but. is it. a pretext for intervention russia's foreign ministry. believes the u.s. could just be looking for an excuse to deepen its military involvement there. also coming up on. c.n.n. . the controversy the network's facing up to its news. what. happened this week with all. things to keep up with. the european commission. deficit of ten billion euro. faces

a number of challenges. through parliament. international news channel in moscow this is our. company our top story the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman sharply criticized washington's allegation that the syrian government is planning a chemical attack such. an upcoming u.s. intervention. it is even we knew about statements from washington we also knew that the u.s. officials refused to confirm the claims with any facts the situation looks like a massive provocation both military and informational it is likely that where we

are seen as the moment is the threshold of a new intervention the gist of what russia is saying is that we are witnessing the united states lay the groundwork for a full on intervention in syria an anti i said it eventually and this chemical craze is part of it they're trying to justify intervening in syria as they've done on almost every occasion where chemical weapons have come up in two thousand and thirteen as a horrendous attack hundreds injured and killed then they try to launch an intervention the home audiences weren't having it they failed this year in april there was another chemical attack and again this time without asking anyone trump launched to fifty nine cruise missiles at a syrian air base and the russians are saying we're in a similar situation now basically our side is being told by the united states that we know you're going to carry out a chemical attack if that happens if

a chemical attack happens we're going to blame assad by default no investigation no due process just punishment and what the russians are saying is that now the rebels and g. harvest's have every reason to stage an attack of their own. i look at the u.s. experts and then he said openly that extremists could use these claims by washington provocations and shift blame onto the syrian government it's a win win situation for them if they can pull this off a chemical attack then the united states comes in and automatically does their job for them by hitting as sad as further evidence well it's all been very light on that the russians say that the him. considering two potential targets the village of ari her and sort of keep both which is controlled by affiliate nusra front everything outs conveniently enough is classified as evidence kids shared

with us about this potential preparation for the use of chemical weapons because that wasn't actually played out right and nor would that be laid out because that would be considered an intelligence matter when you guys believe that it's in your interests you do what you say it's evidence of truthful things that involve intelligence and i'm not going to get into that one with you but this is a very serious and grave matter we're now in a situation where the americans are loading their guns the russians are ringing alarm bells everybody's crying hysterical and we honestly don't know what all the hysteria is about we talked to a national security policy professor at america's prestigious mit university he ses washington's words essential we pave the way for fault like attacks by extremists in syria. they have invited additional salman attacks by the rebels what they

have essentially told the rebels is that any attack that you can. make people believe happened will be blamed on the syrian government and the russians the rebels are losing the war and the best thing they can do if they can succeed it is to convince the americans to attack the syrian government military so they are creating an incentive for a false flag attack. in northern syria america's allies in the region are fighting each other we take a look at what impact washington support for both the kurds and for turkey could have a little later in the program. another undercover video has been released apparently exposing attitudes out c.n.n. towards russia related stories this time one of the american news channels political commentator seems to shrug off under smith of the recent controversy but

what do you think's going to happen this week with all russia. was going to be nothing really i well it was the second video released by the investigative journalism group project for a task in as many days with the details here. yet another leak related to c.n.n. from james o'keefe and project vera toss that was van jones briefly served in the obama administration and is now a commentator for c.n.n. in the clip he says that the the russia thing is nothing burger and now it's important to be clear here we don't exactly know what he's referring to about the russia thing could be the russian investigation could be the allegations about trump the context of the clip is not exactly clear who this leak comes on just in the aftermath of another recent leaks from project veritas and jon bon a field an important producer for c.n.n. says that the russia story is the polite term is nonsense that was just recently

released as well now we here at r.t. reached out to c.n.n. to ask for their comment and they have not replied and it's important to know that these videos that are coming out are not without controversy james o'keefe is personally facing a million dollar lawsuit at the hands of a contractor he interviewed after he interviewed them posing as someone else and this was a contractor allegedly working with the democratic party so there's a lot of questions that still remain but we asked the people behind the video won't they believe the russian thing refers to we believe the car radio up there i mean people can judge for them so in terms of things from the conversation but that's certainly my interpretation and i think that's the way the mainstream media is. one way or the drug war and we're going to line up again in the president of the united states who are radios on earth will instagram you know some of that may be yours as

well well c.n.n. has been struggling to get a grip on its russia coverage of late with stuff quick to publish substance heated stories. earlier in the week three journalists quit after c.n.n. retracted an article about an alleged senate investigation into links between a russian investment fund and a confidant of donald trump and in january c.n.n. broke a story claiming russia had compromising personal information about president trump now that report was based on adult ca written by a former british spy and it was later admitted that it was flawed and filled with on verified allegations the group behind the latest on the cover of videos has warned that other media should be worried too and it's not just c.n.n. on their hit list. not just c.n.n. i want to make it clear you are going to make it through in america you know you are living lives you are people you are keeping stories you're keeping them in

a little or no going through you're on our list and we may be right now we are watching you and you're the one of the organization probably when we sleep well at night because it might be. smart russian media being single valued as well during a senate hearing on the kremlin's alleged meddling in the u.s. presidential election. of course. sputnik made their effort to have a a an effect on the election so just the fact that maybe your t. in the. had a mirrored that was different in britain then maybe the mainstream press that would be a sign of russia trying to influence the outcome would it not but nothing burger has becoming a very firm term in the political lexicon in the united states and another one has been served on the senate floor despite all the scary sounding things like russian

meddling in the elections worldwide and this whole two and a half hour session was dedicated to that talking not only about the past election where rush allegedly meddled but even the future ones while russia will definitely meddle and some of the wording of course on the floor was very tough russia's blatant interference in the united states twenty sixteen presidential elections was unprecedented in both scale and scope and many have said this is actually the crime of the century. if you think about it it is russia has interfered or an attempt to interfere in elections from france to the netherlands from the balkans to the baltics russian interference in european political space is strategic you have any doubt that russian interference is driven by himself no doubt about it. this is a mauser no doubt. no doubt. so somehow without any shred of evidence they have

a link this all to putin himself nonetheless the list of countries that have heard is very wide those countries allegedly affected by the so-called russian meddling hacking and all those things those countries obviously included france that the only problem is that as we know they had of the french intelligence recently said that russians apparently had nothing to do with apparent hacking off across this campaign the purpose of the deal isn't. a criminal group it really can be anyone it's like it's still the simplicity of the technical part just a simple who created it person can be in any country with any kind of motivation so you know generally for us covering this story for a long time this is just another day in the office reverting back to accusations without presenting any proof and it seems like when anything goes wrong anywhere it's russia's fault or russia splay book to describe democracies across the world and this was just another day on the sounded like this with no actual substance produced. moving u.k.

prime minister treason may is facing the challenge of pushing her party program through parliament today in the queen's speech as british newspapers continue to call for the p.m.'s resignation after she was required to strike a controversial deal with the northern irish do you pay to get a majority in westminster polls are suggesting that opposition party leader germy corben has overtaken me but he failed to make the amendments he wanted to the queen's speech in parliament on whedon status in terms of popularity there in the screen the uncertainty surrounding may's position as prime minister comes as the european commission announced the braggs it will leave the european union with a deficit of almost eleven billion euro a year complicating the negotiations to leave the block. we won't have the u.k. with us anymore but they were net pages despite the thatcher rebate so we have a gap of ten to eleven billion euros a year. let's get further into this story no because u.k. independence party m.e.p.

gerry button joins me live on the program you're welcome to the program do you expect just first and foremost the government's program for the following year to be given the green light in parliament. no i mean what i expect is that the reminders in both houses of parliament will do everything they can possibly can do to collaborate with the european union to make sure that they delay and in pain the whole process so that we are either don't leave a thaw or that we end up with a kind of association agreement whereby we leave in name but not in substance of it like what norway and switzerland has at the moment and can i just launch this document here this week this is called rex it must mean exit and this is the ukip plan for how we should leave the european union which is the complete opposite of the why that the government's going about it and i can tell you about that if you'd like but let me just ask a point on this journey because you know what's happening today is first and

foremost in our thoughts because that pact we've heard so much about with the d u p and the conservatives how stable is done do you expect her to be pm by the end of the year for instance. i couldn't i think that the conservative party won't want to lose that because they're going to end up in a worse place they have to find another leader and there are on a lot of brilliant candidates on offer and they could find themselves forced into another general election and as you would be holding is rising in the polls and i said to my colleagues who before the election don't underwrite him there's been so much left wing propaganda in our schools and colleges and universities over the last forty years a lot of people don't understand what it is that corbin and the hard left who now control the labor party actually represent so all of. it would be a grave danger country if we went into another general election soon and ended up with a labor government now run by trotskyites not something i'd like to say well when

the talks with breaks when they're really going on do you think the tories are in a good position house trees i'm a strong hand to play are they doing enough i suppose to secure a good deal for the country well. there is no such thing at all this talk about deals is called swallow you know there's no hard brakes and there's no soft there's only exit leaving the european union but it's hard going to get out isn't it left with after that well. well the point the point is if you try to negotiate with the you they have known an incentive to negotiate a good deal with us because they don't want us to leave so why would they make it easy or possible this thing could go on for years they could go beyond the two years that we envisage because article fifty years the list with the lisbon treaty allows the negotiations to be extended by mutual agreement almost indefinitely so if you really were going to leave if our government really wanted to leave and our parliament wanted to leave they do i'm suggesting in this document which is to

repeal the one nine hundred seventy two communities act as a first step so that legally we are no longer members under our law and then sites of the european union well we've left chaos one ensued because all your lords been incorporated into u.k. law but we can now amend and repeal that law in accordance with our own priorities and time scale and not yours and we would we would be on a very very strong position then because we are a very big trading partner with the our economy is as big as the twenty smallest countries of the put together so we're in a very good position to say to the world we've left this is how it's going to work we want trade friendship and cooperation of here and we're going to tell you how that's going to work and i would be very foolish to cut off their noses to spite their face by actually trying to penalize us because we wanted to leave all right turd but ukip m.e.p. thanks for coming the program and sharing your thoughts. finding on the turkish president has been more not to hold any public events in germany that story and

more coming up right after this. i think david cameron was so convinced that he was. going to keep the british people were to get. that he felt justified in taking the gamble and i think that

was an irresponsible gamble i think he was playing russian roulette with the british future because it's in there it's in a radical change it's not like an ordinary election where i guess you could vote for. it welcome back to the program now there is little sign of a fall in the simmering rod between germany and turkey now the german foreign minister is advising president not to hold public events when he comes for the g twenty summit. we have received an official request for president to have permission to address german based turkish citizens during the g twenty summit it is not a good idea the federal government is of the same opinion on this but diplomatic relations between both. are at an all time low we heard from sigma gabriele there the german foreign minister now martin shultz the social democratic party his

candidate for chancellor of course the former president of the european parliament he's also said that foreign politicians that trade on our values at home should not be given a stage to speak here in germany talking about the one we've also seen venue's work to want to try to book to give top give a talk in north rhine-westphalia they declined that was just last week we've also seen this diplomatic situation just descend into the gutter around the referendum that took place in turkey back in april the representatives of the to one side wanted to speak here in germany they were shut down that resulted in some very angry scenes and some very angry words indeed from both sides germany you have no notion of democracy your practices are no different from the narcs you practices of the past my comment that the nazi comparisons in turkey

sparked must and is valid without ifs or buts and fortunately we see that this comparison is heaven stats and we are not going to allow it to harm us and that they would revive gas chambers in concentration camps if they weren't ashamed this is their mentality they are disturbed when we say that this is not seem entirely. different cannot accept that our citizens are incited against each other with the comparison this is the case for all countries in europe that's why we should say with close words to mr erdogan that he cannot continue like this nazi name calling aside the list goes all in all the stumble. points in the the relationship between germany and turkey at the minute we've seen president the ones bodyguards being told they won't be allowed to enter the country in order to attend the g. twenty summit of the the hundred approach when they were in washington d.c. we've also you seen germany announce that at the end of this month it's going to stop pulling its troops out of the incirlik air base there they're going to be

moving to jordan that soft german lawmakers were refused access to go and visit their. troops that a stationed there we've also you seem to be angry over germany looking to accept asylum applications from some soldiers that are accused of having taken part in the attempted coup that tried to overthrow the relationship is in tatters at the moment and of course we've got to remember germany a key player within europe turkey is the key component in the e.u. refugee return deal which at the moment all puts exists only on paper. the rift between syrian kurds turkey continues to deepen after a direct confrontation in northern syria this wednesday syrian democratic forces say kurdish why militia groups in the region were targeted by i'm in the district of offering.

well this is where the fighting between kurdish and turkish forces is concentrated most of the battle is on territory claimed by the y p g fighters this yellow area something strongly disputed by turkey meanwhile the u.s. considers both sides allies in the fight against the islamic state looking at how the u.s. support for the rivals may actually lead to more instability in the region here daniel hawkins. it's turkey versus the kurds both of them u.s. allies and it's left washington walking a delicate tightrope between its two friends which happen to be you shall have sworn enemies. we should be using we should be looming that we do not need terrorist organizations like the p y

d n y p g and the rock operation we could have a lot of great success over the next coming years a difficult balancing act to say the least but lately the scales seem to have tipped to favor the kurdish side after all kurdish groups have been washington's weapon of choice in the fight against islamic state the us government to supply them with arms and even sent special forces to support them we have already started to provide the weapons and equipment in the area nation to or syrian democratic forces both the syrian arizona syrian kurds so what happens to the kurds when i still on the brink of defeat is taken out of the equation will the us remain such a faithful friend probably not it turns out the weapons washington has given to its kurdish allies were actually just loaned out temporarily when the fighting is done the guns will have to be returned at least that's what was promised to turkey we gave them more weapons for urban fighting basically and yes we will recover the gear when it's no longer needed by them now syrian kurds might dream of autonomy in

their country but if they think they'll be granted this soon reward for being the most effective anti us all force on the ground they just need to look at the iraqi kurds across the border this is how the us responded to very calls for independence we support a unified stable democratic and a federal iraq we understand and appreciate the legitimate aspirations of the people of iraqi kurdistan even leaderless is an internal wracking matter but first and foremost we have to defeat isis if the kurds in syria were hoping to at least keep the territories they've liberated from islamics. that's also not likely to happen judging by previous u.s. the mines that those areas be returned to locals as soon as the fight is over we do have a commitment as we've spoken to before from kurdish leadership that those forces who stabilize the area will mirror the local population they will turn over areas to local population as long as the specter of syria kurdish fighters will spearhead

the front line but six months down the road and it's anyone's guess. a moscow court has found five people guilty of killing high profile opposition figure boris nemtsov back in twenty fifteen one person has been charged with shooting himself the other four of assisting the killer all five men are chechen pleaded not guilty for them software shot dead two years ago crossing a bridge right near the kremlin central moscow. richard dawkins is the guest on worlds apart next here on r.t. .

here's what people have been saying about rejected in the us actually just full on awesome the only show i go out of my way to launch you know what it is that really packs a punch. yampa is the john oliver of r t america is doing the same we are apparently better than two thousand. and see people you've never heard of love redacted tonight the president of the world bank though hate the word of any serious look send us an e-mail. you have an opiate crisis in america killing thousands of people every month or so you've got people walking around the note. trying to. ram around america. i mean. it's quite shocking but it seems the

pharmaceutical companies want to get paid themselves huge bonuses executive bonuses are what matter not people's health and they go there's a slightly different approach to people's well being they think health care is maybe part of the package of human rights and of course they're right about that but the culture is richer. long welcome to worlds apart piece by dan president the pace of scientific breakthroughs humanity still seems to be as far away from the age of reason as ever with really just extremism and political infantilism spreading around the globe

aiding each other has the idea of governance based on critical thinking already become a delusion to discuss that amount joined by evolutionary biologist richard dawkins mr dawkins it's great to talk to you thank you very much for your time now this is your first time in russia in st petersburg and this is a city that has long traditions of critical thinking of secularism but also a very in a jet a religious community which called for the cancellation of your visit did you have any second thoughts about coming here no i was not aware of any call for my consideration if i had been i'd have been more determined what is the reception that the has been receiving so far do people know about here in this country has a magnificent reception huge crowd at the picnic and then the gigantic books i think you i don't know how many books but it went on to get you to now you know you come here at a time when the city ease galvanised over the fate of its largest cathedral beach

also happens to be the fourth largest cathedral in the world and it has a very interesting history because back in the early soviet times it was turned into the museum of atheism there was even the fuko pendulum there to install to demonstrate copernicus ideas but now the church wants it back and i wonder if that really demonstrates that the neither atheism nor religion can ever decisively win this battle for hearts and minds in the way your own cause will never be will be fully realised i look forward to seeing the sequel very much i love because he calls them. i don't want to enter into any local political disputes but local is global they say these days if you speak about the value of ironic or the same religion when i despise all religion on the other hand a beautiful cathedral is a beautiful cathedral and i value the artistic contribution that religion has made of the centuries but.