themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. a french position leader reacts furiously to finding his name on a list of suspicious twitter accounts forcing him to do. a russian ball. also ahead in the program this hour the reels from the shock suicide of an ultima gratian party politician who claimed she had been raped by a muslim last year. on the streaming video from yemen leaves humanitarian groups on the public's with this week's coalition or a strike on a school bus in yemen the raid claimed the lives of twenty nine children dozens more were injured.

in from right around the world this hour welcome to moscow and to r.t. international my names you know neil welcome to the program their top story french opposition leader former presidential candidate luke mellon shown. at suggestions that he is part of a russian online. campaign hey stupid spook i'm not a russian it's just me who tweets against you although not directly accused of being a russian. appeared in a list of a cow and showing increased twitter traffic in the wake of the assault scandal surrounding president former bodyguard the inference being moscow is pulling the strings also not least is our part as correspondent charlayne give us more details or a lier. well a huge outcry here in france so many people on twitter who thought that they had

been labeled russian boats that's because they were named in a twitter list which looked at the number of people who had tweeted about the but now a skate scandal here in france some of them even decided to use it as a badge of honor actually did they. bought their russian numbers twitter account now this came out of the sky which was a former security aide to president mike brown who was filmed actually assaulting protesters doing may day now because of that many people were treating about it and an engineer based in belgium this information lab actually decided to analyze the people who were tweeting about that well they published a list of the accounts that it tweeted the most about this particular scandal and the mainstream media here in france immediately decided that the frenzy around that

scandal had been caused by not just any boats but russian boats not so those says e.u. distant from asian law which says that the study wasn't even about russian boats we did not notify the conclusions of our study a lot of media reported that we studied and identified that there had been russian meddling that the russian state orchestrated interference in the banal a scandal we never said this the fact that the government spokesperson immediately exploded this for political ends created this sort of hype there was never the object of our study well the engineer even had to step in releasing a press release to say that the mainstream media here in france had completely misinterpreted their report and it was not about the supposed russian boats of which thousands of people appeared on a list now these. they released included thousands upon thousands of people from france who had been tweeting about the banality scale of fare and they were around

four million tweets what it showed is that only a tiny fraction around six hundred fifty account were from people which they described as being in the russian spy a lot sphere that is basically journalists like myself who work right see my colleagues and people who have retreated to r.t. content in the past never did it say that we were all russian bots but of course the mainstream media felt that somebody had to be to blame for this candle which president himself described as being a tool a storm in a teacup and what's the point in letting the truth get in the way of telling a good story. there is shock across the dutch political spectrum the suicide of a councillor in the hague just before her death billy delay claimed she'd been kidnapped and raped by a group of muslims and accused

a former party colleague of orchestrating it with more here's your europe correspondent peter all over. tributes and messages of condolence to the family of former dutch party for freedom council of billy dale have been flooding in from across the political divide in the netherlands the fifty three year old former representative in the hague took her own life on wednesday after publishing a video and social media in which she claimed to have been the victim of a kidnap and rape back in twenty seventeen ordered by a political opponent. was accused. in the video misdeal claims she was attacked by what she calls a muslim gang on the orders of a former political colleague who had since converted to islam the deceased claimed a former party for freedom member who quote hated her intensely in a statement to r.t.

the dutch police said that although they had spoken to ms deal no formal complaint was made nor were there satish in details given to warrant starting an investigation the mayor of the hague expressed her sorrow at miss deals death saying her passing touched her very much and that the city had lost a committed and passionate councillor durch prime minister margaret said he was shocked and expressed his sympathy towards her family and party the party for freedom leader get villages said he was lost for words at the death of a colleague he called warm and always particularly willing to help young people in politics we have sent a request for an interview with mr lay's former colleague who she accused of organizing the sexual assault as yet he hasn't got back to us. u.s. senators are accusing their government of contributing to the deadly saudi led coalition

strike that hit a school bus in yemen on thursday the red cross say twenty nine children were killed thirty others injured all under the age of fifteen the u.s. state department is calling on the coalition to investigate but also underline that saudi arabia is a key regional partner of washington we call on the saudi led coalition to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the incident you also supply the tremendous amount of weaponry then the data for targeting to the saudis so that. sorry no law wrong is that wrong sorry this lady is every here laughing. and that i would refer you to the department of defense that is involved in that but you know as you know saudi arabia is an important strategic partner in the region to the united states or video of the aftermath of the attacks shows the extent of the children's injuries please be war and what we're about to show is upsetting to watch the strike occurred in the north of the country which is under the control of

hutu rebels so you would be a launched an intervention against them in twenty fifteen the latest u.n. day to say is the majority of people killed in the conflict died as a result of coalition airstrikes that's over ten thousand casualties in an official statement the saudis defend to be attack accusing the rebels of using children as you mentioned. the targeting today is a legitimate military action conducted in conformity with the international humanitarian law to target the militants responsible for planning and targeting civilians which resulted in killing and injuring them. well some buckra into doubt the united states is by far the largest supplier of weaponry to the saudis and it also provides targeting assistance for strikes and military drills last year so the arabia spent seven hundred fifty million dollars on training by american specialists which it claimed was implemented to reduce civilian casualties well the

u.k. is the second largest arms supplier to the saudis and arms trade activists some walton thinks washington and london should be should bring more responsibility. what's happened is a massacre and it can never be legitimate to kill children it's that simple questions must be asked we've seen over the course of this war on cells from washington and london to saudi arabia go up and up when i talk to people in yemen they are absolutely livid so angry with our governments for arming. arming saudi arabia and for providing the planes the bombs the missiles military training and diplomatic cover for the bombardment which they are living under yes it killed children but it happened in a civilian marketplace as well which is another big question why were they targeting

a civilian marketplace the weapons that we are selling to saudi arabia are bombing schools they're bombing hospitals we're seeing the world's largest ever cholera outbreak in yemen and that cholera outbreak is happening because the sewage the sanitation systems have been systematically targeted by british and american bombs and planes. so we really have to ask yourself some questions and start putting pressure to stop this war on saudi arabia. u.s. democrats are looking for a new tool to counter a fake news online they want facebook to share data on its users so that the can be fed what they say are factually accurate alternatives party chief that the d.n.c. have frequently accused russia of deploying online dissin for a mission to try to influence voters in the twenty sixteen presidential election taking a look at what's in the plan. it's ok not as great as we want

who might you hear that from a teacher checking your rest say your gym coach boss or a senior technology officer for the democrats talking about how well the likes of facebook are cooperating with their party as if catering to the d.n.c. was on the network's mission statement what would make mr krikorian happier we would love to do is give every campaign something like the weather report to tell every campaign what is being said on social media in the morning and how they can combat it i'll explain the dems won facebook to look for people who've been fed fakes or propaganda the network should then share that audience with the d.n.c. so that they could feed them what's accurate i.e. the right thing. the democrats are hungry for facebook data this could have been a great moment to remind you of the cambridge analytical data gate if one person if

you joined the asp i would not just see your facebook profile i would see all of the facebook profiles of everybody that you're friends with and people had no idea that it was being taken in this way you know that was one massive gate but i'll remind you of something else the a bomb it seemed had a solution in place a facebook application more than one million a bomb about because you signed up for the app gave the campaign permission to look at their facebook friends lists in an instant the campaign had to wait see the hidden young vote just a little democrat trick to get hold of some user data for political gain before the two thousand and twelve vote you never heard about it because pretty much no one cared those were the days no hash tag collusion media fallout news anchors didn't go on about a twenty four seven and some people in charge at facebook were just real fans of mr obama facebook was surprised to enable to psych out the whole social graph butt.

they didn't stop us once they realized that was what we were doing they allowed us to do things they wouldn't have allowed someone else to do because they were on our site should we assume that dems are still on facebook's friend list you know they've been told to sort the russian fakes out and so have be has been taken measures they've just gotten rid of pages followed by hundreds of thousands of people because they're linked to russia i mean facebook's not so sure about that bit we're still individually early stages of our investigation and don't have all the facts including him maybe behind this but remember for the democrats it's ok not as great as we want and so i'd love to know what type of audiences were these hundreds of thousands of people because we want to talk to them or work with them come on it's just a bit of audience data well monitoring who are what people follow online has had

some serious rep or questions for one american student during a college interview the seventeen year old wasn't to us the body is educational success or buck roland but why he follows alex jones on twitter a controversial show host recently banned by several social networks the students lawyer gave more details to harvey. then to the college student who wasn't admitted to university because they followed alex jones on twitter is that true and if so can you tell us more about but sure i'm happy to explain exactly what happened what was going on was it during the interview process the applicant was question about the fact that he was following mr jones on twitter and the fact that he was looking his stuff up and that was something that was a challenge during the during the actual interview process and subsequently the parents of the student reached out to me and then i reached out to the the

mission's director of the university and made sure that the situation was resolved in the student satisfaction so the problem here was that the fact that the interviewer was actually questioning why this young person was following mr jones in the other types of internet activities that he was partaking in. is the man behind the alternative news channel in full wars he was suspended this week by several social media platforms they say it's because quote he spread hate speech and glorify violence broadly sheer again people need to know how social networks use their information. i'm a big fan of increasing people's personal privacy and i'm a big fan of not only personal privacy but freedom of speech and the problem here is the fact that a lot of people just don't understand how invasive a lot of these companies are and how invasive a lot of pride into two sions are using their technology trying to get out exactly

what your rate is what your religion is what your political viewpoints are and they're taking this information and they're using it against you so that's why i think people need to better understand these these issues and defend themselves against them and they only way they can do that is they become more educated about what is actually happening in the world today. well a few days on since in four wars was bound by several platforms including facebook the world's biggest social network briefly blocked another controversial media outlet from venice whale up a statement from venice will analysis claims they were being targeted on thursday morning off facebook pages arbitrarily and published by facebook with no warning or explanation apart from a standard message informing us that we had allegedly violated the company's terms and conditions there is the international context in which facebook appears to be

targeting independent or leftwing sites in the wake of russia gate venice will analysis is a left leaning english language news website which began in two thousand and three its stated aim is to counter mainstream coverage is akin to the politics of the late president hugo chavez the website saying it's no longer mental relies on readers donations we have facebook to clarify why i took down the page but we're still waiting to hear back one of the co-founders of venice will analysis told us why he thinks his page was about. our best guess is that perhaps a number of people complained to facebook claiming that it was perhaps misrepresenting what we were doing in other words claiming that we were a government sponsored site or something like that and so they automatically take down a side to it that's what i've been told and when. there's a sufficient number of complaints and of course when we appeal it then they review

it i know number of friends who's had individual posts blocked and they never receive any explanation so i doubt that we're going to get any and it's just calls attention to the fact of just how unaccountable facebook is to the public well that's become the largest platform for news and information in the world today one should err on the side of. a is free speech in other words to allow even an odious side i think such as enforced to continue because we cannot trust facebook to make these kinds of judgments. the brink of a new economic war that's russian prime minister dmitri medvedev has described america's this asian to further tighten sanctions on russia and they were in response to accusations over the poisoning of former russian double agent surrogate script powell and his daughter in britain back in march. yes there was a possibility that the but if it comes to banning banking activities or certain

currency use we will be able to call it a declaration of economic war and this will require a reaction by implementing economic political or if necessary any other measures. of the new sanctions will come into ron the first will limit investment on exports especially on a number of national security goods including the energy and tech sectors the second wave is expected to be much harsher as it will have diplomatic relations as well as banking and imports and he takes a look at how far the new penalties might go. when it comes to global disagreement sanctions that the u.s. weapon of choice as russia's number two at the u.n. put it let us welcome the united sanctions of america well russia is being on the receiving end of plenty of them they stem from allegations of election meddling military aggression human rights abuses all cyber crimes take your pick and the

latest well that's of the souls we're poisonings washington says it has determined that russia used a military nerve agent to attack form a double agent say script paul and his daughter where are you getting the conclusion that her she's behind the screen poisoning i would leave it to others to characterize the current state of our understanding of the screen but others haven't given any evidence either just various grades of highly likely is highly likely that russia was responsible we do polls russia culpable culpable culpable culpable for the attempted murder and there's been uncertainty from specialists investigating the case. as analysis of the p.c. w.'s report i did to find the country. of origin of the agent used in this attack and we continue to see a sort of a series of corporate baggers here of insinuation that russia is involved which

basically is a mood music which is feeding the population in the west with the idea yes it is the russians despite the evidence just a constant constant stream of these. people just accept oh yes it must be the russians therefore that's ok we have asked him point more sanctions it's time that we get all the evidence but my suspicion is that as i'm going to happen although that seems of little interest to washington which is found guilty slapped it with new sanctions and strangely given it's ninety days to prove it wasn't involved or it will ratchet up the penalties to a whole new level with even talk of branding russia a state sponsor of terrorism that regardless of trump. wanting russia as a partner in his fight against terror and the torso doesn't seem to matter that the u.s. itself has a long history of consorting with groups branded as terrorists for instance america's support for the green movement which techie label to terror groups organizing an attempt to. you sooner or later the united states will make

a choice either to. either the kook blood in terrorist country of democracy. or how about the american officials here they are a in extremist group then wish i had been a coke the headquarters of the islamic republic party there is a viable opposition to the rule of the. and that opposition is centered in this room. and let's not forget how america stood alongside the afghan wish i had been in its battle against the soviet union only to save that group later form into al-qaeda the people we are fighting today we funded twenty years ago so does america dealing with a spot and groups amount to sponsoring terrorism while the state department has a good answer for that i would leave it to others to characterize the current state

of our own standing well it's not just russia on the receiving end of washington's economic backlash today earlier double trump the us is doubling taurus on its nato ally turkey i have just authorized a doubling of tariffs on steel and on the menu with respect to turkey as their currency the turkish lira slides roughly downward against our very strong dollar and the mini moon now be twenty percent and still fifty percent our relations with turkey are not good at this time. well the move sent turkey's currency into a nosedive while president erdogan has already said his country will not be drawn into an economic war. change the euros the dollars and the gold that you are keeping beneath your pillows into lira banks this is a domestic a national struggle oh. well a turkish lira is now worth almost half of what it was this time last year the move

follows two turkish ministers being singled out for sanctions last week while urged people to convert any u.s. dollars to local currency earlier we spoke to dr hey a turn cohen turkey expert a tell of university he's of the belief that most turkish people will be keen to hold on to their dollars despite this plea to do the opposite. only in two weeks the turkish lira last experience the devaluation that came to the level of forty percent or more so i don't know if many people even if they really like the president can survive this new friend many people are selling their turkish euros in order to buy u.s. dollars in order to maximize the interests and to have profits of course in the social media we have also seen propaganda videos. president said and many people even burned. dollar bank notes so we can not

talk about a uniform. form from turkey if if i am not mistaken the bank sector in the construction sector will be affected from this immediately many people may lose their jobs. ok time now to turn to the third and final report in our series looking at the fate of children of fighters from russian medina caution of a troubled side to talk to people desperate for news of family members who pledged allegiance to the terror group. it's early morning but the office of those human rights group and brosnan is packed with women all desperate to find out any news about their loved ones many have come here from other regions of russia's north caucasus and almost all cases their relatives left russia to join eisel in syria often taking their young children with them these

women are united in their quest to have one simple question answered other family members still alive there are over six hundred women and children reported missing at this human rights office and these are just some of the photos that their family members have left in a bid to locate them now avg free picture has a name date of some general information on the back this is a four year old so my at this child left russia when he was less than a year but there are so many more of them. that he said doesn't miss a single meeting held at the office she says she has already accepted that she will never see her only son again but she just hopes that her grandchildren are still alive she brought pictures of her son's wife mariam one taken before she went to

syria and another when she was over there with her son but he still has never even seen her grandchildren and pass on both of them were born in syria and communication was lost long ago so much so that she doesn't even know the name of her granddaughter. so we all hope that it will be ok that somehow it will all be ok i just feel so sorry for the children it's so difficult when you don't know where exactly your children are and heard anything from my daughter in law in the last eight months and then i cry and i will turn thinks is this year it is so difficult i don't think i can last much longer. that enid tries to spend almost all her free time at this office coming here after work she listens to the women's stories fills out forms and registers the newcomers her own personal tragedy brought her here to this place three years ago her brother left home and never

returned his phone was last tracked in turkey but not a trace since almost three years of silence said. it is very difficult for me now it was so close since we were kids always together went to school together to university together work together he was always around i guess often he left i feel like part of me as i don't leave a normal life now i just exist. was arena still believes that one day she will see her brother a life she has dedicated her life to helping others find their families twenty one russian women are currently in prison there are all of them were sentenced to life behind bars but they're there in prison with their children so now we're trying to bring back these children it is going to be such

a joy just one child for to us if i help these children maybe this might somehow help me bring my brother back home. for her search has come to its conclusion but there was a no for a retail ending she found out that her older sister aida is among a group of russian women convicted and sentenced to life in prison in iraq for joining and supporting i so she is in jail with her twelve year old daughter so while god knows she will probably never see her sister again she is doing everything possible to. get her a nice back home and give her the childhood she's so clearly lost sass that she still can't fully come to terms with her sister's decision.

i don't think she was looking for a better life there were building a house together our brothers gave us land we had so many plans we planted trees there we wanted to do so much we had so much planned for the future and suddenly this happened. all these stories a tragically familiar had the set out of a who leaves the search for missing people says that the real number of families a fact it is catastrophic she says their database comprises over two thousand people will say that i feel irritated when i hear people say you're saving terrorists i'm deeply disturbed by that was what is this child's fault what's the fault of these children only the fact that their parents took them and they became victims of this war when you start to deal with this problem you understand that these are human lives we're talking about and they are our citizens it's easy to just ignore these people there are only two official employees working on this.