border's a retired firefighter daniel coleus saw the reports of the florist blazes raging in russia and felt compelled to offer his help so he wrote to prime minister putin. i want to offer to volunteer to assist in firefighting operations and you win the russian federation vailable and request as a personal offer to your country with that in mind daniel prepares for action he says he's ready to go to the airport the moment he receives word his help is welcome. retired from the oil shortage. here are still feel that has helped people rush hour in particular because of the problems they've got the moment with the walls oil people from all around the world are offering to join the fight against the force of nature volunteers from bellerive spoke area and france are among more than one hundred sixty thousand people now estimated to be battling the blazes daniel started his career in rural fire fighting and says that's

prepared him well for tackling the type of blazes sweeping through russia. career often going to shouldn't he sorry farmer wish. a lot of domestic oil a lot of oil is in rural areas including foreign military rangers and in terms of the foreigners are occurring in russia a moment in the world. we would spend money here or we you know some of times and hope some of to do with exactly the same type of four of the one the way that we would have dealt with it in those days was to do it for a break and of words dig a trench down below the pay to stop we have to pay for spreading underneath the ground even though daniel retired two years ago he says in his mind he's still on the front line no matter where you are in the world for far it's a sign they're there to help save lawyers for. the ship and rush

rush point to stall the person. you simply. and then allow the people the. paramedics the four forces to to come in and do their job daniel clearly is packed and ready to go the only thing stopping him flying to russia is red tape colia says if russia temporarily suspended the visa regime for emergency workers he and hundreds like him would floods to russia to quash the flames were abbott's essex. now the worst drought in fifty years in russia has forced the government to introduce an export ban on wheat the agriculture ministry says this year's harvest is up to sixty five million tonnes just enough to meet domestic needs both already you say it could be october before russia's stance exporting again after the harvest figures are in with russia and the world's third largest wheat exporter last year global prices for the grain it went up after the

announcement now to discuss the ban i'm joined by apple reza secretary of the intergovernmental group on grains for the food and agriculture organization of the united nations. so mr ambassador in what other ways can the russian government tackle the grain shortage in your in your view here. well it might i must say that at the beginning it wasn't that clear there would be a green shortage i sincerely hope it is still not a case where we will have a green shortage but there is certainly a very severe situation in terms of supply and the drought has been extremely severe and the production shortfalls are far more far more dissipated as early as three weeks ago therefore it is understandable that the restrictions are. on exports is a one way to domestic food inflation especially the price of bread wheat mostly is used for and i think this is what the government at the end decided to do i am not

sure that there were many other options perhaps they could have also considered taxing exports or perhaps do we get in you know in gradual terms but you know in situations like this as the as they are you know governments tend to go for the more secure of the measures which is the total ban now the united nations at the moment is calling for millions of dollars of aid for pakistan hit by terrible floods couldn't the un or other world or couldn't they come and help to increase the wheat stocks. well you know we the stocks is not something we just increase stocks. there and in fact as we've been saying there had been a very extraordinary action to the banning of russia and the prices. rose very sharply. they have calmed down a little bit the market is actually taking into consideration amount of inventors that are available in other countries in particular in north america so that even invents results and we believe globally this year's global supply and demand

for wheat although a bit tighter than we had anticipated it still is very much manageable and we can even take care of the disastrous emergencies currently under currently in pakistan so the inventors are not i mean russia is drawing down an inventor is it will be some more here and but in general terms we are in much better situation than for example in two thousand and seven and eighty beach if you recall we had a global food crisis that's right in two thousand and six zero seven and zero eight as well i know that there were bans on exporting rice from example indonesia but there have been cases where major crop producers have had a ban on exports because of domestic problems now russia is now in the grip of a severe drought and wildfires don't you think that russia should protect its own interests first. well that is what the in fact they have done the experience shows however that when you have a band like in fact we had in two thousand and seven and eight and also russia in the previous if you saw the restrictions on sales in two thousand i can't remember

exactly thing it was about two thousand a. fear that a lot of grain was living in russia and going to nearby places like e.u. where prices were much higher so this is this issue that you know when you have a situation like prices doubling which is what happened in russia i mean you know it makes the mix the solutions very difficult and i think that the the russian solution given the situation not just with the grains but also be defiant and all the uncertainty surrounding it really left the government of doubt much of the choice and it is understandable however one has to also look at the past experiences with the restrictions often they result in short term solutions for the country but in the long run it can cost the country also the early and i'm afraid that this may be the case also for russia especially in the export market where in the last few years russia actually had managed to expand market share in quite important markets and some of those markets today would have to look elsewhere for their supplies and this could really be a quite a loss for a lot of traders and

a lot of russia trade in the future now this ban here in russia is short time as your thirty's here is they they might live to possibly as soon as october with china india and the u.s. being the world's top wheat exporters surely they'll still be enough for everybody . yes and in fact this is exactly our view that when markets reacted so suddenly obviously and prices just went up almost sixty percent in the world market in the last few weeks one hundred percent in russia this was all the reaction also in all of you for that very reason that places like the e.u. like us even canada in spite of a decline expected decline in this is production later in australia and to some extent also argentina these are countries which can make up for that shortfall body increasing exports so globally v.o.r. in a more secure situation the point i was trying to make is really a point for russia i think that is where we really need to focus and i'm sure russian authorities are focusing in that you know you have important markets let's

say age of for example we're now sixty percent of the wheat comes from russia is a market that in the past was almost entirely from the u.s. and from european union and today you get sixty percent of his wheat from russia now if you cannot actually get this week it will look elsewhere and this would mean that in the future years also countries will think twice when they want to actually make a purchase from russia and this is something that haunts the countries which come in be the band it was also the issue in two thousand and seven and they'd been a number of countries for rice and also for grains decided to put it back so this is really something you need to it's a trade off you need to kind of examine however as i said given the situation in a very serious situation inside china frankly i don't think there was much of a choice all right. secretary of the intergovernmental group on grains for the food and agriculture organization of the united nations thank you think. well well russia is suffering a grain shortage because of the intense heat wave in india millions of people are going hungry for a different reason he's counseling investigates why stocks of rice and wheat are

failing to reach those who most need it. india is home to work quarter of the world's starving people and one third of its malnourished children here in the village of dollars poured in eastern india had nothing to give us four days yes of unlimited not a hungry child cries all the time there is no food to feed here how can we survive like this to give the child quite a just me to drink water yet the government has recorded mounds of surplus stocks fifty nine million tons of wheat and rice it does have a huge public distribution system that provides free for all families below the poverty line but corruption and complex bureaucracy means the poorest of the poor often don't make it on the list. we are poor people desperate for food to eat or children go to sleep hungry names are not on the government's poverty list and we didn't get any food going from the government can we do ultimately we would have no

choice but to commit suicide. with people starving the beast and even inches of piles of wheat rotting at a storage facility erupted into a major political issue in the state of punjab it was discovered forty nine thousand tons of food green had perished despite if they are taking precautions there's every likelihood as we have in our household there are no where your porting your cup of tea for me because likelihood two schools can spin on the table . if you see a pun but only next year result was a degree in which we handle. losses. abundance i'm standing in one of the largest food storage depos in the capital new delhi impermanent where houses such as this would fix roofs the green is safe but when green a store temporarily be like this with just a plastic cover to keep out the rain it can last only one year and with the government keeping seventeen million tons of wheat and rice stored like this

because it simply doesn't have enough permanent warehouses you can see this. you know the problem experts say about ten million tonnes enough to feed hundred forty million people for a month has been through at least one monsoon and is at risk of rotting if this green were released instead it could help those most in need but distributing it will cost one billion dollars and the government cannot afford to add to its food subsidy that doesn't come as good news for his family who depend on the handouts. we cannot afford to buy rice for our family whatever food grain the government has is allowing to run its warehouses the ration cards they issue don't reach the actual poor whatever race is distributed to the local dealer for us is instead sold by him in the open market. with global wheat prices rising due to the drought in russia if india loses its wheat stocks to poor storage this could fuel the price

surge and that would hit the podium in india the hardest seeing r t. in iraq two u.s. backed militia leaders have said that al qaeda is trying to bribe them to return to the terrorist group it is fear that the departure of american troops at the end of august is being exploited to attract new al-qaeda members some officials in iraq say the organization is making a big comeback partly due to the power vacuum and political instability of the water own country others play down the problem saying iraq's military has everything under control we're now joined by a journalist the journalist who broke the story martin chewed off the guardian's iraq correspondent live from baghdad. well hello to you so the so-called sons of iraq grew out of a series of mini rebellions against militants associated with al qaeda started in two thousand and six they soon grew into a success story in iraq capitalized upon by the then commanding u.s. general david petraeus he agreed to pay each member

a three hundred dollars monthly salary now we're hearing reports that they weren't always getting paid that al qaeda is allegedly offering more money to these people how serious is this problem is that evidence. it's looming is a very serious problem in iraq as you say the sons of iraq a group who were credited with helping stop the violent insurgency throughout two thousand and six two thousand and seven that been hired ever since by the americans people who are a cornerstone of the future its purity for this country however is the americans prepared to leave the heritage over responsibility in managing the sons of iraq program through the iraqi government the iraqi government's commitment the potomac predominantly sunni sons of iraq groups has not been a strong recent months it's a very sharp spate of attacks against sons of iraq i mean it is and militia men and we're seeing some very disturbing reports recently about offering more money to.

be receiving by the government and indeed some of those. approach is being successful so we're told yesterday we spoke to one. sons of iraq leader who said that one hundred of his members have not turned up for the last two months to pick up salaries he says that can only mean one thing being paid by the enemy so if you're not going to be good news for washington d.c. and capitol hill that. saddam hussein's former deputy who's accused president obama of quote leaving iraq to the wolves saying u.s. troops should stay now given the troop pullout at the end of this month surely it's not the right time for the americans to leave. but there are remarkable words for saddam hussein's chief with tend to be calling for the americans to be starting he said there was a massive mistake made to come here to invade in the first place but to leave iraq like this would indeed in his words be feeding the country to the world hey saying

that nothing is stable here there is a security vacuum there is no stability in the near future at all there is a vicious political stalemate and that the few tenets that this is science he is built on the army perhaps the police force in a couple of other things like that which could potentially take the country secure in the future certainly not ready to do so now so his words were a direct challenge to the white house which is saying that this job is done and that the institutions are ready to take over including the army and that iraq the foundations of a new iraq have been laid if you look around the country there are many people who would dispute that we are seeing a slow steady uptick in violence on a daily weekly and monthly basis and we have seen so for the last five months the mood on the streets is not good there's a sense of dread as the americans prepare to disappear and i think that they will have to mount a pretty strong case as to why their position that the job is done should be

believed now mr talk about a political stalemate the ongoing at the moment corruption in. violence talk about the endgame here is painting a really gloomy picture what do you think will be in store for the average iraqi civilian in the future. people are very much worried about that i mean the one thing that they are banking on is that the all money which will start to come online later this year. will start to lead to increased service delivery people across iraq and not getting any more than three to four hours electricity per day during what has been a staggeringly hot summer today the official maximum in baghdad is fifty degrees and i think it's probably a bit higher than that so people look down stream they see streets that are still unsafe seventy years after. the u.s. arrived here and i see why it's spreading corruption at all levels of government of normal levels of the our prosy it's almost not possible to deal with any level of

iraqi democracy and not be shaken down for something. they look around they see the irrigated land is being deprived of water they see almost every single thing that they would be entitled to expect to be delivered to them by government is not going to live it is not a great deal of room for optimism unless this all money does come online and unless the government and its people change their ways here and do start to funnel that money to the people the people who need it. very quickly here i'm running out of time but what's the war in your opinion a success for the u.s. and for iraq. it's it's look it's been a very difficult seven years for the americans no doubt about that. strategically because there they've lost some significant ground in the middle east especially to around a neighboring state who seems to consolidated their influence here the american project was above and beyond the end of the day to try and democratize things here . although the elections were fair and transparent democracy is not something that

you can say has become rooted in this state the americans will leave having tried over the last three years to turn around some of the strategic mistakes they made but i think by by any objective measure they have lost ground here they have lost influence in the middle east or the guardians in iraq correspondent martin thank you. well corrino is now here with all the business owners. hello welcome to our business program it's twenty two past four pm here in moscow russia's losses due to the forest and peat fires still raging across the country could reach fifteen billion dollars earlier my colleague stephanie monday spoke to mentally our law. who gave us more on the impact of the ecological conditions on the economy furthermore she pointed out that the russian government is also losing

opportunities in controlling prices using its grain reserves well this was initial seen as a very powerful instrument which russian government might use how is a recent liberalist see very different figures in terms of size of these reserves because in july and number fishel experts were talking about twenty or twenty last million points and reserves the most recent an independent as soon as give us just mind million tons so i would say the gap isn't in mazy and also nerves of government and then to distribute thought it was part of this fund directly to the old russian regions so this will definitely we've gone in possibility to intervene on the local market and to control prices then in whatever if we turn out to inflation what you forecast for this year inflation this is definitely the kinda key to which probably will be visible very soon and we have raised all inflation forecast of the level of some point five percent versus our initial view of seven

percent around months ago and just respond the initial responding to the global grain market grain price rally how is the now as we see that the conditions in russia continue to deteriorate there from that we can expect with inflation might even see this seven point five percent level and as far as i can see the market consensus is now shifting to even higher figures. russian banks are continuing to cut deposit rates for individuals the central bank says the maximum interest rate for deposits in roubles this month is less than nine percent that's close to pre-crisis levels the rates have decreased by rob six percentage points in a year however the banks are still attracting more cash from individuals central bank says deposits grew by around two and a half percent in july. and let's have a quick look at how stock markets are shaping up on wednesday european shares a sliding for a second session following the federal reserve's comments that the pace of economic

recovery is slowing the fed plans to boost the flag music colony by reinvesting money from mortgage bonds into government debt it's the fed's first attempt to bolster the economy in over a year and russian markets are sliding here as well banks are underperforming otherwise x. with bt be heading to a half percent as bad bank is down two percent problem is also dragging itself falling two percent. also as files a claim against iraq through the london court of international arbitration companies are robbing over control of noticed they killed was also the outcome of north junior board elections breaks the two thousand and eight agreement between it and into roles not to take control of norilsk and to maintain equal board representation elections get three board seats with into roles getting for both who saw and into roles have a twenty five percent stake in that in the company. and several style has put most

of its north american steel making assets up for sale its us branch has asked potential bit is to respond with offers by friday the company offers steel the steel operations in warren ohio spouse point those of the former. pristine corp as one package. frenchie g.d.s. whereas the final north stream participant has paid eight hundred million euros. for a nine percent stake in the project the company has bought the share from the german shareholders gus and wood to shot each of the each of them has decreased their share from twenty to fifteen and a half percent the controlling stake in old stream first stage of which will be launched next year is owned by gas from dutch gas me has another nine percent. and fast food chains wendy and wendy's and all of these are coming to russia they've signed agreements with a local company affiliated to food service capital and plan to open one hundred

eighty restaurants over the next ten years food service capital is owned by rest drugs restaurateurs. there must move the president of metals from you g m k the owners plan to invest one hundred million dollars into the project forty million of which will be spent in the first five years they plan to use shareholder money and later try to find sources credit. uses of google maps will now be able to get information about traffic jams and rush at the world's top search engine has launched a test version of the traffic maps in moscow and st petersburg routes on the map are in illustrated for callers depending on road congestion such services are already provided by rabbit or any objects which is google's main competitor all the russian market last year he added earn four times more than google in russia. that's all for now but you could always find most always on what side that's r.t. dot com slash business.

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it is half past four in the afternoon here in moscow you with your headlines. small freely. seem to be retreating but there are still hundreds of places to put out thousands of volunteers helping fight the flames and provide vital supplies to those affected. to ensure its domestic needs are met after

wildfires and drought. global grain prices meanwhile india is losing tons of. people in the country. big comeback a terrorist group is reportedly on a recruiting spree by the planned u.s. troop withdrawal from iraq. but with a boom in technology it often seems society is making forward but some are concerned that the imperial age with its fight for resources and influence is coming back. and it spoke to a veteran journalist john pilger who shared his views on the past and present. today i'm in london speaking to jonah hill just veteran journalist on the documentary right there who started his career during the vietnam war john pilger

thanks very much for talking to me now let's talk about more media in general first if you don't mind recently in the website wiki leaks published tens of thousands of documents relating to the afghanistan war what do you think that is the biggest impact is that modern technologies had journalism well i think the wiki leaks exposed is. look like they might change journalism altogether if not change or wake it up. because what we could leaks has done is what journalists should have done. you know here here is this dreadful litany of years of of disaster and killing in afghanistan and i'm in iraq. and i don't think we've gotten a sense and they've got a sense of the disaster but i don't think we've got a sense of the real. the the political disaster the

the behind the the human disaster in afghanistan that's what we call leaks is has given us. i think it says to journalists. separate us separate you so from the word of authority and stop becoming independent it's an extraordinary moment what about the internet in general do you think in terms of names that subclassing more traditional means you like newspapers and document chains yes i do and i mean it shouldn't subvert them but it is and is doing that which it really should compliment them. because you know into my own journalistic habits every day of change radically i used to get up in the morning and read all the newspapers now i go to my computer and log on. because that's where the that's where this truth telling that kind of journalism.