it was. pink floyd star roger waters reveals the white helmets activist group to try to lobby his support in the syrian war after the singer had slammed them as propagandists. somebody who was shot in the tree had to go to the hospital run there when i came in and some people grabbed me started pouring water on my had . a russian t.v. channel interviews a syrian boy from a white helmets video that claims to show the aftermath of the chemical attack in duma the child and his father give their account of what happened. clashes break out on the streets of paris as transport strikes continue over president macross labor reforms. and in germany dozens of

refugees confessed to having links with overseas terrorist groups in a controversial tactic to avoid deportation. i'm kate moderate and you're watching the latest headlines here at r.t. international thank you for joining us the lead singer of rock group pink floyd roger waters says the controversial activist group the white helmets has tried to lobby his support in the syrian war the so-called syria campaign which is linked to the white house sent the musician an e-mail inviting him to a fundraising dinner in the same message the group described the work it claims to be doing in syria the group states its mission is to elevate the voices of serious peace for 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. well arty's eagle has done enough join my colleague andrew farmer in the studio earlier to discuss the group's emails and waters concerns about their activities but 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 was 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

a great. book musician. reading 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 . 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 self 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 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 sure it's not the celebrity first. he is easy to talk about the white house but the other ones that have have taken a different style 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 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 helmets to comment on this issue and we're waiting for a response. now our correspondent from the russia twenty four television channel says they have found a syrian boy see even the white helmets video that came to show the aftermath of the alleged chemical attack in duma in an interview the child and his father recall how events unfolded on april the seventh artie's would have guessed the 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 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 dia 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. people in what. they say the.

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 seem 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. well as morris says there despite the lack of clarity about what happened in the u.s. and its allies were quick to launch air strikes several syrian facilities were targeted last saturday british journalist robert fisk has visited duma and

interviewed locals he found no signs any chemical attack had taken place former counterterrorism officer charles schumer of things 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 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. thousands of french public

sector workers have been protesting on the streets of paris against president macross labor reforms several groups including transport workers are refusing to back down in their long running strike artes do bensky reports. this is yet another day of protests to be turning into clashes between the police and the protest is unhappy with many of the reforms that the my own government wants to make and they determined to make these heard and it seems that voices are being heard but yet again it's just clashes that what most people are speaking about. cross says 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 in the michael jackson among the people 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 entity of micron's government towards the movements and the problems work is a facing a somewhat so to stick the 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. 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 know now as being the black box of the empty fodder these are the anti capitalist say in front and they don't like us 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 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 smoke flares to wear to attention to what they're doing the lit fires 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. well president mccraw has issued a plea to the strikers saying they should stop holding the country hostage and the police are taking on a creasing 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 thousands also took to the streets for a stop micro marched announcing the president's reforms it was organized by left wing party leader no show. we're in a process where president macaws 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 others plain evil like this like zhou pay 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. shoulder launch sectors on strike transport energy public. workers health workers all these sectors are represented today on the last megatron doesn't want to change but he will see when all the countries paralyzed he will be forced to negotiate. there's been a sharp rise in terror related investigations in southern germany with half of the cases involving refugees turning themselves in artie's pre-driver looks at 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 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 killed 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 the 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. . well me one increase refugees are also choosing a rest 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 i'm proud launched a military offensive against the kurds in northern syria here political analysts run iraq for says the european asylum system is unable to cope. we continually see the judicial system of the european countries is

simply not shared to the challenges that the refugee crisis is has posed in the past years by angles twenty seventeen it became clear that the german government has to employ over two thousand further judicial experts to deal with the increase in crime traces concerning. about all iceland last terrorism there's also all these is exactly the burden on the german traditional system it means a sharp increase also in employment costs. the white house has unveiled plans to ease the rules governing arms exports and other proposals private manufacturers could be allowed to sell drones or other weapons abroad without government approval. 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 for 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 reforms. for too long and not some of the more capable of protecting themselves with few american boots on the ground this is a balanced policy with 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 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 further destabilization in the middle east. well for more on this i'm now joined by activist and author david swanson david thank you very much indeed for joining us well let's have a look at some of these proposals then i mean this kind of our weapons including laser guided trains to be sold without government approval what do you think this

could lead well as the report said it's not entirely new i mean this is moving from of pretty much a rubber stamp to no rubber stamp at all it's not a dramatic change but it leads to disaster in the united states for a while now has been number one in providing weapons to the world to poor countries to dictatorships often free weapons and ate and training in using the weapons as well as selling the weapons and and russia in many of these categories has been number two for some time now and in about six countries the sensually the five permanent members of the security council plus germany dominate the weapon say i mean most of the places on earth that we think of as violent where we see wars underway don't manufacture any weapons at all so this is a handful of big wealthy countries dealing weaponry to the rest of the world and thinking of it as economics as a way to make

a buck oh well the effects are as you say inclusive of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent history i don't know because that about humanitarian disasters i mean the u.s. military hardware is already being used a numerous wars worldwide nice now to me that the bombing of yemen i mean do you expect an international outcry over these latest plans. i would love to see one i would love to see an attempt at accountability through the united nations i would love to see the united nations find a way to democratize itself and work its way around vetoes and become what it was supposed to be a force against the use of force but it's not happening yet it certainly would be remarkable if some country were to bomb washington d.c. to send a message to deter alleged crimes in in yemen i think americans

thinking about such a possibility would immediately see around every nonsense argument for bombing damascus i am not advocating such a thing i am advocating that such approaches not be taken by the us military if the u.s. government cared about human rights it would not be dealing weapons in the way that it does well let's look at why some of the these proposals have come about i mean the white house official said the rules are needed to the overly restrictive policies of the obama administration and you think that's a fair statement. you can always get less restrictive but the a-bomb administration set world records for weapons dealing including weapons that are widely considered illegal and banned and including providing weapons sales and free weapons to nations that are considered blatant violators of

human rights including of course saudi arabia but free weapons billions of dollars of free weapons every year to israel and egypt among others and training and participation in wars which is illegal even under u.s. law so this is part of a gradual trend of decades here this is not a partisan shift from you know anti-war to pro-war and i don't know why people including much of the us public falls for such lines on and on the the us public as well i mean arms sales are highly lucrative u.s. companies but do you think selling more weapons is something now that these policies are public the u.s. public wants to say. i think a lot of people have been deluded into thinking that it's good for their economy and good for their jobs the fact is that most of these weapons companies are propped up by huge profitable unaccountable purchases by the u.s.

government and that that spending is detrimental to the u.s. economy is worse than never taxing those dollars from working people at all much less putting them into education or green energy or infrastructure which produces more jobs and better paying jobs i watched jack matlock former ambassador tell president putin on a panel that the that the u.s. missiles near the border of russia were no threat at all they were just a jobs program for back over in the united states and if president putin had seen the studies of economic institutes in the united states he would have been able to say actually they're costing you jobs not giving you jobs and and of course he did say and anyone with any sense of morality ought to say there are other ways to create jobs and tony david i'm talking these weapons do you think this is going to lead to the erosion of how weapons attract and effectively what is the best way of ensuring that we can track weapons. ok i

doubt it very much i think this is going to add to that problem but i think the solution is going to have to be ceasing to manufacture and deal weapons because there is no history of people taking good keeping good track of where weapons end up and we have had u.s. weapons as well as u.s. trained forces on multiple sides of numerous wars including against the united states including in syria and you know if the united states ever does manage to get itself attacked as it seems so intent on doing it will more than likely be with weapons manufactured in the united states so worrying and we'll leave it there david swanson activist and author many thanks for your thoughts thank you you thank . well for more on these on plenty of other stories that go to our website dot com otherwise i'll be back with the latest headlines at the top of the hour.

we are still living with a lot of conflicting does when you're willing to situation in syria to the rest of the middle east to the problem between saudi arabia and iran now the american president is that i and you know to withdraw and some arabs to go dead we heard that the saudi arabia to go to the in the in your own to go down so with can be in the end the will to fail and the reason is the situation is very very dangerous. los angeles the city of luxury and fame but also an alarming number of people living in the streets. the simple fact in l.a. he's there's just not enough shelter even if people on the streets right now decided to come in there's nowhere to come in and it's been a struggle. and this man found his own response to the problem and constructed

dozens of tiny homes for people in need of shelter when you have nothing and nowhere to go. you know having something like this may as well be a castle but do the authorities accept such solution tiny house on a city parking space is not a solution your curve to someone monitoring the site otherwise it will be a free for all and is there a better alternative to end the homelessness crisis. have a o's under the radar trip to north korea is a denuclearized korean peninsula it really in the cards and will news of the secret trip help pump a.o. secure is nomination as secretary of state going to take a look at that and all. more on this edition of politic.

politicking on larry king news broke late tuesday that cia director mike pump aoe made a secret trip to north korea to meet with his leader kim jong un this to lay the groundwork for a planned meeting between donald trump and king john news of the trip has been mostly was see very well even by trim critics but will it change the current battle for mr pump a go to secure is nomination position of secretary of state let's start there with our old friend chris shays the former republican u.s. representative from connecticut and he was a senior member of the finance and homeland security's committees and was vice chairman of the budget and government oversight committees he joins us from washington park what chrystia make of pump ayos trip well first off it's a yes and he asked i mean.