latest edition as we go. to the u.s. the u.k. and france carry out strikes against the syrian government in response to an alleged chemical attack in eastern intervention came just hours before international inspectors were due to arrive to investigate the claims united nations security council is right now holding an emergency meeting to discuss the attack with russia says it was a clear violation of the organization charter. the joint military operation against assad's government has limited targeted and effective. in other news russia's foreign minister claims the international chemical weapons watchdog correctly identified. in england last month.

news for you cause a lot to catch up on especially with syria over the past twenty four hours first let's bring you up to speed american british and french forces have pounded syria with an air strikes the attack took place in the early hours of saturday morning and came in response to allegations that the syrian government had used chemical weapons against civilians claims which a u.n. watchdog is still yet to investigate.

as i said the u.n. security council is holding an emergency session at the request of russia after it called the strikes on syria a violation of the u.n. charter that meeting still going on right now i got more moscow's initial reaction to the strikes though earlier from correspondent down of well president putin has condemned in the strongest words as to what happened as these strikes conducted by the u.s. the u.k. and france he said that they targeted not just to the military facilities but also civilian infrastructure is world saying that this goes against in violation of all international norms and in fact it wasn't sanctioned by the u.n. security council is also said that is pretext for the strikes the u.s. and its allies used a fake used a stage to chemical attack he said that in a statement he said that he did not believe that the chemical attack took place that in fact the russian military that entered the city of duma the site of the

chemical incident could not find any traces of the of any toxic agents or anything of the sort not even any eyewitnesses of the attack could be found apparently so here's what how vladimir putin described the situation right now the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons has deployed its specialist on a fact finding mission. but a group of western countries cynically ignored this launching a military attack without waiting for the results of the investigation russia emphatically condemns this attack on syria where russian servicemen are helping de-legitimized government fight terrorists with its actions the united states only exacerbates the humanitarian disaster in syria bringing suffering to civilians essentially abetting terrorists who have been tormenting the syrian people for seven years and provoking a new wave of refugees from this country and the region in general mr putin mention

the o.p.c. w. investigation there any concerns the that might be in jeopardy now yes of course because the o.p.c. w was supposed to begin its mission in syria on the ground in syria its investigation on saturday at the us launched its strikes literally hours before with that investigation was supposed to kick off so obviously a lot of questions were raised by whether or not that mission is jeopardized whether or not any objects of infrastructure that were supposed to be examined by the experts over the o.p.c. w. were hit or damaged now the body has issued a statement it's rather brief one literally just two sentences outlining the current state of events and they are saying that they will be going forward with their mission in syria no details as to whether or not they feel affected in any way by the strikes back to the reaction from moscow then anything more wider than

the kremlin well yes the russia's foreign ministry has laid out its view of the situation right now they've said that basically the u.n. security council has to hold accountable the u.s. the u.k. and france for what they did in syria they've also addressed something that france had to say while justifying its participation in the strikes france had said that basically it had to. intelligence information that since twenty thirteen the syrian government were pursuing the secret chemical weapons program despite the your p c w n twenty sixteen vouching that the stockpile had been destroyed something in a process overseen by russia and the un as well as that however the spokeswoman for the russian foreign ministry she said that basically if france knew that all along four years why hold back the information why come forward with it only now so many years later. as for donald trump in his first tweet after the attack he thanked the

u.s. allies and said the result couldn't have been better trump called the strikes perfectly executed despite the syrian and russian military saying that most of the missiles have been intercepted by defense systems. here the three sites that washington claims that it targeted in syria which it believes were capable of producing chemical weapons among them is a research facility located between the capital damascus and the city of duma where the alleged chemical incident is said to have taken place and he now here's some pictures from a video agency reportedly showing the aftermath of the strike on the research facility the syrian government says it was nothing more than a civilian scientific center. has more now on how the attack unfolded. but we heard an announcement from u.s. president donald trump about the pending strike against the syrian government in coordination with the u.k. and france he used some rather inflammatory language it's kind of almost trademark

language of us present very terrible regime these are not the actions of a man. they are crimes of a monster instead so today the nations of britain france and the united states of america have martial their right to use power against barbarism and brutality now after that we got a military update we heard from general joseph dunford as well as u.s. secretary of defense james mattis it's important to note that when james mattis was speaking not only after the attacks but also earlier in the week he wasn't willing to go into detail about the attack and was rather vague about the kind of information that he actually had but i am confident the syrian regime conducted a chemical attack on innocent people. we are very confident that chlorine was used

we are not ruling out sharon right now we have the intelligence level of competence that we needed to conduct the attack. i believe there was a chemical attack and we're looking for the actual evidence the o.p.c. w this you're going to station for the chemical weapons convention and we're trying to get those inspectors in if we get them and we will not know who did it they can only say that they found evidence or did not broader in the international community there is simply not consensus about what actually happened in the syrian town of duma we've seen the u.n. security council meetings and we've seen a big disagreement between countries russia's representative has come forward before the u.n. security council and said that they have sent russian experts and russia chemical experts to do at it in duma they have not found any traces of chemicals they have not found any victims who have come forward and said they witnessed or that they themselves are victims of chemical attacks no one in hospitals being treated and we

then heard nikki haley the representative of the united states before the u.n. security council did a chemical weapons attack happened. yes the u.s. has analyzed he yes it has happened the u.k. has analyzed yes it has happened france has analyzed yes it is that three separate analysis all coming back with the same thing there is proof that this happened people were anticipating this strike because of donald trump's tweet saying telling russia to get ready for the missiles you know insulting the syrian president was certain language are waiting to see what the next move is and what will happen next in the international community. meanwhile people in to of syria's largest cities damascus and aleppo have rallied together against the u.s. led military action you see here flags being waved in support of the syrian government third even if you know closely some russian flags being waved as well here's what some residents in the capital had to say. this strike to does not break

you shall make you stronger we are standing steadfast the syrian people are full of will in our stad that. we condemn and denounce this assault on our country we say long leaves on the line of assad will not be shaken these people who were steadfast for seven years with north here a strike from an ignorant bly of drama. now if you were mentioning for about an hour now the u.n. security council's been holding yet another emergency meeting on the joint attack against the syrian government russia has called this meeting it's also drafted a resolution condemning the strikes we heard an hour ago it wants a vote on that by the time this meeting is over right now the floor is with sweden let's go live to artists americans been listening across what's been said that. we will be watching about forty minutes of the u.n. security council meeting although it's been a very civil tone to be very angry words used. yes well russia

was the first to speak and the russian ambassador slammed the u.s. for violating international law for one using the security council to further its own interests and the russian ambassador also said that western countries don't. western countries don't need any investigations to do what they want to do now prior to that meeting russia came up with a draft resolution that would designate the air strikes as a violation of international law demand that the west stop attacking syria and it urges the council to provide conditions for the opi seems w. is the organization for the chemical weapons weapons their work in which they're now in syria to investigate the chemical weapons attack and the american ambassador spoke right after and she had the same rhetoric that we usually still leave her with the u.s. and allies is some kind of data that only the u.s. is see and then she accused russia. russia this is using

a piston from ation campaign which we find ourselves now. you know a large body of information indicates that the syrian regime used chemical weapons in duma on april seventh there is clear information demonstrating assad's culpability the pictures of dead children were not fake news they were the result of the syrian regime's barbaric inhumanity he also said that to the coalition and that decimating the facility that's quote the heart of syria's chemical weapons enterprise but just last november of the o.p.c. completed its second round of inspections of that same facility that the u.s. u.k. and france destroyed just like last night and they found no trace of banned chemicals and they didn't observe any suspicious activity so that something interesting interesting to be noted and the russian ambassador did note that before

hailey spoke but of course that wasn't addressed by mickey haley but the meeting has only just started so we'll continue to provide the latest updates. ok if any of the recent meetings they've had five in the past week now anything to go by we got another couple of hours of this to go and everybody digging in saying they've got evidence that they're in the right on this we'll see how that vote goes a bit later on for now though samir khan in washington thanks for that. but the white house says that it is confident that the syrian government did use chemical weapons against its own people believe that appears to be based largely on the media and n.-g. o. reports this conclusion is based on descriptions of the attack in multiple media sources the reported symptoms experienced by victims videos and images showing to assess to barrel bombs from the attack and reliable information indicating coordination between syrian military officials before the attack of some of the groups that originally made the claims in which first circulated the images show in

the aftermath of the supposed attack of some dubious reputations and one of them is the self-styled civil defense group the white helmets well it's been widely praised in the west for its rescue work its members have repeatedly been accused of having links to extremist groups. another source of the claims is the lesser known a syrian american medical society or sams now it's funded by usaid which works closely with the state department sams is banned in multiple countries and it's been accused of interfering in domestic politics and promoting regime change the russian defense minister about twenty four hours ago now analyzed one of the videos purporting to show the aftermath of the alleged chemical attack in duma it says it managed to identify some of the people who were filming the any one who claims to be a medical student who was working in the hospital that the victims were being brought to here's what he had to say about the incident. my name is. i am a medical student i work in the e.r. department of dumas central hospital on april eighth

a building in the city was bombed the upper floors were destroyed and the bottom floors caught fire all the injured from that building were brought to our hospital . 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 during treatment some person came in i don't know who that was and said that it was a chemical attack people got scared a fight broke out relatives of the victims started pouring water on one another 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 the video in which the medic can be seen was picked up by a number of news outlets and treated as evidence of a chemical attack i think that that was a purposeful act by the united states britain and france these rogue countries to

create a suit prevent if you like the investigation by the o.p.c. w. investigators if britain france and the u.s. had any credible information about chemical attack in ghouta in the town of duma last rate they would have welcomed the presence and the investigation of the o.p.c. w. investigators but by taking this action now they are showing that they don't want this investigation to go on and the only reasonable conclusion one can draw is that they have no and they have no information they made it all up. the problem is that the reason mays praise the joint military action overnight she called them a limited targeted and effective measure and outlined why britain believes assad's government used chemical weapons. i cannot tell you everything but let me give an example of some of the evidence that leads us to this conclusion open source

accounts allege that a barrel form was used to deliver the chemicals. multiple open source reports claim that a regime helicopter was observed above the city of duma on the evening of the seventh of april and reliable intelligence indicates that syrian military officials coordinated what appears to be the use of chlorine in duma on the seventh of april we judge it highly likely both that the syrian regime has continued to use chemical weapons since then and will continue to do so. british and french jets could be seen taking off from and landing at their bases in the region in the early hours of saturday morning with a view from europe correspondent shiela do bensky in paris and in london. we've heard from to reason made this morning she's been holding a press conference here in london at downing street and confirming that four already f. jets took part in that they launched a series of air strikes how successful those airstrikes have been remain to be seen

we're seeing reports from the russian foreign ministry that the vast majority of those all of those as strikes were shot down so it's reason may not speaking to the success of them but very clear to make it to make the point that this is not an attempt at regime change but merely in her words trying to deter any future use of alleged chemical weapons we've also been hearing from the opposition the leader of the opposition jeremy corbyn he's the labor party leader and he called into question how legally sound these asteroids parliament should be consulted problem it should take a view on this but instead the strikes were launched last night parliament is in session on monday she could have come to parliament on monday to discuss the whole situation instead it launched the strikes haps she has about two thousand and thirteen vote in mind when david cameron wanted to also go to war with syria but

lost the parliamentary vote and perhaps she was looking to avoid a similar embarrassing defeat there are a number of m.p.'s not just in the labor party but even in her own conservative policy her own bench m.p.'s who potentially were getting ready to rebel against about this attack on syria she has received support from the foreign secretary johnson however he's been on twitter saying that he welcomes the news of the u.k. military strikes against what he says all major chemical weapons facilities in syria and saying that the world is united in its discussed of the use of these weapons against. civilians polls in the country which show that a vast majority of people are not in support of this military action in syria so remote to be seen exactly how damaging politically this could be for two reasons

what we've actually been hearing from the french foreign ministry on saturday morning let's listen in directly to what he had to say about france taking part in this coordinated action by the u.s. france the u.k. acted in accordance with our responsibility but the use of chemical weapons in syria is unacceptable because it's a violation of international law and basic human rights smalling france also released a document outlining its case for why it believes that a chemical attack took place and why it believes that the assad government was behind that attack it says it unless it has had analysts of the photos of testimonies and videos from do you know where the alleged attack took place and it says that after analyzing it has a high degree of confidence that this was not money fact should all recycled and it says that the symptoms they believe all characteristics of chemical weapons there's

also been criticism here in france from some opposition leaders including marine le pen she's the leader of the national front here in france she took to twitter on saturday morning to say this she said that this action in gauges of france in an unpredictable and potentially dramatic consequences and she said that france loses an opportunity to appear on the international stage as being an independent and balance of power also some reaction from neighboring country luxembourg this morning suggesting the strikes can only be conducted based on a u.n. security council resolution which clearly they do not have. had. and story development in the past couple of hours russia's foreign minister has claimed that the international chemical weapons watchdog p c w may have misidentified the type of nerve agent used against the screwballs in england last month more details on that now from correspondent. so potentially another chapter

opens in this case yes so let's first get up to speed with the findings of the results from the a p c w i'm here to live it their analysis on the chemical attack on the script pulse now in this report the a p c w e confirms the composition of the nerve agent was in line with the findings of the united kingdom who say that the chemical used to poison. was said to be not be chock a type of nerve agent produced by the savior but they were unable to specify the origin of that but during the analysis the a p c w gave some pulls of the agent to four designated laboratories and russia has contacted one of these tested native lapps now a swiss the bar tree has allegedly said that there were traces of another nerve agent found in the sample it was given a toxin called be set now it tends out that these findings were excluded from the report by the a.p.c. w. the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov has been speaking on these findings.

is more consistent with the use of the poisonous substance. none of these facts and nothing at all about it was mentioned in the final report which was presented to its executive board we requested explain why such information and the conclusion of the spears laboratory was emitted from the final report. so the toxin is called these white crystalline power slightly soluble in water and is a nerve agent so extremely harmful and the talks and was never produced in russia or in the save it union however the be said nerve agent was developed by the u.s. army in the one nine hundred fifty s. now these findings. reduced in a report published by the a.p.c. they were left out or rather not taken into consideration at all and even if the substance is not reach out however the russian foreign ministry has said that about twenty countries can produce this chemical and some chemists of even question the

potency of the nerve agent of the chalk as well think its consequences could have been much worse. for those in minutes if it gets in the skin symptoms and can take from minutes. to be very toxic highly toxic five to eight times more toxic than the x. which is already a very very toxic so small amounts should have killed. for sure but again it's very difficult to assess and evaluate this kind of question before knowing exactly how the product was delivered. it's been well over a month now since you learned say a gay script were found unconscious on a bench in salt i merely script health since it's been discharged but the form of double agents a case compile is ten hospital that remains in a stable condition ok so seems like probably more questions being raised now though

any should say thank you very much for updating us on what the russian foreign minister had to say in the past couple of hours or so. russia's foreign ministers claim that the international chemical watchdog has we mentioned americans identified the type of an agent used in the sky against the scruples last month i think we can talk to our guests now professor james torre who's a chemical weapons expert an organic chemist thanks for joining us on this you can shed a little bit more light i don't know how well you know the o.p.c. w.'s findings or the way it works but what would your theories be for it may have been excluded findings from its report if they did there were other traces of a nerve agent. i can't really comment on what their motivations are but if there was another agent the frequent who could invent a late which is this being the agent that has nothing to do with a with a nerve agent that's not even used to kill i mean that's used that's an

incapacitating agent that is just used to cause but behavioral and cognitive dysfunction. causes delirium it's it's nonspecific it's a hoose an agenda and so it's used to incapacitate people in say a war time effort if you wanted to go in but but it's not use this lethal agent so that's not something that's used to kill anybody even the numbers that are not known how much would be needed to kill a person and there's no data on using it for except by injection or by air so it's a sion in other words put into a mist form or injected into the bloodstream or under the skin the only numbers that are known for this when it was weaponized by the united states it was weaponized as an aerosol and so to think that this came through the skin is is ridiculous there's no information on this so if there's secret data on this to go

through the skin the world certainly does know about it and it's it's used. non-lethal situation that people generally recover in a matter of hours from being exposed to this compound. but we've gone from being told it was a certain type of nerve agent that could cause death and i was to it being now we can't have been that it must now be something else to various ways that it may or may not have been administered with every passing day it seems to be less and less clear who what where why. where does that leave the o.p.c. w. that and being able to actually properly identify what was used. right so this this compound b.c. this three crew nuclear benz really has a totally different structure than any nerve agent nerve agents have phosphorus this has no phosphorus in it so it's easy distinguishing to make by chemical

analysis there's no problem in making this analysis so i don't know who has done the this work if if it is a beezy agent and not a nerve agent but that's that would be a gross gross error in chemical analysis if there was that b.z. agent mixed with. that would be something new to be generally you do not have to incapacitate a person in order to kill them you just kill that we could never it's use in conjunction with the b.b.c. to incapacitate them so none of this makes chemical sense ok every share expertise in this professor james turrell got a chemist a chemical weapons expert thanks very much for your time. and i don't think ever has the o.p.c. w. been under more scrutiny all to headline stories with kevin owen in our next hour to international world update after the break. was. yes it

was a redacted announce a comedy show where americans in america covering american news are called foreign agents as you know all of congress them selves this week for the testimony of mark zack and berg the little boy again yes concerning concerning the cambridge analytic a scandal facebook is facing a fierce backlash after news broke that cambridge analytic a company that worked with the twenty sixteen trump campaign obtained information about tens of billions of users a company of change info about tens of millions of users what what what. why. well wait isn't facebook a company and don't they have all of the data of all of the billions of people and that's ok because they're the good guys rights you know they're the good guys because facebook has donated to them most of the senators at that hearing so that

makes them the good guys you know that has a good kind of data step but senator bill nelson has worked i think if we don't get our arms around this world none of us are going to have any privacy anymore have we don't get our arms around this none of us are going to have privacy in terms of what we have our arms around behind closed doors right. or bad news for you senator nelson we gave away all of our privacy long ago to obviously there is a lot of private data that is being utilized that people are willing to give up so if i happen to communicate with a friend on facebook i want some chocolate. and suddenly an advertisement for chocolate pops up now are we willing to give that up life is lying.