frank. in the stories that shaped the weak dollar raised over the alleged chemical. earlier this month i witness accounts call into question and video about was widely used as evidence on our team was in the city to speak to doctors and locals. people from the white house told us about the use of chemical weapons but we saw no sign of that we started pouring water over the people but the seemed to be ok. walked away without any help. also ahead a growing number of asylum seekers in germany are claiming to be terrorists hope of avoiding deportation allegedly exploiting a loophole in the system also in the program.

police clamp down on protesters in part this on the french real network brines to our whole president labor reform. with the top stories from the past seven days and right off to the moment developments as well welcome to the weekly on r.t. international. video that was said to show the aftermath of an alleged chemical attack in the syrian city of duma 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 until one of the few sources to the port the attack party visited the hospital in to talk with doctors and locals who said they saw no toxic agents news

there. 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. people poured water heads were getting that we had been attacked with chemical weapons and somebody from outside shouting about a chemical attack don't know who that was we heard an explosion and somebody said it was a chemical weapon we run to where the noise came from and started pouring water over the people but the 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 i was at the spot with my wife and daughter but none of us experienced any symptoms of chemical poisoning. while r.t. spoke to a boy who was in the white helmets video. is thankfully safe but he's still coming to terms with what happened he say's he was outside when somebody came and started pouring cold water over his head. as the report. 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. outside and they told all of 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. here with the hose or is it. here it is. that look towards water on me it put me here and then took me upstairs to my mother eleven year old house and dia 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. 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 i found out that

it was water but it was cold and he could of course sick he was undressed when i took my son it first told me that they still needed him but i still to come away from there 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 only that someone shouted about chemicals. well it's not just the white helmets videos that are raising questions the organization has also come under fire from rock legend roger waters the co-founder of pink floyd for trying to lobby his support in the syrian war. a group called 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 described in detail the work it claims to be doing in syria and insists its mission is to elevate the voices of syria's peaceful heroes and help bring about peace but waters' was less than helping with the infighting 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 and missiles illegally in syria. just last week a day before he was june 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 waters declined that request as well and instead hit up the group during the concert. pretty complicated as you. just played with this to the pope to the point of mentioning this we would be encouraged to encourage a couple of months to go and start dropping oh sure. i've known

roger waters for several several years he said that he had just grown so frustrated watching the white helmets footage in 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 jabot illness 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 helmet well this weekend

a mission from the global chemical weapons watchdog the o.p.c. w. visited touma to investigate the alleged that the team collected some poles which will be sent to a laboratory in the netherlands the o.p.c. w. is also planning another trip to the city. however the u.s. britain and france chose not to wait for the official probe so i think media reports on controversial activist groups the countries accuse the assad government of gassing civilians on this month launched against syria us state department spokesperson heather nauert explained that washington could not afford to waste time. the o.p.c. was something that we back strongly but it can also take quite a bit of time for the o.p.c. of you to gather its information and compile the report 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 opposite sides of the debate about their thoughts on u.s. military action some from 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 truck made during the campaign you know nobody likes to ascribe to any president whatever their political party killing people using munitions like this just it's a distraction that's said i mean you can't deny that the walls are closing in on donald trump legally from the special prosecutor moeller from the united states attorney in new york with his lawyer cohen so do i think that down trump is that

craven as to launch strikes to distract attention. no but the mere fact that it's a question that's troubling i would diminish that he has major issues as just described as a higher approval rating than did obama at this time in his presidency in some polls the economy is not credible jobs are coming back in the economy's growing great you have well that is it is true in america right now small businesses for the first time look at that they are excited if you look at the average of all the polls there's one poll that's been consistently and donald trump rescues that in his camp every other poll if you average them out he is at historic lows for any president since the advent of polling in the united states of america democrats their complaint is what's the broader plan you say mission accomplished mr president what's the mission they see this as not pursuant to any particular plan and on the right it seems inconsistent with the the promises the president made during the campaign to withdraw so as a result there's just not

a big constituency in favor of what he's done mission accomplished was a popular phrase that turned very notorious with iraq and look at where we are now listen i i i find it interesting you have someone on the left and someone on the right politically in america here on r t and we sort of agree the worst case scenario is is assad gets toppled or killed and then we have another iraq for the next decade and then we really get engaged in a war because isis then overwhelms and takes over the country. saying well britain join the u.s. led strikes on syria with the approval of parliament earlier in the week prime minister trees and they had to defend the decision. 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 josh britain france and america sent

a clear message to those who 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 in any doubt that neither i nor this government take instructions from any press was i. a recent poll by a british tabloid find that most people surveyed were against the prime minister's decision to bypass parliament and also hundreds gathered in westminster on tuesday

following the second round of the bates urging the government to stop bombing syria . saying. protesters also demanded a halt to arms exports to the middle east until more rallies were also held in several other cities including bristol and swansea stop the war activists claim the political agenda is prevailing over to mark prosy. but i think she many things to say that would we shouldn't dare to discuss disempowerment to milan that he should avoid seeing the. results and that's the. mission that we want 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 is caught out is it shot without dubai in the house of commons why is it that i carried out was a chalk without a fog analysis commons so that's where it's on more of the week's top stories in ninety seconds time.

join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics small business i'm showbusiness i'll see them. fight for many clubs over the years so i know the game and so i got. the ball isn't only about what happens on the pitch for the final school it's about the passion from the fans it's the age of the super money kill the narrowness and spending to do the twenty million and one player. it's an experience like nothing else on here because i want to share what i think what i know about the beautiful game great so

one more chance for. me it's going to. sixty minutes into the program welcome back protests have erupted once again in the former soviet republic of armenia people there are demanding method newly appointed prime minister stepped on the country in the caucasus mountain range has been shaken by rallies for over a week tens of thousands of opposition supporters blocked roads calling for a new government election and rest follows the collapse of negotiations between the opposition and find minister serious or ghastly and with tension running high riot police have been deployed in the capital of your of. armenia recently changed her part of the system where the president has

a relatively symbolic will and the prime minister gains more powers so i guess ian stepped down as president this month after a decade of ruling the country earlier he promised not to run for the prime minister's office but in april was nominated by parliament as the sole and. now after nearly six decades under the leadership of the castro family cuba has a new president miguel die as was the man chosen to succeed rule we take a look now at his part to the top job on the car of being an island. 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 this change will have

on the island the s.q.l. 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 to within the party was 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 are there in other models we don't have a lot of the first thing that we want to change is the economic it makes prices too high i don't have the means i want the new president to think more about young people is he doing what you have i mean you 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 alter of all. to europe where terror lated investigations in a scythe western german state have skyrocketed and it seems that many of the cases involve refugees actually turning themselves in explaining all out. 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 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 almost always allege 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 isn't the only country seeing such a trend in greece hundreds of asylum seekers gathered outside a police station in the city of thessalonica for the same reason many reportedly be arrest there's an opportunity to stay in the e.u. and the fastest way to get the necessary paperwork started. q. form for days after a surge in illegal border crossings from turkey geopolitical expert to run a rough us believes the refugee crisis has been very costly for europe we continually see the judicial system of the european countries is simply not true. to the challenge of. the refugee crisis is in the past years by end of twenty seventeen it became clear that the german

government has to employ over two thousand. additional experts to deal with the increase in crime cases concerning. about all. terrorism but there's also all the police is really the burden on the german traditional system it means a sharp increase also in employment costs. rise and a french public sector workers have been protesting in parks against president micron's labor reforms several groups including transport workers are refusing to back down in their long running strike charlot dubinsky was up a demonstration on thursday. this is yet another day of protests to be turning into clashes between the police and the protesters 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. to cross has 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 service or 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 it 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 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 can see a row of the police vans 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 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. well a day before that on rest president mccrone issued a plea to those on strike saying they should stop holding their country hostage and police there are taking an increasingly tough line officers in riot gear were seen pinning demonstrators to the ground whilst making arrests fisons all surreal even more saying on thursday in a stop mccormack it was organized by left wing party leaders only mention.

real in a process where president marcos 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 of this 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 like this sorry i could not stay silent on that. all the launch sectors on strike transport energy public workers health workers all these sectors are represented today. i don't need us to make you want to change but he will see when all the countries paralyzed he will be forced to negotiate stories for no next death row itself on trial.

most definitely wasn't a victim. of any kind of that operation or at that from the russian side because it was both really destroyed russian could be true as far as exchanges are concerned they they depended on it because they certainly have to get their people bank if they get into trouble. if you go through history of mankind it's been a cruel and destructive over and over again and somehow our cities have come back and many are quite beautiful and wonderful places. if you look in the middle east and places like syria it's it's like concrete with you it's totally depressing and . and i wish they had the political issues involved with it could be resolved but i

think until that is done there's very little hope that the cities will be able to turn the tide at. all the job. your quiet little town. very different conclude. video you get. frequent a resumption of there were details. but

i'll say that the way the law was written. i didn't have it in my mind that i would be walking down the corridor of a totally free person but i'm thinking it's twenty years here which is also we're still alive but not in texas standards because texas turns out last census like it's candy. to touch these are the two options that could happen here and we need your vehicle cop out. ok and where do i fall from that from here you would call this way

ok so that doesn't make sense it makes sense or ok go on is if i'm getting in a vehicle and you're turning to do whatever you got to do his seat is yes. he's already here pow pow so that's what happened and what's going to happen you're going to follow this with like this and this is what happened this is what they said i'm not sure if i'm going in a vehicle our power i need your vehicle and then i. i'm not sure if he felt like this or like this but he felt he felt toward you as he were to you so is this guy here getting in. this wasn't. the only option if he fell for discover here shot if . he were involved. in a vehicle that's only way if this guy was leaning forward on the street where he was given a vehicle and got shot from inside a vehicle and that's what they all say that he wasn't getting in the vehicle when the shots were fired. you haven't.