the actual operation desert storm northeast by president george h.w. bush when the economy in recession the gulf war boosted its his approval ratings. have therefore directed to reject the iraqi army from kuwait. which. is president i can report to the nation aggression is defeated the war is over. you don't have to look too far back in history to see world leaders employing distraction tactics so ask yourself this question what would dominate an international media narrative the possibility of a global war or the domestic troubles of a western country you want me to produce your war not a war it's a pageant we need a theme song so this will as we know it's a pageant well to ask how the media affects trump's decision to count water affects of fish truck lives in three to five media ratings approval there is

a long tradition of president's domestic political trouble using international crises to distract the public and certainly. you have to think that the side effect of military action so in terms of the attack on the syria that we saw over the weekend it does seem it's a distraction to give the president something to talk about other than stormy daniels and the other issues that he's contending with after the the rifling of this personal moyer's offices well the u.s. led operation against syria was conducted alongside its allies britain and france the u.k. prime minister to resign may is set to address the house of commons later on monday to explain why she ordered the strikes without parliamentary approval fighter jets could be seen taking off and landing from their bases in the region on saturday for

french cruise missiles were also seen being launched from the mediterranean russian's prime minister's scientific reports and intelligence data to justify the assault. 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 bomb 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 she could have come to parliament on monday to discuss the whole situation instead of launch these strikes she claims there is a legal basis for it i've asked her in

a letter i've just sent her this morning to publish in full the legal basis and justification for it always spoke to a number of experts who say the u.k. prime minister didn't ask parliament because she feared she would have lost the vote on taking military action. this passing strange that a parliamentary democracy wants to bypass parliament and go to war only twenty two percent of british people as a whole were in favor of getting involved in the war in syria and if you look at the data beneath i can see a very significant sector of conservative opinion was very unsure. it may be. substantial defections from her own side the war and history will have. little or not enough of the population supporting it before a shot is fired there's always been

a vote is all of this and the only separated by. evidence if there isn't even a little. discussed in parliament openly and transparently. it's a good thing we know why it was the reason it exposed the original as it is treated by it's now starting with what you call open sources we know who's up and so. on law and. walk away so they couldn't actually take a vote and publish the evidence because it would have looked absolutely ridiculous . italian journalist is living in fear for his life over his work to expose an infamous now fear clan paolo baron messi says mafia bosses have made numerous death threats against him he's now under round the clock police protection he told us what it's like to live with a price on his head. first i received warnings then letters containing bullets and then anonymous phone calls and then one day i was attacked i was

assaulted by two hooded men since then i've had an injured shoulder so. i've now been living under the protection of the caribbean area for four years i have launched fourteen criminal cases against almost thirty mafia bosses these mafia bosses tried to kill me anyway i managed to save myself from an attack thanks to the skill of the carabineers. i know that at the moment there are five mafia clans the woman i live with five men five carob in the area who follow me day and night i live far from my family for my loved ones these five carabineers in the first people i see in the morning and the last i see at night before i'm left alone with my conscience. well last week italian investigators obtained a phone conversation between members of a mafia clan the journalist has been investigating on it's one of them allegedly tells his son to murder their a messy investigators believe there was an imminent assassination plans to get rid

of the troublesome reporter. for. the. hour with the. many journalists do not publish names or photos of mafia bosses many of my colleagues do not do investigative journalism i do i publish names and surnames i publish photos and above all i try to follow their business schemes their money this is a business with billions not millions we're talking about billions of euros the journalist has a fundamental role telling the truth talking to people and doing investigative journalism. i don't have all been settled with or the mafia was defeated we thought this because the bombings were over because arrests were made we did not understand the math here was radically changing it infiltrated the state and public

bodies something of my fear is just an italian problem but unfortunately that's not true the mafia has spread from italy to europe in the world. but there's outrage in germany after two rappers known for using anti semitic lyrics in their songs when a top music prize their controversial lyrics include comparisons to auschwitz prisoners and hints at another holocaust or despite that the rappers won the best hip hop album prize in germany's top music awards last week their latest release sold more than two hundred thousand copies after initially defending that decision organizers of the award have now backtracked and germany's foreign minister has called the award repugnant while the group of holocaust survivors also voiced their outrage political commentator on the origins says artists should not use freedom of expression as an excuse to say anything they want. freedom of

expression is a blessing think we shouldn't restrict the freedom of the obvious toward to create or to break any old mold because this is how men kind of progress us but having said this there are a few sacrifices things we should be kept as such and of course for israelis or for jews all over and for people of conscience regardless of their faith or national that the holocaust shouldn't be broached in such. a cheap manner while starbucks is at the center of a racism scandal in the u.s. city of philadelphia we're going to on a day town's on that story and more after this break.

i've been saying the numbers mean something they matter the u.s. has over one trillion dollars in debt more than ten thousand dollars fine champion each day. eighty five percent of global wealth you long for the ultra rich eight point six percent market saw thirty percent just last year some with one hundred to five hundred trade per circuit for sure and bitcoin rose to twenty thousand dollars . china is building two point one billion dollars a i industrial park but don't let the numbers overwhelm. the only number you need to remember in one one show you know for a minute the one and only. american sanctions would be damaging but i mean is this justice is it fair is this all us or would use a country like a tissue paper and when it thinks it doesn't need it anymore just go away i think

it's not even more. welcome back but it's less than two months now till the twenty eighteen world cup kicks off in russia and preparations are almost complete in the host cities as anticipation is growing the twenty eight hundred safer world cup is also going to see the first russian referee to oversee the games in twelve years a carousel spoke to us about his excitement at being part of the competition. you see those because i can't even describe my emotions because the shortlist process started four years ago and it's been a long wait for us so when we found out our brigade had been chosen it was just tiredness and relief how you would feel after finishing a very difficult task. thank you for your as

a rule at tournaments like this one your second wind kicks in and there are no thoughts that millions of people are watching and if you're thinking about it then you will definitely fail our work is to walk out and get into the zone which. stretches would you use it all starts when you get inside football life as a referee or should players start to probe you especially young ones checking how you behave in certain tense moments if you position yourself in the right way you won't have any problems during the game which means. we have our own star studded lineup for the football extravaganza we've got pissed michael dunn cullimore and a marine that all on our team paid to has already been checking out the host cities for you his last stop with this which is about seven hundred kilometers east of moscow let's take a look at his report. i'm

going i'm sure this. is where. my son plays for the. this is the world cup starts. while the race riot was brewing in the us city of philadelphia that's off the arrest of two black men in

a starbucks cafe black lives matter activists have gathered at this coffee shop demanding equality and that the manager be fired police say they responded to a trespassing complaint from starbucks and were told the men had wanted to use the bathroom without making a purchase the men refused to leave the cafe saying they were waiting for friends there they would then arrested handcuffed and removed from the premises as you can see the whole incident was captured on video by a customer. while starbucks has issued an apology its c.e.o. kevin johnson has assured that starbucks stands against discrimination and found to meet the men personally to offer an apology the incident however has sparked outrage on the internet with some saying words are just not enough. sorry apology not accepted until you file all that stuff and make the person apologize in person to them you ain't getting me one step in your place so the c.e.o.

of starbucks apologized to these men the real question is why hasn't the employee who called the cops been fired yet i think all of us white folks should go to a starbucks today used a bathroom and sit at all of the tables without ordering anything there were other patrons of the starbucks there were just sitting there who hadn't ordered anything you know they were engaged in it the identical conduct and they were about arrested and forced to face the indignity of being dragged out of a place in handcuffs the idea that they would even hold these men for eight hours when it was quite obvious that they had done nothing wrong you know i'm really speaks to something important the police have a responsibility not just to do whatever a manager says for them to do they have a responsibility to do an independent investigation of their own and they clearly didn't do that they walked in they found two men who were sitting at a table doing nothing disturbing whatsoever and yet chose to arrest those men

anyway. a lot it continues its romanov's one hundred project and we have access to thousands of photos of russia's last royal family to transport back to the last decades of imperial russia with the help of twenty first century technology we can reimagine the scene of one of the roman alps most famous photographs. thank you. thank you thank you. thank you.

that's definitely something worth checking out well that's your news roundup for this hour we'll be back in about thirty five minutes with all the latest on his band if you can. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest on the world of politics small business i'm show business i'll see you then.

about your sudden passing i've only just learned you worry yourself and taken your last turn. to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry 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 other. but then my feelings started to change you talked about war like it was again still some are fond of you those that didn't like to question our ark and i secretly promised to never be like it said one does not leave the funeral in the same as one

enters the mind gets consumed with this one to. tell us there are no other takers. claimed that mainstream media has met its maker. hello and welcome to cross talk or all things are considered i'm peter lavelle the u.s. led attack on syria is a gross violation of international law furthermore western public still have not been presented with evidence the syrian government used any chemical weapons a new phase of the syrian proxy war has needlessly been opened up another war of

choice. crosstalk in the west attack on syria i'm joined by my usual suspects mark he's an international affairs and security analyst and of course we have dimitri he is a political analyst with international are gentlemen cross-talk was in effect it means you can jump in anytime you want i always appreciate it let's do a post-mortem here mark and. it's only been a day or so since the u.s. along with britain and france. attacked syria the usual suspects the usual suspects illegally under international law there was no mandate from the united nations security council to do this but you know it's described in the mainstream as a military attack i think was a political attack i think it was theater this is what they really wanted to break it. we've seen this show before i mean we were in varying degrees different conflicts we saw the show

a year ago when donald trump made another cosmetic attack again under the pretext of chemical weapon use and later. no more than nine months after that incident the secretary u.s. secretary of defense mad dog mattis admitted actually we have no real evidence that assad ever you and several months ago we had a russian ministry of defense come out and tell us that they were expecting their respect to another and another pretext a staged chemical weapon attack and the one thing that the western media will never tell you is who was in control of the this is the saudi backed. literally head shopping woud be jihadists of joey all islam literally they call themselves the army of islam this was in who is in control of doing right and there were eight there is no western journalists on the ground with them of course there is a couple of local gong goes paid by the us government and white helmets why are you

helmet syrian american matter is unworkable of information isn't always the brotherhood right there had been well who had jumped in and there is an interesting detail that i would like to add to all of the syrian war several western journalists were kidnapped and they were never kidnapped by us forces they were always kidnapped by the so-called position fighters more their ads and the moderates. photographer and american photographer basically it was was torture when he was held hostage they can recall an italian journalist was taken hostage by the group that the west supported and he had to go through enormous humiliations before they let him go so the same story with why are there no western drawn this there because these are not ideas that it's not safe not just see it save that they're going to do something bad to you you know why are there western journalists in

beirut in damascus you know in beirut under this terrible his blog which is so dangerous you know killing people a terrorist organization which happens to oppose israel you know so you know hypocrisy is absolute here but coming back to your question i think it was a media tech and it was absolutely senseless but very risky why was it senseless there was no grown groups back up for this action so it was just senseless you know gets down to something must be done something that i wouldn't say on the. term who came down to this. ok so there are several reasons this attack was carried through right the first one is that the organization of prohibition of chemical weapons inspectors were supposed to arrive in duma to investigate the site and check whether chemical weapons were used and if they were used who use them right because it's very possible that these rebels who rebels quote a jihadi who have

a history of using chemical weapons before you know stage this thing themselves the attack seemingly before any investigation by international inspectors was to take place seemingly it was designed to curtail that supposedly they're still going to go ahead with that now so if that was the goal they haven't done it the second of all one of it is national prestige drawing drawing red lines right nikki haley the said when our president meaning not obama draws a red line he enforces a red line however we've got a tweet a year a couple years ago the only reason president obama wants to attack syria is to save face over his very dumb red line statement do not attack syria fix us in a way that was donald trump you know they're not just anything here to throw me into you know it it's almost has nothing to do with syria it has everything to do with

donald trump looking for people to adore him it's remarkable but it's is the only issue he seems to be able to get support across the political spectrum is be going on the international stage like him are looking for nails here ok he was praised across the board for this also also there always is the element of diversion ok there's a lot of things going on with the investigation of his campaign of himself of his family this is a distraction we can say to resume has done exactly the same things in the u.k. and mccrone i guess he just as a. poleon going to lead europe or something micron is facing of on of the biggest strikes in french history so he probably the only real reason to deflect attention because i don't believe in collusion with russia and i don't believe that the reason may be you know is is really clean fair which is simply for the never part

right but anyway coming back to their use this this or this action the western nation has no replacement for us it be in two thousand and thirteen if obama ok they won't do it what does this mean this is mean that they can't accept defeat in syria is this what this is all about not only can i thought because i agree with you i've said repeatedly for years on this program what do you want a black flag flying over damascus no no no no that's not what nobody tells you what they want to follow them to bomb a vault the syrian troops then and there was a very big chance of that happening you know then they slunk state which was declared a few weeks off to war which had all the infrastructure all the fight us all the arms deployed the slavic state would have replaced it they would have taken all the chemical weapons which were destroyed you know which was left intact and then our today's problems would seem mynor score you know to us compared to what we would

have seen. it taken but. there still is no american slash western syria policy even after this there is a policy and i disagree this was not because the west can't accept that they haven't succeeded in regime changing syria the partition and military occupation of eastern syria and by northern syria by turkey is about that there is another reason that this occurred this maintains the policy and the acceptance by the. world that the u.s. has the ability to scream weapons of mass destruction right whether it's iraq you know we've had similar occurrences in libya there they cry in genocide in the use of these weapons in the u.k. as a pretext right the u.k. is another example they have the they believe they have the ability to scream

weapons of mass destruction and then you are allowed early outside the bounds of international law attack everyone they want with this existential situation created by these supposed. though is that it encourages groups in syria and around the world presumably you can use these weapons and you can look for an american reaction you know it's wag the dog here i mean if there is numerous cases or these rebel groups jihadi groups have used chemical well hama's i lose the head of joey shows the group that was in charge of doing when this supposed that attack occurred he called the attack a farce he's very unhappy with the scale of the attack that he dialed into washington he's he's he's extremely upset and luckily though nikki haley said in her it's a good speech the u.s. is locked and loaded if assad uses poison gas again so send these on the mojave.

you know when the syrian army comes to liberate it live from the jihadi or dada or homs all you've got to do is send out the same way that i allowed to wear a helmet dial in another attack and it will happen again there's not a it's only a question of when how soon yet we'll be right back where we are today then well or worse about going to world war three so if you watch the thing about this situation is that it is so easy to provoke another strike i mean you just need a few days and no off the ledge chemical attack in two thousand and thirteen it took them a few weeks to put. right. there that was very dangerous because the russians could have responded from the caspian sea by. you know deployed submarines and wessels there were several russian free gates nearby which could response respond by their anti-aircraft. missiles. there was

s. for hundreds inside syria so if i were not used yes they would not use the russian defense ministry specifically said that they were not used all of that means so i was that they were struck down there is a big debate how many of them you know the syrian side says seventy three out of one hundred three maybe less but they were all started down by all saw and i'll tell you said that the syrian government and the brits you were hearing were because you have so ok so there's there's two different versions of this attack coming out. from washington we hear that they fired one hundred five cruise missiles of various sorts right some of them their most advanced health ones and so on that they say they've used and that all of them hit their targets this is this is what we've heard all of them have all of them very much although we have a new baghdad bob her name is dana white she's the pentagon spokeswoman i'm just it

tell me guys what it what it what does it better ring to it is it d.c. dana or washington white i'm undecided that all the u.s. missiles were intercepted and all hit their targets meanwhile the russian side is saying that the u.s. fired one hundred three missiles and that seventy one of those were intercepted hold that thought we're going to go to a hard break here after that short break we'll continue our discussion on syria stay with our. american sanctions would be damaging but i mean day is this justice is a threat is this all us should would use a country like a tissue paper and when it thinks it doesn't need it anymore it just costs to wear

.