in the stories that shaped the week here on alt international witnesses saw the aftermath of the alleged chemical attack in the syrian city of dubai raised doubts over the video evidence that's been circulated and our team has been speaking to doctors locals and some of those who are here in the footage people from the white helmets told us about the use of chemical weapons but we saw no sign of that we run started pouring water over the people but these seemed to be ok then walked away without any help. and a growing number of asylum seekers in germany are claiming to be terrorists in the hope of avoiding deportation allegedly exploiting loopholes in the system. i also coming up police clamp down on protesters in paris as the french rail

network grinds to off so my brother my prawns labor forms. they're welcome to our international life i'm daniel hawkins wherever you are tonight thanks for joining us this. new witnesses testimony has cast doubt on claims that the syrian government used chemical weapons in earlier this month doctors and locals in the city have rejected a key piece of video evidence that was circulated by rebel aligned groups including the white helmets emergency responders in the wake of that alleged attack medics we spoke to who say they were at the scene told us the victim symptoms were not consistent with exposure to the toxic agent and that the images are misleading.

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. thing 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 the started pouring the 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. he also spoke to a small boy who appeared in the what helmets video is ok but still coming to terms with what exactly happened he says he was outside the hospital when somebody took him inside and started pouring cold water on his head but i guess it 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 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 clear is it. here it is.

and i look towards what around me it would be here and then took me up stairs 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 drenched 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 idealism 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 i found out it was see what it was 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 to come away from them 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 the credibility of the white helmets has also been questioned by rock legend and co-founder of pink floyd roger waters he says the aid group by its affiliates have been lobbying him for support twenty sixteen a public relations organization called the syria campaign which works with the white helmets sent a musician an e-mail inviting him to a fundraising dinner in the same letter the firm described in detail the work it's doing in the country it insists its mission is to elevate the voices of serious peaceful heroes and help bring about peace waters though 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 because of all 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 a vent in barcelona waters was contacted by french journalists working for the

white helmets the reporter asked him to deliver a message on stage on behalf of syria's children waters the klein that request as well and instead hit out at the group during the concert. more comments. from. the green propaganda it's really hard to see just if we with this to the proper congress the point the 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 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 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 roger's 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 visit to do much to investigate the alleged attack the team collected samples which will be sent to about three in the netherlands has expressed concerns over the thought onus of the inspectors what the u.s. u.k. and france chose not to wait for the results of the official probe before acting citing media reports on controversial activist groups the countries accuse the government of gassing civilians this month an operation was launched against syria

us state department spokeswoman had an hour to explain that washington couldn't afford to waste time the o.p.c. . it was something that we back strongly but it can also take quite a bit of time for the o.p.c. up 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 of commentators on both sides of the political spectrum have been sharing their thoughts on the u.s. led operation without some from supporters are disappointed i'm one of them by 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 trust 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 that 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 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. the u.k.'s prime minister to resign may has been forced to defend her decision to join the us led operation against the syrian government without the approval of parliament she

sought to justify the move in front of lawmakers 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 and 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. 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 let no one in this house be in any doubt that neither

i nor this government take instructions from any press. i. a british tabloid newspaper carried out a poll following the strikes 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. protesters also demanded a halt to arms exports to the middle east and the war rallies took place in several other cities too including bristol swanzy stop the war activists say the will of the british people is being ignored by the government. but she many thinks mistake we should is there to discuss this in parliament. ever so. it's all in this country democracy goes out the window when you seeing their

own pretty sickening interest why is it that the government is carried out its act without to buy a house of commons why is it that i care about is a chalk. commons so that's where it's a night for the first time in almost sixty years cuba's not under the rule of the castro family more not story much more from the week as well after this. if you go through history mankind has been 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 at the middle east in places like syria it's it's i agree with you it's totally depressed. and i wish the political issues involved with it could be resolved but i think until that is there's very little hope that the saudis will be able to turn the tide.

but. they put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so what you want to be president and. want to. let you go right to be this is what the. three of them will be good. interested always in the last. question. fifty seven people have been killed and another ninety one hundred nineteen wounded in a suicide bombing in the afghan capital of kabul lots of holding to officials authorities say to bomb a targeted civilians with voter registration come into the country for past parliamentary elections that coming up in october islamic state has claimed

responsibility for the attack. the caribbean nearly six decades under the leadership of the castro found many cuba has a new president. canal was the man chosen to succeed raul castro with a look now at his paw to the top job on the. 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. can now is definitely a product of his time he's 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 that in other models with the first thing that we want to change is the economic blockade it makes prices too high. i want the new president to think more about young people is he doing what he ever let me grab 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. other news thousands of french public sector workers have been

protesting this week in paris against president micron's labor reforms several groups including transport workers are refusing to back down in their long running strike a show that didn't ski was at 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 malcolm government wants to make and they determined to make it through he says hurt and it seems that what we see is. that yet again it's just clashes that what most people are speaking about. a 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 without good hospitals and equipment i don't know the entity of micron's government towards the movement and the problems work is a facing a somewhat so to stick head of state seems to be deaf judging by his speech at the problem destroys book he thinks that he's in a position of power. we've just come away from the crowd and that's because if you just take a look behind me might see the old look of the people have got their faces covered they wearing black and that's because they known as being the black box of the anti father these are the anti capitalist say it in front and they don't like it 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 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. that. 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 you can see a row of the police vans other gendarmerie they're all out there in 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 if 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. just a day before that arrest president back or issued a plea to those on strike saying they should stop holding the country hostage and they start taking increasingly tough laws as you can see officers in riot gear painting protesters the floor while making arrests. of thousands also rallied in the mosque say in the south of france on thursday in a so-called stop micron march ship was organized by left wing party leaders on the move but i'm sure. i'm going to shoot real in a process where president michael's brother collision 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 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 story i could not stay silent. all the launch sectors on strike transport and the g. public workers health workers all these sectors are represented. macron doesn't want to change but he will see when all the countries paralyzed he will be forced to negotiate terror related investigations and in southwestern german state of skyrocketed it seems that many of the cases involve refugees turning themselves in preter all over explains why. 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 that 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. belin. germany is not the only country that seeking such seeking such a trend rather in greece hundreds of asylum seekers gather outside a police station in the city of the salonica for the same reason many reportedly view arrest as an opportunity to stay in the e.u. and the fastest way to get the necessary paperwork started a large queue forward for days after a surge in illegal border crossings from turkey to a little expert rainer 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 the challenge of. the refugee crisis

in the past years by end of twenty seven. the german government has to employ over two thousand. traditional experts to deal with the increase in crime cases concerning. about all. terrorism there's also pleases. on the german traditional system it means a sharp increase also in employment clots. developing story now in the republic of armenia where over two hundred fifty people including opposition leaders have been arrested this sunday during mass protests seven people have been confirmed injured tens of thousands have been taking part in the ongoing action demanding the newly appointed prime minister resign the country's been shaken by rallies for over a week now tens of thousands of opposition supporters have blocked roads there

calling for a new election the unrest follows the collapse of negotiations between the opposition and the prime minister this year with tensions running high riot police have been deployed in the capital of yet yvonne. on the news recently changed to a parliamentary system the president there only has a quite. the prime minister is getting more powers however you sound step down as president this month offer a decade of leave the country. promised not to run for the prime minister's office in april no he was nominated by parliament as the sole candidate. and while the full five celebrations in the german city of forced authorities to. supporters of the club secured promotion to the german second division on saturday twenty eight officers were reportedly injured eleven people detained according to local reports were celebrations did start peacefully off for two nil win that secured the club's place in a second but. it eventually led to fires being set in

a street that with bottles and firecrackers floated offices who moved in to calm the situation. those are the headlines for myself on the team here at r t join us again in thirty minutes for the latest. so we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race. very dramatic development only mostly i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. for a man or sitting in a car when the get shot in the head. all four different versions of what happened one of them is on the death row

there's no way he could have done it there's no possible way because. 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 key kid 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 improve is there a brown eyes ation turning from a blessing intercourse well to discuss them now we're joined by robert buckley senior fellow in international affairs at the new school in new york mr barkley it's a pleasure talking to you thank you very much for your time thank you now almost every country in the world passed 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 are been a station is like more and more people are moving to bigger cities not because they want to now 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. the general sentiment or how it's still out of it is that indeed cities grow more rapidly in

urbanization happens as incomes and careers and so in some countries and particularly in sub-saharan africa was 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 i'm now. prepared for the kind of and the flocks of new residents and their planning. making planning changes only after the occupants have arrived rather than before as was the case with let's say new york or barcelona.