in the headlines today an unnamed employee of the international chemical weapons watchdog cast doubt on the group's official report into a disputed chemical attack in syria. and cries foul over losing a pentagon contract with billions to rival microsoft and files a lawsuit blaming one person in particular. coming up to hong kong's pro-democracy movement takes a break from protests and secures a big win in closely watched local elections seen as a litmus test for beijing. monday morning here in moscow hi there thanks for choosing to us this is out international live from the world news center with me kevin though in top story the whistleblower

is casting doubt on the way the international chemical weapons watchdog handled last year's alleged chemical attack in the syrian city of duma a leaked internal e-mail from an unnamed employee at the o p c w claims that the organization cherry picked and misrepresented facts in its official report the released by wiki leaks coincides too with the o p c w 5 day conference in the hague which starts in just a few hours time let's go to europe our correspondents for cissie goshdarn off today a go morning you'd think this might have a renewed focus to the o.p.c. w.'s imminent conference is it raising eyebrows in the hague this thing we've mentioned they're starting in a few hours. well karen even if it does they're trying to keep a straight face there on the agenda of this annual meeting is just routine administrative stuff but this thing this in this whistleblower e-mail is certainly the big elephant in the room because it was compiled by one of. the co authors of

the o.p.c. w.'s report into onto the 2018 the chemical attack in the syrian city of duma and while his words i should say sum up better than anything he's feeling so when he saw what the report that he was working on turned out to be as he's accusing the o.p.c. w. of manipulating facts. after reading the modified report i was struck by how much it misrepresents the facts an unintended bias has been introduced into the report undermining its credibility crucial facts have morphed into something quite different what was originally drafted now this is far from the 1st time this report is drawing criticism for instance some have pointed out that it took the o.p.c. w. investigators some 10 days to get to the site of the attack is saying that while a lot could have been changed by people on the ground a lot of evidence could have been doctored or changed or altered just in general

messed with somehow now criticism is coming from inside the body itself and while it took 10 days for the investigators to get on site it took a very few it took a couple of days literally for the u.s. the u.k. and france to get to launch action to launch airstrikes to assign the blame to the syrian army to say that president bashar assad was responsible and to launch air strikes against syrian army's facilities now the final version of the report it did while while the o.p.c. w. of course would not toss with assigning blame but circumstantially it did kind of point to the 2 aside it did pointed out that the canisters carrying the deadly chlorine gas they came from above and they in fact no one could as no one but assad could have a could have done so could have dropped them because the syrian opposition doesn't have any doesn't have any air force. so this this was seen as somewhat as we

deeming for the hasty action taken by the un to get by the united states and its partners but according to this whistleblower the initial version of the report did not paint that picture at all. the redacted report states that the gas was likely released from the cylinders the original report purposely emphasized the fact that there was insufficient evidence to affirm this. so again now this report has been criticized from the insight now from the from the outside i should say now from the inside so now this whistleblower weighs making one call towards the o.p.c. w. show us what you initially. i am requesting that the fact finding report be released in its entirety as i fear that this redacted version no longer reflects the work of the team. so indeed it will be interesting to see whether or not anything will come out of this meeting in the hague regarding this o.p.c. w.

scandal yeah absolutely we'll be across it with your help closely if you do get him or through in the coming hours he goes down off there in europe thank you know next . iraq continuing to prove if there's one thing it seems that amazon doesn't like is losing the internet giants formally launched a legal challenge against the u.s. department of defense after rival microsoft beat the firm to clinch a very lucrative data contract the decision surprised analysts who indeed thought amazon had it in the bag but the rose more than just about money. has been finding out. amazon and white christmas oft 2 giants that have changed the way we experience the world. let. us warm and fuzzy ads to appeal to our pockets over the holiday season but it turns

out the real money that both ofter is the pentagon's given us military spent over $600000000000.00 annually it's unsurprising there's a battle for the big contracts so head to head and microsoft have been vying for the pentagon prize of $10000000000.00 over the next 10 years the contract in question is for the jet die project and ambitious offended that would allow the pentagon to stall sensitive data on a single large cloud it would also allow the military to take full advantage of artificial intelligence tools tools which have drawn concern from ethical watch dogs for their lethal potential in guiding missiles and drones amazon thought it had its foot in the door not only is it in the wilds of cloud computing it's also made $600000000.00 from its dealings with the cia since 2013 so you can understand

a short quote and microsoft was crowned and amazon is not happy it's so unhappy in fact that it's filed a lawsuit saying that it was passed over at the recommendation of a certain donald trump we believe is critical for our country that the government and its elected leaders administer procurements objectively and in a minute is free from political influence numerous aspects of the joint enterprise defense infrastructure evaluation process contain clear deficiencies there is an unmistakable by. and is important in these matters be examined and rectified it's true trump and bezos have rarely exchanged a kind word the president argues that amazon is swindling the u.s. postal service out of money and doesn't pay enough tax he's also not a fan of the bears also and washington post whose printing press is pretty hot from all its anti trump coverage so we probably wasn't hard to guess who trump was not

going to throw his support behind we're getting tremendous. really complaints from other companies and from great companies some of the greatest companies in the world are complaining about it having to do with amazon and the department of defense and i will be asking them to look at it very closely to see what's going on because i have had very few things where there is really such complaining amazon thinks that there is evidence of one to influence something both microsoft and the pentagon deny the acquisition process was conducted in accordance with the political laws and regulations in law for as we're treated fairly and evaluated consistently with the solicitation stated evaluation criteria we have confidence in the qualified staff of the department of defense and we believe the facts will show they have been a details process in determining the need to the wolf item a best made by microsoft but while these companies fight it out for the pentagon's affections others have been more reticent last year outrage was sparked after it

emerged google was cooperating with the department of defense on a project that helped the army identify drone targets over $3000.00 employees signed a petition calling for the trial of more ality over money and ultimately resulting in the search engine not renewing the contract we believe that google should not be in the business of war building this technology to assist the u.s. government in military surveillance and potentially lethal outcomes is. not acceptable so while some battle with their conscience and mothers refuse to accept lost fortunes for microsoft it's been a golden autumn with its war chest filled by a milestone contract shares jumped 3 percent and to top it all off bill gates has recently returned to his favorite position the wilds richest man rumor has it even

helped jeff bezos clear his desk from the end to around soko aleutian told us the pentagon's always considered to be a solid business partner no more war. well amazon's lawsuit represents indicates the cutthroat competition between the mega monopoly corporations that are competing with each other to become an appendage of the pentagon big technology companies know that in order to really prosper and thrive in the american economy you have to affix yourself to pentagon spending because the lion's share the majority of discretionary budgeting each year in this massive federal budget actually goes for death and destruction for the u.s. military machine so this is not simply a matter of war the defense department and the contracts this is it this is business and in america war is very profitable and war contracting very very

profitable big vote in hong kong yesterday though over the last 24 hours that struck the next it seems the pro-democracy movement is celebrating victory this morning in the chinese territories district council elections off to record number of voters flocked to the polls sunday the opposition's one around 90 percent of the 452 seats being contested putting them in control that of 1718 districts it's the 1st election since those violent protests of up to that in june and was widely seen as a vote on how the probe aging government is handling the unrest on call opposition leaders say the result sends a clear message to the authorities and the demonstrators demands must be taken seriously the say the huge win that means the pro-democracy bloc will get the biggest say on the election committee that selects hong kong's next chief current leader says she hopes the territory won't return to chaos and for the city to have a fresh start indeed the streets were notably quiet on polling day compared to what home combs in june and in recent months.

thank. god. i. thank you. we are strong kong based economist benjamin show whether or not he thinks this lull in the arrest currently is going to last. on one hand the security measures in your police. week words are dead ahead both sides will can't actually call for a cease fire peace and courage and i think that the actions and inactions of the right to high be coordinated contrary to the claims of having no. even people

breaching lost most of these elections is not directly impact much the majority of the. council for lawmaking north and for the next chief executive so i expect why you could still go on respect that you actually results expression of ultimate intention of the right is really not just up all the wealth but on a global political competition between powerful nations. monday morning in moscow still plenty more to come if you're going around 15 minutes or so but it comes to wind power it seems not everyone is a big fan in germany as the countries go to renewables industries being dealt a blow we'll tell you what the blow is.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy to confront ation 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 time to sit down and talk. you know world of big partners through a lot of things and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the back and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the troops the time is now we're watching closely watching the hawks.

this is about international good morning america not could be mean a seems to have inclusiveness issues these days we can report as conservative lecturers are increasingly being shot by student protest as several were arrested last wednesday for instance when more than a 1000 california university students tried to block a conservative pundit from speaking in the campus and buckley more caleb maupin. universities are supposed to be a place for learning getting a useful degree and exploring certain ideas however lately they've become a home to some rather intense political activism as well as excluding certain ideas take the university of california berkeley as an example during the 1960 s.

the campus was home to the free speech movement an upsurge demanding the right to discuss and debate off campus issues however lately it has become far less receptive to certain divergent ideas. a columnist with right wing conservative views that are too extreme for some and culture opposes women's suffrage and called for militarily converting the middle east to christianity now arthur laffer is different from ann coulter arthur laffer served in the reagan white house he's not a pundit rather an economist he just wrote a book about trump's america 1st economic vision well being on the university students did not like that he was given a platform. i

the university had to issue an apology it seems like the rules of free expression and open discourse don't apply to right wing speakers and approach voices conservatives often complain about a perceived a liberal bias in academia. damia and the constant curling of the accusations of naziism at right wing scholars samuel abrams a professor at sarah lawrence college actually called for regulating political balance this warped ideological distribution among college administrators should give all students and their families pose the ideological imbalance coupled with their agenda setting power threatens the free and open exchange of ideas which is precisely what we need to protect in higher education in these politically polarized times now this idea of hiring professors based on their political views and mandating that it be 5050 among the left and right didn't go over too well in fact many called for him to be fired just for suggesting this is what new york city college students think about the atmosphere on the campuses any ideas that

counteracts this progressive movement or this so-called leftist movement often get met with a lot of backlash conservative professors or people with conservative viewpoints doesn't get shut out of the conversation would be comparative to me going into a class that was something against what i believed in and making the same insight i like don't you think that they should be allowed to do that they when they hear whatever they want to hear it's not allowing them to experience new and different and challenging ideas that might open their eyes i do think that it is important to have different values to share on campuses not just progressive values or ideas or the ones that cater to ours you we can't just allow ourselves to be put in an echo chamber of liberal ideas or in an echo chamber of conservative ideas we have to be unbiased we have to look at you know different viewpoints and make our own decisions on them and if we only hear one side that's all we'll ever hear in the last several decades ideas described as liberal and progressive have pretty much

become the dominant view in america's institutions of higher learning and despite rhetoric about diversity and freedom of expression these folks are pretty determined to keep it that way and don't mind silencing those who might disagree a little. arch see new york more on it american scholar michael rectum bold claims he was forced to leave his job as a new york university liberal arts professor after hearing his conservative views he says activist students are increasingly turning against lecturers they don't agree with i would call them ill liberals 1st of all they're not liberals there are liberal leftists who are attempting to shut down any speech that they don't approve of even if they don't know what it is because in many cases they don't even know what the speaker say or have to say they don't even understand different viewpoints lot of om listening to them they are complete political thoughts and think that their viewpoints are the only ones worthy of. a hearing and therefore they have turned the university into nothing but

a semi violent echo chamber so yeah there is a new wave of activism but i wouldn't call it grassroots by any means it's it's an astro turf but it is synthetic that's being whipped up by members of the democratic and other. leftist groups and it is completely. friends it is now it is not rational at all. fishing for red prawns which are a delicacy in italian cuisine has become a whole lot more dangerous these days to fishermen in sicily it's got nothing to do with the sometimes treacherous seas they have to work in but because they face being attacked by the libyan coast guard and some italians even in the open jail is despite the italian authorities warning fishermen to stay clear of waters that libya claimed in 2005.

i mean. i know that my life has been filled with tragedies each time i go out to sea when i say goodbye to my wife she says i don't know if you're coming back families remain in fear because for us fishermen the mediterranean is in a continuous war. well although i've had some bad experiences with them on the 22nd of march 996 a libyan patrol boat seize my boat after 4 or 5 hours of shooting it all happened in international waters after 6 months they released us from prison for good behavior. the. nerve of all i was afraid it happened off the coast of tripoli while we were below

deck they kept shooting we hid in the machine room in the freezer cells and they continued shooting and didn't want to stop. right here on the e.u. does not help us there are shootings and many other risks if they should us we might die. with. the flu is that equation this is our job i was born a fisherman we've been fisherman for 3 generations i want to die fisherman. or at least. inas germany's most important source of renewable energy wind power is suffering something of an economic blow but right now the once thriving industry

had been at the core of the country's attempt to try to get those important carbon emissions down by 2030 other counts the lion's share of electricity but financing it seems no supports a fading vangelis sepsis explains. goes on wavering commitment to protect the environment has earned her the nickname as the climate chancellor as part of her latest green initiative her government approved a 60000000000 euro package of climate policies it's aim to generate a 100 percent of its electricity supply using renewable energy by 2050 it's induced feast we as industrialized countries are also on the frontline we need to do something to minimise our carbon footprint to stop climate change and reverse the rise in temperature if you push for climate protections it will cost money but this money's been spent if we ignore it i think it will cost us more money that's the truth the linchpin of germany's green shift is wind energy

ringback. considering that you wonder if the industry is booming well it's lawn earlier this summer zeman lost $2000000000.00 euros and had to cut $2700.00 jobs which half of those were here in germany and are called a nother giant in the industry had to cut twice as much as zimmerman did and it's blaming all that on the government. the current energy and climate policy not only jeopardizes the innovations in jobs created in our industry over the years but also climate protection and the energy transition as a whole after the federal government presented its climate protection package it became clear that the problems are even greater other companies have been hit even harder by the energy crisis nordics was in the red and was bought out by a spanish firm said the on had to file for bankruptcy you are probably wondering

why is the green shift facing so many problems well even though many germans do agree with wind energy a lot of them are not keen on the idea of having a wind farm in their backyard. in an effort to appease protesters berlin announced new regulations forcing firms to seek permission from local authorities if they want to build within a one kilometer of a residential area during approval however can take up to 2 hears the prospect of protracting the legal battles and delays is scaring off investors the fact that the federal government is threatening to sink to this over one of the most important aspects of our economy because of public criticism over the initiatives shows the current political weakness studies show that if it wants to achieve its carbon

neutrality by 2050 germany must increase its wind power production 6 fold but so far this year wind energy witnessed a significant drop off as investors become increasingly wary about investing into the wind business the dream of turning germany into a green state seems to be fading eventually. so i think looking for the museum so far this monday here in moscow monday morning is there is no commute 27 past 11 folks watching my name is kevin and if you want to check out . check out r.t. dot com crosstalk software after this break.

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led. by. what is true what is faith. in the world corrupted you need to descend. to join us in the depths. aura maybe in the shallows. hello and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle with ukraine remaining in the headlines we have a look how russia's foreign policy is changed since the 2014 coup in camp and the impeachment circus continues buds. it's anything but funny.

talking some real news i'm joined by my guest here in moscow dimitri bobbitt she's a political analyst and editor at interest me internet media project and in london we crossed alexander macarius he is a writer on legal affairs as well as editor in chief of the duran dot com all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate let me go to alex 1st in london well ukraine remains in the headlines and the 2nd half of the program we'll talk about the impeachment circus but let's focus on how ukraine the ukraine the ukraine project that the west has had since the coup in 2014 is changed russia's foreign policy and it's something that's beginning to worry people being said and i mean worrying people are the neo cons and why.