A local Health Center. Good evening just 11 oclock here in moscow you with r. T. International our top story tonight syrian militants backed by Turkish Forces launched an offensive against the syrian army in the war torn province earlier today but russian airstrikes did help to repel them. Gave me more details. Basically what happened terrorist factions launched an offensive on the Syrian Forces who were holding one of the villages a village in that Northeastern Province a very large scale offensive supported by artillery strikes by the turkish army so that offensive or that was of such scale that the troops the syrian troops on the ground could not withstand it on their own so the ask the Russian Air Force to help out so it did but again that offensive that terrorist offensive was supported by turkish artillery so moscow had to intervene and reach out directly to ankara and ask them to stop this support to prevent militants from moving deeper into syria into the 24 the Russian Air Force at the request of the syrian command have carried out air strikes against the dancing armed groups this allowed the syrian troops to successful the ripple all attacks the Turkish Ministry of defense has confirmed that 2 of its soldiers have been killed as a result of the airstrikes and 5 more wounded now it is not clear yet who fired those deadly rounds or what were the those Russian Air Force or the Syrian Air Force but still the situation is very very explosive given that now 3 independent 3 sovereign states have been engaged in a skirmish effectively in a deadly skirmish in one of those states being a nato ally as well its been a rapid escalation hasnt it just over the last day or so how did it reach this point well essentially turkey has been very vocal about the situation in libya and earlier one to turkish president earlier one has been telling syrians to get out of it to move out of that province behind the troops line that had been preagreed back. Hes been the one has been giving deadlines to the syrian army by the end of february then really never going on the. Demand and saying that theres no deadline they should move to made immediately or the attack or the turkish attack would be imminent. I dont doubt that the operation is imminent we will not leave it to the regime quote which is not yet understood our countrys nation on this issue is going to encourage you to legitimize it and making it a safe place. And the people of the region at all costs. Well it seems the push has come to shove now in the syrian province and interestingly turkey has been encouraged from abroad it has been encouraged by its main nato ally the United States theyve been sort of cheering ankara and saying that they are all along standing by their nato ally also literally hours before the advance whether or not it is a coincidence we dont know but an official nato twitter account an International Twitter account posted a promo video saying that we are nato and thats in turkish language now russia has been all along saying that turkey has failed to deliver on its key promise ankara being. One of the guarantors of the Peace Process in libya has been tasked with delivering a clear distinction between radical hardline jihadists and those groups who are ready to engage in dialogue and sit behind a table and talk to the Syrian Government and russia has been saying that ankara has failed to deliver on this key promise and key tasks so well certainly have a look whether this this mess in todays mess and will see all sides back at the negotiating table. Now now with lee man who was believed to be leading the call to prayer at a mosque in Central London has been stabbed in the neck with the details from the british capital his. What we know so far is that the gentleman the wise it was that called at this mosque in Central London this is one of the 1st mosques to be established in the u. K. He was reading the call to prayer for the afternoon prayers around 3 or 330 in the afternoon when he was stabbed by another person who has since been arrested the 29 year old now or just the judge will the victim in question is said to be in his seventys and hes in hospital now where. Hes expected to survive that attack despite it being the starting attack in the neck now weve spoken to some people who have been inside the mosque earlier this evening and in the off the moon and they say that according to officials here at the mosque the gentleman whos been arrested the man whos been arrested was seen here before he had been a visitor here but had perhaps been seen as somebody of an outsider was suspicious of some way so its unclear whether this is someone who was an attendee of the mosque or someone who was possibly staking out in preparation for an attack like this in any case the police have released a statement they say theyre not treating it as terrorists and at this time but of course tensions and fears will be high in the u. K. Especially amongst the muslim community. The mall people in berlin holding one official vigil for the 9 victims killed during last nights shooting in the west of germany he says suspect the attacker is believed to have had. With 5 of the victims being turkish nationals peter all of the reports. To vigils have been taking place here in the german capital in response to the killings in the western city of now at the Brandenburg Gate the iconic symbol here in the center of berlin we saw people forming a human chain in solidarity with the people of haiti now also at another location in the city people saying that theyve come out on to the streets against racism antisemitism and right wing terrorism theres also been a vigil taking place in the city of hanau where this incident took place frank falta steinmeier the german president who is in attendance there there have been other politicians out and about various events that have been taking place on thursday evening 9 people were killed 2 separate locations 2 she should bars in the. Western city of hay now not far from the major city of frankfurt a 42 year old man whos believed to be the main suspect was later found dead at his home alongside his 72 year old mother eyewitnesses who were there when the shootings took place that she should bars have described the scenes and what they saw and heard you dont have such if you had to go i heard gunshots then i ran out and looked in the direction of the she should but i couldnt see anything going to the doors are open and people were running out of the other restaurants i heard from my neighbor that someone was shooting at the restaurant just ran back and told my guests to stay away from the windows. Along with my 2 little kids of marshall to the city we were actually 100 meters from place because when i went up stairs and heard 5 to 7 gunshots. Of the attorney general is investigating links to right wing extremism in this case thats after a 24. 00 page manifesto was found in the possession of the main suspect in that manifesto he talks about hatred of foreigners and non white people he talks about the extermination of certain nations in north africa or in the middle east and in central asia its riddled with racist tropes as well as being full of a far right idea ology searches things like eugenics theres also a video that emerged that was published just a few days ago from this man this 42 year old german man who is the main suspect in the shooting in the shootings in this video which gives no clue that he may have been preparing to take it to carry out this attack he speaks in english its understood its being directed towards a u. S. Audience and its full of conspiracy theories really. What we have seen though is a number of politicians coming out in condemnation of this as. Attack also the german chancellor Angela Merkel saying that there would be a full investigation and no stone would be left unturned. Its too early to give a conclusive assessment everything is being done to find out what was behind this murder but a lot already suggests far right racists not of the of the attacker here parents acted out of hatred towards people of different descent religion or appearance racism is a poison hatred is a poison and this poison exists in our society and has led to many crimes. So the feeling here in germany really one of sadness of mourning but certainly of anger that this was able to happen in the 1st place. In the wake of the shooting the chairwoman of the ruling c. D. U. Party was quick to bash rivals from the alternative for Germany Party couzin them of having extremist tendencies. Imminently to ensure its fine if you look at their texts profile it seems like he had racist xenophobia as well as far right motives and this trends mean mightily for the c. D. U. Should always be clear not only for the c. D. U. But for all parties in germany that they can be no corporation with a party which tolerates far right extremists and lets call a spade a spade not since in monitoring so we are resolved to have no cooperation with the f. D. A. In any shape or form its important to keep the spirals is the tentative for germany its more or less the parliamentary wing of a right Wing Movement and even of the right wing terrorists if they want or not they are the ones who give the key. To terrorists and every collaboration by other parties with the what. But give this party more credibility in the eyes of the followers so we have a level in the public debate that is more of a child than a rational political debate and when i hear yesterday night about that shooting i instinctively knew that our opponents would blame us for being responsible for it it is completely ridiculous and i can only ask everyone to read that money festa of this crazy terrorist and then compare it to what we are doing and then its all views that its nonsense but no one reads of money 1st 2. 00 and so opponent think if they only repeat and repeat and repeat that we are somehow linked to that or that that this terrorist had links to us than enough people would believe in ok maybe it happens but its just fake news and of course. We fight against that fic news. Ok lets return to aust top story because syrian militants backed by Turkish Forces have launched an offensive against the syrian army in the war torn province earlier today but russian airstrikes to help to repel them we got lets get some reaction i can tell she pretty says he down east and a former u. K. Army officer and he joins us evening good evening do you think well see further attacks like this from turkey. Its a very good question its a very good very difficult situation to call because on the face of it given that russia has made its support for the Assad Government in clearing it live certainly of the militants concern and certainly. Russia has made it clear that it would not support. Turkish attacks into against the Syrian Armed Forces its on the face of it rather reckless attack to take place given that it seems to have the support of the turkish government and the army particularly artillery support but from an alternative perspective it may be of course that this is just one of. A few perhaps the only attempts by the gun present are going to actually test a degree to which russia is prepared to stand by its stated obligations to the Syrian Armed Forces what weve had here is a relatively small scale attack that had success in the 1st instance but could really be seen in one from one perspective as a probing attack to see what the russian response would be and of course the russian response has been quite determined and one would imagine has sent quite a clear message to president reagan and his government and his own forces that may compel him to try again but it may in a more rational sense compel them to actually not try this once more because theyve already got the answer to the conundrum that are posing in other words how far were should go. To actually defend syria or to assist syria in taking back this province or at least battling the militants who are attacking them. If he did say early didnt that he intended to or he said in the near future certainly they could be a full scale offensive its funny he would use that sort of language language given what you just said hes just used a small event to test the water i mean quite clearly you could call his bluff a i mean where would he go from here if you didnt intend to go through those actions. Yes youre absolutely right and the white see if you wants to have the surprise of that hes announced in advance if you really want to carry go ahead with these threats if you like to carry out a full scale offensive you just thought that this kind of very small probing attack which would. Which inevitably would be defeated if Russian Air Force was deployed an arche be could even have been defeated without a mission if we speed destroyed deployed because of course youve got syrian air and other assets in place that this patch wouldnt be the way to go about that full scale offensive weve got a situation where of course to some degree on all sides but particularly from president putin side and again weve seen this as a consistent trait throughout the syrian conflict. That he is prepared to bluff that he is. Largely as well performing 20 international but especially to a domestic audience when he speaks in these tough terms and its been a situation again and again where actually quite thankfully given many of his threats in the past he hasnt actually delivered on all of the threats hes made i suspect hes in a situation where turkey has backed if you like the losing horse in the syrian situation particularly given its failure to as it was committed to do so under the the escalation agreements to separate the different factions out india province particularly because as we know it is even interestingly even most western media and western governments are accepting because its inevitable you cant hide the truth any longer that them. Artsy or the dominating force of them the rebels innately province is of course extremist or jihadist by any standard and of course the h. T. S. Offshoot there that was of course until relatively recently affiliated with al qaeda is an effect really dominating force and was the dominating force in these attacks and youve got a situation where in order to back rebels to keep influence in syria its all going to send out himself to be in a situation where its becoming completely obvious and open to actually not only he failing to separate as he was obliged to do those socalled moderate rebels from these extremists are talking about but actually hes now seem to be openly supporting them. Ok charles that will leave it there but very critical to that is charles bridge security analyst and former u. K. Army officer thank you. Other news tonight hysteria his spreading in 3 craning regions where protests have been held over the countrys National Spring brought back from the coronavirus epicenter in china the flight carrying 73 people evacuated from and eventually landed in the city of harkov now demonstrators have clashed with police in the time the passenger is meant to be quarantined. Oh i. Was no no no no no no no no no. Oh. God. God. God. So far ukraine has yet to see one case of the coronavirus but many people clearly are quite scared of even taking that chance in the region of leval of groups of protesters worse were seen blocking the streets to a Major Hospital where the passengers were supposed to be quarantined after arriving in the country riot police were quickly sent to the scene they could be seen dragging people from the streets and even some of them were hospital workers themselves now for the past couple days other skirmishers between protesters and the police have become widespread across the country but the ukrainian authorities are saying are trying to reassure people that none of these passengers were affected or infected by the coronavirus about half of them were ukrainian or ukrainian and the rest come from a number of Different Countries but all of them have been screened twice before being allowed to board the plane now the governments been trying to find a quarantine area for a while now and amidst all the chaos of these new protests president selenski says that these reactions are not really something to be proud of these reactions to something that was supposed to be a gesture of goodwill to help people in need is a shame the not all of us can be proud of the humane reaction the efforts to show find ways to build close spittles not to let ukrainians back to ukraine we want demonstrating the best of our character here especially given the majority of the passengers are under 30 to most of us they are almost children now the passengers are bound for a Health Center in the Poltava Region of ukraine but with such a negative reaction to something intended to be a gesture of goodwill well have to see how similar attempts in the future to fight the coronavirus fair if there are any at all. Now the Washington Post has come under fire after publishing an article suggesting that elite should play a key role in picking the countrys president in opinion piece argued it was about bridging the socalled uncertainty gap between people and party leaders. Preference primaries could allow voters to rank their choices among candidates as well as to register opinions about their issue priorities like an exit poll but more formal and with all the voters the results will be public but not binding and we need to inform elites about Voter Preferences or the paper later altered the headline of the article to something more moderate however the article itself remained unchanged arguing even less important should be placed on the popular vote the now it is provoked plenty of anger online with many feeling it contradicts the very spirit of the paper and its famous slogan democracy dies in darkness. Democracy dies in darkness unless darkness is what the elites need to rig an election in which case maybe democracy isnt all that great anyway there goes to run the herd line that serves to silence burdens the wealthy are speaking. Democracy dies in darkness whispers jeff bezos to Michael BloombergRupert MurdochJulian Sinclair and donald trump in a dark smoke filled room suckers. Ok lets get the thoughts now of media and this line he joins us on this line dont know what do you think think it was the elites actually testing the water to see what the public would think with this Washington Post article. Not at all what this was was why paul click bait it was nothing it was a gas opinion and it was another example of throwing a hand grenade a smoke grenade into the into the makes somebody i cant believe how many people were talking about this absolute drivel and i guess were talking about it as well but since we are 1st of all it was one of the most poorly constructed arguments ever i read it and i thought to myself i dont understand what this is suggesting so i gave it to a couple of by learned colleagues they dont know what it is either we dont know what exactly this is suggesting who are these elite this is a College Professor a ph d. Ph d. Stands for something but this being a family show i wont tell you what it stands for and drove all the direct its nonsense but what it happens is very simply this you see they still cant understand the fact. That donald trump is president it comes down to this there was one little snippet in there one little line that gave it away that if this democracy thing works and by the way we are a Constitutional Republic not a democracy but is it this democracy voting one of more donald trump would have been president and there in my friend lies the growth of amun of the issue. Do you take what you say but do you think there is an element of truth here that the primaries are too complicated and look they shouldnt be binding because the people in charge of the d. N. C. Or who have a probably know best and therefore they should have the final say that was the tenant was in it of the article. That might have been the tenet that might have been the thrust of the article but whats wrong with that since the beginning of time the various parties and by and by the way the different conventions in the primary im not going to detail we have the primaries the caucuses the caucus no no no comparison in in real world but what they want to do was theyre always trying to battle the actual status quo for example. In 1972 the Democratic Party won crazy because they picked George Mcgovern as absolute loser against Richard Nixon it was one of the worst landslides ever and they then said this is what happens when you let the regular the whore you poloroid vote so they came up with this crazy idea called the super delegate and the super delegate was a way for party a leads to an essence over rule the the vote of those the unwashed masses who stumbled into caucus rooms and the like theyve been trying since to try to gear something let me cut to the chase what youre about to see in this country is even better they are trying everything in their power to prevent Bernie Sanders a democratic socialist which nobody knows what that means because they keep focusing on the word socialist theyre doing everything in their power to keep that from happening theyre throwing in Michael Bloomberg the throwing of joe biden and nothings happening why because the left this wild guy left version of the Democratic Party is gaining favor so theyre trying yet again to thwart that because they want the adults of the Democratic Party to run the show and my friend this is been going on ever since George Mcgovern and its the same idea but as far as the Washington Post goes it is a rag it is a hospital mop it is it is it is nothing its it the glory days of your from watergate its over with not only that the print media in this country newspapers are closing the New York Times is a joke so what you see right now is one last gasp effort to put something in it will get people to talk about it as evidence by this most fascinating conversation. You know when i are having right now lionel good to have you on as always weve run out of time that was a media analyst lionel thank you. Now for decades greece has been locked in a tug of war with the u. K. Over the elegant marvels but its a contest athens has never won however it seems that breaks it could perhaps change all that amid reports the historic sculptures could be on the table for trade negotiations the ancient elden marbles are currently held on display at the British Museum they were shipped from athens back in the 19th century and greece has accused the u. K. Of stealing its heritage but a Government Spokesperson did say u. K. s position hasnt changed. The you case position on the parthenon sculptures remains unchanged they are the legal responsibility of the British Museum that is not up for discussion as part of our trade negotiations or weve got the views of wendy oh shes a cultural historian and also of. Political and social commentator. You cant go around the world nicking stuff and then just saying were going to keep hold of it because its really valuable and we want people to come and see it it just as awash now adays in a i hate saying it but in a relatively woken like in Society People are asking for their stuff back and its very hard to construct a case when we go around the world stealing stuff and dont get back i think history itself is a very complicated place to go history is complex we do very well in britain threat Education System and our western media missed telling and misstating it we we dont half pick and choose what and how we tell history i mean we can say that the item and this is the worst of it so stewardship of the times in me we should be trying to we should be trying to have a discussion about this rather than you trying to interrupt me and the point i know its a case not only do i know hitler if there is a history what we can do with these mothers now is continue to learn about history continue to understand their histories and continue to develop our knowledge by returning them back willy nilly to places that demand them were not caring for the objects themselves were not looking at these as. Pieces of our heritage of Global Heritage every single argument you make for keeping them away can be used for returning them im sure the greek people you know the home of democracy some great thinkers you might consider will be able to figure out how to display this to the public we shouldnt be just using them as as kind of political footballs all taking the moral taking taking the moral high ground taking the moral high ground we live in a world that is constantly changing and we need to i think recognise that. No that these are bigger than the most just numbers in history my concern is that by not coming under the auspices of the European Court of justice were not going to be held accountable how on earth is the British Government ever going to be held accountable for the sins that it commits as a state at home and overseas if we dont have a higher court to answer to so i think britain is perfectly poised to be able to do exactly what it wants and i think in terms of brics it that discussion about it is a discussion about democracy its about sovereignty theres no point in kind of 3 hashing old historical arguments when we are when i think were in a completely new place where people in britain are thinking about how do we have a future where were free of a bureaucracy outside of person that were not that is not accountable to us and how can we can tighten up on our lives turned around and losing argument. Well ok thats your opinion. But we had earlier here an r. T. Thats the news for now more from us in 30 minutes. Kind of good intentions for the future. Krishna to you 40 years ago. Simply evaporated. Its easy to close your. Eyes or this is the kaiser report you know gold its part of history is full of history gold you can find out some interesting things about