it. was. pink floyd star roger waters reveals the why thomas activist group had tried to locate his support in the syrian war days after the singer had strung them as propagandists. somebody was charging that we had to go to the hospital there when i came in some people grabbed me started pouring water or my had a russian t.v. channel interviews a syrian boy from the white house it's video that claims to show the aftermath of the chemical attack in duma a child and his father give their account of what happened. clashes break out on the streets of paris as transport strikes continue over president marc klaas labor with forms. and in germany dozens of

refugees confessed to having links with overseas terrorist groups in a shocking tactic to avoid deportation. this is r.t. international coming to you live from moscow i'm kate partridge thank you for joining us. the lead singer of rock group pink floyd roger waters says the controversial activist group the white helmet says try to lobby his support in the syrian war the so-called syria campaign which is linked to the white house which sent the musician an e-mail inviting him to a fund raising dinner in the same message the group described the work it claims to be doing in syria the group claims its mission is to elevate the voices of syria's peaceful heroes and to help bring peace but waters wasn't pleased 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. r.t.c. goes down after joining my colleague andrew fowler in the studio earlier to discuss the group's emails and waters concerns about their activities it was somewhat of an indirect response to a number e-mail 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 arsk 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 send a message or to this children of syria you're not forgotten well apparently a third said gig in barcelona roger waters did this have

a look at home it's. really propaganda if you use sharers with 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've 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 the save people the show how the pulling people from under the rubble from the alleged syrian government air strikes but the videos that they are and 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 seeing just cheering and generally mingling with terrorists from other groups so possibly that is why roger waters chose to do that to denounce themselves publicly you're not the first celebrity. easy 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 coldplay 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 to 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 illness 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. well we asked the white house to comment on this issue and we're still waiting for a response. now our correspondent from the russia twenty four television channel says they found a syrian boy seen in the white helmets video that claims to show the aftermath of the alleged chemical attack in tumour in an interview the child and his father recall how events unfolded on april the seventh artie's were gusty of as 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 shouting 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 son via 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 fine 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 britain notes anything further my family lives 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 you go outside 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. people in what. they said.

we wouldn't think. of 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 heard an explosion and somebody said it was

a chemical weapon we ran to where the noise came from and started pool room water over the people and they seemed to be ok and walked away without any help people got so confused honest somebody started pouring water over people's heads saying there 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 and 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. well despite the lack of clarity about what happened to the u.s. and its allies quickly launched air strikes several syrian facilities were targeted last saturday meanwhile british journalist robert fisk has visited duma and

interviewed locals he found no signs of any chemical attack taking place before my counterterrorism officer charles shoebridge thinks western governments may be starting to doubt their own conclusions journalists have got him 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 saying i'm 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 lying 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.

thousands of french transport workers took to the streets of paris on thursday the protesters are refusing to back down in their long running strike over president macross labor reforms artie's shallot do bensky reports. this is yet another day of protests of it turning 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 sure we see is heard and it seems that voices are being heard but yet again it's just clashes that what most people are speaking about. the 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. and 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 were fighting for public services from medical services with good hospitals and equipment i don't know 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 destroys 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 see the old look 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 that are the ones that we see clashes as you can see that are throwing project downs 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 though they've also been using as smoke flares to draw attention to what they're doing that lit 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. when we watch president mccraw has

issued a plea to the strikers saying they should stop holding the country hostage and the police are taking an increasing a tough line in this latest video from paris officers in riot gear are pinning demonstrators to the ground making several arrests. but i must say sauza is also took to the streets for a stop mccraw march denouncing the president's reforms it was all going to rise by left wing party leader sean luke many. people coming bush issues ok we're in a process where president michael's radicalism has pushed everyone together every week the head of state seems to distract us and go further with reforms so we need to step forward to we know of this plain evil like this. in one thousand nine hundred five you have 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 two ways to act

a president shouldn't talk like this sorry i could not stay silent on that because i'm six year old large sectors on strike transport energy. workers health workers all these sectors are represented today i don't. want to change but you will see when all the countries paralyzed you will be forced to negotiate. asylum seekers in germany have come up with a controversial way to delay deportation more on that after the break.

what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line. they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. for some want to be. that you'd like to be that's what the flag three of the more people. interested always in the why. question. welcome back there's been a sharp rise in terror related investigations in southern germany with all of the

cases involving refugees turning themselves in the speech we're all about looks what's behind this development. as 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 two 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 you have an authority zone 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. . or me warning greece refugees are also choosing arrest over deportation hundreds of migrants recently gathered outside

a police station in the city of thessaloniki asking to be detained many of you arrest as a way of speeding up their asylum claims greece has seen a recent surge in illegal crossings from turkey says ankara launched a military offensive against the kurds in northern syria geopolitical analysts rhino wrote force says the european asylum system is unable to cope. we can see the judicial system of the european countries is simply not true. to the challenges that the refugee crisis is has in the past years by and twenty seven. the german government has to employ over two thousand. birds. increasing cases concerning. about all. terrorism.

he says its legal. system the. increase in. costs. the white house has unveiled plans to ease the rules governing arms exports under their proposals private manufacturers could be allowed to sell drones and other weapons abroad without government approval american has the story the trump administration says that these new reforms are intended to strengthen the american economy now the policy will cut back the time it takes to approve arms deals as well as ease limits on drone exports to name a few but it'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 china and russia but if we look at trump's time in office so far this really isn't anything new he kicked off his presidency a signing an arms deal with

a saudi arabia then went on to sign arms deals with japan south korea poland and another one with the saudis but why don't we check out how u.s. officials explain the reform bargains who procure american weaponry capable of fighting alongside us an ultimate remove capable of protecting themselves with fewer american boots on the ground this. as a balanced policy we absolutely look at human rights as one of a set of considerations that palooka so it's certainly possible that the saudis could possess even more american weapons which human rights organizations say are being used to carry out their military operation in yemen which has been described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis by the u.n. over the past few years a many american politicians have recognized the saudi threat and they've been pushing to and all assistance to saudi arabia it is u.s. made in transferred 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 further destabilization in the middle east. and if a bridge in an expert in international law thinks the new rules could allow a powerful weapons to end up in the hands of extremists the time a government that's involved in a weapon sale or weapons transfer there's always a chance a risk and in recent days there's been an instance where those weapons do end up in the hands of rogue elements and we saw that even in iraq as u.s. troops pulled out that some of the isis elements were able to use it other kind of non-state actors or militias that are able to get us these and equip iraq still today and of course with what's going on in yemen and so that there really is a responsibility on the part of the united states especially of the department of defense to make sure that we know exactly where these weapons are going to you know

where the transfer is and that we follow them there have to be procedures in place because you have to be held accountable and responsible if a weapons transfer weapons made in the u.s. end up being transferred into the hands of terrorists where innocence or killed. how about with the latest headlines in just over half an hour meanwhile for more on all of us stories and plenty of other feature. banks geysers financial survival until they say money the balance. only applies to these if this is a central bank support diagram is kind of common right now it's a stop to that. 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. a plate for many clubs over the years so i know the game in saudi guides. football isn't only about what happens on the pitch for the final school it's about the passion from the families it's the age of the super money just billionaire owners and spending to do the twenty million player. it's an experience like nothing else not to because i want to share what i think what i know about the beautiful guy

great so what will chance with. the thinks it's going to. this is bone bust broadcasting around the world from right here in washington d.c. welcome boom busters and coming up we'll talk energy and economics with an emphasis on plant almost triple the capacity of a canadian pipeline plus there are concerns about pipelines at the center of the u.s. shale boom which appears to be having growing pains are to correspondent alex behala bitch and david greenberg the c.e.o. of greenberg capital joins us to discuss plus for the recall went dark as in all

the aisle one lost power yesterday raising increasing concerns about energy on the island one puerto rican mayor maria melendez gives us her take on the troubling circumstances and recent report says that two thirds of millennia olds have nothing to save for their retirement economist richard cole joins us to discuss all that just ahead but first we head to some headlines the european union is offering a revised and truncated version of t. tipped the transatlantic trade and investment partnership as a vehicle for a broader agreement with the united states on tariffs and policy toward china the quid pro quo in the arrangement would involve europe europe granting quicker access for u.s.b. three and lower tariffs on cars and machinery imported from the united states and supporting u.s. complaints against china before the world trade organization and on matters related to intellectual property disputes the us for its part would be expected to make

europe's temporary exemption from aluminum steel tariffs permanent france's reported words resisting the deal in hopes of pushing the u.s. to reenter the paris climate accord. the latest edition of the federal reserve's so-called beige book released yesterday reports that businesses across the united states are encountering significantly higher prices for steel in the wake of president trump's announcement on steel import tariffs the increase in prices occurred across all twelve of the federal regional districts of the federal reserve but one company's pain can be another's profit steelmaker nucor reported first quarter profits of three hundred fifty four million dollars on a fifteen percent increase in revenue and a nine percent increase in the average price per tonne of steel. and the latest turn of u.s. sanctions against russia germany is asking the united states for exemptions for

german companies big name german companies with major interest in russia and ties to the specific business people and companies named it named in these sanctions include bolt wagon dimler and siemens while the lobbying group for six hundred fifty five german metals companies says the german auto parts plants could face shortages as a result of u.s. sanctions the small but no longer trivial prospect of german a german recession is also pushing german businesses to ask chancellor angela merkel's government to protect them from becoming collateral damage in the u.s. russia tit for trat tat trade war trade between russia and germany increased fifty seven point two billion euro's in two thousand and seventeen that's up forty eight billion from forty eight billion here before. in more quarterly earnings news this time in the credit card sector american express has posted their second highest quarterly profit ever amex says their q one profits totaled one point six three

billion dollars up from one point two five billion a year ago and like the banks we reported on yesterday american express is bottom line was helped by the trump tax cuts which reduced the credit card giants effective tax rate. from thirty two percent to twenty one point five percent meanwhile competitors a visa and master card are partnering to create a single payment button for online purchases the button would replace pieces check out and master passed and could be available before the end of this year. in canada the controversy surrounding a major oil pipeline is not going away texas space kinda morgan says investment in the expansion of the trans mountain pipeline may be untenable as this canadian provincial and federal governments face face off on the issue.