Russia a plane with sixty five passengers and six crew members onboard has crashed outside moscow shortly after takeoff leaving no survivors. We havent seen him for three months he was working. We want. Wasnt where it. Was a way to help nephew dislikes or a memory of one to see those so sorry for the daughters its terribly sad. Yes and mind what im trying not to my sound as if i didnt. Always wanted to be a pilot he loved everything related to flying he was in love with the sky. These are the first images of the crash site that emerged online after the tragedy the footage was apparently shot by locals the plane came down near a village about sixty kilometers southeast of moscow the plane was heading to or skate city close to the russian border with kazakhstan it took off from airport in the russian mc capital four minutes later the plane disappeared from radar investigators say the crew did not report any irregularities to air Traffic Control before tragedy struck and this is a birds eye view of the crash site which is spread over a large area around six hundred people are involved in the search effort record snowfall over the past week has made their task especially difficult our question and what ive got staff reports. Rescuers here working in shifts. There are dozens and dozens of not hundreds of them but one part of one group works at the crash sites another group breasts and then they switch. Rescuers a also making use of snowmobiles ferrying supplies to and from the crash site itself because theres a lot of snow at the crash site that the jet crashed into a field more trucks and the equipment for the arriving every hour heavier stuff the conditions of the crash site and push the. Because of this though is that they were and. Obviously they want to get this crash site in order quickly here is another ambulance moved likely carrying the remains of another victim or perhaps victims judging by the frequency by which these are passing us the rescue operation is proceeding rapidly lugols have also been describing what theyve seen. My friend say the pongo say laos when days almost shouted. Killing the others but in the t. V. And man paul everyone. Yes we shal i heard a loud cry i was lying in the back the whole gladly and my cats hear it was a really long. I would see it sounded like an explosion our house bounced soon reports initially were contradictory some people said that the aircraft was. On fire while in the air others described a huge explosion when it crashed about a kilometer from here. Tractors clearing away the snow and the roads theres already been a lot of speculation a lot of discussion of the potential pause. Causes of this crash but the investigators say theyll be looking at everything from possible technical malfunctions to human error to weather conditions and its probably best to let the men and women digging through the wreckage do their job and to give us a definitive conclusive on system what caused this tragedy. The plane was a russian made antonov owned by airlines it was eight years old and had a maximum speed of eight hundred twenty Kilometers Per Hour one forty eight is capable of carrying up to eighty passengers the airline is now being examined by the authorities but the Company Claims it carried out all the necessary technical maintenance however this particular plane was previously involved in several security incidents including engine and chassis problems as the Investigation Continues we discussed the tragedy with three aviation experts who shared their thoughts on some possible costs. Like to extend my thoughts and prayers to all the families of the passengers and crew and the Airline Staff in the wake of this tragedy the weather is probably the primary factor that depends a lot on the rate of the snowfall or precipitation and how long the airplane had been sitting on the ground collecting all that material so if the airplane had only been on the ground maybe thirty minutes maybe not so much accumulated that had been there a couple of hours obviously a lot more could have accumulated in that case if the airplane was not sprayed with the icing fluid there would be a more serious. Result you know so the fact that the airplane became airborne and climbed to six thousand feet tells me that probably the airplane was in pretty good shape at the time of the takeoff were dealing with a great great tragedy i feel very bad and were communicating in such a context with the tracks you need there are common protocols for an investigation through various aspects of security and safety factor. A few things really briefly would be the Structural Integrity of the aircraft the fuselage the engines and so on then you look at various energies whether were talking a lecture called systems. For the engines things of that smart. Brains are really anomalies external to any aircraft that could include anything from up bird strike a missile strike a collision with another your craft interaction with unusual weather phenomena and then lastly you have to look out about human issues that could possibly think the thing they call when shit where the wind just suddenly goes straight up and also is the kind of tryst the plane also we have to consider whether it is icing whether they probably the plane before it left. Could be that was built very quickly on the wings and that might affect the flying ability of the plane so these are all considerations that have to be part of the overall investigation. The morals have been set up across the orenburg region where sixty of the passengers were from local authorities have declared monday a day of mourning and hes missing a question of reports now from moscows doma did of airport. The aircraft that crashed just outside moscow departed from this very airport the why did the lease one of the three major air transport hubs in the capital and after the tragedy remains fully operational but over and the small city of course the airport there tells a very different story the shock has paralyzed it most of the sixty five passengers on board of that plane were from that region dozens of family and friends were waiting for them there theyre seen as absolute grief a speak will come to terms with what has happened emergency crews are present at the airport and psychologists are ready to help those trying to cope with their loss the passengers who were due to fly back to moscow on the crashed aircraft are handing back their tickets and even to here at this fast paced airport which is forced to keep moving this tragedy has hit hard. One man had a lock on his side after he canceled his ticket one day before the flight my team called me itself who turned thirty seven this sunday was due to fly back to or six to celebrate his birthday with his family but changed his plans he says he still cant grasp what happened. So i saw the news and what can i say i felt a chill down my spine everyone says i was born under a lucky star thats not true its just a coincidence express my sorrow in the deepest sympathies to the relatives of the parish its scary to. Over the past decade almost four hundred lives have been lost in russian plane crashes and the tragedies still weigh heavy for me. How. America. A quick recap now a passenger plane with seventy one people on board crashed shortly after takeoff from Moscows Domodedovo airport leaving no survivors most of the victims were from the orenburg region of russia where the plane was heading because of the tragedy is so far unknown and of course well keep you updated as the information comes in to our newsroom. Was. Was. Leveled last saw you on the idea of dropping bombs brings peace to the Chicken Hawks forcing you to fight the battle for food still its a new socks for the tell you that celebrity gossip and tabloid worth while to please their. Mother often as he tells me you are not cool enough to buy their products. The all the hawks that we along with all love watching. More and entertainment have become good at it in our culture we have children grow up playing playing on the computer this war has somehow been to mystic hate it is entertainment to russia just theres nothing funny about it is serious russia will be the last to give up Nuclear Weapons because russia regards Nuclear Weapons as the. Against inflation a war by the superior coalition of four. And welcome back to washington weekly on R T International now around seven hundred fifty thousand children lack basic medical care in the war torn iraqi city of mosul that is according to the u. N. It childrens rights body unicef seven months after the liberation of mosul from Islamic State of the city of struggling to get back on its feet. That there are another shuttle thank. You. The number of. Health care centers or hospitals is very limited the extent of the damage has affected it i was there in one of the Health Centers the other day the one family came in with their baby is a two month old baby they wanted a vaccinated there was vaccine there was everything there and starts were seeing over one hundred children a day were able to vaccinate this child but those families have to walk far i also saw the baby unit there were nine incubate has six of which which were filled with premature babies who would not have survived unless those incubate as with their its a wide area wide level of levels of devastation families have to walk enormous distances to be able to get the health care what were saying is that the Cumulative Health care that is required of any child anywhere else in the world is not available yet in mosul. Well long after the iraqi army declared victory in mosul the city remains strewn with corpses and a bit of warning you may find in the following scenes distressing the condition of many of the bodies is making it difficult to confirm their identities most of the victims appeared to be civilians women children and elderly people unicefs representative in iraq Peter Hawkins says mosul cannot rebuild without international support. I think what we need to understand is the extent of the problem this is a massive city mosul city probably faced one of the biggest urban warfare since World War Two and. Two point two million to two point four Million People affected its an enormous challenge for everybody to try and clear everything up and get the people working again. South korea kicked off the Winter Olympics on friday with a lavish Opening Ceremony almost three thousand athletes from ninety two countries took part in the event young chang however before the celebrations there were demonstrations and scuffles outside the venue some activists objected to the presence of north korean officials at the ceremony. Was. Was. At the stadium the north and south korean teams marched together under a unified flag and lit the olympic torch together it was seen as a major milestone on the way to overcoming decades of tension. So the south korean president says he is ready to accept an invitation to visit the north when the right conditions are in place that potentially sets up the first meeting between the countrys leaders in more than a decade the invitation was handed to him to him by kim jong sr he is the first member of the north koreas ruling family to visit the sound since the one nine hundred fifty s. It was. Russia hopes were dashed just hours before events got underway in south korea blast minute appeal from forty five russian athletes and two coaches against a doping related band failed their lawyers brand of the decision sanctions in disguise while this was efficient announcement made by sport thai scored. Just arbitrary tours of constitutes the process created by the i. O. C. To establish an invitation least a freshman at least to compete. From russia could 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 pick 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. Cast to reach this decision fifty fifty especially after thomas buck in one of his latest speeches pressured the court of arbitration for sport after a rude enough 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 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. Council the decision is extremely disappointing this decision shows the need. For reforms in the internal structure of cars here thomas bach was referring to the previous casts 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 a 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 appearance of held the sanctions and notes and the 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. No. I was hoping that gas would roll in our famer right now i dont know what to do im disappointed but of course i wont give up on sport i still got a lot ahead of me i will compete and win medals for my country. Until the very end we were hoping that this is you would go in our favor now i feel sadness and sorrow and i will compete in every competition i can do i have enough strength in the opportunity to compete in the next olympics i will prepare. I have no emotions left we had all our bags were just waiting for it is there anything so just situations make you stronger emotionally. Three of the worlds Biggest Social Media Companies were grilled on thursday by british lawmakers they took the unusual step of conducting a parliamentary hearing outside britain and they tried to pin down the organizations over alleged russian interference in the break that referendum. 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 suspected Research Agency linked accounts forty nine such accounts were active during the campaign which represents less than point normal some of the total number of accounts these are very low level things until we complete because of us because we wont know what we havent had this. Information thats enabled us 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 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 at you thats the thing you havent looked at this economy. Going on in the horror well it seems who did look with twitter and what they said they found was that there were only forty 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 number should be higher that did not turn out to be the case so despite this goes chasing continuing in the committee keeping asking the executives to look harder it seems no fruitful results so far. There is a seemingly a huge appetite for russian meddling stories in the media and lets take a look at some of those headlines this one reads twitter has finally conceded that russian accounts tried to influence braggs it but the article goes on to admit this is based on just a few dozen twitter accounts meanwhile a london times headline says twitter admits russian trolls posted about brags that the first paragraph then reveals there were only forty nine suspicious accounts radio talk show host of john gaunt told us the meddling claims may be just a wild goose chase. This is a false these employees want all the way to washington to question to that honest on how the internet works that kind of got them on a skype call in question its fossa co an issue a waste of my taxpayers money and its very very annoying its a joke they had almost congo rude cool fashion firing questions at you and hardly waiting to listen to the answers you know well i dont think the British Public care they know why people voted for say lets just get over it and accept democracy that does it for me ill be back in about thirty five minutes with a full look at your news you are watching the weekly on our show and were glad youre with us. Like the many clubs. So i know the gang so i got. The ball isnt only about what happens on the pitch for the final school its about the passion from the fans its the age of the super money. To spend spend to get the twenty million. Its an experience like nothing else on it because i want to share what i think from what i know about the beautiful game like great so what. Its going to. 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 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 hardly 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 sun 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 in context. The associations are probably not so positive are they. They can be quite negative unfortunately weve been fed a diet of cliches about russia. Russia is still very much seen through a post soviet lens. Of success the strike to the soviet union and somehow or other. Of starvation in the country of extreme cold discomfort of. 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. Weston no 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 so 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 spots in russias history. And i think what i felt as a former professional diplomat for thirty years and i was an ambassador to poland but they were mothers postings. I felt i had a certain responsibility to. Look we are being fed. Fantasies about russia the real russia is not what were being told about. I want to go and i want to see like my process of disenchantment from the western Propaganda Machine against russia it really began pretty much. Interest thousand and fourteen with the events in ukraine and the way in which they were being reported now i hope we will go into the ukrainian events a little bit later on into the program but. You mentioned the this negative image of russia and russia is definitely not an easy country its a very complex society its sometimes a very contorted country and i think we the russians are the first to you know and experience that and i think that actually goes to the very notion of russian patriotism its loving russias its a bit like caring for the disabled loved one you know the disability you hate them but you love the person all the more because of that and that is actually i think the most moving part of your book for me that you accept disability rather than the typical western scolding that russia is not good enough but what i find even more troubling is that thats cold ing that irritated russians a lot if you years back now it seems acceptable because it essentially dick rest into the open bigotry why do you think this lack of compassion not even the law