I welcome his weekly with me kevin zero in here on r t r round up and big stories of the last seven days thanks for your time and taking that watches first in the Winter Olympics in south korea got underway on friday with a grand Opening Ceremony in the host city pyong chang nearly three thousand athletes from ninety two countries took part in the event however in the run up to the celebrations there were demonstrations and scuffles outside the Olympic Arena people supporting peace between north and south korea had gathered for a rally while another Group Protesting north koreas participation in the games physically clashed with police. Despite the scuffles on the streets korean politicians are taking steps to try to find a solution to the conflict the south korean president says hes ready to accept an invitation to visit the north if certain conditions are met this potentially them sets up the first meeting between the countries and more than a decade the invitation was delivered by kim jong un sister shes attending the Winter Olympics she is the first member of fact of north koreas ruling family to visit the south since the one nine hundred fifty s. She met with president moon for three hours of talks and the games Opening Ceremony also hinted to warming relations with both teams marching together. Of course while the two koreas were able to march under a single flag wasnt the case for the russian competitors theyre a neutral band where theyre taking part as a limb picower fleets from russia team away are as its been termed that so after the International Olympic committee banned russia following a doping scandal well over the russian flags being forbidden by the i. O. C. Nonetheless it still found its way into the stadium. When i heard that russia can watch under their own flag i felt quite sorry for the athletes you know the athletes who were completely clean and had no problems but they were deprived of the right to represent their country and so i thought i would support them by putting the flag out there and partially said because you know i was looking forward to seeing the best in the world and what the russians are the best in the world a lot of things so i cant see them which is kind of sad but mostly mad because theyve worked for years for these olympics and now theyre being told you know they dont even have really proof they just have suspicions and now theyre being sold without really a chance to properly appeal they cant compete and i just think thats really unfair so as we just heard a last minute appeal from forty five earth leads and two coaches against a band preventing them from competing failed the lawyers branded the decision as sanctions in disguise. Guss arbitrators of concert the process created by the i. O. C. To establish an invitation list of russian athletes to compete. From russia would not be described as a sanction but rather as an eligibility decision so there you have it according to the court of arbitration for sport ridding the russian athletes of their olympic invitations isnt equal to punishment and cas is perfectly happy with the criteria that the i. O. C. And mission lee shows for these invitations the president of the World Antidoping Agency is pleased he says that the timing is great and that all the clean athletes should now be reassured the i. O. C. Are happy to they have applauded the verdict as you can see and this tweet though the russians are obviously totally devastated i dont know what to say im really disappointed i cant understand the cast decision first they cleared the athletes and now they say sorry you cant go to the olympics this is some kind of madness its terrible not just for fleets but for all of International Sport did i expect cas to reach this decision fifty fifty especially after thomas buck in one of his later speeches pressured the court of arbitration for sport after ruled in our favor he was literally threatening the court he was only saying he would dissolve the court if it root again in favor of russian athletes. Coach Albert Dempsey and co who was by the way one of those to sue the i. O. C. Was referring to all the things that were being said about the court of arbitration for sport ahead of the hearings including these statements by the president of the i. O. C. Kind of the decision is extremely disappointing. The decision shows the merchant the need. For reforms in the internal structure of costs here thomas bach was referring to the previous cas verdict and that requires a bit of background the forty seven russian athletes and coaches who were suing the International Olympic committee were from two groups thirty two hadnt been sanctioned by the odyssey investigators as a result of the russian doping scandal at all fifty received lifetime bans their medals were taken away by the i. O. C. A few months ago but then the very same court of arbitration for sport last week cancelled these lifetime bans due to insufficient evidence the abuse of the sanctions and those individual results achieved in such reinstated so the decision that we have right now completely contradicts the previous one and this is a real disaster for the country the athletes both the ones who are still going to compete and young saying under a neutral flag and those who are banned the coaches the fans they are baffled by how unfair it could get i have no words. I was hoping that gas would ruin our savior right now i dont know what to do im disappointed but of course i wont give up on supporting my son had a lot ahead of me and i will compete and win medals for my country. And to the very end we will bring the. You would go in your favor now i feel sadness and so rule. I have enough strength in the opportunity to compete in the next olympics i will pray. I have no emotions left we had all our bags were just waiting for a decision anything such situations make you stronger emotionally. Me time aside from the russian team history has been made at this years olympics nigerias entered the winter games for the first time with a womens bobsled team the athletes managed to get to play on chang thanks to a Crowdfunding Campaign they say they hope the example will encourage other athletes from africa now to. Think we definitely put ourselves on the map in terms of ok we dont have all these things were just existing possible to get as much. Africa is a beautiful class in it and we are representation of the africans here in our historic stance of being the largest number of africans we are a representation of exactly what that beauty genuinely is and so if we can encourage others to live inside that and take away whatever stigma is maybe associated with the consulate with regards to growth and development i think that thats huge thats very important in the hope that we can do that. But i think if we continue to encourage those things in the future it will start to come together but you have to start something. More the headlines in the week just go next syria calling on the u. N. To hold the u. S. Led coalition to account for wednesdays strikes against progovernment forces the number of casualties has not yet been confirmed still but some reports claim up to one hundred people could have been killed the pentagon described the attack as a defensive move but Russias Defense Ministry says the unit was engaged in an anti terror mission. While carrying out an operation to locate and terminate an eyesore sleeper so near form oil refinery a unit of progovernment forces was suddenly shelled and then hit by airstrikes by the u. S. Led coalition vis was overkill if the numbers are true i would see a demonstration of she have brute force perhaps you know to send perhaps the send a message nevertheless the United States says that its its in syria and it will defend itself and it has the right to defend itself in this instance Syrian Democratic forces acted in selfdefense but support from the coalition to defeat an unprovoked attack by Syrian Forces in Eastern Syria if the situation is like how they describe that they were indeed attacks while fighting isis to make up the right to self defense well if you take them at face value you could think so but people they just killed were also fighting isis and recently they have been making much better progress against isis then the United StatesLed Coalition or their Partner Forces the the s. D. F. The Syrian Government has of course called all of this an act of aggression unwarranted and unjust but just for you information all of this happened in there is or near a rich oil field and refinery conical its called it was liberated last year by the u. S. Led coalition very quickly and in fact. U. S. Partner forces seem to have a knack for liberating areas with oil under them much quicker than they do those areas that dont have oil under them since since all the oil rich areas were taken in that as ordered by the s. D. F. Progress against isis seems to have dropped to a snails pace but you know regardless here. America has said that it is in syria only to fight isis today isis has been all but defeated in syria but you dont see the pentagon packing its bags our military policy in syria has not changed our priority remains to defeat of isis whether its in iraq or in syria that is our intent to defeat isis and not do anything more than that the United States will maintain a military presence in syria focused on ensuring that isis cannot reemerge total withdrawal of american personnel at this time would restore assad who continue his brutal treatment against his own people is to put its ability to the lack of a fundamental commitment to our agreement that is typical of current u. S. Diplomacy including the reasons why the americans stay in syria Rex Tillerson peter he stated that their only goal in syria was the defeat of ice or now theyve got far more ambitious plans with more of the most with the mixed messages here is the pentagon staying general mattis said that the United States will stay in syria well fight in syria for as long as the United States wants to fight in syria i mean thats you know pretty direct now you see how this might sound strange go to syria im invited and while there you start killing syrians in syria in selfdefense. A city cost one of our guys do regional expose told us that with Islamic State practically gone from syria washingtons no targeting the government instead. They are not just in syria to fight. A war have been in syria for a long time because they want to throw aside as the spate of feeds as it becomes clear that it is the Syrian Forces themselves and large would be to die age the priority of overthrowing assad begins to reassert itself in the pentagon and in the white house so i think thats really the answer the question the overthrow of assad was always the product of prone the reason why the americans were in syria the army in treating these groups intervening with air strikes and so on they were diverted from that by no with the possibility of a defeat of diet inside syria that policy that reassert itself this is coming at the end of a long war the United States has taken about twenty eight percent of syrian territory and over fifty percent of its oil does this lead british in order to roll back iran and get rid of assad also just like it he wants that oil for himself there was a race only a few months ago would get those fields and hes broadening undoubtedly under the pretext of biting isis the United States didnt think it was so the United States is trying to lay down the law here and not let anybody probe and as we know the turks threatened and rendition to take on the americans over there so the United States i think its very patients that both syria and turkey will begin to push america out and try to push america out of Northern Syria but he likes. Russia bid farewell to military pilot roman flip off on thursday the major became a National Hero after his plane was downed by militants in syria with more details but in a conscious. The funeral for a major roman filipe of who died tragically fighting in syria takes place here in his hometown of earlier we saw hundreds of people attending the Memorial Ceremony as family members friends his colleagues people who didnt know him all came to pay their last respects at the palace a plane was shot down on saturday and the northwestern part of syria which is still controlled by the latest incarnation of the terrorist group oh no sra roman tried to stay in the air as long as he could he then managed to a jacket from the airplane only to find himself surrounded by terrorist the pilot of the plane supporting role months shared the details of their last communications his voice remained calm when i want him there off the you get out of the movie yes see that was the commanders reply and then he said so evenly as if it was something ordinary and an important i got hit hard the right is on fire moving south the lift slowing down to about twenty seconds here i did. Then he ordered me to gain altitude of course i didnt do it to leave my command is the last thing i would do i always tried to have his back during flights and now i have to do it on the ground while he was fighting i stood there and made several attacks to vehicles that were getting closer to the olive groves where room on touchdown i stayed until the fuel was extremely low i barely made it back to the airfield roman had waited for the terrorist to get closer to him and only after that he decided to detonate a grenade taking his own life but avoiding capture he even managed to shout this is for our world lads what he did that Russias Defense Ministry released several facts about his life he left a wife and a four year old daughter behind he was an experienced pilot and it was not his first time serving in syria he was part of dozens successful military operations and he died as a hero fighting terrorist at the age of thirty three. Youre watching the weekly from International Coming up british m. P. s have been trying to pin down the Worlds Largest social Media Companies over alleged russian interference in that brics that vote well tell you about that. Billions hundreds of billions probably a trillion dollars of. The Energy Industry can subsidize mining. Currencies and put those into while its called american citizens have an automatic wallet. And they can get a. Monthly air drop points that they can. Do that. Again through the worlds biggest social media firms who tackled on thursday by british lawmakers who took the unusual step of conducting a parliamentary hearing outside britain as they try to pin down the companies over alleged russian interference during the brics it vote but it seemed there was little if anything to back up those accusations. We looked at all advertisements with any connection to russia and we found no evidence of our services being used to interfere in the referendum a very small number of suspects its Research Agency linked accounts forty nine such accounts were active during the campaign which represents less than point normal for some of the total number of accounts these are very low level things until we complete this investigation we wont know but what we havent had is. Information that enable those to target on a particular page or a particular phenomenon despite all their commitment enthusiasm and hard work spanning over a period of really several months when this inquiry kick started it seems like the u. K. Parliamentary committee thats trying to find out the truth about a russian any brecht that meddling they seem to be really hitting a brick wall this week they travelled all the way to washington thousands thousands of miles presumably having spent thousands of pounds to get there and what they ended up with while it questioning the executives of twitter you tube and facebook was just a frustration it seems and that was thick in the atmosphere Investigative Journalism for instance as it led to suggestion that there are lots of campaigns going to have it looks like you havent looked have you thats the thing you havent looked this economy. Going on in the horror well it seems who did look was twitter and what they said they found was that they were only fourteen nine accounts connected to russia during the time of the bracks it referendum again im no mathematician so correct me if im wrong perhaps but it seems that there is and this is really nothing to write home about given that twitter has hundreds of millions of accounts and despite the chair of this Committee Damian Collins saying that his quote instinct tells him that the numbers should be higher that did not turn out to be the case so despite this goes. Chasing continuing and the committee keeping asking the executives to look harder it seems no fruitful results so far yeah echoing the im in the simulator huge appetite for this kind of story in the media but little for them to work with as it turns out look at some of the headlines this one reads for instance twitters finally conceded that russian accounts tried to influence practice it going on from the others only a passing mention to actually explain the stories just about a few dozen accounts are the same the times headline coming up that admits the existence of so called russia trolls the first paragraph then reveals there are only forty nine suspicious accounts as were just now one more example you need to dig even deeper though here to find the actual numbers in this very lengthy article radio talk show host john gaunt told us the Russian Investigation may be a wild goose chase after all. This is a farce these employees went all the way to washington to question to they dont understand how the internet works they couldve got them on a skype call and question its far soko an issue a waste of my taxpayers money and it served very very annoying its a joke they act in an almost Kangaroo Court fashion firing questions at you and hardly waiting to listen to the answers you know or i dont think the British Public care they know why people voted for it lets just get over it and accept democracy. Republican lawmakers in the us are threatening to cut funding to the World Health OrganizationsCancer Research programme its out of the International Agency research on cancers said that americas most widely used weed killer is probably carcinogenic this storys been a long running one its made by the cultural giant Monsanto Monsanto strongly disagrees with what saying here and this classification of the put the herbicide in the Research Agency leads prevention activities and helps Shape International policy on tackling cancer but some u. S. Lawmakers have cast doubt on its findings. I unsubstantiated claims i or your responsible handling of why should receive any government funding in the future theyre disputing the organizations findings regarding its leading herbicide called round up round up is made by month santo and its the worlds most widely used weed killer since the seventys its been sprayed on corn soybeans a cotton and other crops and republicans believe that the study was flawed and relied on cherry pick science accusing the agency of lack of transparency an anti industry bias they say that its quite a sadist designated as carcinogenic it will require manufacturers and retailers to warn workers and consumers and plus itll increase costs and instill fear in the public some have disagreed with republicans it is important that we review the methods and tactics that industry has used to influence this administration and attack independent scientific organizations like the World Health OrganizationsInternational Agency for research on cancer or i would like to say that fundamentally this hearing is about the ability of a Public Health agency to call a carcinogen a carcinogen even if that carcinogen makes a huge amount of money for powerful corporations according to the center for responsive politics monsanto lobbied more than four point three Million Dollars in twenty seven team the Environmental Protection agency which is not an International Organization concluded that the same ingredient does not cause cancer and i are says that theyve been under attack ever since they published their conclusions against life a state at the same time monsanto has been pushing against these findings through several different means and the company is seen as quite controversial not only in the u. S. But all over the world president micron promised in november that would be banned within three years inevitably modified crops have been banned in over thirty five Different Countries but not banned in the u. S. International organizations have concluded that life is it could be cancerous so these lawmakers intentions. Quite unclear so were economy washington for us and they were just some of the big stories of the week just going here in moscow is kind of a no in this no a day so thanks for watching and hope you have a good weekend. Run of the globe the best out of the jewels with. The concepts i was preparing to perform i had to actually prepare myself to die. Sorry trust me. As most of. You. In the home of. Her. Scanty clothes. She had a good. Soul. What. Was it you could with. Yes i did me she. Was. Dropping bombs brings peace to the Chicken Hawks wants me to fight the battle. For new socks for the tell you the gossip the public myself. Off the bad guys and tell me you are not cool enough to buy their product. We have already got one. Max kaiser financial Survival Guide stacey lets learn about the bailout lets say im thats right and your theories. Of the fight. Thank you for. The story thats right if you looked at slavery. Thats in american interests to not see any russians die in terrorist attacks as it is in russian interest to prevent any terrorist attacks in the United States or elsewhere in the world so i dont think theres any dispute on that in congress and i think maybe some of the posturing is frankly political as opposed to substantive. A. Clone of welcome to worlds apart for decades russians have both laughed and despair that the inadequacies of their system while also struggling to accept this same kind of criticism from foreign theirs and when russia decided to hold a mirror to their west own imperfections including by setting up this child it turned out that western tolerance to criticism is even more why is it so difficult to communicate pointing out whats wrong with one another well to discuss that im now joined by tony cab and a former diplomat and the author of a book called return to moscow well mr cavanaugh its great to have you in the studio thank you very much for your time and happiest charlie a day thank you very much. Now when you say australia in the russian context it conjures up an image of a beautiful faraway land with bright saan blue sky beautiful beaches with friendly people who spent most of that time surfing and i know its a typical but i think its a nice mental picture to get you through the long russian winter but i suspect when you say russia in their struggle and contacts. The associations are probably not so positive are they. There if they can be quite negative unfortunately we have been fed a diet of cliches about russia. Russia is still very much seen through a post soviet lens as the success of the state to the soviet union and somehow or other images of go leg and stuff. In the countries of extreme cold discomfort of rudeness. The kinds of things that unfortunately still linger and you wrote the whole book to address some of those negative stereotypes and i think you have a very unusual take for a western or former western diplomat. When it comes to russia because. I think theres a lot of understanding theres also a lot of compassion in your book and i really appreciate that but i will want to ask you whether you ever felt that you are giving this country an easy pass i dont think i think that the majority of the content of my book deals with the sometimes very disagreeable parts of russias history ive got a chapter on the leg museum ive got a chapter on the Jewish Museum of tolerance and i talk very frankly in those two chapters of some of the black spot in russias history. And