clean athletes will though be allowed to compete under a neutral flag and russia will also be banned from hosting competitions and follows accusations that the russian doping agency tampered with data we can cross to our correspondent national defense what more do we know about the implications of this decision. but we are still waiting for wider to make that official confirmation but as you said nikky we've had confirmation from result of this is the russian anti doping agency the head of that confirming that the border what has unanimously accepted the proposals to ban russia from competing in those international events for the next 4 years in terms of what that means exactly we understand that it means as i say the ban will be for 4 years it will mean that russia is in the sporting wilderness during that time it means that it won't be able to participate or at least won't be able to participate and of the russian flag in tokyo 2020 in the winter olympics after that it means that russian

officials will be banned from sitting on international sporting boards and also banned from sitting on international sporting committees and it means that russia won't be able to bid it won't be able to host any major sporting events during that time and it means that athletes and other people will be able to be banned from flying the russian flag at major sporting events some very very strong restrictions as a result of that unanimous decision by the water board we are waiting to find out more details as to why they made that decision because they were some people saying including the president of the international committee this sort of blanket ban is not a good idea now this of course comes after claims by water that positive tests were deleted by a lab in moscow these were tests being passed to wired to try and get away from the situation we found ourselves in the last few years this isn't the 20. 14 winter

olympics in sochi this was meant to end the scandal instead what it's done now is it sees russia in the wilderness for the next 4 years as you mentioned there we know that russian athletes will be able to participate in neutral flag of course if there is no question over any tests they've taken in the past and if they've not shown to have proof positive to any potential scandals. in addition to that i need to mention that there have been questions raised over the last few days about about its procedures and also about its methods some scientists claiming that it's methods of flawed and that its rules are arbitrary and unfair to have this blanket ban on all russian athletes but as we mentioned russian athletes will be able to post dissipate and a neutral flag so those are sort of suggestions of problems about water problems about its own internal processes perhaps cast

a long shadow over today's decision but what we know so far is that there's been a unanimous decision by water we have confirmation from the russian anti-doping agency that russia will be effectively banned from international events such as the olympics and athletes sports now for the next 4 years. thank you so much for those details parties that it is of course huge news that for russian athletes we'll be bringing you more details on this breaking news story in the coming hours so do stay tuned for that. and now some other news making making headlines globally in brief 1st to new zealand where a powerful vocal kind of corruption on white island has left at least 5 people dead and over 20 injured or 43 the number of fatalities could be higher as dozens of people are still unaccounted for including the passengers of a cruise ship that was on a tour of the islands. thousands of people in the maltese cat. demanding justice

for an investigative journalist killed by a car bomb in 2017 they accuse the government of being implicated in the assassination of daphne quranic ilithyia the country's prime minister has just as promised to step down in january over the scandal but people want to go now. and in other news environmental activists from the extinction rebellion group of staged a lion in the middle of a road outside london's heathrow airport they were protesting against the construction of a 3rd runway police were present at the stunt but did not intervene. to france now where france is pushing ahead with this controversial pension reform despite it triggering a national strike and 5 days of protests and unrest on wednesday prime minister edward phillipe will present the plans to the economic council. if we don't make serious profound and progressive reforms to date someone else will make much needed

brooky reform to morrow i hope that we can convince a majority of french people that our reform is fair it is universal it makes the special pension plans gradually disappear and is financially balanced or massive demonstrations started across the country on thursday when around $1500000.00 people took to the street to decide to voice their discontent the protesters there were for will mean they will have to work longer for smaller pension officers used tear gas to disperse crowds in various cities including leon must say ons not want but the most violence rallies took place in the french capital where blocks roads and disrupted transport services also cause headaches. for trade unions meanwhile are calling fede yet more strike action on tuesday french publisher angelina's a marriage more real it says the government should listen to the people. when you

have those 60 percent strikers in the in re were services were 70 percent strikers in the schools and the teachers. people are really concerned about the cuts on their wages they all want there's this sort of pseudo reform too big problem way we used to say frost that when it's more than 1000000 for the streets the government has to go away but then wonder why because there's more than 1000000 is sure but if france will be blocked in december there will actually change the prime minister. but i think we should want the president to go away. saying now to our breaking news this hour the world anti-doping agency has decided to ban russia from enter national tournament for 4 years i think luge the

olympics and football's world cup clean athletes well though be allowed to compete and a neutral flag russia will also be banned from hosting competitions and follows accusations that the russian doping agency tampered with data so let's get more on this now i'm joined by alexi ourselves in the studio leg was this news expected to what more can you tell us if you're talking about this particular decision it's not a complete surprise because for the last couple of weeks ever since the world anti-doping agency i was recommended by the compliance from review committee to implement those tough sanctions i mean pretty much everyone was discussing the very likelihood a strong likelihood of russia getting all those bands but the question right now the biggest question right now and we are waiting for the official confirmation for the press conference in laws on where the white executive board meeting right now is how far will these limitations for the russian sports basically not just any team but that relates to olympic team football teams just any sports you could think of how much. how far those limitations would go namely because there are

sports federations and associations in the world which do not directly out here to waters recommendations and rulings for instance. european football body governing body they almost openly said that in case of an unfavorable decision towards russia it does not mean that russia will lose part of the euro 2020 championship next summer which in st petersburg for games as far as i remember same relates to the champions league final in 2021 which is already scheduled to take place in st petersburg the big question right now is of course the football world cup in qatar in 2022 there are speculations and rumors right now people are citing the press office. and that's a big question whether this man is even entitled to carry out statements like that that russia would miss the qatar world cup so obviously we are waiting not only just for the official confirmation but you know for them to actually digest to the general public what the ban means because the situation right now and you know the

one before when russia was banned from chung is slightly different. in a very straightforward way because back then it involved allegations of systematic doping and you know a whole list of athletes who the world anti-doping agency alleged was taking some prohibited substances to enhance their performances in this case it's not you know the story when someone was doping 'd it's a different story altogether it's basically a repeat of the same story back then so in a nutshell russia is due to carry out a sentence to suffer for the same story that happened back then so that's a big question right now whether the world of sports the federations like the international hockey federation. and many others would actually say ok why are you you you gave us this ruling and we have to carry it out but it's almost certain this stage if the rumors are to be believed because again what we're hearing right

now it's not set in stone it's not an official confirmation yet because apparently the press office of water just came out to journalists during the executive board meeting and said yes the c.r.c. recommendations have been fully implemented. what is the biggest story right now i think that russia will almost definitely miss out on the olympics next summer the question is whether it will miss out completely or just like it happened before competing on the neutral flag or the athlete representing russia or whatever it was called because in this sort of preliminary statement that. breast officer made it's already said that if russian athletes prove they are noncompliant their noninvolvement with noncompliance of water code then they can compete and participate it's even hard to understand what that means because you know you look at that phrases like what on earth is that so they need to explain to the general public what exactly that means so i'm hearing my thoughts to these young athletes

you know these athletes have been training for year is for this moment to compete and now they might not have the chance to do so 4 years is a huge amount of time for someone's career. especially in a physical activity i mean how much you know if you talking about let's say the age category of 18 to 23 that's not as much as a tragedy than it is for like say 25 plus because if you are a $25.00 plus athlete right now you're basically. doesn't matter which sport you represent whether it's on a rowing whether it's you know just $25.00 plus is the peak years for many athletes and if they miss out on the 4 years by the time you know this ban is unlocked they are 29 and obviously it's a different performance level so for them it's tragic for those who are let's say 16 to 20. theoretically they can live with that and it doesn't mean that they will not be able to compete again even wider stipulated in this sort of preliminary decision and you know they would be able to compete if they prove something which

we are yet to understand what that actually means. it's more about the fact that you know russia sidelined as a sporting nation as one of the biggest sporting nations in the world you know for athletes psychologically going to let's say olympic games winning medals there and winning medals for the country which doesn't exist because it's unusual flag it's just you know the 5 rigs on the fly there's no russian flag i mean they would still carry the medal home they would still get a reward for that both from the olympic committee and from the russian you know officials from from the olympic committee in the country but they will live their lives knowing that they have won medals for. their country something else but just a fortnight ago i spoke to one of the legends of world boxing roy joined jones jr and he specifically said that such a ban on any major competition in the world that essentially means a tragedy for the young kids because they have dreams they have dreams of going to the limits they have dreams to represent the country they have dreams of winning

something he himself was robbed of a gold medal due to a very inadequate. referee decision back in 1988. and he knows what it's like to lose out on something very big so i would say yeah it's still it's still a major blow for for the young athletes so today's a big day for them we're waiting on that press conference there was a press conference they were on for you know the latest but thanks for coming in alexei it was a letter. and the russian olympic committee say it was his recommendations are a lot of cool and inadequate the scandal broke when want to analysts found irregularities and they don't test database from the mosque in the park tree there are discrepancies with data that obtained earlier from a whistleblower relating to the time period between 20122015 daniel hawkins has more. russian police saw in limbo once again many of them are just taken the 1st steps of their sporting careers when this whole doping saga began 5 years ago and back then the world anti-doping agency accused the rush of

a huge cover up they slammed risotto the russian anti doping body as being unfit for purpose and things escalated quickly as a good job in scandal after a ban on its paralympic athletes was upheld blocking the entire team from taking part in the upcoming rio paralympic games 15 of the $33.00 russian medal winners were part of a statewide doping program the banned the harshest in olympic history hits officials hardest the russian olympic committee is suspended. but things seem to blow over moscow denied they had a state run doping program but admitted they had a problem the russian olympic committee was reinstated and even now reform groups saw other was given the green light subject to strict conditions. we actively cooperate with requirements that. russia are fully implemented but there was

no happy ending water required for access the russian related the field of doping testing. after a brief deadline delay this was provided in generate 2019 a fast forward to autumn and things have gone wrong again this time water accused russia of tampering with the data while the 29 team copy of the laboratory information management system elias database matches in many respects the 2015 copy of provided to wander by a whistle blower in 2017 hundreds of presumptive adverse analytical findings that appear in the 2015 copies have been removed from the 2019 copy and the related underlying rule data and p.d.f. files have been deleted altered or water haven't named the mysterious whistleblower but one a key witness at the very center of this doping scandal is going to go to watching coffee before fleeing to the united states where he's now in a witness protection program he was head of the moscow to borrow

a tree for 10 years and it turns out his reputation is far from spotless the icy further find that at the heart of the positive drug test coverup is director rod ching cough he not only accepted brutha requested money in order to execute the concealment of positive test results which makes him equally responsible for incidents where coaches or officials extorted athletes even if he was not personally made aware of the extortion no wonder independent russian experts have doubts about the consistency and reliability of the data. since november 28th 15 when the informant left our country till 2017 when the informant's data set was handed over to the water intelligence and investigations department 6 data bank was at the informants disposal he could do anything to it. they allege the system was accessed hundreds of times from abroad and that raj chen cough who is wanted in russia for abuse of office and drug charges may have been complicit in tampering

with the messages in the system independent forensic examiner. nation suggests that rushing of support staff members to my fisa bill or ski and let me get your remotely logged into limbs in moscow on numerous occasions after they had detected abroad so they could have changed the zeros to ones both in their database copy and the one that remained in russia and the monies may need to know what is up but russia cut off access to its database in 2016 while wada claims the data was being tampered with as late as january 29th team blaming russia further significant deletions and alterations were made in december 28th seen and generally 2019 i.e. after the war the exco imposed a day to requirement these activities were concealed by backdating of computer systems and data files in an attempt to make it appear that the morse code data had

been in their current state since 2015 furthermore the commands issued to execute the manipulations deletions and backdating what also deleted in the attempt to avoid detection of what had been done russian experts challenge the pause ability of the investigations findings claiming that such large scale tampering is simply impossible it was like and we can't we cannot deny that there were occurrences of copies of files being destroyed and other fast created but there were no deliberate manipulations this is the working condition of the database when every year the operator begins to work with this database to change delete and free memory there was a complaint to us the descent and disk was reset but the entry was exactly 17 seconds it was impossible to completely delete information on the disk during this time so how do things stand now fortunately very much where they left off accusations of lawyers and yet another cover up by water counter allegations by russian officials questioning the credibility of findings based on the testimony of

a controversial informant while the fates of hundreds of athletes are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. hangs in the balance. we're turning now to our breaking news that the world and he was anti doping agency has decided to ban russia from international tournament for 4 years this includes the olympics and football's world cup clean athletes will be allowed to compete on the neutral flag without their national anthem russia will also be banned from hosting competitions and this follows ickes ations that the russian anti doping agency tampered with data showed to bensky joins me live now with more on this salo good to see you tell us more about the implications of this decision. well this decision has been taken in the hotel behind me here in switzerland by the world anti doping association we understand that that was a you need luck troll decision to ban russia from competition for the next 4 years

let's take a look at exactly what that will mean we understand it will mean 4 years in the sporting wilderness no tokyo 2020 new winter olympics as you said no world cup although there is a suggestion that the european championships of football championships are kind of out of the scope of this particular judgment it would also mean that during that time the russians will be able to sit on international sporting committees nor on international sporting boards they won't also russia will also be able to host nor will to make a bid for any of those major sporting events and the russian flag will be banned from being flown at those major sporting events well let's have a listen now to what james fitzgerald from the world association had to say. approved unanimously the decision. compliance.

for 4 years. come certain consequences these consequences were previously. in advance of the meeting so they were approved. all those. recommendations have been for. number of strokes. of of readmission. russia when the time comes. however we are aware that russian athletes will be able to participate in major sporting events but they will have to participate and a neutral flag and that's of course if there is no cloud of suspicion over them we are waiting for a press conference now by border to find out more about that decision but it comes amidst a cloud a cast of a shadow over why decision itself with some scientists claiming that its own

methods of flawed and its processes are all betray some scientists also saying that some of the substances that are on the banned list haven't actually been tested enough to actually see whether they should be banned or lot of claims and counterclaims be made we know that russia will have $21.00 days to respond to this decision by water if there is no decision after that point then this will go to the court of arbitration but at the moment we hear in the song waiting to find out more about water say in regards to this decision taken today to ban russia from international sporting competitions for the next 4 years. thank you so much for bringing us those details will be coming back to you in the coming hours i'm sure for more details thank you for now. i was wanting to come down hardest on russia the u.k. on the u.s. there on taping agencies want to complete a limping ban on all russian athletes the u.k. agency though has its own controversies it cleared heavyweight boxer dillion white

despite the presence of steroids in his sample and justification it said the levels were very low and not caused by any fault on white's part don have looked at how double standards appeared to reign in this fear of anti doping. for years you know national sports competitions have. been hijacked by the russians for decades it seems that russian olympic athletes have been secretly doping to gain a competitive advantage labrat doping system secret labs double agents helping russian athletes cheat their way to the medal stand at the olympics this is now pointing the finger at a whole range of sports in a former what a staffer told us today you know this isn't a bombshell this is a nuclear warhead the russia doping investigation has become the leviathan of sports scandals it's towering so high above everything else in fact it's hard to notice other violations in its shadow bribery a secret doping society medics and coaches going rogue this year alone has seen

plenty staggering revelations none of which could compete with russia the when it comes to the fallout and case one a kenyan olympic champion was caught greasing anti doping offices palms to avoid being caught. one person's case unraveled years of large scale cheating a trove of documents suggesting kenya's national anti doping agency was helping the country's team get away with it more than a 100 athletes caught red handed no not russia kenya but the punishment wasn't sweeping it was specific individual to each test and case or how wide

a call did not institutionalised drug taking another scandal that snowballed olympic skiing it looked like parts pulled from the american horror story script. so a doping cartel with the now infamous german magic has their ringleader a whole network concocting mechanisms to fool the agency keeping sport clean you'd be shocked to know the sport you play or watch is swarming with drug cheats but the focus remains tight on russia those other scandals cost into the media archive and forgotten so reports of institutional conspiracy check and undercover doping

network check what about implicating one of the giants of sport coat with its name in lights for promoting a group spearheading american long distance running with performance enhancing drugs. with the c.e.o. apparently on top of the medical experiments within the company's brainchild it's as close to institutionalize drug taking as it gets in the realms of business but you wouldn't expect anyone to banned nike and its billions of dollars from sports now we're here because otherwise who is going to tailor team u.s.a.'s olympic outfit. i think we have to look at the why did your political context anybody who

has studied this in depth this whole. story i'm afraid would come to the objective conclusion that double standards are being applied here we are seeing a campaign to delist to my eyes to russia on a number of fronts what people are saying quite rightly russia and elsewhere is the standards must be applied equally that's what this is about it's about standards being applied equally yes when there is evidence of individual athletes who may have consciously taken drugs in an attempt to get advantages over their rivals then any athlete that does that should be subject to the rules no one is just using that but where this goes way beyond that is this call for a blanket ban and which is unfair because it punishes the innocent as well as the guilty. jacqueline bouvier here taking over for nicky aaron we continue with our breaking news coverage for more on what a decision we're now joined live by alex say at

a chef ski what does competing under a neutral flag mean for athletes you know 1st and foremost jackie it's about psychological pressure obviously you are training in a country you are representing a country you are going to a major sporting event like the olympic games but you are not even allowed to bear the flag of your country so as it happened in the previous case when russia was suspended as a nation and had to compete on the neutral flag on the olympic flag. athletes won medals they came home they obviously got rewards from both the olympic the international community and from the russian olympic committee but they will spend their lives knowing that they had won their medals not for their country but for a country which doesn't exist so essentially you know this this is a major blow to all athletes and particularly to clean athletes because you know when we talk about doping as a phenomenon for the world i mean it's not a secret that it exists in every country in the world it exists in just about every sport with very few exceptions i don't. maybe you know professional darts players

don't know but i mean it's possible but i mean it's still exists everywhere but in terms of the clean up this we've never doped we've never had a positive doping test in their lives and there are so many of those every country in russia is not exceptional you know when they accused of something they had never done when they are accused of something that someone had done for them and when they are slapped with collectively you know this is clearly a big blow for them and we spoke to one of those athletes a clean athlete his name is alexander he's a skeleton. athlete and here's what he had to say. you know a little bit it's subject to the deceit the ski diploma you just get you should get on a bicycle and the other people will. not only remember. the commuter. the both of you this is. the 3rd so that i knew you should sleep in and get mine you know. the thought of the thought.

process began. yeah. you know what that would also. just but other. success of the trial of. the us to look. at the mitch that's the. still of. the production they made a good. idea discipline that might be somewhat but i do look at the podium of support out there still should be true. and your time you put away the going yes i miss would you please i mean when i see images then yeah. the good people of the. ship ability to do something.