it's still very very hot a pro apparently the police were telling me that the peach fires that are here of gone ten meters underground are still burning that well for those people that have lost their homes and and vast amount of cases all of their belongings and everything blood in me uprooting the prime minister has pledged one hundred thousand dollars to each of those people who tonight who had that who had that happen to them and they're expecting to see that money next week now also there's been a lot of shelters temperature that is need to be set up for people who have lost their homes they've also lost so many of them a loss 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 they say to this tragedy president made yet if is also praised the 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 thanked the international community of russia's neighbors have also chipped in with help from 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 because 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 sore on your eyes but this day 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 nautica who's in the center of the city there have been quite used giong flows i went storming through moscow today and everyone held 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 most. oh

dissolves 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 erin moscow is very heavy it's and the smoke is so thick that sometimes it actually burns your eyes and ecologists are saying that their own 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 mosco 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 places 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 of cold moscow is have been frayed 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 noun so far however the weather forecast saying that the temperature you must do is going to increase even the further and reach points of over forty degrees so if you are in moscow right now here it feels like you've been put into a novel where soundman has just burned a pizza. putting it alters the totem overcover there in the center of the russian capital but earlier is what we had from peter all of our reporting from the moscow region. well those wildfires raging across russia are making headlines around the world and the handling of the disaster is a prime concern for the country's leaders but that pressing issue was not on the minds of. dmitri medvedev they're more interested in what's going to happen in the

presidential elections in two thousand and twelve artie's dennis polonsky has that story today. even though sochi is a nice place for spending summer vacations as you can see there is no small here like in the russian capital and luckily there are no forest fires but it seems that for president medvedev it's more of a work trip apart from reading books from i pads planning fishing trips and doing yoga exercises his keeping himself busy as usual he's holding a series of meetings here visiting a limping venue's and he's made several important political announcements to many admitted 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 new who will run here's the quote it may be may divert if it may be putin it may be somebody else and 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 now these relations evolved into the relations of the current president with the former president unquote now both very different what the mayor putin are expected to work and spend their holidays here in sochi throughout august also the even go fishing together course if forest fires in central russia should be contained in the coming weeks but in any case we may expect some new developments when it comes to politics in the upcoming election and we will certainly keep you updated. comments about the presidential election no surprise. most of political experts believe. gentlemen video called for a serious competition from the pericope politicians that we have now in russia will have pretty limited electorates basically very often just repeated what the

legislation said about presidential elections so it was a nice way to avoid 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 your 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 know of various examples there are two released. israeli arabs have long 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 laws the signal legislation doesn't just discriminate against palestinians but all minorities within the country.

they're just back from touring the states with a protest music found sympathy is among jews and arabs they go by the name of dan blood and they're the first i would be hip hop group to rap in arabic and english the lyrics are bold and demand better treatment for arab israelis who they say are treated as second class citizens lieberman is saying. he won a victory out of them for their loud and people elected him 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 and seems like the elected gangsters and civil rights groups agree they say it's a. the current israeli government is the most racist in israel's history. studied them 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. it's because disaster for the state of israel already at least twenty one bulls that arab citizens against a school just combinator against them have been past the most recent perspective 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 this legislative drive will be the palestinian parliament members who are because one of them she's one of fourteen our parliamentary 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 how. weak this will be in

the us this government has no vision not just for pieces of the speaking as the dish it but also vision of 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 has joined hands with sharkey khatib the former mayor of the largest arab city in israel nazareth but the moment the arabs are not participating in industry in israel they have stayed in the professions we want to bring arabs into the circle of industry and my vision is. five years from now there will be twenty to twenty five production factories here but that vision is being tested because although parliamentarians still need to vote on the proposed amendments to the citizenship law another bill that has already been passed includes threatening to cut off funding to institutions that support the

palestinian version of the nine hundred forty eight war and that the ball criminalizes and denying israel's right to be called a jewish state which is why they'll be no shortage of lyrics anytime soon and the music. policy on our t.v. israel. taliban suicide bombers and try to storm nato is largest base in southern afghanistan however officials say the facilities defenses were breached before the ground assault and serving two rockets into the airfield injuring two civilians and one soldier u.s. and british forces have cleared several taliban strongholds in the south and center of the country over the past few days but russian member of parliament. says that the u.s. is fighting against the taliban and the search for osama bin laden is only a means to justify their presence in the country. has been largely he's a person who knows a lot closely work together with the cia with saudi arabian intelligence he was

acquainted with the head of saudi arabian intelligence that cetera 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 qaeda 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 the one hundred fifty four thousand of the symbol should remain otherwise there is a question what are they doing. and if you catch more than just a reminder you can see the full interview in about twenty minutes time here on r.t. tonight. u.s.

combat troops are withdrawing from iraq as promised but fifty thousand will stay on to help 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 james did solo is right wrong mideast politics and security he told us that obama's promises overshadowed by fresh violence in iraq will hand over to a more of a combat support than a combat role in the coming months and should 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 has been the emissary 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 tinney the same amount of support for his war in afghanistan where last month the u.s. experienced the biggest loss of the war so far it's a sort of irony that barack obama decided to make this announcement as iraq last month enjoy 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. 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 both significantly compromised. more the day's news u.s. computer programmer claims that he was asked to create a vote rigging software for the electronic ballot machines before the country's disputed elections in the year two thousand we've got a special report coming up on that next hour here on r t is a quick taste of what's in store. for bush for the bush always by one vote for kerry but 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 vote there isn't.

gray real children russia's regions like the chechen republic have been thrown a lifeline after local facilities are upgraded previously receiving treatment for serious conditions such as kidney disease and travelling to moscow something that many families just couldn't afford now though new equipment means vital medical care is within reach it's been a year since he adopted a baby girl diet but lady sick is still mourning she's always looking at the pictures of her girl when she was in hospital the only men russia has now she was more than a child she was an angel we think about all the time my mom is still crying . little certainly hard to forget such a challenge seven months old marshall was brought to this hospital with acute kidney failure the 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 mostly 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 to dock to see it will support due suffering from green or failure until the moment they'll be able to find a donor kidney the last patient was treated here for two months before going to more school for a transplant and there was i don't think it matters that these machines are not being used right now what really matters is that they really do 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 caucasus 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 born here if they had

a kidney problem and in the past their challenge for treatment was probably to go to moscow that's providing their relatives had enough money but the russian government determination to decentralize specially here this unit is on their doorstep. a very bizarre scene in grozny. and we bring it to world news a brief tonight protesters in poland have saved the temporary crossed of the late president from the move from outside warsaw's presidential palace the wooden cross was placed there after this small and plane crash that killed lech kaczynski and ninety five others present a leg. doesn't want a religious symbol outside a government building officials venture relented saying they didn't want the cross to be part of a political game. but these two lebanese soldiers and. israeli army officer been shot dead in an exchange of fire along the border a lebanese journalist was also killed in the clash which happened in a relatively peaceful area shortly after an israeli tank fired a shell which posts across the divide it's not yet clear of the casualties from

that incident the violence is apparently was apparently spot when israeli soldiers attempted to root a tree along the border to aid their line of sight. but a surge of violence in baghdad as a series of blasts ripped through parts of the city suspected al qaeda militants killed five of our soldiers and check on the web and in a separate incident a roadside bomb targeting an army patrol machine artistical side of the city killed one soldier wounded seven people three of them civilians and also in the capital's eastern guarded this traffic policeman was killed when a bomb attached his motorbike. to pakistan there those floodwaters have surged into the country's heartland now after devastating the mountains northwest monsoon rains threaten to overwhelm a major dam on the outskirts of push our residents have been told to leave the area the floods have claimed at least fifteen hundred lives and one hundred thousand people have been put at risk of disease. here's twenty four seven of course

a lot of our home page as well r.t. dot com now about the president ten minutes time we'll be hearing about russia's diplomatic efforts to tackle major global issues that's the business tonight with. 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 is now below the psychological benchmark of 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 spec 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 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 that represents a major milestone or a major hurdle it's been a look at a 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 ok its members with their production quotas in this by price environment the mission is 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 ask 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 lushes the bank and the kingdom of kuwait that's on thursday on business. you know the news week 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 green prices last week we reached two hundred forty dollars per tonne 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 tons 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 to see how the markets are from the day and it was a day of loss the very last day both the bosses 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 commodity producers. the russian government says it won't purchase new nickel to settle its shareholder dispute billionaire ali a dire pascoe's bidding to buy out rivals ready made 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. has completed its purchase and 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 country's statistics bureau will start says the jobless drop means the country has no reach pre-crisis levels. and. 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 just say domestic companies still have a lot to learn. that update for now b. can always buy more stories on our website r.t. dot com slash business.

this is r t the global broadcaster from moscow it's now half past eight at night this tuesday could only with this these are all top stories up in smoke a military air base in the moscow region fall victim to deadly wildfires raging in central russia triggered by the intense heat wave. also jewish

homeland israel's government stands accused of blatant racism and passing discriminatory laws. throwing a lifeline the russian government's much needed drive to update chechnya's medical facilities to help the seriously ill in the caucasus. next increasing sanctions against iran could be dangerous for the rest of the world that is the warning of russian n.p.c. back to set off who believes it's also important to keep dialogue open between tehran and the west he spoke to our about this and other causes for concern around the globe right now. thank you very much simone for your time but again good day thanks for inviting me the you and your ass adopted new sat so sanctions targeting iran's foreign trained banks and insurance companies and an interceptor is russia has expressed its

stronger position what moved a good thing. could satisfy russia give the firstly to support the list of sanctions approved by the un and secondly for iran to have a more transparent nuclear program of course russia definitely doesn't want to wrong to have a nuclear weapons objective lee there isn't enough transparency in many aspects on their part of this was one of the reasons that russia supported u.n. sanctions but they expanded the sanctions prohibiting so why is it fuels and lubricants to iran i believe it was a wrong move in relation to our country we've been worried about recent talks on possible attacks on iran or a war with iran before because this is a serious problem we can't ignore the fact that they're trying to destabilize the situation not only by economic sanctions if you go but by ethical means as well if you're in iran is a multiethnic seventy million people country destabilization attempt is rather dangerous.