it starts on t. dot com. on r t tonight rebels say they're invited sing towards tripoli but the libyan leadership dismisses the scale of their threat and calls for all parties to negotiate. violence so balls in the middle east for the fourth day of fears exchanges of fire between hamas and israel may lead to a ground offensive in gaza. in top stories about for jade the week the crackdown against english rioters gains momentum with harsh sentences handed to those who played only minor parts in the chaos as human rights groups say judges and politicians have gone too far. away you leaders promise of a single economic government fails to reassure anxious investors and turbulent markets as fresh trouble with greece once again threatens stability.

welcome it's a pm sunday evening here in moscow you're watching r.t. with me kevin our first libyan rebels say they're pushing on towards tripoli and claim they're now around thirty kilometers from the capital they have also been reports of sporadic violence within tripoli itself but many people on the ground there say the situation is much calmer than those reports suggest lizzie feel an independent journalist in tripoli who told us the full so calm so what's happening have served only to stir up the conflict. we've been hearing from the rebels and from nato that nato allies essential need the rebels. a day a week or very close to tripoli we've been hearing this for the past five months so the people of tripoli have essentially got used to these claims and treat them very

seriously we've been hearing that zawiya is under control that breaker is in country of crimes of control but the reality is that what is happening in these areas is that they're coming under intense nato bombardment and leaving the libyan army and the volunteers this tension to the tribes and on people in libya to move out of the area temporarily while the airstrikes are taking place last night there was some incidents in parts of tripoli which with seem to have been quite rapidly dealt with why by the people here by the libyan government people started to come out into the streets to rally in support of their lead to essentially and then after that there were a few more incidents they appeared as though there have been a few snipers from the rebels shooting from buildings i'm talking about a very small number but the issue creates must panic and it's very difficult to deal with because of the threats of hurting civilians obviously failed in its

military strategy and to create a military solution here so instead what we're seeing is a massive psychological operation going on to try and weaken the government in the libyan government in that way the beginning of the crisis and continuously the international media the western media al-jazeera in particular has been responsible for a number of really grave lies of course there was the lie that gadhafi was attacking his own people which thanks to the satellites of russian and intelligence prove that there were no such attacks. we had the lie that the libyan government was hiring mercenaries from african countries that has led to the mass lynching of black people in areas like benghazi a misrata and other places that was also proved to be a lie by human rights organization. we've had the lie that there was an imminent massacre about to take place in benghazi and also there was already thousands that had been killed by the libyan government in benghazi but we have yet to see the mass graves we have yet to see the footage we have yet to see the evidence of this

most recently there was of course the claims in the international media that somehow the. massacre that took place in leeds and wasn't quite on the scale that the libyan people and government was paying and i went to the town myself i went to the burial i saw the evidence of the massacre of children and other civilians so it's quite understandable that few journalists here may be receiving receiving the pleas of the libyan government to just do their job essentially and report what is happening on the ground here because thus far they have been they have proven incapable of doing so and that is they are largely responsible for the crisis in this country to depend a journalist was a feeling they were more analysis on the situation in libya talk to ivan eland he's a senior fellow at the independent institute in washington chu ivan could see you again today the libyan leadership has proposed negotiations with the rebels and with no two forces why is no response back from them do you think. well i think

they think they're winning and they're going to take tripoli they have the city surrounded and i think it may be the end game times though when if the if the. if he is using mercenaries or get it catered forces to him tribal allegiances it could still be now as the fighting in the city but i think the rebels think they have the advantage at this point and they're being helped by the nato. bombing and that sort of thing so i think they think they're almost ready to take tripoli whether if you called any of the last report there's an independent journalist as he spoke to last night she's been on the program again today saying that the reports on some of the media there including al jazeera incorrect as she saying it is looking around and not agreeing with the seriousness of those reports whether or not that's to be believed i.e. the seriousness of the reports do you think we already closer to seeing tripoli turning into a bloodbath. well i think we are it's hard to say during war you get report one

report on one thing and then it's contradicted by another certainly the rebels have made gains i've always said it was probably going to be tougher to get rid of gadhafi than everyone thought and so i think that may be still the case because i think when you get into a city sometimes you have to take it street by c. street other times regimes just fall apart and very rapid so it's hard to say what the how this is going to have but i think we need to pay attention to the long term this was that even if nato and the rebels triumph i think this was a mistake because we've already seen that all these anti-aircraft missiles maybe missing the shoulder fired missiles which we waited any serious hit on a commercial airliner but of gave those to terrorists or who is who are these rebels we really don't know is there going to be tribal fighting is there going to

be islamised takeover we don't know khadafi had been demonized by the united states ever since ronald reagan and the problem in the united states is when we give people like saddam or cut off the we had actually like to get rid of them and that may not may or may not be a good idea cause problems in iraq and it may cause problems in libya as well if you have chaos. or. could be giving stuff terrorists as one last. jab at the americans saddam hussein certainly left a nice poison pill with guerrilla warfare for years so who knows what he had and had planned and he had since the one nine hundred eighty s. to figure out that the united states might be wanting to get rid of them so he presumably maybe developed some sort of a plan. not only to get away or to distribute these weapons to make it. very hazardous the flying commercial aircraft who knows we don't know where these missiles are and we don't know what's going to happen the pie. all these

things this war is very unpredictable and when you start when you don't know where it ends i want to touch again back on the importance of the media and its role in warfare how it could influence people influence the way people are affected it how important has been the media coverage of what's going on in libya so how much of a role does that have to play. well i think in the western media here particularly in the united states all the western countries the media is sort of in a cheerleader you know. on the on a retreat is almost over so you're absolutely right maybe the reports are exaggerated but certainly the western media is hopeful because no one likes gadhafi and certainly i'm not defending his human rights record but he was the leader of the country and it seemed like the western countries just took advantage of a rebellion to get rid of him of course they haven't really done that in assad in syria they've been very slow because israel doesn't necessarily want to get rid of

him. because they're scared what could happen there but why isn't the same thing apply in libya what could happen there we don't know and i think the media has been tends to cheerlead for whatever government you know the western governments they've certainly then in the coverage has been well the rebels are progressing the rebels of course we've seen reverse of what could be a reverse here to one last quick thought were a bit pushed for time his mission in libya has been prolonged already till september do you think we might see airstrikes continuing that line. well it could be if they don't. get rid of gadhafi sure they're sort of in it to get rid of them because that's the real goal here not to protect civilians that was this is stated goal. of so much for your thoughts on the program senior fellow at the independence to washington d.c. to. thank you carrie now let's look ahead to something coming up next more violence

elsewhere in the region as r.t. israel for national reports on the latest from syria. how does the syrian army i live. near the iraqi border mr officials are saying operation is now over that the city has been freed from groups as you can see people are welcome in the soldiers as the reader is. for the next hour in the cross border violence assault of the middle east this week with israel launching airstrikes in gaza which fought back with dozens of rocket attacks latest reports suggest that now egypt has managed to broker a cease fire between the sides which could come into a fait later sunday but earlier my colleague dmitri medvedev who spoke to our to mid east correspondent she's in tel aviv with the latest for you. there are now a new round of a strike and rocket attacks since last night saturday and nine rockets have been

fired into southern israel one man was killed one woman was critically injured and a number of buildings have to be any damage at the same time we're talking here some one hundred seventy rockets that has been rained down and has in israel since its finest since began on tuesday now it is increasingly looking like keep the israeli army might be considering a ground offensive into gaza and this comes and this is a number of israelis one of the experienced students to such an operation to take place early today sunday israel resumed it's a strike the hamas leadership is calling on the international community to condemn israel and this in a kingdom and it was echoed at the arab league meeting that was held here today in cairo that meeting issued a statement in which he says that israel needs to stop its aggression from policies just and cars and soil and at the same time he called on the united nations to intervene so israel's also been gripped by massive protests over the message problems for months now what are people that think about this is collating the

center. of the social protest has now been ongoing for more than a month and my knowledge people are insisting that they will remain with him on high on the agenda but of course of a growing concern that the netanyahu government might use this current violence as an excuse as a detraction away from actually addressing the very real concerns let me i have adam can i see a spokesperson from the shed on the head in the most recent protest last night saturday seem to see demonstrators with a new slogan now in light of the latest conflict years in the good always the old slogan to people on social justice. will want to see is for you is this representative of most israelis what most israeli supporters he's high at the moment couldn't. really but it will be very. the problem and what was this. instrument stream columnist to the interviewer for not. much of

a question will of the last word should the first short the last short which is completely unimportant either politically or militarily but it is a question of the speech for the more people the forces for the chief. one chimed the issue here in the last month has been issues especially security and social issues wanted to set an agenda seems to change terrorism and security do you think that the netanyahu government is using this as an opportunity to detract from issues at home there is certainly no question that is using. certainly the people who made this attack in the negative gave it to him on the social. that i don't think that this social put this is going to disappear because there is a very very much feeling of bitterness in the for closeness and it's and he always been living very much most of the free market for people who stood. in for many

children says this is right in no it is very much in play i think this will not go away what it will happen in the outside force. and of course another sentiment that's being expressed here in his run is that he can't think to this point even check from fifteenth here and gaza is something that's been on the cards for some time. so he will out is middle east correspondent paula slayer there talking about polygamy. this is still to come the knights of the sky. the crowds on the ground this is an exciting spectacle but that's not quite the emotion that's going through my mind at the moment because i'm about to see what happens from inside the cockpit oh. all in a day's job but all the thrills and some spectacular stunts from the final day of the max international air show in moscow coming up boy. heading to britain next

though where two young men have been handed tough jail sentences for using facebook to encourage violent riots and jail terms were praised by prime minister david cameron but slammed by human rights groups as being over the top are these are the bennett has more now on how the policy of zero tolerance has taken hold in the u.k. . four years behind bars for the riot that didn't even happen jordan black sure and perry sutcliffe kenan were banged up for inciting disorder on facebook no one turned up after their invitation to riot which they later said was a drunken joke but now they face sentences even tougher than most looters and i worry is that it is an imbalance a four year sentence for example would normally be given to somebody for a previous dorothy harm for holding someone up with a knife or even for. some form of sexual assault so it seems to me that that there is a danger that the courts are moving into disproportionate territory and actually

devalues our response to more serious crimes people over months encouraged course to dish out harsh sentences by using the public disturbance as an aggravating factor it's meant this man anderson fernandez could even be sent to jail for theft of just two scoops of ice cream was like this one of the annoying bail to most offenders and ignoring any claims of previous good character of the one thousand two hundred seventy seven people charged so far two thirds are being reminded in custody that's way up on last year's rate for serious crimes this is just ten percent some offenders even being made homeless is their punishment with local governments taking away their houses but many say it's all simply cause more harm than good i think this is very unwise the move to remove people from housing interim of benefits because actually if we are seeing that some of the crime that we saw on the streets was an expression of people not feeling towards the city not

feeling part of working unities in these measures are actually going to push it further away from society further away from our communities and far more likely to commit crime the facebook case is the first sign of the government's desire to crack down on social media sites like twitter were applauded by the west to mobilize. the masses in the arab world but they were also instrumental in the u.k. riots so now the prime minister wants it to stop we are working with the police the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites or services when we know they are plotting violence disorder and criminality when social media fueled revolutions in egypt and tunisia britain called it democracy but now the shoe's on the other foot and troubles closer to home. we knew. who. we thought the. country's.

prime minister says this is where britain fights back but it's this fighting fire with fire could only fan the flames of civil disorder are have been it's party under. a collective economic government that's the latest measure proposed by top e.u. leaders in their bid the whole market turmoil and reverse the stagnation across the continent but the latest is a little support among investors who say it's too little too late angela merkel and nicolas sarkozy rejected the idea of a euro bonds favored by the markets and seen by any as the best way of emerging from the debt crisis political analyst and author william engle told us evil leaves there's little real substance to these latest measures that. i think the collective economic government the american sarkozy you're talking about is really a desperate political ploy to try to create the illusion of stability where the

underlying stability doesn't yet exist there is no political will not in germany nor in the rest of the eurozone countries for surrendering national sovereignty to a collective entity that has any decision power so it's simply a shimmer that's been thrown out there to try to calm the markets the alternative really. is is to get steve will export market relations i think above all with russia the central asian republics trying to and the rest of asia in the middle east and if that is created then you can have a growth vector that leads you out of this debt impasse that the eurozone countries are in without that and so long as as the. dollar system dominates international financial relations that moody's standard and poor's do the rating on sovereign debt for european union countries and that there is no independent european credit rating agency and there isn't is no. growth perspective not only austerity

there is no out of this crisis. and yet another blow to the euro zone the clock second hundred sixty billion euro bailout for greece may be under threat now athens agreed to provide finland with collateral in return for its contribution to the financial rescue package but that's about indignation among the other fifteen some of which are now also demanding collateral alister of a woman greece is a capable of handing out such guarantees the commission says it will now investigating whether if it was actually appropriate. while the world markets continue to tumble on bleak economic news worldwide the blame game is of course in full swing from bickering u.s. political parties to investors in credit rating agencies few major players have escaped unscathed but it is their list to report some may find themselves suffering war for that. breaking news the united states has just lost its top notch triple a credit rating from hit with a downgrade heard around the world in

a strong reaction to the rating downgrade a hoss owned u.s. well it's dead standard and poor's took the u.s. from straight triple a student to one notch below for the first time ever bad marks were handed down for the nation's debt and politicians inability to agree on rein it in a tea party downgrade a lot of it has to do with the fate of the present united states i think this is a tea party problem a greater in chief says the u.s. is recovery a bit more unpredictable and. the governments that still work response from the downgrade are that help to ratchet up at the yeah tricks of the debt ceiling debate with the help of the other ratings agencies of course stealing the show from bickering politicians with their eyes on the debt deal they may be missing really a larger concern because there is growing evidence today that the u.s. credit score is going to get hit now that the u.s. has gotten hit just how much does s. and p's mark actually count well not much according to some like investor jim

rogers but it's not because the country isn't broke america is going down the tubes we're the largest debtor nation in the history of the world it's because of the source these low rating agencies have been wrong about nearly everything for the past ten or fifteen years don't pay any attention to them so just how does the report card stack up for the major ratings agencies themselves they are s.n.p. moody's and fitch let's assess test one the mortgage crisis of two thousand and eight these are the same agencies that rated the toxic sub-prime dead aaa so i mean how do we take them with any level of credibility after that. well let's see if they get any from tess to the too big to fail banks and insurers during the financial crisis many of the big bankruptcies are give our investment. rating still remember bear stearns writes of g.e. they gave a aaa rating too to almost the day good grades for firms that collapsed or were

bailed out because of bad debt in fact the financial crisis inquiry commission said the three credit ratings agencies were key enablers of the financial meltdown and this brings us to test three ethics ratings agencies are paid by the investment firms they grade and moody's and s. and p. are publicly traded which means they may be more driven to increase profits for shareholders raising this to be right now you have the companies that are being judged paying the bill and i think i'm running a big old version of mr buffett also pointed out the market requires it because these ratings agencies has been around forever so they're in shrine by government regulations which bo yeah they have a stake in test for objectivity for legislation the financial reform has restrictions on rating agencies and the rules that are yet to be written and they care a huge deal about what those rules and up looking like sort of it would surprise me if they were trying to curry favor with politicians in fact they spent

a combined total of one point seven six million dollars this year lobbying washington over the regulations which brings us full circle to the downgrade of u.s. credit the u.s. was downgraded by x. and p. because of government debt member of the government ran up that that in part because they bailed out the big banks in ai g. back in two thousand and eight remember the one saddled with all of those bad mortgage bonds which the ratings agencies graded triple a when in reality they were a d. or an f. makes you wonder if the ratings agencies themselves deserve a downgrade or in leicester our t. washington d.c. well it's all the doom and gloom is trying to cheer also a little bit look at some. international marks says shows funny come back down to earth has closed its doors off the. terms of thousands and through its enjoyed six days. there. before were the best pilots high in the skies the world's top aircraft makers were also there to show off their legs. but the highlight was the made

public flight of russia's new fifth generation fighter jet the t. fifty. took a ride up his own to feel the full force of aerobatic adventure. engines check. instruments check runway check and then it's takeoff for the russian aerobatic display team. their nine first class pilots have performed over two hundred times in the past nineteen years but they all have to start somewhere. andre is training to join the team he thinks he's nearly good enough now but still remembers his first flight as a solo pilot there's live without any warning they told me i was going to do the next flight on my own i had no time to be scared there was no longer an instructor to my back it was unforgettable takeoff you're on your own controlling the plane

then when you land you've done it. the as moves are always trying to hold them the new vista they practice most weekends thinking of new tricks and practicing old ones however even with years of flying and training experience between them it never becomes easy. or difficult with smokers when you leave the cockpit or you can squeeze a gallon of sweat from your suit your knees are shaking because it's extremely difficult and stressful and anyone would feel that with america so with that gut wrenching fare ringing in my ears i was told it was my turn for the crowds on the ground this is an exciting spectacle but that's not quite the emotion that's going through my mind at the moment because i'm about to see what happens from inside the cockpit. we did the loop the loop all the planes just meters apart.

but when it came to the fountain i nearly blacked out. white faced but not defeated by returns. but i could also see some of the strains that go for our. but there is no ticket that just you know he might speak for the crowds who put the aerial acrobatics are in situ to the pilots it's always a difficult job to track terrorists. so next time you look up at those speeding planes spirit thought for the pilots i'm sorry. tom bottom arctic. i was the best of us and i just had

a few minutes time why new media laws in hungary clamping down on freedom of speech i got that story for you coming up shortly as our programs continue here on our team from moscow my name is kevin irwin thanks joining us live this sunday evening the twenty first of august.

close of. of approach. on the feature flight try our team takes us to the max their show. if. you want the fourth quarter.