thirty seven people are confirmed dead and dozens of children are missing. a shopping mall in siberia. the commute. this morning. facebook boss takes out full page ads in british and american newspapers to apologize for a massive data breach. activists clashed with police in barcelona at a rally in support of former president. has been arrested in germany.

broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow this is r.t. international thomas as we recap the week's top stories but first we start with breaking news now thirty seven fatalities have been confirmed after a massive fire at a shopping mall in the russian city of commander of the number is expected to rise with seventy people unaccounted for including dozens of children.

the austrian chancellor and the turkish foreign ministry have expressed their condolences to the families of those killed in the fire earlier my colleague kevin owen was joined here in the studio by artie's daniel hawkins to discuss the tragic events. it's been evening of course for the friends and families of those particularly still unaccounted for this fire began on the fourth fall of the top floor of a shopping center in that south central city of came over we understand thirty

seven people have been confirmed dead the service is many more in hospital many of them in a critical condition of course sixty nine are still unaccounted for tragically the majority forty of those are children aged between two and thirteen they're believed to be in a cinema at the time of the fire now we've had some very very harrowing eyewitness accounts of what went on inside black smoke billowing through the corridors through the windows people trying to escape jumping out of the windows as well just to give you an idea of the sheer panic and terror that must have been going through as people's minds we do have some eyewitness accounts of the panic that ensued as that fire spread through the building let's take a listen to some of those eyewitness accounts. just close to that. you could tell that it's unusual for this to do. this when you. do things or to do.

when you get lost but. i knew i didn't see you but you certainly is a big place the such an intense fire by the looks of it you can see the toxic smoke and at the top down and people trying to make as you see every time what the heck's happening around them interesting i'm not hearing fire alarms there and that's done for the investigators isn't it to talk about eventually when they try to recover the bodies here the fire began in the early afternoon and raged for for many hours it took a while to get an under control we understand that firefighters couldn't actually reach the top level because of the sheer temperature of their schooling temperatures walls and floors melting so now it's very much a recovery operation to try to find anybody still trapped under collapsed the collapsed roof there. we we we do know also that the cause has been speculated upon two theories prominent right now although it's preemptive to say for certain you know one of the causes being fought electrical

wiring the other one being some sort of mis up with a lighter perhaps an accident there and flammable. twelve use of course in publix places here in russia smoking would be quite annoyed when word child of someone that was in the limelight they don't know what's happened here is going to be lot of questions that are certainly being asked here why it didn't go off why fire exits were clearly marked why there was such panic to get out very difficult of course for the families and friends of those children still tragically unaccounted for it's going to be a long life and obviously we can just hope that as many as possible of those are accounted for perhaps in hospitals up small charts but asked all found alive. and i will of course have the updates for you as that investigation carries on into exactly what happened when the fire broke out more than six hundred emergency workers were called in for the firefighting and rescue operation people who were at the scene described what they saw. lee should you can't instead of putting those

inches of chose not to use it she does that mean nothing to let you move in the nuclear bomb which he. was lit. up she was not sure. what is behind the particular. complicity in the children the children you. cut because they've cut it in their sleep. because there's so much to look like it was all beautiful to look for you were the sole focus for look over the body to her mind much more significant silly close to what you need to be asleep you teach to these people a little bit. beyond that the new look would you food you would be if you got them they didn't you would have you read in sophie's believes you more than half of the missing people are children and many of them were watching a movie inside the mall cinema i mean could almost an entire class along with their

teacher they traveled from a nearby village to celebrate the spring break when the fire started they were unable to open the doors so they called their relatives some of them had lost hope of being rescued and said goodbye. the tragedy and the commander of all bears close similarities to two deadly fires in russia back in two thousand and fifteen and two thousand and nine. letter.

thousands of catalans have rallied in barcelona in support of their former president who has been arrested in germany. sunday's gathering led to clashes with police.

officers in riot gear moved in to break up the crowd up to eighty nine people were reportedly injured and four were arrested the protesters were demanding that spanish government end its crackdown on that the key figures behind the cattle on independence movement. we decided to strike the president vice president and other high ranking officials in the council on government.

the former catalan leader carlos pretty modern was detained while crossing from denmark into germany where he is now in custody in flooded spain after last october's referendum which madrid ruled was illegal and he says that the has more on his arrest. the former president carlos push a man has been detained in germany he's wanted in spain on charges of sedition and rebellion and was held after crossing the border from denmark on his way to belgium now german police have consented arrest and he said to be in a local police station awaiting his legal team since thursday pushing on his being on a visit to helsinki in a vest in finland to give a lecture that on his way back to belgium jim authorities arrested him off to spain reissued his arrest warrant but his lawyer tweeted that he was returning to belgium to be of course at the disposal of the belgian justice system he's been living in

self-imposed exile in belgium that's after leading the pro independence referendum last year which was deemed illegal by the spanish authorities this was a fight that cause tensions across the region with accusations of police violence as well now tensions have still been riding high in the region with rallies taking place from time to time and calls for the release of other political prisoners as well as the return of colors patient on patient could face up to thirty years in prison in spain and the spanish courts have already signed documents for patients extradition and spanish a story and told us put your mind is likely to be given a lengthy prison sentence well he was probably going to plead to an end three billion all in. supreme court and to the chances to get. a very high sentence and to be your most efficient and rebellion why he had to be one brussels was really because there's no suggesting this is a rebellion. in the. legislature

allows up to three months. in an exhibition so if. it. looks going to be the case then the german authorities would have to remount to. take on the exhibition case so it may take. when a long time. france was hit by an act of terrorism this week a gunman hijacked a car and took hostages at a supermarket in a small southern town on friday three people died that day while a fourth succumbed to his injuries on saturday.

in the movie she went shopping with my wife and sister in law after some time we had an explosion well several. i saw a man lying on the floor in another person who was very agitated still with a handgun in one hand and a knife in the other and yelling allahu akbar for years. after that i took my wife and my sister in law and some customers nearby and we went to look for shelter i put them in a butcher's fridge closed from the inside. because it's peaceful here where it's seedy like any other he was very kind very sociable adorable he overheard sweets to the children and he's a terrorist. the terrorist has been identified he was killed during his solo investigation will have to answer some important questions when and how was he radicalized and how and when did he procure

the weapon. we have for several years paid with our blood to know the terrorist menace. alright among those who died was a police officer are no trama swapped places with a female hostage he left a cell phone switched on so the special forces outside. monitor the situation he died in the hospital on saturday morning of gunshot and stab wounds and is being hailed as a national hero over the past year there have been several terrorist incidents in france now in february two thousand and seventeen a man attempted to enter the louvre museum in paris with a machete and i'm attacker was stopped at orly airport one month later a police officer was shot and killed last april. and last october two young women were stabbed to death at a train station in march say now former british intelligence officer and the fact that the government was under police surveillance exposes wider failures. is part

of the passing that we're seeing emerging across europe over the last few years of people carrying out these low tech type of attacks with high. rates. of course on the radar of at least the to east if you know cindy each of the intelligence agencies but for some reason they're not being watched carefully enough they're not being monitored carefully enough they were being followed around . and they're allowed to get more radicalized and carry out these are pulling teeth it's hard to see what will france can do i mean they had a state of emergency declared after massive kind attacks all the palace is still there in france they just change the name they change the terminology and yet all those powers are still preventing and the security agencies police were protecting the french citizens so i felt see how much more they can do. the turkish president is vowing to extend a military offensive against kurdish militias into northern syria. remember i

told you they will flee we will chase the work and with our friend the p. k. k. went to we'll go there to operations the. president says turkish forces will soon move from africa to take control of the kurdish stronghold of rafah which is in syria's aleppo province this. this is where civilians as well as kurdish militia fighters fled after turkey seized the afrin and the turkish advance against the kurdish forces will not stop their president no one says his army will go after the kurds in the region of iraq says it is targeting the kurdish y p g and p k k which it considers to be terrorist organizations and turkey's operation all of branch was launched at the end of january with turkish forces entering syria's afrin that region despite a fierce resistance from the kurdish militants of turkish forces seized in the city of afrin in mid march president says more than thirty seven hundred terrorists have

been killed during the operation the crackdown has forced one hundred seventy thousand civilians to flee the city according to the un turkish affairs analyst told us the army is trying to cut kurdish groups off from each other do they actually trying to push the border just by getting cooperation. from the turkish touristic to wipe it from the point. section i think p.p.p. care what it was and so you come to college not to buy a ph d. from. naples and also cite. the forces east of. the diplomatic standoff between the u.k. and russia has created this week with twenty three diplomats from each country expelled is followed the poisoning of former double agent to sergei screen paul and his daughter in england three weeks ago the investigation is still underway but

british officials have repeatedly pointed the finger at the russian government and on thursday the prime minister asked the e.u. to back her up. it was highly likely that russia was responsible for one thing that the current analysis is already very well grounded and nobody questions that everyone was also indicate didn't do willingness to develop a fuss russia is concerned. about the relations we have different positions different. interests political landscape in europe to us russia and this is why it's not so easy to keep that. twenty eight. group. together. the kremlin has rejected all claims of involvement calling the poisoning an act of terrorism russia has also offered to cooperate with the u.k. in the investigation of the u.k.

foreign secretary boris johnson has been among the russians harshest critics even agreeing with nazi comparisons that a parliamentary hearing because the roads like to go. a little bit of. putin's committed while he was the monkey thirty six. here so i think the comparison with nine hundred thirty six is is only right moscow considers this kind of statements only done to the level of the foreign secretary in you we unacceptable and totally responsible. the bridge is going with this free to make a decision about its participation in the world cup but nobody has the right to insult the russian people who defeated nazis and lost more than twenty five million people by comparing our country to nazi germany. did he goes beyond the

common sense and we do not think british war which runs including those of the arctic cold wars which share this opinion. well after boris johnson's comments the russian embassy in the u.k. posed in this photo it shows the anglin football team giving the nazi salute before a friendly match with germany and nineteen thirty eight. the anti russia campaign is even making its way into british schools as are these on associate who are going to reports what's better than helping the young to try to maneuver the ever tricky world of global current affairs. of the day is an online news service that is used by one in three u.k. schools teach as much variance from subscribing schools use or on schools and activities across all subjects for lessons homework research. here's one handed to tory and provided by the service to help educate the young and broaden their

horizons talks of putin on mission to poison west ouch and among questions to discuss is putin europe's most dangerous leader since hitler was this gus. to help students out topics like the ongoing five scandal where an investigation is still underway are broken down despite this incriminating evidence of international outrage milly smokes and everything in case there is confusion still there is a dictionary included which explains the meaning of the words marks surely this teaches you to put things into perspective not the chalk and blitzkrieg are also in here a military tactic designed to crush the enemy with overwhelming force at a short space of time coincidentally made famous by hitler in world war two just to make it a bit easier to connect the dots brutal assassinations cyber attacks as well of

plotting the downfall of western democracy also laid out as food for thought a you decide section let students consider the following questions is putin the most dangerous man in the world did the cold war ever end as well as what impression does putin give about what russia is like the day helps students develop information literacy and critical thinking and prepares them for the challenges ahead. the ever changing world critical thinking if the toxic put in class is dismissed and if they say it you're going to party while it. the kremlin spokesperson dmitri peskov told a russian t.v. channel that britain's campaign against russia is unparalleled. what we're seeing now is unprecedented affront there's never been a case where a country is being accused of something which the accusers cannot even articulate themselves and they're not even trying to articulate it or i can say is this whole case is unprecedented in verges on

a sort of gangsterism in international affairs as to what's behind this it's either the u.k.'s internal issues all the problems london may be facing in relation with its allies or maybe something else that's probably none of our business we're focused on how to handle this provocation president putin is keeping a cool head in this situation and unlike his british counterpart isn't going beyond diplomatically appropriate rhetoric laid out his position of the very beginning he said our internal affairs are our first and foremost priority and the poisoning incident happened on british soil you have to first get your facts straight at home before firing off accusations. facebook founder mark zuckerberg has taken out a series of ads in sunday newspapers in the u.s. and britain apologizing for failing to protect users data it follows claims that the private information of tens of millions of people was quoted without their permission and exploited for political gain or his job as details. several u.k. and american newspapers featured full page apologies from facebook boss mark

zuckerberg the ad states this was a breach of trust and i'm sorry while promising to do better in the future that's after having written a post online about the changes the company will be making and saying facebook has learned its lesson during a c.n.n. interview we need to make sure that there aren't any other cambridge general because out there right or folks who have improperly access data you know we need to make sure that we don't make that mistake ever again but not everyone is buying what zuckerberg is selling this cartoonist gave his responses a big thumbs down mocking the statements more than anything it reads i'm sorry that we've been forced to stop ignoring these data breaches and they aren't alone in thinking that facebook has some explaining to do dr burke has been called to testify both in the u.s. and the u.k. on the situation now the whole scandal is centered around the british data gathering firm called cambridge analytic dated they collected was involved in donald trump's presidential campaign and possibly others as well the whole story blew up when it came to light that the company allegedly mined fifty million

facebook profiles for its operations while its parent company was reportedly involved in psycho social studies for the u.k. defense ministry cambridge analytical is now under investigation its offices have been raided and its chief executive has been suspended the company denies any and all wrongdoing the scandal has also led to a backlash against the social network facebook's share price plunged to a four year low and the company is now facing multiple lawsuits from shareholders over on twitter meanwhile the house to delete facebook has been trending with some high profile people joining in as the fear of breach privacy is at the front of everyone's minds the point is being missed here it's not cambridge analytic it's the fact that facebook is a tool a proxy if you will of that government and it just. it it was it was conceived it sued darpa to see. money this this phase and oh i

do think they use the information against their are you kidding me facebook apple everything that we do is basically sucking up every bit of information we have or the spy the two major firms at the center of the data scandal having roots in america and the u.k. and c.n.n. report has tied the story to russia or is what our guys have as his very own commentary. imagine being a liberal a democrat and being stuck in a trump presidency for a year is it must be horrible waking up every day guessing that what russia is songe boughts or hackers have cooked up today cambridge analytic i had powerful connections to candidate trump including one time top advisor steve bannon and billionaire donor robert mercer so presidential son in law jared cushion or and consultant brad parr scale brought in the company which is now accused of utilizing

data from fifty million facebook users without permission facebook was how donald trump was going to win wait a sec something's wrong where's the bad guy who do we blame this on. there it is questions are also swirling about a possible link to russian metal cambridge c.e.o. reached out to julian a songs of wiki leaks seeking access to e-mails from hillary clinton's private server there's no evidence ricky leaks had such information but wiki leaks was releasing e-mails from the computers of other democrats which authorities say were hacked by russians and another trump advisor roger stone great innings i actually have communicated with this what how do you even make the connection what's your logic if someone speaks to a songe their russian agent there is zero connection here other than the word russia being in every other sentence there is only one explanation cnn's report

must have been put together by a random generator literally this explanation makes more sense than cnn's report asaad just the dia and see oil trump the russians cambridge had because we've got the keywords just fill this. basis with whatever he also directly message to russian hacker he says he did nothing wrong and despite another claim that cambridge had ties to a russian oil company the campaign insists there were never any links to russia are you comfortable that the trunk campaign through their cameras analytical had a connection to wiki leaks. they did have a connection wiki leaks let me demonstrate if you are of average height and your birthday is in july you are closely tied to

a sound see how easy it is let's do this again if you like snow and the russians like snow you are aligned with russia or if you want lots of money and all the guards have lots of money you are susceptible to russian influence it's all nonsense but who cares it's about getting the keywords out there about confusing and confounding not explaining or investigating keywords people keywords the russians everywhere. that does for me i will be back in thirty minutes with a full look at your news and the weekly watch country international. kristen charms hiring and firing practices are still surprising the recent

appointments of mike pump ale and john bolton have left an impression on friends and foes alike the impact will lay have on american politics. calm after it had said we're going underground three years to the day that british backed saudi bomb was begun to drop on yemen leaving thousands of civilians killed and tens of millions of people in need of humanitarian aid in the poorest country in the middle east coming up in the show three years on why is the british on the war in yemen still barely making the headlines we speak to the regional director of unicef middle east north africa here about the burying of the world's worst

humanitarian crisis.