the stories that shaped the we saw raised over a video of an alleged chemical attack in the syrian town and led to western airstrikes. locals who saw what happened. people from the white helmets told us about the use of chemical weapons we saw no sign of that we started pouring water over the people but the seemed to be ok then walked away without any help. 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. also this hour a british newspaper reports that u.k. or therapies have identified key figures in the script poisoning once again pointing the finger at russia look at the claims about the nerve agents always.

thanks for joining us here live at r.t. international i'm daniel hawkins wherever you are today welcome to the program. a new witness testimony has cast doubt on syria on claims that the syrian government used chemical weapons in duma earlier this month doctors and locals in the city have rejected a key piece of video evidence that was circulated by rebel allied groups including the so-called white helmets which led to western airstrikes medics we spoke to who say they were at the scene told us the victim symptoms were not consistent with exposure to a toxic agent and at the images are misleading. people

from the white helmets told us about the use of chemical weapons we saw no sign of that you know that chemical weapons were used against those people are medical staff would have also been affected if. people poured water. were getting that we had been attacked with chemical weapons and that when somebody from outside shouting about a chemical attack. we heard an explosion and somebody said it was a chemical weapon we run to where the origin 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 little confused somebody started pouring water over people saying there had been a chemical attack but i was at the spots with my wife and daughter but none of us

experienced any symptoms of chemical poisoning or refugees from duma have been sharing their accounts with other journalists to here's what they said to reporters from a major german t.v. station because. we're just coming back from a town about five kilometers from here and it has approximately twenty thousand people who have fled from east. and above all do much all the people there are doing out very persuasively that this whole story from april seventh was staged by . all to you also spoke to a small boy who appeared in the white helmets video her son is ok still coming to terms with exactly what happened to him though he says he was outside the hospital when somebody took him inside and started pouring cold water over his head but i guess the earth 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

they had act 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 loose it. here it is. that would water on me put me here and then took me out serious to my mother eleven year old ass and 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 i did mostly d.n.c. i went upstairs and saw my wife and children and i was very surprised and asked what had happened when my son's eyes read i found out that it was about him he could have got sick and he was under arrest when i took my son that first told me that they still needed him but i still took me 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. on only that someone shouted about chemicals and 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 and its affiliates have been lobbying him for support now back in 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 fund raising dinner in the same letter the film 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 the syria then just last week a day before he was you to play at an event in barcelona waters was contacted by a french journalist working for the white helmet the reporter asked him to deliver a message on stage on behalf of syria's children waters declined that request as well and instead hit out at the group during the concert. more comments. from my solution. for you promptly. as you. use if we would this to the proper congress the point of mention of this we would be encouraged to encourage a couple of months to go and start dropping oh this is serious. 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 o.p.c. w visit to do much to investigate the alleged attack of the team collected samples which will be sent to a tree in the netherlands moscow whoever has expressed concerns over the thornless of the inspect this book the us britain and france chose not to wait for the results of the official investigation before acting citing media reports controversial activist groups the country's accuse the assad government of gassing civilians this month they don't see an operation against syria u.s. state department spokesperson how the now it explained 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. 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 commentators on both sides of the

political spectrum have been sharing their thoughts on the u.s. led operation without some trump 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 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 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 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 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. as u.k.'s prime minister that's a reason mays been forced to defend her decision to join the u.s. led operation against the syrian government without the approval of parliament says 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 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. 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 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 president. a british tabloid newspaper in the meantime has carried out of 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. so. the protesters

also demanded a halt to arms exports to the middle east and the war rallies took place in several other cities as well including bristol and swanzy stop the war activists say the will of the british people is being ignored by the government. but i think she only thinks mistake when we shouldn't get to discuss this in parliament. results. which. it's as usual in this country democracy goes out the window when you see in their own political interests why. the government is without to buy in the house of commons why is it that i care about is the chalk. commons so that's where it's on now for the first time in almost sixty years cuba is not under the rule of the castros will have that story and more coming up just in a few moments.

dropping bombs brings peace to the chicken hawks forcing you to fight the battles. to stop spreading tell you that will be gossip and tabloid but i shall. tell you on the cool enough to buy your product. all the hawks that we along with all. if you go through history it's been cruel and destructive over and over again and our cities have come back and many are quite beautiful and wonderful places. if you look in 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 would could be resolved but i think until that is done there's very little hope that the saudis will be

able to turn the tide at. welcome back to the weekly here on our team to national fifty seven people have been killed and another one hundred nineteen wounded in a suicide bombing in the afghan capital kabul authorities say the bomber targeted civilians who gathered me a voter registration center comes as the country prepares for a long awaited parliamentary elections in october islamic state claims it's behind the attack. now after nearly six decades under the leadership of the castro family cuba now has a new president miguel diaz cannell was the man chosen to succeed raul castro let's 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 africa nails 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 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 of the models of the had not the first thing that we want to change is the economic blockade it makes prices too high or whether

. 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 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 have been protesting this week in paris against president micron's labor reforms several groups including transfer workers are refusing to back down in their long running strike so it was at the protest 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. 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. i'm 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 where fighting for public services from medical services with good hospitals and the 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 head of state seems to be 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 known as being the black box of the anti father 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 to optics bricks glass bottles anything they can grow that at the hands of.

well we're in the middle of what seems to be a standoff between some of the protesters and the police just take out a look behind me you can see a row of the police vans army they're all out there in their riot gear blocking off this particular route and some of the protesters are taunting them now they've also been using as smoke flares to wear to attention to what they're doing the fires some of the bins and they've also been throwing projectiles to wards the police this protest was meant to be about reforms of macaroons government it's once again tuned into a clash between the police and a small group of anti capitalist protesters charged even ski reporting there and of course just the day before that unrest president my corn issued a plea to those on strike saying they should stop holding the country hostage police there are taking a tough stance as you can see officers in riot gear pinning people to the ground while making arrests. in the french southern city of mass a as well a stop my court march was held on thursday that was organized by left wing party

leader. is what he had to say to the crowd. get real in a process where president merkel'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 others plain evil like this. in one thousand nine hundred five he had to fly only step back this is not fair to announce to the people i will pass over you i will destroy you these are not ways to act a president shouldn't talk like this sorry i could not stay silent and that. all the large sectors on strike transport energy public workers health workers all these sectors are represented today on it was doesn't want to change but he will see when all the countries paralyzed he will be forced to negotiate. terror

related investigations in a southwestern german state have skyrocketed it seems that many of the cases involve refugees turning themselves in the driver has more. 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. belin. as germany is not the only country that seeing such

a trend in greece hundreds of asylum seekers gathered outside a police station in the city of their salon and for the same reason many reportedly view arrest as an opportunity to stay in the e.u. and also the fastest way to get the necessary paperwork a large queue formed for days after a surge in illegal border crossings from turkey geopolitical 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 true. to the challenges the refugee crisis is in the past years by end of twenty seven eighty year. the german government has to employ over two thousand. additional experts to deal with the increasing. cases concerning. about all. terrorism there's also

pleases me that on the german traditional system it means increase also in employment clots. out of the former soviet republic of armenia where almost three hundred people including opposition leaders have been detained at this sunday during mass protests most of them have now been released several people they were reportedly 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 calling for a new government elections then rest follows the collapse of negotiations between the opposition and prime minister search surrogacy and with tensions running high right police have been deployed in the capital of yet about. armenia of course recently changed to a parliamentary system the president now has

a relatively symbolic role the prime minister there has gain more powers sarkozy and stepped down as president this month after nearly a decade of ruling the country he promised not to run for prime minister's office but in april he was nominated by parliament as the sole candidate. back to germany now where wild football fans celebrations in the city of mag forstall thirty's to use wood to canada gate supporters that's. after the club secured promotion to the german second division on saturday nearly thirty police officers were allegedly injured eleven people were detained celebrations did begin peacefully after a two nil win that secured the club's place in the second league it eventually led to fires being set in the street there with bottles and firecrackers thrown at officers who moved in to calm the situation. u.k. police and intelligence have a number of key suspects in the poisoning of double agent surrogate screw powell and his daughter that's according to the british newspaper the telegraph which on

friday claimed the persons of interest are already back in russia based on passenger flight lists leaving the u.k. that's of course despite both the u.n. watchdog like the o.p.c. w. and the u.k. government being i'm able to determine the origin of the poison used in the salzburg attack london still doesn't says that russia is responsible claiming that only moscow could have produced the substance russia's representative to the o.p.c. w. said the u.k. is withholding key information which makes it difficult to establish the truth. russia will not accept any national or international results of any investigation without access to full information including materials from the british probe without consular access to our citizens and most importantly without the obligatory participation of russian experts in all actions to establish the truth that happened in saul's on march the fourth i would not comment from former by five asian dynamo seans she says that even though the u.k.'s position has weakened

slightly london is unlikely to backtrack on its allegations against russia they sort of back and selves into a corner i can't see how they can they can rescind what they've already said because particularly not only did they expel twenty three russian diplomats that actually immediately before the w. had even had a chance to examine this so-called evidence but they encouraged a lot of their nato partners to do the same thing so they can for diplomatically to row back from this position particularly a very vulnerable diplomatic time for britain looking for not quite sure what they can do apart from to keep scapegoating russia but i suspect rather sadly this is going to sort of languish in the conspiracy theorists category for anyone who questions this very thread their official narrative that britain has pulled together and we take a look at that story about the chemical in question as well are to use a lot of its own look into the u.k. his claims of the nerve agents origin right after this short break.

oh. you get. six guys just by that's all survival guide. when customers go by and you reduce the price. to an elf well reducing lower. that's undercutting but what's good for market is not good for the global economy.