hundred winter games kick off in south korea but dozens of russian athletes have their hopes dashed just hours before the opening ceremony as their appeals against a doping related reject. strike by the u.s. led coalition hit syrian pro-government forces reportedly killing nearly one hundred people the pentagon claims it was carried out to defend an american backed group. and republican lawmakers in the u.s. threaten to cut funding to a global cancer research program after it linked america's most widely used weed killer made by monsanto to cancer.

and this is our weekly wrap of the biggest stories has covered right here over the past seven days first up the winter olympics in south korea got underway on friday with a grand opening ceremony in the host city yung chang. nearly three thousand athletes from ninety two countries to pass in the event however in the run up to the celebrations demonstrations and scuffles erupted outside the olympic arena people supporting peace between north and south korea had gathered for a rally while another group protesting north korea's participation in the games clashed with police.

now despite the scuffles on the streets korean politicians are taking steps to find a solution to the conflict the south korean president says he's ready to accept an invitation to visit the north if certain conditions are met and this potentially sets up the first meeting between the countries in more than a decade the invitation was delivered by kim jong un's sister who's attending the winter olympics she's the first member of north korea's ruling family to visit the south since the one nine hundred fifty s. she met with president hu for three hours of talks in the opening games ceremony also hinted of warming relations with both teams marching together.

well the two koreas were able to march under a single flag russian competitors of a neutral bana and taking part as the olympic athlete from russia o.-r. team that's after the international olympic committee banned russia following a doping scandal although the russian flag being forbidden by the i.o.c. it still found its way into the stadium needed to try to have the details no russian flags at the opening ceremony nations parade down chang the i.o.c. set some very strict rules and promised no excuses for anyone who'd violate them so who would have thought the russian tricolor would still make it into the ceremony all thanks to a blogger by korean t.v. just as team france were walking into the arena

a russian flag i can well while the zero eight our team were carrying the white a live big flag many russian flags flashed around the arena at the stands but it turned out that not only russians brought them there we spoke to one american fans who grabbed one too i thought it would be nice to you know show a bit of support for them because they've basically worked for years for this moment to represent their countries and now they can't and so i was kind of trying to sort of you know help them feel at home i was trying to sort of send a message that they should be included because the olympics is for all countries i don't exactly know the particulars of the doping thing i don't know what the right decision is really i'm just trying to show a sense of unity. i'm trying to kind of put the politics aside i'm trying to support these athletes because we know for a fact that these athletes are clean there's no doubt about it but then they're being punished for what others may or may not have done and so there's a collective guilt and i don't like collective guilt i think when you have all so

many verses beth's athletes banned just before the games instead of you know just for the game so they can't appeal they don't actually have any they don't communicate directly what they did wrong but then all their best athletes are sort of banned i think that is too much to be a coincidence however the olympic dream of dozens of russian athletes was dashed just hours before the start of the games a last minute appeal from forty five athletes and two coaches against the ban preventing them from competing failed lawyers branded the decision sanctions in disguise. i have no words. i was hoping that gas would ruin our shame or right now i don't know what to do i'm disappointed but of course i won't give up on sport and i still got a lot ahead of me i will compete and win medals for my country. until the very end we were moving the decision would go you know now i feel sadness and so rude.

enough strength in the opportunity to compete in the next. i had no emotions left we had all our bags you were just waiting for a decision. situations make you stronger emotionally. syria is calling on the u.n. to hold the u.s. led coalition to account for wednesday's airstrikes against pro-government forces the number of casualties not yet been confirmed but some reports claim that up to one hundred people may have been killed the pentagon described the attack as a defensive move but russia's defense ministry said the unit was hit as it was carrying out an operation against an i asked cell. while carrying out an operation to locate and terminate in sleeper so near form oil refinery a unit of pro-government forces was suddenly shelled and then hit by airstrikes by the u.s. led coalition vis was overkill if the numbers are true i would see a demonstration of she have brute force perhaps you know to send perhaps the send

a message nevertheless the united states says that it's it's in syria and it will defend itself and it has the right to defend itself in this instance syrian democratic forces acted in self defense with support from the coalition to defeat an unprovoked attack by syrian regime forces in eastern syria if the situation is like how they describe that they were indeed attacks while fighting isis is then they have the right to self defense well if you take them at face value you could think so but people they just killed were also fighting isis and recently they have been making much better progress against isis then the united states led coalition or their partner forces the the s.d.f. the syrian government has of course called all of this an act of aggression unwarranted and unjust but just for you information all of this happened in there

is or near a rich oil field and refinery conoco it's called it was liberated last year by the u.s. led coalition very quickly and in fact. u.s. partner forces seem to have a knack for liberating areas with oil under them much quicker than they do those areas that don't have oil under them since since all the oil rich areas were taken in that as ordered by the s.d.f. progress against isis seems to have dropped to a snail's pace but you know regardless here. america has said that it is in syria only to fight isis today isis has been all but defeated in syria but you don't see the pentagon packing its bags our military policy in syria has not changed our priority remains to defeat of isis whether it's in iraq or in syria that is our intent to defeat isis and not do anything more than that the united states will

maintain a military presence in syria focused on ensuring that isis cannot reemerge total withdrawal of american personnel at this time would restore assad continue his brutal treatment against his own people so as to principal liberty of the lack of a fundamental commitment to our agreement is typical of current u.s. diplomacy including the reasons why the americans stay in syria rex tillerson peter he stated that the only goal in syria was the defeat of ice or now they've got far more ambitious plans with more of the most with the mixed messages here is the pentagon staying on general mattis said that the united states will stay in syria we'll fight in syria for as long as the united states wants to fight in syria i mean that's you know pretty direct now you see how this might sound strange going to syria vital and while there you start killing syrians in syria in

self-defense. or regional experts have told us that with islamic state practically gone from syria washington is now targeting the government instead they are not just in syria to fight they're in. have been in syria for a long time because they want to throw aside as the space. feeds as it becomes clear that it is the syrian forces themselves have largely defeated dies the priority of overthrowing assad begins to reassert itself in the pentagon and in the white house so i think that's really the answer the question of the overthrow of assad but the. always the president prone the reason why the americans were in syria the army in treating these groups intervening with air strikes and so on they were diverted from that by diet no with the possibility of a defeated diet inside syria the that policy that reasserts itself this is coming at the end of

a long war the united states has taken in about twenty eight percent of syrian territory and over fifty percent of its oil this is leverage in order to roll back iran and get rid of assad also just like it he wants that oil for himself there was a race only a few months ago who would get those fields and he's probing undoubtedly under the pretext of biting isis the united states didn't think it was so the united states is trying to lay down the law here and not let anybody approach and as we know the turks threatened and mended to take on the americans over there so the united states i think is very patience that both syria and turkey will begin to push america out try to push america out of northern syria but he likes their. russia bid farewell to military pilot for a month for the pope on thursday in his hometown of in western russia the major died fighting in syria after his plane was shot down by militants. the funeral for

a major roman filipe of who died tragically fighting in syria takes place here in his hometown of earlier we saw hundreds of people attending the memorial ceremony as family members friends his colleagues people who didn't know him all came to pay their last respects at the palace a plane was shot down on saturday and the northwestern part of syria which is still controlled by the latest incarnation of the terrorist group oh no sra roman tried to stay in the air as long as he could he then managed to eject from the airplane only to find himself so rounded by a terrorist the pilot of the plane supporting role months shared the details of their last communications his voice remained calm when i want him there all of the you get out of the movie yes i see them was the commander's reply and then he said so evenly as if it was something ordinary on imports and i got hit hard the

right is on fire moving south the lift slowing down to about twenty seconds here i did google search and. then he ordered me to gain altitude of course i didn't do it to leave my command is the last thing i would do i always tried to have his back during flights and now i have to do it on the ground while he was fighting i stood there and made several attacks to vehicles that were getting closer to the olive groves where room on touchdown i stayed until the fuel was extremely low i barely made it back to the airfield roman had waited for the terrorist to get closer to him and only after that he decided to detonate a grenade taking his own life but avoiding capture he even managed to shout this is for our world lads what he did that russia's defense ministry released several facts about his life he left a wife and a four year old daughter behind he was an experienced pilot and it was not his

first time serving in syria he was part of dozens successful military operations and he died as a hero fighting terrorist at the age of thirty three. and the pilot's bravery hasn't gone unnoticed among other service personnel r.t. got this letter from a us veteran offering support and asking if there's a fund for his widow and child we're waiting for clarification from the russian military about that the man who wrote that letter though steve solo has been sharing his thoughts on major filipov story he new world is charites as war. and he knew what he had to do. any knew he was never going to be captured. that's a decision he had to bake. this very hard decision but. actually . he did really have to do it was a personal decision. he knew what could happen to him he knows what can happen to other troops and what has happened to his

comrades these are very important people to you. and you do most anything for them . even risk your life he had to die like this. here. i wonder if i would be brave enough to do what he did. he was a he was a good bit i wish that you were. republican lawmakers in the u.s. are threatening to cut funding to the world health organizations cancer research program it's after the international agency for research on cancer said america's most widely used weed killer is probably carcinogenic the herbicide itself is made by the agricultural giant monsanto which strongly to disagrees with the c's classification of it herbicide this is what this group is the international agency for research on cancer it's part of the world health organization what it does is lead cancer prevention activities that then help shape the international agenda but

some u.s. lawmakers have cast doubt on the organizations findings. unsubstantiated claims i or your responsible handling of why ark should receive any government funding in the future they're disputing the organizations findings regarding its leading herbicide called round up round up is made by months santo and it's the world's most widely used weed killer since the seventy's it's been sprayed on corn soybeans a cotton and other crops and now republicans believe that the study was flawed and relied on cherry pick science accusing the agency of lack of transparency an anti industry bias they say that it's quite a status designated as carcinogenic it will require manufacturers and retailers to warn workers and consumers and plus it'll increase costs and instill fear in the public some have disagreed with republicans it is important that we review the methods and tactics that industry has used to influence this administration and attack independent scientific organizations like the world health organization's

international agency for research on cancer or i or would like to say that fundamentally this hearing is about the ability of a public health agency to call a carcinogen a carcinogen even if that carcinogen makes a huge amount of money for powerful corporations according to the center for responsive politics monsanto lobbied more than four point three million dollars in twenty seven team the environmental protection agency which is not an international organization concluded that the same ingredient does not cause cancer and i are says that they've been under attack ever since they published their conclusions against life a seat at the same time monsanto has been pushing against these findings through several different means and the company is seen as well quite controversial not only in the u.s. but all over the world president micron promised in november that life of say would be banned within three years inevitably modified crops have been banned in over thirty five different countries but not banned in the u.s.

international organizations have concluded that life is it could be cancerous so these lawmakers intentions are quite unclear. three joints of social media were grilled on thursday by a panel of u.k. lawmakers over allegations of russian interference on the platforms during the breaks of vote but it seems there was little if anything to back up those accusations. we looked at all advertisements with any connection to russia and we found no evidence of our services being used to interfere in the referendum a very small number of suspects its research agency linked accounts forty nine such accounts were active during the campaign which represents less than point normal some of the total number of accounts these are very low level things until we complete this investigation we won't know but what we haven't had this. information that's enabled those to target on a particular page or a particular phenomenon despite all their commitment enthusiasm and hard work

spanning over a period of really several months when this inquiry kick started it seems like the u.k. parliamentary committee that's trying to find out the truth about a russian any brecht that meddling they seem to be really hitting a brick wall this week they travelled all the way to washington thousand thousands of miles presumably having spent thousands of pounds to get there and what they ended up with while questioning the executives of twitter you tube and facebook was just a frustration it seems and that was thick in the atmosphere investigative journalism for instance that this led to suggestion that there are lots of campaigns going to have it looks like you haven't looked have you that's the thing you haven't looked this economy. going on in the horror well it seems who did look with twitter and what they said they found was that they were only forty nine accounts connected to russia during the time of the bracks it referendum again i'm no mathematician so correct me if i'm wrong perhaps but it seems that there is and this is really

nothing to write home about given that twitter has hundreds of millions of accounts and despite the chair of this committee damian collins saying that his quote instinct tells him that the number should be higher that did not turn out to be the case so despite this goes chasing continuing in the committee keeping asking the executives to look harder it seems no fruitful results so far are seemingly a huge appetite for all this in the british media but there's little for them to work with because take a look at some of the headlines. this one reads twitter has finally conceded that russian accounts tried to influence breaks it but there's only a passing mention to explain the stories about a few dozen accounts headline in the times which admits the existence of so-called russian trolls the first paragraph there reveals that there were only forty nine suspicious accounts as for one more example for you and you need to dig even deeper to find the actual numbers in this lengthy article radio talk show host jon gore

told us that a russian investigation might be a wild goose chase after all this is a farce these employees went all the way to washington to question though they don't understand how the internet works they could've got them on a sky call a question it's far soko an issue a waste of my taxpayers' money and it served very very annoying it's a joke they acted in almost kangaroo court fashion firing questions at you and hardly waiting to listen to the answers do you know what i don't think the british public care they know why people voted for let's just get over it and accept democracy. support for women's rights and gender equality has been picking up pace online with a number of prominent hashtags but when it comes to feminism people can't seem to agree or more to acceptable to say and what's not. are you a feminist if you put on a muslim headscarf or on the contrary if you take it off and even burn it according

to the internet it could be either you just have to choose your hash tag there's world hejab day that's the one that promotes women's rights to wear a headscarf it's going big in the u.k. and the u.s. . i hate job has nothing to do with oppression it's a feminist statement but many men and men had to be women this piece of clothing is the very epitome of oppression but then there's also the no hit job movement the one that condemns muslim headscarves as a form of oppression it's especially relevant in iran right now where women are being arrested for costing off that and the anti hejab brigade is outraged. have you know john.

burns the area. but if you thought religious dress was a minefield or simply that it doesn't apply to you beware because language is getting political too in case you won over faith with the new rules using the word mankind is kind of a foe par that's precisely what the canadian prime minister justin trudeau tried to explain to a female journalist who used the word in a question to him little did he know that an even bigger if opar no matter how much of a feminist you are is mansplaining to a woman that she shouldn't be using the word mankind but don't worry the internet told him maternal love is the love that's going to change the future of mankind so we're like you to look what we're going to see people kind not necessarily mankind .

there's lots of consecutive years of feminists as a man but here's a simple one don't interrupt. the. writing. by. people calling. but what about formula one bosses who presumably thought they were acting in an enlightened and post weinstein manner when they fired all that grid girls those are the promotional models who

traditionally adorn the racetrack there's a support the band say that being a pit babe objectifies and sexualizes women but try telling that to the grid girls many of whom are more than upset and trying to think up a new profession i've never had even the slightest hint of feeling exploited. i've wanted to be that i worked hard to get that they paid me well to do the job i i saw my outfit before i agreed to do it i knew i was wearing i knew what was expected of me the world has gone completely mad. i don't see a problem with promotional work tools we all do it by choice and we're not forced into the word and or goals apply for the job it seems these days you can put a foot right perhaps all the hashtags could now be replaced with one much less

binary one something like freedom to choose. well the boy because i well that's the way the wake looks from here as you cover for all today's developments next week in just about half an hour i'll see that. here's what people have been saying about redacted in the sixty's pull on. the only show i go out of my way to find you know a lot of the really packed a punch. is the john oliver of r t america is doing the same we are apparently better than that i see people you've never heard of love redacted tonight i'm president of the world bank so take your money because really i mean seriously send us an e-mail a little more hard sell you on the idea that dropping bombs brings peace to the chicken hawks forcing you to fight the battles that still. produce talks for the

tell you that will be gossip in public but the point. i'm telling you are not cool enough to buy your product. all the hawks that we along the border will want. hey everybody i'm steven both on the task hollywood guy you know suspect every proud american first of all i'm just george washington and r.v. to say this is my buddy max famous financial guru and well he's a little bit different i'm not. going to find i know no one no doubt with all the drama happening in our country i'm hitting the road have some fun meet everyday americans come home and hopefully start to bridge the gap this is the great american people which.

is what a company is a profitable public firm that supplies cheap water is a more than a half a million households a small percentage five point four six is already on by the french multinational suez. what it was like oh my goodness where is their snow was going so my guess of course i'm going to ask i don't that is the simple the message that he bought sort of got us going to the dozen to get them out of this only get the stimulus money out of this and.

then now come in and she has more so to float up top with elizabeth be a political he's not fitted maybe you can do that and if you took the feed. you know moment boy your kid but then it was fairly you view it. could be see. they now as an everlasting the bull's eye she's the author of all of our bit i was never jealous a bunny better than a santa lucia or defeat out of a stick a man of the chioma. by d.a.p. is greece's largest water company it provides five point five million people with water. in it by the loss of the afro and or hear it saved up. so all hallows by norse anything that's there not like it's no better cut as the mean above especially his helmet on

a rebel fellowman at least with as you know an animist in my system of a.t.m. machine is abominable but they just tell me in a much more efficient girl as it became i've got. to go on to something nice couple people to a strong us buskers use them are simple enough strategy has a particular purity is a strong last risk reste so the bottom shelf at least it ought to shape dallas at least it will have to and will not bottom up after c.p.a.'s said this is young people keep our. own keys there are dead. power fashion impress you there's a particular. collective democratic schill this usually pretty small if you know purity.