just days after slamming syria's white helmets as propagandists rock legend roger waters reveals the activist group had been trying to lobby his support in the syrian war. somebody was charging that we have to go to the hospital so. when he came in some people grabbed me. all my had. a russian t.v. channel interviews a syrian boy seen in a white helmets video supposedly showing the aftermath of a chemical attack. his father give us their account of how events unfolded in dubai that day. street clashes broke out in paris transport strikes continue over president labor

reforms. and in germany dozens of refugees confessed to having links with the overseas terrorist groups and a shocking tactic to avoid deportation. welcome to our national life from moscow and i know hawkins today thanks so much for joining us on the program. syrian activist group known as the white helmets has tried to lobby roger waters the co-founder of the rock group pink floyd the so-called syria campaign which is linked to the white house sent an e-mail to the musician inviting him to a fund raising dinner in the same letter the group described the work it claims to be doing in syria other groups as its mission is to elevate the voices of serious peaceful heroes and to help bring peace waters there was less than happy with the invitation. i was quite suspicious after i was invited to that white helmets dinner

now my worst suspicions have been confirmed on the face of it it felt horrible that the white helmets were just good people doing good things but now we know they're trying to encourage the west to drop bombs or missiles illegally in syria. ortiz eagles down off join my colleague andrew farmer to discuss the group's emails and waters concern over their activities but was somewhat of an indirect response to a nother email he received from a different person now it was signed by a man who described himself as a journalist and also a militant with the syrian white helmets and he apparently asked for stage time with roger waters at his barcelona gig he wanted to join roger waters on stage and deliver a message apparently on behalf of the white helmets and sent a message or two this children of syria you're not forgotten well apparently a third said gig in barcelona roger waters did this have

a look oh man it's. great. reading propaganda if you use. this to the propaganda of the point home it's in others we would be encouraged to encourage our governments to go and start dropping bombs on syria. i why do you think then that he decided to speak out publicly there well he didn't give a specific reason for this but you got to know who the white helmets are to get an idea they post videos like this marketing themselves as the civil defense group of the say their first responders they save people the show how the pulling people from under the rubble from the alleged syrian government air strikes but the videos that they aren't posting online and somebody else do that for them in those videos they're seen mingling with terrorists for example this is an execution by the all nusra terrorist group and these are the white helmets volunteers clearing up the

execution site so also in other videos they are seen just cheering and generally mingling with terrorists from other groups so possibly that is why roger waters chose to do to denounce themselves publicly you're not the first celebrity to talk about the white house. but the other ones that have have taken a different stance well indeed the white house the sort of boss can do a line line to glory when it comes to how western celebrities are talking about them for example he's called play a very very popular british band endorsing them and calling them syrian heroes there's another star ben affleck also praising the white house and the list just of goes on really so roger waters he did not stop just denouncing the white house wants the also he also called on his fellow celebrities to stop indorsing the white house and to stop giving praise to them now roger waters is arguably the first

person of such scale to publicly to publicly speak out against the white helmets and the e-mails that we've just seen he provided them to blumenthal and blumenthal is in the contributor so he can pick up the story from here i've known roger waters for several several years he said that he had just grown so frustrated watching the white helmets footage and duma being cited by the u.s. government and the u.k. government pretty much as their only source as their only source of intelligence to justify bombing a sovereign country that he decided to criticize this organization publicly to warn against its all teary or sectarian agenda this should be the stuff of a national scandal in the us the united states government has provided at least twenty three million dollars to the state department to the white helmets while the white helmets work hand in glove with jabot allness or which is the syrian affiliate of the organization that attacked the united states on nine eleven al

qaeda and that is considered a conspiracy in the united states although it's well established so you know i hope that this is that rogers broken the ice here but western media appears to be completely closed off to the facts about the white helmets we did ask for comments from the white helmets waiting to hear back from them with sort of a story. in the meantime a correspondent from the russia twenty four t.v. channel claims of a syrian boy seen in the white helmets footage said to show the aftermath of an alleged chemical attack in an interview the child and his father recalled how events unfolded in do more on april the seventh. day of more on the story. these harrowing scenes panic fear terror soaked trembling children screaming adults and strange as it may seem many of them had no idea about what was going on. we were in the basement

my mother told me that we had run out of fruit and wouldn't have anything to eat until tomorrow i heard noises outside somebody was shot in that we had to go to the hospital so we went there when i came in some people grabbed me started pouring water on my had eleven year old ass and was one of the apparent victims in the white helmets video here he is after being drenched and sprayed he was found in duma and interviewed by a russian war correspondent. he's five if a little confused and that's me in the video that's me. yes as were many other kids any child would be terrified ergo the panic which the white helmets were there to film he was eventually found though

by his father who was none the wiser this is the police i didn't hear anything about a chemical attack i was outside but i didn't notice anything further my family was in the hospital. it does make sense poisonous gas would be invisible you'd imagine everybody would want to take precautions especially when you're hungry and they give out food for thought spittle. i went to the hospital walked up stairs and found my wife and children i asked them what had happened and they said he got so i was shouting about some smell and told them to go to the hospital at the hospital they gave dates and cookies to the kids one of the doctors who was reportedly. on shift at the time seemed surprised by the sudden influx some people come to hear and people in what. they said. we wouldn't.

have symptoms here the doctor and others did however say that some people came in complaining about difficulty breathing which is common when an explosion destroys a building for example there's a lot of dust makes it difficult to breathe and especially affects people with asthma. people from the white helmets told us about the use of chemical weapons but we saw no sign of that if chemical weapons were used against those people our medical staff would have also been affected. we've sent a request to the white helmets to comment on this but received no answer yet what we have seen is more and more witnesses coming forward to say there was only panic and no evidence of chemicals and we had an explosion and somebody said it was

a chemical worker we run to where the noise came from and start to pull removed over the people but they seemed to be ok and walked away without any help people got so confused somebody started pouring water over people's heads saying they had been a chemical attack i was at the spot with my wife and daughter but none of us experienced any symptoms of chemical poisoning it's remarkable how these scenes convinced three countries to launch cruise missiles at syria especially remarkable when you realize that so many of the people here had no idea about what was going on only that someone shouted about chemicals despite the lack of clarity over what exactly happened on april seventh in the town of duma the u.s. and its allies are quick to launch air strikes several syrian facilities were targeted last saturday in while british journalist robert fisk has visited dubai

and interviewed locals he found no sign that any chemical attack had taken place former british counter terror officer charles troubridge believes that western governments may be starting to doubt their own conclusions. journey to get in on the ground robert fisk is a notable person i'm thinking of there he says and attended by syrian government employees and so on he spoke to ordinary residents and to medical staff who none of whom confirmed the idea that there was a chemical attack we're already i think seeing on detecting science myself that there is a slight backtracking amongst government statements rowing back slightly saying well actually we weren't completely clear that's why we we were relying on social media we were lying on activists on the ground and that's why we only carried out a limited strike so they're already i think preparing the ground for the possibility at least that is so p c w a port isn't particularly helpful for example it may actually find that there were no trace of chemicals of chemical warfare. on

a european news transport workers in france are refusing to back down in their long running strike over president micron's reforms thousands took to the streets of paris on thursday you shot at doing ski was there. this is yet another day of protests of each heading into clashes between the police and the protestors unhappy with many of the reforms that the my own government wants to make and they determined to make it move he says heard and it seems that voices are being heard but yet again it's just clashes that what most people are speaking about easy to process that he doesn't care about our movement but if he wasn't afraid at all he would not send so many national police officers here any more than among the people here i am happy with the government because the poorest classes are always the ones who are forced to give and there we just are always the ones who are being given today where fighting for public services from medical services with good hospitals

and the. i don't like the answers here micron's government towards the movements and the problems work is a facing a somewhat so to stick head of state seems to be deaf judging by his speech at the problem to straws book he thinks that he's in a position of power. that . we've just come away from the crowd and that's because if you just take a look behind me might say that a lot of the people have got their faces covered they wearing black and that's because they known as being the black box of the anti father these are the anti capitalist say in front and they don't like as a filming them close and that's because the security services might be able to identify them now it's this group of individuals or the ones that we see clashes as you can see that are throwing project down at the police as the police are coming round and this is something that we have been seeing not just today but in all of

the clashes project just being thrown to optics bricks glass bottles anything they can grow that at the hands of. well we're in the middle of what seems to be a standoff between some of the protesters and the police just take out a look behind me and you you can see a row of the police vans army they're all out there in their riot gear blocking off this particular route and some of the protesters are told seeing them now they've also been using as smoke flares to wear to attention to what they're doing the fires at some of the bins and they've also been throwing projectiles to wards the police this protest was meant to be about reforms of macaroons government it's once again turned into a clash between the police and

a small group of anti capitalist protesters. a president micron has issued a plea to the strikers saying they should stop holding the country hostage and police are taking on increasingly tough starts saying this latest video from paris you can see offices here putting demonstrators to the ground several of them making arrests as well. in the south of france thousands took to the streets for a stop micron march they denounced the president's reforms it was organized by left wing party leader john. i think we're in a process where president micros radicalism has pushed everyone together every week the head of state seems to distract us and go further with reforms so we need to stick to we know one of those plain evil like this. in one thousand nine hundred five he had to finally step back this is not fair to announce to the people i will pass over you i will destroy you these are not ways to act

a president shouldn't talk like this sorry i could not stay silent on that. all the large sectors on strike transport energy public workers health workers all these sectors are represented today or need us to make honda's new want to change but he will see when all the countries paralyzed he will be forced to negotiate. so item seekers in germany have come up with a highly controversial way of delaying deportation more after this short break. join me every thursday on the alex simon chill and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see you then.

twenty eight team coverage we've signed one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time but there was one more question and by the way he's going to be our coach. guys i know you are nervous he's a huge star among us and the huge amount of pressure you have to the center of the beach but how would you. agree. you are the rock at the back nobody gets passed to you we need you to get left go. alone. and i'm really happy to join for the thousand in russia meet the special one was also appreciated me to the reader the r.t. team's latest edition as we. look.

throughout international southern germany has seen a spike in terror related investigations it turns out hall full of these cases involve refugees turning themselves in peter all of them has been that take a look around at what's behind these unusual developments. the number of asylum applicants coming here to germany decreases what we have seen is an actual increase in the number coming here saying that they were part of a terrorist outfit and it has politicians absolutely baffled i can't understand why someone would accuse himself of a serious crime in the hope of gaining an advantage in his asylum claim to particular reasons in the southwest of the country jump out because it's there that one hundred fifty nine people have declared themselves as members of a terrorist organization already in twenty eighteen if we jump back to twenty seventeen while three hundred people saying exactly the same thing why would anybody claim to be a member of

a foreign terrorist group well because maybe that investigation could be solved tomorrow but most likely never investigations are proving to be very time consuming because they are almost always alleged foreign acts for example in syria iraq afghanistan or somalia if we look at countries like afghanistan which germany and all the e.u. nations have already referred to as a safe country to return to then you can see why people would come forward and say that they have information and would rather face a trial than deportation but given authorities aren't suggesting this is the easy way out anyone who makes a false confession must understand that he is going to face criminal consequences all of which has its roots way back in the summer of twenty fifteen when angela merkel opened germany up to refugees peter all of r.t. belin. this trend isn't just limited to germany let's take

a look at the situation in greece hundreds of asylum seekers recently gathered outside a police station in the city of the salon icky for the very same reason many of them view arrest as an opportunity to stay in the european union and the fastest way to get the necessary paperwork started a larger queue reportedly formed for several days after a surge in illegal border crossings from turkey as far as anchor is military operation against syrian kurds shia political analyst and consultant writer office believes the refugee crisis has been very costly for europe we can only see the judicial system of the european countries is simply not. to the challenge of. the refugee crisis is in the past years by and twenty seven. the german government has to employ forward to with. traditional experts deal with increasing new

pieces concerning. about all. terrorism also pleases leanly them on the traditional system it means a sharp increase also in one week costs. and other headlines the white house has unveiled plans to ease the rules governing arms exports under the proposals private manufacturers could be allowed to sell certain types of weapons abroad without government approval let's cross live now to simmer a car and get some more info on this for a while what's the latest on these plans why are they proving to be a little bit controversial so far. well the trump administration says that these new reforms are intended to expand arms sales and ultimately strengthen the american economy now the policy will cut back the time it takes to approve arms

deals and ease limits on drone exports among other things of course now that's according to the white house but that's not the only reason why trump is trying to make it easier for other countries to buy american weapons to reduce their reliance on weapons from russia and china so if we look at time in office so for this really isn't anything new now he kicked off his presidency assigning an arms deal with saudi arabia and then he went on to sign other arms deals with japan south korea poland and then another with the saudis but the administration says there's nothing to worry about and they've assured us that these weapons won't fall into the wrong hands so why don't we check out how u.s. officials explain it. for too long and ultimately more capable of protecting themselves with p.-o. american boots on the ground this is a balanced policy absolutely look at human rights as one of the sons of considerations that palooka so it's possible that the saudis could possess even

more american weapons to carry out their military operation in yemen which has been described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis by the u.n. no human rights groups have held saudi arabia responsible of course the saudi government denies this but within the past few years many in congress have recognized the saudi threat and they've actually been pushing for an end to all assistance to saudi arabia. it is u.s. made in transfer ordinance that is carried on these planes and are dropped on civilian infrastructure targets inside yemen. so the question is if this new policy does indeed boost the economy will americans be ok with it even if it leads to our further destabilization in the middle east. or controversial trade off there are two similar called bring us the latest headline. while trying to boost its own arms exports the u.s.

is urging turkey not supply weapons from russia a state department official has warned the country if it buys the russian s. four hundred eighty aircraft system the u.s. could drop the sale of f. thirty five fighter jets to ankara if you should also urge turkey nato member of course not to make strategic concessions to moscow to achieve its goals in syria and nato officials however appear to disagree they've said it's a decision for turkey alone to make political scientist tama told us washington is growing increasingly wary of turkey's partnership with russia because of russian turkey relationships better relationships are americans try to you know cause and try to. take turkey from. russia using economic. problems of turkey and this is should be really difficult for turkey i try to you know. to take this government from

the power in turkey to make an out of you know government easier to. color it to be united states i think as far as this government government is on is no way you know to conclude something between the states and turkey i think you know the main. main aim of the united states is to take out of this government from power. so we had lines for the cell for myself on the team there at all good night for me as well my colleague at cape cod will be taking you through the latest global updates throughout the night here in moscow. i think obama drew a red line and never fulfilled his his threats i suppose are predictions.

on the other hand i also don't support trump president trumps you know unilateral actions either but i'm in favor of multilateral responses not unilateral action we all hope for the syrian people that we can find a good resolution of this in fact we can develop democratic processes in syria and elsewhere in the middle east as well as time goes on. to march to build a person and then to plant the seeds and over the books here of the european soldier dog. in the zoo montana put is a song about stuff i think. you'll think. that

i have will. want to stop jumping to the cia slush fund i salute. you don't time you sound so females a ballet speech on false with says she was. going to measure that a modern kind of there is much to be an. what all of this and stupid use of the ada. put themselves on the lawn and they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president or injury. or something or want to be arrested. that's it like to be for us this is what before three in the morning can't be good for that i'm interested always in the waters of my.

question. welcome to the alex salmond show from comedian hall new york city and this is the first of a solitary of programs on the contribution of scots to modern america we started here with the whole bill by andrew carnegie who was a great claim to be the most influential of all scots on modern america he became the world's richest man for honest and devan ruthless and besson and then he proceeded to almost invent the concept of one for peace and gave his fortune away because in the precepts of wonderful niggas for if he dies rich dies shame and so

we conduct interviews to talk about andrew carnegie's contribution and the quite the contribution of scots first over to tasmania with your e-mails your tweets and your messages first we hear from him get all his suggest an interview the canadian journalist but also goes on to say love your interest mean a show breath of fresh air and a small kid and let's face it last week of course alex interviewed lloyd taffeta weekly and if you want to say is enjoyed hitting apply to start it perspective from daf it weekly great interview as was no exchange of previous week by the much a regular seven thirty thirty am must see for me and many others i suspect both he says fascinating interview the right honorable lord weekly and alex salmond chill looking forward to the usa shows keep up the good work alex and his nina and finally martin face really enjoy this week show with welsh lord but a lord for a reason something we do not think about brilliant. now alex is in new york at

carnegie hall speaking with geno francis corney the director. you know get my seat in the stalls here so welcome to carnegie hall and thank you so much do you know the joke how do you get to carnegie hall which is some by ticket but some have to have their own show. know what's new stuff they does unless i did they were all the way back late it was in the balcony to one thousand nine hundred seventy four i remember calling my father saying i heard ella fitzgerald and they were paying me six dollars a night i was so stunned was i thought. of types of you know tapes just six dollars so you stole it started when i was working backstage so i had to just survive for the six dollars and it was ok we were able to do it my rent was one hundred eighty seven dollars a month ok in midtown manhattan doesn't make any sense now does it as i work at your seven dollars.