welcome it's a pm sunday evening here in moscow you're watching r t with me kevin now in the 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 lizzi feeling is an independent journalist in tripoli who told us that false accounts of what's happening have served only to stir up the conflict. we've been hearing from the rebels and from nato that nato allies the century the rebels. a day we go very close to tripoli we've been hearing this for the past five months so the people of tripoli have a century got used to these claims and treat them very seriously we've been hearing that we have is under control that breaker is in country kinds of control but the reality is that what is happening in these areas is that they are coming under intense nato bombardment and leaving the libyan army and the volunteers the

ascension of the tribes and 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 seem to have been quite rapidly of dealt with why by the people here by 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 it appears as though there have been a few snipers from the rebels shooting from buildings i'm talking about a very small number of rebels but the issue creates mass panic and it's very difficult to deal with because of the threats of hurting civilians has 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 that intelligence proved that there were no such attacks as 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 and misrata and other places that was also proved to be a lie by human rights organization. we've heard the lie that there was an imminent must occur about to take place in benghazi and also there was already thousands that have 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 civilian deaths the massacre that took place in the town wasn't quite on the scale that the libyan people and government was claiming 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 a 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 deter the journalists as if they were more analysis from the situation in libya talk to ivan eland he's a senior fellow at the independent institute in washington to have a good see you again today the libyan leadership has proposed negotiations with the rebels and with no two forces why is the big no response apart from 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 maybe the endgame oftentimes though when if the if the khadafi is using mercenaries or dedicated 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 in their being helped by the nato. bombing and that sort of thing so i think they think they're almost ready to take tripoli others if you caught any of the last report there's an independent journalist as you feel and i 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 correct as she said that you're looking around and not agreeing with the seriousness of those reports whether or not that's to be believed by the seriousness of the reports do you think we are any 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 will how this is going to end but i think we need to pay attention to the long term this was even if nato and the rebels triumph i think this was a mistake because we've already seen all these anti-aircraft missiles maybe missing the shoulder fired missiles which we waited any serious hit on a commercial airliner but of khadafi 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 islamic takeover we don't know if he had been demonized by the united states ever since ronald reagan and the problem in the united states is when we demonize people like saddam or cut off the we 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. giving stuff terrorists as one last. jab at the americans of saddam hussein certainly left a nice poison pill with guerrilla warfare for years so who knows what cut off he had and had planned i mean he had since the one nine hundred eighty s. to figure out that the united states might be wanting to get rid of him 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. i'm with the all these things this war is very unpredictable and when you start when you don't know where it ends up i want to touch again back on the importance of the media and its role in warfare could influence people influence the way people are affected it i mean how important has been the media coverage of what's going on in libya so how

would you role does it have to play. well i think in the western media here particularly in the united states all the western countries the media has sort of been a cheerleader you know. on the on the 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 khadafi 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 of what could happen there but why isn't doesn'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 certainly then the coverage has been well the rebels are progressing the rebels are progressing and of course we've seen reverse of what could be a reverse here to one last quick thought were a bit pushed his mission in libya has been prolonged already till september do you think we might see strikes continuing that line. well it could be if with they don't. get rid of gadhafi sure they're they're sort of in it to get rid of him because that's the real goal here not to protect civilians that was the stated goal . then and thanks ever so much for your thoughts on the program senior fellow at the independence to washington d.c. as you are. thank you karen now let's look ahead to something coming up next more violence elsewhere in the region as artist maria fanaa reports on the latest from syria. soldiers of the syrian army i live in the city all of them near the iraqi border. 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 winner is. for the next hour indeed 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 mid east correspondent she's in tel aviv with the latest for you. there are now a new round of a strikes and rocket attacks since last night saturday some nine rockets have been fired into southern israel one man was killed one woman was critically injured and a number of buildings have been severely damaged at the same time we're talking here some one hundred and seventy rockets that have rained down on seven israel since this mine and this began on tuesday now it is increasingly looking like keep

that the israeli army might be considering a ground offensive into gaza and this comes and then a number of israelis part of the interior and spoiling for such an operation to take place early today sunday israel resumed its a strike the hamas leadership is calling on the international community to condemn israel and this in a to intimate that was echoed at the arab league nice change that was held here today in cairo that meeting issued a statement in which he says that israel needs to stop its aggression on both his gyptian and gazan soil and at the same time he called on the united nations to intervene so israel's also been gripped by massive protests over domestic problems for months mel what are people that think about this is collating tension. well the social protest has now been ongoing for more than a month and by and large people are insisting that they will remain with him on high on the agenda but of course of his 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 with me i has adam can next he's a spokesperson from the shed on these men have been the most recent protests last night saturday seemed to see demonstrators with a new slogan now in light of the latest conflict years since. there's always the old slogan that people on social justice. think that people want to see is for you if that's representative of most israelis what most israeli supporters ceasefire at the moment when this is flugel should good for everybody would be very. the problem what was the. main stream columnist to do in the autumn or not is a kind of macho question who will live the last truth the first short the last short which is completely unimportant politically or militarily but it is a question of that for the people forces for the chief.

one time the issue here for the last month has been issues of social security and social issues one of a sudden an agenda seems to change to terrorism and security do you think that the netanyahu government is using this as an opportunity to detract from issues that when there is certainly no question that is using. and certainly the people in the give give it to him on a social. that i don't think the. social put this is going to disappear because there is a very very much feeling of bitterness in the hopelessness and it's always been living very much the most. free market for people least economists in for many children says. it is very much. a i think this will not go away what will happen in the outside. and of course another thing to be expressed here in his run is that

the country quick to respond to these attacks from fifteen here and. there is something that's been on the cards for some time. but he's correspondent paula slayer there talking about khaled dmitri medvedev. 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 of the day's job and all the thrills and some spectacular stunts from the final day of the mac's 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 the jail terms were praised by prime minister david cameron but slammed by human rights groups as being over the top of a 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 our worry is that it is an imbalance a four year sentence for example would normally be given to somebody for a previous bodily 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 that actually devalues our response to more serious crimes that governments encourage courts 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 because like this one denying bail to most offenders and ignoring any claims of previous good character of the one thousand two hundred seventy seven people charge so far two thirds have been reminded in custody that's way up on last year's rate for serious crimes chris 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 intern move 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 part to society not feeling part of our communities then these measures are actually going to push people 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 in chinese britain called it democracy but now the shoe's on the other foot when troubles closer to home. we knew you know that. we would be the force the. country's. prime minister says this is where britain fights back but its speed this fighting fire with fire could only fan the flames of civil disorder after bennett's artsy

london. collective economic government that's the latest measure proposed by top e.u. leaders in their bid to hold market turmoil and reverse the stagnation across the continent but the latest ideas are found little support among investors who say it's too little too late i'm going to work 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 is political analyst and author william engle told us he believes there's little real substance to these latest and. i think the collective economic government that merkel and sarkozy are 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 china 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 but there is no out of this crisis and yet another blow to the eurozone the block second hundred sixty billion euro bailout for greece may be under threat now pathans is agreed to provide finland with collateral in return for its contribution

to the financial rescue package but that spot in the nation among the other fifteen thousand is some of which are now also demanding collateral families to have a woman greece is in capable of handing out such guarantees the commission says it will now investigate whether federal exactions appropriate. and 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 there's a list of reports some may find themselves suffering war for that than others. breaking news the united states has just lost its top notch triple a credit rating from it was the downgrade heard around the world in a strong reaction to the rating downgrade and u.s. well it's dead standard and poor's took the u.s. from straight aaa 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 reigning it

in the tea party downgrade in a lot of it has to do with the failure of the present united states i think this is a tea party problem the greater in chief says the u.s. is becoming a bit more unpredictable in terms of the. proposed to the road through to some of the other governments that we were a stoic response from the downgrade or that helped to ratchet up that 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 where the largest debtor nation in the history of the world it's because of the source of these late 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 that missed many of the big bankruptcies they gave her investment . ratings to lehman to bear stearns right to the very end gee they gave a aaa rating to to almost the day of collapse 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 debate right now you have the companies that are being judged for paying the bill and i'm rounding a big goal of berkshire but 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 oh yeah they have a stake in test for objectivity frank 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 end up looking like saw it wouldn't surprise me if they were trying to curry favor with certain politicians in fact they've 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 s. and p. because of government debt burden member the government ran up that debt in part

because it bailed out the big banks and a.i.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. which makes you wonder if the ratings agencies themselves deserve a downgrade lauren lester r. t. washington d.c. one of it's all the doom and gloom is trying to cheer ourselves up a bit look at some planes international mark says shows funny come back down to earth and has closed its doors off through the crowds. terms of thousands of through his enjoyed six days a. death defying aerobatics performed by the best pilots high in the skies the world's top aircraft makers were also there to show off the signs but the highlight was the maiden public flight of russia's brand new fifth generation fighter jet the fifty told bob took a ride then. to feel the full force of aerobatic adventure.

engine check. instrument check runway check. and then it's takeoff for the russian aerobatics display team. their nine first class pilots have performed over two hundred times in the past nineteen years but they all had 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 going to the piers there 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 of 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 hone their maneuvers 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 repair difficult most smoke when you leave the cockpit you can squeeze a gallon of sweat from your suit what if your knees are shaking because it's extremely difficult and stressful and anyone would feel that way. so with that gut wrenching fare ringing in the my ears i was told it was mine 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 i returned to.

it . but i could also see some of the streams they go through. though there's no ticket but just you know he might speak for the crowds but serial acrobatics aren't a show to the pilot it's always a difficult job attached. so next time you look up at those speeding planes spare a thought for the pilot inside. the bottom take. the best of us now just add a few minutes time why new media laws in hungary clamping down on freedom of speech you got that story for you coming up shortly as a programs continue here on our t.v. from moscow my name's kevin owen thanks for joining us live this sunday evening the twenty first of august.

close. of approach. on the show because features like try our team takes us

to the max air show. if. you want to. see. this street still keeps its secrets to reveal the. files on.

pm near moscow you're watching our. top stories rebels say they're advancing towards tripoli the libyan leadership dismisses the scale of this threat and calls for. violence knoebels in the middle east for the fourth day amid fears exchanges of fire between a mass in israel may lead with ground offensive in gaza meanwhile the arab league. feeling of tension. the. sentences handed to those who played only minor details as human rights groups judges and politicians. and other top stories in the week the e.u. leaders promise of a single economic government fails to reassure anxious investors and turbulent markets as fresh trouble over greece once again threatens to predict.