Giving thanks for joining us here on r. T. International. We start this hour with breaking news because syrian militants backed by Turkish Forces have launched an offensive against the syrian army in water province but russian airstrikes have helped to repel them. Of course one thing is that an office in the studio with me is been following events for as the escalation seems pretty concerning what exactly is happened and do we know much about the situation on the ground at the moment what the situation is very concerning in some of the worst as collations in syria in years i have to say and basically what happened terrorist factions of launched an offensive on the syrian positions trying to trying to push the syrian army out of the province they were supported by turkish artillery fire too so syria had to ask russia russias air force to intervene and together the syrians and russians repelled the attack but again it was supported by the officials syrian by the official turkish army and with their artillery so russia had to reach out to ankara and ask them to stop this support. To prevent militants from moving deeper into syria into su 24 aircraft of the Russian Air Force at the request of the syrian command have carried out strikes against the dancing on terror groups this allowed the syrian troops to successfully repair all attacks. So the situation is very serious because turkey has confirmed that 2 of its soldiers were killed and 5 wounded because of airstrikes now it is not yet clear now who launched those missiles whether it was russias or syrias air force but again still now that we have like 3 nations 3 sovereign nations russia syria and turkey which is a nato ally the situation is very serious you know when within about fatalities it makes it clear just how grave the scenario is how on earth did we get to this point well there has been a significant standoff between turkey and syria and russia i have to say because turkey ankara erdogan has been saying has been telling the Syrian Arab Army to get out of it lebanon to move back to a truce line to a truce line that had been agreed back in sochi to stop their offensive to try and retake this northeastern syrian province oh no one has been giving deadlines for this to the syrian army they have been saying that they have until the end of february to to move to fall back then he remarked on that while threats and he said that essentially they dont have that deadline that the attack on their forces is imminent. The eclipse operation is imminent we will not leave it to the regime quote which is not yet understood our countrys nation on this issue and those who are encouraging it committed to making it live a safe place. And the people of the region at all costs so the push is coming to shove in the syrian province of idlib and interestingly turkey has been. Encouraged by its allies for instance washington has been saying that well they stand by the stand by their nato ally and well literally hours before this advance in official international i mind you international need to account on twitter posted a video in turkish. Promo video saying that we are nato and so it could be another act of encouragement now russia has all along been saying that the key thing for the province to. Move closer to peace is to have a clear distinction between hardline terrorists and moderate factions who are ready to engage in political and diplomatic talks with damascus and it was turkeys responsibility as one of the guarantors of the peace deal it was turkeys responsibility to ensure that this distinction exists and the Russian Foreign minister the Foreign Ministry excuse me has been saying that turkey has failed on that province so we will certainly have to see where this is collation takes the whole region and whether or not all sides are ready to go back behind the negotiating table ok many thanks donna for with me with the update on the latest from. Lets get an artist now from the outfront writer and political commentator who joins me. Think that this operation is this the one that president obama was talking about just in the last 48 hours when he said its just a matter of time or do you think that theres actually more to come in terms of a bigger turkish offensive. This is very dangerous escalation we are witnessing that is using the military supporting terrorist organization and all the. Will on the syrian and in particular and so. That the syrians did not pull out from all that the rest of his capture which is about 600 square kilometers. To the military solution it seems this is the beginning but i think the outcome wasnt actually in the. Government i believe there is a warning from russia that you know we are going to stop this you cannot actually support. Those radical groups that run the actions and you have to go and commit yourself fully to sochi agreement which you should actually differentiate between the line factions and the moderate factions which he fails to do so so i believe that now it is quiet now that bombardment stops i believe i believe because the syrian actually with the help of the russian. Those people i read that Article Organization was started to ignite the problem. The situation youve got now turkey is claiming i think 2 of its soldiers are being killed we dont know whether that was at the hands of 7 or Russian Military forces but when you Start Talking about fatalities isnt this the point at which things can get out of hand now and emotions will come into it is this the point the important juncture where they have to sit down and talk about this. Well i believe we should talk about it seems that. Tension aside theres been a stumble and they dont want to commit themselves to sochi agreement. The meeting between the russian delegation is that occasion and more school and they failed actually been the test in the old us to commit themselves to these that agreement and it seems they honestly think. Hoping that the americans will help them decide to also will they believe that they will think that their size and this kind of. I dont think that action actually will destroy old gains in syria they have. About 80 percent of the theater and that is where actually liberated as i was which was under the control of bet it because of that action so it seems it seems it is a. Warning from most school to the government that if you continue this bombardment we will put our weight behind the syrian ally so that of the bombardment of these and i think an organization who was stomping all you might. Actually wear as that is nice. From that. Mosco to. His government. Or else it seems that elections meditated and i believe if not listen i think there will be a lot of casualties in size and we know that a lot of the criticism when size isnt actually when his party saying to him what are you doing in syria you know we have to take one side we have to change the potency. Of the law go to the president. Send this message to the gun in an interview we should nothing. Go ahead with these attacks or discoloration and games to russia against Syrian Government we had to talk we had to do sheikh and get out of this mess i think this is very clear and i did again maybe he doesnt want to listen but if he doesnt want to listen i believe its best you know how you will please continue its. Obvious those are going to be killed soldiers are going to be killed i think there will be early action among the. Ruling party and also among the turkish people because they dont want this war which lasted for 9 years without any only fruits without but also with negative repercussions on the turkish government theyve got to meet theyre going to meet on their egypt thanks to my guest Abdel Bari Atwan a writer and political commentator. The suspected shooter who killed 9 people in the west of germany was said to have xenophobic motives 5 of the victims were turkish nationals chancellor michel condemned the attack branding it far right and racist. 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 of the attacker he apparently acted out of hatred towards people of different descent religion appearance racism is a poison hatred is a poison and this question exists in our society and has led to many crimes. Well at a press briefing from the interior minister of the state of pizza but we found out more information relating to what went on on wednesday evening through to thursday morning thats left 11 people dead including the main suspect in the shootings on that wednesday evening 9 people were killed after 2 separate incidents at different she should bars in the city of now a man then believed to be the gunman was found dead at his home on thursday morning alongside the body of what is understood to be his 72 year old mother the attorney general has confirmed that an investigation into potential links to right wing terrorism is underway this is after a 24 page manifesto from the man understood to be the gunman was found in this document he expresses a hatred of foreigners and nonwhites and calls for the extermination of certain north african middle eastern and Central Asian countries those that have read through it it has been leaked and seen by some media organizations have described it as confused and riddled with racist tropes that also broaches far right ideology like eugenics in this document now there was also a video published by the man believed to be the main suspect in this shooting just a few days ago in that video there was no links that he was intending to carry out this attack it appears to have been directed towards u. S. Cities. And is conducted in english in that video he makes a number of wild conspiracy theorist claims and says that theres a conspiracy for modern day slavery in secret operations by the United States government well the State Government themselves have cancelled their parliamentary sessions for thursday as well as other state legislatures around germany angler merkel the federal chancellor is also counseled her meetings that she focuses on these tragic events of unfolded in her now what we understand though is that the police are investigating a xenophobic motive behind the killings and investigating links to far right. Just mention its poison to see people as enemies to see yourself as a superior to make strangers out of fellow citizens it is a poison thats increasingly penetrate in our society and it can eventually lead to this crime. The federal Justice Minister has said that no stone will be left on turned in a thoughtful and their investigation carried out to find out what the motivation was for this terrible attack on wednesday evening said left 9 people dead it too she should bars in the city of. Journalist on this story Nicholas Brownstein has been on the line now good afternoon to nicholas sadly that seems to have been numerous Violent Attacks by right wing extremists in germany in the last few months what is the countrys leadership doing about it is it doing enough to counter this threat. Definitely not. Counter readerships the downplays the danger of right wing terrorism of white supremacist terrorism. For them the main threat is still on the left and one reason why they didnt want to talk about the danger of terrorism. Is that these right thing because these right wing these fascist groups a. Lot of them are part of the state of her own tools. In the last years and the last months we had other. Bought a lot of cases of police men being fascists in. This part of germany where this. Happened in hessen there are tens of cases of police man. Who were investigated because of fascist behavior are there is a kind of shadow army inside a german army is a bundeswehr but for the government this. Isolated cases say they didnt want to talk about these really hot fascists networks and therefore i think they dont do enough against these threat of right wing fascist terrorism in germany if you look at the alternative germany policy they seem to be gaining in popularity they constantly criticize within the country. Doesnt seem to decline and fall in too many ways do you think the the option of the parties refusing to work with them could that backfire could it make the f. D. A. Seem a little bit more glamorous maybe even some sympathy. No i totally disagree. With the tentative for germany year its more or less the parliamentary wing of a right Wing Movement and its not the right thing 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 fall or so i think this would be a wrong strategy to fight. Terrorism or. Fascist fascism in germany. Nicholas appreciate you coming on really could speak to Nicholas Burns is my question list and his story thank you. As the german chancellor valid to battle racism in her country the president of neighboring france announced that hes fighting islamic separatism Amanda Mccraw made the claim while campaigning head of next months local elections reports from paris. It was a long awaited speech from president outlining how his presidency will rally against political islam. We can advance in a credible way to fight against a political ideology this is separatism which is incompatible with freedom and equality incompatible with the indivisibility of the republic and the necessary unity of the nation. 1st in the firing line is foreign interference corn has vowed to end a program that allows countries such as old jewry and turkey to send moms and teachers here to provide Services Without supervision this scheme in place since the 1970 s. Allows those foreigners to provide language and cultural lessons to help children maintain a link with their country of origin around some 80000 children attend these classes every year. Im not comfortable with the idea of having women in many schools of the republic who can teach without the Education System exercising. And we no longer have control over the programs they teach you cannot teach things that it clearly not compatible with the laws of the republic or with history as we see. Instead mark on wants to have more trained on french soil that would also be an end to the hundreds of additional religious leaders who arrive in france during ramadan mosques will be funded in a transparent way we need to know where the money is coming from who uses it and why he said interesting lead this echoes a policy from his political rival Marine Le Pen during that head to head in 2017 per mandate said this. Close all the extremist mosques identified by the ministry of the interior and prohibit foreign funding of place of the washer and their personnel strong words coming from the president or is it just a last ditch attempt to woo voters ahead of difficult local elections in just a few weeks well michael is trying to do is to shore up his position with the right wing electorate but also with some of the left of course the question of the. Secular state in france is important right across the. Relationship with parties on both sides of the spectrum. Is important and he needs to make this sort of statement of municipal elections neutering those voters could be a double edged sword france is home to europes largest Muslim Community there are said to be around 6000000 here thats about 8 percent of the population and back in 2017 this Community Overwhelmingly voted for president hes already showing that hes moved away from those centrist ideologies that he once espoused when it outlines a tough stance on immigration another policy direct from the playbook of the pen so by grasping at ideas that some see as being from the hard right wing is he likely to lose voters from the left and from muslims but there are some areas particularly some local municipalities some towns in areas where this is a concern for french voters and so what hes doing the context of it is to try to reassure that where there are law muslim communities migrant muslim communities that the republicans still searching the values of the secular republic. The election whether that will succeed or not remains to be seen in the opinion polls are not more. Next months elections seen as being a referendum on president c. His policy on the move could they signal the beginning of the end of my. Soul it even ski. Paris ok please when you stories coming your way after this short break. Were still in an era of resource colonialism again this is a big risk and the one big thing that could really inhibit the kind of electric vehicle revolution that a lot of us want to see is if we cant resource the battery components in a sustainable ethical way and its not going to be a successful revolution. But. They put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. So when you want to be president. Or somehow want to. Have to go right to the press thats what will befall 3 of them or 10 people. Interested always in the water. Hysteria seems to be spreading in 3 ukrainian regions where protests have been held over the countrys nationals being brought back from the coronavirus a percent of the flight carrying 73 people evacuated from china eventually landed in the ukrainian city of halakhah thats going to day now from r. T. Correspondent donals don so theres more about the scale of these anti coronavirus protests in ukraine. Well neal so far ukraine has yet to see one case of the corona virus but many people clearly are quite scared of even taking that chance in the region of lavals 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 zelinsky 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. Its a shame the not all of us can be proud of the humane reaction the efforts to shut off highways to block hospitals not to let ukrainians back to ukraine were not 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. So with such a Strong Negative reaction to the governments acceptance of these passengers will have to see how future gestures of goodwill in the in the future will be successful if there are any at all. With a story that. No one study the u. K. Home secretary and failed a new points based fisa system the moves intended to reduce the amount of cheap migrant labor the flowing into the country. This is the 1st time in decades the government has been able to take control run its own immigration system after weve left the European Union and Free Movement and low skilled migration to our country which means that we will get migration numbers down and that essential to this policy of a points based system the new system requires immigrants to prove their knowledge of the english language as well as professional qualifications and skills and existing job offer meeting a minimum salary mark would also be required peers to qualify specialists would receive extra points making it easier for them to gain entry to the new rules would have proven quite a challenge for those whove already made a career in the u. K. I dont know if id actually be in this country under these rules would you with your parents they wouldnt qualify with this is a very different system to what is going on in the past and dont forget this is a point based system you make on the local market. Non u. K. Citizens have until now made a base of stanch all part of the countrys workforce with close to a 1000000 immigrants working in the low skilled sector and 28 team liberal democrat position jump in front at least it wont take long for the new system to reveal its faults. Really a very dangerous game that the home secretary is playing basically just to satisfy the promises that the conservative party made joining the general election and to deliver briggs it as it was proposed many businesses have warm but its just unreal this stick to assume that you can change the nature of the workforce in the way that the home secretary and presumably the Prime Minister want this doesnt solve the problem which i think is going to arrive very soon which is this country needs a lot of people in water for the moment lower paid jobs basically what this new policy is saying is that the sorts of work theyre doing often from not very high pay is not being valued and that maybe theyre not being valued as members of our society they was valued you guys were cheating and always appreciated thanks so much for staying with r. T. International updates on our top stories coming your way just over 30 minutes. 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