this is the story of the week the twenty eight winter games kicked 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. by the u.s. led coalition hit syrian pro-government forces reportedly 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 killer made by monsanto to cancer.

the biggest story right here over the past seven days first off the winter olympics in south korea got underway on friday with a grand opening ceremony in the host city. a stunning start now nearly three thousand athletes from ninety two countries took part in that 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 their long running conflict the south korean president says he's ready to accept an invitation to visit the north if certain conditions are met 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 the first member of north korea's ruling family to visit the south since the one nine hundred fifty s. she met with president moon for three hours of talks and the games opening ceremony also hinted at forming relations with both teams marching together.

well the two koreas were able to march under a single flag russian competitors on the neutral banner and the taking part as a limpid athlete from russia all the 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 you need to try to have the details on that . no russian flags at the opening ceremony nation's parade chang the i.o.c. said 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 fan who grabbed one too and 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 that's 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 the. best athletes are sort of banned i think that is until 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 our fleet and two coaches against the ban preventing them from competing failed lawyers branded the decision as 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 hoping that the decision would go you know now i feel sadness and.

titian i turn enough strength in the opportunity to compete in the next limb. i have no emotions left we had all our bags were just waiting for it is the. situations make you stronger emotionally. serious 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.a.s. cell. while carrying out an operation to locate and terminate an eyesore 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 but support from the coalition to defeat an unprovoked attack by syrian coalition forces in eastern syria if the situation is like how they describe that they were indeed attacks while fighting isis 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 had 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 conical 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 who continue his brutal treatment against his own people to put its ability to the lack of a fundamental commitment to our agreement that is typical of current u.s. diplomacy including the reasons why the americans stay in syria rex tillerson peter he stated that their 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 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 go to syria i'm invited and while there you start killing syrians in syria in

self-defense regional experts have been telling us that with islamic state practically gone from syria now washington's targeting the government instead. they are not just in syria to fight there are. have been in syria for a long time because they want to throw aside as the spate of feeds as it becomes clear that it is the syrian forces themselves at large who defeated diodes the priority of overthrowing assad begins to reassert itself in the pentagon and in the white coats so i think that's really the answer the question the overthrow of assad was always the prodigal 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 no with the possibility of a defeat of diet inside syria that policy but reassert itself this is coming at the

end of a long war the united states has taken about twenty eight percent of syrian territory and over fifty percent of its oil this is leverage in order to rollback iran and get rid of assad also doesn't like it he wants that oil for himself there was a race only a few months ago that would get those fields and he's broadening 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 pro and as we know the turks threatened in rendition to take on the americans over there so the united states i think it's very agents that well syria and turkey will begin to push america out try to push america out of northern syria but he likes. russia bid farewell to military pilot roman filipov on thursday the major became a national hero after his plane was downed by militants in syria with more details

his medina cultivar. the funeral for a major roman filipe of who died tragically fighting in syria takes place here in his home town nothing earlier was one hundred. 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 plane was shot down on saturday in the north western 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 a jacket from the airplane only to find himself surrounded by terrorist the pilots of the plane supporting role months shared the details of their last communications his voice remained calm when i was there on the get out of the maneuver. was the commanders 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 too and about twenty seconds later 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 precious 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 a dozen successful military operations and he died as a hero fighting terrorist at the age of thirty three. the pilot's bravery has not gone unnoticed among other service personnel people this letter from a us veteran offering support and asking if there's a fund for his widow and child still waiting for clarification from the russian military about that the man who wrote that letter steve stoller has been sharing his thoughts on major philip of story he knew what it is chances were and he knew what he had to do. any knew it was never going to be captured and that's a decision he had to back. this very hard decision to make but it's actually to he did what he had to do and this was a personal decision. and 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. when 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 shot you if you're watching the weekly from our team the united states may cut funding for a major cancer research program i'll tell you why after the break. it's. semi much more entertainment have become blood in our culture and we have children grow up playing playing on the computer this one has somehow been to mystic cited as entertainment to russia just there's nothing funny about it is so serious russia

will be the last to give up nuclear weapons because russia regards nuclear weapons as the bulbul of the against inflation a wolf but it's a period outside covetousness for. the politicians to do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president and. somehow want us. to be like to be for us it's like them before us three in the morning can't be good . i'm interested always in the water our. first sip.

welcome back republican lawmakers in the united states 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 now that particular herbicide is made by the agricultural giant monsanto and it strongly disagrees with the i r c's classification of its chemical and this agency itself the international agency for research on cancer is part of the w.h.o. as i mentioned and it lead to cancer prevention activities now shape the international agenda on that but some u.s. lawmakers have cast doubt on the organizations findings. unsubstantiated claims i or your response. why i arc 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 republicans believe that the study was flawed and relied on cherry pick science accusing the agency of lack of transparency and 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 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 seventeen 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 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 giants of social media were grilled on thursday by a panel of u.k. lawmakers over allegations of russian interference on their platforms during the breaks it vote but it seemed there was little if anything to back up those accusations. we looked at all advertisements for 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 must not point nor some of the total number of accounts of these very low level thinkers from now until we complete this investigation we won't know but what we haven't had this. information that's enabled us 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 have it looks this economy. going on in the horror well it seems who did look with twitter and what they said they found was that there were only forty nine accounts connected to russia during the time of the bracks that 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 numbers 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. this seemingly

a huge appetite for this in the british media but there's little for them to work with. let's take a look at some of the headlines this one reads that twitter has finally conceded that russian accounts tried to influence breaks it but there's only a passing mention to explain the story is about a few dozen accounts the same with the headline in the times which admits the existence of so-called russian trolls the first paragraph then reveals there were only forty nine suspicious accounts one more example and you need to dig even deeper to find the actual numbers in this particular lengthy article. russian talk radio talk show host jon gore told us that the russian investigation may 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 skype call and question it's facile call 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 so 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 doing the rounds right now but when it comes to feminism people can't seem to agree on what's acceptable to say and what not to report 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 job has nothing to do with oppression it's

a feminist statement by many men i'm on had to be women this piece of clothing is the very epitome of oppression but then there's also the no head 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 veils and the anti had jab brigade is outraged . i have you know you have to. earn the earn. 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 paw 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 focus on 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 say people are going to not necessarily mankind.

and there's lots of things you can do to be better i mean this is and there's a big one i don't in terms of women but what about formula one bosses who presumably thought they were acting in an enlightened and pursed weinstein manner when they fired all the great girls those are the promotional models who traditionally adorn the racetrack there's some support the band say that being a pit babe object. defies 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 and 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 what and goals apply for the job it seems these days you come right perhaps all the hashtags could now be replaced with one much less binary one something like freedom to choose. that's the way the way it looked from here got you covered for all today's developments i'll have you next week in just over half an hour. tens of billions hundreds of billions probably a trillion dollars of u.s. government subsidies a seat on the energy industry yes government can subsidize mining of big oil rather cryptic currencies and put those into while it's called american citizens give each have an automatic wallet tied to their social security account and they can get a daily and weekly or monthly airdrop crypto coins that they can then years to

boost economy with the government can easily do that. with this manufacture consent instinctive public will. when the ruling close is protect them so. when the final merry go round lifts and we the woman has a job. we can all middle of the room signals. to leave room for the real news is really. quite different.

previously on the great american pilgrimage rather opponent in massachusetts you are just what you got here. and boston yes i guess so so i'll go as ted kennedy i really did. everybody i'm stephen baldwin task hollywood guy suspect every proud american first of all i'm just george washington and r.v. news just uncle steve. was this is my buddy max famous financial guru and she's a little bit different. there was no doubt last but not least my larger than life. and aspiring star rio. with all the drama happening in our country i'm shooting the road to have some fun. meet every day americans. and what's america.

how things got so crazy i was naked. i think hopefully start to bridge the gap this is the great american pill. it's day two in new england and steven makes his way to a historic restaurant to meet with a local vietnam veteran in a single father who is had more than a few obstacles to overcome come on come on. we're going to go see hi. good afternoon gentlemen how are you doing good what's your name. steve just a real. piece pretty cool. you guessed. history a city. you can tell they're real.