in the stories that shapes the week witnesses of the aftermath of an alleged chemical attack in the syrian city of duma raise doubts over the video evidence that's been circulated and r.t.t. has been speaking to doctors locally and some of those who work here in the footage people from the white house told us about the use of chemical weapons we saw most signs that we run started pouring water into the people but the seemed to be ok then walked away without any help. a growing number of us find them sick as in germany are claiming to be terrorists in the hope of avoiding deportation allegedly exploiting loopholes in the system also ahead.

please clamp down on protesters in paris as the french rail network grinds to a halt the president mccraw labor for. a very warm welcome you're watching the weekly here on r.t. international all the latest world headlines and around the stories that have shaped the past week. first new witness testimony has cast doubt on the claims that the syrian government was behind the chemical attack in the city of duma earlier this month the video evidence used to support the allegations was published by and number of rebel aligned groups including the white helmets a self-styled and controversial emergency response group but r.t. visited the hospital in duma and talked with doctors and locals and they told us the victims symptoms did not suggest they had been exposed to

a toxic agent. 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 a medical staff would have also been affected. people poured water. brigitte thing that we had been attacked with chemical weapons and that when somebody from outside shouting about a chemical attack i 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 they seemed to be ok and then walked away without any help but

little 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. also talks to a small boy who appeared in the white helmets video has done is alright but he's still coming to terms with what happened he says he was outside when somebody took him and started pouring cold water over his head but i guess diaz has more. 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 but then had an outside and they told all of us to go into the hospital i was immediately taken upstairs and they started pouring

water on me do you remember where it happened. here with the hose or is it. here it is. that it was water on me it put me here and then took me out serious to my mother eleven year old ass 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 and mechanically i did most of the 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 out it was cold and he could of course sick and he was undressed when i took my son it first

told me that they still needed him but i still to come away from the 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. the refugees from duma have been sharing their accounts with other journalists as well here's what they said to a reporter from a major german t.v. station because god knows how the judge. or from right from its own where there are approximately twenty thousand people who fled from eastern guta and duma and we spoke to people there who told us that this whole santa for people story was staged by the e.u. . the credibility of the white helmets meanwhile has also been questioned by rock legend and co-founder of pink floyd roger waters he says the age group and its affiliates have been lobbying him for support in two thousand and sixteen a public relations organization called the syria campaign which works with the white helmet said the musician and e-mail inviting him to

a fund raising dinner in the same letter the firm described 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 invite 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 plausible 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. and then just last week a day before he was due to play and event in barcelona waters was contacted by a french journalist working for the white helmets and reports to also take him to deliver a message on stage on behalf of the children of syria which has declined that request as well and instead his town that the group during the concept. comments.

broke my solution to this is really complicated. this week with this to the pope to congress a point of mention of this we would be encouraged to encourage a couple of months to go and start dropping this in syria. i've known roger waters for several several years 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 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 rogers broken the ice here but western media appears to be completely closed off to the facts about the white helmets this weekend a mission from the global chemical weapons watchdog the p.c. the you visited duma to investigate the alleged attack the team connected some pools which will be sent to an above the bar a tree in the netherlands however most go has expressed concern over some p.c. deputy. experts visiting a limited number of sites and interviewing too few witnesses however the u.s. britain and france chose not to wait for the official investigation excuse me citing media reports on the controversial activist groups the country's accuse the assad government of gassing civilians this month they launched an operation against

syria u.s. state department spokesperson have a now it takes planes the washington couldn't afford to waste time the o.p.c. view is 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 when we spoke to two political commentators who were usually on opposite sides of the debate about their thoughts on u.s. military action some from supporters are disappointed i have one of them 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 nations like

this just so 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 don't 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 that is not credible jobs are coming back in the economy's growing great yeah well that is it is true in america right now small businesses for the first time look at the decade are excited if you look at the average of all the polls there's one poll that's been consistently in donald trump's 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 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 the u.k. joins the u.s. led operation against the syrian government without the approval of parliament and decision that prime minister to resign may want to defend on monday. 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 rule book 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 president would

i. a british tabloid newspaper carried out a poll following the strikes if found that of those surveyed most were against the prime minister's decision to bypass parliament on monday and tuesday hundreds gathered in westminster to protest against the operation. protest has also demanded a holds to all the exports to the middle east antiwar rallies took place in several other cities too including we're still on swarms they stopped the war activists say the will of the british people is being ignored by the government but she many things mistake that we shouldn't dare to discuss this in part i'm going to be patient and wait seeing the. results and that's the. mission but it's as usual in this country democracy goes out the window when you see in their

own pretty sickening interest why is it that the government is crowd out it's not without by in the house of commons why is it that i care about is a chart that of our analysis of comet's so that's where it's at on well thousands of protesters on taking on government reforms in the french campuses such as from paris on the with details off to the shop right. what politicians do you suppose to. put themselves on the line. to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or some want. to go like. this what. are you people. interested.

thank you thank you. thank you thank. you. thank you thank you thank. you. thank you thank welcome back fifty seven people have been killed and another one hundred nineteen wounded in a suicide bombing in the afghan capital kabul that's according to officials authorities say the ball most hogtied civilians who had gathered near

a voter registration center it comes as the country prepares for longer way to parliamentary elections in october islamic state claims it was behind the attack. thanks a lot of eighty six decades under the leadership of the castro family cuba has a new president miguel diaz canel who was the man chosen to succeed raul castro we take a look now at his path to the top job on the caribbean island. a new chapter has opened in cuba as miguel de can a live 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. canal is definitely a product of his time he's in an electrical engineer by training and he followed

every stepped 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 are there in other models of the had not the first thing that we want to change is the economic it makes prices too high. i want the new president to think more about young people this 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 that 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. thousands of french public sector workers it been protesting this week in paris against president mccracken's labor reforms several groups including transport workers are refusing to back down in their long running strike so they do penske was at the demonstration on thursday. this is yet another day of protests of each heading 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 it move he says heard and it seems that voices are being heard but yet again it's just clashes that what most people are speaking about easy to process that he doesn't care about our movement but if he wasn't afraid at all he would not send so many national police officers who. unhappy with the government

because the poorest classes are always the ones who are forced to give their richest are always the ones who are being given today were fighting for public services from medical services without good hospitals and the. i don't like the entity of micron's government towards the movements and the problems work is a facing somewhat so to stick their head of state seems to be deaf judging by his speech at the e.u. 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 say that a lot of the people have got their faces covered they wearing black and that's because they known as being the black box of the anti father these are the anti capitalist say it in front of a don't like 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 down at the police as the police are coming round and this is something that we have been seeing not just today but in all of the clashes project just being thrown to optics bricks glass bottles anything they can grow that at the hands of. well we're in the middle of what seems to be a standoff between some of the protesters on the police just take our look behind me you can see a room of the police vans. that in their right here blocking off this particular route and some of the protesters are told sing them now they've also been using smoke fled to attention to what they're doing that lit fires to 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 tuned in to a clash between the police and a small group of anti capitalist protesters. terror related investigations and i southwestern german state top skyrocketed and it seems that many of the cases involve refugees turning themselves in peeta all the for explains. 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 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 the german authorities are 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. believe. a developing story now from the former soviet republic armenia over two hundred people including opposition leaders have been arrested this sunday during mass protests seven people have been injured it's part of ongoing action demanding the newly appointed. minister resign the country has been shaken by rallies for over a week tens of thousands of opposition supporters blocked roads calling for a new government election the unrest follows the collapse of negotiations between the opposition and prime ministers started out with tensions running high riot police have been deployed in the capital euro zone i mean here recently changed to a parliamentary system where the president has a relatively symbolic role and the prime minister gains more powers. 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 candidates. well we're going to be back at the top of the hour with all the latest headlines join us then if you count. 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. my dad and within one month a couple simple that angle. my birthday is a gem like i said i know your.

son. you. say it isn't the first time in the t.v. crew fuse you order and takes you were no don't answer is a little bit no one that it's true or. that's it the better you want my god dang it . they love it there you can take the guillotine above it you can take a little girl such a woman you know. oh i love you like i did it you did it did you. manufactured still will. when the remain close to some

project from. the from. the roots to. the. bone and welcome to the party for much of the twentieth century a rising levels of organizational came hand in hand with rising incomes moving to

a big city more often than not than 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 worsen rather than improve is a station 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 mythologized perception of what urban. station is like more and more people are moving to bigger cities not because they want to not because they're attracted by big lives but because they have no choice is that right that's right

no let me qualify that it's not. the general phenomenon or how it's start of is that indeed cities grow more rapidly and urbanization happens as incomes increase and so in some countries and particularly in sub-saharan africa we've witnessed a settlement in which people move to cities because the conditions in the countryside are to their 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 urbanization is not correlate it with increases in income but it doesn't mean that it's causing their situation to cure i heard you say that many cities are now. prepared for the kind of and the flagstaff new residence and they're planning on making planning changes only after the

occupants have arrived rather than before as was the case with let's say new york or barcelona in the nineteenth century. and that in your view leads to the proliferation of slums i wonder if you consider slums a kind of c.d.'s in the in the broad sense of the world i think the sense of. kind of the mythologies of how urbanization fits into an economy was generally the notion that as urbanization increases societies become richer and that people coming to cities would often come particularly poor people and say in a slow as a way station on their way to becoming integrated into the city but no we're finding that in many african countries this is the third generation of families living in the same slum and they're not integrating into the society and so you and slums are increasingly according to u.n. data in most african cities it's.