it's. a u.n. security mission enters the syrian town of duma a day before chemical weapons experts start their probe into an alleged attack. members of the european parliament voiced their anger over the bombing of syria as french president emanuel macro gives a speech while the u.k.'s government is also facing a backlash over its role in the u.s. led strikes. members of this house the top let's say in foreign policy in this country the president trump. and his doubts grow over the alleged chemical attack in syria that led to the strikes british media outlets rounded academics to question the government's claims.

and you're watching the latest headlines here an r.t. international thank you for joining us i'm kate partridge. the united nations security team has entered the syrian town of two or their job is to ensure the safe arrival of a group of chemical weapons experts will be investigating the alleged chemical attack from april the seventh syria's ambassador to the u.n. made the announcement a few hours ago at a security council session in new york where you. the holiday image madi the u.n. security team until tomorrow at around three pm damascus time of eight am new york time to assess the security situation on the ground if the u.n. security team decides that the situation is safe in duma and the fact finding mission will begin its work there tomorrow well the u.n. session was convened by russia to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in syria during those talks the russian and u.s. ambassadors accused each other of destabilizing the country and preventing

a peace etal meant was close representative for selena benz here warned against trying to resolve the conflict through military action. we knew there is no military solution to the syrian conflict we call upon the us to stop all aggressive moves and threats of force against this over in syrian states which are in violation of international law there in the piece in syria further away tensions escalated between russia and the u.s. at today's security council meeting now russia called for the security council meeting to discuss the ongoing situation in iraq a city that was up until recently isis territory but now under of full control of the u.s. and a refugee camp on the syria jordan border but instead the focus then shifted to recent events as in the coalition airstrikes last week which the russian ambassador condemned then demanded that western countries stop their aggression saying that the u.s. hasn't done enough to solve the crisis in areas under u.s.

control to which the u.s. responded and nine the allegation. with their acts of aggression the u.s. the u.k. and france expressed the solidarity with one side in the conflict an aggressor has no moral right to say he's preparing a legal framework to protect. operations have succeeded in rolling back the so-called isis caliphate and addressing a dire threat to our collective peace and security the coalition made these gains while the assad regime and its backers focused their guns mostly on the syrian opposition groups that weren't isis terrorists then russia said that the coalition's airstrikes discourage syria from participating in peace talks here's more of what happened just as other just as they do still but if the goal is to use bombs to force the syrian president to negotiate and then present it as a victory for him and put him in court as well criminal then this is an impossible goal russia has called us here as part of

a messaging campaign to try to distract from the atrocities committed by the assad regime. in order to do that russia has asked this council to focus its attention on . the one part of syria where the assad regime isn't pummeling civilians to death with barrel bombs or banned chemical weapons things are heating up between the two countries so we'll just have to wait and see what happens and most importantly how this will impact syria well the u.s. military action in syria has left many analysts questioning whether an early exit of american troops from the country still on the table the white house insists his policy hasn't changed but as i don't have explains it seems there's still room for maneuver. mission accomplished more than a hundred missiles rained down on syria on donald trump's orders and now his message is clear a job well done except syria is in a reno where the world's major powers including the u.s. are pitched against each other wrestling for influence so what mission exactly is

trump talking about while the pentagon translated it simply accuracy isn't actually impossible at this states militarily to know whether that mission as described was accomplished last night's. operations were successful we met all of our objectives we hit all of our targets successfully russia says syria's soviet era air defense systems showdown roughly seventy percent of the missiles fired while the u.s. military stress their success but obliterating a few sites barely touches on washington's greater game plan and syria and when tasked with spelling out what does its overwhelmingly unclear american troops entered and gained a foothold in syria under the pretext of fighting eisel and now it is indeed difficult to see where exactly the us stands on that i am proud to report that the coalition to defeat isis has liberated very close to one hundred percent of the

territory just recently held by these killers in iraq and in syria and in other locations as well we are in syria fight isis and that is our mission and the mission isn't over and we're going to complete that mission so in a matter of a few months islamic state went from almost extinguished from the face of the earth back to a plausible threat and defeating isaw is one of america's more concrete missions the countries you and would for example indicated that cleansing syria of terrorists per se is a start but not the only thing being pursued we want to make sure that the end. fluence of iran doesn't take over the area and they continue to cause problems throughout the region and we want to make sure that there is a hold where the nikki haley likes it or not iran is a regional powerhouse and it won't go down easily if that is what america is off to here here syria is apparently adding to the list of conflicts the us has troops

bogged down in but possibly the most ironic parts the above couldn't be further away from trump's own mission statement for syria just weeks ago i want to get out i want to bring the troops back home i want to start rebuilding our nation critics have been on trump's back for a lack of a coherent plan on syria but it's a strategy that works wonders for keeping their food in the door indefinitely. well has also been public condemnation in the u.s. with thousands rallying across the country last sunday in protest against the syrian bombings we spoke to two usually opposed to political commentators from both thoughts about u.s. military action some from supporters are disappointed i have one of them by i like the trumps position during the election but i think a lot of people on our political left and people like me on the right think we should not be the world's police any longer that was one of the issues and main points the trust made during the campaign you know nobody likes to ascribe to any

president whatever their political party killing people using munitions like this just it's a distraction that's said i mean you can't deny that the walls are closing in on donald trump legally from the special prosecutor moeller from the united states attorney in new york with his lawyer cohen so do i think that down trump is that craven as to launch strikes to distract attention. no but the mere fact that it's a question that's troubling i would diminish that he has major issues as just described as a higher approval rating than did obama at this time in his presidency in some polls the economy that is not credible jobs are coming back in the economy's growing great you have well that is it is true in america right now small businesses for the first time look at the decade are excited if you look at the average of all the polls there's one poll that's been consistently and donald trump rest recent in his camp every other poll if you average them out he is at historic

lows for any president since the advent of polling in the united states of america democrats their complaint is what's the broader plan you say mission accomplished mr president what's the mission they see this as not pursuant to any particular plan and on the right it seems inconsistent with the the promises the president made during the campaign to withdraw so as a result there's just not a big constituency in favor of what he's done mission accomplished was a popular phrase that turned very notorious with iraq and look at where we are now listen i i i find it interesting you have someone on the left and someone on the right politically in america here on r t and we sort of agree the worst case scenario is is assad gets toppled or killed and then we have another iraq for the next decade and then we really get engaged in a war because isis then overwhelms and takes over the country well meanwhile u.s. state department spokesperson had the now is his question the need to wait for the

findings of the chemical weapons watched on the syrian chemical incident. the o.p.c. gave us something that we back strongly but it can also take quite a bit of time for the o.p.c. of you to gather its information and compile the report if so i would ask you should the united states and her allies wait around for bashar al assad to use more chemical substances honest people should we wait around for that formal investigation that could take months in my secretary jim maddest said at a briefing several days ago where he didn't have solid intelligence on any chemical attack in duma what he did have were social media reports people saying stuff on the internet and who were those people the same people that state department spokesperson heather now it's referring to there the syrian white helmets which has been funded to the tune of at least twenty three million dollars by the state department and the trumpet ministrations intelligence is coming from sources that

it funds so this is you know actually scandalous that the u.s. has launched a strike based on insurgent tide social media sources that it funds rather than actual concrete evidence of course congress isn't going to debate this but it should be the stuff of a national scandal we want to resume a and a man you might call have come under heavy criticism from british and in you know me the u.k. and french leaders who are defending their decision not to consult their national parliaments before bombing syria on saturday well these are members of the european parliament during president might call a speech several of them hung up signs calling for an end to military action in syria ati's. as the latest. prances emanuel micron kayser theresa may a facing a pretty tough time retrospectively in trying to justify the airstrikes that they carried out in syria over the weekend here's how the european parliament members

met with macross and you can see that they were protesting against the action taken in syria cooperation that of only three countries have been to be for the honor of the international community in the legitimates multilateral framework you know. speech was a monument of political cynicism. when we want without any approval. over the past months when you have with the area of eastern ghouta where the alleged chemical attack took place is controlled by radical islamists like jewish islam or you'd be it's been done already in iraq and libya why should we be out in syria to the list and he has faced a major backlash domestically as well when he was grilled on monday by parliamentarians for not consulting them before those airstrikes were carried out

these strikes demonstrate the irresponsible behavior of the three global powers that yet again gave into the temptation to play the role of world's policeman now over in the u.k. terrorism a the u.k.'s prime minister has also faced a group of parliamentary is led by the opposition leader jeremy corbyn and there was a bit of table tennis it went on for over eight hours on day one and pretty similar day to parliament should have an absolute minimum age try and in law the opportunity to ask questions before all the government can order planned military action but that does not mean it is always appropriate the executive must be the servant of parliament not the other way round members of this house seem to have less say in foreign policy of this country than pray. don't try that in this house any neither i nor this government take instructions from.

the u.k. the u.s. and france decided to carry out as strikes in duma in syria based on the alleged chemical weapons attack there they did this before an investigation was completed the only non official sources that we've seen circulating around is video footage taken by the white helmets both russia and syria have said that on inspection they have not so far found any evidence of chemical weapons there. meanwhile the mayor of naples has spoken out against italy support for military action in syria last month the city hosted a u.s. nuclear powered submarine which was later used to fire missiles into syria the region most told r.t. that the vessel should never have docked in naples you do see germany for several days ago we received a note from the port authority informing us of the presence of the american nuclear powered submarine we passed a resolution in twenty fifteen which he does it made to the port of naples as

a denuclearized area so vessels that nuclear power will carry nuclear weapons have no right to be here we receive peace we are against nuclear weapons we want to mediterranean sea in a state of peace not war you know. well as mentioned earlier no probe into the chemical weapons incident has yet been carried out according to the russian military a team from the global chemical weapons watchdog o.p.c. w will start work in the syrian town of do well on wednesday and meanwhile many britons oppose the rush to military action a poll by the mail on sunday newspaper found more than half believed to resume a should not of the order of the bombing without the approval of parliament r.t. asked people in london for their views. it was an emergency situation where there was no room for maneuver one hundred meters or so this is not an urgent it could have waited one two days more at least i don't think it's something she should have made a decision on herself general principle about going to war. i think in this

particular instance it wasn't a war situation on the minds of all of them paid discuss in parliament i know you're coming you know pick anywhere are you achieving much more consideration than everyone else know when it's important decisions like this everyone should have a say like i do think parliament represent everybody i know that you are actually discussing doing it then you just immediately this is not a constitutional dictatorial because that democracy has at least a stand on so everyone in parliament and yet thinks she is the scariest be honest. well the information war over syria has taken a bitter tone with dissenting voices now facing a staunch attack from the u.k.'s mainstream media. only has the details. there have been some in the u.k. who have said that the discussion around the u.k. policy to syria in particularly in particular with regard to the recent airstrikes

over the weekend have resembled something of a mccarthyite witch hunt in the mainstream media and the most prominent example has been an article written in the times newspaper which has targeted a number of leading academics in the u.k. and accuse them of being apologists and other unfavorable epithets and one of the people pointed out or singled out in the times article is louis all day he works out so us university and during the course of that article the times said that he had written the tweets calling into question the account of previous chemical attacks mr all day has since gone on twitter and shown that he never sent the tweet and has demanded an apology from the times another example is tim hayward he's another academic here in the u.k. and he's been seen as being guilty of association because he's written for.

publication called twenty first century wire whose deputy editor has also come in for criticism by the times her name is vanessa beatty so all of these kind of examples showing that to stray from the dominant narrative all of the war in syria will lead you to being accused of being an ass of apology apologise that's been the criticism of some here in the u.k. and it's not just the print media we've seen an interview on the b.b.c. with lord west now he's an individual who is part of the military establishment not somebody who could perhaps easily be dismissed as an asset apologist and he went on the b.b.c. and we can have a look now at that clip obvious interview which has been added to that. r.t. to shorten it down but we can see the kind of tone of the discussion which has been going on what benefit is there for his military most of the rebel

fighters this disparate group of islamists. with drawn given that we're in an information war. with russia on so many fronts isn't there a danger that you're muddying the waters and there are those who say that this current environment again resembling somewhat of a witch hunt isn't conducive to free speech and to free investigation and inquiry over the events of not just the weekend but the past seven years of the yukos policy towards syria and its support of the opposition groups there and that is leading many to question whether the u.k. will continue to make the same mistakes in the future. and international politics lecturer dr tara mccormack told r.t. what it was like to be one of the academics on the receiving end of the times the tank. well i mean it's not ridiculous you know within the working group we have

a range of different opinions. on international relations and so you know so. clearly have tweeted various things about alleged chemical attack and really the whole. actually do to you know. sort of bizarre all attempt to. guilt by association you know people social media types it was so ridiculous that the day that britain and america throw. strikes on syria the whole. you went without them. in the face of cooking or opposition in the. back of the times front page double page spread inside and the latest for you was attacking the sort of four or five on the bunch of academics. i think i think actually the time

was going to show itself in the front of it but that it's just so preposterous. now u.s. president donald trump says he's spoken directly with the leader of north korea kim jong un he made the surprising announcement during a visit by the japanese prime minister shinzo up a. with north korea directly for. well later during a press briefing trump appeared to backtrack on that statement saying discussions with north korea were on almost the highest level he went on to say that his upcoming meeting with kim jong un is likely to take place in chino that five possible locations are being considered well meanwhile the washington post has published a story claiming former cia chief mike pompei oh recently paid a secret visit to north korea to lay the groundwork for direct talks between trump

and kim. for more on this intriguing story we can now bring in human rights attorney eric singer again eric thank you very much indeed for joining us well as you just heard donald trump said he spoke personally with kim jong un and later appeared to backtrack and we want do you think actually happened . well it's hard to say he goes forward he goes back and we know that truth is not something that really binds the white house these days which always gives us pause however what we do know is there have been talks at the highest level whether you believe the washington post story and the cia director visiting north korea. but we do know that they're laying the groundwork groundwork for talks what we don't know is how sincere they are in bending and. in mutual compromises in the context of international agreements and that has yet to be seen

when it's all said let's look at some of these statements and but as you say from the washington post might bump a outranks nominee for secretary of state reportedly went to north korea during the easter weekend i mean if that story is true that's a positive sign isn't it. it's a very positive sign i mean we had donald trump saying people don't realize that the korean war has not ended i mean that quote in and of it's from the president of the united states is huge because many of us have been saying have forever and we've only had a temporary on the sr agreement and the later pieces. is by giving a peace treaty. established between the parties and so you know at this point in time there is a lot of optimism the optimism the talk the optimism that truck may see this as a legacy issue for him while undergoing a credible nerd scrutiny and tough times here in the states and so that in

mind we don't know quite what can come about with this but we know that if we can somehow even between north and south korea give donald trump naming rights call it the trump peace plan i don't care what it takes i don't think the south koreans care what it's called but what we want to do is establish peace after so long and also i mean that so some of the details with the meeting is had his hands on but i mean they also have any focus the talks on north korea i mean how closely will the u.s. be working with japan on any possible deal going forward do you think. well you have similar situations the prime minister holiday and president trump are both having a difficult time on their domestic front and in this situation we've had often japan being an impediment as well to peace with korea so it's very difficult to tell what's going on other then what has been going on

solidly is that president moon in south korea who is himself a progressive lawyer who's spoken of a sunshine policy and is following through on it is moving forward in that regard and whether trump is as he says given his blessings to north and south korea whatever that means we have a strong move by the south to say we don't need this state a war to hamper our economy to require us to spend so much on militarization but that perhaps there can be an opening right now to peace though when you have john bolton entering on the other side now that is of great concern because john bolton is a national security advisor was asked earlier many years ago what is his policy on north korea and he held up the book the end of north korea so. a lot of

uncertainties but i think there are shreds of hope here that maybe we're turning the corner and can't go back and maybe we have the time that donald trump can at least stumble into a real lasting peace plan in korea and funny that i recall that night at the a much anticipated trump came summit does go ahead what can we expect from it do you think. i think we can expect there to be discussion on both sides about the militarization of of the peninsula and the us it signed an agreement at the time of armistice is to remove all troops there's going to be discussions about why are there thirty thousand troops and more than one hundred bases imposed in south korea everything needs to be on the table but it's north korea has also said several times in the last year kim jong un has said that he would consider getting nuclear

is ation if the hostile policy of the united states is ended so a true peace treaty and beginning exchanges on many levels could come out of this agreement and maybe it could be just possible that the trump administration is looking past right now to the future and recognizing that they would prefer to have a more friendly country on the border with china friendly to the united states then a country to have a strong ally with china so a lot of geopolitical things are are operating in the background as well i don't not positive not them will leave every human rights as any many thanks for your thoughts thank you. thank you well i'll be back in just over half an hour with the latest headlines but from all in the meantime.

banks geysers financial survival will they say money the bellatrix going to take it easy this is a central bank support diadem is going to call them right now so they stopped. i've been saying the numbers mean something they matter the u.s. has over one trillion dollars in debt more than ten white collar crimes happen each day. eighty five percent of the global wealth he longs to be old for bridge eight

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