in the stories that shaped the week doubts are raised over a video of an alleged chemical attack in the syrian town of duma which led to western airstrikes are teammates 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 run started throwing water over the people but the seemed to be ok. walked away without any help. dozens of asylum seekers in germany asked to be arrested as terrorist suspects in a bizarre tactic to avoid deportation also ahead. tensions flare up in paris as transport workers continue their nationwide strike against the president labor reformers.

are broadcasting live direct from our studios and this is our national i'm sean thomas as we recap the week's top stories with our weekly program and i witness accounts have cast doubt over claims that the syrian government used chemical weapons in the town of duma earlier this month locals including doctors have rejected a key piece of video evidence which was used to testify or justify rather excuse me western bombing raids on syria the video was released by a controversial rescue group called the white helmets but medics who treated the alleged victims said the sentiments were not consistent with exposure to a toxic age.

people from the white helmets told us about the use of can. weapons but we saw no sign of that the kind of 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 on them 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 and 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 on that but a little 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 people from duma also spoke to

a reporter from a german t.v. channel because. we're just coming back from it sound about five kilometers from here and it has approximately twenty thousand people who have fled from eastern guta and above all do much the people there are telling us very persuasively that this whole story from april seventh was staged by. archie talks to a young boy who appeared in the white helmets video his son says he was outside the hospital when somebody took him inside and started pouring cold water over his head or his but i guess you have a comment. 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 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 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 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 are dealing with 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 it was cold and he could

of course 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. only that someone shouted about chemicals. the credibility of the white helmets has also been questioned by a co-founder of pink floyd roger waters he says the group has been lobbying him for support now in two thousand and sixteen an organization called the syria campaign which works with of the white helmet sent the musician an e-mail inviting him to a fund raising dinner the group claims its mission is to elevate the voices of syria's peaceful heroes and help to bring about peace but waters' was less than happy with the invite i was quite suspicious off to i was invited to that white helmets dinner now my worst suspicions have been confirmed on the face of it it felt close 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 last week a day before he was due to play at

a concert 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 but had a message for the group. what i meant. but my decision today says. propaganda is you use terrorists if we would do this to the proper congress the point of mentioning 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 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 she criticized this organization publicly to

warn against it's all tearing your 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 on saturday a mission from the global chemical weapons watchdog the o.p.c. w. visited duma to investigate the alleged attack of the team collected samples which will be sent to a laboratory in the netherlands however moscow has expressed concern over the limited scope of the inspectors work the u.s. britain and france chose not to wait for the results of the official investigation

days after the report of an alleged chemical incident the country's launched air strikes against syria us state department spokesperson heather nauert explained that washington could not afford to waste time. the o.p.c. davia was something that we back strongly but it can also to. 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 on his people should we wait around for that formal investigation that could take months and months well commentators on both sides of the political spectrum have been sharing their thoughts on the u.s. led operation. some trump supporters are disappointed i'm one of the my i like the trumps position during the election but i think a lot of people on our political left and people like me on the right think we should not be the world's police any longer that was one of the issues and main points the trump made during the campaign you know nobody likes to ascribe to any

president whatever their political party killing people using munitions like this just as a distraction that's said i mean you can't deny that the walls are closing in on donald trump legally from the special prosecutor moeller from the united states attorney in new york with his lawyer cohen so do i think that down trump is that craven as to launch strikes to distract attention. no but the mere fact that it's a question that's troubling i would diminish that he has major issues as just described as a higher approval rating than did obama at this time in his presidency in some polls the economy 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 in donald trump's rescues and 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 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 you can prime minister theresa may has been forced to defend her decision to join the u.s.

led bombing raids against the syrian government without the approval of parliament she justified 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 i the elected representatives in this house should be able to debate the deployment of british military forces into combat but that does not mean it is always appropriate the executive must be the servant of parliament not the other way round the members of this house seem to have less say in foreign policy of this country than president trump that no one in this house be in any doubt that neither

i nor this government take instructions from any pressure. i. put ish tabloid newspaper carried out a poll following the strikes and found that those surveyed most were against the prime minister's decision to bypass parliament on monday and tuesday hundreds gathered in westminster to protest against of the operation. of protesters also demanded a halt to arms exports to the middle east anti-war rallies that took place in several other cities as well including bristol and swansea to stop the war activists say the views of the british public are being ignored by the government. and i think she many things mistake that we shouldn't discuss this in parliament. ever so. it's as usual in this

country democracy goes out the window when. scene a really pretty sickening tranced why is it that the government is crowded. house of commons why is it. at least twenty four people have been killed during street riots in nicaragua and dozens more are injured ah. protests against pension reforms have been running for several days and spiraled out of control over the weekend demonstrators hurled rocks at police who responded with rubber bullets and also live rounds one of those killed was a journalist covering the unrest on sunday night president daniel ortega backed down and said that he would cancel the reformers. well for the first time in almost sixty years cuba's not under the rule of the castros that story much more

coming up. most definitely wasn't a victim. of any kind of. attack from the russian side because that will destroy the russian kind of debates he has fought us exchanges out of concerts and they they are dependent on it because they certainly have to get their people back

if they get into trouble. welcome back you're watching the weekly here on r t international now a suicide bomber has killed at least fifty seven people at a voter registration center in the afghan capital kabul eight children were among those killed in the explosion on sunday and more than one hundred people were injured last one off as people were lining up at a government office to put their names down for the parliamentary election due to take place in october islamic state has claimed responsibility for the bomb. after nearly six decades under the leadership of the castro brothers cuba has

a new president. has been sworn in replacing a role castro let's now take a look at his path to leadership. 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 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 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 good enough to monitor the have not the first thing that we want to change is the economic blockade it makes prices too high i don't mean sorry i want the new president to think more about young people this 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 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 transport workers are refusing to back down in their long running strike

are trying to bensky was out of the demonstration on thursday. this is yet another day of protests of it 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 good choices 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 here. and happy with the government because the poorest classes are always the ones who are forced to give them their weakest 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 attitude of micron's government towards the movements 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 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 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 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 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 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 told seeing them now they've also been using as smoke flares to draw 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. the day before that unrest president micron issued a plea to those on strike saying that they should stop holding the country hostage

and police are taking an increasingly tough line officers in riot gear were seen pinning demonstrators to the ground while making arrests. of thousands also rallied and marched on thursday and stopped much on march it was organized by left wing party leader john the national. issues get real in a process where president michael's radicalism has pushed everyone together every week the head of state seems to distract us and go further with reforms so we need to stick to we know one of those plain evil like this. 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 use i will destroy you these are not ways to act a president shouldn't talk like this sorry i could not stay silent. all the launch sectors on strike transport energy public workers health workers

all these sectors. represents it's. only less macron doesn't want to change but he will see when all the countries paralyzed he will be forced to negotiate. a number of terror related investigations in the southwestern germany has skyrocketed and many of the cases involve refugees turning themselves in and out here peter oliver explains. 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 would 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 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 swayed back in the summer of twenty fifteen when angela

merkel opened germany up to refugees peter all of r.t. . meanwhile there is a similar trend in greece where refugees are choosing a rest over deportation on friday hundreds of asylum seekers gathered outside a police station in the city of fair saloniki asking to be detained in large queue formed after a surge in illegal border crossings from turkey geopolitical expert rainer rothfuss believes that europe needs to rethink its asylum system. we continually see that the judicial system of the european countries is simply not true. to the challenges the refugee crisis is the most in the past years by and twenty seven indicate that the german government has to employ over two thousand further just experts to deal with the increasing

cases concerning. about all. terrorism this also pleases it's really that on the german traditional system it means increase also in the going won't close. almost three hundred protesters including opposition leaders have been detained in the armenian capital yerevan on sunday's rally followed ten days of unrest over the appointment of former president . as prime minister opposition supporters have been blocking roads and calling for a new general election critics accuse sarkozy on of a power grab he served ten years as president and had to step down due to a law on term limits but in his new role he remains the country's most powerful figure due to constitutional change. if a ball celebration turned into a mass brawl on saturday in the german city of magdeburg police used water cannons

to disperse a group of fans celebrating the local team's promotion to the german second division fires were set on the streets with bottles and firecrackers thrown at officers who moved in to calm the situation twenty eight policemen were reportedly injured and eleven people arrested. and that doesn't for me i'll be back in just under thirty three minutes with a full look at your news and weekly with us this is our two international. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy to confront a shouldn't let it be an arms race off and spearing dramatic developments only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk.

with the whole make this manufactured consensus still public wealth. when the ruling classes to protect themselves. in the final go round the sun be the one percent. we can all middle of the room sick. i mean real news. if you go through street mankind it's been a cruel and destructive over and over again in some our cities have come back and many are quite beautiful and wonderful places. if you look at the middle east and places like syria it's it's i agree with you it's totally depressing and. and i wish the political issues involved with it 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. we saw you. on the way to a. meeting . just.

me me me me me. ah ok. ok ok. ok but not me. oh. yeah ok. ok. ok ok. ok. ok ok ok. ok ok. ok. ok. whatever that was. fact.