i. but the drama continued right to the. twenty six years. old. game right up to the wire. from russia to. the council unanimously votes for. humanitarian assistance to the civilians in the hardest hit country. today germany's leading tabloid publishes. the country's politics only to realize. oh.

hello and welcome to the weekly roundup of the big stories of the last seven days who are not international. first the big story in the last couple of hours anyway the twenty eight winter olympics in south korea finally came to a. close rounded off for some great fireworks expect and the traditional handover to the next winter olympic games will be held in the chinese capital beijing in twenty twenty two reports from outside the venue. time really does fly and i can't believe that it's already the and of young chang twenty eight saying we've seen the closing ceremony and the nations parade at it and i'll tell you what it was much warmer than the opening on february ninth quite literally and the fans didn't have to freeze themselves that much to see the spectacle something

that hasn't changed though is the fate of the russian athletes who weren't able to march with their national colors there had been a glimmer of hope that they'd be allowed to do that but earlier on sunday the i.o.c. decided not to lift the suspension of russia's national olympic committee after two of the all way our athletes tested positive for doping although the i.o.c. president has said that these two cases appear to be isolated these are cases off of negligence and there is no indication. of so ever for a systemic or systematic. toping affair here the astley's who failed the test though claim it could have been a result of salva tas or some sort of mistake they say that they have never taken

banned drugs on purpose to improve their performance back to the final day of peeling chang twenty eight ng i guess if you asked the russian fans would they rather see their national flags at the closing ceremony or would they rather have their men's ice hockey team win gold for the first time in twenty six years most of them would still choose the second option and that is exactly what happened inside the gunning ice hockey arena on sunday the red machine b. germany for three and a gripping final and then at the prize giving ceremony the olympic and them was. played instead of the russian anthem obviously the birds guess what the winners and the stadium saying then the national anthem of course and that was quite a scene to watch this was the second gold out these olympics the first one was won by a fifteen year old alina's the gates of a in the figure skating and i'll tell you what

these winter olympics were really games of hope for russia with many more experienced star athletes having to sit out yung chang twenty home the o.e.r. still won a total of seventeen medals that is of course by far not the best performance but still in these circumstances it deserves a huge round of applause asked for the whole medal table norway came first with fourteen gold fourteen silver and eleven bronze and that's of course a spectacular result yeah absolutely well done to all the gods of all the countries the when the good job as india mentioned sunday montanus story when then for russian hockey players as far as he's concerned this is the big one they go goal beating germany a gripping final the decisive goal was scored in overtime making a final score four three was the first time in twenty years to that russian players had reached this kind of final they last won gold in the ice hockey in one thousand

nine hundred two then two is actually instead the hundred neutral banner at the time the team didn't have its own flag because of the break up of the soviet union and it burned to the present here's how fans reacted after today's historic game. but this is not worse you're seeing video simply not really much she would do if you know someone just to consider she. actually shouldn't start but on the which is usually. produced you do know that i go to my meal but you don't really come through i'm not sure that you're going to lose. the me again much makeup would be other but i see it your view on it with this deal or with those the only good those people it would be. you doing as you know him from a lot see it a pretty gross naked out there that no one would sit by see where you're going i'm going to. rest sniffin now the rest of us starring you must use love you want to

see it was just you know obvious an absolute freedom and there's not so we're not satisfied tom downstairs reading this long arm that's come out. hundreds of. skirts. from a foot six according to fear so they have. the absolute. so the winter olympics in south korea just wrapped up but it appears the diplomacy from there is continuing again big story that's come out to tell you about north korea has said it's ready for talks with the united states that was announced after the country's officials met with south korean diplomats at those games in pyongyang not everyone is happy to see the north korean delegation there were protests in south korea border town against the visit scuffles indeed broke out between simple test of police i spoke to independent china specialist andrew love about the possibilities he told me about the controversies none the less that may overshadow any north korea the u.s. talks at least. as far as the sanctions are concerned of course the united states

want to trumpet the sanctions and use military coercion as it won't i mean in solving the national issues it depends on what kind of a deal. mistakes. struck with north korea the united states obviously won that lot of to realize to abandon all this nuclear arsenal at bandon or descriptive at least to develop nuclear weapons and long distance delivery systems that's something which building laws korea would necessarily accept that you cannot be struck then we're back to square one and back to confrontation as collation but all the other hand it's quite possible that some agreement may be reached. you know if nations security council passed a new resolution calling for a cease fire across war torn syria it's in response to a surge in the violence in eastern guta which is occupied by both rebels and

terrorists just outside of the capital damascus as it is the truce is effective immediately it's set to last for thirty days it's hoped it will allow time for injured civilians to be evacuated from the conflict zones and for much needed aid to reach other stricken regions a number of terror groups search is islamic state al qaeda in the latest incarnation of all news are though however are excluded from the agreement that was a key concern for moscow all along operations against there and will continue as more now on the u.n. initiative. there has been a resolution agreed on by the fifteen member body that leads the united nations regarding the situation in eastern guta this is an enclave to the east of the syrian capital of damascus and it's a place that's under the control of rebels and terrorists that are working to overthrow the syrian government twenty thirteen it has been surrounded by government forces and the fighting there has recently intensified and we're hearing allegations against both sides about human life being taken about civilians being

killed we're hearing accusations from the syrian observatory for human rights which is based in the united kingdom there saying that if syria with the support of russia is hurting civilians and committing atrocities against civilians we've also heard reports from the russian center for reconciliation in syria they are pointing out that the area is essentially being used to shell civilians in damascus furthermore they're reporting that the terrorist groups in eastern guta are working actively to prevent medical aid from getting to civilians and they're using these civilians as human shield now after the unanimous vote we then heard from various countries we heard from nikki haley of the united states and she said she doesn't believe the syrian government will actually comply with the cease fire all of this on this council must do our part to press the assad regime as hard as we can to comply we are deeply skeptical that the regime will comply but we supported this resolution because we must demand nothing less nikki haley the representative of

the united states walked out before the syrian representative could speak under u.n. rules if the resolution pertains to you all countries have the right to address the security council we also heard from the representative of the russian federation now he addressed the security council and he emphasized that the fight against terrorism is not affected by this resolution that internationally delegated terrorist groups groups like al. i says that the fight against them is not restricted by this resolution and that fight will continue he also had some concerns about how the fight against terrorism seem to be serving some other goals a. game of battling terrorism can't become a cover for solving geo political problems of dubious legitimacy and that is exactly what the u.s. is doing in syria right now we insist that the so-called coalition and its attempts at occupation as soon as possible it would have among other things a clear humanitarian effect now the resolution has been passed so this thirty day

cease fire that was agreed on by all fifteen members the council is going to be implemented. a correspondent in new york the investigative journalist rick sterling believes the russian amendment is to this ceasefire will allow anti terror operations to continue therefore unimpeded. i think a kid didn't get the resolution was the inclusion. of the syrian government can continue the fight against al qaida and isis and. i think that was the reason that it did pass unanimously with the support of russia the encouragement of the syrian government one good thing in the resolution is that it specifically affirms the fact that the territorial integrity of syria needs to be preserved of course this is very relevant because right now the united states. illegally set up their bases and is occupying territory in eastern syria we've got

to turkish soldiers even in northern syria so this is so this is a very important to keep reaffirming the principle of territorial integrity so led this the other elements meantime despite the cease fire resolution turkey says it's not going to hold its military offensive in the north of syria playing the decision doesn't apply to it that's new in been carrying out an operation against kurdish and the isolation of fighters there which it views as terrorists in its push to dislodge the kurdish people's protection units from that border area the turkish military struck a convoy entering the city of afrin on thursday night now ankara says it was carrying fighters and weapons the other side of this the kurdish forces though insists those trucks were carrying only civilians food and medicine in fact they say one person was killed in what happened there. look at the two of them just play such. a lot of money.

earlier in the week pro syrian government forces arrived in africa to help try to repel the turkish offensive that came after the kurds appealed for support the developments in the region have put the u.s. in a difficult position to as jacqueline bouvier reports next. two of america's main partners in the region are now at each other's throats to put it mildly. and as the u.s. tries to avoid taking sides in the conflict they seem to be losing on all fronts turkey a longtime ally looks to be getting increasingly impatient with washington's inaction america has only dared to call for a reduction in civilian casualties in the fight prompting a vicious response from the turkish president. what disappoints us most in this

process is the hypocrisy and even the levity of some countries which we consider allies and have deep political and military relations with turkey has had enough of lice promises and delaying tactics and on the other side we have the kurds who have been essential to the u.s. led coalition's fight against eisel and the absence of support from their american partners against the onslaught of turkish forces the kurds have been forced to look elsewhere and that has pushed them into accepting help from pro-government forces this week militias loyal to the syrian government flooded afferent to bolster the kurds. but you're right we have come to a kaddish brothers to fight together to protect africa. we are the popular force we came so that we can help our kurdish brothers because we are one people. now that surely ruffled feathers in

washington where the syrian president comes only after i saw on their list of enemies the us has tried to shift focus to an issue that puts them back in the driver's seat battling eisel calling the situation in africa a distraction what is going on in a free is taking away from the fight against isis it is a distraction as secretary maddest had called it is certainly not helpful to have people take their eye off the ball of isis we've talked about that numerous times before but in reality many in the region have already recognized that arsenal is all but defeated despite that the u.s. led intervention which is in its third year has no end in sight but they may be left there with no one to call friend as they continue to alienate their allies. coming up in more of our review of the last seven days in the big stories that came out of them and shape the world's germany's best selling tabloid publishes a fake story about russian meddling in german politics talk about that and more coming up.

what's going on is only for just seen. it doesn't have any meaning unless it leads to real kids which can be. you know guaranteed only by the most pristine of presidential. good politicians do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president i'm sure. some people want to listen. to going to be for us to see what the before three of the more people. interested

in the waters of our. first sit. again germany's best selling newspapers been tricked into publishing a fake bombshell story on russian meddling in the country's politics the report in-built detailed how a mysterious russian agent and bot master called yuri had supposedly offered his services to the head of the social democratic parties you think kevin hoping to sabotage a coalition deal between his party and anglo merkel's conservatives in fact here's a snippet of the pair's supposed exchange dick of him i'm yury i'd like to talk to you about supporting your new grow coke campaign thanks for your mail jail read psalm it's expect a mail from you but just to be sure could you name me g.'s favorite beverage as you can certainly understand this is a delicate matter me oh me oh marty ginger oh dear yuri perfect that's

a relief so what can you offer me basically we can offer you everything an opinion campaign with bazza gates schultz social bots on twitter and facebook or even a targeted facebook advertising campaign but the whole conversation was fabricated by the germans terrible magazine titanic the editors behind the hoax posted this triumphant photo online it shows where the magazine's employees posing with the transcript of the fake e-mails that build took in and the tabloids subsequent article the editor of titanic says the hoax was all too easy to concoct it said he said it took just a couple of hours of that. we had to turn it over to rick a magazine we work with the same. methods as a build so we knew how to think like and build editor there were no rumors about russian meddling and we thought this cannot be we have to make an alliance with the

built tabloids and push a story about russian meddling a story that was tacky like in the spine movie and we had a good feeling that this would work when there's a story like that for built they don't care about details it's only interesting if the story is good and it was a good story indeed it was. like a good movie i hope it will be made into a movie sometime below where the papers retracted the story now what's more the head of the bigs youth wing insists that had he really be made such an offer that he would have turned it down but of a me have to see in this book i don't know but this group but of course who would refuse any of these offers who would work with social clubs and how is the major even list simple and your. dutch shipping group facing accusations of selling a number of vessels from harmful waste to scrapyards in turkey in india exacerbating the veyron mental health problems there and potentially violating e.u.

laws.

well the latest on this is well is that the case is playing out now in the dutch courts the prosecution alleges those ships which was sold to be broken apart in india and turkey contained a number of toxic substances and should have been removed and recycled in a safe way it also cites the alleged impact of the chemicals on recycling workers in the environment in those countries prosecutors are seeking fines of seven hundred fifty thousand euro over the alleged breach of the waste laws if convicted three shipping bosses could face up to six months in jail the company must be said to the other side he rejects any wrongdoing c.

trade groups defense team argues the ships only qualify as waste once they reach the final destination and fall therefore on the e.u. environmental rules as turkey and india are beyond its jurisdiction a lack of proper regulation in the industry is one of the problems highlighted by environmental activists and organizations. the trade is a dutch company and certainly in two thousand and twelve the conditions at the in south asia were well known to any european company so the choice the trade made was for the highest price and the. other higher prices because they do not pay for the proper waste management the proper infrastructure and they use migrant workers that are not trained it's indeed unfortunately is a very common practice more than eighty percent of the world tonnage is currently broken on three title beaches in the world one in india one in bangladesh and one in pakistan this activity causes pollution to see. the groundwater

and is also very dangerous for the work is if they fall from heights there are explosions they will be crushed by steel plates so it's basically an industry which is very poorly regulated if you get a miniature you to travel sort of stories that we don't have time for pictures that we're going to talk to show you here on the new side of things from a newsroom in moscow for the c.v. it's now twenty three minutes past six mr time given i would say thanks for watching we clearly are but with more than just both thirty five minutes and programs continue after this break. her. please. please fill in a hard day at the dinner table bottle sorry i shouted search soyinka in the.

area. an estimated eighteen thousand sims under a trophy jeans are now living in greece. you know just a wardrobe for all to do at home in their view of the ring even many sell their bodies just to make ends meet. all of them are circling the second or the almost sins and when there is a hopeless as in the letters it. also has turned to dealing drugs to make a living. this us a little is a lot of words a little. bit in the bin. to me. about your sudden passing i've only just learned you worry yourself and taken your last turn. to cut up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry but only i could so i

write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each breath. but then my feelings started to change you talked about war like it was a cave still some are fond of you those that didn't like to question our ark and i secretly promised to never like it said one does not leave a funeral the same as one enters the mind gets consumed with death this was quite different a speech because there were no other. and that means that it's make.

fun of welcome to worlds apart rather than providing clarity and closure at the indictment of thirteen russian nationals on charges of conspiracy has further entrenched both sides of the russia gate narrative those who believe that the kremlin tried to have them or can democracy deepen their conviction as did those who insist that the whole story was an invention of sore losers whatever it was or was and russia's role in the two thousand and sixteen presidential campaign perception is reality how should moscow navigate it well to discuss that i'm now joined by further look iana one of russia's top geopolitical analyst and editor in chief of russian global affairs magazine mr le counterfeits good to talk to you thank you for coming over now first let me ask you about the so-called same petersburg troll factory in western media it's presented as this huge ominous

operation but if you look at the sheer number of people involved and the size of the budget it's not even a factor it's a tiny little swatch of three employ more people at the archies cafeteria than actually indicted why do you think it's gotten this larger than life that's right. now maybe you should promote you. more well i think people cafeteria know english pretty much as well as the people running that fact. i was a bit disappointed by this. disclosure because i believe it's based on what. media and western media are all before the almighty the we are everywhere that our specialists including thralls are really comprehensive and overwhelming if it is only for doing this kind of business and i have no doubt that this business does exist because that's part of the p.r.

and mass communication and strategic communication activities anywhere and i think . in the us. some people who seriously analyze this basically what they did is part of it is of many commercial commercial media company as they called it but you know that the problem with the americans is that they believe that the person who is behind it is vladimir putin himself the president of russia and i know that most foreigners believe that russia is this very tightly controlled society and politically that may be the case sometimes but i wonder if you allow for a possibility that guinea pig ocean who conceived and funded this operation who is sometimes referred to as putin's former chef was actually doing that on his own as an experiment for social media rather than following or trying to execute direct

orders from the kremlin. i have no idea both relationship between mr pretty goes on mr putin but based on my modest knowledge about how russian society and russia ministration work in general i don't because the specificity of current russian system unlike the soviet system where everything was really centralized and very much well organized. now we have the opposite situation yes the state. obviously uses some how to call it nontraditional means sometimes to compensate for all those weaknesses of russian russian system because it's no secret that. in many components of influence power economy capacity russia is much

weaker than the united states but it can be compensated by by some. what i'm asking you about is the propensity of the of russia to produce these ad hoc actions what you're saying is that yes the russian state sometimes outsourcing is that but i think also what many foreigners don't understand is this call which the russian system allows for personal and sometimes even eleven and malevolent initiative yeah absolutely that's what i wanted to say and sometimes it is the case that. the state is using it but in many other cases this is a strange mixture of private initiative commercial initiative sometimes there are people with some political use. they they do it the maybe believe the russian state but it's not a development i'm certain see that the russian state the kremlin may cheer upon without actually the kremlin for asking the kremlin first absolutely.