and the stories that shaped the week raised over the alleged chemical attack in syria earlier this month as a witness accounts call into question a video that was widely used as evidence in our team was in the city to speak to doctors on local. we were told say and they told all of us to go into the hospital i was immediately taken up stairs and they started pouring water on me. also ahead a growing number of asylum seekers in germany are claiming to be terrorists in the hope of avoiding deportation allegedly exploiting loopholes in this as.

the top stories from the past seven days on right up to the moment developments well you're very welcome to the weekly here on r.t. international video that was said to show the aftermath of an alleged chemical attack in the syrian city of duma at the beginning of this month is now being called into question the footage was released by the white helmets a group which has long been embroiled in controversy over its activities in war torn syria and most one of the few sources to report the excited party visited the hospital in duma and talk with doctors and locals who said they saw no toxic agents .

hell miss told us about the use of chemical weapons we saw no sign of that if chemical weapons were used against those people a medical stuff would have also been affected. people poured water it's really good thing that we had been attacked with chemical weapons when somebody from outside shouting about the chemical attack don't know. we heard an explosion and somebody said it was a chemical weapon and we run to where the noise came from when they started pouring water over the people but they seemed to be ok and then walked away without any help but. confused somebody started pouring water over people's heads saying there had been a chemical attack but i was at the spot with my wife and daughter but none of us experienced any symptoms of chemical poisoning or to talk to a boy who is in the white helmets video his son is safe but he's still coming to

terms with what happened he says he was outside when somebody took him and started pouring cold water on rock as the of the report these harrowing scenes paddick sheer terror soaked trembling children screaming adults and strange as it may seem many of them had no idea about what was going on that had ak outside and they told us to go into the hospital i was immediately taken up stairs and they started pouring water on me do you remember where it happened. to be here with a hose or is it. here it is. that was water on me it put me here and then took me upstairs to my mother eleven

year old ass and diablo was one of the apparent victims in the white helmets video here he is after being drained and sprayed he's fine if a little confused 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 and mechanically idea mostly d.n.c. i went up stairs and saw my wife and children i was very surprised and asked what had happened when my son's eyes were red and i found out that it was cold and he could have got sick and he was undressed when i took my son that first told me that they still needed him but i still took me away from 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 had.

symptoms 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 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. on only that someone shouted about chemicals rock gas the of well it's not just the white helmets videos that are raising questions the organization has also come under fire from pink floyd

co-founder roger waters for trying to lobby his support in the syrian war a group calling itself the syria campaign sent an e-mail to the musician inviting him to a fund raising dinner on behalf of the white helmets affiliated organization in the same letter the group the scribed in detail the work it claims to be doing in syria it insists its mission is to elevate the voices of syria's peaceful heroes and help bring about peace but waters' 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 possible 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. just last week a day before he was chewed to give a show in barcelona waters was contacted by a french journalist working for the white helmets the reporter asked for

a few moments on stage to deliver a message on behalf of the children of syria what has declined that request as well and instead hit up the white helmets during the concert. white americans. are. both nice so you should. really complicate. this we with this to the proper groups the point of mentioning this we would be encouraged to encourage a couple of months to go and start dropping. serious. i've known roger waters for several several years said that he had just grown so frustrated watching the white helmets footage and duma being cited by the us 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 jab it allness row 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 roger's broken the ice here but western media appears to be completely closed off to the facts about the white helmet. though some media outlets in the west are now also calling into question the allegations of a chemical attack on softer british journalist robert fisk visited duma and wasn't able to find anyone who could confirm the assault on saturday admission from a global chemical weapons watchdog the o.p.c. w visited two men to investigate the alleged attack the team collected samples that

will be sent to a laboratory in the netherlands the o.p.c. w. is also planning another trip to the city. where the u.s. britain and france chose not to wait for the official probe. so i think the media reports on the controversial activist groups the country's accuse the government of gassing civil this month launched early it's against syria u.s. state department spokesperson heather knowledge explained that washington couldn't afford to waste time. the o.p.c. view is something that we've 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 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 and months or we spoke to two political

commentators who are usually on the opposite sides of the debate about third thoughts on u.s. military action. some trump supporters are disappointed i'm one of the my 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 trump made during the campaign you know nobody likes to ascribe to any president whatever their political party killing people using munitions like this just as 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 has 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 that 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 the 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. 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. britain meanwhile joining the u.s. led strikes on syria with the approval of parliament earlier in the week prime minister to resign me to defend this. we have published the legal basis for our action the action was legally questionable we targeted it on chemical weapons capability of the regime chemical weapons have been used by other groups in the conflict for example. britain france and america sent a clear message to those to seek to rip up the international rulebook stop and stop now prime minister is accountable to this parliament not to the whims of the us

president i the elected representatives in this house should be able to debate the deployment of british military forces into combat but that does not mean it is always appropriate the executive must be the servant of parliament not the other way round the members of this house seem to have less say in foreign policy of this country than president trump that no one in this house be in any doubt that neither i nor this government take instructions from any pressure was i have courses been lost in reaction to this a recent poll by a british tabloid fun most people surveyed were against the prime minister's decision to bypass parliament hundreds and be gathered in westminster on tuesday following the second round at the bates urging the government to stop bombing syria . protesters

also demanded a halt to arms exports to the middle east until war rallies were also held in several other cities including bristol and stop the war to miss claim the political agenda is prevailing over democracy. but i think she many things mistake that we shouldn't discuss this in parliament he should avoid seeing the. results. but it's as usual in this country. democracy goes out the window when you seeing their own pretty sickening tranced why is it that the government has carried out this attack without to buy a house of commons why is it that i carried out his attack without a fight renounce the commons so that's where it's and i'm. for the first time in almost sixty years cuba is not under the rule of the castro family i'll bring you that story and much more from the week about was up to this.

manufactured sentenced to public will. when the ruling classes protect themselves. with the crime. be the one percent. nor middle of the room sick. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be

an arms race. spearing dramatic development only loosely i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. back with our to international after nearly six decades under the leadership of the kustra family cuba as a new president miguel die as colonel was the man chosen to succeed raul castro we take a look now at his path to the car a b. and islands top job. a new chapter has opened in cuba as miguel the canal was officially named the country's new leader on thursday with a final vote in cuba's national assembly it's the first time in nearly sixty years that cuba is being led by

a man not named castro that gives us an idea of the magnitude of this change will have on the island yes canal is fifty seven years old and wasn't even born when fidel castro led his revolution in cuba d.s. can now is definitely a product of his time he's an electrical engineer by training and he followed every step within the party has appointed as minister for higher education before serving as vice president yes canel was selected as the unopposed candidate to replace weld castro and in his thirty minute speech he made it very clear that although changes are needed there will be no space for those who want to bring capitalism to cuba the levels of government i'm honest with i have not the first thing that we want to change is the economic blockade it makes prices too high and. i want the new president to think more about young people is he doing what he has i mean i have my country become a better place i want to stay here the new president said the country needs to

advance in its economic model and adjust to the new context of modern technologies as far as cuba's foreign policy diest canel said that in these times of uncertainty and threats to international peace and security cuba's foreign policy will remain an altar of all. terror related investigations in a south western german state have skyrocketed and it seems that many of the cases involve refugees turning themselves in the role of hurt delved into that. the number of asylum applicants coming here to to meet 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. berlin germany is not the only country of birth seeing such a trend developing in greece hundreds of asylum seekers gathered outside a police station in the city of first along a key for the same reason many reportedly view arrest as an opportunity to stay in the european union and the fastest way to get the necessary paperwork started a long queue for for days after a surge an illegal border crossings from turkey geopolitical expert runner office believes the refugee crisis has been very costly for europe. we continually see the judicial system of the european countries is simply not to hear not

to the challenges of the refugee crisis is passed in the past years by end of 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 cases concerning. about all. terrorism also all these is legally the burden on the move traditional system it means a sharp increase in costs. over a neighboring france fisons of public sector workers have been protesting in paris against president labor form several groups including at transport workers are refusing to back down in their long running strike disputes charla dubinsky was up

a demonstration on thursday. this is yet another day of protests of it 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. 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 like the entity of micron's government towards the movement 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 destroy his 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 it in front of a 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 done 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 through optics bricks glass bottles anything they can go there and get their 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 the army the lot that end 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 they've 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 of the day before those scenes on folded president mccrone issued a plea to those on strike saying they should quote stop holding the country hostage

and police there are taking an increasingly tough line officers in riot gear were seen pinning demonstrators to the ground whilst making just over an marsay thousands also rallied on thursday in a stop on march it was organized by left wing party leader is only. going to push issues i think get real 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 stick to we know one of those plain evil like this. one thousand nine hundred ninety five you have to finally step back this is not fair to announce to the people i will pass over use i will destroy you these are not ways to act a president shouldn't like this story i could not stay silent on that. launch sectors on strike transport. and public workers health workers all

these sectors and represents its day i don't need to make contacts and want to change but you will see when all the countries paralyzed you will be forced to negotiate. ok just coming up to nine thirty this sunday morning it probably twenty second here in moscow more great programs right ahead i'll see you at the top of the hour. four men are sitting in a car when the fifth gets shot in the head. all four different versions of what. one of them is on the death row there's no way you could have done it there's no possible way because the list did not shoot around a corner. financial

survival guide i don't buy any i'm on if you. think the flight. as of last summer buying from the future the trucker was kaiser. the philippine city of angeles when the u.s. military moved out the six tourists moved in. and now a whole generation of fatherless children is growing up here. hi dad and. my big day is a gem like you like us and i know your. son . is the first thanks to the t.v. crew you see you want to. you for

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none of welcome twelve's a part of much of the twentieth century of rising levels of organizational came hand in hand with rising incomes moving to a big city more often than not a ticket to a better life that still holds true but not everywhere the majority of people leaving for big cities in the global south particularly in africa may actually see their fortunes rather than improved is a rebellious nation turning from a blessing intercourse well to discuss that and now we're joined by robert buckley senior fellow in international affairs at the new school in new york mr barclay it's a pleasure talking to you thank you very much for your time thank you now almost every country in the world has a version of the breakfast at tiffany's movie about a young man or young women moving into a big city attracted by its opportunities but i understand it from your writing

that it is a rather miss all the driest perception of what are been a station is like more and more people are moving to bigger cities not because they want to know because they're attracted by big lives but because they have no choice is that right that's right you know let me qualify that it's not. the general sentiment or how it still is that indeed cities grow more rapidly in urbanization happens as incomes in cruise and so in some countries in particular in sub-saharan africa was witness to settlement in which people move to cities because the conditions in the. beside her deteriorating either conflict or drought and so they're moving to cities in a situation where their income is an increasing but that doesn't mean their situation isn't improving relative to where they were they were in dire straits in the countryside and came to the city so.