the police were telling me that the peach fires that here have gone ten meters underground are still burning there for those people that have lost their homes and in vast amount of cases all of their belongings and everything bloody may have put in the prime minister has pledged one hundred thousand dollars to each of those people who tonight who had died who had that happen to them and they are expecting to see that money next week now also this being a lot of shelters temperature that is need to be sent up for people who have lost their homes they've also lost many of them a lot of their belongings and this being aid put forward to make sure that people have clothes water the basic needs of life for those that have suffered at this judas tragedy president midgette if is also praised the response of the the new quarter of a million people in russia who have been trying to put these fires out but not only here in russia he's also saying to the international community russia's neighbors have also chipped in with with help to try and tackle these places across the country. of course with thankful for all the aid our partners have both food we

appreciate this especially taking into account which of course situation we currently in. the smoke which coming off the east of these fires is causing a lot of problems you have to see behind me it's very very thick it makes breathing incredibly difficult and it's very very saw on your eyes but this is the winds around in the moscow region blowing the smoke further up to the note to the north from where i am about one hundred kilometers south of the city that blowing it north into moscow itself and causing terrible problems with smoke there from on that we can now hear across to natalia novikov who's in the center of the city there have been quite used giong flows i went storming through moscow today and everyone hoped that they would bring rain but they only brought more smoke from outside the city now the nights are the worst by about meat day part of the smoke over moscow disowns but the more in the mornings. the visibility in the cities

a very close to zero but this problem is of course twofold first of all is the fresh air right now air in moscow is very heavy it's very and the smoke is so thick that sometimes it actually burns your eyes and ecologists are saying that they a level of air pollution in moscow right now is seven the times of its usual figure and also doctors are saying if you take a walk around moscow for just a couple of hours it will be equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes some people prefer to wear masks to protect themselves from this poisonous small there's also problems with buying ery conditioners in the city because there's a huge shortage of them and if you can buy one then you will probably be the double or even the triple amount of money for it because some people who sell them is simply trying to make money on other people's misery and doctors are recommending to stay inside stay indoors to spend as little time as possible outside especially close to those blazes so the other side of this problem is that those who are

staying inside and trying to breathe fresh air for air conditioning so that the key in the number of cases that are called must go it's have been prayed praying for a heavy rain to fall down on the city but we've been promised so far only short rains in some parts of it have seen naan so far however the weather forecast saying that the temperature in most who is going to increase even the further and reach a point of over forty degrees so if you are in moscow right now here it feels like you've been put into a novel where salmond has just burned a pizza. or two isn't that in the over there in the center of the russian capital and peter all over reporting from moscow reach him. now in twenty minutes time our financial analysts draw parallels between russia soaring temperatures and bombs watch the cars a report that turns up the heat on business. story offers a direct link between temperatures and the bond market so russia's drought raises

bondholder risk on prices so russia last week had the highest temperatures ever recorded in the hundred thirty years of record keeping in russia and the temperatures soared to thirty seven point four degrees celsius which is ninety nine degrees fahrenheit right well this is remarkable because it very succinctly paints the connection between the ecology and the economy in both cases liquidity is drying up liquidity is drying up due to global warming causing incredible stress on the ecology and liquidity is drying up in the global economy causing this credit crunch. well the wildfires raging across russia are making headlines around the world and the handling of disaster is a prime concern for the country's leaders but that pressing issue was not on the minds of journalists when allowed to quiz to meet the missourians if they were more

interested in what will happen in the president all lections in twenty twelfth since blonsky has more. even though sochi is a nice place for spending summer vacations as you can see there is a small here like in the russian capital and luckily there are no four is twenty years but it seems that for president medvedev it's more of a war trip apart from reading books from i pad planning fishing trips and doing yoga exercises he's keeping you busy as usual he's holding a series of meetings here visiting olympic venues and he's made several important political announcements to many of the debate of his words came as a surprise when he's shared with journalists his thoughts on the upcoming presidential election in two. thousand and twelve although he said he wouldn't like to see a clash between powerful figures with similar aims he said he doesn't know who will run here's the quote it may be may divert if it may be putin it may be somebody else unquote commenting on his relations with putin medvedev said that on one hand

nothing's changed between them but on the other hand there are serious changes he added that the presidency transformed him and the now these relations evolved into the relations of the current president with the former president unquote know both need to be made very different what the near putin are expected to work and spend their holidays here in sochi throughout august and it's possible they may even go fishing together of course if forest fires and central russia should be contained in the coming weeks but in any case we may expect some new developments when it comes to politics and the upcoming election and we will certainly keep you updated . well political analyst for rian news agency to me bob which says madrid is comments about the presidential election comes as no surprise. most of political experts believe there. gentlemen very difficult to face serious competition from the pack of politicians that we have now in russia they will have pretty

limited collector it's basically. just repeated what the legislation said about presidential election so it was a nice way to avoid it given a direct response but it's a slight change from what we have been hearing during the last two years because in the last two years was putin and medvedev were basically mostly talking about themselves with the person that are not important here indeed they are not important what is important is to have a predictable president sound one who would not buy into nice wards that we hear from the west or from the east and who would be realistic about that i must tell you without almost all russian politicians now are very realistic sometimes they are too realistic. now israeli arabs have long said they were treated as second class citizens in their own country but now civil rights groups claim the current government of the jewish state is increasingly passing racist was they say new legislation doesn't just discriminate against palestinians but all minorities

within the country. they're just back from two in the states with a protest music found sympathetic ears among jews and arabs they go by the name of dan or blood and they're the first arab israeli hip hop group to rap in arabic hebrew and english their lyrics are bold and demand better treatment for arab israelis who they say are treated as second class citizens of money saying. he won a victory out of the for the loud and people elected them so it's not the government . but i mean this is the face of the people like what started first i don't know but this is the situation says like the elected gangsters and civil rights groups agree they say it's official the current israeli government is the most racist in israel's history. studied them and so two hundred ninety six instances of all races are not just against arabs there's also

a significant rise in racism against other ethnic groups russians if you. believe that israel is a racist country continues its bills disaster for the state of israel already at least twenty one bills that arab citizens insist just communicate against them have been passed the most recent prospective citizens now have to swear allegiance to a jewish and democratic state but changing the whole discourse in israel now into one in which the assumption is that palestinians are not loyal they have should have no rights they have to prove their loyalty and so this is very much part of that whole so same kind of move the first victims of this the. legislative drive will be the palestinian parliament members means you are because one of them she's one of fourteen i would want to maintain members out of one hundred twenty she says it's a daily struggle for arabs to be treated equally even the most liberal israeli parties often struggle to support them the first priority is to keep their position in the

coalition government is that this is the hope. is this will give us this government has the vision not just some pieces of the c.t.'s that this shit but also has vision peace with its own citizens but in its defense the same israeli cabinet approved the largest economic development plan for arabs this industrial park is the brainchild of stephan vet a jewish israeli millionaire who's joined hands with sharkey continued the former mayor of the largest arab city in israel nazareth but at the moment the arabs are not participating in industry in israel stayed in the professions we want to bring arabs into the circle of industry and my vision is that five years from now there will be twenty to twenty five production factories here but that vision is being tested because of the parliamentarians still need to vote on the proposed amendments to the citizenship law another ball that has already been passed

includes threatening to cut off funding to institutions that support the palestinian version of the one nine hundred forty eight war and the other ball criminalizes and denying israel's right to be called a jewish state which is why they'll be no shortage of lyrics any time soon and the music will wrap party policy r t israel. taliban insurgents have attacked nato largest base in southern afghanistan however officials say the facilities defenses one priest on the ground assault u.s. and british forces have cleared several taliban strongholds in the south and center of the country over the last few days but russian m p s. saraa says the u.s. is fight against the taliban and the search for their most wanted man osama bin ladin is only a means to justify their presence in the country. he's a person who knows a lot of closely work together with the cia with saudi arabian intelligence because

he was acquainted with saudi arabian intelligence that he has great knowledge of many contacts pakistan into agency intelligence closely works with the u.s. intelligence he might be so that somebody is interested in his presence in a certain place americans say that they fight against al qaida in pakistan and afghanistan but the u.n. reports in afghanistan there are less than three hundred al qaeda members in comparison with one hundred fifty four thousand u.s. personnel and according to our information they are no more than one hundred people perhaps even less you understand what this means when there are one hundred three hundred terrorists against one hundred fifty four thousand all making sure the symbol should remain otherwise there is a question and they doing that it's ok you know. you can watch that full interview next hour here on r.t. at eight thirty pm moscow time for u.s.

combat troops are withdrawing from iraq as promised but fifty thousand will stay on to help the iraqi forces president obama confirmed america will stick to its deadline of the end of this month but that the sacrifice is not over yet well jamie stands a low of right around mideast politics and security says obama's promises overshadowed by fresh violence in iraq. will hand over to a more combat support than a combat role in the coming months and technically leave the country entirely by the end of next year what's interesting i think is that obama has always distance himself from the iraq war joe biden his vice president is going to iraq in recent months i think he's using this remind that he's the president. to take u.s. troops out of iraq to continue the same amount of support for his war in afghanistan where the u.s. experienced the biggest loss of the war so far it's a sort of irony that barack obama decides to make this announcement as iraq last month in jordan its worst month of violence for the past two years over five

hundred people killed in shootings and bombings across the country so one thing you have in the rock is certainty of uncertainty and i feel that both in terms of the government's ability to make policy and its ability to secure its own people are both significantly compromised and gravely ill children in russia's regions like the chechen republic have been thrown a lifeline after local facilities were upgraded previously receiving treatment for serious conditions such as a kid being disease meant travelling to moscow something many families can't afford now that new equipment means why don't medical care is within reach it's been a year since he adopted a baby girl died but ladies are still mourning she's always looking at the pictures of her girl when she was in hospital the only memory she has now she was more than a child she was an angel we think about her all the time my mom still crying. it's certainly hard to forget such

a child seven months old marshall was brought to this hospital with acute kidney failure doctors did their best to save the girl but without the special equipment to purify the plant there was no hope it was a shame to see a child who couldn't help muslim has been working at the hospital for three years during that time ten children have died from acute kidney disease. this new equipment was installed four months ago the doctors say it will support due suffering from renal failure until the moment they'll be able to find a donor kidney their last patient was treated here for two months before going to moscow for transplant. i don't think it matters that these machines are not being used right now what really matters is that they're ready to accept patients and help them at least a little bit. the children's hospital in the center of the chechen capital has

eleven departments which makes it one of the biggest in the north caucuses people from all over the region come here for medical care but the center for the treatment of kidney problems makes it special children are both kids that had a kidney problem and in the process their only child. that's providing their relatives had enough money but the russian government the sermon they should the centralized specially care unit is on their doorstep. there's a bar scene in grozny. but they look now at other news from around the world at least three lebanese soldiers have been shot dead in an exchange of fire with israeli soldiers along the border a lebanese journalist was also killed in the clash shortly after the incident and israeli tank wired to shell which hit a house in a border village it's not clear if there were any council tease the rare clash occurred in a relatively peaceful area as israeli troops tried to remove

a tree from the lebanese side of the border. in pakistan floodwaters have surged into the country's heartland after devastating the mountainous northwest monsoon rain threatened to overwhelm a major dam on the outskirts of peshawar residents have been told to leave the area the floods have claimed at least fifteen hundred mines and one hundred thousand people are now it with. thousands of protesters in indian administered kashmir have ignored police mornings they would be shot if they continued to defy around the clock curfew as a result two people have been killed and one wounded in tuesday's demonstrations against indian rule news of the casualties brought more activists out onto the streets pelting police vehicles and officers with block over forty people have died in weeks on rats. and some in blockaded gaza are getting their hands on. brand new cars smuggled from egypt via tunnels israel recently eased its three years sees of

the territory and has lifted the ban on imported vehicles but they still can't legally cross into gaza because of internal palestinian politics rival factions hamas and fatah can't agree on who should control the business. that's all the news we have for you this hour charlotte joins us with the business news. hello and welcome to the business program here on aussie first this is good news for the ruble is enjoying a strong rally against the dollar the russian currency has now firmed below the psychological benchmark of thirty to the dollar a key driver for the variable of the russian market as a whole is the oil price crude is approaching a three month high at almost eighty two dollars a barrel analysts credit the rally on renewed optimism about the strength of the recovery relatively strong corporate results in the us and europe along with the

threat of hurricanes in the gulf of mexico. i spoke to dave and a senior director at plants a leading information provider in the energy sector wellston how much the oil market was being driven by short term fact. what's been going on here in oil is very much driven by one of the points you mentioned in the intro there which is the hurricane season in the u.s. a lot of the traders that i've been talking to particularly some of the banks that are trading oil rather aggressively right now tell me that there are many of their weather experts are predicting a pretty nasty hurricane season and you know we're really only into the earliest part of that right now so while i know a lot of attention is being paid to the stock markets and and the strength of the dollar i think oil traders are fixated on this hurricane season and i think the momentum here is really being driven principally by that and how psychologically important is breaking this benchmark for investors. well this is a really important number to get past you mention is a three month high but i think the eighty dollars figure is more important because

psychologically it represents a major milestone or a major hurdle it's been a look at it really back towards the one hundred level which is really at the back of everybody's mind that i think anybody is talking seriously one hundred right now but it's a big number and you know i think you know it certainly draws attention first of foremost and squarely to opec you know kuwait's oil minister was in moscow this week having some discussions with the russian oil minister and really what came out front and center discussion was that he was concerned about the compliance of opec's members with their production quotas in this by price environment you mentioned it's down to fifty fifty five percent whereas opec would rather it was around seventy five to eighty five percent now it's important for investors that it's a baby but the question that we're asking is how long can opec be disciplined in this high price environment traditionally they start to problem more. and as we heard there from dave and spec at the q eighty oil minister is in town and exclusive to the channel will be hearing from a shake up to al sabah about his full cost of the oil price and about an offer of

partnership between russia's the t.v. bank and the kingdom of kuwait that's on thursday on business. you know the news wheat prices remain near their twenty two month highs as russia's drought continues to devastate the crops prices soared by a fifth last week alone affecting global exports but the head of the russian grain needy and says prices are unjustified. from only four fundamental factors do not support current grain prices last week we reached two hundred forty dollars per ton but this price is quite groundless according to the latest forecast of the global grain council green reserves will reach one hundred ninety two million tons this year compared to last year's record volume of one hundred ninety seven million tonnes is that really such a big difference if the decrease is just five million tonnes but the average price has jumped from one hundred eighty dollars to two hundred forty so it's. time now see how the markets are from the day and it was the day of last of the last go both

the horses finished the session in the red order neurosurgical among the main loses down almost to defend that was after a report showed us home sales unexpectedly in june and concerned about china maintaining curbs on lending dumping the appeal of commodities which uses. the russian government says it won't purchase new nickel to settle is shareholder dispute billionaire only a dark past his bidding to buy out rival vladimir for turn in accusing him of bad management of the firm who turned in on monday appointed an ally as president suggesting he's going nowhere a spokesman for president of a div says he won't step in but does want a third party to buy the world's top nickel miner and the crisis. chinese car maker g.b. have completed its purchase of sweden's volvo from ford the deal which was announced earlier this year is estimated to be worth one point eight billion dollars the new owners current design a new range of premium car models to rival those of b.m.w.

mercedes benz. unemployment in russia dropped twenty one percent in the first five months of this year compared with the same period in two thousand and nine the countries to stick spiro will start says the jobless drop means the country has now reached pre-crisis levels. and for. finally i phone maker apple is the world's most valuable brand according to a report by forbes magazine the firm's trademark is worth one a trillion dollars beating a rival microsoft into second place a third of the list of fifty a tech businesses with i.b.m. and google putting out the top five no russian companies got on the list brian of my own just say domestic companies still have a lot to learn that your update for now we can always buy more stories on our website r.t. dot com slash business. this

. is. a vote for bush. he always adds by one vote for kerry for kerry so the people that are going to be validating this machine can stand there all day long and vote for somebody and it will be right every time but the guy can walk up here and if he hits the right buttons. he can flip the boat that he didn't. see.

the motion would be so much brighter if you knew about sun move from dulles to the pressure. starts on t. dot com.

the guys are reporters on the way here in our team but first a look at today's top stories up in smoke a military air base in the moscow region falls victim to deadly wildfires raging in central russia triggered by the intense heat wave. jewish homeland

israel's government stands accused of blatant racism and passing increasingly discriminatory walls. and throwing a lifeline the russian government's much needed drive to update tenseness medical facilities to help the seriously ill since kevin know and will have much more mobile stories at the top of the hour up next financial experts max max kaiser rather and stacy herbert delve into box office manipulation in china and wonder where nine billion dollars missing in iraq have to that's in the kaiser report. keyser and this is of course the kaiser report markets finance and scandals and the collapse of the global economy we've been reporting on it now for

a number of months as the global deflationary spiral takes its toll stacy herbert what else have you got max there is a story we've been following for quite a while and that is box office futures now you alleged that the reason why they shouldn't happen is that one of the reasons is that producers and studios could manipulate box office results well in my headline from china fang gang shoots down rumors of false box office for aftershock this is the translation from the chinese have been you're seeing there despite the film's critical and commercial success there have been rumors that the record breaking box office numbers have been exaggerated so the director has gone on his microblogging site at ciena dot com and he's saying that this is false this is not the case and he's accusing people of trying to start rumors since they favored avatar.