belgium beats favorites brazil two to one in close on to book a place in the world cup semifinals. plus earlier on friday france knocked out you're a boy with a two nil victory and you know. and france is on cloud nine following their porter final victory as fans waved flags and climbed on cars in celebration. a very warm welcome to the program from all of us here at r t h q in moscow we start our special coverage of the world cup or at crunch time to football on friday saw france and belgium go through to the last four of the championship teams across

all the excitement. i am thankful every. welcome back to football h.q. of you watching us today what a day has being the first day of the quarter finals has now come to a close we know exactly who the first pair was still in the race for the trophy belgium and france all through to the last for brazil in the wife it's time to pack their bags in the game of the day belgium saw off five time world cup winners brazil two goals two one. i

do i much i think what we did today i think we did game. we were technically really wouldn't. we we keep pressing on on the counter. to there was more defensive end than i used to be but i think i did that with joe and i like like all the team and. big victory for us because we we did this. and what a game it was belgium opening the scoring in the thirteenth minute now said sharply curling the ball in straight from a foreigner taking off in a demeo straight past allison into the net embarrassment for the experience the fun is there and really that mood for the whole game. doubling the lead

a little while later a star striker. powerhouse picking the ball up in the belgium is half powering forward it's great for the midfield the defense passing out wanted to get took a shot which is very powerful allowed time and space on the ball into the bottom left corner no chance for the keeper that douglas course they came on forward to silver that did change the pace of the game a bit strengthened brazil's midfield pulling it out wide trying to spread the belgians didn't work their defensive masterclass their aside from one for brazil brazil's renault. reviving hopes just three minutes after coming on to the pitch bearing this header into the bottom right corner after a cross from sochi you can just see it there splitting the difference was enough for the brazilians the attack largely looking unimpressive throughout the whole much are really shot down by the belgians at all their star striker and we feel is

looking pretty helpless in the face of the belgian machine without further ado let's cross live to source who's joining us and the former and of course world cup host peter schmeichel guys i would say you know yes well we're based in sochi now we've upped sticks from moscow because the last quarter final would be russia that house i think. that one to look forward see were plenty to talk about before then because we watched that game where belgium really stuffed it didn't brazil you said it was to be fair to pacer he was saying all along he felt belgium would cause problems not for brazil i think. right from the beginning i thought they would cause a problem to anyone in the squad they have the players are going to be able it's no surprise no one can be surprised about this now brazil played better today than i've seen them in the whole tournament and ironically they go out in that form and so i thought. defensively you know they're very unlucky on the first goal it's just

got a little slick. company which then hit see i'm a fan indeed goes in and it's what happens in football they didn't really because of a man and then they find themselves to know that at halftime. but i have to say you know what it's saying goodbye to to one of the better teams now where you can think some of the other teams of still in the tournament maybe you know we get swept them all but that's the nature of the world cup i thought the second half they did well i wanted them to in the last ten minutes to push it a little bit more and they did it with the goal the goal was fantastic they went you know it was supposed into the box from the from could see new to a ghost who would just come on he's been on the pitch for three minutes scored and then again two minutes later he had another chance and everyone thought that that ball was in and it just meet outside the post and so t.v. changed. he took. his new stuff put doctors caster on to polling you

off and put on and william came on and it came off at half time for mean you came on a little bit of that which i had a really impacted me because it would in many ways cause all sorts of problems all three substitutions worked so so most of what happened good that happened in the second half was they were involved. look to name to say you know this is your opportunity to show how good you are you had little sniffs you had that situation where you get support and inside the passes there inside the box to for me new for me new has a shot because just over and i'm a mouse i had a shot in one thousand minutes plus three which people course was a fantastically russia. many people as we've been saying all along written off russia at the very start of this not even the quarter finals i've been very impressed by russia i've been very impressed by. having had no support

absolutely no support when i travel around in in the russia two stories all the eleven cities all the host cities i had very little. optimism about the russian team and i think the thing with with the team is that they didn't have to qualify so there's no competitive matches for needed to us. and because of your fee for ranking. you drop and i think top of my head sixty fifth russia came in a sixty fifth in the future and that's a long way down we only got thirty two teams that we don't know as you might say many spoke here but you know you you know it's it's kind of take that for anything but then you know that the way the whole tournament has progressed for the mind and i think the chance of the way he's attacked he. changed things he had so many experiments in all these preparations he won three of them back then he went for

the then he went five at the back and everything seemed not to work in once he got to the tournament and he had all the issues with the injured players as well. so it's nice to be so thirty thirty thirty eight years of age he was not so he's been retired for comeback and he's been absolutely admissions it doesn't he look something i mean this is it and this is what i really like about you know a world cup it always goes out the team like that where you don't you don't think they'll do much and then it's there of course with the support in the first game the way the whole thing evolve and develop you know it's slowly being built up now that beat spain i mean that russia can beat anyone after beating spain france just a quick recap they. thought reason becomes to play in the end. and again that's something he said to predict it might happen even a book about he was that you're right but that's a big problem for your boy so this was on his own he's he's

a good striker. cavani on his own it's a good strike up a pavano swatch together is the thought that that but wasn't after your wife and and i'm not i've been very consistent with kev on the i actually think that he's been the best player in the neurons he and i also think he was what he's been one of the best performing players in the whole of the world from the start of the often tactical well hidden scope but we you know contributed would say and then he scored two goals. but this was a six so. you know that that was a really really tough. stuff for them today not to have him. and the thing is i said this before that france was the one team for me that really stepped it up a they went from being everything seeing people stem up was a life obviously even closer to them and on them so they were very i was to sort of slowly got through the group stages. but in the. last sixteen.

against argentina really stepped it up in every single play on that page so he would you call them between france and belgium to meet i think very similar things and they said hey if you know it's going to touch you and see him the half the belgium to speak french you know it this is how close are you know it's two different styles of football and it's two different kinds of football teams and it's very very very different to this moment in time to separate them in terms of strength and i would i would say that big play is and i think what will happen in the semi fun it's going to be a cautious affair i'm pretty sure that because she was this close away from the final you don't want to go out there going high and then you lose on to it and france have seen belgium counter-attacking two games no you don't want to go out there so it's going to be cautious and it's going to for me i think it's going to be down to an individual skill and individual brilliance and they will play against

each other in the top leagues or by the. i don't like pretty much the nature of his gang but the point but here you get the most together and the team you have a different manager who looks at every one strength and you try to sort of make the blend right and come up with a product that will be different and international football in the first place is different from from a from from football it's a tough one i can't wait for this about the possibility of an england russia semifinal how about that would be a across the crack of a game would not let's go. now he's been following that crucial clash brazil belgium perhaps many will be sad to see the five time world champions going home i'm guessing brazil fans disappointed where you are as well well absolutely you know i was here for the argentina france game i'm now here for the brazil belgium game and judging by how much fun both the argentinians and the brazilians add in the streets of design you would never be able to tell that this would effectively become the final stop for the both latin american teams they're both going home

from design and with all these they will see a lot of brazilian fans very sad in the streets of cars on tonight you would look at the stadium you would see it's a sea of yellow and occasional small islands of red so let me use this report as a rallying call to all the belgians it's not too late to buy tickets to st petersburg and be there on tuesday when. their team plays against france and arguably the biggest game for belgium i had a little chat with the face of president johnny in france you know about this world cup and about russia's chances i will tell you after the end of the world cup but so far it's. quite top class i have to say with the president it's more russia. that's going to. help with this result. it was the first that's your. thing the russian team. has been great has good. has made. already

a great achievement but as we know once you start. you know getting the output and you always want more and i think russia and the russian people have to be proud for what their team is doing in this world cup this was not only the last game for brazil this was the last game focus on all the matches. over and john in france you know said that it was an amazing atmosphere amazing experience to be in the city which is now saying goodbye to the world cup obviously were not and i will see you all in st petersburg on tuesday was the guys we're discussing earlier today just hours ago of course we found out the name of the first semifinalist. and then the two mil win for blues goals from. the french fans into ecstasy all over france that have a look at the. game. of

the but i. such a positive mood for those fans globally even those that have left the tournament have crossed out so it hasn't dampened their spirits or stop the party rolling on and on and on and while of football players battle out on the pitch fans of course

of packing up all the. brought across the streets of russia and across social media as well the latest from all to use digital to. thank you god. who were he. was. was. was . was was ok. it was a i was

. to bring you all the latest goals disappointments see the whole range of motions here naughty international for joining us for more updates in the world cup but certainly not failing to deliver. thanks. and now on to other world news spartans home secretary is calling on russia to come clean after the nerve agent never took was again detected in the south of england so she says russia is using the u.k. as a dumping ground for poison russia has denied any involvement and expressed concern that a nerve agent has surfaced again the accusations emerged after a couple was reportedly poisoned by now which are in the town of amesbury they are now hospitalized in critical condition police say that they show signs of nerve

agent exposure. scotland yard now says the investigation is expected to take weeks if not months to complete due to challenges of merging during the operation police also state there is still no evidence the nerve agent came from the same batch that sergei and screwball works posed to in the salisbury poisoning in march but precautionary measures have still been introduced public health officials in england have urged people in nearby cells were not to pick up any unknown items they also gave detailed instructions on using baby wipes or washing clothes at specific temperatures here's how people in salisbury have reacted. you should do that you really want to play. the baby was the right thing to be doing i mean baby why so i wouldn't use them sticky fingers ridiculous like you or your baby bunny. remits that fly about and he says she says and people know

somebody that they're at the hospital down and but i thought every minute one of the great misses that yeah it was something that was disregarded that was picked up and you thinking it was a recreational drug. following the amesbury poisoning some british media outlets have indulged in scaremongering they claim an assassination attempt or cyber attack on critical national infrastructure by russia is imminent artie's and associate checking the reports. well the british press is one too rarely shy away from anti russian sentiment but when it comes to this latest novel saga we've seen that speculation scaremongering and really wishful thinking seem to be battling it out with those less frenzied voices that are still calling for evidence and one example a latest piece in the times talks about alleged spies being on alert over serious threat of a russian attack this peace talks about how spy agencies in the u.k. are apparently on standby expecting some kind of attack from russia any minute now

and what's the source they just say its sources and of course if that wasn't enough the piece goes on to talk about how major sporting events seem to coincide and not by accident with developments such as the south the city and war back in two thousand and eight and the crimean referendum saying it's not by accident and russia is behind this now in contrast we've seen pieces along the likes of one in the guardian that says it would be nice to see some evidence first and that russia's involvement really hasn't been proven yet and facts really would not be a bad idea not very many people seem to know what exactly is going on in this whole saga yet of course we are also seeing british of british officials continuing to sing the same tune as they have been this whole time saying now that following the second poisoning that russia needs to come clean it is now time for the russian

state comes forward and explains exactly what is going on it is completely unacceptable. to be either deliberate or accidental topics or for streets towns to be dumping grounds to poison you know the all for is still there to the russian state to try the sisters to tell us what happened because that would definitely help keep the people of souls very safe and of course again the british papers have been echoing those moods expressed by the you can. home secretary we have headlines such as moscow is using britain as dumping ground for poisoned russia must come clean we have one here that says legacy of the u.s.s.r. and last but not least something like most likely explanation is a russian state hooked on a poison as a weapon of terror and of course all this while this whole entire time for the last four months really russia has been saying has nothing to do with this it doesn't have a motive it's called for a joint investigation with the u.k.

multiple times and is really waiting for some actual tangible facts in all of this to be presented international affairs commentator mark or the mainstream media are quoting unproven statements as fact. i think too much of the media seems to believe that it's national duty pay sure security to parrot the government line on this when the government line has been contradictory but not contradicted by the media itself has been so many holes in the story i think we could. we could throw quite a lot of war down them and throw a lot of cold water on these claims because there's nothing to them as much as they change so much and very so considerably from day to day practically with the original stories and i was being given a rehash of course the middle of a sporting event in russia what a coincidence and and as i say too much of the media is too willing to accept too much which is unproven and in flat contradictions everything that looks like common sense these events are actually designed to draw attention away from that world cup

and distract from the success of events like the social lympics similar events were occurring then there's a claim that russia would want to use the these events as smokescreens but for what for attacking two random people in some small town in in england as if. the russian government or mr putin has got better things to do than to go around making mischief in some obscure regional town in some unfortunately relatively obscure country it's absurd all its tenets and we should remember that the examples given i noticed in the media for example wars in georgia and so on and so were all examples which were initiated by the western backed governments in those regions so it wasn't the russians starting something in line with these events it was actually the other way around those events were happening when western backed government began their own campaigns for example towards south of seizure all those years ago . signatories of the iran nuclear deal have agreed to stay committed to the

agreement as well as protect new companies doing business with iran from u.s. sanctions the announcement was made at a meeting in vienna called to discuss donald trump's withdrawal from the deal. the participants recognized that in return for the implementation of its nuclear related commitments the lifting of sanctions including the economic dividend arising from it constitutes an essential part of the way the participants will work on the above issues through dieted bilateral efforts and through engagement with international partners in order to encourage them to follow the same policies and to establish similar mechanisms in their economic relations with the protection of companies from the extraterritorial effects of u.s. sanctions the country has also agreed to purchase oil and gas from tehran international oil economist dr mom to thaw may warns the move could spark u.s. retaliation against the e.u.

the european union with or realism cannot give protection to every single company that is affected by american sanctions on iran but a good it extends the threat of retaliation by view. could deter the president from for taking stiff measures egg is european companies continue to deal with iran i think it is in the interest of iran the european union and the world that the. iranian nuclear deal continuing to function. doll trungpa start to meet lot of near pruden in helsinki on july the sixteenth and the us president says he's sure the meeting will go smoothly and warned against scaremongering and i might even end up having a good relationship but they're going to. be prepared you know person apartness

case. you know what put in stride. well side with people well i think that they are totally prepared i think the parents of this stuff my whole life they don't see. an addition to the recent comments from trump about the upcoming meeting we've seen republican senators visit moscow i head of the meeting now there was a response to those republican senators visiting moscow from various forces on social media among them prominent democrats. russians when you would a short board song repugnant as nails on the blackboard the enemies and then the bursaries attacking us. with trump praising putin to consume wriggly meeting him with g.o.p. lawmakers visit to moscow on july fourth with republican surrendering to russia just so i brew time then no longer seems to be a question that the kremlin controls the g.o.p. . g.o.p.

senate is suspending july the fourth twenty eighteen in most going to terms preparing for his visit my working theory is the senate is making sure everyone knows exactly how putin likes to be serviced they also saw jim carrey the prominent and well known comedian getting on social media and seeming to insinuate that because this meeting may have taken place on july fourth that somehow this was an unpatriotic move and urging people to register to vote now it's pretty clear that there are some forces in the united states that are quite optimistic about the upcoming meeting in helsinki however it seems also pretty clear that there are other forces that simply don't look forward to a possible thaw in tension between the two countries american lawyer and journalist glenn greenwald is best known for publishing the documents disclosed by the whistleblower edward snowden greenwald is currently in moscow for a cyber security conference and he says much of america's political class believes

russia is genuinely the number one enemy. there's an obsession in the united states with viewing russia not just as an adversary but as an actual enemy it's permeated both political parties there's actually talk a lot now about how what they regard as the interference in the twenty sixteen election is similar to pearl harbor when the japanese attacked the united states during world war two or nine eleven and so there's this sense that russia has now won and then me on par with al-qaeda or the japanese during world war two russia is often talked about this way in the sense that any kind of connection with or interaction with russia is viewed as inherently suspicious or even worse and it's extremely dangerous and extremely toxic and it's one of the reasons why i decided to come here this morning posted a picture of myself and snowden because i think it's very important to combat that

into. their organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons has issued an interim report on the alleged chemical attack in the syrian city of duma in april it says various chlorinated chemicals were found in samples from two local sites and it also states no nerve agents or their degradation products were were detected the o.p.c. w. has not made a final conclusion about the allegations and its work is ongoing the alleged chemical attack in duma was carried out on april the seventh a week later the u.s. france and the u.k. carried out air strikes against syria blaming president assad from using chemical weapons against his people that's just spite russian military experts on the ground failing to find any trace of chemical weapons use and do. chemistry professor james torah says the organic compounds the o.p.c. w. found are not related to nerve agents. it means what they found are just typical or

gannet compounds that would be present from an industrial cylinder it has nothing to do with nerve agents that are getting compounds that they found were corsi to gases and try clear or see the gases and those are the types of compounds that any any organic chemistry lab or industrial site would have but those are used as skin treatment agents used for work removal that has nothing to do with the chemical agent. western media was quick to react to the report with the b.b.c. even claiming proof of chemical weapons use had been found though the o.p.c. w. itself is far from conclusive back in april after the alleged attack u.s. officials were also eager to jump to conclusions. the united states has excellent intelligence gathering as we saw what happened with information that led us to believe that sarin and chlorine gas were used in this most recent attack we

certainly had a lot of media and social media indicators that either chlorine or sharon were used james tor also told us he was skeptical of the chemical attack allegations from the beginning. just looking at the the attack looking after cylinders they knew that this was not a chemical weapons attack if anything there may have been some cylinders that may have been exploded but those were typical industrial cylinders of common compounds they had nothing to do with a chemical weapons attack and that's why the report has said that there are known no chemical weapons agents were found at all whether they be nerve agents or chemical agents or mustard agents none of the agents or the by products of the degradation products were found that's a wrap up of the day's top headlines and your world cup highlights for this hour but i'll be back in about thirty minutes with more thanks for tuning in.