the eagle the. u.s. defense secretary did miss he has no concrete evidence of a chemical attack in the syrian city of duma but it doesn't rule out a preemptive strike to defend american troops there. plus another showdown expected throughout the day on the gaza border as palestinians prepare homemade masks to counter tear gas fired by the israeli soldiers. and british football fans rise above the political discord to enjoy a european championship match and last hour archibold one high profile arsenal fans trip to russia. well i mean can you still ready and we are really worried about coming to the city center and back she says it's all right there's no tension between the false. petitions that the politicians get on with.

a warm welcome to the program for me and all of the crew here at r t international thanks for tuning in this hour with the syrian town of duma now liberated by government forces the whole of the eastern good a region has been freed of militants civilians that remain there have shared terrifying stories of what life was like for them under terrorist rule. that. after two years in detention he locked us in cages from morning to evening for three days we were put in the cages and paraded all over the streets and duma people there threw things at us and swore at us we were in the cages without any food for three days so. they hurl stones at us and beat us and.

they took some people and put them on the roofs to stop the aircraft they took a lot of us as human shields some of us refused got out and some didn't like it we suffered a lot we were called starving were used as human shields. some are and her children had been held captive since two thousand and thirteen she says they were captured after her husband was killed they were freed along many others as a part of a deal struck between the rebel group. and the steer and government. that another former captive described to us how the militants allegedly forced him to participate in a staged chemical weapons attack they filmed in doing my back in two thousand and fifteen we should mention that so far we have been unable to verify the story. the . clinical gyration militants gathered us and forced us to take our shirts off and said that the syrian army was about to use chemical weapons they also said we

should pretend as if chemical weapons were used against us and we couldn't breathe and if there was also a kidnapped doctor with us he was forced to fill syringes pretending that he was injecting us to revive us militants poured water on us and forced us to pretend we were unconscious then they brought a camera and film does the claims of a chemical attack on the syrian city of duma were made by the self-styled civil defense group known as the white helmets so far no evidence of the use of a nerve agent has been provided russian experts who have been to the area say they found no evidence that a toxic substance was used the first group of inspectors from the international chemical weapons watchdog are due to start work there on saturday however even before an investigation can yield results there have been calls for an intervention against assad's forces donald trump initially seemed determined to strike damascus but then backtracked the white house says no final decision has been taken. but

we're looking very very seriously very closely that whole situation yeah. we'll see what happens folks to see what happens. u.s. defense secretary james mattis says america has the right for a preemptive strike on the syrian government in order to defend its troops. has more. the drum of war is beginning to bang in washington and the beat is for syria the u.s. is again accusing president assad over using chemical weapons on his own people but the basis for this conviction appears to be lacking one crucial aspect i believe there was a chemical attack and we're looking for the actual evidence that we're not engaged on in the ground on the ground there so i cannot tell you that we had evidence well something is better than nothing but right now it's just a feeling behind a possible military attack is it enough to risk ask elating into a war with syria's allies and even

a nuclear standoff apparently yes protection of our forces i don't think we have to wait until they are under chemical attack when the weapons are used in the same theater we're operating in the rocky invasion played out along suspiciously similar lines we must take the battle to the enemy we will take every step necessary to make sure our country is secure and we will prevail the iraqi regime has in fact been very busy in answering its capabilities in the field of chemical and biological agents one difference that jumps out is that with the rug the u.s. had that infamous bottle of anthrax as reason to call on its forces in hindsight it was a completely false pretext and with syria they don't even have that the o.p.c. w the u.n. chemical watchdog the height of judgment when it comes to such cases already vouched two years ago that syria's stockpiles were no more wrong to twenty seeing

and their words seems to matter a little for washington there is another similarity with the iraq invasion and one must keep in mind the history of u.n. inspection teams in iraq. even as they were conducting the most intrusive system of arms control in. street inspectors missed a great deal and in my last attempt to enlarge the membership of all of the organization was convincing iraq and libya for example to join in and when i am just a member states it was a shock to the americans i believe. because the plans already to take some action military action against iraq the bottom line is the pentagon is hardly keeping its lack of evidence on whether the attack even happened a big secret never mind the perpetrator behind it all that matters is sticking to the tried and trusted path the problem is that the united states believes that it

would be. of any any at all they believe that they have their own rules and it is not the case the threat to use force you not to action the goals against the united nations charter and also we are concerned about the possibility of this coalition that this could go out of control and we might end up with why there a conflict that done the one that's already been suffer in syria it will not be an attack against syria but also an attack against the whole united nations system an emergency cabinet meeting in london called by the british prime minister wrapped up late on thursday theresa may and her advisers have been contemplating possible military strikes against the syrian government. has more on the meeting and its outcome. before the cabinet meeting took place there was

a lot of speculation in the media lots of reports circulating suggesting that the u.k. were ready to go ahead with military action. so there was an awful lot of anticipation and actually we were expecting a major decision to be made the possibility of the u.k. going ahead with that military action but what we seem to end up with is a rather vague statement she said that the cabinet agreed that they condemned the act calling it shocking and barbaric and that the use of chemical weapons should

not go unchallenged the cabinet agreed that they need to take action to alleviate humanitarian distress and that they should continue to work with their allies the u.s. and france but there was no mention of military action a tour and yet that's been the big debate does to raise to raise a may need parliamentary backing to go ahead and of course the answer is no but it would have made it unpopular as we have seen people have spoken and people within her party and other parties one being ken clarke he said that there should be parliamentary approval also the leader of the labor party chairman corben has come out and spoken out and explain exactly why that should be the case. america europe . with neighboring countries iran saudi arabia it's got to be in. real she's strong on the political operation that's good hope the people.

would not say life would just take the lives of school and the world else but the last time britain was considering getting involved in syria there was a debate in parliament and parliament voted against it. was very bad news for them prime minister cameron the idea that we should be getting involved in wars in the middle east without parliament behaving issue and make a decision is absolutely outrageous and i think it's because she knows to be very little public support for getting involved in the middle east again we all remember everyone in britain unless we were lied to by our government and the american government when we're told the iraq had weapons of mass destruction the result was hundreds of millions million dead many of our own troops lost their lives as well and it all turned down to be based on a law on. the israeli gaza border is braced for another day of violence this friday

palestinians launch into occupation protest at the end of march demanding the return of land they claim israel has taken the israeli defense forces and deployed tanks and have been using live ammunition and tear gas to break up the demonstrations palestinians meanwhile have come up with some inventive ways to counter the israeli offensive they've been using plastic cups filled with perfume and cotton and even fruit and vegetables to keep out the fumes since the beginning of the campaign the stand off has resulted in scores of palestinian victims. meanwhile an i.d.f. soldier who shot a palestinian on the gaza border during a protest this summer has been cleared of wrongdoing by a military inquiry video has emerged of him firing shots alongside other stars who

chaired and laughed at the injuries. well we could have to move to digital. i did nothing i was just a demonstration i went to my friends to help them and before i reached the place they shot me the soldier knew that i was going to help them and that's why i was shot while this palestinian man recognizes himself in the video by the way the jacket that he was wearing he said that this happened during clashes along the israel gaza border on the twenty second of december he was shot in the nate ups acquainted that he has been treated in hospital and he says he's been suffering ever since not the video was shot from the israeli sniper site you can actually hear on the video sharing and you can hear the snipers giving each other instructions what is particularly watering is the expressions that all being heard

take a listen. you don't know anything about the words of one of the richest of them did. this when i did that. now. now the israeli defense forces has launched an investigation into the whole incident in its initial review it has cleared the sniper but it has said that those who were cheering and those who filmed the video will face a disciplinary hearing and a statement released by the army they said that the expression of the video and the distribution of the video are not in the spirit of the idea if the reaction here in israel has been mixed on the one hand you have israeli politicians who have come

out and supported the sniper and the soldiers actions saying that you cannot judge a soldier while he is in the line of duty that these soldiers are defending the country and they're under a lot of stress but then you have for example arab members of parliament who are highly critical who are calling for the soldiers to be brought to book and who say that this is simply and completely unacceptable. to wash from the palestine solidarity campaign so that israeli soldiers react to protests and the disproportionate and inhumane way. absolute act to talk in practice effective because the cheering from. the soldiers fellow soldiers basically was just completely inhumane and outrageous in the west i challenge them to produce evidence anywhere that this would have. any kids this shows you that the difference on the one side you have heavily armored. soldiers and on the other side or you have of

protesters who might have a storm to throw from a long long way away is not exactly going to damage the defense or just. politics aside british football fans have flocked to moscow for a european championship match the details on that after a short break. if you are competing like the auto insurance industry why four thousand dollars a year can i be protected against all these medical emergencies that take place in my car therefore we know that the price of having medical insurance or be a thousand dollars a year about thirty thousand dollars a year they're overcharging me by twenty thousand dollars where is that going is going to oligarchs american oligarchs.

most people think just stand out in this business you need to be the first one on top of the story or the person with the loudest voice of the biggest greed in truth to stand down the losers and just the dance the right questions to the right answer . question. welcome back to the program relations between the u.k. and russia might be out an all time low but that hasn't stopped british football fans traveling to moscow for a european championship match i had of the arsenal game there was some speculation about how safe it would be for supporters to attend you sally met up with one fan determined a find out for himself. this is so my way to

consider you a very prominent hostile fan going to be all seeing him when he travels from moscow does he have any fear is regarding the political tension between the u.k. and russia is he worried about things like hooliganism. follow him throughout history how do you feel in this context you know. in the noda there's been a lot going on between the governments waffling that's between the governments and i'm a person this is football we're going for football you know if you listen to people around you in the u.k. lots of people are coming up to me and say robbie don't go there you'd be mad in an oil some of you've been to russia and i say well no i haven't come out i cannot get advice so for someone who has been there have also been concerns with regard to safety so for example hooliganism and also racism you know you've seen fings about russia and things of happened in russia that's not going to be

a problem being caught i encouraged because of a lot received emails from groups over there in russia saying to me that lisa ruby snot nearly as bad as what it's made out to be. on the plane about to head out to russia. and really looking forward to it. it's a place of never before. to a thousand also supports is come over to watch the game many of them have been advised by the foreign and commonwealth office as well saying they could be an uptake of anti british sentiment amongst some russians due to the heightened tension between the two countries at the moment well i mean documents are already.

and we're very worried about coming here because you're actually so sure there's no tension between. when it's the politicians. you know we don't want to look around most. will be most of these. will be mostly all really good if you did that would be welcome so we could say we love the russia we love the russian people. friendship with that we heard. on the relations and this is really at the politics the politicians like it still going to life and i was a bit skeptical when i first called because of all that what was going on when you called me for yourself and you see that has no purpose and haven't seen amy. so intimate. moscow has been incredible it's just incredible city and everyone is

friendly and the russians are lovely i mean to say what happens between governments and what happens between people are totally different. donald trump's new pick for america's top diplomat mike pompei o. has made it clear why it's ok for washington to interfere in other country's affairs the future secretary of state was grilled by the summit on us foreign policy views and he drew the line between russia and the u.s. and that's apparently american exceptionalism. this is a unique exceptional country russia is unique but not exceptional regime change was discussed at my pompei as confirmation hearing for the position of secretary of state and he also said that soft policy on russia will end once he becomes secretary of state but it's not clear what this all policy is exactly considering a trump tweets and recent sanctions imposed on moscow just last week and pump pale

seems to be proud of this as saying that the u.s. has expelled the most diplomats at any time since the cold war and he also said that he would make sure that the administration continues this policy i take a backseat to no one with my views of the threat that is presented to america from russia and if i am confirmed as the secretary of state i can assure you this administration will continue as it has for the past fifteen months to take real actions to push back to re set the deterrence relationship with respect to russia. and you still agree that far from being a great public service wiki leaks is more like a non-state actor hostile to the interests of the national interest and security of the united states so really i do believe it. and i think you still agree that but a reputed government actively interfered in our presidential elections and it

reflections at large in two thousand and sixteen if the us are that's correct. democracy is in the vital national interest of the united states yes indeed sir and the effect of this doing that is an important tool of american foreign policy. that same mind that we're hearing from puppet we've been hearing from american leaders this is nothing new for madeline albright secretary of state she said that if we use force it's because we're the united states or the indispensable nation that you had obama talking about as being the indestructible nation hillary clinton so this is really the air that americans breed and we're now in a multi polar world the united states and russia still have a couple thousand nuclear weapons pointed h. other on hair trigger alert china's economy is booming and this is no longer the

world of the early one nine hundred ninety s. now putin is standing up and asserting russia's national security interests and there is some people in the united states who just don't like that. america is looking for companies to monitor the media around the globe the plan by the u.s. department of homeland security has sparked widespread concerns among journalists as killam up and explains. the department of homeland security wants you to gather information on people it refers to as media influencers it's deadline day for applications for the job our mission is to lead the nation the effort to protect and enhance the resilience of the nation's physical in cyber infrastructure services shall provide media comparison tools design and rebranding tools communication tools and the ability to identify took media. and cers that clearly made many journalists here in the us quite uncomfortable now the concerns seem pretty legitimate think of all the people that could be monitored considered to be

media influencers the number of media outlets around the world that they potentially want to monitor is list is around two hundred ninety thousand this includes t.v. print media online and social media and they want access to password protected devices furthermore they want the contact information to media influencing people in addition to that they want to translation function that can allow them to track the information of people who are non english speaking and considered to be media influencers especially those who speak chinese or russian but the department of homeland security assures us that we have nothing to worry about this is nothing more than the standard practice of monitoring current events in the media any suggestion otherwise is fit for ten full house wearing black helicopter conspiracy theorists now corporations have press offices which keep track of media contacts and journalists but this is the government and it's pretty broad what exactly is a media influencer it's a very broad category could be a journalist

a photographer an editor or a blogger we decided to ask new yorkers about how they feel about the government keeping track of people who might influence the media to know privacy and the world anymore they contain everything nobody no one's information is protected anymore but they're already doing that they're going to keeping track of and any now i don't think it's think anything mean they're just now getting you know that of a clear and i guess i live in my transparent that they're on your business because they've always been and everything's just a right thing to do it is a lot of people in the world in the world say but but should the government be watching people just because it feels like they could influence the media broadcast i mean isn't that free speech should the government be and that's not right i don't think that's right i don't like the idea at all but i also feel that anything that you put on. and it's pretty much up for grabs now it's still the land of the free and the home of the brave but keep in mind that your media influence may not be the

positive message that washington is looking for cable pop and r.t. new york that's a wrap up of today's top headlines for this hour but don't forget you can always head to our web site r.t. dot com to get the details on all those stories and more. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy to confront a shouldn't let it be an arms race based on often skeery dramatic developments only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk.

who was before. much of those who heard something. soon we will. go. with. the show didn't you believe you looked good. move most of those goals did you feel good good good good. good good issues from the do you distribute . your story to go. to starbucks to. get to meet until it was the little blue mist thinks you look at israel. some stuff from others consistently unmatched on. the planet and its control is part.

of your producers to post this work to slip them with a new look at the rest of the coverage for your supporters to shoot through shashank for you should cook door for one who still does it. was it like waging a legal war against the president of the united states will have a one on one with stormy daniels outspoken attorney michael of a not a on this edition of politics. of politicking on larry king by now you know the framework of the story an actress in the adult film industry stormy daniels real name stephanie clifford claims she

insists and donald trump had a sexual encounter then in the waning weeks of the twenty sixteen presidential election she was paid a hundred thirty thousand dollars in hush money by mr trump's personal attorney michael cohen cohens office and hotel room were raided this week by the f.b.i. as authorities reportedly are looking into details about that payment for his part president trump has denied the encounter with ms daniels it's also called the raid on his attorney's office a disgrace what's the impact of this raid on the dangles versus strong case and where will her attorney take this fight from here let's find out as michael levin out he joins us now he's the attorney representing strongly dangles in her legal battle with president tom peters in new york city for this interview might there added benefit the great war was. do a friend of mine and he told me once. that when he represented client usually in criminal cases his instructions were the client never speaks only the lawyers

speaks you have a client who speaks out is that good for this case. well you know larry i would agree with that opinion quite honestly in most cases i think that this is a very unique case for a variety of reasons and quite frankly no one will ever be able to muzzle stormy daniels again certainly not in this context so i could attempt to instruct her not to talk or not to communicate but i would be wasting my breath i think that she is i think she's very self-aware i think that she wants to tell her story i think that she's active on social media and that's just the way it is if it comes with the territory and so we just have to roll with it if you're vising mr trump you were the would you advise him not to speak at all about this.