donald trump strikes have drawn anger at home too with thousands across america running against the assault but most of us in these shoes sethi explains the president might not need public approval more destruction instead being in the public eye as a world leader is no easy task especially when things aren't going your way one day you'll know is home is being raided by the f.b.i. the next you are trying to hush up book tours which could threaten your reputation but in times of means that always to divert attention and sometimes the best ideas are right in front of you on t.v. if the president and france and the u.k. decide to strike syria don't you think that story would be a bigger story than khomeini's book gets released on tuesday. thank you short time ago are you ordered to launch precision strikes or targets associated. with the chemical weapons capabilities of syrian dictator bashar assad it can be so effective few people will actually see

through it but i want to say this raid is meant to distract from his other problems but it's called operation desert storm e. president trump alle the missile strike in syria is perfectly executed but it could be argued this was instead perfectly timed and it's worked for him before the media branded trump as russia's puppet shaking off reputation calls for a drastic measures and fifty nine tomahawk cruise missiles launched at a syrian air force base did just that in the time he gave his popularity boost but also a big pat on the back from the media we see these beautiful pictures at night i am tempted to quote the great leonard cohen i'm guided by the beauty of our weapons what changed last night i think oh don't trouble became president of the united states i think this was actually a big moment president trump isn't the feste to employ such tactics in one thousand

nine hundred eighty eight bill clinton's decision to bomb iraq coincided with him facing impeachment at the time this sort of a shadow of him lying and oath in relation to the monica lewinsky affair. i did not have sexual relations with that woman. miss lewinsky to strike military and security targets in iraq they are joined by british forces their mission is to attack iraq's nuclear chemical and biological weapons programs saddam hussein most not be allowed to threaten this neighbors are the world with nuclear arms poison gas or biological weapons now any aircraft fired everywhere i remember. who can forget the actual operation desert storm launched by president george h.w. bush when the economy in recession the gulf war boosted its his. frivol 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 let too far back in history to see world leaders employing distraction tactics so ask us how 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 some visuals we need to know it's a pageant well to ask how the media first trumps decisions as to how water affects of fish truck lives and breathes by media readings 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 of 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 that gives 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 lawyers offices other developments the iraqi foreign ministry and some of its allies have expressed concern over the u.s. strikes in neighboring syria at the weekend they say it risks serious repercussions that could threaten security in the wider region let's including giving terrorism this a new opportunity to spread of having been defeated in iraq and significantly cattail this far and syria we talked to iraqi politician an economist you know he'd ask me . this strike is of course against the national park they are a dual arms and two bombings this is

a kind of. something has been tried before and we believe it is on the increase really increased tension it's problems with lead to deaths and destruction and with it when i thought it was a. more difficult the negotiation that make it if they got pissed and i think this or you shouldn't really be it we get. a lot of problems across the. seems even veteran rock musicians are weighing into the strikes against syria have been condemned now by the former lead singer of pink floyd roger waters direct cullison barcelona. we would this is a topic i wonder if the point home it's in others we would be encouraged to encourage our governments to go and stop dropping bombs on syria i. be this. would be the state of mark you meant for. roger waters head out of the white helmets group calling it

a fake organization he added that it exists quote only to create propaganda for jihadists and terrorists and quote the white helmets for the first to report on the alleged chemical attack in eastern guta although it's been widely praised in the west for its rescue work its members have repeatedly been accused of having links to extremist groups. story from europe next italian journalist paolo barr a messy says he fears for his life after receiving death threats from a number of matthew plans just last week italian investigators say they obtained a phone conversation between two crime bosses in it one of them allegedly tells the other to murder the reporter or we will. leave the. but i'm at is now on the run the clock protection for the military police the carbon yairi the journalist says the crime bosses want him dead because he runs

a website detailing their activities he told us more face to face on what it's like to be on the matthews hit list. first i received warnings then letters containing bullets and then anonymous phone calls 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 a carrot in the area where for years i have launched fourteen criminal cases against almost all the matthew boss's. boss was 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 caribbean area follow me day and night i live far from my family from my loved ones these five carabineers first place in the morning and the last i see at night before i'm left alone with my conscience. investigative works revealed how my fear

influence and activity has been changing of late. money journalists do not publish names or photos of mafia bosses many of my colleagues do not do investigative journalism what i do i publish names in surname i publish photos and above all i try to follow their business schemes and money this is a business worth 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 saddled with all of the matthew's defeated we thought this because the bombings were over because arrests were made we did not understand the mafia much radically changing it infiltrated the state and public body as something of the matter is just an italian problem but unfortunately that's not true the mafia has spread from italy to europe and the world. tracking this

clashes have broken out in the small former soviet republic of armenia where there's been four days of mass protests ahead of the longtime former president being sworn in as prime minister again on tuesday police reportedly used tear gas and stun grenades against opposition activists as they marched on and indeed tried to storm the parliament building several people are said have been injured the unrest is going to its roots wanted back to twenty fifteen here constitutional referendum is taking place then which saw the country switch to a parliamentary system and reduced the position of president to basically essentially a ceremonial role the former leader who had held office for nearly a decade by then had promised that he wouldn't seek the job of prime minister but opposition campaigners say he's broken that now in order to secure his grip on power surge circassians party dominates parliament right now and he's the only nominee for prime minister. let's talk football just a little over eight weeks to the big game the showpiece tournament getting underway here in russia and his patients growing that in the eleven host cities readying for

the fee for world cup with preparations entering the final stage and also preparing for the tournament is here is courtesy of he'll be the first russian referee to officiate at the world cup in twelve years he spoke to us about the excitement of being involved in the competition on home soil. 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. 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 are thinking about it then you will definitely fail our work is to walk out and get into the. purchase when you need all the stars when you get inside football. players start to

probe you especially young ones just checking how you behave in certain moments if you position yourself in the right way you won't have any game. we got a star studded lineup of all things football this summer for you peter schmeichel no less stand color bore no less marine you know less all on the peta is already been checking out the host cities for you the latest stop seven hundred kilometers east of moscow in surrounds it. in traveling over. this one someone. this is worth the. effort. and my son plays for the city.

this is where the world cup's the us. there's outrage in germany house to two rappers known for using anti semitic lyrics in this song when a top music prize the controversial lyrics include comparisons to auschwitz prisoners and hence another holocaust despite that the rappers won the best hip hop album prize in germany's top music awards last week their latest release more than two hundred thousand copies traditionally defending their decision organizers now we can report and have backtracked germany's foreign ministers even called the award repugnant while the group of holocaust survivors have also voiced their

outrage political commentator and told us to should not use freedom of expression as a free pass to say anything. of course freedom of expression is a blessing i think we shouldn't restrict the freedom of the artist or decree atr to break any mold because this is how men kind progresses but having said this there are a few sacra thinks 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 nationality their holocaust shouldn't be broached in such. a cheap manner. so they totally different parties bring you the story of russia's last boil family to life of the country state archive and have

thousands of photos dating back to the very twilight of the empire the room the romano was in the day were king photographers and documented many of the most important moments of their lives and i was part of our interactive project if you not caught it already recently discovered images recreated in a fantastic hundred eighty degree format they literally allow you to explore the lives of the ill fated royals during that terribly turbulent period which culminated in their execution in the katherine in july one thousand nine hundred. fewer and fewer fewer for her her. her.

her. her. future i've. yet it's amazing to see some of those recreations really brings history but to life check all out dot com great results from so many breaking stories to unthink is like that for now for me kevin owen thank you for watching this update.

the take blood guts i. love. love. love. love. love. look. look.

back skies are financial survival. causing bubble. oh you mean there's a downside to artificially low mortgage rates don't get carried away that's cause report. look. one of the last few there was allegedly a postman that needs to plant the seeds in november for the europeans so the dog. in the zoo montana plays a song called fast but stuff like that lead. you think. that

our whole. i want to stop jumping to salvation and i sometimes. you don't i mean you sound so female . she really. thinks maybe that. comes as much to. hello and welcome to cross talk or all things 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. across stopping the west's 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 we spoke nick international. rules in effect that means he can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate it when still a post-mortem here mark can dream up 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

. we've seen this show before you know i mean we are in varying degrees in 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 madison admitted i am actually we have no real evidence that assad ever you need several months ago we had a russian ministry of defense come out and tell us that they were expecting their spectating another vacation 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 duma this is the saudi backed. literally head shopping wahhabi 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's no western journalists on the ground with them of course there's a couple of local gong goes paid by the u.s. government and the white helmet and why are you helmet syrian american medicine or call 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 force they were always kidnapped by the so-called opposition fighters more there as and the moderates. photographer and american photographer basically was was tortured 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 draw on this there because these are not ideas 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 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 troops backup for this action so it was just senseless you know gets down to something must be done something that i wouldn't say ali is. ok who 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 are 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 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 be sitting here saying that for me it's almost nothing to do with syria it has everything to do with donald trump looking for people to adore him it's remarkable but it is the only issue he seems to be able to get support across the political spectrum and is being going on the international stage like a hammer 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 over in the u.k. and mccrone i guess he just as. poleon growing to lead europe or something michael cohen is facing of on of the biggest strikes in french history so he probably has

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 it is really absolutely 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 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 stayed 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 in two thousand and thirteen 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 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 are. 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 screen 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 two points is what does what does that others 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 how many are louche the head of joey shows the group that was in charge of duma 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.

speech the u.s. is locked and loaded if assad uses poison gas again so send these i don't know them all but. you know when the syrian army comes to liberate it live from the jihadi or dar or homs all you've got to do is you don't doubt this then why didn't i allow the white 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 oil or worse back in a world war three is it last 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. right but that 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 the anti-aircraft. missiles. there was hundreds inside syria so we're not used yes they were not used to the russian defense ministry specifically said that they were not used all of that me 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 refuse them that the syrian government and the brits are you hearing more 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 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 to. join me every thursday on the alex i'm.