country. the latest news on the week's top stories when. police crackdown on protesters and . public fury intensifies over the. loss that killed more than three hundred. gets heckled at a campaign event. people express. calling for efforts to stop the thriving in. america's army chief warns that the syrian rebels are not cut out for power.

headlines today and the week from the international news team and myself thanks for joining us turkish police of unleashed tear gas and water cannons on demonstrators in istanbul this during the latest protest over tuesday's. claimed three hundred one lives. the turks are outraged over the government's handling of the tragedy by minister. to demonstrators when he visited the blast site one of his aides was even caught on camera kicking a protester on the ground correspondent sara has this report from istanbul. still a tense situation that wasn't small plastic between the protests in the riot and the small to cannons being deployed to take out the. i know that. they

have not today is the lawyers association is. right to put it happens. to say to them and on says many questions that still remain a very exactly what happened the people who turned out and said calling for accountability from the government something that's a far they don't feel that they thought it. was briefly detained by the police in istanbul he wanted to. press credentials you can get all the details as well as more updates on the mine tragedy backlash on sarah twitter. now this week so ukraine's ongoing crisis echoing about heart of europe stronghold out of germany that's where chancellor angela merkel received a rather unexpected welcome at her party's campaign event. oh there are other sounds that greeted the chancellor as the crowd apparently vented their frustration over germany's or all the new cranes crisis some way of

banners saying stop the nazis in ukraine meanwhile germany's foreign minister also called for caution over slapping moscow with any further restrictions over its involvement in the situation however experts say any voices of discontent are so far unlikely to stop brussels sanctions rhetoric the west is engaged in an all out ideological and jute little struggle with russia which it intends to will there are all sorts of things that europe can do it can ratchet up what it's already done it can put publish longer lists of people who are subject to personal sanctions it will definitely abandon the cesar liberalization program which russia has been asking for for nearly a decade now and it may even reduce economic exchanges russia should not be under any illusions that the european elites are prepared to cut off their nose to spite their face in other words they are prepared to undergo or make other people undergo severe economic pain in order to justify and entrenched their ideological hostility

to russia of that i personally have no doubt at all and just to bring you up to date the leaders of the newly proclaimed people's republic of saying there's a full scale military operation underway on the outskirts of the cities of slavyansk and the crime i thought of both of seen some of the worst fighting since the start of kiev's offensive in the rest of southeast region over there now locals have been reporting very loud blasts and repeated heavy gunfire journalist graham phillips remains in slavyansk. it's been repeated in the last some what we have are of course that we have the korean military all signs of the city so we have them reportedly east of the city we have heavy fighting there and we had of course you claiming that removing it from the south a movie ends from the north that you know it's that we and we've got a lot of blasts we've got explosions we've got reverberations of government by ricochet around the city and this is the heaviest i've heard the arguments that you know it's not programmed once what we're seeing now look to be the shock based and

the strongest action yet on your client to try to retake this city which has been in the hands of these coded netscape activists now since april twelfth so amongst the any coercions interested me and that last night we did any shelling to the southwest barricade there we had wagons destroyed we had how it is launched by the ukrainian forces last explosions there so all expenses like the cases they are looking to make a penetration into the city because this certainly their strongest resilient their most resilient and their status is actually yet another breakaway donetsk people's republic along with the neighboring lugansk region declared themselves sovereign states on tuesday and this following a popular referendum both regions also announced they will not participate in ukraine's upcoming presidential election ukraine's interim prime minister has actually proposed dialogue on autonomy and national unity but a military operation in the region is still under way and as part of samir reports a humanitarian crisis is looming in the city of slavyansk. we're now

entering the town of slavyansk which is completely encircled by the ukrainian military this is a ukrainian army checkpoint and as you can see the cars are backed up all the way down the road there it will take me better part of at least one hour to get in because of this because the town is so in so called to have a growing humanitarian crisis supplies simply cannot get in cap-haitien in the town are running out just many of them simply. do not have any guests that we've given our five who come and fill up the car here. that are in your natural supplies will run out soon there will be nothing to run our cars on and we won't be able to get. the local hospital is treating people who've been injured not only here in slovyansk but also in neighboring towns there's real concern that it's being pushed to crisis point and because of this ordinary people have been arriving with packets

of food and blankets toiletries as well as medical supplies to try and stop this from happening the gates has been closed here for the better part of two days this is the local grid factory where people are simply too afraid to come to work choosing rather to stay inside their homes as a result of the prices of bread and flour have skyrocketed and in the shops there are long queues to buy it. this is one of the largest supermarkets in the wrong they've been rumors circulating for days that the shelves are empty and that suppliers are not able to get in let's go have a look last solves. all i'm scared so it's almost everyone i know i haven't felt this much fear in mind tire life. this is the fourth a.t.m. that we've been to and none of them are working there are at least seven banks that have stopped operating in the town. as you can see the shops are closed and the

streets are mostly empty people are choosing to stay home rather than risk coming to the streets there's a sense of anxiety and fear in the air a feeling that a military strike is imminent paula c.r.t. slovyansk eastern ukraine this is the weekly here on r.t. international the u.s. allies met in london this week to agree on additional measures to bolster the syrian opposition but america's top military commander has warned that the western backed rebels would not be able to run syria if indeed they replace the current government infighting is on the rise among the divided rebel factions of president assad's forces continue to make massive gains it just retaken the key city of homs after a siege that lasted two years now the western backed on birla group known as the syrian national coalition has been unable to unite the fractured rebel camps but

all that isn't stopping the u.s. from throwing more support behind the insurgency is going nature can explain as we're seeing a new push by the obama administration to fulfill a goal that it declared three years ago to topple the syrian president bashar assad has announced that syria will hold elections despite the war the u.s. vehemently opposes those elections washington has already decided who the legitimate representatives of the syrian people are is the syrian opposition coalition president obama has met with a coalition leader ahmad jarba at the white house this week u.s. secretary of state john kerry told the rebels we've wasted a year in the fight against assad the participants of the meeting said john kerry made the remark in the context of a discussion about renewed efforts to coordinate the flow of both aid and weapons to the syrian rebels the french foreign minister was also in washington this week and he said he quote unquote regret it that the u.s. had not bombed syria as its where all of this war toff. amid the u.s.

and europe saying that they want to find a political solution to the crisis in syria we say there is no military victory meaning we being the united states there can be no military solution and every step that we're taking is a military step. and so obviously what we're setting up is a longer term conflict more conflict the u.n. envoy for syria lakhdar brahimi has announced his resignation expressing regret for his inability to forge a coherent international response to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in syria the geneva talks have not led to a deal between the syrian government and the opposition although the syrian opposition has been largely unwilling to cut deals with the government of bashar assad nonetheless there have been instances of progress most recently thousands of syrians were turned to war battered parts of the central city of homs after the

rebels left under an evacuation deal with the government but washington seems keen to prompt the syrian rebels to continue fighting instead of cutting deals even though a deal could save thousands of lives in washington i'm going to check on our team the syrian crisis escalated off the last year's chemical attack in aleppo it killed dozens of people with the government on the rebels both blaming each other in june president barack obama the young to be by authorizing military aid to the syrian rebels for the time of the crisis reached a peak two months later with western leaders calling for military strikes on syria citing another controversial chemical attack as a red line but just as military intervention loomed large a diplomatic breakthrough was brokered by russia which helped persuade syria to give up its chemical arsenal damascus began getting rid of its stockpiles in october and is expected to complete the handover ahead of june deadline the next

step though to deescalate the crisis. came in geneva where syrian government and opposition officials sat down for talks for the very first time the summit failed to break the deadlock as both sides resume hostilities and now the tensions have again spiked with the white house hosting the syrian opposition leader and pledging fresh support for the insurgency but one analyst says the international community is gradually realising the grim reality of the islamist extremism in syria these so-called friends of syria conference which has been launched in two thousand and twelve there were one hundred over one hundred twenty countries supporting the opposition in syria about there are now only eleven who are certain imperialist states this indicates that most of the states they are aware now that the repercussion of the syrian crisis is imposing a serious threat on regional and international security the situation in syria is not between the syrian government and the opposition it is between the syrian

government and armed extremists who are fighting everybody there who oppose their narrative their narrative is to create an islamic caliphate in syria the governance of the will of the people and the only protector of the. just secular values or the civil values of the syrian state is the army is the syrian army. coming up in the program here on our team international those who suffer the most. troops failing to stem the taliban the civilian death toll is going through the roof what about the prospect of a bloody future and nato troops leaving for good also i. miss you. i'm just trying to produce similar weight was the find out how a political satire broke off so a network accused of quote roll jewish hatred that story just around the corner here on r t international.

there's almost this. surrounding american forefathers and everything they ever rode on governance and contacts any change to the constitution which is what you suggest seems to be a kid to blasphemy the way we allow elections to be funded means that we don't have a representative democracy period that's the simplest and most important problem because what it means is there is no fundamental domestic problem at least that americans the american government can address in a sensible way without the influence of money blocking sensible before.

thanks for joining us with a weekly here on r.t. international this monday the taliban launched a terror campaign in afghanistan it's known as the spring offensive kabul's international airport targeted as well as the biggest you u.s. army base right near the capital and well over a dozen people were killed according to the international crisis group islamist insurgent attacks were rising throughout last year and the trend is continuing and it also looks like afghan troops are not ready to take matters into their own hands years of conflict claimed thousands of lives not only among the insurgents but also of course among the military as well plus militants makes fear

a fierce attacks on the ground with propaganda and even economic sabotage making the group very hard to eradicate the taliban's activity and military operations have led to the deaths of around twenty thousand people since the beginning of the war. catherine off now has more on the price of billions pay for the conflict i should warn you in advance some of the images you may find in this report disturbing. the face of war in afghanistan today seven months old and fighting for his life injured by shrapnel when a mortar hit his house in gaza any province. in a nearby bed a toddler struggles to breathe with the help of a machine caught in the crossfire and shot in the neck by a stray bullet from my point of view the war getting off the number of injured people not increasing time by time across afghanistan civilian casualties are on

the rise and often it's women and children who are most affected mama delish here could have died from his shop well ones if he wasn't brought to this hospital and he's one of the lucky ones it's quite difficult because you don't know many people are trying to teach or what are supposed to and money well money overseas operations at this nonprofit trauma facility run by the italian charity emergency as you can see there in the border because a few injuries particularly orderly border to border to border to borders border to border these are for guns from to those are for the war is over but for people who are treated more casualties were up at this hospital by thirty six percent in just the first two months of this year and a staggering eighty five percent increase since twenty ten most are civilians but here free treatment for all victims of war regardless which side no questions asked three new clinics are being set up to cope with the demand as american troops

prepare to withdraw the talabani is making a comeback believe it or level of violence has been increased dramatically in the last year and the conflict that has been about what are we going over there are you know we don't do so tar doesn't know who attacked him but he knows it's a miracle that he survived this shy young man who was working at a fuel pump in kandahar. one unidentified gunmen shot him twelve times at close range i thought they needed something so i approached them but they opened fire first because it was in the middle of the night and they had their faces covered. in gauge to be married so i'm just thankful i live saved nor was born the same year the u.s. invaded afghanistan toppling the taliban regime but in his village in the eastern province the insurgency is as strong as ever he was shot in the abdomen by a stray bullet while playing with friends there's always fighting. sometimes it's

planes with bombs or tanks on the soldiers are coming and fighting with the taliban i got used to it and that's what scares emmanuel the most inside and outside the. bodies for me to go through was. violence we have many children i mean you know lost because you and i become go to forgot their story so it's becoming not long for two years. to get blasted wise being what afghan children are doing is the same or for the children all over the world they are just being so lucky to be born in the wrong place it's taking a toll on the doctors too this is trauma not only for this child for all of us i have child it's difficult to keep the child if you want or you don't want as affect one and a half year old boy should a stay at home with his mother to play with toys is not for show for

a boy that or so i ask him if he sees things improving in the future. i don't know it's difficult difficult to say. lucy catherine if our couple. are still to come here are not international that of a multi million dollar failure a russian rocket carrying a. satellite it burns up after its engines malfunction just nine minutes after takeoff also. british troops come in some sixty killings during the iraq war the top u.n. court goes on a mission to find out those details coming your way. for now though when it comes to views away from the mainstream we have plenty here on r.t. international and this often makes us well the target of criticism and i was one particular so terrible show breaking down the israeli palestinian conflict that has

provoked rather a strong response. the u.n. issued resolution through force calling on israel to give those territories some space for you to miss your future i'm just trying to wait what the latest episode of australian produce programming the juice wrap news was accused of anti semitism a jewish rights group why it's in full sound. apology from our network but our management here at r.t. called the allegations baseless and outrageous stressing that critical views about the policies of various governments around the world media analyst danny schechter he says critics are going to try and find a sense of humor that this criticism is ridiculous it's obviously written by people who don't know anything about satire would never watch the daily show had never watched comedians have never watched the news as it takes on them and makes one of all kinds of politicians it's

a ridiculous concern but what bothers some about it is that it suggests that if you are jewish and you criticize israel somehow you're an sell. self hating jew this is the way to try to silence debate well there's one word that i think everybody who criticizes the watches and media has heard the verse city the worst city is good different voices is good. the u.k.'s armed forces found themselves in hot water this week after it was announced at the intense international criminal court is to look into alleged war crimes by british troops there will be a preliminary examination of sixty suspected cases of unlawful killings during the iraq war dozens of locals died over one hundred seventy were allegedly mistreated while in british military custody between two thousand and three and two thousand and eight london says it's ready to provide the court with all the assistance it needs however it denies any atrocities but former lieutenant colonel nicholas

musser he was the british army's most senior legal officer during the iraq invasion he says he saw the acts of abuse with his own eyes as early as march two thousand and three at the wall was just days old and i went into the camp to deal with another issue and looked into an interrogation facility where i saw approximately forty prisoners and in stress positions and the use of generators which in my view was being used liberally well i mean i think if you're a prisoner just freshly captured and you're about to be interrogated and someone's got a generator running outside the interrogation facility and you get a hold on your head you probably think it's being used to muffle the sound of someone being investigated and whatever's going on in the interrogation facility which said that that was lawful it was thought of u.k. doctrine when i complained that it breached the geneva conventions i was told that i've got the law wrong it's british under international law under the un convention against it's pretty dumb to domestic law and thirdly it doesn't work and it is

morally degrading no truck with that. and i think we really need to educate the public in this particular to make the trouble is the british state got away with it thought to look online for you right now time is running out for the u.k. as oil and gas on our website we've got a report that suggests that london will have to rely entirely on imports when it comes to n. . in just a matter of years also what r.t. dot com right now washington has squeezed a forty three billion dollars out of energy consumers all for a nuclear waste site that was never even built neither will it be in the future it seems. all the details right there. on friday a russian rocket carrying a communications satellite ended in failure just minutes after liftoff a lucky you know casualties or damage on the ground reported as a proton burned up in the atmosphere now the rocket was carrying

a satellite worth twenty eight million dollars so this is a costly mistake the cost of the crash is being investigated but preliminary data says there was a falling pressure in one of the engines or controls the steering so let's look at exactly what went wrong at the launch did start out as planned here the stages of the flight so with the booster rocket separating off in the latter stages the failure occurred during the third stage and that's when mission control lost track of the bracket but russia's space agency is not throwing in the towel just yet he says they'll be two more launches by the end of this year. are quickly a global snapshot for us jump into the r.t. date will start with brazil a jail in the northeast it's where prisoners have taken more than one hundred twenty people hostage nearly all of them are relatives visiting inmates according to a spokesman he added that negotiations for the release of the hostages would result which has me would restart early in the morning have been mounting security

concerns in brazil of course ahead of the football world cup it kicks off next month. and last parts of both me and serbia are under a state of emergency for the country's experience the heaviest rainfall in one hundred years budding has already claimed at least twenty five lives the helicopters are being used to rescue thousands of people and the rain caused hundreds of landslides which buried schools of houses and cars just further complicating all the relief efforts. well thanks for sharing your sunday with us hi here on r.t. international just a second hundred open talks on a boycott worlds of politics coming your way.

dante wombs a partner went to a waffle house to rob it he apparently didn't expect anyone there to have a concealed weapons permit but just in harrison did he waited for just the right moment drew his weapon and killed williams but williams is grieving family are now calling to change south carolina's concealed carry laws are upset that harrison was not charged obviously right or wrong good or bad the family of williams has the right to feel sorrow for their loss but if it wasn't their loved one who was the robber i think they might feel very differently this our bribery situation is the exact reason why concealed carry permits exist if you to be liberals about concealed carry they will always present some sort of fantasy situation where god would help you to prove that you don't need them what if like a guy sticks up behind you then you're going to be totally worthless man you know guns aren't a magic answer to every crime situation but often they come in handy and they sure did for justin harrison when he was looking down the barrel of a criminal's gun so what kind of america do you want to live in one where you're helpless and have to beg for your life on the floor of a restaurant or in america where if you rob waffle house you're going to pay for it

i think the choice is pretty obvious fascist my opinion. bushnell data are trusted that cloud service. that insures protecting your privacy. could be raised randomly. or become a target of the n.s.a. . what if unclouded sky is right above the clouds on our t.v. .

i don't welcome two worlds apart the united states is committed to the idea of remaking the world in its own and but very on enthusiastic when it comes to changing from within as work obama winds up his second term in office has america lost its best chance for a political may call birth to discuss that are now joined by lawrence laughs a harvard professor and acclaimed author professor the last six thank you very much for being here great to be here now your two thousand and eleven book republic lost how money corrupts congress and a plan to stop it is very critical of the american political system but as always right reading it i kept wondering if the title outs cures the real problem because what you seem to be writing about is not just the loss of republic you seem to be writing about the loss of american democracy defined as government by the people

alone but but the title seems to soften the message a little but did you intended this way did you intend to question the blow well. bickley are our government isn't described by the constitution or by the framers as a democracy it's described as a republic but by a republic the framers of our constitution meant a representative democracy and they intended the representative democracy to be dependent on the people alone that's how madison one of our framers described it in one of the most important essays about the constitution in federalist fifty two now by the people they meant the rich no more than the poor that's how madison put it in federalist fifty seven and the problem as i see it is we've evolved a system of funding campaigns where in fact the rich have an enormous additional influence on our political process over the rest of us and that undermines this

basic representative democracy and therefore it undermines the republic so that's the sense in which this republic has been lost now professor elastic this idea of americans being weak on democracy or american democracy being on don't mind me sound a bit like an oxymoron because democracy is obviously your most loud aspart commodity this is the main pillar of your foreign policy so in a way saying that american democracy is weak is like saying that the emperor has no clothes isn't that a controversial statement to make you know i guess i would think that the most important tradition that we could explore is the freedom of members of the public to criticize their government and the way their government functions. and i certainly am critical of the way that our government functions because it doesn't live up to ideals which i think have been celebrated whether realized or not across

the world. i think those ideals should guide us i don't care whether they're exported or not i'm focused on the united states and i think in the united states they ought to be guiding us to really create the democracy that we have because our democracy falls far short of the ideals which we inherited from our forefathers well professor less again unlike you i care very much about the american intention to explore democracies because sometimes it brings a lot of kids spread thing on the same topic you just mentioned that you know those . in the ideals and ideals are something that you rarely leave off to you so my question to you is on the scale of one to ten how do you asked and made them believe the american public and american media american academics to criticize the

government what is the how would you ask me the scope of that debate you know the freedom the tactical freedom to criticize the government here is pretty great nobody has ever. in my own experience tried to restrict my ability or even criticize me for the criticisms i would make of our government. no that's not to say that those criticisms are effective i'm just a professor at a university but i do think that the potential in america is to use this opportunity of criticism to rally americans to try to push for a different system i think the biggest problem we have in america is not that there's formal restriction on our ability to criticize the government i think the biggest problem is. americans are cynical they're skeptical that there's actually anything we can do and so the vast majority more than ninety percent of americans

want to see the influence of money in politics reduced about the same number of americans don't think it will ever change that there's nothing we can do about it and so the really big challenge is not so much to stop government censorship it's to give americans the hope that there is actually something we can do about it so that they exercise the power that is still left to them through the democratic process to force change into the system now speaking about the influence of the money that you just mentioned the essential promise of your book is of course that the power of money skews the priorities of the members of congress but i wonder if it's also the case for the executive branch for the presidency where the competition it would seem far tougher and probably far more expansive yeah i'm sure that it has an important effect on the president in the two thousand and twelve election one of the biggest criticisms of the republican candidates was that they were spending all of their time in states where there weren't that many republicans

they were in california and they were they were in new york and they were in illinois but they were in those states because they were raising money they were spending all of their time raising money as opposed to trying to persuade voters from their base to vote for one candidate or the other same thing with barack obama in two thousand and twelve barack obama participated in more than two hundred twenty fundraisers to fund his campaign as contrasted with ronald reagan in his last term as president he attended zero fundraisers to fund his campaign because we had public funding for presidential campaigns back then so i'm sure that there is an effect but my book is focused on congress because i think we overemphasize the importance of the presidency and we under recognize the importance of congress and . you could have the best president in the world the president committed to fundamental reform but in our system unless you also have a democracy a congress that's committed to reform nothing is going to happen so we have to find

a way to change congress if we're ever going to bring about a change to the system well the reason i am asking you about the american presidency more than the american congress is of course that because the power of the american president to change lives of people in other countries is far greater than his ability to change lives of people within his own unfortunately in foreign policy the leverage the democrat president has is almost unlimited and sometimes some would argue that it is even on chad by the congress because they have been quite a few instances in recent history when. american president authorized military invasion without checking in with david the members of congress yeah that's true and of course this is a reality that's criticize both by conservatives and by liberals in the united states conservatives in the united states believe that the president's power. especially to engage in military action needs to be severely restricted constrained

by a constitution that of course declares that it's congress that has the power to declare war of course the president's interventions traditionally are a couple steps before war but i do agree as many do that there's a there's almost a political. incentive to intervene in ways that rally the united states and that's a that's a that's a bad feature of the way that our constitution has developed. and and i think that there's a lot of pressure to change it now it's not fair to say though that the president can do whatever the president wants i mean this president's i think wanted to do much more in syria i think the congress was pretty strict in restricting what the. as it can do it's not clear how much freedom this president actually has in ukraine or to affect the policies in ukraine given the restrictions or the pressure that

congress is putting on him so there's a balance which is certainly real but in certain cases of course congress will follow and. cheer on the president in whatever the president's doing and that i think is is a weakness in the way that our regime has developed well professor lessig you just mentioned that there is a great degree of dissatisfaction both on the left and on the right with the political system and president barack obama whom you just mentioned a couple of minutes ago voice a very vocal at least in his two thousand and eight presidential campaign about the need to change the way washington works and i remember you being very excited about his candidacy back then you believe that it was since formative in nature but since then it seems you lost a bit if you're a former enthusiasm yeah i mean i was quite optimistic that president obama would

make reform of the political system a central part of his campaign as president. and. the reality is that immediately after becoming the democratic nominee. that issue of reform disappeared from his agenda and he literally has proposed no one change to the way congress is elected and very tiny changes in the way that the administration works to advance this objective of reform now you know i'm not sure whether that was my own today. or whether it was just a weakness on obama's part and the argument that it was my own naive today is you know the real constraint of a president in the american system is the. the president needs to get the buy in of congress to make any change and if the president is taking on congress if he's taking on the system by which power in congress is created or allocated. he

is taking on his own party as well as the members of the other party and the problem with taking on your own party is that you lose your base your base of political support so the tradeoff for a president could be well i'm going to try to change the system but. the whole congress who won't like me know that i've tried to change their power and change the way they get power or give up and settle for interaction but it doesn't seem that the years congress really likes. the now i mean his ability to implement other reforms has also been constrained you mentioned naive it to your in the navy and i think you were definitely not the only one who was disappointed because there were a lot of people around the world and countries that normally view it as american adamy who were excited about president obama and potential changes that he could

bring to washington and to the world now you knew him personally from the days that both of you taught at the university of chicago and i wonder if somebody like him who is obviously very well educated passionate with a sense of integrity if somebody like him couldn't do it who can but it's a great question. whether any single person. can bring about fundamental change in the way a government as big and as powerful as the united states government is you know you could look at that and say that's actually a virtue of the system because at least we don't need to fear some crazy you know tyrants will come in and radically change the way american government functions it's a very conservative with a small c. system but what i think that means is we. got to build movements political movements that are much bigger than one man we can't count on a single president coming in and remaking the way american politics works we have

to build a grassroots movement non-politicians as importantly as politicians that force the kind of change on the government that brings the government closer to the ideals that the american tradition speaks of so. i think we were naive in expecting one man obama to do it but i think it's still the direction the object of what the progress of the reform movement in america must try to aspire to profess elastic we have to take a very short break now but when we come back the two thousand and sixteen presidential campaign is just around the corner and it is continuity rather than change that seems to be in fashion will the united states once again go down the path of political dynasties and what would it mean for all of us now in america and that's coming out after the break here on worlds apart.

to fuel over a billion people russia and china ready join our t. in shanghai for the deal of the century. and see the serious effects of such trying to clear. the people who are going to. want to get the title or just a short changing every minute. let me know latin all well. and my a lot like what he. was saying this side of. the skis is the most elite one still. sometimes from nothing. this season and it's still. slow just keep still we can still be jobst

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welcome back to worlds apart a rear discussing use democracy but harvard law professor lawrence last a professor lessig what strikes me about american attitudes when i talk to my american friends is how sort of mixed they are on dire political system and their views towards their political system on the one hand as you mentioned many of them are cynical and they recognize inefficiencies of washington's bureaucracy but on the other hand there's almost this called surrounding american forefathers and everything they ever wrote on governance and in that context any change to the constitution which is what you are suggesting or any you know for example getting rid of the electoral college a system that is clearly our dated now seems to be a kid to blasphemy so i wonder if there is if there american public to some extent

is a victim of its own creation myth making it increasingly difficult to change what is already outdated and what doesn't seem to be performing very well i mean americans forget i think. in the constitution this genius document that the framers gave us there is this provision called article five which governs the procedures for changing the document so the framers of our constitution plainly envisioned that we would need to update it or change it or modify it or get rid of parts that turned out to be not as effective as they were before. and there's an almost terror . many in american politics to invoke or to use that provision to update the constitution which obviously in many ways is out of date and out of tune with the times. you know i think the electoral college is an example but i. i don't think it's the most important not even on the top ten list the really critical

fundamental problem in american government right now is the way we allow elections to be funded means that we don't have a representative democracy period that's the simplest and most important problem because what it means is there is no fundamental domestic problem at least that americans the american government can address in a sensible way without the influence of money blocking sensible reform and so we've got to find a way to address that problem and i'm totally open to you know the article five convention provision which gives the states the power to demand a convention to propose amendments there are lots of alternatives here but i think we need to embrace the fact that our framers imbedded system for change as much as a system for stopping the government from well speaking about. changing the system the next presidential election is just around the corner and the names

talent aspect tensional nominees jeb bush for the republicans and hillary clinton for the democrats suggest that american voters are not really looking for a dramatic change is it just political mestalla or i don't know perhaps complacency or even laziness on the part of the american voters audios deore to families that can produce a. potential presidential candidate well you know i think it's a little early to say what the american people think about who the next president should be you know you take polls. two years before the election people aren't thinking about it much and the other candidates are not out there i'm sure that those of two most likely candidates to be successful. and from my perspective neither of those two candidates has taken on the issue. reform and made it a central issue for the agenda that either would push so that's

a very significant downside from my perspective but it's early and. the way that american politics works is that there are surprises you know obama was a surprise and nobody would have bet on obama even a year before the election people were skeptical that he would be able to bring about the change the the success that he did so i think it's early and we'll see how things shake out as this develops on both the democratic and the republican side well i take it from what you say that that president obama may have been a surprise candidate bred his performance in the white house doesn't seem to be all that surprising for you well unfortunately it's surprising for me because i had hoped that it would be more transformative but maybe it's not surprising given the incredible pressure of power pressures that exist inside the system which is again a reason why we have to find a way to bring about the reform of the system to make it so that the government can

be more responsive in the way that a representative democracy should well speaking about that if you look around a while there are a number of countries china being one of them reach believe that democracy is not so much government by the people as government for the people and if you look at the chinese system's ability to deliver tangible improvements in their people's lives it seems to be way had of the american one i wonder what do you make about this distinction between government by the people and for the people as far as democracy is concerned i'm very skeptical of nice twist of the phrase that lincoln gave us. i think the story in china is much more complicated than the press releases make it seem. so. i mean i've been to china a number of times and i'm eager to learn as much as one can about the way in which they've tried to a job. to a more popular rule they've used techniques like deliberative polling to find the

views of local communities much more effectively than other countries have so that's that's the positive but but i don't believe in rule by the elite i don't believe in rule by the engineers i don't believe that a system that hands power over to a small segment of the public and says to them in plato like ways you need to rule for the good of the rest of the country makes sense so i fundamentally reject that i think what we need to do is to figure out how to make the ideals that lincoln articulated government by the people for the people of the people much more effective in the way that it functions and we could do that it's not rocket science to see how that could be brought about but that should be our objective because in my view i'm fundamental populist. democratic government i think the people properly constituted are actually the best in guiding the direction of the government and i

just want to make sure that their will can be expressed in an effective way inside of this representative democracy but professor less like pushing that a little bit further do you think it is really hard to guess what people really want i mean in terms of you know social status it is clear that people first and foremost want economic improvement in diet daily lives so i guess many chinese and people around the world may ask americans what is the purpose of having voting for your representatives if chance of a factoring policy isn't delivering what they promise is so limited yeah that's a fair question and it's even more pressing in a system where the strongest determinant is fundraiser and you're not fund raising from the people you're fund raising from the tiniest fraction of the one percent so that's legitimate. maybe rational reason to be disengaged from the democracy but if

we fix the democracy if we make it so that it is much more effective in representing. all the people. then i do think that there's a reason to be appealing to the people it's not because the people necessarily you know given any flash poll know the best thing about what should be done but i do think that discipline the constraint of discipline of trying to convince the people over time that the direction that you want the country to go makes sense is is an important and sally a tory constraint on the way governments function because without that constraint what history has taught us is that concentrated power always eventually misbehaves in really dramatically catastrophic ways and so i think we need to build systems that avoid the problem and that's what i think the ideal of a representative democracy was supposed to do you just mentioned the word discipline and that leads me to my probably last question is on russia in your book

you mention that urban legend about russia's former president boris yeltsin allegedly being seen drunk and he's under where on the streets if i think it was washington trying trying to catch a cab to buy a pizza and we don't know whether it was true or not i think there are diverse opinions on that but what is clear is that yeltsin vote was addicted to the bottle and there were plenty of embarrassing episodes like this and yet the popular opinion in washington is that during yeltsin's time russia was a far freer and more democratic country then it is now i wonder if you grieve it that both from my perspective from a distance that i have. it seems that the hopes the aspirations for a more democratic regime were greater in that period i spent some time in russia in the early one. and i think that many people had a conception of a potential for

a less authoritarian structure of government and you know it's complicated to say why it didn't develop the way many people imagined it would and i think the united states didn't do enough to encourage the right kind of development but i certainly think that that was an ideal now that's of course unrelated to the personal problems that yeltsin had and i was talking to talking about yeltsin in my book more as a metaphor for people recognizing a fundamental problem and being able to address it because the parallel that i was using in my book was to the way that this corruption in the american political system is ignored by so many people because it's just like alcoholism with a prominent leader seems almost impossible to address but that we have to address it we have to find a way to address it if we're going to find a way to recover the core of what our democracy is and that's obviously the most

important thing you know from my perspective is that we need to do but i think there's an equivalent question russian citizens need to ask about their own government i think this is the ultimate objective of citizens you know every government around the world. i think citizens can look at their governments and say they're corrupt they're corrupt for different reasons you know our government is corrupt not the way that india might be corrupt or not the way that african government might governments might be corrupt but it's corrupt in the way that it's not representative of the people in that democracy and what we need to do is citizens not as politicians but citizens is have the courage to stand up to governments that are corrupting the will of the people within those countries and find a way to resist them you know it's different how you do it and i would never say what's the right way to do it in russia but that's the objective we're trying to find here in america well professor laughing this is exactly what we're doing on this program questioning corruption not only india not. stage but also here in russia and. one thing that polls tell us here is that since the levels

of corruption as perceived by the russian people have decreased significantly now i hold that americans could feel the same way about their own democracy while this is over have time for really appreciate your being on the show and to our viewers please keep the conversation going on our twitter facebook pages and i hope to see you again same place same time here on worlds apart. one thing it's a political issue in this country any time that somebody raises the issue of gun control believe me we can attack us but. skirmish should be some sort of

a person twenty five a third. person they don't see themselves living beyond these young people say that they will not live past twenty five or thirty years old victim smoke filled with the bad stuff. they don't know what the terror will be one thing much more might. consider a. civil war in. the congo dealing with get a. gun. the

united states to some of the say over the past decade has isolated itself in something that negatively affects the us into the future i think it's a foolish move for the us to pursue this line of aggression towards russia. i think right. now. what if the.

latest news on the week's top stories on r.t. international turkish police crackdown on protesters and bull as public fury intensifies over the government's response to a mine killed more than three hundred. gets cold at a campaign event as people express. on ukraine calling for efforts to stop the nazis from thriving in. america's army chief warns that the syrian rebels are not fit for power even as washington renewed its push for regime change in damascus.

national for me rule research showing the entire news team welcome to the program. so police of unleashed tear gas and water cannons on demonstrators in istanbul this during the latest protest over tuesday's so much mind blast that claimed three hundred one lives. i. think that folks are outraged over the government's handling of the tragedy prime minister out of the one taunted demonstrators when he visited the blast site one of his aides was even caught on camera kicking a protester on the ground. correspondent sara forth reports from istanbul. but still a tense situation here that wasn't small cost between the protests in the riot and the small to cannons being deployed to take out the really i know that these are

done those that they have not today is the lawyers association it will say time that the right has put it happened in saying i don't say to them on and on since many questions that still remain a very exactly what happened the people who turned out and said bad calling for accountability from the government something that's a far they don't feel that they've had. it was briefly detained by the istanbul police he wanted to check a press credentials to get all the details as well as more updates on the mine tragedy backlash on the twitter feed it sara. this week saw ukraine's ongoing crisis echoing in the heart of europe stronghold of germany where chancellor angela merkel received an unexpected welcome at her party's campaign event. last the soma group of the chancellor of the crowds apparently vented their frustration over germany's role in ukraine's crisis some waved banos saying stop the nazis in

ukraine meanwhile germany's foreign minister also called for caution over slopping moscow with any further restrictions over its involvement in the situation. saying any voices of discontent are so far unlikely to stop brussels sanctions rhetoric the way she's engaged in an ideological and jute little struggle with russia which it intends to whip through all sorts of things that you're. do it can ratchet up what it's already done it can put publish longer lists of people who are subject to personal sanctions it will definitely abandon the fees or liberalisation programme which russia has been asking for for nearly a decade now and it may even reduce economic exchanges russia should not be under any illusions that the european elites are prepared to cut off their nose to spite their face in other words they are prepared to undergo or make other people undergo severe economic pain in order to justify and entrenched their ideological hostility

to russia of that i personally have no doubt at all and i just bring you up to date are the leaders of the newly proclaimed yet people's republic of saying there's a full scale military operation underway on the outskirts of the cities of slavyansk and border both have seen some of the worst fighting since the start of kiev's offensive and the rest of southeast locals have been reporting loud blasts repeated heavy gunfire and journalist graham phillips remains in slavyansk has been repeated last somewhat we have records that we have the ukrainian military all signs of the cities that we have the reports at least of the city we have heavy fighting and we had reports of you claiming that removing it from the south and moving in from the north. we've got loud blasts would be explosions we've got reverberations of gunfire ricocheting around the city of and this is the heaviest i've heard that yet it's not programmed once what we're seeing now look to be the

sharpest and the strongest action yet all near can to try to retake this city which has been in the hands of these coded netscape activists now since april twelfth so over a month the honey any coercions interested me and that last night we did any shelling in the south west barricade there we had wagons destroyed we had howitzers launched by the ukrainian forces last explosions there so all the experts and i like the cases they are looking to make a penetration into the city because this certainly their strongest resilient their . resilient and the s.t.s. is actually. now the breakaway donetsk people's republic along with the neighboring lugansk region declared themselves sovereign states on tuesday of this following a popular referendum of both regions are also announced they will not be participating in ukraine's presidential election i craned interim prime minister has proposed dialogue on autonomy and national unity in the meantime united states has declared the referendum an attempt to create disorder and questioned how representative it was my colleague you know neal spoke with charlie mcgrath from

wide awake news who says it's not the people's will that concerns washington you don't have to take mine or your word for it just look at the actions over the last several months duly elected government in ukraine over thrown with the help of the west and in the bank you go bald it dominates policy in the west so it certainly seems the individual sovereignty nation sovereignty self governance is no longer a factor when it comes to when it comes to the west policy now the u.s. is also blamed russia for feeling to stop the referendum let's have a quick listen to what white house press secretary jay carney had to say i'm not. we're disappointed that the russian government did not use its influence to forestall these referendum according to president putin's call on may seventh for them to be postponed instead russian state media sought to legitimize these so-called referenda over the weekend with repetitive coverage of. these votes as if they were legitimate what's your reaction to those accusations the fact that the

united states of america has their press secretary coming out before the cameras of the world and saying that people deciding that they're going to be determining that they're going to implement a government that is ruled by themselves the people and have a vote a free and fair vote and calling it illegitimate and calling it everything but what it is which is the people speaking out it's disgusting don't have to take your word artie's word for my word for it you can listen to discus it is congressman dennis kucinich who breaks it down he's not afraid to say it like it is where we have sixty plus programs run bike was a government agencies our tax dollars sixty programs to disable destabilize and in fact have a coup d'etat inside ukraine that led to this current disaster that we have now it's an international. met in london this week to agree on additional measures to bolster the syrian opposition but america's top military commander has warned that

the western backed rebels would not be able to run syria if indeed they replace the current assad government infighting is on the rise among the divided rebel factions president assad's forces are making huge gains just retaken the key city of homs after a siege that lasted two years the western backed umbrella group known as the syrian national coalition has been unable to unite the rebel camp and although it isn't stopping washington from throwing more support behind the insurgency it's guy nature can reporters. were saying a new push by the obama administration to fulfill a goal that he declared three years ago to topple the syrian president bashar assad has announced that syria will hold elections despite the war the u.s. vehemently opposes those elections washington has already decided who the legitimate representatives of the syrian people are is the syrian opposition coalition president obama has met with a coalition leader ahmad jarba at the white house this week u.s.

secretary of state john kerry told the rebels we've wasted a year in the fight against assad the participants of the meeting said john terry made the remark in the context of a discussion about renewed efforts to coordinate the flow of both aid and weapons to the syrian rebels the french foreign minister was also in washington this week and he said he quote unquote regret it that the u.s. had not bombed syria as its where all of this war talk amid the u.s. and europe saying that they want to find a political solution to the crisis in syria but we say there is no military victory meaning we being the united states there can be no military solution and every step that we're taking is a military step. and so obviously we're setting up a. long. term conflict more common for the un envoy for syria

lakhdar brahimi has announced his resignation expressing regret for his inability to forge a coherent international response to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in syria the geneva talks have not led to a deal between the syrian government and the opposition although the syrian opposition has been largely unwilling to cut deals with the government of bashar assad nonetheless there have been instances of progress most recently thousands of syrians were turned to war battered parts of the central city of homs after the rebels left under an evacuation deal with the government but washington seems keen to prompt the syrian rebels to continue fighting instead of cutting deals even though a deal could save thousands of lives in washington i'm going to check on our team the syrian crisis escalated after last year's chemical attack in aleppo that killed dozens of people the government on the rebels both blaming each other over that in june the u.s. president barack obama upped the ante by authorizing military aid to the syrian

rebels for the very first time of the crisis reached a peak two months later with western leaders calling for military strikes on syria citing another controversial chemical attack as a red line but just as military intervention loomed large a diplomatic breakthrough was brokered by russia which helped persuade syria to give up its chemical arsenal damascus began getting rid of its stockpiles in october it's expected to complete the handover ahead of june's deadline and the next step to deescalate the crisis came in geneva where the syrian government and opposition officials sat down for talks for the very first time for the summit failed to break the deadlock as both sides resume hostilities and tensions have spiked all over again but the white house hosting the syrian opposition leader and pledging fresh support for the insurgency but one analyst says the international community is gradually realizing the grim reality of islamist extremism in syria. these so-called friends of syria conference which launched in two thousand and

twelve there were one hundred over one hundred twenty contras supporting the opposition in syria about there are now only eleven western imperialist states this indicates that most of the states they are aware of now that the repercussion of the syrian crisis is imposing a serious threat on regional and international security the situation in syria is not between the syrian government and the opposition it is between the syrian government and armed extremists who are fighting everybody there who oppose their narrative their narrative is to create an islamic caliphate in syria the governance of the will of the people and the only protector of the. just secular values or the civil values of the syrian state is the army is the syrian army coming up very shortly here on the program those who suffer the most with afghan troops failing to stem the taliban the civilian death toll is going through the roof with the

prospect of a bloody future and nato troops leaving for good also. for you to miss you too risky i'm just trying to do similar wait what find out how a political satire broadcast or our network accused of quote raw jewish hatred that's coming up shortly here on r.t. international. all of the towers were to be dominant and. these notions dry powers we have maintained our policy of containment containment of china can continue with me policy of station american containment of countries american expansionism whenever you've got the in the money road three that was all in the let's expand into south amount. and containment is

a policy which puts the usa and its allies right up against countries. others. say this is. the picture. good to have you with us for the weekly here on r.t. international this monday the taliban launched a terror campaign in afghanistan it's known as the spring offensive kabul's

international airport was targeted as well as the biggest u.s. army base right near the capital and well over a dozen people were killed according to the international crisis group islamist insurgent attacks were rising throughout last year and the trend is continuing it also looks like afghan troops are not ready to take matters into their own hands years of conflict claimed thousands of lives not only among the insurgents but of course among the military as well plus militants mix fierce attacks on the ground with propaganda and even economic sabotage making the group very hard to eradicate the taliban's activity and military operations have led to the deaths of around twenty thousand people since the beginning of the war. has more on the price of billions have paid for the conflict i should warn you that some of the images in the report may be disturbing. the face of war in afghanistan today seven months old and fighting for his life injured by

shrapnel when a mortar hit his house in gaza any province. in a nearby bed a toddler struggles to breathe with the help of a machine caught in the crossfire and shot in the neck by a stray bullet from my point of view the war could think. the number of injured people are increasing time by time across afghanistan civilian casualties are on the rise and often it's women and children who are most affected mom a delish here could have died from his shop while wounds if he wasn't brought to this hospital and he's one of the lucky ones it's quite difficult because you don't know many people died trying to reach or what are those and money well money overseas operations at this nonprofit trauma facility run by the italian charity emergency as you can see here in the border because a few injuries particularly orderly border to border to border to borders border to border there's

a for guns from to those are for the war is over but for people who are treated more casualties were up at this hospital by thirty six percent in just the first two months of this year and a staggering eighty five percent increase since twenty ten most are civilians but here free treatment for all victims of war regardless which side no questions asked three new clinics are being set up to cope with the demand as american troops prepare to withdraw the talabani is making a comeback believe it or level of violence has been increased dramatically in the last year and the conflict that has been about what are we going over there are you know we don't do sitar doesn't know who attacked him but he knows it's a miracle that he survived this shy young man who was working at a fuel pump in kandahar. when unidentified gunmen shot him twelve times at close range i thought they needed something so i approached them but they opened fire first because it was in the middle of the night and they had their faces covered.

in gauge to be married so i'm just thankful i live saved nor was born the same here the u.s. invaded afghanistan toppling the taliban regime but in his village in the eastern province the insurgency is as strong as ever he was shot in the abdomen by a stray bullet while playing with friends there's always fighting. sometimes it's planes with bombs or tanks wanting to soldiers are coming and fighting with the taliban i got used to it and that's what scares emmanuel the most inside and outside the. body is for him to get he was used to violence we have many children i mean you know what are struggling and they are becoming go to forgot their story so it's becoming not long to your story. to get blasted wise being what the afghan children are doing is the same of the children all over the world they have just been so lucky to be born in the wrong place it's taking

a toll on the doctors to know this is trauma not only for this child for all of us i have a child is difficult to keep the child if you want or you don't want as perfect one and a half year old boy should a stay at home with his mother to play with toys is not for show for a bullet or so i ask him if he sees things improving in the future. i don't know it's difficult. difficult to say. lucy catherine if our couple. are still to come iran are to international a multi-million dollar failure a russian rocket carrying a vial. satellite after its engines malfunction just nine minutes after takeoff also. operators troops complicit in some sixty unlawful killing is during the

iraq war the top u.n. court goes on a mission to find out those details coming your way shortly. twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow when it comes to views away from the mainstream well we have plenty of that here on our international and this often makes us the target of criticism and i would say one particular satirical show breaking down the israeli palestinian conflict that has provoked a strong response you any should resolution through for calling on israel to give back those terrorists. that they are you are nothing to lose you to miss your future i'm just trying to produce similar weight was after we had the latest episode of australian produced program juice rock news he was accused of anti semitism the jewish rights group the wise and demanded an apology from our network but our team management called the allegations baseless and outrageous distressing we critical views about the policies of lots of various governments or media

analysts danny schechter says the critics of see the need to find a sense of humor this criticism is ridiculous it's obviously written by people who don't know anything about satire who've never watched the daily show had never watched comedians have never watched us news has it takes on them and makes one of all kinds of politicians it's a ridiculous concern but what bothers some about it is that it suggests that if you were jewish and you criticise israel somehow you're in. a self hating jew this is a way to try to silence debate well there is one word that i think everybody who criticizes the watches needs heard the worst city the worst city is good different voices is good. the u.k.'s armed forces found themselves in hot water this week after it was announced the international criminal court is going to look into alleged war crimes by british troops it will be

a preliminary examination of sixty suspected cases of unlawful killings during the iraq war dozens of locals died nover one hundred seventy were allegedly mistreated while in british military custody between two thousand and three and two thousand and eight london says it's ready to provide the court with all the assistance it needs however it denies the allegations. but former lieutenant colonel nicholas musée he was the british army's most senior legal officer during the iraq invasion he says he saw the abuse with his own eyes. as early as march two thousand and three at the wall was just days old and i went into the camp to deal with another issue and looked into an interrogation facility where i saw approximately forty prisoners and in stress positions and the use of generators which in my view was being used liberally well i mean i think if you're a prisoner you just freshly captured and you're about to be interrogated and someone's got a generator running outside the interrogation facility and you've got

a hold on your head you probably think it's being used to muffle the sound of someone being investigated and whatever's going on in the interrogation facility which said that that was lawful it was thought of u.k. doctrine and when i complained that it breached the geneva conventions i was told that i've got the law wrong it's british under international law under the un convention against it's pretty dumb to domestic law and thirdly it doesn't work and it is morally degrading side no truck with that and i think we really need to educate the public in this particular to made the trouble is that the british state got away with it for too long. gone online and r.t. dot com for iraq now time's running out for the u.k.'s oil and gas on our website we've got a report that suggests london will have to rely entirely on imports when it comes to energy in just a matter of years also at r.t. dot com right now washington has squeezed forty three billion dollars out of energy

consumers all for a nuclear waste site that was never even built neither will it be in the future it seems details online. but meantime on friday a russian rocket carrying a communications satellite ended in failure just minutes after lift off luckily no casualties or damage on the ground were reported as the. bund up in the atmosphere now the rocket was carrying a satellite worth around twenty eight million dollars so this is a costly mistake the cause of the crash is now being investigated but preliminary data says there was a lack of pressure on one of the engines that controls the steering let's look at exactly what we can find out went wrong here the launch had started out as planned here the stages of the flight with the booster rockets separating off a fairly a coat during the third stage just over there that's one mission control lost track of the rocket but russia's space agency not throwing in the just yet and says they'll be two more proton launches before the end of this year. well let's get

some other global headlines a brief time for the r.t. world update now to brazil in a jail in the north east prisoners taken more than one hundred twenty people hostage nearly all of them are relatives visiting inmates according to a spokesman he added that negotiations for the release of the hostages would restart in the early morning there have been mounting security concerns in brazil that this ahead of the football world cup that kicks off next month. and large parts of bosnia and serbia are under a state of emergency after the country's experience there heaviest rainfall in one hundred years flooding has already claimed at least twenty five lives army helicopters are being used to literally rescue thousands of people for the rain caused hundreds of landslides which buried scores of houses and cars just further complicating the rescue efforts. now the fair wages pusher fast food workers went global on thursday protesters are demanding better pay previously

sweeping across the u.s. so the country that actually gave birth to the industry's wealthiest giant and the rest of the world was catching up this week with the walkouts taking place in more than thirty countries the demands a simple setting the minimum wage to at least match the most modest living standards and the right to form a trade unions without retaliation but julie sherry from the hungry for justice labor movement in the u.k. she says the industry's biggest players simply on this. have actually bet into mcdonald's and you know explaining our intention. you know requesting that the that they engage with the unions in the different countries unfortunately they have to claim that offer and do i think that they will do that i think that they'll try their hardest not to if they want to exploit workers in this way to be able to push their profits and to help them the people as possible and as low as possible but i think that we have to travel there whether we're told that at the local stations to

force them back on these questions and i do think that's something that is possible . communicated at the beginning of the new apps they've obviously had straight across the last you know half of that incredible pressure thing can and are beginning to see. and you know the mcdonald's corporation we want to continue to push by staying with us here on r.t. international today hope your sunday is going well i just a moment on a special report on a run crime in the windy city chicago comes into the radar just about madonna the international unless you're in the u.k. and stunned by the revelations about cloud technology. the quote is nice but there are a couple point one things just gets really for example for the last year even at the congressional level some democrats on the military association of atheists and

freethinkers have been pushing to create atheist chaplains in the u.s. military a chaplain in the context the armed forces is a priest who goes alongside the nation's troops to give them spiritual counsel and boost morale and also myself was very skeptical that god created man i could tell you that this is just a bit odd what sort of spiritual or moral support is some sort of generic atheist chaplain going to provide he'd probably say something like well son everything you're fighting for in this tiny rocket in for universe is ultimately pointless and johnson who died yesterday he's not in heaven or anything there is no afterlife for me to our existence so he's just maggot food now you feel better yeah thanks for the counseling father i think this is just a case of me too me too politics where the demand for humanness religion free priests is war despite christian soldiers rather than to actually do something to help atheist soldiers but that's just my opinion.

we think of the way we think. beaches. coconut palms gently swaying in the ocean breeze. and frank. white has a deep dark little secret a secret the u.s. government would like you to know about. through our labor. bolide david. baltimore wants to prevent a retaliation after a shootout left a sixteen year old girl dead and two other teenagers will get. to where we are going. see one of the guys. been sat over here with him then one of his friends. when best. this was like two weeks ago right about

a week ago. last out of the. side to come all this kind of qasr. this is the third shoot out eighteen year old leon cunningham got caught up in two years ago a bullet left him a paraplegic this time a bullet went through his left leg. kids killing kids not even a part of the click. or the. you know you know what taking a long time to well be dorna no but anybody get a rest the raft. multum or shares his own story trying to convince leon to stay away from gangs. people block this community. you gotta do what. you

gotta think of yourself just to. get my name. on it was cut all the way he. was good gad i went to school. and this was the gas that was served for them when they turned that into a patently. i knew i had a second. if i could do so playing today well with that where was you all. keep. reading all. night. some of the guys we probably hate to leave you to go come back if you were going. you got a notice on the phone from up. leon and his family are afraid of what could happen the presumed shooter was arrested then killed in prison. baltimore will have to

negotiate a truce with the rival faction to break the infernal vention cycle or whatever cliquey is and in a round. they are not what they say they are because there's no way possible you can get shot. now from one of his buddies even go to maine sure he could be somebody else is generation is just like the wow wow west. this generation's codes certainly recall the wild west like leaving this pair of shoes the signal that a gang member was killed in the street. ceasefire says it has defused two hundred twenty three conflicts in six months but the organization's effectiveness is hard to gauge reporter frank mayne of the chicago sun times won a prestigious award for a series of articles he wrote in crime is also investigating these unusual street mediators there are numerous people in cease fire who are still continuing their

criminal activities while they were also working for a cease fire and doing this anti-violence work and we found six or seven people who had been. convicted in federal court or were facing serious federal charges. relating to drug activity in gangs and criminal activity we were just trying to to . to demonstrate i guess that there's a risk to the strategy as well as you know benefits to it. and yet this past july the city of chicago decided than over one million dollars to cease fire to expand the area served by the group. guns are used in eighty percent of the murders committed in chicago but this ultra sensitive topic wasn't even broached in the presidential campaign because every us citizen has the right to bear arms talking about gun control is a sure fire way to lose folks exasperated southside residents spend their saturday

demonstrating outside the areas targeted gun shop calling for tighter gun control laws father pfleger areas flanked by a weighty ally jesse jackson a famous figure in the civil rights movement jackson made to run for the presidency in the one nine hundred eighty s. as a democratic party candidate. reverend jackson this is victory to close us the biggest sales they're closed down right now so we're heart. broken and we. think he's the worst of the worst in a country that was a thirty five hundred seventy of some of us in one shop less than us. but it. was there to me live close. to me look post and they just about making money it's all about bile that they're not that far away. oh my prime minister and it's not the marriage in the black community the guns have been

trained back i have to cinch it guns have been traced that. this is the third time they've targeted this shop they already been arrested for disorderly conduct at chuck's what is the n.r.a. . and gun manufacturers fight assault hard simple gun registration when you register a car one reason. money they're protected by law. they invest heavily in the politicians. they control walls and gracious and we've got to take the n.r.a. got we're not afraid of the n.r.a. and their plan. to keep them guns off the streets chicago officials buy them back help collect them they hand over one hundred dollars per gun no questions asked. in late june the police superintendent invited reporters to meet him at a secret warehouse five thousand five hundred guns of every caliber were turned in

. it's a huge contributing factor comes close because the ease by which people can obtain finally i mean obviously in chicago you can't do as much damage with a golf club scene people do damage with golf clubs as you can with the fire it's a political issue in this country and any time that somebody raises see issue of gun control the immediately get attacked by special interests. needed the police cease fire have managed to curb for a very long bloodshed chicago day in and day out. and the violence has an upper crust areas like hyde park where the obama family has its own. retired army officer ruth thomas goes there every day to work as a school security guard. it's

a very built up area. here. the president. nice neighborhood. gangs don't care. i park's public high school brought in an army veterans group veterans of the iraq and afghanistan wars like rules students around the school. just. to survive you know those folks you're. not doing as freddy you know some attorneys kids out of the. right. school. at two thirty to school weekends for two thousand three hundred students the twenty five member of veteran squad takes up

positions outside their job watching over a half mile of sidewalk looking for any signs of trouble and keeping the high schoolers safe. hello ladies. this is patrol type information so i right now i see these three people plus the two across the street so no one is left alone. just about everybody's assess but. now be a military time for that we do train to spot. hundred thousand students attend chicago public school many of them walk back home it can be dangerous like in this area where two rival gangs claim territory from the outside it looks peaceful but when you're actually living here is that even if you don't know to be walking behind you or my. god that's a wrong crowd and they don't like what i got and it's now walking home and this

guy's real light directly in front of me and my friend shot like feet away from me my ears were bleeding it was crazy had to be in around here to school. every day so be on the corners have a better chance of someone catching it or calm police or something more quickly than which would normally have if no one be in their faces. stop it before it happens you get that feeling that you're busy for then you usually are in the manifesto i doubt it is a bit ok i'm here to give them a safe passage. home. and disperse them if they really come up but if they get real rowdy. we have to call the police because we don't have the authority to detain anyone without me we can make sure they're good as fights here but once they get beyond it's more that's their own their. own homes are new fictive dissuasion number of events

a dense around this school has dropped sharply over the past two years the city plans to expand the program to other areas. but the best way to escape the violence is to get a way to move out of the south side by going to college for instance but you have to be rich to go to university and a four year degree can cost one hundred twenty five thousand dollars martin is such an angel would need of this studying occupational therapy the former soldier got the army to pay for his education. from the from the goddess. we thought it was. out of his belt off just run out when he moved out of the situation and out of the out of five and lay. that's not really. but for most youngsters in chicago's south side college seems totally out of reach

tutors like ronald hires are working to boost their self-confidence ronald run who's the african-american resource center monitoring and assisting students like martinez. a lot of students on a campus the day before class in the suburbs right like he always was it took like maybe water to much to learn it so little time if we don't want to see you know we're not working to see you. we look we're going to see you succeed so far so good you know man i suppose for major one day for sure you'll never be without work yeah . you know i encourage a lot of the young men did i meet on the in the community and out on the streets that if you're on the block there's somewhere else you need to be it's not in hand and on the block benefit there is a block that waits for you and it's called a sale block. to avoid the bullets in the president many englewood residents like martinez save up their money and move to call more neighborhoods martinez went

to dalton an hour from downtown chicago. i just didn't want to become one and all the testings i felt like. i have to be here for my family to may so my family is ok i feel. martin is fled the streets of inglewood but the violence caught up with him this time it wasn't the gangs this twenty two year old sister. shown in this photo was killed by a policeman on march twenty first. graders. big emptiness big old. thank you. for. giving school place a try to play play play polo going to be good news for your life

for sure taking everybody. some time a no no no no well. my a lot like the pain. most of us think that's exciting all time. most cases of two feet long. sometimes for nothing which. is so neat and simple. it's not just the story kids will be just if you see a stage eight will be with you. all good. and. dry all great powers we have

maintained our policy of containment containment of china. policy of. american containment of countries american expansionism whenever you got the. trade that was expanding to south america and containment today a policy which puts the usa and its allies right up against the countries.

economic record. for. now i. want to thank you for a public kind of signings to where you were here. we. go. and i was i'm now the only you know. brother sister relationship is like a father daughter there's a spicy to. they haven't really. a farm

does a anything oh wait they tell us is this on the investigation. of the shooting because the stir martin is a sister was standing on the street with friends. house and got into an argument with one of the men feeling threatened the policeman took out his revolver and opened fire. house with. this the spot woman. was found. the stab i think about this every day i still got the images flashing in my head because i don't know. the two men have never met the police officer was reassigned to desk duty but wasn't detained he claims he fired in self-defense to the brother just before he.

was. hit you had to be in a circular shape to turn turn off the camera seeking the camera. first and watching us about. that situation i hope by now you know the truth. well could you well i can't talk about the. court i have a court that man a man did something to me that day i can't discuss it right but there were witnesses there that man tried to kill me ok i saved my life. and i saw the man that i intended to shoot i saved my life i would of been at the police ok i saved my life unfortunately this sister was standing in the back. she did not deserve to get shot. she did not deserve. my soul is clear.

he says he was threatened but no gun was ever found the case will go to court in two years. the violence broadly chicago is tearing apart families the residents of englewood and other south side neighborhoods spend their nights in fear the police are under heavy pressure and overworked but the root of the gang problem lies elsewhere it's a deep seated evil the american social ladder is broken there are no jobs in englewood and no public investments the education system is in shambles. if you ask me are the schools good there. and you can ask me is the quality of housing their good no. but if you ask me i think are we spending adequate government dollars trying to stop by on there on the law enforcement side i would say yes so. you have a da in the federal side of the f.b.i. there you know the chicago police there you have ceasefire there you have all these

organizations there so and you have church groups and social groups and all sorts of people trying to. make things better there and doesn't seem to do much good unfortunately. inglewood residents have taken upon themselves to fight the bloodshed that is the language of the streets here trying to give local youngsters a chance to fulfill their dreams and build a brighter future twenty four year old derek took up boxing and despite the risks he jogs through the neighborhood just like in the favor. of three block radius. booker. i'm good but i also discovered. this but. people in your town to ask who you are. is my stuff. because a life in jeopardy. i'm not today.

you're accused to be a street fighter he liked it and he was good he caught the eye of a trainer sally coaches junior boxing she set up shop there twelve years ago with a goal in mind. this is how i get their attention i knew i needed something that was more exciting than this kind of like like right. self. fight for my self stick with a. full big. silly way to get their money you know in some cars and cylinder not even talking about g.d.'s bts emcees you know until until that's what it was to my talk about it but you know what i mean but we don't care you know what i mean they're not best and what's going to get us to give me a sense of peace you know like my what was coming hey you know it's not the first

person didn't with the community or us out of committee or person from the time or it just it's a way to get out. and possibly be erroneous cuse you know just this is through a good and. hopefully one day i'll be champion come get back to marking the so no erve thing i'll do is like it's a purpose but not the sort of awesome go to the. dreams of becoming a champion and others have made it. not long ago murray park was called murder park baltimore the cease fire mediator often makes local kids. at the work they go there to play basketball chicago's favorite sport derrick rose the chicago bulls star part of his first baskets here he grew up in inglewood and has stayed close to his roots the n.b.a. champion got his sponsors to renovate the local courts. they know it's

a way out they know if he if he stay here. and the same neighborhood walk down the same blocks the same thing so it gives them a strat and know that they can do it again billet seats and know that. a wood ain't such a bad place. chicago's up and coming basketball star is also from the south side. it's graduation day for the students of st sabina high. father phleger welcomes an honored guest seventeen year old joe body parker is the nation's number one ranking or basketball player the big american teams are trying to recruit him both boys for a few years on a car off just a couple weeks ago he represents head of what we call next generation

of leadership. thank. you. for the movies. and. for feeding. in mind the internet. is just a few so. away. you know if you. if you're. a supporter everybody. needs to be safe and. needs to be a better place mark hughes one of the kids' room i figure now a better environment to live in. really now that meat's. that's a role model i want them to go after because when our young people see him and see

where he's doing and do that with their own minds we can end the violence as we had too many dreams out here. rather phleger has been living among gangs for over thirty years threatened regularly he's gotten to know the gangs and learned to live with them a lot of our folks i'm not recognize a society i'm not recognized by the education says in the beginning before school not recognized by the government as a office on job and not in society were invisible and society were not important so they fight for importance and value out here in the street and we're saying you know what. i understand that but not going to tower at the shooting and you're not going to shoot or kill our kids and think you can run back home put up your feet and watch for downloads watch t.v. no. father phleger organize the citizen patrols during the summer helping residents take back their streets and housing projects the first rally was

a milestone it was held on june fifteenth and drew more than two thousand people including the police chief. of the plague a drug addict from the happiness of. you that's who is. this what. you want to focus is this is what's going to change. what's going to change you believe me. i don't know friday night. live in the name. of the man it's. simply. a. case of. the entire community came together this night around the families of shooting victims again if you're. going to get every single minute of an oyster that was. there but that's the girl. talking to the police chief hoping to

get him to kick start the investigation into her son's killing of somebody five minutes and then i went in and it was so rude at that depth that if not most forty minutes before they see it it was really rude really big victims. don't need it and my son case is not the only case but the last time i'm seventy i'm going to let you know was let me follow up with talk ok all right. ok all right coming up march is the first step in an important battle local residents are proud to be part of it and proud to show their streets don't belong to the gangs drugs this. that's what if i can. see i think gaming is the one thing hit in the little note here when i have not afraid.

of guns. thanks. bill. two thousand and eight african american voters overwhelmingly supported barack obama putting him in the white house four years later inglewood voters continue to back the president by gangs are still laying down the law in chicago's south side. to. see. it.

from a. personal data far trusted cloud service. that ensures protecting your privacy. be a race to randomly get stolen. or become a target of the end of the. what if sky is right above.

we think of the way we think of. beaches. going to sway in the ocean breeze. and. little secret a secret the u.s. government would like you to know. through all of. these. united states to pivot ease some of that say over the past decade has isolated itself in something that negatively affects the us into the future i think it's a foolish move for the us to pursue this line of aggression towards russia.

the latest news on the week's top stories on our national police cracking down on protesters and. public fury intensifies over the government's response to. that killed more than three hundred. gets heckled at a campaign event. as people express anger of government stance on ukraine. post kookier. chief warns the syrian rebels are not. even as washington renewed his push for a change in damascus. top

stories of the week and today welcome to the weekly international i'm brewery sushi so i guess police of unleashed tear gas and water cannons on demonstrators in istanbul this during good latest protest over choose days mine blasts that claimed three hundred and one lives. and many tokes alf raced over the government's handling of the tragedy and the prime minister of the one taunted demonstrators when he visited the blast site and one of his aides was even caught on camera kicking a protester while on the ground. correspondents arraf reports from istanbul. still a tense situation here after those and small classes it's the protests in the riot police water cannons being deployed to take out really i know this is the feel that

they have not they the lawyers association it'll take time to pray to put it happens in the same and also to demand answers to the many question that still remain a very exactly what happened the people who turned out and said they're calling for accountability from the government something that's a far they don't feel that they've had. and sarah was briefly detained by it's double police they want to really check a press credentials you can get all the details as well as more updates on the mine tragedy backlash on the twitter feed sarah. and i want our international the u.s. and ten of its allies met in london this week to agree on additional measures to bolster the syrian opposition but america's top military commander has warned that the western backed rebels would not be able to run syria if indeed they replace the assad government infighting is on the rise among the divided rebel factions while president assad's forces are making significant gains i mean just taken the key

city of homs after a two year siege in the western backed on group known as the syrian national coalition has been able to unite the rebel camp and all that isn't stopping washington from throwing more support behind the insurgency as artie's guy nature can investigate. we're seeing a new push by the obama administration to fulfill the goal that he declared three years ago to topple the syrian president bashar assad has announced that syria will hold elections despite the war the u.s. vehemently opposes those elections washington has already decided who the legitimate representatives of the syrian people are is the syrian opposition coalition president obama has met with a coalition leader ahmad jarba at the white house this week u.s. secretary of state john. kerry told the rebels we've wasted a year in the fight against assad the participants of the meeting said john kerry made the remark in the context of a discussion about renewed efforts to coordinate the flow of both aid and weapons

to the syrian rebels the french foreign minister was also in washington this week and he said he quote unquote regret it that the u.s. had not bombed syria as it's wet and all of this war talk amid the u.s. and europe saying that they want to find a political solution to the crisis in syria but we say there is no military victory meaning we being the united states there can be no military solution and every step that we're taking is a military step. and so obviously what we're setting up is a longer term conflict more conflict the u.n. envoy for syria locked our brain me has announced his resignation expressing regret for his inability to forge a coherent international response to the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in syria the geneva talks have not led to a deal between the syrian government and the opposition although the syrian

opposition has been largely unwilling to cut deals with the government of bashar assad nonetheless there have been instances of progress most recently thousands of syrians were turned to war battered parts of the central city of homs after the rebels left under an evacuation deal with the government but washington seems keen to prompt the syrian rebels to continue fighting instead of cutting deals even though a deal could save thousands of lives in washington i'm going to check on our team. the syrian crisis escalated after last year's chemical attack in aleppo killed dozens of people with both the government on the rebels each blaming each other then in june president barack obama up the ante by authorizing military aid to the syrian rebels for the first time the crisis reached a peak two months later with western leaders calling for military strikes on syria citing another controversial chemical attack as a red line. but just as military intervention loomed large

a diplomatic breakthrough was brokered by russia which helped persuade syria to give up its chemical arsenal damascus began getting rid of its stockpiles in october and is expected to complete the handover ahead of june's deadline the next step to deescalate the crisis came in geneva where the syrian government and opposition members all sat down for talks for the very first time that the summit failed to break the deadlock as both sides resume hostilities and now tensions have spiked all over again the white house hosting the syrian opposition leader pledging support fresh support for the insurgency but one analyst says the international community is gradually learning and realizing the grim reality of the islamist extremism across syria these so-called friends of syria conference which has been launched in two thousand and twelve there were one hundred over one hundred twenty contras supporting the opposition in syria about there are now only eleven western imperialist states this indicates that most of the.

repercussion of the syrian crisis is imposing a serious threat on regional and international security the situation in syria is not between the syrian government and the opposition it is between the syrian government and armed extremists who are fighting everybody there who oppose their narrative their narrative is to create an islamic caliphate in syria the governance of the will of the people and the only protector of the of the secular values or the civil values of the syrian state is the army is the syrian army. now there should be cooperation not confrontation with russia over ukraine the words from germany's foreign minister came as a you also called for caution over slopping moscow with any further restrictions the statement was delivered amid a pending pledge of more sanctions by germany and france and that's if you crane's

upcoming presidential election doesn't go as planned live now to our tease peter all of a joining us here on the program to give us the very latest on this up peter good to see you the voices of discontent over angle of merkel's handling of the sanctions rhetoric growing ever louder than. well yes we heard from mr stein who said well what we just saw on the screen right there that we shouldn't be looking for further sanctions we should be looking for cooperation with russia in order to find a solution to what's going on in ukraine that's been echoed by well the elder statesman of german politics former chancellor helmut schmidt the ninety five year old famed back in the day for his his chain smoking on t.v. he said that as well backed up those statements saying that we should be not looking to persecute russia but looking to work with russia and allow russia to look after its own security interests without any pressure being put on there now also accuse the european union was very harsh on the european union accusing them

of a megalomania when it came to the situation in ukraine and how they've handled it incredibly critical there. and he said essentially they should stop talking about this being potentially world war three and look backwards towards world war one and their actions right now the actions of the european union that is more akin to the actions of of european leaders in one thousand nine hundred fourteen than any kind of new twenty first century conflict and peter called i wish you got quite a welcome in berlin this we didn't. yes there's a lot of anger here in berlin what we've seen of people opposing what they see as as nazi elements as extreme far right elements in those who've taken control of but it's not just those people booing until america should take to the stage it's also

the business leaders of germany now the real senior figures here have been coming out and giving a series of public statements which they've said no to further sanctions against russia got to remember that germany is a huge. huge markets a big part of russia's a huge huge market when it comes to german trade and the leaders that the likes of volkswagen siemens be a s.f. the chemical giant they've all come out and said no we don't think that further sanctions against russia is the right way and if you look at the figures it's quite clear why they think that way three hundred thousand jobs here in germany alone a directory linked to trade with russia is over six thousand companies from the huge ones that i just mentioned down to small mom and pop type companies that make machine tools that are involved with russia also it's estimated that if trade with

russia was to fall off we could see a two percent slump in growth here in germany all of those things. the type of things that the business leaders here want to avoid they don't want to see more sanctions against russia and artie's put all of a better life for us in budden thanks very much for that peter thank you. well thanks for joining us here on r.t. international in the meantime in ukraine one of the country's presidential hopefuls the leader of the notorious neo nazi right sector to prove it was claimed a large scale guerrilla warfare is set to start in the breakaway southeastern region he made the statement during a nationwide t.v. debate ahead of the upcoming poll for the country's top job. at offshore so avoid threats of attacks on crucial facilities including the gas pipeline that runs from russia to your human with little freedom and just bring you up to date of the leaders of the newly proclaimed dawn yet the people's republic are saying there's a full scale military operation underway on the outskirts of the cities of

slavyansk and kramatorsk both have seen some of the worst fighting since the start of kiev's offensive in the rest of southeast that region here locals have been reporting loud blasts repeated heavy gunfire and still remaining in slavyansk for us says journalist graham phillips has been repeated last somewhat we have of course that we have the ukrainian military all signs of the city so we have the reports at least of the city we have heavy fighting and we had of course you claiming that removing it from the south and moving in from the north. we've got a lot of blasts explosions we've got reverberations of government fire ricocheting around the city of and this is the heaviest i've heard yet it's not programmed once what we're seeing now look to be the sharpest and the strongest action yet on your client to try to retake this city which has been in the hands of these coded netscape activists now since april twelfth so amongst the any coercions interest of

the answer but last night we did any shelling the southwest barricade there we got wagons destroyed we had how it is launched by the ukrainian forces last explosions there so all the expense and i think the case is they are looking to make a penetration into the city because it's certainly their strongest resilient their most resilient and their faeces actually get. the breakaway donetsk people's republic along with the neighboring lugansk region declared themselves sovereign states on tuesday and this following a popular referendum of both regions also announced they will not participate in ukraine's presidential election ukraine's prime minister has proposed. national unity but in the meantime i washington has declared the referendum an attempt to create more disorder and a question how representative it was. or i will thank you for joining us on this sunday here on oxy international step aside for a bit katie pilbeam here after a break with an in-depth take on the week's business highlights.

there's always this. surrounding american forefathers and everything they ever wrote on governments. contacts any change to the constitution which is what you suggest seems to be blasphemy the way we allow elections to be funded means that we don't have a representative democracy period that's the simplest and most important problem because what it means is there is no fundamental domestic problem at least that americans the american government can address in a sensible way without the influence of money. sensible before. good lumber tour. was to build.

on anything mission to teach me why you should care about. this is why you should. only. can bet that case it will be this week the thing team is to join the break the latest in the only guy gas prices peace between russia and ukraine i would signal wait and see and cap the well he's back the guy now the brakes that stop that because the brakes may have lost some of the. creation back in two thousand and one but it's still a club that emerging economies want to join and the lace is counted it is often tina which would make the brakes the brakes. but all of the members which include

brazil russia india china south africa must agree to it except it is so far just three have done this were russia and china yet to express that these all the months so i was behind argentina wanting to join the break said what is the club just chalons all of and trained well it's all someone who knows all about it economists don you know he's actually based in argentina for us. so i don't know tell us why does argentina want to join the brics group that. urgency there would be interested in joining the brics to go to seoul all the challenges the media going on with challenges that argentina is facing and usually faces the inflation which is about seventy percent right now are crashing for seoul and they're doing reserves the disputes with many other countries so. some

solutions well that sounds pretty nasty why with the brics countries won't have all been taken over and. well it's india and brazil that have expressed interest in having argentina join argentina is an agricultural power that rivals the united states and brazil with its export capacity specially the story which is a huge gas cooperate now and so they would be interested in enlarging. the potential trade block out that. that makes sense or got you what i want to ask you as well as what about politics is that plating intensive getting argentina involved to make the breaks more as a powerful force. i would imagine so i would think that they would be interested. in enlarging politically and economically the breaks which

is not a trade block as it's kind of an informal club but they are moving towards becoming a powerful force. especially with russia and china interested in an alternative to the united states dollar as a reserve currency and as a sentiment currency part of it is political because especially now because of the sanctions against russia which is a form of economic warfare and so russia has a lot of incentive more incentive than ever to get away from the united states dollar and china wants to reduce its dependence on oil rather its holdings of american paper as well thank you for that the we appreciate that all the way from argentina daniel bryan i join us today on venting capital pleasure as oh i say

kava great guy likewise think it all right moving on then say ukraine will have to stick to pre-pay system now for its. russian gas from june all modes careful pay for its gas in advance all this its hopes will stop here as gas bill solves around three point five billion dollars from escalating even prime minister dmitri medvedev said that now is the time to stop mollycoddling ukraine meanwhile the e.u. energy chief said in brussels this week that a provisional price for russian gas could be negotiated with ukraine by the end of the month so the dispute will continue going to be obviously watching all the movements as they occur now we're going to stay with gas and coal for now because the company is also heading east in terms of its full stop artist gas giant is planning to get a listing in singapore this could happen as soon as light as it sounds from shares are traded in london barlett. russia's still job is reportedly

prepared to sell its plants in the u.s. one point five billion dollars in total is sort of threats of further sanctions are behind this a lot but according to russian news sources plans were already in place last year the gloves are based in michigan and this is it produced thirty percent of service sells revenues last year but love is fine and the t.v. will now have to report their income expenses and assets as part of an annual anticorruption check up but a lot of combating corruption also requires all state employees as well as a catalyst to report their incomes and. now last week we discussed russia's power to create its own payment system to rival these are moscow card after the sanction ban issues with the u.s. companies while now all there's a new russian law that will charge the two called giants three billion dollars in security fees to continue operating in russia the lease fees according to morgan

stanley mean that it could be profitable. for both the most to cause to continue working in russia together they control ninety percent of the russian payment systems market. now as well the strengthening ties with russia china is to connect more closely to the rest of the world this is interesting turn is considering plans to build a high speed rail line to the u.s. now according to chinese media reports the journey would begin east china through siberia then and a one hundred twenty five mile tunnel under the bering straits now the shortest crossing between russia and alaska to reach the us that would be the put it already has a nickname is called the china russia canada america lie the entire trip would take

two days and the train would travel two hundred twenty miles per hour so that means effectively that c.j. you could even get yourself a train from say london to new york which is quite phenomenal and russia and china are about to make history and this week i went on a river cruise and i spoke to pacific diplomats while i was taking in the historical sites of moscow and i was asking why china is so appealing at the moment and in terms of russia china the gas still is coming up is now the time for a compromise on price between that. and this is how business is conducted here and most the world of both of them over the sunshine who got food and drinks is the guy going for a nice eight d. this is the way to do it but you know you serious business is happening because we're delegates from the age of pacific region and they're all very excited because people are talking about the russia and china trade it will wait to two hundred seventy billion dollars it's been ten years in the making and what it will mean is

one bus to go to china for the next thirty years not trade between. see the case is already way at that eight seat baby and dollars and that's the only sets to accelerate of course russia wants to sell a ski house on the resources of highest possible price. but because of the sanctions because of the costs that we have heard from the european partners. they may be forced. to buy a last of our guests to buy more gas from the united states to acquire more oil in g. and that way we need to find a partner who will be able why our gas long term that's why we want to have a long contract thirty year contract and this is why at the moment china looks very much was because they are i think ready to negotiate the price because within and i think well because you don't want to be. so i guess surprise they want to divide by zero i think we're getting closer to that not going where rates will shake hands

based just sign of china he is the next superpower and number one economy in the world and the serial because everybody want to get to china now there's circumstantial thing that given the. that relationship between russia and the west is not that the bass condition right now essentially is ukraine ellen and the cetera russia is definitely will be looking for more economical and cultural and political ties with china which makes china more attractive to the west as well because obviously americans would not like to have to close relationship between russia and china so right now if china is like a beautiful beautiful lady with a multiple you know guys trying to engage her in some long term relationship and potentially marriage right so china can choose obviously you leave us to say the chinese de wyze asian nation and it would try to. get

the best out of both parties and maneuver and give a little bit to russia to west. and it depends. depends on the next steps on both sides of you know russia and the west what actually they can get out of china and at what price. now i'm delighted to say that we're going to get i use of the business desk we've got tame he is back he was on the suspensions of they have very naughty boy losing money investing in stocks that didn't even exist is a bit of a nightmare around him what have you been up to you are in a bit of trouble even out in this way here although i do really like the way you say naughty boy with that axe i do or you say that i'm very thankful that you allowed me to come back on the program and so during my suspension we invested twice in v.t. bank the only break in russia that will give me a loan and russia is the second largest lender and guess what it was sixteen percent that's twenty two hundred dollars and the thing that's so tragic about this is now we have enough money for me to buy

a house to put money down our house in russia but the money's not mine it's the companies you think you can really talk to the bosses about that you know i don't think i think if you know you've got to be here a little longer you know you've got to invest in stocks that exist for a little longer accommodating the well and see how you get on with if i can you know if i understand what i'm going to invest all of the company's money into this week. it's. going to be my choice but giant gazprom which i love to sponsor various soccer teams throughout the world we're going to invest over money in them and see where we get next week looks pretty reliable to me all right sambo i trust you a little bit more than last week and i hope you had a nice holiday and what about we did make here good gas problem seems like a sort of place to put your money we will see next week tim good luck thanks very much as well. is back and he's going to be holding the fort from a while i head off to china myself to follow the latest developments in shanghai

i'm very excited my first time in china see because i saw see you next week. assange i guess i. doubt they would have a partner went to waffle house to rob it he apparently didn't expect anyone there to have a concealed weapons permit but just in harrison did he waited for just the right moment drew his weapon and killed williams but woods is grieving family are now calling to change south carolina's concealed carry laws and are upset that harrison was not charged obviously right or wrong good or bad the family of williams has the right to feel sorrow for their loss but if it wasn't their loved one who was the robber i think they might feel very differently this our bribery situation is the exact reason why concealed carry permits exist if you to be liberals about

concealed carry they will always present some sort of fantasy situation where god would help you to prove that you don't need them what if like a guy sticks up behind you then you're going to be totally worthless ban guns aren't a magic answer to every crime situation but often they come in handy and they sure did for justin harrison when he was looking down the barrel of a criminal's gun so what kind of america do you want to live in one where you're helpless and have to beg for your life on the floor of a restaurant or in america where if you rob waffle house you're going to pay for it i think the choice is pretty obvious the fascist my opinion. personal data trusted the cloud service. that ensures protecting your privacy. could be

a race to randomly. become a target of the n.s.a. . what if unclouded sky is right. here in time for the weekly here on r.t. international thanks for sharing your sunday it was on this monday the taliban launched a terror campaign in afghanistan it's known as the spring offensive kabul's international airport was targeted as well as the biggest u.s. army base right near the capital well over a dozen people killed according to the international crisis group islamist

insurgent attacks were rising throughout last year and the trend is continuing it also looks like afghan troops are not ready to take matters into their own hands years of conflict of claimed thousands of lives not only among the insurgents but of course among the military as well plus militants mix fierce attacks on the ground with propaganda and even economic sabotage making the group very hard to tackle the taliban's activity and military operations have led to the deaths of around twenty thousand people since the beginning of the war. and often has more now on the civilian price during the conflict i should warn you you may find some of the following images disturbing. in the face of war in afghanistan today seven months old and fighting for his life injured by shrapnel when a mortar hit his house in gaza any province. in a nearby bed a toddler struggles to breathe with the help of

a machine caught in the crossfire and shot in the neck by a stray bullet from my point of view the war get think. the number of injured people are increasing time by time across afghanistan civilian casualties are on the rise and often it's women and children who are most affected mom a delish here could have died from his shop well ones if he wasn't brought to this hospital and he is one of the lucky ones it's quite difficult because you don't know many people died trying to reach or what are those in money well money need overseas operations at this nonprofit trauma facility run by the italian charity emergency as you can see here in the border because a few injuries but to go to waterloo to border to border to border to border to border to border that is afghanistan to does or for the war is over but still people are treated more casualties were up at this hospital by thirty six percent

in just the first two months of this year and a staggering eighty five percent increase since twenty ten most are civilians but hear free treatment for all victims of war regardless which side no questions asked three new clinics are being set up to cope with the demand as american troops prepare to withdraw the talabani is making a comeback a bill the level of violence has been increased dramatically in the last year and the conflict has been about what are we going over the counter now we don't do so tar doesn't know who attacked him but he knows it's a miracle that he survived this shy young man who was working at a fuel pump in kandahar. when unidentified gunmen shot him twelve times at close range i thought they needed something so i approached them but they opened fire first because it was in the middle of the night and they had their faces covered. in gauge to be married so i'm just thankful i live saeed nor was born the same year

the u.s. invaded afghanistan toppling the taliban regime but in his village in the eastern province the insurgency is as strong as ever he was shot in the abdomen by a stray bullet while playing with friends there's always fighting. sometimes it's planes with bombs or tanks wanting the soldiers are coming and fighting with the taliban i got used to it and that's what scares emmanuel the most inside and outside afghanistan to put a stop to to get us used violence we have many children and if you know what australia and they are becoming go to for about their study so it's becoming not long for we are sort of try to get blasted rice playing what afghan children are doing is the same or for the children all over the world they are just being so i'm lucky to be born in the wrong place it's taking a toll on the doctors too this is trauma not only for this child for all of us i

have child it's difficult to keep the child if you want or you don't want. it's. one in. which his mother to leave with the toys is not. for the boy so i ask him if he sees things improving in the future. i don't know if it. is difficult to see. lucy. or it coming along shortly here on the program but of a multi million dollar failure a russian rocket carrying a divine satellite burned after its engines malfunction just nine minutes after takeoff plus. british troops complicit in some sixty unlawful killings during b. iraq war the top un court goes on a mission to find out those details coming along. in

the meantime here on r.t. international when it comes to views away from the mainstream we have plenty of them here on this channel it's often makes us a bit of a target for criticism and now it's one particular satirical show breaking down the israeli palestinian conflict that has provoked a rather strong response the u.n. issued resolution two forty two calling on israel to give back those territories. that are you. just trying to produce similar weight what. you just episode of australian produced program news r t was accused of anti-semitism a jewish rights group the wizened demanded an apology from our network but r.t. management called the allegations baseless and outrageous stressing that we critical views about the policies of many governments around the world. and media analyst danny schechter he says artie's critics are in dire need of finding

a sense of humor. this criticism is. alice it's obviously written by people who don't know anything about satire who've never watched the daily show had never watched comedians and never watch juice news as it takes on them and makes fun of all kinds of politicians it's a ridiculous concern but what's bothersome about it is that it suggests that if you are jewish and you criticise israel somehow you're an sell. a self hating jew this the way to try to silence debate well there's one word that i think everybody who criticizes all watches and media has heard the verse city the worst city is good different voices is good. the u.k.'s armed forces found themselves in hot water this week after it was announced the international criminal court has to look into alleged war crimes by british troops there will be a preliminary examination of sixty suspected cases of unlawful killings during the

iraq war dozens of locals died and over one hundred seventy were allegedly mistreated and while in british military custody between two thousand and three and two thousand and eight london says it's ready to provide the court with all the assistance it needs but it does deny the allegations though the former lieutenant colonel nicholas must say he was the british army's most senior legal officer during the iraq invasion he says he saw the acts of abuse quite clearly with his own eyes as early as march two thousand and three at the wall was just days old and i went into the camp to deal with another issue and looked into an interrogation facility where i saw approximately forty prisoners and in stress positions and the use of generators which in my view was being used liberally well i mean i think if you're a prisoner just freshly captured in you're about to be interrogated and someone's got a generator running outside the interrogation facility and you get

a hold on your head you probably think it's being used to muffle the sound of someone being investigated and whatever's going on in the interrogation facility which said that it was lawful it was part of u.k. doctrine and when i complained that it breached the geneva conventions i was told that i've got the law wrong it's british under international law under the un convention against torture it's pretty dumb to domestic law and thirdly it doesn't work and it is morally degrade. it to and i think we really need to educate people in this particular to make trouble is the british state the way to look. online for you right now time's running out for the u.k. is oil and gas on the web side we've got a report that suggests london will have to rely entirely on it. when it comes to energy in just a matter of years also what r.t. dot com right now. washington has squeezed forty three billion dollars out of energy consumers all for a nuclear waste site that was never even built neither will it be in the future it

seems details that. are now here on the weekly it was on friday that a russian rocket carrying a communications satellite ended in failure just minutes after after lift off luckily no casualties or damage on the ground were reported as the proton m. burned up in the atmosphere now this rocket was carrying a satellite worth twenty eight million dollars so that is a costly mistake cause of the crash is being investigated but the initial data says there was a lack of pressure in one of the engines that controls the steering let's have a look here and see exactly what happened the launch it did start out as planned here the stages of flight where the booster rockets separate off towards the final stage the failure occurred during that third stage and that's when mission control lost track of the rocket but russia's space agency not throwing in the towel just yet he says there will be two more proton launches before the end of this year.

now the wages pusher fost food workers went global on thursday protests demanding better pay you have previously swept across the us of the country that gave birth to the industry's wealthiest giant and the rest of the world was catching up with this week walkouts taking place in more than thirty countries the demands of simple setting the minimum wage to at least match the most modest living standards and the right to form a trade unions without retaliation but judy sherry from the hungry for justice labor movement in the u.k. she says the industry's biggest players simply aren't listen. we have actually backed into mcdonald's and you know explaining our intention you know requesting that the that they engage with the unions in the different countries unfortunately . and i think that i think that they'll try their hardest not to if they want to exploit workers in this way to be able to push their profits and to help them the

paid as well as possible and as low as possible but i think that they have to try to. uphold that at the local station holds them back on these questions and i do think that's something that is possible in the u.k. at the beginning of the new us they've obviously had straight months across the last you know half of that incredible pressure i think are beginning to see trucks and you know the mcdonald's corporation we want to kind of maximize that and continue to push and i will thanks for sharing some of your sunday with us here on our c international. worlds apart but on the next. technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future covered.

we think of why we think there are no. beaches. going to gently swayed in the ocean breeze. and frank why he has a deep dark little secret a secret the u.s. government would like to know. through all right which. i did with the daily sharpshooter to get all we old and new.

there's always this calm surrounding american forefathers and everything they ever rode on governments. contacts any change to the constitution which is what you are suggesting seems to be a kid to blasphemy the way we allow elections to be funded means that we don't have a representative democracy period that's the simplest and most important problem because what it means is there is no fundamental domestic problem at least that americans the american government can address in a sensible way without the influence of money blocking sensible before.

nato accused of fools flag attacks in ukraine coming up. the third force each during you break. copies of george bush's plans for iraq. and mainstream hosts storm out of the studio. killing your own citizens then blaming another nation to start wars called

a false flag attack the most infamous this operation knows these murdered fellow germans and blamed poland to start world war two. nazis trained by nato with the foil snipers juror in the mind and protests to show both sides both the police and their own supporters to help spot the violence that brought the coup d'etat leaked images show ukraine nationalists. being trained to use sniper rifles by nato these false flags rise intelligence also if william and dollar just the latest atrocity in the documented nato operation gladio decades old terror attacks that have killed hundreds throughout europe i'm actually been funded and planned by the white house top level officials in the government and the cia have confirmed what we just heard school commercial king story you can hold by the mainstream gladio is admits it but the cia hate bill colby to be

a major operation operations like the massacre at a low new rail station which killed eighty five people and injured hundreds more you paula months passed a resolution condemning the. demanded the stop and carry out a full investigation of the u.s. simply ignored it evidence shows this us campaign of terror continues today knows the world's leading school on gladio dr daniel f.b.i. whistle blower. a.c.l.u. calls the most gagged person in u.s. history revealed the cia's actually expanded the program internationally on the code named glad to be the same professional snipers as in kiev writes global research news have been found shooting both sides in countries throughout the world that's off the resistance to the u.s. political analyst eric draitser joins us really great to talk to you what's going on behind the state present a work in the service of western intelligence this is quite clear

a likely private contractors private mercenaries who are paid to create this kind of chaos those who probably cut their teeth on the battlefields of afghanistan and in iraq who now are essentially murderers for hire force and anywhere where the united states or its allies deem necessary to create chaos so you mentioned a couple of examples and in in syria a crane in venezuela we should also remember of course tight end in two thousand and ten we saw a very similar situation there in egypt most recently as well this is a standard tactic created cause this life for the united states to have a military presence for decades to come what was main instigates of fools flags no spirits of coming but flashpoint in ukraine look stephen leatherman is the united states u.s. hasn't been threatened with a real attack in hundreds of years writes the author of questioning the war on terror dr kevin barrett the only way it's a false war in its population is through terror into using false flags two hundred

sixty six american sailors were killed on the u.s.s. maine in havana harbor using the slogan to remember them. establishment blamed an enemy mine and colonized cuba put to rico and the philippines hyman rickover laid to reveal that had nothing to do with the enemy explosion came from inside the ship the entire u.s. joint chiefs of staff called for another quote remember the maine incident with operation northwoods classified documents show pentagon plans to blow up a u.s. ship hijacked passenger planes down an airliner from the us full of college students wage a quote terror campaign in miami other cities and washington d.c. the full flag attacks must be quote widely publicized in mainstream media to cause a quote helpful wave of national indignation planned signed off by forces chief.

were blocked at the last minute by a horrified president kennedy it was opposition to out of control militarism james douglas in j.f.k. and the unspeakable the douglas kennedy killed by the intelligence service is just one of the versions for his assassination was most the mind limits that was put in charge of nato where he quotes hoisted the black flag of terror in europe operation gladio knows the book. at the heart of europe kennedy's removal left the post clear for success the lyndon baines johnson to return false flags to sense a stage within less than they get l.b.j. fabricated the attack that plunged the u.s. into the vietnam stuff the president made up a non-existent strike on u.s. ships in the gulf of tonkin and said quote toys floating in the the law i go to congress into also rising killing more than three million vietnamese and fifty

eight thousand u.s. servicemen president bush jr told british prime minister blair that if he couldn't get un approval to bomb iraq it paint a us jet into an. karla's and tried to get it shot down over iraq to justify invasions in a bizarre power low life news this week filmed kiev now using these helicopters with un insignia against civilians in eastern ukraine these are just the full flags that are on the record and officially documented somewhere reprinted in sixty three documents the government doesn't want you to read written by vietnam vets and former minnesota governor jesse ventura on the few occasions mainstream media lit him speak. this day and even the studio in fury at the suggestion that government could ever do anything like that. jesse will come back here every weekend. starts with a false flag operation count in all seriousness and try and make anybody going to

show you their spiritual way but if you would deny an eleven report and you think it's a piece of fiction no i believe everything in it. i believe that my government's never lied to me have they let's see where should we start the gulf of tonkin incident i remember our president shipping out in t.v. telling us our boys are floating in the water that you know that i believe in. never believe a lie all the time i have you been in government no i have the right so that foresight know why you never fell back and watch a football you know yeah i guess he's leaving for the public's a fool for a full fledged mainstream media laws must be coordinated and complete when the wind tells lloyd that syria's government did the damascus chemical attack the entire time mainstream media swallowed it whole without asking full a shred of evidence. last month us intel

admitted actually nato members turkey had full fledged the attack which killed some one thousand four hundred civilians to justify invasion not a single mainstream outlet reports that it's turkey's leaders and you tube last month of the leaked all of them planning another false flag to invade syria reportedly eggs on by john kerry turkey's premier confirmed the authenticity of the tape. i will send four men from syria make up a connoisseur of war and by ordering them to some attack on turkey many times kerry has said to me to keep it you make the decision to strike mainstreamed as one coordinated home of the cooks were just innocently quote discussing military strategy rather than the appalling truth that he's planning a terrorist false flag on their own land as an excuse to invade syria apparently

encouraged to commit the supremum international crime but the united states states in itself us backed jihadi admits they're also taught false flags to destroy mosques and blame syria's government was a regional. tasked with the destruction of mosques you destroy the mosques so they can put the blame on the army and. if a mosque is not destroyed we desecrated the massacre of this month's reports council punch as the signs of a classic us fourth flag surely off the dozens of cia spooks with discovered instructing kids how to act in east ukraine procacci of thugs was sent to the city of abyss with these red bands but the bloodshed was spoke by this roof top shoot saw in a red and flaying his own soil had to be provoked the thugs went on to torch dozens of civilians lots of blame for the shooting james cole but over the colbert report

joins us really good to see you why does the us establishment behave like this it's important to understand the establishment as a collection of psychopathic individuals and that's not meant as some sort of metaphor that's meant as almost a medical diagnosis there are there is a percentage of the population it's disputed by medical experts but somewhere between three and four percent is generally the figure cited of people who have been at medical condition where they are absolutely unable to feel the natural human empathy that we feel for one another and compassion that we feel for people in situations that are underprivileged or what have you people who are in positions of pain or suffering there is a percentage of the population that has absolutely none of those feelings and these tend to be the people who rise in positions of power in prominence in power structures that themselves are designed specifically to inflict pain and suffering on others so it is not a big stretch to imagine how psychopathic individuals advance in military or

intelligence functions tanks and armored vehicles have now moved in to shoot more civilians james covert knows these incredible atrocities seem intentional to justify nato military intervention. right on cue this week a of. international military help in eastern ukraine will go over question in the war on terror the joins us really great to see you one of the conclusions from north to operation gladio today we're learning more and more about how psychopath that so many of our leaders are and have their own stories about lyndon johnson that i can't repeat on international media because there are so disgusting stories about the bush family involving the worst most despicable kinds of crime. it's become supremely obvious that a lot of the western leadership is deeply corrupt and i think that has a terrible effect on the larger society because it's natural for people to imitate

those above them in the social hierarchy so we i think need to rethink the process that we are using to put people into leadership positions military leadership intelligence leadership political leadership and we need to think about coming up with a way to maybe administer psychopathy tests to people who are aspiring leaders or otherwise vet people to try to make sure that people in the top positions have some kind of conscience because if they don't i'm afraid things are going to just spiral out of control whole societies will become so corrupt that they will fall apart and civilization itself will be threat to our nose fulls legs only work when the public's on aware of them washington's blog ripples that interest in full flags has gone through the roof and interests now highest in the u.s.

audiences for a mainstream pumping fulls flag laws are in for a full channels like m s n b c shithole if they view a ship. losing another quarter just in the first three months of twenty faulting nato only. does the known knowns of must move that their own civilians in full fledged operations like to go reported leave the operation continues today how many more freak timbs will there be before the public finds out seek truth from facts this is the truth we go. to fuel over a billion people russia and china ready join our tea in shanghai for the deal of

the century. to try to. people are going to make news for you. if you're preaching every minute. let me. know what. my. life. leads me. sometimes from nothing. is so you. just standing still be shocked if you see the stage. to be.

was. the thing. as russian the west slowly. in away from each other the term pivot to asia takes on greater meaning and essentially it is all about china and its continued rise on the global stage this all translates into a multi-polar world that challenges washington's doctrine of full spectrum dominance. drama. stories others refuse to. face is changing the world. picture. from around the globe.

to. the latest news on the week's top stories on international police cracking down on protesters . as public fury intensifies over the government's response to a blog that killed more than three hundred. people express governments. calling for efforts to stop nazis thriving and to keep. up america's army chief warns that the syrian rebels are not fit to. push for regime change in damascus.