is wouldn't want the world's transparent, but we must live with us with us and say this and expect us to believe it without showing a shred of evidence. that is actually true. the rest state department spokesperson is grilled after refusing to prove claims that russia is preparing a full supply get such as a pretext to invade ukraine. something there is no longer being branded as imminent . as the white house seemingly phones down its wall rhetoric, at least 6 children are killed in heavy fighting in northwest syria while president biden hale is the skill and bravery of american commandos, claiming they killed the leader of islamic state,

the same location in the same time russia shuts down the moscow office of deutsch of bela a day after germany. media regulates a band. are the sister channel r t. a ramos go to the world. you're watching out. the international is just on 40. i'm here in the russian capital. my name is peter scott and these the top stories this our we start with the u. s, which is taken another swipe, it's russia further stoking tensions over ukraine. washington is accused moscow preparing a propaganda video to use in a false flight operation to justify an invasion of ukraine. is ortiz caleb hoping with more not story. while we now have us intelligence officials who are coming forward and saying that russia is planning to develop

a propaganda video that will depict a fabricated attack on its troops that will be used to justify the pretext to the invasion. now, it is individuals from the administration, speaking on conditions of anonymity, that said the video will likely depict graphic scenes of staged false explosions with choruses with corpses, factors depicting mourners and images of destroyed locations and military equipment . now the state department spokesperson was pressed on this specific evidence supporting the video claims. ned price said that once the white house is sure this information is accurate, then they will disclose what evidence they have. here's how the exchange when, what is the evidence you have that suggested that the russians or even planning with matt. and i mean, i'm not saying that they're not, but you just come out and say this and expect those just to believe it without you showing a shred of evidence that it's actually true. other than when i ask,

or what anyone else asked what the information you said, well, i just gave it to you, which was just you making a statement. you said yourself, you've been in this business for quite a long time. you know that when we make information, intelligence information public, we do so in a way that protects sensitive sources and methods. you also know that we do so we do classify information only when we're confident in that information. if you doubt, if you doubt the credibility of the u. s. government, of the british government, of other governments and want to you know, find solace and information that the rational they're putting out. that is, that is for you to do. now, there has been a barrage of headlines and accusations from western leaders against russia over the last several weeks. and russia has responded with com to many of these allegations . now at this point, we've got kremlin spokesperson dmitri past gob who has pointed out that there had

been just been so many claims over the last few weeks and most of them and all of them really have not added up to anything, were turned into anything that could be proven. now at this point, people are also reacting to the fact that the white house seems to be backing away from using the term imminent to describe their allegation that some kind of attack on ukraine is going to take place. gen saki, the white house spokesperson says that the white house is no longer using the term imminent, and that they stopped using it because they say that it will send a message that they were not intending to sand. that's how jen, saki is putting it, so it seems like the white house is now back tracking on their allegation that there was some kind of an eminent invasion of ukraine. one wonders how soon they'll be back. tracking on this allegation of an upcoming false flag video. well, to further flesh out this story, we can cross live to paul robinson, professor of public,

an international affairs of the university of elsewhere full welcome to the program . hello, we have these latest allegations of russia preparing a false flag attack as a pretext to invade ukraine. what do you think is the goal behind this allegation? that's quite hard to say. i mean, i often, and these things, the people making these allegations believe in that even if it's what it's the implausible. but i think the reason the making it public is this may possibly be an offense propaganda effort to, to the american point of view on public pressure on, on, on russia, the americans crying that will be releasing this information to deterrent purposes and of words to tell the russians, you know what you're up to, don't do it. and if you do it for anybody that's what a claim is behind it. and then on the other hand, we have gen saki on wednesday,

refusing to use the term imminent innovation. do you think, why does this trying to soften his record rhetoric regarding the tensions in ukraine? we? yes, and i mean the backtracking would be imminent climb, which is probably inevitable because it's been eminent now for 90 days or so. the limits how long you can keep on coming out and making the statements about the post live video, draw ramping up trasha. so we're seeing some might say, rather contradictory signals coming up. do you think we'll see some sort of reaction from ukraine the other day? we had president lensky basically asking the west to calm down. do you think in lights of this latest allegation? we'll hear from your cream on that, but we don't seem to be going along with what the americans assigned i was

interesting. i was reading something by sean walker. the former got in correspondence in moscow who was saying that it's a training in the defense about american allegations all log a new dot to russian troops near the ukrainian border guardian. that's the defense satisfaction you young truth. so the current in me all backing out a lot of american claims there seems to be trying to calm things down. well, i'm afraid. so we got time for paul robeson, professor of public and international affairs at the university of all to a thank you very much for insight into that topic. the pentagon has acknowledged that at least 3 civilians were killed in a raid on terrace in northwest syria, or eunice said that at least 6 children died in what appears to be the same incidence. earlier, president biden hailed

a successful operation targets in the lead of his state and his art, the senior correspondent broadcast df half a dozen children killed as well as 4 woman locals have described these speech battle that took place at the one a. m. just off the midnight syrian thought and that lasted for hours and in which, presumably these half a dozen children as well as for women, were killed as well as the leader of isis. a boy abraham me. alas, she me, i crazy she the 2nd lead the vices after the death of baghdad in 2019, also the result of an american operation strike against him during that episode. also, a number of children were killed. but in this instance, locals describe how helicopters hovered in the air for hours. soon as i left them, there were helicopters flying at low altitude, about 4 or 5 aircraft. and then we saw soldiers landing. the soldiers targeted

a house near where i live. the house was surrounded, they spoke too loud. speakers telling people to surrender or the house would be destroyed. then the fighting started near or inside the house. after about an hour, the helicopter carried out 4 or 5 machine gun attacks on the house. 11 came on a lie, we're preparing to go to sleep. and suddenly we heard wind and the sound of helicopters on my end went out to see what was going on. she found the sky totally red. they asked us through the loudspeakers to go out. we didn't at 1st, then we went out, they searched us and handcuffed my father. they asked for our names and what we knew about our neighbor. we said we don't know anything. they asked us to move to the neighboring house and started rating hours. went over, the united states says that he detonated a suicide vest while together with members of his family. we still have new and verified information as to how will these children perish? these, the civilians, as well as women, whether it was american missiles fired by helicopters, small arms, far by us,

special forces in the ground were indeed these suicide vest. what we know is that these casualties have occurred. multiple sources of said this, including unicef. unicef confirms that at least 6 children were killed and one girl was badly injured over night in the border town of at my, in the north west of syria due to heavy violence. all of this happened in syria's it live province, which is where abu bakar baghdad the found of isis was killed in 2019 a similar us rate. again, a number of children killed, died in that grade also, but he was killed in italy province, which is ruled by brew turkish rebels. many islamists, among them, indeed the dominant faction there is h t esl news for a fraud, which is seen as a branch of al qaeda in syria. the town of acme, where the, the, the secondly, the of isis was killed is just 2 kilometers away from the turkish border. where the

found of isis was killed was just 5 kilometers from the, from the turkish border. and despite these are reports of civilian casualties, we have heard a president biden tell audiences about the strike, which he called, precise or forces carried out the operation with their signature preparation of precision. and i directed to partners fast to take every precaution possible to minimize civilian casualties. these information about civilian casualties. while tragic comes, it's an especially bad time for, for biden, who's administration has been rattled by, by calls for resignations, as well as accountability following the, the deadly drone strike in afghanistan, in kabul in august, when the united states was pulling out, evacuated from afghanistan, mer stripe that killed almost a dozen civilian 7 children. among them there had been called again for

resignations and for accountability. and just a week ago, lloyd austin, the secret of defense, had, are ruled, had issued a call for the pentagon to form rules to do more, to prevent collateral damage or will civilian casualties. because he says that doesn't represent that the values of the united states or its partners. and he called in the pentagon to come up with concrete measures on how via the pentagon should conduct war whilst minimizing civilian casualties. earlier we spoke with juliet to mother unicef advocacy communications chief in the middle east. and she told us it's so far on clear how those 6 children died in northwest syria. but the surgeon fighting is certainly taking a deadly toll. it is very hard out to confirm the exact circumstances or the reason behind the fact that 6 children,

at least and one girl fixed children were killed. one girl was injured due to the time the violence that we witnessed the overnight in a, in the northwest of syria, perhaps staying on escalation and violence and bad air. you know, what this means is that children pay 1st and they pay most. and if we compare the number of casualties of children during the month of january in comparison to, let's say, december last year, the number is so it's in the higher. and this has been the case since the beginning of the year. and this has got to stop children continue to be the 1st and most to pay in this 11 year long conflict. at least 90 percent of the theory of population lives in poverty and start to in comparison to how it used to be before the war began. 11 years ago, the war house car, i've got to come to an end the come conflicts have got to stop. we call an old

fights and all parties to the conflict in syria to stop the fighting for the sake of serious children and its future even if the war stops today. the picture is so big for. busy millions and millions of people on the many well from on this we can cross live now to nicholas davies, author of blood in our hands, the american invasion and destruction of iraq. nicholas, welcome to the program. now eunice f, as said the of the 6 children over 6 children were killed in this, the violence that ensued by the right to be handling this operation and such a success. well, no, no, of course not. you know, how, how can it be, were killing 6 children to the sake of killing, you know, one al qaeda leader apparently slam estate leader who will quickly be replaced by

somebody else. now this is, this is just her ethic. and secretary austin tried to come up with new rules to prevent the killing of civilians by force. it's under his command, you know, way that the united states has been a war and all these countries in the middle east, in the greater middle east over 20. yes. you know what is watches a little bit different today. as you know, that in the last few months, we've had a couple of incidents where just because of the circumstances the united states has not been able to deny the fact that it killed large numbers of civilians. you know, but the united states has been conjunction night rates like the one in syria last

night. it has been conducting, allison johnston and iraq and afghanistan and other countries at the peak of obama's escalation of the war in afghanistan was conducting over a 1000 such raids each month. as the drone strikes like the one in capo, again, under the under obama, number of drones strikes in afghanistan and pakistan with, with 10 times higher than previously on the bush. so i mean to have just been thousands and thousands of these attacks and to think that, you know, these couple that we have recently heard about some how unique in the fact that they killed civilians is, is just to be, would be utterly crazy. do you think it was you say this is,

this is happened over and over again. do you think that there is a risk of reprisal for what's happened in this case? i mean, is the u. s. more safe? as a result of that? the, the elimination of leader. no, not at all this entire war on terrorism. you know, part of which the united states just directly field itself is in syria for example, where, you know, the cia helped it to final thousands of tons of weapons such from libya. and then from the former yugoslavia to these, you know, terrorists in syria, you know, that was why, you know, that was very and a great report. i, garrett's partner, disclosure all the details of that, you know, several years ago, anybody can read it. it's titled the united states to terrorist sincerity.

and and so, yes, i mean, but that the whole war on terror essentially has been a self fulfilling policy. that is why just a few years into the contra lisa rice abandoned the regular annual global report on terrorism that the us state had been publishing because it revealed an explosion of terrorism on distance as a result of the united states war on terror. just got time for one more question. nicholas, it's about the way that the u. s. went about to reportedly conduct to this operation without notes, find any of the parties in live, what they say about the us. and if you know a lateral decision to go about the strikes, well it is that the united states does not trust it. it's supposed good allies

all these, you know, all these great since area that has arms and obviously it, and it, that presumably doesn't trust the turkish, it's turkish nato allies, either who have effective control with that area really through all these turkish sponsored groups. so yeah, i mean, the, the united states is floundering and in that part of the world and, you know, clearly elsewhere to nicholas. thank you very much for your insights into the story . does nicholas davis also on both hands, the american invasion, undisturbed and of iraq. thank you very much for your time. you're very welcome. thank you. ok. now the russian foreign ministry has published a list of retaliatory measures against germany. it comes a day after the german media regulates a blocked off fist, a channel on the de,

my colleague roy to say, discuss the latest developments without the correspondence charlotte bennett, sky, and don quarter deutsch. avella, its offices are going to be closed throughout russia. its journalists are going to have their press accreditations taken away, and all of their russian language broadcasts are going to be taken off the air. now, darcia bella has since responded to this, they put out a media statement. they said that they're not going to take any action until they get official confirmation from moscow of these measures. and when they do, they are going to appeal them. but this isn't where the rushes retaliation stops. actually a blacklist is being set up of german government officials, media regulators, basically anyone who is possibly involved in this enormous censorship campaign of rtp brochure is drawing up a list of representatives of state and public structures in germany involved in restricting the broadcast of r t. d and putting pressure on the russian media outlet, who will be denied entry to the russian federation. now this development comes just

one day after germany's top media regulator rules that rtp must stop, all of it's broadcast. that means via satellite via internet, social media, basically everywhere. the required media, low license was not available. the organisation and distribution of the tv program via a live stream on the internet via mobile and smart tv parking news and via satellite must therefore be discontinued. of course, r t d e can still appeal this decision, but this is just one episode in a drawn out pressure campaign aimed at obstructing r t from broadcasting in germany. i mean, the german government says it does. it's not playing a part in this campaign, but banks have not been doing business with our channel. and germany's top regulator seems unwilling to compromise on this issue. and this is all the while as r t has a legal broadcasting license in the european union. there's generally absolutely no broadcasting happening from berlin at all or to

d. e. the tv channel is broadcasting right here for moscow via a license that was obtained with absolutely all according european rules and regulations, according to the european convention on transferred to your television. and we are free to broadcast via that license in 30 plus territories across europe. now, going back over the past several months, what we mean by pressure campaign, of course, is for example, the fact that our tv set up an account on youtube and it was almost immediately taken down by the platform when it started attempting to broadcast over satellite the signal was so poor that people weren't able to tune in. and on top of that, german government officials have described r t v as a quote, irritant. so it's not too difficult to imagine that these setbacks could have been set up on purpose to stop our tv from being successful in germany. and this is something that even the russian president vladimir putin has commented on before. i know about the closure of bank accounts and so on. there's

a large number of tactics they using. so r t d cons operate, they're infringing on freedom of speech and that's very bad. but now, like i said before, russia's foreign ministry takes this violation of freedom of the press very seriously. and it says, this is only the 1st stage of retaliation that it's willing to shout. so, you know, we could see couple of things play out in the future. perhaps a back and forth between german and russian media authorities, or maybe everyone will come to a compromise will have to see, you know, i don't, as you say, r t t e taking flat from the german authorities. but it's not just confined to germany over to france. stunning by live in paris, charlotte dubin ski. apparently our t. frogs is also in the cross charlotte. arty from seas in the cross has of the audio visual and digital communications regulator hearing from stacy's all come now, this was some that was put out in a magazine article that magazines called challenges. halem, france,

and in it it alleges it all come is about to start looking at how r t phones are assist. the channel here has treated several subjects since it started broadcasting. the subjects in the yellow, vast protests, also stories from syria and stories from central africa, all pretty sensitive topics in the country at the moment. now they have any official confirmation from all come about this. in fact, they checked out their website on tuesday afternoon. nothing on that even called the press office and they didn't have anything to say about that notification in the magazine challenges or the fonts itself says it hasn't received a notification that this is about to happen. but we have had reaction to that from the head of the channel. according to the challenges website, the french media regulator, all com has opened a probe into our tea,

france. perfect timing, right after the situation with all tv. if it is confirmed that the regulator is investigating sensitive topics concerning associations, let's welcome a new world of censorship. while she went on to refute that they have been complaints against the channel and said that there was one issue that was dealt with by the csp, which is the, the old regulator. and that was to do over an issue for a miss translation of something from syria, which was a genuine mistake and since been resolved. now we have reached out to all come, but we have not yet received a response. as soon as we get, we are of course, bring that to you here on auto international. but what is interesting is this a parent did get the channel comes with a very crucial time. here in france, we just 2 months now before the presidential elections take place. and we know that my call president microns party is extremely concerned about what they described. spin foreign digital interference and misinformation ahead of those elections off

the front in the international selves. here, i've actually been denied entry to the elite, a polished a couple press conferences to be able to question the governmental decisions that are made. and that has been the case now for the last few years since president mac cone was elected that has been flagged up as being of serious concern by the national union of journalists in france to describe this is having a flavor of the censorship about it for is clear though, as we get closer and closer to that presidential election, there are likely to be more tax on all channels simply for doing what we do. and that is questioning more and across the channel in the u. k, there are more big figures for households to deal with energy bills for bridges. homes are about to search by an average of $700.00 pounds a year after the national regulate lifted

a price cup. it comes amid soaring natural gas prices in europe. and i'll see shoddy, i was dusty has more in the story while as being described as a by now pe later scam. essentially, that's the feeling of the opposition in response to the government. so called package of support that it's offering to people to try and alleviate the heavy pressures of this up flu, mama's hike in energy price cap. now just to run you through the thick is then what we're seeing is the energy price will rise by 54 percent in april to just shy of 2000 pounds. now tens of millions of households and we'll face paying $693.00 pounds more. every single year, which is double about of last year. so it's a huge, huge height with absolute huge consequences. but the government says it's stepping in, it recognizes that needed to do so. and offering this package of support. what we can do, take the sting out of a significant points shop for millions of families by making sure that the increase

in prices is smaller initially, and spread over a longer period without government in 10 pension. the increase in the price tap would leave the average household having to find an extra $693.00 pounds. the accidents i'm announcing today will provide to the vast majority of household just over half of that amount. well, versus your next thing to reprise that role as being the rescuer of the nation coming forward with a package of support. however, its own as generous as it may seem. so to break it all down, it's to tid. first off, they'll be a $200.00 pound discount. however, that's not exactly a freebie, it's a loan. i will have to be repaid in 40 pounds installments over 5 years, so that money could just simply accumulate for people that are already struggling. then they'll be a rebate and tax and council tax. so that's just a $150.00 pounds. plus risha soon. accel short of scrapping be 18. many people were

hoping he was going to do that because if you take that lump sum, that 2000 pounds, a 100 pounds of thought is a key. so that could be a significant amount of money. it could have really helped. now all of this has gone down like an absolute lead balloon. many people are highly, highly critical, especially looking at people that are struggling to make ends meet. the chancellor has offered cold comfort to families in poverty to already rationing what they can spend on essential, such as heating and food. this support will not get people through the next few months and they will not protect those most at risk of hardship. a day after the leveling up fanfare, the government's piecemeal measures won't protect low income families, either now or in the future. surging energy prices are only the start of the crisis . to help announced for these families today won't be enough. we're going to see more children going hungry as parents struggle to make ends meet. while the government says this is beyond party politics blames the pandemic,

but also blames the global certain demands, hiking up all of these gas prices. but analysts, they're quite worried that this could actually happen again. come the autumn and that the government could have halted all of this instead, that prioritizing profits over the living standards. now today it's really from bad to worse because the bank of england are now raising interest rates from 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent, which just add to this cost of living sweets. now everybody's going to be affected by the announcement earlier today. we're going to see high middle income families taking a quite a hit, but of course it's so low income families are going to be hit the hardest for them . they're already in a di. lemme thinking about eating or heating. but with this announcement, it seems like they might not be able to do either. that's how the world's looking at 4 30 in the morning. moscow time, wherever you're joining us from. thank you for watching. my name's peter scott and

i'll be back again at the top of the hour.