the austrian chancellor calls busy for an early election after his deputy is ensnared in a corruption scandal and forced to resign. it calls into question the world the technical weapons the watchdogs conclusions in the lead chemical attack on the outskirts of the syrian capital last year. and anger erupts in the u.s. after the state of alabama the country's most draconian abortion. you need to make a choice that you believe make a choice if you don't have that ability it's not going to work you don't like some of the comments that. have respect for life.

or broadcasting live from our studios this is our international thomas certainly glad to have you with us and the chancellor of austria sebastian kurtz has requested an early election after his 2nd in command was caught in a corruption sting and forced to resign. after yesterday's video i can honestly say enough is enough for produce the president today to hold snap elections in austria as soon as possible. thousands of people protested outside parliament in vienna on saturday calling for a new government on friday undercover video was released showing heinze christian struck offering lucrative public contracts and a woman posing as the niece of the russian tycoon exchange for political support and the vice chancellor resigned but claimed to be the victim of an illegal job earlier michel you know neil discussed the story party's court.

yes it was stupid yes it was a responsible yes it was a mistake but at the same time it was a victim of a targeted political attack that have used illegal means so after talks with the chancellor sebastian court i made the decision to resign from the post of feist chancellor. all started with this video that came out of what was clearly a sting it's caused quite a scandal around the right wing freedom party and its former vice chancellor he and the senior member of the party johan go dennis were shown cutting a back room deal with a woman claiming to be the niece of a russian all a dark with lothian citizenship back in 2017 right before the austrian elections so they spoke about the party taking money from wealthy donors who kept their paper trail hidden apparently through a charity organization the woman also allegedly offered to buy 50 percent stock of a major austrian newspaper to flip the editorial line in favor of the freedom party

. he's. he's. now stretch apologized for what he said he said he discredited people with his actions said he was dumb and barest himself but at the same time he also did say that he was the victim of illegal entrapment and denies receiving money from this woman and as well as his party as party also. denies receiving any money coincidentally this video from 2 years ago also surfaced only several days after there was meeting between the austrian president and russian president vladimir putin nobody knows where this video came from or who set up the camera now earlier today the other guy in the video good in this also resigned from his position in the party and 2017 these those elections they were a big step forward for the freedom party actually they took 26 percent of the vote

their best results since 1999 so the scandal in these ragged resignations they could put an end to some of the gains from those elections in which they took power only through the coalition with the austrian people's party so what we're seeing here are some big changes in the political landscape in austria. a political scientist at the university of vienna told us the corruption scandal will deal a major blow to the freedom party in the european elections. no matter what. its. damage. is. likely to almost 2 years were almost fierce on. distancing himself. so if. he does seem to be bobby's most of them say it's not. so to

arabia has issued a warning to iran after accusing the country of sabotaging an oil pipeline and 2 tanker ships the saudi foreign minister said that the kingdom will respond with full force if you're wrong tries to start a war meanwhile the u.s. has strengthened its fleet in the persian gulf u.s. navy has sent 2 more of its guided missile destroyers to the region the vessels pass through the strait and joined the other warships and earlier this month this comes after the u.s. accused iran of planning to attack american interests and she's probably boyko gives her unique take on the situation in her online series in case you missed it. in case you missed it u.s. forces on the move when to become a lightning rod and hold on a 2nd is this a game of thrones i say it. is just that this stuff in the middle east is really important and a good ok but honestly it would be stupid enough to come past something as serious

as this a t.v. show about boobies. is that real you know wow imagine if the latest us iran showdown was actually a game of thrones i'm not wearing the. t. golden head donald trump variant is the owner of thousands of old dragons dragons are a metaphor for nuclear weapons try and stay with me here ok ito isn't one round this is how many just a few of the great houses are allowed the ability to tell an entire city's into smoldering ashes but only one species dead now trump guerin's forces are gathering outside the iran this stronghold he sent in his eye and feet and parked one of there's peace loving at a craft carrier is just off the coast he's even threatened to send 120000 sunday

troops there as well but he doesn't want you may be confused by that part of the whole list that here tonight john bolton says you've seen intelligence indicating that the iran distance is all planning attacks against trump garrion forces 30 reports coming from the little the virus netanyahu the middle east the mosque of wispa is all of this makes the iran a state is for a dragon of their road more than ever and they're threatening to try and breed one again soon because the trunk guerin's pulled out of an ancient pact which stopped them doing that the stocks of europe a warning that a conflict could stop accidentally but when it comes to the crunch they're likely to scatter in different directions when the fighting begins and at least one will probably view. the problem for the iran desk as it is that they have no idea if they're dealing with the seasons $1.00 to $7.00 trump area or to season 8 version.

i have no idea. by staying with the theme of game of thrones the much anticipated finale to the epic fantasy t.v. series airs on sunday night and according to one study as many as 5000000 people in the u.s. are planning to skip work the following day meanwhile the actor who plays ramsey bolton in the show has been on in the adventure of his own with his very 1st trip to russia he spoke with our very own daniel hawkins and we should warn you that the following interview contains some spoilers give a wonder what happens ramsey if you add in the sort of gristly and in season 6 yeah i don't know. i don't know how he would've felt but and there is something he probably would have been like. in a stupid she's got dragged it was but i don't think the way the narrative of the shows played. it would have been as good with ramsey they i think. i think he needs

to sort of be gotten rid of in order to. install the stocks back to create the drama and the and the entry between the nearest and. and jon snow obviously because what else are you going to do he just is in so many awful things that he just you know who'd just been a you know was going to do you know as you've described as well sort of nothing's black and white there's no villains you know it's interesting playing those sorts of roles of never being romeo you know i mean in. so i guess. something else. i really enjoy playing the more complex roles because there's just more to it. and it's often yes more interesting i think i don't know all that says about me as a person. or maybe you know i think you need a specific kind of actor to play those roles and in order to make them not be sort of just face value and have depth and to be 3 dimensional and maybe you need

a specific kind of actor and we had a person obviously getting away from a game of thrones is that is the big thing right now that the hype surrounding that i haven't seen much could ask is that what's of this eerie so let me follow you yeah absolutely yeah what's your thoughts of the finale i think one of the great things about it is he just doesn't mater what you people can sit around and discuss in and have all these ideas and they just no matter what you think they always seem to find a way to twist i thought coming into the series there was no way around it being the nearest but now i was thinking in lost and. so i don't know if she's but i kind of saw a lot coming i'm very interested to see the scene between. little of the author it goes away something is epic is that which is you know really. defined you at least in the last couple of years as a yeah of course i miss it but it's also it's everything's got to come to a close and i think it's quite exciting that it sort of finishes as you know has

just fizzled out going out with the buying in. yen and then on to the next thing in . a league to document has raised questions about the global chemical weapons watchdogs report on a deadly attack in syria last year the incident took place in the city of duma 10 kilometers from the syrian capital as government forces advanced towards opposition militants who had occupied the area is a brief reminder of how the situation unfolded back then. the newly lead to document appears to contradict the o.p.c. w.'s official conclusion issued more than 2 months ago that report claimed that

cylinders probably containing chlorine gas were dropped from the air on the city of duma western governments used those findings to blame the syrian government for the attack. however the document reportedly written by an affiliated expert says it is unlikely the 2 cylinders were dropped from an aircraft in queens instead they were placed there manually or correspondent regardless of how small. this was a comprehensive study and the way you look at it iis engineers experts accounted for almost everything apparently visited the locations saw all the images the videos simulated the physical properties of the canisters concrete steel supports rebars everything they could account for they did it seems is what they found at one location in the crater and the chemical canister simply put didn't match instead the crater appears the being caused by an explosive shell before or after

and the canister in the impact crater just don't match when a metal cannon falls through a concrete roof and steel supports you'd expect it to leave marks in dents but no consistent marks were found another location canisters say the authors simply couldn't have fit through the impact crater with the valve still intact the only explain nation for all of this the experts state is that they were placed there observations of the scene of the 2 locations together with subsequent analysis suggests that there is a higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed it there is 2 locations rather than being delivered from aircraft now one would think their findings are incredibly important that they would change the entire narrative is findings completely contradict what was later put in the official o.p.c. w.

report on the chemical incident and duma narrative the acid's helicopters drop to these canisters that was established hours after the incident. with no investigation or questions a narrative that enabled the narmada of cruise missiles to be launched at syria u.b.c. w. has admitted that documents had been leaks and say they're investigating how it happened which into the veracity of these documents they didn't deny their legitimacy worryingly u.p.c. w. has issued no comment on what these specific report found there were many other reports which the u.p.c. w. compiled for their final version on how these leaked findings fly in the face of the u.p.c. w.'s official report the documents turn the entire story side down and bear in mind these aren't just random nobodies we don't know whether this team was part of the

u.p.c. w. staff members or outside consultants experts and the u.p.c. w. is saying nothing other than it looked at all versions and sub investigations and compiled 7 them asked for comment a week ago with a list of questions and there's been no response why did they meet this report why did they go for one version of events and not the other why are they taking so long to comment on this so far silence but with the story gaining traction for answers sooner or later professor peirce robinson who assessed in the document for a british academic research group says the weapons watched are going to address whether there is a cover up going on over the duma report. what kind of political pressure might have been brought to bear on your p.c. w to lead to what would appear to be the case to to suppress will not

use a report which one of their star members has been involved in producing and to rely upon engineering reports from some unspecified external companies those are the kind of questions 3 really need to be asking and really you know p.c. w. has to address this i think more broadly than that there needs to be a proper investigation into the o.p.c. w. and how it has been operating because if it is the case that this organization has been subjected to political pressure and that has led to a distortion there investigations then that is an incredibly serious matter. whole number of reasons quite aside from the fact that we did what happened in duma civilians were killed and we need to get to the bottom of who killed them ok this is a war crime has occurred and it is in any way some kind of coverup going on and that's

a very very serious matter and it's something which should be people should be pushing for a proper investigation an international inquiry into what has been going on how do you easy w.b. not creating uncritically an investigation to try to understand what has been happening in syria in relation to all of these events need allegations regarding chemical weapons attack. some callers now the netherlands have been crowned euro vision winners for the 1st time since 19752100 songs contest wound up a few hours ago dutch singer lawrence won over the jury and viewers with his ballad arcades going 492 points italy were the rows up of 465.3 l russia to 3rd place where. it was the 64th annual. song contest took place in the israeli city of tel aviv thousands of people watched the show in the euro vision village

and millions more around the world well this year's event though was overshadowed by some controversy there were protests and calls for a boycott of a competition the right. rights advocates rather argued to the event was being used to distract from crimes committed by israel in the occupied palestinian territories . switching gears completely now this week in the u.s. state of alabama approved a new abortion law most restrictive in the country it criminalizes the procedure even in cases of rape or incest and punishes doctors with up to 99 years in prison while a similar a heartbeat bill was signed in neighboring georgia earlier this month and has more . alabama and georgia have passed their widely decried heartbeat bills these laws ban the terminations of pregnancy after 6 weeks even if the woman has been raped even if the fetus is not viable they make no exception and not surprisingly these

bills have been rather controversial this is the most extreme abortion ban that's ever been passed so there's a higher penalty for doctors who perform these operations then for most rapists this is a travesty and i pray for all these women and young girls who will suffer at the hands of the system these are the eat it's making decisions for women in america governor i.v. shame on you celebrities are now speaking out actress alyssa morano is pulling a page from the old greek comedy list the strada and calling on women not to have sex with men until the laws are overturned and certain voices are calling on big corporations like amazon delta airlines and coca-cola to boycott antiabortion states i think if a woman doesn't want to have it i think that you have the option to be decided as a mayor here in the seventy's to pass through persuade because women were still going to worship just one state but it's not just the pro-choice side that is

getting fired up anti abortion activists are furious about new was in new york and virginia now these bills allow for a doctor to take into account physical emotional and even a woman's age when making the decision to terminate a pregnancy at any point and needless to say conservatives have gotten fired up by the implications of these laws i think it's good news why isn't that a bill banning abortions after a woman has been pregnant for 6 weeks is not to return to the dark ages what's your answer my answer is something called science human life exists at conception it ought to be protected abortion has never been popular in the state of alabama it applies only in the state where a strong majority agrees with it were reflects that communities values will. well i was outraged i think anyone who cares about the n born would have been it is inhumane it is immoral in my opinion and this is what i'm fighting against the anti abortion side is now calling for drastic action it's time the millions of

commonsense pro-life americans canonically boy quote new york virginia new mexico and all the other insane states that will not protect the babies native new york pro-lifer gather outside life in new stations with pro-life signs show the world your numbers boycott new york boycott new york seriously don't go there if everyone who's pro-life refuses to visit there we could cripple the tourism industry decided to find out how new yorkers feel about these new laws they're awful they're terrible for people men and women you need to make a choice should be at the ability to make a choice if you don't have that ability it's not going to work i have mixed feelings i could see both sides i don't like some of the comments that were made about women and rape but i also have respect for life and do think there is a point where we need to be more mindful of what we're doing certain things this is an old fight in american politics between 2 groups that just won't see eye to eye

and it seems that the powers that be have picked this longstanding divide among the american people and said ready set fight it could go all the way up to the supreme court again caleb up an artsy new york. well ahead of next week's elections to the european parliament italy's far right in teary or minister is stepping up efforts to form a united europe skeptic font until salvini address thousands of supporters at a rally in milan this saturday alongside other nationalist leaders from across the bloc including france's marine le pen and the netherlands geert wilders with the populist right continuing to gain momentum in europe and expected to make dramatic gains in the upcoming vote a new poll has. field of the majority of e.u. citizens believe the block is now facing an existential crisis faced with a raft of serious political and economic challenges there's apparently a widespread fear it will collapse within the next 10 to 20 years or 2. reports.

with less than a week to go before the e.u. heads to the polls it seems that year of files have found something new to panic about according to one thing tank this is the european council on foreign relations there are just 7 days to save the union now that may sound drastic but when you look at the results of a survey that they've just released beginning to understand why you have been described as the world's best known peace project but it seems a surprisingly large number of coaches across the blow off fearful war may break out between member states here in france there was the greatest pessimism with 34 percent saying that it was a realistic prospect so we've been putting this to people here in paris to find out if this scares the bejesus out of them i have to say that we are owed a bit scared about so i hope that this would like to have more consequences like

rex either so i think you're dreaming. is like oh nightmare they will never happen it is something that suppose in the future to think you wouldn't i don't think so we have for the 1st thing. in. always we we need to always try to move move on we're not really afraid of. economy very open economy. we're dependent on foreign investment. in 20 years lots of things could happen and there could be a war we could see a repeat of the 1st of the 2nd world war i'm not actually worried about that but we never know i would think from all of that's happened oh. over the course of history but europe would not want to do that again because i think it's a problem for the future and that's why it's important to those elections perhaps just as worrying is that some 58 percent of respondents here in france thought that

the e.u. was likely to fall apart in the next 10 to 20 years reflecting a general trend in other member states including many it's early and poland it may be a bit late in the day but the think tank the e.c.f. ah is now looking for inspiration as how it can encourage more pro e.u. voters to cast their ballots next week to safeguard the future is suggest taking a leaf out of the book of protest movements like the yellow vests here in france or even extinction rebellion basically the penny has finally dropped to many voters the turned off by traditional politicians and there is huge apathy towards the e.u. parliament and its institutions so is it too late to save europe or to save it from itself. r.t. paris. this is from. back in 34 minutes with a look at your headlines this is your 2 international.

senators financial survival guide i don't buy i caused all the futures. on the friday as a lesson of buying from the future trucker watch kaiser. welcome

to worlds apart of the just the solution may still be the mantra in international circles but it's increasingly hollow and deceitful promise for these release and palestinians alike according to polls the majority on both sides find it either undesirable or unfeasible thomas more of the status quo will it take to finally change tack well to discuss that i'm now joined by i and a professor of political science at the university of pennsylvania professor list it's good to talk to you thank you very much for your time glad to be here now i

know that you personally started out as a supporter of the 2 state solution but then the you changed your mind completely and i think for the majority of of our audience 2 states between the. river in the sea still seems like the most optimal and the fairest option why do you think it's good in theory and not so good in practice i put it this way you're correct back in ne 960-0970 s. i was i began to be interested in a 2 state solution and became very active both as an activist and as a scholar and studying it and i believed until maybe about 10 years ago that it was not only the prettiest picture of the future that i could imagine as plausible but also one that could be achieved through negotiations but as a result of the processes that i and others have been warning about for decades of de facto annexation of the west bank in the credible ization of the entire process polarisation and so on i no longer think that it's an achievable picture so is that

there is one thing to discuss what's the best solution as far as well what would the prettiest picture of the future that you can imagine be the fairest one the prettiest one the most attractive but if you can't figure out a way to get there then it's not really a solution it's just a picture so i'm not really saying any of that there is a one state pretty picture either yet but i can tell you that there is no way to get to a negotiated 2 state solution from where we are now and the continued attempt to do so is is retarding the process of actually making progress toward a democratic solution for all the peoples who live between the sea in the river now about 2 years ago soon after president trumps inauguration you wrote that by anding this almost obligatory fixation on the 2 state solution trump may be opening a door for something more realistic do you still feel that way by accident i am

reluctant to give credit to president trying for just about anything but as the saying goes a broken watch is right to. today and by accident away when he said at the beginning of his presidency that he'd be open to a 21 state or a 2 state solution whatever the is royson a palace has got agree on i think that was actually a smart thing to say and it recognized and in a way the position of the white house that the 2 state solution is no longer achievable through negotiation is correct there is no way to a given the legacy of american folsom support for israel expansion essentially ready over the decades given the kind of political culture and political system that israel has developed there really isn't a way to negotiate something between palestinians and israelis on the other hand there are what i don't like about the question or trump plan.