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debt rollercoaster another plan to avoid a u.s. debt the fold fails a vital senate vote for the clock still ticking in the countdown to choose days deadline. poland admits responsibility for the plane crash that killed president kaczynski last year but the published report still tries to shift some of the blame to russia. and shadowy egypt of two hundred fifty thousand and government protesters flooded the streets and squares of israel cities demanding prime minister netanyahu steps down. this is r.t. live from moscow you're watching the weekly with me kevin no in it's

a roundup of the main new stories from the past seven days from us and first republicans in the u.s. senate voted to block democrats' proposal to resolve the debt crisis a bipartisan solution is now being discussed in congress as there's only a narrow time window for the u.s. to raise the debt ceiling which expires on choose day after that the country would be unable to make the repayments on its loans before the vote there was yet more protracted bickering on american t.v. networks report has more on that from new york. sunday morning on all the talk shows here in new york we saw these u.s. lawmakers give interviews the republican saying a close deal deal is close to being reached the democrats coming on t.v. saying that it's inching closer but there is no final agreement because the entire congress cannot agree or the lawmakers cannot agree on where to make cuts if this debt ceiling is raised so what we see is just another chapter in

a long block of of us of political posturing we are seeing u.s. lawmakers get in front of the cameras day after day fight show the fact that they can come together and agree we see an election year that is approaching and clearly the republicans and those that are opposed to president barack obama us president obama are taking the opportunity to try to put him in a very weak and insecure position in the meantime it is compromising the u.s. economy overall since one thousand nine hundred sixty the u.s. has raised the debt ceiling seventy eight times the pattern of the u.s. economy and legislators and their structure here has been borrow and spend borrow and spend and what has created this uncertainty among investors among american citizens on wall street business owners is the fact that there is never been

a plan in place on how to cut the deficit how to bring down the spending and stop borrowing. let's get more perspective now what's going on capitol hill of george got a mother the president of a financial advisory service thanks for being with us we just witnessed tonight another failed attempt to resolve the long deadlock republican. proposal by the democrats yesterday of course it was the other way around is this more of political theater to solving problems. specific you know it was entirely about political theater. the republicans in the senate and we're not going to let harry reid pass his vote and really the negotiations that are going on are between. the leadership in the senate and the president at this time and they basically had to put this vote forward and basically vote it down to say that this floor this vote doesn't go to the floor until you can go back to the president come back with

a deal that is acceptable to all parties right now so the specific vote was all about politics really quite a waste of time having said that there is some progress in the background right now towards a more comprehensive deal right now but looking at this whole story very simplistically every none of these proposals on the table of dealing with the debt of a instead they're arguing about how to bring themselves yet more debt is just prolonging the agony isn't it. well look we had we had the possibility of having no deal which would have been the worst possible outcome and would have gotten us into default that fortunately is going to be averted right now what we're talking about is getting an extension so that we can pay our current bills and what is on the table is essentially our proposals that will cut spending anywhere between one to four trillion dollars over the next ten years even if we get the most aggressive types which is somewhat closer to four trillion or we will only just be managing to

bring down the debt level of the u.s. to about eighty percent level right now so right now we're just talking about slowing celebration of the problem which is look it's better than nothing at least if we can get something it won't get worse and worse but as far as putting us on a good trajectory we need something somewhere closer to the three to four trillion dollar over ten years range to even begin to address that well this bipartisan idea you talked about them combining raising the debt ceiling with also trying to build a budget cuts is a cut and you a no it's not a pompous traditionally been wall before is that combining the two why is that. well you know this is the only way that they could square the circle here. you are right combining kind of the increasing of the of the of the debt limit with some sort of a budget deal this is the first time ever this has been brought about but we had

the two thousand and ten elections this was a way for the republicans to really kind of make a case to obama and and really try to try to make their point in differentiate themselves before the elections before the twenty twelve elections so look a lot of this i think is i mean it's good that it's happening the way it's happening is not very good because i think we were three to six months ago in a position where we probably could have had a more substantial deal to solve the problems. of the country or the politics and has put put us in a place where we're not going to have eight ok type of compromise courses those know how to view every story and this deadlock in washington in washington has been going over so long and everyone says it is a bad thing delay some would argue it's finally exposed it's been going on right under american noses for decades. yeah that's right i think look i think it's a good argument to say that it's great that it's part of the public discourse that

is positive to the question is what is the result of the public discourse i think we put it to the public to put into this course if we if we get it and that's why i think we're getting a two and a half trillion dollar to two and a half to three which is looks like might be on the table right now given these negotiations is better than nothing it's but i think we could have had something far superior to this if we did not have the extremes the extremist wings of both parties digging in for so long now over these last three months ultimately so it's a delicate glass is half full not half empty since we got our money president of the financial. thanks for joining us on live from new york there thank you. well as the debt drama also continues from a fold in europe with more struggling economies being dragged in. greece from the euro zone long ago but the greek drain weighs heavily on spain the country prepares

for the worst over its credit rating because of its eurozone stablemates instability we got more magic few minutes. next warsaw admits its crew was responsible for last year's fatal plane crash in western russia that killed president lech kaczynski along with dozens of the country's ruling elite but the inquiry still led part of the blame or moscow saying the russian air traffic controllers also contributed to the disaster party's election reports next on how the national tragedy has become just a pawn in a political game. another day another blame game poland's very own probe into last year's presidential plane crash all but confirmed the findings of russia's investigation that the crew was almost solely responsible for the tragedy of this point there is an obstacle a tree that the aircraft collides with a fragment of the left wing is detached the aircraft begins there are taishan but let me emphasize it's not that the tree was too high the aircraft had simply been

at a location where it shouldn't have been it seems the very things that got in the way of the plane are now getting in the way of warsaw taking full responsibility when trees are not the only thing rooted in poland failing to see eye to eye with moscow . here's where the approach controller two thousand metres away should have told the crew to stop descending the horizon command should have been issued exactly at the moment the shows that the landing zone controller was performing his duty in an incorrect way on tuesday you know such statements come as little surprise to experts with some of them saying acceptance of total responsibility would be impossible for the polish society they've been given the truth and the truth is unbearable they can't take it now i don't think that the polish investigators think they can pin the blame on anybody else but i do think that they are looking to pin some of the blame on somebody else aviation experts echo this opinion

calling the swipes against the russian side unsubstantial someone claims concerning the airport or controllers they have nothing to do with the crash i've been a pilot for over thirty years and i know a simple rule if you don't see the runway or it's like of the decision height you have no other choice than to raise the landing gear and go to your reserve airport the initial russian investigation was greeted by a novel launch of criticism from some movements in poland they expressed doubts about. the reliability of the report often based on anti russian sentiment and some experts say it is not pure emotion driving this but well thought tactics computer but if you ski here i think we're now witnessing some political games to shift the blame from the polish side of the i was an expert in this commission and i was surprised to learn when we did the crew was chosen immediately before the flight so actual full preparation for such a high profile flight publication of this report had been delayed for several

months and was very much anticipated in poland it was meant to put a break through all speculation regarding the plane crash but instead it could once again be used as a political tool experts say the timing of the publication is not coincidental this could be exploited also in the political electoral campaign because this should be known that the. parliamentary elections this report and all that issue but if your tablet will be. even easier is it in the electoral campaign and the twin brother of the late president kaczynski was quick to prove this suggestion with a sharp round about the report. the prime minister to say has no courage to take up the responsibility for the plane crash and has shuffled it off on to his staff nevertheless he is responsible for all the games he played with the russians he's responsible not conducting or even participating in the investigation he's

responsible for not defending polish interests and at the international fora will get to the bottom of this case as this is what. while the polish society is still deciding whether to admit the plane full responsibility which comes with a report experts are speculating whether this is a fair and objective investigation or an attempt to please all the players in the long lost in blame game. artsy reporting from warsaw in poland. and friends. a look at the timeline of the polish presidential plane crash take a look at our website. what you see there is a short a second by second of analysis of what's on our website by the interstate aviation completion with a transcript of the cockpit voice recorder providing a detailed perspective about the cause of the tragedy it's graphic and it is online it r t v dot com. israel's become the latest middle east country to see

the anti-government protests some one hundred fifty thousand people took to the streets on saturday night after more than two weeks of rallies protesters are demanding the prime minister binyamin netanyahu step down and less he undertakes sweeping economic reforms he's paulus leader attended the biggest demonstration in tel aviv. all these easily a hundred and fifty thousand people here with the most popular chant being we demand a social justice a whole new way of speakers have been taking to the stage they have been calling on unity and message coming across very strongly is one by one people here can bring change a lot of criticism being leveled at israeli prime minister bibi netanyahu in fact every time his name is mentioned he is why are you here tonight i'm here because it's just becoming a possible to live in this country anymore we work we give and we give and we keep on giving their all and there's no end to this is this is our only hope we have to

change just because we don't have any other choice which is a people who have been inspired by the demonstrations taking place in their full house or what is your sign saying forever then they go home guzzling is on us why do you want him to go home. to go alone to go to the fullest and how much of these demonstrations i mean inspired by the protests we saw taking place in arab world well i think there's a lot of influence of what happened in the ground and now syria levanon and what you see in libya also there's a lot of influence of course that's when people understand are they have the power that they can they can organize by them does it don't need any more the government to tell them what to do they can start throwing the government what they want. to do you know they can they can start deciding for themselves take the power back to what they said is the spirit of revolution here a number of israeli populace some singers have also been taking to the stage and

one song that was sung you have a chorus and i'm translating this is the new middle east we created the storm the future it's up to us. artie's correspondent paula but one country which has been under the clouds of its own storm for some time now is still suffering bloodshed at least forty five people being killed as syrian government forces stormed the city of hama the violence sweeping syria since march has reportedly seen over a thousand people killed join me from other noticeable president the arab lawyers association. thanks for being on our to international we see continued blood shoot bloodshed in syria just how long will this can this carry on. unfortunately is going to continue for a little while here because the regime in syria does not seem to believe that it can change it talks about change but it's not doing it they are going to face even a harder time within the next month because the month of ramadan is beginning and that's where everybody would be going to pray not just in the daytime but in the

evening and throughout the night and this is the time that there will be any police . in the demonstrations both day and night for the regime in syria seems to think it can contain it by the use of force is not doing so and less there is this change . it's going to continue the bloodshed unfortunately and this is the price that is being paid by the syrian people and this is the prize journeys became paid by revolutions because they really shouldn't require this this bloodshed but at the same town the interference of the outside world in my view can be counterproductive unless it is that proper rather than just making peace while statements like for instance the usa would decide whether the president of syria has next in the sea or not everybody is asking why do the americans have to put this question anyway let

alone deciding it but they seem to be doing this said electively there with syria and libya but at the same. they have not done it with yemen they have not done it with other places where there is uprising including rain forest and so i think the world can play on all but i think at the present moment it's not playing cards one of those reforms promised by president assad earlier on the promise is that things would change despite the fact we're still seeing tanks on the streets why was there no headway made there but because the change is required. until now they don't seem to be acceptable because the change they require there must be actual change of personnel on the higher echelon of syria in the army and the party in the government and the government in syria and the party does not want to seem to be doing doing that and the second thing which they can do is to stop the

use of force the use of force they think that can't stop the relation but in fact it's just fueling it more and more and we have even seen some rogue elements from the army the syrian army have sided with the demonstrations so i think we are still yet to see more escalation you touched on the american response just no president was accused of suddenly of using torture corruption and terror indeed is vowed to increase pressure on the syrian regime what kind of pressure would that be and would it work anyway. well in the first instance i think the words ring hollow when president obama says what he's saying everybody in syria and out of world will immediately respond back i one time a bad thing about abu ghraib and about the rest of the afghanistan situation all of these things are so dreams are low and it doesn't give any comfort however i think the west can actually and the world can assist the syrian regime with then exit

policy and quiet calm down playing to them what are the ways that they can move into it rather than just making statements and changing the laws actual practical steps whereby it will satisfy somehow the people for instance reducing the use of force removing some of the military guys some of the party members and some of the government people this may be. satisfying some of the people in the streets in damascus and in syria and the rest of the cities but the regime does not seem to be doing that and the west seem to be on generally speaking the world seems to be content with condemning and making peace while crazy statements when that it's you know the regime is let's the mentor not have it should be it's using use of force of course everybody knows that the regime in syria is actually killing its own people like it has never done. not at least for as long as it's doing now so i

think we need to address them to have them with an exit policy are afraid we're out of time but we really appreciate being on the program president of the arab lawyers association as you live from london. the debt crisis raging in europe is claiming more and more economic sculp spain's suffering recession of mass unemployment has now been put on review by the credit rating agency moody's and the international monetary fund as one fronts that it needs to impose cuts to avoid becoming europe's next debt crisis victim this is the biggest borrower greece is being dealt another blow by one of its main creditors germany's finance ministers says berlin won't write a blank check to buy back greek bonds that was a key part of last week's second bailout package as opposed to economics or patrick young you told me greece should be pushed out of the euro zone long ago. this is typical of contagion we've been talking about it for weeks we have you know when you get some degree of illness and it goes through the body ultimately you have to

decide when to amputate it and the truth is we should have amputated greece from the euro zone long ago there are fundamental problems going all the way through the euro zone and we don't have any leaders who are willing to give us a sustainable solution we've got the situation at the moment where provincial libraries in northern germany are being closed because the money isn't there because it's being used to fund people in the mediterranean i think german voters are going to get very angry about that very very soon and i actually think the political will is not there amongst the people to endlessly keep bailing out their solve their neighbors it's going to be a huge problem because ultimately the contagion is going to hit and i really do believe that after last week's events unfortunately we only enjoyed closer to the idea of a total euro melt on. the economic woes are also putting other e.u. countries under immense pressure from within and it's leading to fears the very heart of europe could be left broken belgium the seat of the e.u. headquarters might be about to split into two that's because of

a growing divide between the dutch speaking north of the french speaking south and as r.t. is doing a bushel reports next the country's internal squabbles assenting a warning signal to other nations. some wait till they're divorced before planning their next marriage but not well known near the southern region of belgium the country's been with delta figurative government for a record fourteen months french speaking loons in the cells and flemish speaking flanders in the north disagree on pretty much everything many analysts think the most likely outcome will see the country break into as soon as it splits with flanders is complete the world will look to hook up with france for richer or poorer but mainly for richer. going it alone when your small region is clearly not appealing they say political clout is important the main appeal is money one hundred. years part of france in everything but name that we have the same language

we watch french t.v. no belgian but above all our economy is controlled by french firms with polls suggest that whole foods and sixty percent of the french want to become one presidential front runner marine le pen last week said she would wear the southern half of belgium with france president sarkozy's ruling party and the opposition are already in talks to tie the knot we have contacts with other parties with you m.p. and we have contacted the socialist it has been confirmed to us that's in case belgium would speed up then one would be welcome in france. the biggest party in the northern half want to split two experts say belgians already divided people don't know any more about the other half of the country the flemish people don't know who are the popular singers or writers today in the french speaking part and vice versa king albert's fears belgium's national day last week was its last he

added the crisis threatens not just every belgian but european integration itself. the e.u. is scared that the divorce of belgium will spark of the rest of europe catalonia leaving spain scotland leaving a britain where releasing separatist marchers and mixed community towns here turned violent with guns getting paul to take just one big clash from brussels to become sorry that's conflicts or a mass killing not suffered in europe since world war two neighbors turned on each other as you can slove a broke up and the determination of regional identity is not to be underestimated french unionists say they have the flag and everything else worked out to become from. twenty eighth region or that's left of the details the new bush will see brussels. reported in a week on a land where separation brought anything but stability old peace violence flared up

again this last week on the kosovo serbian border on wednesday kosovo police seized two checkpoints to impose a ban on imports from. that one of the crossings attacked by must rioters who threw firebombs towards the customs office nato peacekeeping troops had to move in to stop the violence so obvious protest against unilateral moves by kosovo at its call for un security council meeting was projected at the last minute because acts but the voice of mileage told us kosovo is either ignoring the regulations or has been given an official approval of the decision by prishtina to introduce the tree embargo and to send a special forces this is direct slap in the face of the serbian government which has been nothing but cooperate you've been even capitulating in the ongoing negotiations which were set up by the e.u. this action has completely either completely bypassed both the europeans and nato or has been executed with their complicity in cooperation and honesty in the issue which is worse the e.u.

has made unimaginably were spotted recognizing your regime that is. that has absolutely no interest in any sort of dialogue it came to power through violence it has conducted widespread ethnic cleansing of serbs another no no then in populations it has been rewarded for a. white spirit harm of syrians in march two thousand and four and it has basically shown the willingness to behave in a civilized fashion and into including to a corporation of independence and know this so honestly and your mission is there to facilitate their independence contrary to international law and use the rules so obviously it is a message here so making it is a mess that the europeans and nato. basically made it need to fix. brief least eleven people have been killed in a blast of police headquarters in southern afghanistan the taliban has claimed responsibility for the suicide car bomb attack in the city of glasgow local authorities say most of the victims were police officers it's less than

a fortnight since nato led forces formally handed over security in the city to afghan troops. now the volcano on the italian island of sicily is making its presence known have been for eruptions already this month and this latest is the biggest yet with flames and burning are shooting two hundred fifty meters up into the sky the flare up again on saturday morning and continued into the weekend no casualties or damage has been reported. not the same the next story though a very rare glimpse of make sure is power and the how the kid caused in russia a bit earlier on today take a look at these amazing pictures of a whirlwind sweeping through the country's far east eye witnesses say the wind literally lifted three people off a balcony there before dropping them back to the ground tragedy though to one of those people was killed in the fall there was injured at least twenty eight roofs off buildings up rooted trees brought down power lines overturned many cars more of these amazing pictures just shows how vicious mother nature can be a time at r.t.

dot com. here just a couple of minutes time a documentary explores both the present and the past of the former soviet republic of lithuania one of the first to leave the union in fact it's here on r.t. this sunday the thirty first of july last few hours of it here in moscow. on our latest headlines in just a few moments.