that would like better inform the public if something bad happens like a bomb or other things dropping on them. yeah. we've all gone mad that is right we don't even have the money in the infrastructure to keep hackers from you know jersey moron tornado broadcast us army our fire that yeah yeah but it wasn't because i think we're in our age group we understand because it was such a cultural part of the seventy's and eighty's as we were growing up is that once a week you'd hear on the news that burroughs and then the reporter or somebody would say you know this was a test of the emergency broadcast system this is only a test if this is not an actual emergency what if i know i know we all know this for nation so just go wow one letter early in her ever work because the murder of a child and it was that thing that if you were in you know certain urban if you're in a very strict tight urban center or in whirl areas especially it was vital yes and you know it's the difference between life and death an attorney to

a situation or in a storm situation so these things are actually really really important oakum plea they're important and i think having an emergency broadcast system for many different threats is incredibly important and a limb sieber a researcher with the steel security firm he pointed out that in rural and urban areas many citizens have actually cut the cord and cannot be contacted via rubio a reverse nine eleven you know one one phone system consequently warning sirens play a crucial role as they are the only true were viable method to alert a population and mass of a public safety event and that's very interesting that they're kind of like i'm out for i don't want to hear them contacting me in an emergency right that's you know and that's were used to be where it was this idea that you could call people's home phones and they'd pick them up also if there was tornado sometimes they would be calls or your phone phone would ring which is actually really bad because in lightning it's a whole thing but people can't recall because we all went to cell phones and tablets so they don't know where. people are so i don't know how to tell them which

is why sometimes when you're traveling you're getting alerts for places that you aren't right so it's really interesting is that you see that now we're you know you certain people get a beep on their cell phone saying oh there might be floods in the area that you were yesterday yes yes and that's where it's funny we have so much technology and we spare and they have smart bombs to you know take out one terrorist on the side walk in the middle of it or something but our very basic mass communication and an amount of a natural disaster emergency things like trying to doesn't bring them up because i'm from the midwest and that's why where i come from there's a really important it literally is a matter of being life and death when you're out in those areas the first things to go is power and a lot of times that means your phone goes and it means that the cell phone towers don't you know things aren't working which means the end of the day hearing that which you can hear from miles is as important as get get in your because tornadoes come fast and that happens with a lot of natural disasters and now in a world of war. air raid siren he's against me a top priority and the fact that we don't have

a secure system where anyone could have them cause mischief and mayhem and say hey why don't i suddenly have sirens off in this you know area that everyone gives you what's that you know that's the potential that somebody get hurt and simple yes exactly and that's the thing with you know even simple human error the one that happens or why it was one in the seventy's where a guy put in the wrong tape oh that's right and they thought of for a long time human error happens but the system should be there so as to fight it out isn't that especially if we're going to be so war hungry here d.c. fact late curable home first maybe all right as we go to break or bludgers don't forget to let us know what you think of the topics we've covered on facebook and twitter see our poll shows at our t.v. dot com coming up there's a rash of democrats republicans jumping ship part of congress and you will find out why with rice university political science fellow barbara jones stay tuned to watch the whole.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race off and spearing dramatic development the only really i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical of time time to sit down and talk. is this is harder than kentucky. boyce's you can agree on. a co money since he was almost no coal mines left. the jobs are gone all the coal

was said i'd. love to see these people the survivors of disappearing before their eyes. i remember thinking when i was younger that if anything ever happened to the coal mines here that it would become a ghost town but i never thought in the million years i would see that and it's how it's happened. on the. cool.

this week the speaker of the united states house of representatives paul ryan hung up his suit and briefcase announcing his retirement from the u.s. congress when his term is up in january of twenty nineteen but ryan's retirement front line reports that so far more than three dozen republican house members and three senators have announced that they will not be running for reelection in november the highest number since world war two according to the brookings institution by comparison only seventeen democrats have announced that they are retiring from congress so what is behind this max exodus from the halls of congress are republicans fleeing being held responsible for the trump situation that the administration are they cashing out for a lucrative private sector job as they are and through appeasing special interests while in office are they afraid of losing their seats in an unpredictable midterm

or are they really just looking to spend more time with their kids like paul ryan says to help us answer these questions and more about the current state of congressional politics is the united states in the united states today is mark jones a fellow and political science at the baker institute for public research at rice university thank you for joining us. oh it's my pleasure thanks for having me on you know mark look at the political landscape here in the united states today what do you what do you believe is behind this this exodus this exodus of politicians from office is part of the kind of the normal flow of mid-term politics of it it's the highest it's been since world war two. well there's one amount that's a normal level and we're seeing that mostly on the democratic side that is there are always people that are hitting retirement age that have health problems or have standards or are seeing the increase in what setting the records is what's occurring on the republican side of the aisle we're seeing a much larger than normal number of republicans resigning and they are at least not seeking reelection and i think there are several reasons. one is far more

republicans than democrats are smeared in sexual harassment or meet to scandal related problems and thus chose not to seek reelection because they are effectively forced to i think the primary driving force though is the reality that more were more republicans every day believe that the party is going to lose its majority in the u.s. house in november and of decided that they would much prefer to cash out into either in the private sector or pursue other career options then rather a tough re-election campaign only to go back in the minority because we all know that in the us house being in the minority is not a very fun place to be because the majority effectively controls everything a great point it's no fun to be the minority in the us. is this really you know it's not fun being a minority in the us in general that a good point and you know speaker of the house paul ryan his claim is that he is leaving office to spend more time in this family and i'm asking you and looking at

the water should we believe his claim are there there's a lot more important factors in this decision you know his. whether or not he was going to actually make it and wisconsin i know that least over the last couple of months he has proponents of raise more money than him in wisconsin do you think his decision is about really about this i want to spend time with my kids or is it something else. that's really rarely the case for driven politician like paul ryan you've pretty much given up spending weekends with your fan are spending weekdays with your family that's more of an excuse what he's probably saying is that he doesn't really enjoy his present situation trying to balance the different factions within the republican party and even more so he doesn't believe or at least has a strong belief that the republicans are going to lose their majority in the u.s. house which means that he would be in the minority. come january and if there's one thing worse than being in the minority it's being speaker and then going to be

a minority leader that's going from being at the pinnacle of power to being sort of trying to the opposite side trying to make do with the best you have but it's not never enough. let me ask you real quick have you think have you heard anything about whether or not paul ryan just looking at you know running for president or say running for governor of wisconsin is there anything else politically on his plate that we've heard about yet. oh ah it's our life i mean scott walker's indicated he's running for reelection and so that's at least out for a while he could always of course run for president in twenty twenty or twenty twenty four perhaps more likely will be moving into the private sector and taking advantage of a lot of the contacts he's made during his tenure as speaker and longer tenure in congress to earn a living that he presently is not earning as a member of the u.s. house that's an interesting thing that you bring up because i think that that doesn't get talked about enough is how you know when politicians leave office you know the kind of jobs that they take and how that can kind of become that revolving

door that we talk about so often like a lot of politicians will leave office and become lobbyists. how price does that play into their decision making while in office were suddenly oh you know what now is the time of pass the tax reform i got to jump out and i think cashman chips and how much does that play a role in decision making that you know in putting those decisions above the good of let's say the american people. but i think people also have to look out for their families you know speaker ryan has children who will need to go to college a member of congress earns a good salary but for someone with the training and skills of paul ryan it's not a salary it's not commensurate to what he did in the private sector and so i you do see many members of congress when they hit their fifty's or sixty's even late forty's to say that i'm now going to sensually take advantage of all the contacts and skills i've made in the public sector turn a much higher income in the private sector now of course then that rate does raise

a lot of problems and qualms with the issue of effectively inside inside networking that works against the american public and in favor of lobbyist but it's a fact of life in washington to great point and they also walk away with you know insure a really great insurance and a really good retirement package that i think paul ryan is also going to be getting but one of the things is that this these these. this accident is going to open up a lot of congressional seats what kind of campaigns do you think we're going to start looking forward to this summer in the midterms are we going to see more bernie sanders or we're going to see more and trump style candidates or are we going to see you know sort of that middle ground you know you have a lot of democratic socialists wanting small actions or or any of those what do you what do you see on the horizon. well on the republican side it's going to be a mixture of probably depending on the district on one hand you're going to have more conservative trump style activists because that's where a lot of the powered energy is within the republican party today not on the

establishment side but for many of the more competitive districts where republicans are party there is a fear among them in republican circles that if they nominate somebody who is too conservative that that could cause them to lose the seat on the democratic side what we're actually starting to see is something that we've had on the republican side for some time that is real battles between two any logical wings of the party in the republican party it tends to be the establishment versus the tea party wing but we're now seeing on the democratic side are centrist service talisman types who are aligned with nancy pelosi and standing hoyer doing battle with more bernie sanders types candidates who have real inner g. and the support of the base but what the establishment fears is that many of those individuals will lose to republican candidates in general elections because they're too left to be electable in their districts do you think we're going to see that play out that way this fall i mean it's it's very hard to predict i mean we're still six months away but that's a really interesting dynamic where you have now the two biggest parties in the land

to completely split within themselves area you know i could that actually play could we see possibly like more third party candidates win a seat if they get the right money in the right exposure. and know that the us system is still very much anchored in favor of either republican or democratic party with almost no space or room for third party candidates outside of some real exceptional case. you know such as you know from out with bernie sanders or perhaps maine with maine with angus king but by and large third party cancers are effectively blocked out of the us system and i don't see that changing at all but then let me ask you this though really wasn't the tea party essentially a third party that got its hold by a sort of putting its talons into the republicans i mean didn't they act as a third party. one though their they act as an interest group that is the key was they operated within the republican party that is what the tea party activists did was especially in states like texas is they took over the republican party and but

they operated within it so you didn't see tea party candidates running for a third party or as libertarians you saw them competed in the republican primary in capturing the republican nomination and that's really what always happens in that for if you want to if you're a democratic socialist your best bet for actually reaching power is not to run as a democratic socialist or as a socialist or a progressive it's to compete with in the democratic primary capture the nomination and then rely on the party support as well as partisan identification in the name brand of the democratic party to vote yourselves into public office with us fast and i think that's a really i think you're going to see a lot of that coming forward but you know they go try to change the party from the inside because it is too hard to kind of break down those walls very quickly just to finish up where do you see how much is a foreign policy and how much is you know the issues we have going on with syria right now north korea potentially russia where do you see that playing out in the

midterms in these upcoming elections got about a minute. well by and large it's not going to have a major impact as long as we don't see an actual war or some type of conflict that has a very negative impact on the economy on the other hand to the extent to which if it portrays the trump administration as not being especially competent and mean unpredictable that could work against republicans because if it's a narrative among many democrats as well as some moderate republicans that the president is not doing a particularly good job and isn't a particularly good president. marjoe zero say thank you for joining us today awesome insight into what's going on especially in congress it can be confusing for a lot of people out there thankfully we have good political for all of political science pros like yourself over at the baker institute for public policy at rice university thank you so much sir. thank you. on march seventh two thousand and nine the kepler spacecraft launched and now as its fuel is running low it's time for its semi-retirement from the search for life outside of our solar

system of course don't despair because the test is here to grab the baton and keep the search alive test stands for the transitioning exoplanet survey system in an mit led mass of mr mission which plans to spend twenty four months in space monitoring two hundred thousand stars for things like changes in brightness when planets transit each other's orbits what makes test special is that she will be doing scans and collecting data from the whole sky thanks to four identical cameras that are aligned to take two hundred thousand two minute scans in each sector at detail four hundred times that of the coupler spacecraft as test project scientist stephen ryan hard put it tells us is a really optimized for knocking on doors in the neighborhood and saying hi how are you what is this planet actually like and here's two tasks which launches on april sixteenth from cape canaveral in florida i'm her hunt for extraterrestrial life man tess is going to be busy that's going to be busy like oh i love that but that's the

ultimate so for you right there man four hundred some odd cameras and the folly of a sort of three hundred sixty day review where you get the whole sky and you can literally watch the builder you know we might find that other planet with life that's not just about water oxygen or about we could be finding. a lot about you know all right we'll leave that as our show for today remember everyone in this world we're not told we love the ups or tell you all i love you i am i robot and i'm having a lot of people watching those talks have a great day and. when i was told something seemed wrong but old roles just don't hold. any object to shape out just because the ticket and engagement

equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart. just to look for common ground. four men are sitting in a car when the fifth gets shot in the head. all four different versions of what happened one of them is on the death row there's no way he could have done it there's no possible way because they did not shoot around a corner. so taking had to take matters into its own heads to provide its own security as securing the border radius now this is a very vivid image of the goals however who are the bridge to be there. has to be

that who are the british to be. witnesses of the aftermath of the alleged chemical attack in the syrian city duma say in video released by russia's defense ministry today that those brought a hospital we're not showing symptoms consistent with exposure to a chemical agent. also a warning tonight from the russian side who say syrian rebels are poised to assist any possible u.s. strikes against damascus. other developments elsewhere hundreds of palestinians reportedly injured in gaza as israeli troops use law a fire in tear gas to disperse anti occupation demonstrates along the border. hostile football fans receive a warm welcome here in russia before the team's much we see it's come oscar despite

the concerns about russian hooligans. i really get the feeling that would the world cup so we could see when you come if you so often you see that is no public relations are lovely i mean to say what happens between governments a lot happens between people are told me different. nine pm friday night here moscow well welcome to watching our international with me kevin our first night of the syria crisis again the main story dominating and an important development to bring her attention this hour that russia's defense ministries today released a video in which witnesses of the aftermath of the alleged chemical attack in syria's duma say there was no indication that the people rushed to hospital there had been exposed to a chemical agent if it is thought of my name is. i am a medical student i work in the e.r.

department of dumas central hospital on april eighth our building in the city was the upper floors were destroyed and the bottom floors caught fire all the injured from that building were brought to our hospital. that the residents from the upper floors were suffering from smoke inhalation and that is what we treated them for based on the symptoms they exhibited by this is a bit of a dominating headlines over the past few days that incident in duma whatever took place is attracted very different versions of events from the russian side the syrian side and the u.s. u.k. and france something did happen in do all the seventh of april with the western nations on the white helmets group on the ground in syria claiming it was a chemical attack by the damascus government on civilians killing and injuring dozens the russian side the mask is saying this was a setup now today we've got that evidence allegedly from the russian modi saying they have identified an individual in the video you can see just being played bad

that video was used as part of the evidence by helmets and western nations to prove that there was a chemical attack in duma as those rebels and civilians were being evacuated you can see the highlighted the witness there on the video just for our viewers they claim they've identified him subsequently asked of exactly what happened in that incident on the seventh of april in dubai let's take a listen to what exactly had to say about what took place in the hospital after that time. during treatment some person came in i don't know who that was and said that it was a chemical attack. when the. people got scared a fight broke out. relatives of the victims started pouring water on one another. then others began to give inhalers for asthma the children. even though these people were not medical professionals we did not see any patients exhibiting symptoms of chemical poisoning. so this video amongst others of course quite

shocking disturbing images of civilian casualties were circulated all the while social media and cited by their formation and organizations countries as evidence of that chemical attack and evidence of course is the key word here is the real crux of the issue of what o.p.c. w team heading over to do more on the way that they should be there over the next twenty four forty eight hours or so believe they have arrived in syria their findings will be key to establishing what really happened in duma whether there was some sort of chemical incident by the damascus government as it was the nations are saying or as we heard from the russian m o d that the russian military has gathered evidence that indicates the direct involvement of great britain organizing the provocation in eastern you could tell you even we know for a fact that london pressured the so-called why the helmets to carry out your plans provocation as soon as possible they were told that from the third to the sixth of april rebels would carry out a series of heavy showings of damascus and that this would lead to

a reaction from the government forces which the white helmets should use for their provocation and to allege the use of chemical weapons so these are obviously quite strong allegations from the russian ministry of defense or other counter allegations as to this alleged chemical incident in do something they will have to obviously provide evidence for specific before for britain's involvement in this the key bit of evidence that as we said before is the arrival of the o.p.c. team with the u.n. and that he would have structures on the ground to get those soil samples get those examined any victims if there are any and find out if any chemicals were used that's the key thing to do. prove what exactly and to give gravitas and credibility to either of these two versions will find that out of course in the next twenty four to forty eight hours in the u.k. zone bastards the un has reacted to the accusations from the russian military by calling them grotesque and a blatant lie tonight however the video we're telling you about featuring the medic who dismissed the chemical attack claims has been taken seriously and shown by

a number of media outlets further questions are also hanging over the west's narrative because of the dubious reputations of some of the groups that initially made the allegations takes up that side of it. reports of a chemical attack first appeared strange enough it's almost the precise moment the battle had ended when the syrian government and rebels were negotiating on how to evacuate the latter reports first appeared on social media twitter facebook and spread like wildfire while my colleague kendall anian and i have learned today that the u.s. now has blood and a year in samples from some of the victims of this attack in syria last weekend and that those samples according to u.s. officials tested positive for chemicals and sources the usuals why the helmets who service rescue is for islamists and syrian rebels also the somewhat less known

syrian american medical society sounds together with the white helmets they were cited by the washington post the new york times c.n.n. virtually every western media outlets reporting on this chemical attack saturday april seventh amidst continuous bombardment of residential neighborhoods in the city of duma more than five hundred cases the majority of whom are women and children were brought to local medical centers with symptoms indicative of exposure to a chemical agent sams itself is funded by u.s. aid six million in two thousand and fifteen usaid is widely believed to be an arm of the state department and is banned in multiple countries accused of interfering in domestic policies and promoting regime change it even has an office of transition initiatives the management at sams also believe it or not former usaid

stuff was saddam's who reportedly provided the u.p.c. w. with samples of the alleged sarin gas that was used in hunchy houla site of a chemical attack last year after which. donald trump sent fifty seven cruise missiles at the syrian airbase p.t.w. is on its way to duma to investigate we've contacted various groups including the world health organization they've cited but have refused to go into details what comes next no one can say whether the u.s. will go ahead with a preemptive strike or whether cooler heads will prevail it appears the lack of evidence on the alleged chemical attacks a concern for a number of journalists one of those is a guy called spelt from belgium he travelled direct to syria to judge it for himself he's been in several towns across east and he joins us now live let's talk to him thanks for your time journalism student university against belgium aren't

you know you are so conservative you posted your thoughts on quite a long video on you tube first of all why did you decide to go to syria what drove you to go there thank you for having me on well you know i meant university and we learn some stuff at university i study reading there as well as political subjects but i run two years ago i started to discover that i wasn't really told the truth about the war in syria and i started to learn more and more. and i have this lead me to decided i want to go see for myself you know it's people should. journalists shoots and so i did. so when did you go to east. particularly crucial time by the sounds of it tell us about all that happened. yeah it's been a quite hectic hectic few days so i don't remember the exact dates but i think

maybe five these ago i went to is a marker which is a neighborhood inside of eastern goods which was about three weeks before it. and i also went through our. internal. shelter center for internally displaced syrians who were two days afterwards and so we you in duma around the area of this alleged chemical weapons attack while just tell us if you were more what did you hear what was your ear on the ground there what the locals or the people around there telling you yes so just to clarify i wasn't in duma. but another suburb. and i'll just give one testimony because there are so many things that confirms what i'm about to see .