this is the stories that shaped the week the twenty 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 ban are rejected. by the u.s. led coalition 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 for global cancer research program after america's most widely used weed killer made by monsanto the cancer.

welcome to your seven day wrap of some of the week's biggest stories as reported right here first off the winter olympics in south korea got underway on friday with a grand opening ceremony in the host city. a spectacular star 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.

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 and 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 nineteen fifties she met with president moon for three hours of talks the games opening ceremony also hinted a warming of relations with both teams marching together.

while the two koreas were able to march under a single flag russian competitors of a neutral band taking part as a limp after leaks from russia will be ok our team it's after the international olympic committee banned russia following a doping scandal although the russian flags being forbidden by the i.o.c. still found its way into the stadium with the details here. no russian flags at the opening ceremony nations 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 to 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 of 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 last mathlete 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 famer 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 and i will compete and win medals for my country. until the very end we were hoping that this isn't would go in our favor now i feel sadness and so rude but i will compete in every competition i can i have enough strength in the

opportunity to compete in the next olympics i will print them. i have no emotions left we had our bags packed you were just waiting for it it is the only thing so just 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 that was hit was carrying out an operation against an i.d.f. cell. while carrying out an operation to locate and terminate an eyesore sleeper cell near form oil refinery a unit of pro-government forces was suddenly sholden in 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 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 forces in eastern syria if the situation is like how they describe that they were indeed attacks while fighting isis to make up 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 your 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 fact the 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 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 the day isis is being 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 agreements that 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 i so it was 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 know this might sound strange to syria and advice and while there you start killing syrians in syria in self-defense.

regional experts told us that with islamic state practically gone from syria washington's now targeting the government instead. they are not just in syria to fight there. 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 would be to die age 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 the overthrow of asaad was always the product of 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 know with the possibility of a defeated diet inside syria that policy that 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 led british in order to roll back the one and get rid of my side by side just i get it he wants that oil for himself there was a race only a few months ago to get those fields and he's proving 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 it turks threatened and mend it could take on the americans over there so the united states i think is very patients. and turkey will begin to push america out to try to push america out of northern syria but he likes. russia bid farewell to military pilot ramon filipov on thursday the major became

a national hero after his plane was downed by militants in syria with more details his medina conscionable. the funeral for a major roman filipe of who died tragically fighting in syria takes place here in his hometown of photo in your 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 a jacket from the airplane only to find himself surrounded by terrorists the pilot of the plane supporting role months shared the details of their last communications his voice remained calm when i was 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 and an important i got hit hard the right is on fire moving south the lift slowing down to and about twenty seconds later he had it. 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 close to me all of groups 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 sir. being in syria he was part of dozen successful military operations and he died as a hero fighting terrorists at the age of thirty three. the pilot's bravery has not gone unnoticed among other service personnel i'll take up this letter from a u.s. veteran offering support and asking if there's a fund for his widow and child we're still waiting for clarification from the russian military about that the man who wrote this letter steve sola shared his thoughts on major philip of story he knew what it is chances were and he knew what he had to do. and he knew he was never going to be captured and that's a decision he had to bake. it's very hard decision to back but. i salute a he did what he had to do most 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. 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 bit i wish that you were. you're watching the weekly from the united states might cut funding for a major cancer research program i'll tell you why after the break.

billions hundreds of billions probably a trillion dollars of u.s. government subsidies the energy industry u.s. 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 the security account and they can get a daily and weekly or monthly air drop points that they can then years the economy with the government can easily do that.

welcome back more of the biggest stories from the past seven days from the next up republican lawmakers in the united states. threatening to cut funding to the world health organization is 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 this particular herbicide is made by the agricultural giant monsanto we strongly disagrees with the clarification of its herbicide now the research agency lead prevention activities and also helps to shape international policy on tackling that disease but some u.s. lawmakers have cast doubt on its findings. i. claims i or your response. why 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 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 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 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 state 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 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 could be cancerous so these lawmakers intentions. 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 reference very small number of suspects its research agency linked accounts forty nine such accounts were active during the campaign which represents lost i'm not pointing to some of the total number of accounts that these are very low level thinkers from now until we completed this investigation we won't know but what we haven't had is . 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 breck 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 there's a lead to suggestion that there are lots of campaigns going to have it looks like you haven't looked at 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 there were only forty nine accounts connected to russia during the time of the bracks that referendum again i'm no given that twitter has one hundred all in saying that his quote instead it seems that the existence of the nine suspicious accounts one more example for you where you need to dig even deeper to find the actual numbers in this particular lengthy article radio talk show host john gaunt told us that the russian investigation maybe was employees when all the way to

washington to question the. that understand how the internet works they could have got them on a skype call and question them it's farcical an issue a waste of my taxpayers' money and it serves very very annoying it's a joke they act in an almost kangaroo court fashion foreign questions and hardly waiting to listen to the answers you know or i don't think the british public care they know why people voted for breakfast let's just get over it and accept democracy. canada's prime minister had a crash course in political correctness on wednesday justin trudeau well known for his liberal views is now being called a sexist after he interrupted a woman to correct her language. i am a feminist being a founder of the feminist and. it is repeating. something

just. maternal love is there that's going to change the future of mankind so we'd like you to love what we would like to see people coming not necessarily mankind. there's lots of things you can do to be a better feminist as a man but. do it in the. right. people cutting.

the dangers of mansplaining then out if you're browsing online this sunday check us out on facebook and twitter feedback on any of our stories i'll have your next edition of the week in about half an hour see then. across europe municipalities are taking their water supply back from private companies. this is just one post. polonium and some company guess will elsewhere though they invite private companies to take over the utilities anybody tell us that all posts allowed from us you guys you got to video while on the back of my because. i've been this is

a member of us to quote them out of it will grow over some more years than both the left bill brought up the locals are ready to stand up for the basic human right the access to water it's about water but it's also over much more the water it's about to hurt and the redistribution of our west worse and dare debt downwards do you want or will. when the whole make its manufacture come sentenced to public wealth. when the ruling class is to protect themselves. when the final merry go round lifts only the one percent. we can all middle of the room sick. tomorrow morning real news for.

everybody i'm stephen bob taft hollywood guy you know suspect every proud american first of all i'm just george washington and r.v.'s to say this is my buddy max famous financial guru and well he's a little bit different i'm not a point behind 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 pill which.

welcome to worlds apart for decades russians have both laughed and despair that the inadequacies of their system while also struggling to accept this same kind of criticism from foreign there's and when russia decided to hold a mirror to the west only imperfections including by setting up this child it turned out western tolerance to criticism is even volar why is it so difficult to communicate pointing out what's wrong with one another well to discuss that i'm now joined by tony cab and a former diplomat and the author of a book called return to moscow well mr cavanaugh it's great to have you in the

studio thank you very much for your time and happiest charlie a day thank you very much. now when you say australia in the russian context it conjures up an image of a beautiful faraway land with bright saan blue sky beautiful beaches with friendly people who spent most of that time surfing and i know it's a typical but i think it's a nice mental picture to get you through the long russian winter but i suspect when you say russia in their struggle and contacts. the associations are probably not so positive are they. live they can be quite negative unfortunately we've been fed a diet of cliches about russia. russia is still very much seen through a post soviet lens as the successor state to the soviet union and somehow or other images of go leg and stuff in the countries of extreme cold discomfort

of rudeness and these are the kinds of things that unfortunately still linger on and you wrote the whole book to address some of those negative stereotypes and i think you have a very unusual take for a western or former western diplomat. when it comes to russia because. i think there's a lot of understanding there's also a lot of compassion in your book and i really appreciate that but i will want to ask you whether you ever felt that you are giving this country an easy pass i don't think so i think that the majority of the content of my book deals with the sometimes very disagreeable parts of russia's history i've got a chapter on the leg museum i've got a chapter on the jewish museum of tolerance and i talk very frankly in those two chapters of some of the black spots in russia's history. and.