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thousands of protesters are filling cairo's tahrir square in what's being dubbed a million man march to protest against the interim government that they say stole their revolution. from flotilla to fly to a lot of pro palestinian activists swap their ships for planes to reach gaza after a convoy of humanitarian vessels was halted in greece. at the last ever launch of shuttle atlantis marks the end of the u.s. space shuttle program leaving at the end and the end of an era leaving tens of thousands also without jobs we'll bring you live pictures of that in a few hours. four

pm in moscow i met très a very good to have you with us here on r t our top story of a million strong march is expected to happen in egypt as thousands gather in cairo's tahrir square demanding a faster pace of reform he aims to keep pressure on the country's military rulers who have been in power since hosni mubarak was ousted as president in february archies an isa now where reports from tahrir square. the protesters say they are going to keep fighting to the end of the way it all played out of course back in the winter was that some eight hundred people ended up getting killed and some seven thousand injured nationwide and really they say that their revolution was still over because none of the changes have actually happened in fact some people are saying that they think it's even worse now that will barak is gone but it's more oppression what's media freedom and that's why they're coming back to tough here and that's what chanting that we're going to be hearing today i'm just going to step out of the shot to let you take a look at what's happening on the square i'm really bad at visually counting

numbers but it does look like there's i would say at least a hundred thousand people here if not more they're chanting we don't feel the change we came back to tough we're also we the people demand the defeat of the regime about something we're going to be hearing throughout the day i have to say one of the most interesting things that i've seen this morning is that there's really no police here there's no security it's all civilians making sure in fact that police don't make their way to onto the square civilians are doing security checks i was frisked by a woman who was very serious found my make up she found my makeup brushes she found me in my i phone five she was very skeptical of why i was coming here and then which realize i was unarmed and she found me started kissing me with joy so when people realize that people are really coming to the square not to go violence not to bother them it's about their voices being heard they're quite happy and quite welcoming and the mood here is rather joyous past my father was a bit of tension the muslim brotherhood for the first time is taking part in these

protests and some people don't like that because originally back in the winter they were against it now more and more political parties were the distance apart taking part in it said up to a million people could come out to talk fear to say what they want to do what they're saying is take back their revolution. their revolution was hijacked and then he wanted back. egypt's uprising might have ousted president mubarak but to them he's far from gone. we go through the books of the mobile. phone when the taste of freedom was short lived the military is in full power mass media is being choked and oppression still rampant worth them before i think they werent catching activists as much as they are doing now. to prison and i guess now they're being read in violence they want to. be still there in the

first place he's known simply as uncle horst i'm here in egypt a social network or with a twitter army of some thirty thousand followers the military throws of civilians have to stop immediately immediately this is you know one of the major demands we're putting forward one of many demands including transparent trials for the fallen regime and the purging of corrupt officials unfortunate for the people. they had this kind of revenge with water that when he fell down they felt it's over everything is going to be fine and the country is full of cleaned up. but if it's not the the too. early in the week protesters began setting up camp here on top career for what they're calling the next phase of the revolution but this time they don't just want hundreds of thousands to come here they want to take greer across egypt and get rid of all but little people like myself have been arguing for

taking the you to the factories they can hire you to the universities seeking to have you to the world police's meaning that. would please we have an egypt that is amenable now when it was never interested in politics in till january she was shot with twenty three pellets by riot police twenty of which are still in her like the pain is finally gone but her perseverance is not the barrier of fear is gone. and she will continue to fight to be and i want every every egyptian citizen to be treated as a human being every protester has their own vision of the egypt they're fighting for some want to constitution then free elections others think the new laws should follow the vote but one thing that brings them all together is that this egypt is not the end and he said no way are cheap cairo. staying with affairs in the middle

east hundreds of pro palestinian activists are being blocked in their attempts to reach gaza by air and defy israeli policies many are being stopped at european airports while two american campaigners have been deported upon arrival in tel aviv the move comes a week after a photo of a dozen ships bound for gaza were prevented from leaving port in greece for more on this we're joined by our teams paul asli are live at ben gurion airport good to have you with us paula so i think airport where the activists are expected is there any tension there ahead of his planned arrival. well the city is tension here and it's also international been going on airport just a short time. a scuffle broke out between a handful of protesters and the israeli public here and the police the protesters were holding up signs saying welcome to gaza free palestine they were chanting free gaza but almost immediately the police shuffled them out of this terminal building into waiting police vans outside and israeli passengers here were also

a shouting traitors go to syria to safety tensions here are running high with roughly about six hundred israeli police and security officers deployed both inside and outside the airport now a flight that has arrived from geneva has been diverted we understand that there are some fifty activists some ford today going to be coming through a nother terminal we know that she will marry can passengers who actually arrived in israel are being deported we're hearing of clashes in both france and in belgium and in geneva we know that fifty passengers in france were prevented from boarding a flight there it is important to say that the israeli government is being criticized for a near hysterical response this is a very heavy handed response to what is essentially a peaceful effort by some five to six hundred activists they've come together under the banner of freedom to palestine will come to palestine they have they're working with some fifteen palestinian n.g.o.s and they've made the point quite consistently and quite clearly that their mission is a peaceful one they want to be here for

a week they want to meet with palestinian families and they really want to lend their support to the people of palestine and to attention to the blockade on gaza. this isn't the first time we've seen activists try to reach gaza where the campaign is playing to make this one of success. but it's important to remember that israel has imposed a blockade on gaza since two thousand and seven when they have massed government came to power last year around this time they was a flotilla where the hof dozen ships trying to reach gaza to deliver much needed humanitarian supplies and they were stopped this year there is a second freedom for tele it's also been stopped at the. at this stage there are eight ships that are off the coast of greece they've been with fused permission from athens to see it sail so van if it alongside this if it and this if it is being called a flight tell it has really been dealt a heavy blow by the israeli authorities and again the protesters still saying we are peaceful we just wanted to attention to the plight of the palestinian people

particularly in gaza in gaza you have some one and a half million people living in one of the most densely populated areas on earth humanitarian organizations reports that the supplies both medical and food there are running critically low we hearing the word catastrophe and me a humanitarian catastrophe is on the cons and that is why are we hearing from moscow saying that it hopes that israelis and palestinians can work close together if they can find common ground so that missions like these are no longer needed all right artie's policy a life or a state israel's ben gurion airport thanks for that report. where you can log on and have your say on what's being dubbed the fly to live on our website r.t. dot com and take part in our latest online poll right now we're asking whether pro palestinian activists will be able to convince israel to lift the gaza blockade so far how to respond and say would only happen if activists arrived in overwhelming numbers around a quarter don't think israel would yield to any pressure nineteen percent say the

activists can succeed since they have the truth on their side and a minority believes the block table only be lifted if the palestinians stop attacking israel. also online for you google i was shut down millions of internet sites after it's decided they're malicious and don't mean suitable standards find out what the pretty repercussions are for the rest of the web. and rumors about barack obama's childhood continue to swirl as a us journalist claims the president is parents of thought of giving him up for adoption but on r.t. dot com for the full story. stay with us here on our t.v. still to come this hour stop the press the latest twist in britain's phone hacking scandal it's already seen the axe fall in the country's biggest selling newspaper

now a former executive who is feeling the heat as he was arrested by police. without the space program or pretty much nothing i mean this is what has the beaches pelts on the space program you know it's a lot of people are going to. be out and. millions await the last launch of the space shuttle atlantis but for many this historic moment is bittersweet. but first georgia claims the high profile photographers arrested in the capital tbilisi have been spying for a foreign state the four detained are accused of providing information to another country to the detriment of georgia's interests among them is the president's personal photos as well as an employee for the european press photo agency the tog refers to deny the allegations the arrests come as nine other people were jailed for up to fourteen years for spying for moscow the russian foreign ministry says to police these actions indicate the state of democracy and freedom in the freedom of speech in the country meanwhile the number of georgia

a member of the georgian opposition tells r t that the spy claims are meant to foster anti russian sentiment as a means of boosting president saakashvili as control. may be. the domestic. and mean i would be in line he she. probably were because the. general. and some of the uncertainty is going through her and he doesn't care what the. war in europe. why. aren't you. in the agents or. turning now to the u.k.

where a former downing street media chief has been arrested in connection with a phone hacking scandal of the country's biggest selling newspaper and he colson was editor of the news of the world at the time the alleged hacking happened the scandal has prompted the prime minister to announce two inquiries into the ethics and practices of the british press good morning one hundred sixty eight year old papers accused of hacking into the phones of thousands of targets including of murder and terror victims dead soldiers and politicians the paper's owner rupert murdoch's news international has shut down the newspaper despite it being the most popular in the u.k. media analysts fillery says although the scandal is a blow to the company it's strong enough to weather the storm. i think something changed this week you know for decades british prime ministers have been on a needs to the to the murdoch press because they knew that when the sun which is his main daily newspaper here in britain when the sun supported a british politician running for prime minister you know they want it and then you

find in the next day you find that prime minister reading the sun looking like an idiot saying well the sun got me elected i mean you've got this demeaning of democracy if the diminishing of democracy really which the murdoch press was at the heart of that i think and that was that there was silence as well because important people needed the murdoch press and they couldn't be they couldn't attack it because of that and i think a line was crossed. a very finely tuned business brain he has a lot of things going on now one of them is to purchase the largest satellite network in britain b. sky b. and that decision is about to be approved by the government that was in jeopardy. i think he felt that as a businessman he had to sacrifice the news of the world because it in terms of the whole news international it's a tiny part of all that but i tell you the most important thing bill in my view is that the political class had been sucking up to rupert murdoch for so many years including prime minister david cameron he now has to stand back and say no i can't

do it anymore it's going to bad. stay with us here on r.t. still ahead the latest in our russia close up series to report on a siberian doctor's invention that still changing people's lives and helping some overcome disabilities and others to regain their confidence to stand tall. first though nasa's final shuttle flight is due to blast off in the next few hours though bad weather conditions could cause a delay up to a million spectators are waiting to witness the historic lodge but as art has got reports it's also a poignant moment for those who build their lives around the program. empty shells of what was once florida's thriving space coast. up to ten thousand people will be out of a job as soon as the last shuttle makes its final voyage back to earth home to many of the kennedy space center workers rock which is on the verge of becoming

a ghost town without the space program or pretty much nothing i mean this is what you know your beach is built on the space program you know just a lot of people are going to be out of jobs sorry to be out of homes people are going on welfare left and right food stamps anthony chris a fully spent twenty three years with the shuttle launch team as an engineer with a plan to splice thing down for its final mission it means the end of his career with nasa and the beginning of uncertainty a year ago he started looking for a new job to no avail i have applied for jobs and so far i haven't gotten any concrete responses there's not that many jobs out there for sure the u.s. scrapped its shuttle program and now wants the private sector to come up with ways to get astronauts to space several companies are working on new vehicles but it's not clear when they'll be able to deliver them one thing is certain though will be able to hire only a fraction of the skilled space industry workers will be out of work soon this is

the first shuttle ever it never made it to space but it was going to put tests before the columbia shuttle first launch into space in nineteen eighty one a total of five shuttles had been used for space missions since that two of them were lost in tragic accidents a nine hundred eighty six and in two thousand and three those lawsuits and the skyrocketing price for each launch gradually led to the cancellation of the program but critics say it's hard to estimate the losses that the end of the shuttle program will bring about both for the space industry and the people involved i think it's a really bad thing for the united states. to lose this skilled workforce it's going to be difficult to rebuild it for years the shuttle has been the only vehicle that could ferry crew and a massive load of cargo to space officials say one of the reasons the program was scrapped is that it's safer and cheaper to send cargo and people separately something that russia for example has been doing for many years but whatever the reasons for scrapping the thirty year old program for those who devoted their lives

to it is the end of their dream job is kind of sad because i've already seen a lot of my friends go in the breeze they'll be more people that are probably may never see again it also means the end of a once vibrant scientific community that's grown up around the shuttle going to shut down. in turkmenistan recovery efforts are underway after a series of explosions at an ammunition depot in the city of abidjan tore down nearby buildings authorities say that the incident happened at a fireworks warehouse caused by summer heat according to local media reports there are casualties though the exact number is still unknown thousands of people were evacuated from the buildings and mediately after giving after the blast witnesses say i mean ition from the burning depot was scattered on the streets some of it has reached neighboring towns and large sections of the city lost power and water supplies but have since been restored security has been tightened with police

patrolling the streets. turned out of some other stories making headlines across the globe pakistan has denied allegations made by america's top ranking military chief that it sanctioned the killing of a journalist who'd written about its naval links with al qaida it's also called the u.s. claims extremely irresponsible so when she was abducted near his home in may his body bearing marks of torture was found in a canal two days later she sobs widely believed to have been seized by pakistan's intelligence officials after getting threats from the agency military chief admiral mike mullen said that all said all that couldn't be controlled. yemen's president has made his first television appearance since being seriously injured in a bomb attack at his compound last month in his speech ali a dualist said he had undergone more than eight successful operations and is now recovering in saudi arabia he criticized the protesters accusing him of misunderstanding democracy he also gave no hint that he intended to step down from

office that said he's ready for dialogue with the opposition to end the crisis. french prosecutors have started a preliminary inquiry into a woman's claim that former i.m.f. chief dominique strauss kahn tried to rape her in two thousand and three writer tristan banon says strauss kahn assaulted her in paris while she was attempting to conduct an interview with him. denied charges of sexual assaulting a new york hotel maid in may and was recently freed from house arrest in the u.s. after the credibility of his accusers evidence was called into question. when it comes to world leading researchers russia is still holding its own in the scientific community this time in our close up series we explore a doctors medical sensation. taken out of a corgan region in southern siberia in the middle of the twentieth century it

became a center for soviet orthopedics with a surgeon there are developing a revolutionary method of bone restructuring decades later the technique is still being used to help people overcome disabilities sex on a boy reports. the soviet union and russia give the world many great inventions and what special about them is that the technology behind the snow house is often very simple darry basic yet they remain in service for many many decades take this they use the rocket for example it was design back in the sixty's the design hasn't changed that much yet to these day it's remains the most reliable and actually at this point of time the only means of transporting humans to the international space station but today we want to introduce you to now the great invention of which proved just as durable and this is the frame of the. it was first designed back in the fifty's but it still remains the main orthopedic technique for treating bone

fractures all sorts of deformities and injuries as well as for a limp lengthening our next story is about back. to both of them it's about walking tall eight year old if he's lagging left leg and twenty seven year old japanese engineer with liking self-confidence and intrigue on didn't choose he. decrement very much did centimeters shorter than the average height for manager because of some employers refuse to hire me one of them told me directly but i was too short to deal with the clients could you just already spend three months in this hospital and plans to stay for another four to add the coveted seven santa meters to his stature it may seem like a tall order but the actual surgery is fairly simple though painful invented by the famed soviet off the beat is good for you is there of in the nineteen fifties these frames for initially used to treat fractures in deformities by cutting bones and

slowly pulling them up for their four stimulating tissue regeneration it was out of was able to receive arms and legs and people who thought they were crippled for life be sent to the other patients shattered bones in their shattered lives or when professing lazard designed his first brain using bicycle parts sixty years later his invention is increasingly being used to help people who are eager to fracture their legs to become a few centimeters taller in the ultimate goal is still the same fixing somebodies lives both literally and figuratively about a third of patients admitted she was out of center nowadays seeking surgery focus medical reasons most of them are men and most are not what you would call vertically challenged professor novick of who operated on many of them sas it usually comes down to a man's pride. the first patient to turn to us with a leg lengthening of quest to meet his fifteen centimeters to be still want to

surgery because his partner has to than him we like to say that we need to break their legs in order to fix their head maybe nothing wrong with them from an orthopedic point of view but there is something psychological that prevents them from living their lives fully being happy and we fix it like lengthening surgeries are banned in many countries and even the women allowed their precious expensive but in russia the entire course costs about one tenth of the similar package in the united states. financial considerations were one of the reasons that brought this washington state native to western siberia if his main motive for the surgery had to do with how he fared auditors in america advertises one seventy five hours one sixty seven or one sixty eight and so on eight centimeters would probably be right to average thirty one of the average for women height isn't so important you know i

think girl can be sure it's not a big deal like your guy is like expected to be taller just before the operation moses mad at russian girl who found he's a regional hide quite endearing yet he still would want to have had the surgery adding seven more centimeters to he self-confidence she took told me the whole time you're crazy you're normal you're perfect. so now or so they call you so what a compliment for somebody who's used to falling short of his own expectations of sound like an artsy program the region. korean american joins us next with all the latest in the world of business stay with us here on r.t. . well welcome to our business program this hour russia is looking for pay before pumping when it comes to supplying gas to china from now wants to advance payment was the band's payments for its future energy deliveries but a misty news paper says it could make up to forty billion dollars from offering

a discount in exchange but is being seen as another obstacle in the long running energy talks both parties are trying to agree a new thirty year supply contract with. some small banks around the world have pull six hundred thirty five tons of gold from the bank for international settlements last year that's the largest would fall in more than a decade it's a shop reversal as banks have been adding to that deposits so-called bank of central banks central banks hold around thirty thousand tonnes of billion of the yen and reserve and many of them lend it out i've lowered it not for gold in the past decade is driving interest rates on it to record levels traders say some central banks may have decided not to lend their gold at all. now let's have a look at the markets european indices are flat this hour the footsies into positive territory and the german dax is lower shares of utility. gold's four

percent after reporting financial times deutschland but the company may discuss a share sale at an august meeting the company spokesman declined to comment banks are also on the downside shares of commerzbank fell one point four percent and bag is down half percent market players are keeping an eye on us mom from payables. and here in russia the odds he has on the minds are good trading in the black up to thursday's rally which saw both indices post their largest daily gain in two months investors here are also looking forward to digest data from us. now let's have a look at some individual movers on the. energy majors among the main gainers despite we could prove low call is up half a percent the sol bucking the trend is the t.v. it is down more than half a percent following news moody's has cut the rating for the newly acquired bank of moscow it was another story yesterday with the to be on the rise despite the forecast from some analysts its debt risk would be high from the takeover of bank

of moscow adding to the bank is also in the red point six percent about. russia's biggest retail group x five has boosted its revenue by fifty one percent in the first half of the year the company says the seven point eight billion dollars came from stronger sales and consolidation from the recently acquired. that's all the business for this hour i'll be back with more in just. stay with us for head like he's next.