germany's social democratic leader martin shoulder resigns after having recently agreed to form a so-called grand coalition with chancellor angela merkel. and to another resignation in europe the foreign minister of the netherlands quits after admitting he lied about a meeting with vladimir putin and the russian that leader's intentions to forge a greater russia. in the an exclusive interview with r.t.s. the head of the court of arbitration for sports the friends of the olympic committee's it decision to exclude russian athletes which the court itself had already cleared of doping allegations. the fact that the show the

guilt of an athlete's. has nothing to do with the case for the innocence. of broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow the seas aren't international thomas glad to have you with us. germany's social democratic party leader martin childs has announced his resignation with immediate effect his decision comes after he lost out in the german election to chancellor angela merkel and then faced criticism over agreeing to a grand coalition government for a second time he said his decision will allow the party to refresh itself and come back stronger. appears to be. this big you need to compute the renewal of police organization including its personnel and this is the urgent wish of the party members with my resignation and also the relinquishment of my federal government

membership i want to help bring an end to this debate and allow members to really focus on coalition agreement. and with the background to this decision here is our to show the debate. we know that resignations is something that martin schultz's done well in the past he actually resigned his job as the president of the european parliament last year because he said he wanted to fight the german elections and to become the chancellor of germany as we know in those elections in september he failed to do that in fact his party did so badly in those elections that they lost forty seats now following that defeat in the elections he turned around and said i will never be a minister. led government and that led to angela merkel and her c.d.u. having to seek out potential partners for forming a german government that fell by the wayside and then of course martin schultz said he would talk to angle of merkel about forming another so-called grand coalition

this was between his party the social democrats and the c.d.u. to rule germany now in that he said that he wanted to be foreign minister and he accepted that that would be his position if that grand coalition go ahead but he gave up on that too just in the last few days saying that he wouldn't be the foreign minister in that government if that government takes place now the current german foreign minister had something to say about it all at least his young daughter did she was widely quoted in the media and they had a hoot about this as apparently turning round to her father and saying you know daddy don't worry you'll have more time to spend with us talking about the fact that he could be losing his post and then turned around and said well that's better than spending time with the man with the hairy beard of course referring to schultz and he's famous with well back now to his resignation and martin schultz has said

quite clearly what i was signing a leader of the social democrats he will be able to help internal divisions within his party his party members have to go to a ballot on march in which they are due to vote on whether and. they voted that one coalition to go ahead and there is a lot of division and chaos in the party the youth wing of the party are currently traversing around germany people to vote no to that coalition and if it is a no vote then we could see germans head back to the polls very soon will melt in short says departure aid those internal divisions or will it deepen the chaos and the division we have yet to find out earlier we heard from geo political analyst rana roth for us he said that martin will likely continue his political career within the european union the specialists of the advisers of the s.p.d. have just understood that it is really important to have

a party leader who is popular in the population a sympathetic person warmhearted that people like to see on t.v. and then they would also like to vote for such a personality so i think it's not maybe a matter of competence it's a matter of a peculiarity and i guess the market will look back to you he will try to get the post did in the commission in the coming years this is a natural course for a personality who is not so close to people because commissioners are not voted for and therefore is a better career option for marching shoes. and on two other resignations in the euro the foreign minister has now quit after revealing earlier in the week that he had lied about a meeting with the russian president in two thousand and six but in

a fall over. did. it. for. the diet foreign minister it was quite emotional when he announced his resignation he was supported by the country's prime minister who was present during this announcement and ole so seem to quite moved by the situation and now what has happened today is the result of a big scandal that erupted when it was revealed gods the dutch foreign minister a lie back in two thousand and sixteen about an event in his life that when he described it didn't raise a lot of questions as back at the time russia was accused of all sorts of things moscow was accused of carrying out aggressive politics so his ally fit quite well into that contacts now back in two thousand and sixteen and the minister has said

that he was present at a meeting with the russian president vladimir putin and he heard the president speaking about unifying russia ukraine balor the baltic states and kazakstan into a single country creating greater russia. in early two thousand and six i was about to meet predictions come true so i had house i stopped at the back of a room or a meeting was being held but i could hear very well vladimir putin talking about a great to russia he said this included russia. ukraine and the baltic states and that kazakstan would be nice to have now these were his words back in two thousand and sixteen but when he was confronted about this he acknowledged that that was a lie that he wasn't even in russia back in two thousand and six and he only said that to protect his source a person who was present at that for me saying now the minister said that his credibility had been damaged he described these recent events as the biggest

mistake in his the little career now all this took place just one day. before his official meeting with the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov i was about to attend this meeting as so many other enjoying less war and we had questions prepared for the reaction pouring minister of course concerning this particular situation but now it seems that this amazing is off the table as the dutch side had officially cancel it. the pentagon claims that it destroyed a syrian army tank in self defense on sunday we. are the team that took the shot at us. so we thought of the rules of engagement protect ourselves. that was something that we always have the right to. do that. u.s.

special operations forces in syria say that this is the second time that they have come under attack from pro assad forces in less than a week our correspondents american has more. the pentagon says that it was an act of self-defense accusing syrian forces of trying to attack kurdish forces but apparently with u.s. forces embedded they were forced to respond now on wednesday the u.s. said it carried out defensive airstrikes in retaliation for what they saw as an unprovoked attack but according to reports more than a hundred fighters aligned with the syrian government were killed in the airstrike now this latest escalation is definitely definitely something to worry about on all sides especially considering that the syrian conflict spin out largely perceived as a fight against terror well against isis in particular which is almost wiped out but it's also opened way to a whole series of new conflicts we have the turkish kurdish conflict the tensions between israel and iran and then american and kurdish forces up against damascus

but even though isis is pretty much gone the u.s. is still wants to stay in syria with the secretary tillerson announcing plans to maintain an open ended military presence in the country some two thousand troops or so to prevent a resurgence of isis and to counter iran's influence let's take a quick listen the united states will maintain a military presence in syria focused on ensuring isis cannot really merge our ships presently has one foot in the grave and by maintaining an american military presence in syria until the full complete defeat of isis is the true it will soon have to do counterterrorism we will continue to work with allies and partners but surprisingly the us isn't the only one just today the french president said that france will attack if they find proof that chemical weapons were used against civilians promising to strike or chemical shipments originated so the question is are we seeing the syrian conflict enter a second stage well that's all unclear now so we'll just have to wait and see. to

discuss this further i'm joined by richard becker an anti-war activist thanks for being with us here on our t.v. international. and i'm sorry we're not with richard becker or here's somebody who anyway apparently this was the second engagement between the let's let's go at the questions apparently this is the second engagement between the syrian army and the u.s. in less than a week could this gradually lead to a full scale american involvement in the war against assad. sorry we seem to have a connection difficulty about this. syrian army and the u.s. relations it's the second engagement in less than a week could we see this being an escalation in a florida

a full scale war against assad involving the americans. all right seems to be we're having some difficulties with the connection there i will try and get that back here in a second. you're watching international it's. a little blog so you on the idea that dropping bombs brings peace to the chicken hawks forcing you to fight the battles that will. produce flocks for the value that will be gossip the public as well. as tell me you are not full enough to buy. all the hawks that we all walk.

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 the social security account and they can get a daily and weekly or monthly airdrop. that they can then years to boost the economy what the government can easily do that. are welcome back you're watching archie international now day four of the winter olympics has seen russia add to its medal tally with two bronze finishes secured in

ski events it brings the country's overall haul to four bronze and a silver medal this is despite the reduced number of competitors from russia following decisions by the international olympic committee and the court of arbitration for sport so over doping allegations now casts overturned the lifetime olympic bans for twenty eight russian athletes at the start of february but then did a sudden u. turn saying it actually supported the i.o.c. decision not to allow the athletes to compete in the winter games our correspondent spoke exclusively with of the secretary general of cass to find out more about the conflicting decisions. after the court of arbitration for sport said no to forty seven russian athletes and coaches just as the winter games were getting underway perhaps the number one conclusion that came up on some people's mind was that presumption of innocence doesn't apply to the russian doping scandal well the cast secretary-general didn't literally say that the key law principle didn't work for

cas but see for yourself how much it applied to the russians the fact that the unable to show the guilt of an athlete doesn't mean that the truth has nothing to do although with the case really in the sense this is a logical consequence and this is nothing bad about it mr reeve maintains that leaving the group of clean russian athletes on paper out of the winter olympics isn't a sanction also i found out that the refusal of the i.o.c. to get the dozens of russian athletes on board the olympics in some cases was a result of pure suspicion and other cases it was a result of some real evidence which however mr reeves hasn't seen after all he wasn't a member of the panel but the secretary general promised that this evidence will soon be published so let's wait for now let's have

a look at the other highlights of my exclusive interview a cas has been shown something as a people here there was no review of every the sochi case was not discussed here the metro report was last discussed here it's only the review of the process so it was not just sanction it was an eligibility issue i understand the reaction of the public in russia because it doesn't seem logical exactly the russian side doesn't see the logic here how it's stripping a person of the right to compete at the olympics not a sanction this is. a special procedure because the created a special commission so the cast by the here reviewed these criteria and said they were fair please let me get this straight the tsotsi case and the chain case you're saying that there are absolutely no contradictions between the two decisions this the fact that you cannot establish the give evidence of the deal doesn't mean that

you have established the innocence of the athlete you see what i mean i'm sorry but i thought that was the exact job of cas to determine whether that suspicion is enough for that kind of bad maybe that they are suspicions which i know it's. confirmed by sufficient evidence i don't know if i'm clear because it's a little bit skopec aided that is you can have some elements which show some. suspicious actions by the athletes but they may not be sufficient to convince the panel that for sure this at least is guilty of an anti-doping rules violation but it doesn't mean that he did nothing at all there may be some some strange actions which could lead to some suspicion so you are saying there can be more transparency it's possible it's possible yes as you heard a couple of minutes ago when you cast initially overturned the i.o.c. bans of the sochi athletes the international olympic committee was very critical of

the court thomas back demanded reforms and i asked the secretary general if anyone returned to these ideas after the final decision of the russian athletes was made and the answer was no so it turns out when the court of arbitration for sport came up with a verdict that fully satisfied the i.o.c. nobody wants to reform cas anymore. you can see that exclusive interview with the cast of secretary general in full throughout the day right here on r t or throughout wednesday here on our chief international. all right members of the u.s. intelligence committee usually do not need a reason to disagree however we see total consensus in the room when the conversation turns to russia. in the lead up to the twenty eight thousand election cycle but yes we have seen russian activity in intentions to have an impact on the next election cycle here yes we give anyone else. yes.

joining me live to discuss the latest committee hearing is brian crabtree publisher of talk forty dot com and political talk show host and brian a little bit apology to you and viewers that we have a little bit of a mix up earlier in the hour but we have that fixed and we now have you talking to us about this. so now as we just heard the officials giving testimony they all agreed that russia would meddle in upcoming u.s. mid-term elections why would russia need to do that. well i think every country metal's an election so i think that's the first elephant in the room so to speak is we have to admit that we all met all these the largest countries tend to meddle try to influence for the best of their people i think that the least the position here in america is that if russia is trying to meddle then we should try to either meddle back or at least try to stop it and i think the american people are kind of

sick of this argument though i think that's the real takeaway of today this is not the number one story in the country maybe around the world that it certainly may be here but it's you know i think americans are more worried about themselves personally being hacked just like people around the world are worried about that so i i think every country wants to influence what happens in the elections of other powerful countries and it's i guess whoever wins that battle prevails in that moment so in the past week given this we've seen facebook twitter and google put in the crosshairs over supposedly failing to stop russian propaganda on their platforms are we likely to see more pressure put on social media in the near future . why they it should be a listen without identifying who and what is actually using social media for evil purposes we ought to hold these companies more accountable i say they've got a few months left to try to police their own networks and then we've got to do

something i'm not big. in trying to squash free speech or change what happens but i'm a believer that facebook and twitter have become what what i would refer to as a wild west and that to some extent if they can't police their networks and make it credible that perhaps in at least in terms of american viewership that we ought to use the federal communications commission to do so some people would think that's a violation of free speech i'm not talking about editing what people get to say i'm talking about holding some sense of credibility and accountability to these networks so that we don't have misrepresented facts data what have you which is fake news on those networks and the and the crass nature of communication that's happening there is i think in some way chilling in breaking apart the fabric of our society so no proof or at least no public proof has been provided to back up previous accusations and yet we see fresh one stated as fact from the intelligence

community what do you think that they're trying to achieve here. well i add there isn't public proof other than taking the word of an embattled intelligence community and the f.b.i. what i do think in theory as i've studied this i buy into the equation that there may be people in russia just like there are people all around the world that maybe close to the government maybe have worked in the government maybe they're in the government i don't know but maybe they're not directed by the government i think there's a possibility that the vastness of this is a bunch of bad actors at various points around the world in america outside of america maybe in russia in africa that are just doing some things online to try to play with these networks i definitely think that there is some interaction by the governments around the world again to try to influence elections because it's meaningful to their purpose and causes a government and for their people but i think when we say it's russia i i i by some

of it but i don't buy it that it's necessarily directed by the kremlin every single time and i think that's what the american people are kind of scratching their heads saying you know what is it really and i think that's the debt when you see trump being the backlash against trump i think trump is previti of that and he also knows that it's not may be appropriate to reveal that intelligence data in the sources and collection methods as to exactly who is hacking and using social media i think it's happening but by whom i don't know that we'll ever know for sure brian crabtree very interesting to hear thoughts publisher of top forty dot com and also a political talk show host thanks for being with us. just switching gears completely now what could be so offensive about a kid's movie about rabbits to justify calls for a boycott. i just need to keep the wildlife out where they belong you're so damn right. he's going to go. but you know admitted phil that peter rabbit

has angered the asthma and allergy foundation of america because of the way portrays food allergies there's a scene in the movie where rabbits attack the human arch nemesis by throwing black berries at him and he's allergic and starts choking inject himself a fatal reaction scene caused some parents to call for a boycott of the week let me get make light of a serious issue and paves the way for bullying sony pictures has already issued an apology for their state political analyst a school teacher and president of the allergy foundation to weigh in on the controversy. well we believe that food allergies are a very serious condition again two people die daily from life threatening allergies and there are approximately two children in every classroom with this condition so making fun of it taunting bullying and any fashion due to a disability or a medical condition like enough locks those is simply unacceptable what wait a minute why does that assume bullying why do we assume that the consequence of

showing this in the film is going to be bullying look we believe that again we understand you know that movies are to entertain but we just simply do not believe that entertainment should include harming another person making fun of one because of that disability or because of that condition or you know taunting or even putting them in that life threatening situation and making fun of it is really we believe irresponsible you know. they're watching these rabbits ganging up on mcgregor and throwing what they actively know is an allergen into his mouth and then celebrating that and i don't think that that's ok and i mean we can just simply not take our children to movies we feel are inappropriate for them and furthermore the idea that we assume. that this is going to lead to bullying is a false premise it's a false dichotomy i agree everyone has the have their own right to take their

children to the movies that they choose to see if you choose to take your child to this movie that's your choice i simply hope that you'll use that to elevate the conversation in a positive way around food allergy awareness preparing miss an anti bullying behavior the big issue here is that hollywood license and hollywood values are not necessarily going to reflect those of the larger viewing public and it's incumbent on parents and it's their responsibility to decide not only what their children see in theaters but to explain it to them and to give them proper context if parents are bringing their kids to the theater and seeing this movie it's him it's you know it's a good conversation to have with them because it is important for kids to recognize that this behavior is not ok as a teacher in a school. bullying is something you know that is talked about a lot and seen in many different different ways and when you know these types of.

messages continue to happen in movies it's you know really making it challenging as educators. let's and now return to our story about the pentagon's claiming to have destroyed a syrian army tank in self-defense on sunday. we can now go to richard becker live who is an anti-war activist earlier we try to get you we had some technical difficulties glad to have you back. so let's get right to it apparently this was the second engagement between the syrian army and the u.s. in less than a week could we see a full scale american involvement in the war against bashar al assad specifically. well i think there were seen the attention of the u.s. government the pentagon to establish a long term presence u.s. presence in the side of syria i think there are now reported to be something like can u.s. bases in the country for them being also being air bases so it's clear that violation

of international law because the u.s. has no right to be there. the russian forces were invaded by the syrian government five units it has no right to be there it acts as if it has a right to be there and because of the way these forces are stationed in the way its forces are moving particularly in the eastern part of syria near the critical oil fields. there could be more conflict this is a very very dangerous game that the pentagon is playing and they know they know very well that it is they're intent on going ahead and trying to establish this long term presence and perhaps to partition syria and quickly the u.s. is claiming that taking out the tank was an act of self-defense but looking at the larger picture can u.s. forces claim to be acting in self-defense if they are in syria. well they have no grounds to do that at all i mean they're there illegally so to talk about

self-defense it's like someone breaks into your house and you know you resist them and they claim that you are violating their right to self-defense that's ridiculous all right very interesting to hear thoughts thanks for being with us richard becker anti-war activist thanks for being with us on our international if you're. watching our international will be back in about half an. hour. seemed wrong. but we're all just don't call. me. yet to shape out just to. educate and in detroit because the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart when she's to look for common ground.

when lawmakers manufacture consented to public wealth. when the ruling classes to protect themselves. in the final larry go round be the one percent. we can all middle of the room six. million new.