breaking news the president is in the russian city of camera to pay his respects to sixty four people including many children but. this criminal negligence are to blame for the fire. people have gathered out the headquarters of the regional government. for the victims. coming up in the program over a dozen nations worldwide. with the u.k. . for the poisoning.

forever you're tuning in from right around the world this hour welcome to moscow and to r.t. international my name's o'neill our top story russia is mourning the victims of the deadly blaze in the siberian city of camera sixty four people including many children are thought to have died or known to have died in a huge fire should say that broke out on a shopping entertainment complex on sunday many more are still missing president putin who is in the city says criminal negligence was to blame for the place. what is happening this is not warfare we are a meeting explosion in a mine people came to relax children came to relax we are talking about our

demographic we are losing so many people and for what because of criminal negligence and carelessness. or before that during the morning in kemmerer of president putin laid flowers out a makeshift memorial at the shopping center earlier he had offered his condolences to the families of the victims. and there is running high in the city where people have gathered at the headquarters of the regional government they are demanding answers and justice for the victims many more people are expected to rally today and the crowd has been repeatedly chanting the word truth the region has to carry three days of what.

i knew what do i see what you see. the body there's still nothing. you can put city in the church. the first of the.

to which. he. rushes investigative committee detained five people in connection with the fire it also sais that the building's emergency exits were locked and that the mold security guard turned off the fire alarms he had done off reports now from camera. it seems that every single person in this town have come to this cell phone providers to vigil just outside the shopping mall to lay flowers bring toys in light the candles for many holding back the tears is simply too much of a task there are no bystanders here.

there was no alarm no siren no sprinklers the whole fire prevention system was off fire exits blocked people in flight this shopping mall were left on their own to find out about the beginning inferno but if extension there knows this shopping mall used to be a confectionery and in fact it conducted fire drills just last week so a lot of a lot of very grave and outrages floors missed in those drills and so the investigation is looking into that looking into how this horror became possible. there were no fire alarms and nothing i just notice the smell and then a man told me to leave finding a way around the shopping center is hell you don't know where the stairs lead or where to go there are no directions to x. is is like some sort of a labyrinth you won't get far as you're in a panic it's been hours since sundown but there's no sign of the crowd getting any

smaller in fact new people keep pouring in and in terms of atmosphere here not just grief there's no dispute ration here it's something very different it's almost like the whole city has become one big family which did loaves many many loved ones over night but in the wake of this horrific tragedy is standing shoulder to shoulder strong. because done. they confirmed some reports say. consider it as a national disaster most well read it was a problem we did building call much loved it was a quick problem we did material that they have used over there and for put she queried the areas that the kids out there we need to have a special repercussion and special system and fire exit don't doubt because kids are not operating like us this is a systems well you could have bigger lation on the books but when it comes to the

enforcement regulation my comp lines were good regulation this is where the disparity happens. or tragically an entire class of school children died in the place they were in the cinema watching an animated film rockers the influx now of the stories of those who perished again you may find some of the scenes we're about to show highly distressing. for rural youngsters a visit to the big city is always an adventure these twelve year old classmates went to town and they went bowling ice skating to the cinema it would be their last adventure. you know. you meet them they didn't use it. dozens and dozens dead but they aren't just numbers they all had names

lives all the compensation in the world won't cover their family's loss especially given that so many of the victims were children masha was there with her grandmother and she'll need turned ten last week and posted this photo in line exactly a decade is all she got in this world both she and her grandmother perished. tiana an english teacher she was there with her daughter who survived the tiana got out of the building before hearing that others was still trapped she went to help rescue who she could strangers but she never came back out you were the best teacher in the world writer for my students you didn't deserve this we will all remember you. you could tell it to you in this to

do. what you did. little ratable pictured here with his mom and dad she wasn't with them but imagine her pain when she had to identify the bodies of her child and husband or even surviving is easy. was some say he jumped others that his father threw him out of the window in a desperate effort to save his little boy before succumbing to the smoke himself we won't know until say gave weeks up from his coma alone his parents and little sister. there are too many to mention here but the point is made a list of names is one thing but it's only when you get to know them just a little that the depth of this tragedy really hits you. if well we

will of course be following events surrounding the tragedy over the coming hours a reminder the fire in the shopping center claimed the lives of sixty four people many of them children six people are still missing recovery teams are continuing to work at the burned out complex in the us a beer in city of camera. all right let's move on now an update on the poisoning case of a former russian spy in the u.k. australia is set to expel two russian diplomats joining over twenty countries from across europe as well as the u.s. and canada in making similar or more extensive moves it's being done in solidarity with britain which blames moscow for the poisoning of surrogate script his daughter earlier this month. the details. collective response from the e.u.

donald tusk the president of the european council he announced these collective measures saying that the e.u. agrees with the u.k.'s assessment that it was quote highly likely that the kremlin was behind the poisoning of sergei and yulia script how to resume a spoke in parliament and she was clearly rather pleased with the support from brussels and from the us canada and the ukraine for that matter as great for the d'arcy from our friends and partners in the e.u. north america and nato and beyond we think this is an unreasonable decision and this undermines russian german relations we find a regrettable they won't give us any evidence and we just hear this is highly likely the russian is responsible for this tragic incident we believe the you shouldn't fall for the british broad coalition all the talk about to use solidarity is laughable as the can only be sold in the fight against real threats but not in

support of insinuations and even their morse code denies the allegation that it was behind the attack in cells very the list of expulsions of diplomatic expulsions is extensive among the countries that russian diplomats are going to be departing from france germany poland lithuania denmark the czech republic the list continues however not all e.u. states have signed up to kicking out russian diplomats austria notably has announced that the russian diplomats there can remain and also vogue area has said that it won't be expelling any russian diplomats that it currently stationed there also at the e.u. summit last week that each summit where to resume a so successfully argued for this collective european response well sean called younger the president of the european commission he advocated a rather different approach to moscow. everyone will stroll through didn't really

lose such. a structural shift from so much about the relationship we need to move to discuss for sure all of them do not question. so not all e.u. states on the same page and not all figureheads agreed to the extent to which to punish moscow or to cooperate with it perhaps instead nevertheless what's happened today is being billed as the biggest collective expulsion of russian diplomats in history all this while the investigations that police investigation and also the independent o.p.c. w one they are still ongoing. it does seem that washington sees itself as the driving force behind the wave of russian expulsions and even claim they weren't sending diplomats packing but rather spice. the president

spoke with many foreign leaders. our european allies and others and encouraged them to join the united states in this. in this announcement as you've just heard the u.s. was the driving force behind these expulsions with trump encouraging others to take similar measures now the u.s. will be expelling the most number of russian diplomats out of all the countries that have decided to do so the white house will be calling sixty diplomats twelve of which are u.n. staff members and they'll have approximately seven days to leave with you for doing for months on learning about the explosions are expressed our strong opposition to the move i pointed out that to date there's not been a single shred of evidence of russia's involvement in this tragedy the most productive way to address this case would be a calm and professional investigation by the o.p.c. w a u.n. representative was grilled about this whether this move will violate an agreement that was made between the u.s. and the u.n. does the u.n. believe that this in any way violates the u.s. agreement with the u.n.

of nine hundred forty seven the host country agreement given the sensitivity of the matter which is ongoing we will not comment further at this stage the u.s. mission says that and i quote our actions are consistent with the united nations headquarters agreement do you agree with the statement we were informed of the u.s. decision to take action under section thirteen b. of the u.n. u.s. headquarters agreement. you can you can look in our tree section and read section thirteen be for yourself and evaluate it for yourself story for you told us to read thirteen b. and see whether what we thought it said what's the secretary general think for the reasons i just explained i wouldn't venture an opinion on that for just how to share niceness and convenience to you i will read to you section thirteen b. at this stage bear with me because it is long as the united states need to provide evidence of this espionage to the un and russia i've said what i can say at this stage. well among the sixty russian diplomats washington will expel

a dozen or accredited to the united nations bacilli in the bay show russia's u.n. representative spoke earlier condemning america's move. the united states has abused its privileges has un host the us said they hope for an account on the continuation of cooperation with russia what the american side has done is at the very least a very strange invitation for cooperation at this international solidarity against russia is based on a very vague case and the further it goes the vaguer it gets it is causing a lot of suspicion and raises many questions personally i have a question did the solsbury incident really cause the expulsion of diplomats or was the decision to expel russian diplomats taken before this solsbury incident the russian foreign ministry called the u.k. is ations hypocritical as nations move to expel moscow's diplomats president

putin's spokesman later of moscow will respond with similar measures we've spoken to former u.s. diplomat jim just tourists who believes that london is trying to channel attention away from other issues. this is a coordinated political warfare against russia it's global in scale it really has nothing to do with solsbury this is a political pretext just like the cut like the kind of accusations we've seen against syria on chemical weapons to ratchet up the pressure on moscow to discredit the recent russian election and also i think it's aimed at the world cup this summer look i don't think we go under and underestimate the degree of danger we're talking about here this is not just hit for tat this is just not the are we in a new cold war or not this is extremely dangerous that with the crisis that is brewing internally within the e.u. i think there was the necessity to to somehow shift the terms of the debate to say it's not about what's wrong with brussels what's wrong with the e.u.

it's what's wrong with the russians and i think this will simply increase the pressure on countries like bulgaria like austria who don't don't want to go along with this. a political consultancy firm alleged by some to be the swing force behind breaks in donald trump's election victory is under investigation for some very high profile links we've got the details i'm not optimistic. but hopes to do something to. put themselves on the line. they did accept the reject. so when you want to express. some want to us. to go right for us this is what. you get. interested in the.

twenty minutes past the hour let's now return to our top story russia is mourning the victims of the deadly blaze in the siberian city of camera sixty four people

including many children lost their lives in a huge fire that broke out at the shopping and detainment complex on sunday president putin who's in the city says criminal negligence was to blame for the blaze. what is happening this is not warfare or a meeting explosion in a mine people came to relax children came to relax we are talking about demographics we are losing so many people and for what because of criminal negligence and carelessness. or for more in the situation in camera phone president putin's visit to the city enjoying life in this you buy them right because they have high american morning and the president has also been meeting local officials direct language and that last piece of footage we heard what's come out of that meeting where he was he was angry and justifiably so considering the scope or the depth of this this tragedy to use you don't the criminal negligence and laziness

while talking to the officials is it's a message it's a signal but also said there should be an evaluation of the actions of every single official who's who's you know who's actions who's scope of responsibility led to this to this tragedy he said that there's a problem that unless you bribe someone you'll never get a permit but if you bribe someone they'll give you a permit for anything you can get anything you want so this is again did get corruption and putin has been taking a stance that syria's stance against corruption over the last few years is what happened in this particular situation according to the brief putin was given the fire began in the playroom where all the arcade machines were. all the play machines the fire was either caused by a short circuit problem of the wiring or electronics somewhere although there's another version which is less likely that it was an open fire that it was said by

someone you know somebody took a lighter to intentionally to apply a plastic ball or whatever but this is early days they've still got to establish many things and at that point when the fire began. everything everything went wrong the fire alarm had been offline it had been broken for over a week from the nineteenth and nobody nobody fixed it the security at the play room at the arcade the security guy he had a button he could press which was an alarm it would have set the fire alarm or for the equivalent of a fire alarm he didn't do it whatever whatever he did maybe he ran away maybe evacuate maybe this panic but he didn't press the button. then the doors to the cinema rooms the screen rooms themselves the doors were shut locked shut so all the people who were watching movies they were trapped inside i think is that mean point that people can't believe was true exactly and this is this is to stop people who

don't have tickets from doing in after the after the film is started in you know it's a it's a cost saving measure by the by the complex but usually what you have is you have someone sitting at the exit and waiting for the film to be over you know watching so people don't come in who don't have tickets this didn't happen whoever locked the door they left and they never came back to open the door when the fire began and given how fast the smoke spread the fire spread well you know that very little . to do so. adults left kids many of the children were left alone in the cinema in the play room while the adults went away in shop or whatever this is a huge shopping center and they were on the fourth floor so by the time it all began and the parents the guardians whatever they had very little time to get back up there so that was another point. that was made five people have been arrested so there may be more arrests the investigation as i said there's only ongoing and

now that vladimir putin is engaged personally you know there's heads will probably will probably sixty four people in the six still missing and people in camera of being protesting the protests people are demanding answers they're demanding somebody take responsibility somebody be punished because something of. these so much tragedy this begin as i said heads are going to have to fly here we are just hearing they're chanting truth truth as well and rocky's day of bring us right up to date. they situation in care of us people wake up to another turban mourning their thank you. ok moving on to other news this hour the u.s. federal trade committee has opened an investigation in facebook's infamous data

breach fifty million accounts were reportedly targeted by political consulting firm cambridge a little on its parent company on links of a merger between them and high profile politicians on royal family members picking up the story artie's jackin booga. at this point you've likely heard of cambridge analytic the company at the center of a media storm who's accused of using massive amounts of stolen facebook users data to influence elections around the world but what about its parent company c l a british behavioral research and strategic communications firm. we use the same techniques as aristotle and hitler we appeal to people on an emotional level to get them to agree on a functional level if you take a look at the key figures at s.c.l. you can't miss the connections between the company's board and britain's political military and even royal establishment first there's their c.e.o.

nigel oakes. ochs comes from a military family and is one of the company's founders he made headlines back in the eighty's during his reported courtship of lady helen windsor the daughter of one of the queen's cousins he once said this about his work before his time at s.c.l. there's lord ivor mountbatten. a direct descendant of queen victoria third cousin of queen elizabeth the second and a member of a sales advisory board according to bloomberg we also have roger dad who's listed as the company's director. a former british special forces officer turned millionaire roger gabbed has donated around seven hundred thousand pounds to the conservative party over the last decade however it is important to note that in the wake of the scandal reports have

surfaced that his involvement in s.c.l. and it last year and last but not least there's julian wieland chairman of the s.p.l. group. in fifteen general election we posted a photo of him campaigning with then prime minister david cameron perhaps unsurprisingly his twitter accounts been unavailable since last week now all of these names are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to connections between s.c.l. and the british political establishment and serious concerns on that front have already been raised by the opposition in westminster as well as in the media theresa may called the allegations very concerning and downing street has since disclosed three previous contracts with the s.t.l. group but says there aren't any currently active life from moscow this is or to international more programs right ahead and i'm here with all the global news updates and half an hour's time.

join me every thursday on the alex simon chill and i'll be speaking to us of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you the. about your sudden passing i've only just learned you were a south and taken your last turn. to cut up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry suddenly 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 feeling started to change you talked about war like it was again still some more fun to feel those that didn't like to question our arc and i secretly promised to never be like it said one does not leave a funeral the same as one enters the mind gets consumed with the death of this one

different person i speak to now because there are no other takers. claimed that mainstream media has met its maker. and would need to make this manufacture consent instead of public wealth. when the ruling classes and project themselves. are the fundamental area around lives only the one percent told. us to ignore middle of the room sick. deluded the real news is really the world.

this is being bussed broadcasting around the world from washington d.c. bombard chilton. and co. i mean up there's been some rapid expansion in the hotel industry both in the u.s. and around the globe we'll talk hotels with bill reported the president and founder of mark plus there's some reaction from china to the trump tariffs we'll have an expert panel of alex mahela bichon caleb maupin give us the latest and sort some of it out all that ahead but first let's get to some as.