the big stories of the week the democrats demand protection for the whistleblower at the heart of the trump impeachment inquiry departure from the way other. people in india and the other world market 150 years since the birth of mahatma gandhi seen as an icon of nonviolent resistance posters of his image with defaced in some regions lighting celebrations also. flashing the ok and gesture is apparently not ok anymore it's no branded a hate symbol and got one thing work at the sack in the us it's also father here. you can find. when you search for. the problem is that

the symbol has become an actual code to say hey we are part of this group you are not. watching out international with me kevin. hughes review of the last 7 days glad to have you here. starting with an impeachment inquiry into donald trump from the latest with over the last 7 days now a 2nd was a blow is reportedly considering filing a complaint over the president's dealings with ukraine and that intelligence official is said to have more direct information than the person who 1st raised the . meantime democrat spearheading the probe are demanding protections for the informants involved so that's a far cry from other attitudes of previous was supposed recent years as caleb maupin reports. we are now told that in this dark age of tyranny one

heroic individual has spoken up like a voice crying out in the wilderness we don't know his name or his occupation but we know that he is good i think the whistleblower did the right thing i think he followed the law every step of the way the inspector general of the intelligence community found this whistleblower complaint both credible and urgent i want to say thank you also to the whistleblower for having the courage of the bravery to come forward on behalf of the nation now not only must this gallant hero be held in the highest level of reverence but he must also be protected from any attack on him would be an attack on the american way of life from everything we know and we don't know much this is a experienced person who saw things that bothered him that's what the whole whistle blower statue is for and it is to protect their identity and i understand he's going to testify and we'll let the process unfold and the you remember how hillary

clinton apparently wanted to kill julian assad with a drone well let's not get lost in details but let's go over some recent whistleblowers in u.s. history. i never tortured anybody. but i got into prison while the tortures of the lawyers. and the people who deceived and the man who destroyed the proof of the tapes will never face justice i've never gained anything through what i've said publicly that i've lost everything.

we had special ops forces the dead man can't leaks that this guy is a traitor a treasonous illegally shoot the son of a. mr snowden was a patriot he is a law breaker he violated american law he violated his duties that he assumed when he took the job that he had let's look at snowden here you know some might try to should say that oh he's a great human rights crusader he is not at all like the great human rights crusaders in the past now some might argue that this case is different because this whistleblower didn't run to the press but simply followed standard procedure but the record seems to show that a lot of cases have whistleblowers who do follow this procedure so why jail time for some of them but turns out the law does not actually protect them from

retaliation they can be fired or prosecuted so are all future whistleblowers doomed well not quite secure backers carefully protecting whistleblowers who see wrongdoing of any kind in our government is essential so if you're a whistleblower in america take a step back look over what you have and ask yourself could this information benefit anyone powerful in america if not your official complaint will probably be ignored and if you don't shut up after that the consequences could be severe the current whistle blowers case is very different from others. the others were blowing the whistle on the system so these were real real abuses what crimes and abuses of our 4th amendment no this new whistleblower we need to put in quotes what was he reporting of course there are double standards there are standards for those. so want to put pressure there political aims using this particular

whistleblower in quotes and there are other rules for people who are really opposed the system and its abuses. footnote to this story one of the people just mentioned in caleb report edward snowden reacted on twitter saying it's unbelievable he said that the media isn't pressing politicians about the case of another whistleblower x. in a say analyst daniel hale who's being prosecuted for lifting the lid on the u.s. drone warfare programs at a time when democrats are making statements about supporting informants will keep you posted a. big anniversary this last week a deal in the world celebrated the 150th birthday of its spiritual leader and the symbol of the nation began the or when this a major political parties paid tribute to go and they even ordered to officials to undertake pilgrimages walking up to 15 kilometers a day in their constituencies and sleeping in villages gallies legacy is recognised globally and his birthday the 2nd of october is celebrated worldwide is

international day of nonviolence indian prime minister modi sang his praises at the un in the. gun be mahatma gandhi was an indian but he not only belong to india he stay far away from the government but reigns today in the hearts of billions of people is influenced the lives of people who never met martin luther king jr to know so mandela was back then spearheading the indian independence movement began these often referred to as the father of the nation throat his life he promoted the ideology of nonviolent resistance and tolerance towards other religions india finally shook off british colonial rule in $147.00 but a year later he was assassinated by hindu nationalists but not everyone seems to be in the mood of the peace and tolerance i can get these poster in one northeastern city was defaced with graffiti saying the traitor of a nation there are other claims that an urn with some of his ashes inside was. in

the editor of news magazine india today blames the act on the descendants of the same hindu extremists who killed. due to member that not too dumb. and some of his associates shot. gandhi my gandhi in the your 948 the members of this not poor dumb got sick rule who also claimed to be hindus they have a very narrow notion of in the wisdom they want to impose some very sort of. notions of hindu ism the believe that. gandhi was responsible for the partition of india they think that he was appeasing the muslim the muslim league which demanded the creation of pakistan i think such groups have been totally marginalized and because they are marginalized therefore they carry on extremist activities so i don't see this group of this kind of activity coming into

the mainstream i see them carrying on these kind of activities once in a while in order to stay afloat they make all kinds of extremist arguments sometimes they have even bill that held responsible for some amount of violence so but i don't think it's a very large group but only had this very tolerant and you know very sort of broadened and progresses notion of nationalism which i think majority indians understand and that's why such extremist groups can never become the mainstream group in the country you know we prop the life of mahatma gandhi later in the day in a feature length report you also watch it online for us too. he did make a good night but it didn't go on cruel group but it didn't stop doc did late but he and i again take the late. night

eat love. you fought against the british people to get an event but did inflate mileage me. know you can't do that in my nation. if the media. makes the money could be a film that makes gandhi could be a bad the next god they could be a 12 year old child it could be any of these people but we need the big this is for the war because deal with why because changeable. when they just go on a christian doctrine the u.k. lost his legal fight against his former employer who sacked him for refusing to use female pronouns for a transgender woman in the interview without see dr david macro to explain why he

refused to back down in the dispute. as of a christian i would consider it be utterly dishonest to use pronouns in that way and simple deeply affected my christian walk with god and certainly as a doctor it's quite simply unscientific and unproven. that i would never refuse to treat any patient that whatever they are they come from the question here is whether open be forced to do something so something which goes against my own. only by the desire for only what the but i desire not to be forced to do something that i cannot do dr david microscope for britain's national health service for 26 years despite that it was subsequently sacked after a conversation with his manager during which he refused and this is where it gets complicated i pathetically to refer to a 6 foot tall bearded man as a mother and while the doctor insisted police of being discriminated nameplate

meant tribunal nonetheless ruled that his objection was incompatible with human dignity. and lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others in so far as those police form part of his wider faith his want of faith also does not satisfy the requirements of being worthy of respect in a democratic society dr matthew says the ruling against him sets a dangerous precedent. i was not the shop floor and i was i say that all the judges did i. believe by my manager are people with the people of the shop floor of the national health service known and. this is really the precedence of the case and that's that's why we're really shocked at the. very quickly the 1st one is that

you're not allowed not to leave the transgender movements matter. the 2nd one is comparable speech the president is belief that made us male and female and then sex and pronouns are fixed it's not allowable and the ball is a christian believes all christianity is not compatible with modern society or human dignity these are very big questions each one of those huge is a huge load. coming up after the break more the big stories of the week a toxic air scare after a massive fire a french chemical factory but local boy was in the air and that fire will put him all. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see that.

problem in syria how it started and became exacerbated because probably because the united states and the russian federation both of them decided to deal with it at an arm's length. their regional allies to take care of things there are a number of opportunities there were if they were seized and there were really serious attempts by moscow in washington to solve the problem and i was witness to a number of them and it could have been possible and would have shorten the war and would have saved a lot of lives there's no doubt. again

and we just got a major fire and major worries for locals about what was in the smoke that went up in it. nonetheless the authorities in the french city of ruah have declared the area safe for a major place the nearby chemical fire last month. there is no risk regarding asbestos fiber in the air the results of 3 a specialist tests are available. for the best here we are in the area closest to the place of the disaster and we can see that the white swans have stayed there in their habitat and there is no trace of pollution in the water so we have physical proof that the environment and wildlife are not currently accepted by the pollution that occurred over to further away. so an attempt to calm fears the french government even set up an emergency helpline but locals still deeply concerned for their health and disputes claims by authorities that the air is safe to breathe shallow dubrovsky reported. the chemical plant just across the water that was

a blaze a thick plume of black smoke bellowed into the sky as firefighters battled almost 24 hours against the flames. in the dark goodies with i'm not saying that the smell isn't pleasant i'm just telling you what the results of the tests are namely that the air is not harmful since then there has been growing anger over what some say is a lack of information over what was put into not fire and the impact that could have on people's health. you can talk to any firemen but when you have any type of contact with the smoke it's dangerous it can be lethal because of the carbon

monoxide and in this case when the smoke went into the sky we didn't know what was in it we don't know exactly what is in the year and we worry a lot that in the future it might bring cancer or something else. i have 4 kids and they were impacted by the smell and my grades i thought about having tests done but for once with absolutely no information about what we should be looking for i could take blood samples but what are you going to tell them to look for i know they could be cancer thyroid problems but the problem is that we hear lots of rumors nothing concrete. i think there is a risk for health and i can feel it because i have an e g throat and i'm continuously coffee we worried about the how to march children in the future where they have cancer or something we just don't know around the rule some people are also taking that. some locals have also experienced more vomiting whilst others. complaint that the top kill to it's black and then

there is the stench you can smell that the air is foul it's a bit like rotting eggs but with a chemical tinge and despite the initial denials that there was no health risk the french health minister has admitted that the rule is clearly pollutant. it is a factory that produces hydrocarbons even if not in large volumes it is never good for the population to come across these kinds of products i cannot say that there is no danger the city is clearly polluted several schools were closed off to the fire and though some have attempted to reopen many teachers are refusing to return to work. colleagues from schools near lubrizol who have refused to work until they receive information about what was burnt and the risk because they are just a few 100 metres away from the site they did so to protect their health and that of the children who are under their responsibility and that's why there has been

a demand that the original school 30 acknowledged their right not to have children attend school under this condition. while health concerns are immediate what's perhaps most telling about the danger people here are facing is the fact that food sales 100 districts around ruin have been banned any produce that may have been exposed to contamination has to be destroyed that even includes milk. hybrid carrots and work closely with milk producers dioxins are measured in memory grams and there are a problem for us because they become highly concentrated in milk and the toxic so they render it unfit for consumption it is vital for us to know as soon as possible whether there are any dioxins in those burning materials what's going on he would tell us what to do with our produce so much from the fire house even reached as far as belgium and the netherlands raising concerns that the impact could be even the

way to reaching flags have also been raised for the health of the police and the firefighters who are on duty doing the fire protests like this have now formed to pressure the authorities to outline any risks they make face they demanding answers but are afraid that even if they recede. even though the danger is as a result of that place may not image for months or even years from now charlotte even ski. while. there's good coverage in the wake is seemingly innocent hand gestures landed a theme park employee in hot water at a florida theme park and act as a character grew from despicable me made an upside down ok symbol when posing with a 6 year old girl who in turn turned out to be biracial and has autism or the ok hand gestures recently been recognized as a hate symbol is the problem america's anti-defamation league says that the once innocent enough sign has been hijacked by white supremacists even as extremists

continue to use symbols that maybe years or decades old they regularly create new symbols means and slogans to express their hateful sentiments we believe law enforcement and the public needs to be fully informed about the meaning of these images which can serve as a 1st a warning sign to the presence of haters in the community or school so the ok symbols white power meaning was initially part of an online prank but apparently white supremacist then like what they saw and started using it in earnest among them the suspected gunman in the christ church mosque shootings in new zealand your record appearance last year a former white house staffer was accused of making the white power sign but it defenders pointed out that was unlikely because she's mexican american a descendant of holocaust survivors so a storm in a teacup or a dangerous appropriation of our every day symbols and gestures we heard from our guests. i think it's pretty ridiculous to label a thing like a bull or the ok symbol as

a symbol of white supremacy i feel like races do do certain things but i mean at a certain point they do everything or people do mean races have to eat food they have to drink water they have to breathe air so at what point do we label eating food as racist drinking water as received in breathing air is received it's just really can of started his particular point sounds a little some of these things that have been in his ear things were a very long time with or a soused hateful subversive groups the problem is that the symbol has become an actual code to say hey we are part of this group you are not and you know the main part of it is like. well it's a far it's far right movement supporting you know again far right ideologies that are very well known in this country to be you know florists and but my point is you know is vastly out for instance and it was an indian sacred religious symbol

50500 years b.c. and you know. people in germany it's ok to put it on a red flag and now it was a symbol it was an inverted this massive go and that became the symbol of nazism and ok but the ok sign is nat day all right ok so you can find it right now on your phone via. device i phone you can find it ok so right now when you search for the new moji there is the equivalent to ok ok it is being used ok for a very loans and it wasn't a couple years ago where it was some kind of troll thing happening on the internet that it became so on those because the mainstream media picked it up and i think the whole purpose of the trolling campaign was to trick the mainstream media into doing it and of course now we hear that the a.d.l. is looking for here is not to label every single thing that we do say or or. or you know we communicate what they are specifically doing is trying to inform you know

people that there are certain symbols that seem innocuous but that are currently being used to. actually incite to violence and crime and you know fundamentalist political ideas that put this democracy in jeopardy it is not a symbol it is interesting it being if people want to use it for whatever you want to use it for ok but you can appear to not see fleg is absurd ok millions. like. verses do ok so i think i was not a hate symbol until it was. an indian youth a day earlier you know a whole can ensure that starkey and on the went well that's the way some of the world around us over the last 7 days as reported by our international here in moscow if you want more you're in luck check it out t. dot com now this sunday morning is kevin irwin saying thanks for watching and worlds apart is next.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race off and spearing dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. rock on for follow on that comes out of a war. of the sort of one among them. a far left to the main t.v. way too high is not the high. end of the month when the sun shone. from close

to the most near me a lot of the. news. and then that it is someone who did the board. didn't. know why a paradise with so much ground turned into a round the experimentation field but agricultural chemicals we know that these chemicals have consequences they are major irritants there's no question otherwise why would the chemical company workers themselves be geared up that suited up locals attempt to combat the on regulated experiments but often in day you have many of these people one foot into the biotech pharma and the other foot in the government regulatory bodies this kind of collusion is reprehensible. while the battle goes on the chemicals continue to poison hawaii and its people so one has to

ask the question whether there is a form of environmental race that's going on in hawaii whether these companies feel they can get away with this because the people have less political power. so welcome to worlds apart the formation of a constitutional committee for syria has been billed as a sign of hope for the long suffering syrian people the people's hopes for peace were dashed too many times over the last 8 years is there any reason to believe

that this time around things will be different to discuss that i'm now joined by a. former deputy special envoy of the u.n. secretary general for syria mr ramsey it's good to talk to you thank you very much for your time thank you very much for inviting me now you step down from based post a few months ago but i'm sure emotionally and professional you still care about what's going on in syria given the scale of suffering given the scale of divisions how significant or insignificant is this latest development aren't we all sort of overselling the whole that is there well 1st let me say that i remain of course very much attached and as you said it emotion syria this is the 1st this is the reason why i took the draw 1st with the u.n. to try to help bring about a settlement to meet the aspirations of certain people you know coming from the region. i think you would understand now the constitutional committee i look at it

as a milestone. very long process in bringing about a peaceful peaceful and political settlement in syria. it is something that we've been working for as you know for some time i've said it before no suit again i think we could have had it earlier it will help syrians as you know the go to the opposition but also independents to put their minds together and work out. a new constitutional framework you know i think you know. i'm sure you know that there have been a number of internationally mediated efforts to resolve this conflict since 2011 and some of them failed because of the trends of the syrian actors many of well at least some of them because of the positions of foreign powers what has

changed on the ground to give you this faint hope that you just articulated though it's may lead to something beyond talks well 1st of all i mean you refer to the situation in. the world of the war is certainly warranted and i think people are tired in syria and beyond and i think this is. a mechanism that allows the syrians to get together and do something about now. positions have changed and i told you i mean we could have had an agreement or your call and why it's happening now because positions have changed has the positions how the positions changed within syria or is it the status of foreign partners all for its plants or is it fair insides that have well. as you know the syrian. conflict has 3 levels as the international there's a regional and of course there is a good.