a study challenging the claim that the syrian government was to blame for an alleged chemical attack in 2017 after the article attracted fierce criticism. you're watching are to international bring you your live news update from our studio here in moscow welcome to the program. people in the french city of or on are demanding the truth from the authorities they fear there's been a cover up after a major fire at a nearby chemical factory with locals not believing officials who say the air is safe to breathe r.t. charlotte devinsky reports. almost a week ago the chemical plant just across the water that was a blaze a sick plume of black smoke billowed into the sky as firefighters battled almost 24 hours against the flames. in the dark goodies with i'm not saying that the smell isn't pleasant i'm just telling you what the results of the tests are namely that the air is not harmful since then there has been growing anger over what some say is a lack of information over what was put into not fire and the impact that could have on people's health. you can talk to any firemen but when you have any type of contact with the smoke it's dangerous it can be lethal because of the camera mounted sight and in this case when the smoke went into the sky we don't know what was in it we don't know exactly what is in the year and we worry a lot that in the future it might bring cancer or something else. i have 4 kids and they were impacted by the smell and my grades i thought about having test done before was with absolutely no information about what we should be looking for i could take blood samples but what are you going to tell them to look for i know they could be cancer thyroid problems but the problem is that we hear lots of rumors nothing concrete. i think there is a risk for health and i can feel it because i have a need to throw it and i'm continuously coffee we worried about the health of our children in the future will they have cancer or something we just don't know around the rule some people are also taking that proportions some locals have also experienced nor. vomiting whilst others have complained that the tap water is black and then there is the stench you can smell that the air is foul it's a bit like rotting eggs but with a chemical tinge and despite the initial denials that there was no health risk the french health minister has admitted that it's clearly polluted. it is a factory that produces hydrocarbons even if not in large volumes it is never good for the population to come across these kinds of products i cannot say that there is no danger the city is clearly polluted several schools were closed off to the fire and though some have attempted to reopen many teachers are refusing to return to work. colleagues from schools near lubrizol who have refused to work until they receive information about what was burnt and the risk because they are just a few 100 metres away from the site they did so to protect their health and that of the children who are under their responsibility and that's why there has been a demand that the original school 30 acknowledged their right not to have children attend school under this condition. while health concerns are immediate what's perhaps most telling about the danger people here are facing is the fact that food sales 100 districts around ruin have been banned any produce that may have been exposed to contamination has to be destroyed that even includes milk. hybrid carrots and worked closely with milk produces dioxins are measured in memory grams and there are a problem for us because they become highly concentrated in milk and the toxic so they render it unfit for consumption it is vital for us to know as soon whether there are any dioxins in those burning materials what's going on he would term us what to do with our produce so much on the fly advise even reached as far as belgium and the netherlands raising concerns. the impact could be even the lying to reaching the flags have also been raised for the health of the police and the firefighters who were on during the fire protests like this have now formed to pressure the authorities to outline any risks they may face they demanding answers but are afraid that even if they receive and that the danger is as a result of that place may not image for months or even years from now charlotte t.v. ski r.t.e. . environmental activist her own bertrand says iran is now the most dangerous city to be and friends. you would. think the government prioritizing the work of the plant rather than the safety of citizens an official earlier told us that there was nothing to worry about and the everyone was not toxic and he continues to pacify us without giving any scientific data to back up his claims and then we hear the interior minister saying the same thing again without any confirmation the officials based their inclusion on the far the lubrizol plant which does not contain so many hazardous chemicals the other part was far more dangerous substances which could have burned it did not pass the only argument that the author is he's used to reassure us but actually the damaged part also included a whole range of harmful chemicals so it's possible that they were released into the air since the cloud is now above belgium the air there should be tested for certain substances which were found here on near the plant i think now we want is the most dangerous french city to be in but i hope we will be able to cope. young african-american girl who claimed she was attacked by white schoolmates has issued an apology after the story made national headlines across the u.s. and her retractions raise questions about the trend and hoax reports and has the details. it was a crime so verandas that everyone was talking about it a young african-american woman held down as 3 white guys cut her dreadlocks and insulted her where were ministry where were any party to protect her. this heinous crime the tears in the eyes of the grandparents came from righteous outrage now questioning the claims of a crying girl is not a good look for anyone especially the media which most americans already hold distain for but maybe they should have well it turns out the incident never happened her grandparents have written an apology to those young boys and their parents we sincerely apologize for the pain and exhausted see these allegations have cools down to the administrators and families of manual christian school we have sorry for the damage this incident has done to trust within the school family and the un to school and it has brought to the school to the broader community who rallied in such passionate support for adults and we apologize for betraying your trust now of course actual hate crimes do happen we can recall how recently there was a high school wrestling referee in new jersey who forced a black athlete to cut his dreadlocks he was shamed in front of the audience outrage was everywhere but we see another disturbing trend in us society that's people faking hate crimes against themselves in order to get media attention and sympathy who can forget just the small let could only go off of their words. i mean . so is. this not the country. all those celebrities who rallied around justice once case and filled the airwaves with their outrage and indignation well they look pretty bad now remember that crowd of high school boys from kentucky who were shown in a video wearing trump pats and confronting an elderly native american veteran remember how it turned out that he had actually walked up to them and that the boys had already been met with a tirade of anti white slurs from the nearby black hebrew israelites named the skates i want names shame them if you think this wouldn't box you know hard beat think again honest question have you ever seen will push will face in this kids with the overall crime rate in the united states on the. klein actual hate crimes are increasing and that's what makes these hoaxes so vile it feeds into the idea that actual victims of actual racist atrocities shouldn't be taken seriously you fortunate seeing is you know i do sometimes hate crimes do occur and when they do occur i think that this kind of a hoax does a disservice to the victims of legitimate hate crimes when something like this happens you know it's going to make it harder let's say for the next victim to be bullied you know because there are so many instances of these types of hoaxes popping up i think that a lot of you know editors quite frankly have lost their soul you know especially now in america strong they're always just looking for the most insatiable story the story the page going to see the start is and you know most negative picture of america unfortunately it seems like we have a lot of self-hatred in the american mainstream media nowadays. as men pietschmann inquiry into donald trump rumbles on a contender for his job in the 2020 u.s. presidential race has called out her opponents on some of their tactics candidates for potence who are fundraising off impeachment undermining credibility of the inquiry in the eyes of the american people the divine already frank should the country please stop we need responsible patriotic leaders who put the interests of our country before their own. the democrats have sent text messages urging americans to stand up with nancy pelosi after the speaker of the house of representatives announced the start of the formal impeachment inquiry last week the party reportedly received nearly 9000000 dollars in just 2 days which amounts to the biggest spike in fundraising efforts in recent months and despite their differences both parties seem to be profiting equally off the probe on the republican side donald trump addressed his supporters the e-mail and the message titled call transcript the president says he's done nothing wrong the republican national committee received $8500000.00 in donations within just 48 hours of the launch of the probe and that's their biggest haul since the trump campaign launched in june the impeachment and great came last week amid claims trump leaned on ukraine's president to investigate his 2020 rival joe biden all in exchange for u.s. support for kiev we spoke with west benedict the executives' director of the libertarian national committee he says both parties only care about point scoring democrats or so now fund raising even trying to raise money off the impeachment. scandal and also of course republicans are doing it as well and i think it does undermine the investigation but to be honest i don't think anybody cares about doing a credible investigation during this impeachment process well mostly republicans and democrats just want to score points against each other and try and raise money for their campaigns and try and get themselves elected i don't think democrats really care if the impeachment succeeds but then they have something they can talk about on their campaigns and say how bad trump is and say donate for us for president and donate for democrats for u.s. senate ultimately it's the politicians who benefit and it's the american people who is hurt by this impeachment effort. still to come a scientific journal withdraws a study about an alleged syrian chemical attack in 2017 after facing criticism well we're back with the details of that and more after the break. you know world of the big partisan movie lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that made stream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smart we need to stop slamming the door on the back and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. make this manufactured to send to the public well. when the ruling classes protect themselves. in the final merry go round listen to the one percent. in the middle of the room. welcome back a scientific journal that specializes in arms control has withdrawn a study casting doubt on the claim that the syrian government was to blame for an alleged chemical attack in 2017 the article pointed out inconsistency is in the official version of events and came under intense criticism. explains. where the sun revolves around us or us around it where the earth is flat who is god is greater or more recently whether we should question why every chemical attack in syria would magically gets blamed on the government that the syrian government committed chemical weapons acts against their own people it is highly likely that the regime was responsible for a star an attack on concha koon assad rita rita violations of the cease fire and the violence through be to be perpetrated by heeds armed forces on civilians now usually science is the answer it is resolved some of our biggest arguments but this question seems to have a strumpet science and global security respected journal based out of princeton university decided not to publish a study that questioned the official version of events that assad's government was behind the hunchy who in attack in 2017 it all went something like this a former pentagon employee mit professor ted postol together with respected scientists conducted a study u.s. presidential candidate gathered mentions it on her campaign web site 13th september belling cat noted anti asaad website blasts the study science and global says it will publish it anyway and will judge it or narrow it soon after the journal now says it's canceling the publication is why officially. these questions included concerns about the technical merits of the analysis in this article as well as the value of publishing the article given the sensitive and contested issue of the use of chemical weapons in syria yet it is take these masses very seriously this review identified a number of issues with the peer review and revision process strange isn't it that no questions about the veracity of the study were asked when it was submitted or when it was given the green light for publishing concerns only appeared when belling cat and its followers attacked the study and the people behind it we've asked the journal for comment but no clear answer yet then again as statement may have said it all sensitive and contested issue that caused your mind back to 2017 within 2 days of the alleged chemical attack america declared it knew everything there was to know on tuesday syrian dictator bashar al assad. launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians even beautiful. babys recruit murdered in this very barbaric attack and so trump ordered a barrel of cruise missiles to be launched at syria now any doubt about as ads to mattick guilt would make the missile strike a war crime or an international war crime which could be why the scientists behind the study of facing such intense pressure abuse even and surprisingly were the loudest voices of condemnation is coming from elliot higgins founder of belling cat and opponent of everything a sad is web site which he likes to call an investigative outlet that has received funding from u.s. government run operations mr higgins is a rabid supporter of the official pentagon line he is debating the issue with dr post or well the opi slow your dog doesn't agree with you well that are they lying they be foolish i think there is aid to address the technical points in my instead of citing nonsense because i showed that none of the forensic evidence fit the findings you need to show that what i'm saying is technically inaccurate i took your research in hex i mean i gave it was someone he said 40 years of experience as a chemistry expert i'm not interested in other people you claim are experts i want to know why that is not it's not in place the full debate is up on dr postals you tube channel but his study will be appearing on science and global security anytime soon it seems twisted criticism has won the day to day where science is told to shut up because it's inconvenient it's former us secretary of defense famously explained there are some things you just don't know you don't know. there are reports that there is no evidence of a direct link between baghdad and some of these terrorist organizations but there are known knowns serious things we know we know and we also know there are unknown unknown that is to say we know there are some things we do not know but there are also unknown unknown the ones we don't know we don't know excuse me but is this in the no no. i'm not several on loans and i'm just what i'm noticing and i'm not going to say which it is the search is going to leave here if you will ever hear the irony is sometimes those unknown noons preferable it's better for america in this case for bending pat if no one knows what happened and they what investigative journalist rick sterling says that the withdrawal of the article has nothing to do with science and everything to do with politics. the article was authored by 7 scientists who are experts in the field they rule though the fact that. that it was definitely something that could only have been caused by a bomb dropped from the from the air it was respected to analyzing the hole in the ground and modeling whether it 122 millimeter. projectile missile could have caused that and they determined that it could have caused the criticisms mostly have come from non scientific people what is the journal that supposed to be dedicated to scientific inquiry and that is supposed to be dedicated to disarmament and arms control is apparently being bullied or allowing itself to be bullied into political censorship and bias. russia's foreign policy is a key agenda item at a major forum currently taking place in sochi the country's foreign minister sergey lavrov is there along with other top officials discussing among other things russia's approach to the middle east for now we cannot cross live to our correspondent maria notion i was there for us what's the latest from the event. well hi let me 1st of all tell you that wednesday's gathering of vote by discussion based international think tank is held in these absolutely stunning place in the mountains outside russia's black sea resort of sochi and discussions here today just as hot as the weather the east has been announced this year's major topic asia and the middle east and let's end on the spotlight today politicians high ranking politicians experts in flanders are discussing modern challenges respects and ways to protect peace and stability and development in. these regions syria was mentions to many times today russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov he's one of the speakers here today has shared he's assessment of effective global strategy stressing non interference in any country's internal affair as well as spag of its national interests and integrity should become principles this global strategy effective strategy should be based on he has talked about iraq afghanistan libya as rather sad examples of international peace efforts pointing out but specifically usas approach there lead to dramatic consequences and basically chaos and that should be avoided a lover of has said that has called this interfering to influence policy he has called it toxic and dangerous stressing that any effort should be aimed at rather bringing peace and stability let's take a listen. to the deserts of the middle east is a cradle of many civilizations and world religions of course today when it's been transformed into a laboratory for reckless experiments that have led to tragic consequences this topic is very urgent if you look at american interventions aimed at forcing relevant parties to do what washington requires washington usually considers it useful to maintain a certain degree of turbulence in the region because the us has military bases that they can only support one side if it's beneficial or the other depending on where the oil flows where the gas is where to sell their weapons. with them russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov has also expressed his concerns about american and european approach towards iran iran that lavrov has stressed never violated any article of the joint comprehensive plan of actions he has added that he hopes unnecessary and unexplainable pressure. on teheran will stall pan just to remind you of all that discussion club will continue its work tomorrow on thursday and weidman putin russia's president is expected to join the conversation we'll cover it for you of course back to you our team's maria from the national bringing us the latest from sochi thank you. that's a global news update for this hour but don't forget you can always head to our web site r.t. dot com for the details on all of those stories and many more. in 2040 you know bloody revolution to correct the demonstrations going from being relatively peaceful political protests to be creasing the violent revolution is always spontaneous or is it you know lawyer i mean you are liz put video through to me in the new bill is that i'm still in need of the former ukrainian president recalls the events of 2014. those who took part in this today over 5000000000 dollars to assist ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. join me every 1st day on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to us of the world of politics sport business i'm show business i'll see of n. o y a paradise with some ground turned into a round the experimentation field for agricultural chemicals we know that these chemicals have consequences they are major irritants there's no question otherwise why would that the chemical company workers themselves be geared up and suited up locals attempt to combat the on regulated experiments but often in day you have many of these people where one foot into the biotech pharma and the other foot in the government regulatory bodies this kind of collusion is reprehensible while the battle goes on the chemicals continue to poison hawaii and its people so one has to ask the question whether there is a form of environmental research going on in hawaii whether these companies feel they can get away with this because the people have less political power. greetings and sal you tasia means narrative the spoken or written account of connected events the narrative can control the rise and fall of everything from film actors the presidents even the nations will history remember you kindly all my friends that depends on who controls the narrative of your legacy and it's this fight for control of the narrative that is at the heart of the controversy surrounding the recent revelations that an editorial executive working for twitter also moonlights as a psyop warrior in the british army a very curious yes the middle east i was reporting that the head of editorial for the middle east africa twitter one gordon mcmillan who joined the social media companies u.k. office 6 years ago has for several years also served with the 77th brigade unit formed in 2015 or developed non lethal ways of waging war and just what are these non-lethal ways of waging war you ask well let me lay it out for you at the time of its creation back in 2015 according to the independent british army officials told the media that the 77 for great big aid would use social media including facebook and twitter to fight in the information age troops were to deliver means of shaping behavior through the use of dynamic narratives using the very best talent from the regulars and reserve in other words propaganda leaders and gentlemen they are warriors created to spread british military propaganda so isn't that a wild going to be doing that mr mcmillan found himself an exhibit in an executive position of one of the biggest social media empires on the planet. one of the chances yes that's the narrative they're pushing which means it's time for us to start watching the whole us. to. get the. real thing it's really. easy to sit. like you know that i got. 3. kids because. well the one watching i robot and i'm to have a. man's hat you brought this story it's my attention this morning and it's a doozy to think that like yours as british intelligence officer you know or in this part time but also this like major executive about a tauriel of twitter that's that's incredible and you know apparently mcmillan's involvement with the something some group was made public what he disclosed to of all places on his linked in page. absolutely insane the british army by the way did the client to disclose anything about mcmillan's duties with the 77th grade or say whether or not you know twitter helps with it or are involved in it they're basically saying you know we know nothing we can say anything like nothing at all unusual but usually. a bowl.