alice basically showed that musician carried maybe fifty leaders five zero leaders of sarin then after that story was covered. we started analyzing the characteristics of the munition new york times claimed they had long lines that they had constructed and they could show the munitions had been launched from some a some syrian base military base about sixteen or seventeen kilometers from. well inside government controlled and asked us into into good and we showed the range of the munition could not possibly be more than two kilometers but we couldn't get the new york times to cover them at all they have been hot and finally they published a small article in a lower and lower page about a page eight reporting this as if it were incidental it's not incidental it changed

completely the understanding of what might have happened in fairness to the tools because in new york times they did print something i understand that the guardian which on another attack we're talking khan yunis. i've attacked you personally have said that the o.p.c. w the official chemical weapons the un organization is debunked all your theories and and that you have been accusing their reporters of being isis supporters and the guardian haven't published as i understand any anything from you to rebut their claims there is a columnist there is a name a month ago and. he fancies himself a scientist but he doesn't ever talk about science in this column i should say we like george will be on this program he said that the get go on oh i i would i would actually let me suggest that you have monbiot and me on the program i'd love to do that. we certainly do but go on anyway so he makes these accusations against

me and he makes a claim about they my somehow being a sympathizer to isis and he has no idea what he's talking about he talks about the o.p.c. w. report this is the u.n. report and the fact of the matter is that report has serious problems and the russians have raised questions about those serious problems and without saying that i'm a supporter of the russians or not i can say that the arguments that the russians have made are completely correct but the o.p.c. w. report does not use scientific methodology properly to reach its conclusions and i have been through that report and i and incidentally there is no way mr mungo could have been through that report and say what he says ok did to be clear i mean that is terrorism is disgraced defense secretary michael fallon went as far as saying

russia will responsibility by proxy for civilian deaths caused by poison gas or johnson the foreign secretary here and your secular state rex tillerson they have said there have been chemical attacks how do you characterize the use of science and technology and its use in the service of national security well i can tell you because we know what the o.p.c. w. report says there's a relatively detailed report and the report basically repeats it repeats the kinds of technical nonsense that dell and cat has been putting out and that technical nonsense has been repeated by human rights watch and also by the new york times and so for example the new york times has a video it put out how russia you know finessed or or somehow misrepresented what happened in country kuhn this chemical attack and the nickel for two thousand and seventeen. and that video contains all of the data that you need to show that the

video is a totally false statement let me give you an example it shows before and after satellite photographs of alleged bomb damage from from the attack on a before i have a paper i wrote i can send it to you with the images you cannot find any evidence of bomb damage between the two photographs they show none and this is what passes for journalism these days is a new york times not get invited all the yorkers onto the show president postal thank you. thank you if we contacted mr mambo but he did not get back to us in time for the first broadcast subsequently he tweeted us to deny the allegations made in this interview he said i have never said anything about postal being an isis sympathizer as usual he is making things up here is what i actually said see if you can spot his mistake when i challenged postals claims people accuse me of being an

sympathizer a paedophile being blackmailed by the government and the mossad agents we also invited mr to come on to the show but he declined he said i will not favor this latest fiction with a response. after the break norman solomon former us congressional candidate of the founder of the institute for public accuracy on complicity between nato governments and media for the news sunday and radio lessons on putin writes and breaking news of a nuclear exchange all the support coming up about to have going underground. so also not accepted whether. russia nor the u.s. deciding maybe of what german companies or european companies are investing in the

world which infrastructure we are building interim a knee. injury up i think it's a tremendous it's a european decision. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. welcome back to go through some of the week stories now is the broadcaster and former liberal democrat member of parliament lembit opec lembit not surprising russia is in the headlines presidential elections in russia across the biggest country on earth none of those reasons are this is the reason euro news sums up what's in all the papers what authority does putin have to order extra judicial killings abroad this is about the apparent attempted murder of a script and his daughter in salzburg here in the united kingdom they say that they

found toxins nerve agents there and immediately the finger of blame is pointed at this man and moscow the suggestion of the foreign secretary as johnson was very explicit saying we mustn't point fingers before going on to point fingers yet but everybody has the papers are full of this as if it's already a done deal as if there has been some sort of a formal investigation now there's another part to this and you get senior government ministers talking as if they know something that they haven't shared all adding to the impression that this is a rerun of some kind of a spy killing a revenge attack of some sort by moscow or a warning to everybody else that moscow is potent this is not going away it's not have a public inquiry people are already asking question in the public were going to live in anger which is always been name checked throughout since this tragedy occurred in england important papers were not released about the public inquiry and then did you notice well boris johnson attacked this television channel attacked the whole

of russia interestingly the home secretary started to row back and say we must wait for the investigation wait for the police investigation and now i understand the british military are involved this is a simple story after the way it is at the moment the russians have done something bad and we should retaliate there's another story about this incidentally in the times where all bark and no bite with the kremlin you can say we see where this is going suggesting that we need to take a stand against there are all kinds of political. reasons why this is attractive to the british government right now there were some reports that cripple had contacts with the russians here in london which is a which is very similar to live in a good living started having connections and conversations with the russians why did these people who spy for almost six cripples them a six a british agent start to then talk with the russians in whose interest i'm sure my six will take a pretty dim view of someone they are working with then to talking to the russian security there are contradictions i'm not going to disagree with you on lot but

those contradictions are due warped by the fact that there really is only one story in town about this and they're more or less saying that man did it somehow he did it let's go on to the next story president has own russian problems of course he wanted to taunt that if you could be happening with the miller probe thing is that all this is a big deal the new york times reports north korea asked for direct nuclear talks and trump agrees after all the rhetoric all the saber rattling all the launches not just of invective but in the case of north korea itself nuclear missiles for testing it looks like they're going to get together it's amazing britain of course killed twenty percent helped kill twenty percent of the population of korea. surprising understand erectness it in africa didn't know anything about this truck decision just wandered into away to his room it's a sort of south koreans meaning it's in a why don't we just start talking pentagon knew nothing about it to i would love to think that's true and i would be quite impressed affronted that there are some they

can surprise if he really was taken by surprise it shows the extent to which donald trump doesn't play by the old rules but this time i'm not going to slam him i want to see the american president meeting with the premier of north korea because if there's one thing that could ease those tensions a conversation like that warning of course you don't quite know what i'm going to do in that meeting let's go to next three saudi arabia this great prince coming to lunch with the queen well there is as well that there is a. thirty two aspects to this one out of new supposed to. and saudi agree ninety billion dollar trade deal that's across about a decade a lot of that might be arms we know that been multi-million pound arms deals billion pound arms deals between the u.k. and saudi arabia before but there's an interesting subtext to this apparently we shouldn't criticise saudi arabia because they do a lot of good and we should be respecting their appearance to encourage joint female driving during international women's day while they were up there is one example the example which most people are targeting there is an argument maybe

things are moderating a bit in saudi arabia but who can talk about saudi arabia without having to cite the continuing attack on civilians in yemen that's that's a war which is a pretty heavy duty attack on people who are this aren't even going back to the defense minister when the war started and whose weapons are using at least in part british weapons what this is about their requirements and training as well from the area up well and we never have the nihil of that not that i've heard of this is about the money it's about the size of that figure because the reason may is desperate to make sure that we have people to do trade with after the e.u. and ourselves part company very briefly let's go to this story because it doesn't seem to be getting much of a hearing there goes another human rights story this time home grown in the united kingdom the metro reports women in yarl's were told they could be deported more quickly for hunger strike or hunger strike right now or it is though some say it's not actually a hunger strike they're just not eating bottom line here is perhaps in frustration at the conditions and the indefinite detention they heard of people who fake their

refugee status according to the home office but they're not faking the fact they're not eating and what's interesting here is they've been told if you insist on not eating this could accelerate your deportation ironically if you're stuck in the uncertainly maybe that's even what you want but how can it be in a first world country that claims to be a bastion of human rights we see this kind of behavior by people whether or not they're here illegally whether they should be deported these people. result to something which isn't good for you and can lead to death and the prime minister was home secretary when some of the grievous egregious human rights abuses happened in the united nations will do a lot if they're not eating well still waiting what is going to happen to them this one is just among come full quiet little soul in the background though if they do start dying this will make headlines to you know there are demonstrations going up number to a big thank you. turkish president or whether he had to shoot down a syrian ceasefire this week how is mainstream media shaping the war scape of the

middle east just forty eight hours ahead of the u.n. security council debating resolution two four zero one calling for a cessation of hostilities in eastern guta i'm joined now by former u.s. congressional candidate and founder of the institute for public accuracy norman solomon he's also a longtime associate of the media watch group fairness and accuracy in reporting norman welcome to going underground in the studio no less let's just begin with reporting on syria is donald trump before he became president seemed very aware more aware than many journalists in the mainstream media the u.s. policy tended to favor islamists i think it's fair to say that after more than a year of the trying presidency he's pretty much put both feet down in the militarist us policies if that which you why would he be persuaded to be just another us president with some exceptions he basically has a tremendous force pulling him towards conformity i mean after all since he knew almost nothing about foreign policy and a lot of what he claimed to know was factually and otherwise incorrect then he

brought in the old hands and let's face it this is been going on for decade after decade the conventional wisdom is extremely powerful and it cues along the line of u.s. foreign policy economic interests and so forth and i have no doubt that a lot of his very wealthy friends as well as so-called national security experts sat down with drop and said look it's in the interests of u.s. foreign policy and capital and wall street to do this this. and this and it's not to be overly simplistic about it hopefully but that is a powerful force and fairness and accuracy in reporting in the united states was well i've been associated associated with that what is the state of u.s. media paul from what you've just said about the reporting of syria given that it doesn't like seymour hersh on syria found that he would rather publish in britain that in the new yorker magazine what why would someone like him why would others seek to publish overseas in the case of seymour hersh i mean i certainly can't

speak to the specifics because i don't know them in terms of why he isn't in the new yorker anymore except to say that what he's writing would be totally considered i was passing doubt on chemical weapons attacks that the british media certainly say are extended in syria committed by the us of the yes i mean he published in the new york or rather the london review of books of the new york review books is not going to publish in the new york times evidently is not going to nor the new yorker on a lot of those issues and he provides a tremendous service in disproving a lot of the claims that were being laid out to justify attacking iran a decade ago and what the level of hysteria amongst your fellow journalists in the united states is regarding the future war on iran there's been a baseline view that iran is a tremendous threat to the region against all evidence i mean it's you can't find that i'm aware of in the last hundred years of iran being aggressive force militarily outside their own borders of though the opposite case the us help iraq

to wage war on iran and so forth it's almost a religious political view that iran is a threat to the region and peace in the middle east is a kind of a neo con slash liberal interventionist theology ideology that iran must be demonized and no matter how much of the appointment of the hawks in washington iran and here's to the nuclear deal chapter. unverse there's a great disappointment that iran is doing so clearly out of washington an effort to break the deal open in any case it's irrational and yet it's quite rational when you see the line up the auth authentic zeal to ally continually and with differently with the interests of saudi arabia and israel and so forth and this is just from a basic journalistic standpoint i would argue a humanistic standpoint this is a travesty that's extremely dangerous one of the few foreign policy accomplishments

of the obama administration was to help bring about the iran nuclear deal and deal of all time that try to call it the worst deal of all time and what we have is an inversion of reality of a decent foreign policy based on decency it's an inversion there's tremendous fear that peace will break out among the hawks in washington and we should make no mistake it's largely a bipartisan view of hostility towards iran the fear that peace could become normalized instead of the current normalized perpetual war there is a polarized media their focus is different to those other outlets but generally from entertainment to news there is an attitude that they be uprooted put donald trump where he is in the white house how do you characterize that perception voters in the united states put donald trump in the white house and the attempt to scapegoat vladimir putin or russia is just preposterous at the same time you seem

proposers even to the moon investigation has found has made indictments against russian individuals this is law enforcement here it's not a matter of speculation the threats to democracy in the united states are overwhelmingly massively homegrown then why do so many journalists in the united states believe it is the old. that is that is running well we don't know their internal condition i mean we might gather that if you really do it time with their behalf. savior their work product is to say that we should be the american people are just now saying that rush or is was response the pressure for conformity is enormous if you're an independent minded tough journalist in the united states you will be marginalized and ignored the chances are very greatly so and the flipside of that is that the essence of propaganda is repetition and likewise there's an enormous continuous cascading messaging that comes from the mass media and it

becomes the conventional wisdom and there's a great quote one of the less well known quotes from george orwell he said a circus dog does somersaults up the crack of the whip but the really well trained circus dog does somersaults when there is no whip and you can go through the news wing rooms of america and see thousands of esteem journalists across the country and in their workplace there are no whips in evidence but there's a great deal of conformity and becomes the acknowledged truth because other reporters are reporting it as such well what is the source of that cia n.s.a. major media if you're a small b. outlet and the washington post the new york times are saying something is true just as fifteen years ago about weapons of mass destruction existing in saddam hussein's iraq then the chances are it is not good for your career to say anything otherwise no it's all in thank you and that's it for the show will be back on monday when we speak to retired u.s. army colonel and for the chief of staff to secretary of state colin powell larry

wilkinson jill that keep in touch with the media we'll see you on monday three hundred sixty eight years to the day of the biggest declaration for agrarian socialism and seven years to the day of the explosion at japan's fukushima nuclear reactor that you want radiation has since been detected as far as glasgow in scotland and which are in the southeast of england some six thousand miles away from the. lemme walk you on the idea that dropping bombs brings peace talks forcing you to fight the battles they believe that you stop spreading tell you that will be gossip and probably my file for the reporters today. about tell me you are not cool enough

to buy their product please. all the hawks we along with our audience will walk was. and in the middle of the sixty's there were thirteen million students enrolled in higher education in two thousand and fifteen there were two hundred million in less than fifteen years there are expected to be four hundred million to. hold. while the demand keeps growing university tuition fees skyrocket the world over the cost of education is high increasing. their. work harder is more.

mystery i don't understand how can a school be a scam. in the name of so-called economic pragmatism and as a result of international competition universities are turning into a huge money making machine it's. none of my family members went to university i think i wanted to be i wanted to be got one. from shanghai to new york paris to berlin countries around the world reflect trying different moves each remodelling its system in its own way but at what price and who profits from it. really are at the starting point of our story which begins at the end of the ninety's. at that time you have this financial izing itself all the while expanding

many intellectuals european university presidents and experts groups engage in a vast reflection on how to build a more complete more ambitious europe. how to strengthen its intellectual scientific and technological influence. what is the secret of the united states and its economic power. the answer lies in higher education and research. a realm that has become undeniably strategic. at the end of the twentieth century american universities prevail and rule europe

is afraid afraid of finding itself on the sidelines it needs a strategy and so european gauges in a series of reforms to make its higher education more competitive so it can serve europe's economy its productivity its job market and its liberal project england will quickly set the tone before anyone else and to get straight to the point. after the second world war we had a system where local education authorities around the country were responsible for providing a grant to students and giving of covering tuitions fees. and that was at a time when roughly three percent of eighteen year olds went to university around twenty thousand. all science students will have their first two terms being required to attend lectures on physics chemistry mathematics and biology it will also be possible for science students to major in philosophy knowledge is not

bullshit look at what a huge mit world one in one and covering all sides of all all places. in the one nine hundred eighty s. and nine hundred ninety s. there was a funding crisis amongst universities lots of vice chancellors complaining that they didn't have enough money to cover the amount of students so now coming through the system so the government commissioned a report and this was called dealing with forbes and that came up with a number of recommendations almost one hundred recommendations roughly half for the government about how it could. maintain sustain and improve higher education in the u.k. and one of the most controversial parts of that report was the introduction of was i in one thousand nine hundred seventy the british left led by its young charismatic candidate tony blair wins the elections after eighteen

long years of conservative rule. at the age of forty three the head of the labor party takes charge of the country with a program whose foundation is to apply private sector management models to public services so as to make them more efficient more productive and higher education will be no exception. right. we need to widen access to universities get more money into universities and the best and fairest way to do it is a balance between the state and the graduate. face became reality and nine hundred ninety eight and it was a key landmark in the history of higher education in the u.k. because at that moment the principle of free education free higher education in the u.k. finished. for this historic reform tony blair introduces the yearly one thousand pound tuition fee a smooth way to start five years later prompted by his second term election tony

blair authorizes universities to charge tuition fees up to three thousand three hundred pounds yearly. head of britain's labor party successfully passed a reform that the conservatives would never have dared bring forward. in two thousand and ten the labor party rallies the opposition the coalition made of liberal democrats and conservatives led by david cameron take charge of the country very rapidly the debate over jewish fees arises on the political scene again this time the government intends to authorize tuition fees up to nine thousand pounds yearly all the while reducing the portion of public funding and it catered to universities this new reform violently divides both members of parliament and public opinion the have been very difficult choices to make we have all said for a such of policies that provide a strong base for university funding which makes a major contribution to reducing the deficit and introducing

a significantly more progressive system of graduate paper and stuff we inherited and i'm proud to put forward that magic so this. order. was turned over to. there is nothing a bank that tiny benefit to the lowest income graduates that justifies doubling or tripling the debt of the vast majority of brides isn't incredible the partials that you actually introduce the principle of graduates paying and thank you for two jewish and fee increases is able to drum up quite so much faith and brought the issue to stop. any young person ask any young person in any poor communities in our country what is your prospect what is your what do you want to do many would say i want to study i want to qualify i want to go to

university i want to achieve something in life. over there. yes they are very cool they're going to borrow money to survive to get through university they simply will not do it this decision matters so much to so many people. i'd say to the house if you don't believe in it vote against it. to the right three hundred twenty three you know most of the like three hundred true. was. was when it was really from three thousand that it became one thousand pounds i was up to university if they wanted to introduce nine thousand pounds

a maximum face or anything between six thousand and nine thousand and unsurprisingly most university decided to set nine thousand pounds most students we have now half a million students going through every year most of those will be paying a minimum nine thousand pounds a year and that's stands today. over the course of fifteen years british politicians are ruling class that had enjoyed free access to education inflicted a paying system on the new generation. british students along with a european fellows now have to deal with these new rulings that's the way it is. they're young they long for a solid future death dusty for knowledge and dream of climbing the social ladder all that has a price tag and they'd better get used to him.