with russia. and broadcasting live direct from the heart of moscow this is r.t. glad to have you with us let's take a look at your top headlines signs of it discontent are still evident in unstable syria even after thousands of regime supporters a crowd of the streets of the capital activists say fresh clashes between government troops and armed men across the country left one thousand dead president assad promised to establish a special committee to draw up a new constitution while international pressure builds on him to step down parties are cilia has the latest from damascus. but voices of support. and continuing dissent some ending in deadly clashes polar opposites in their demands but in some way united by a newfound zeal to take

a stand we're going to separate the syrian capital with the hour and i have gathered to show their support for the government that is going up far cry from the images we've been seeing in other cities that the country where there have been reporting watches lately security forces that every government protests that i should however why we think it's about where in this country how many contests courses have tightly shut that's ok that was the very way for sure that everybody was. allowed her husband and young children were one of many families who braved the heat and joined the crowds in downtown damascus. it's true that we knew nothing about politics before but now we take a stand even if i'm a sunni muslim i'm pro this president. ever since most people started revealing their political stance openly some people would mock me and say since when do you know about politics what do you know there are divisions among family members some are pro west side some are. but that's how

it is. it appears that apathy is becoming a less of an option for citizens of a nation now under intense international scrutiny i never watched news i never cared you know i never never had any interest in politics but. i think most of us read it books we watch the news media god to close it on facebook we want to know what i don't think that and then we have the right back around and other issues about kids until you've got the. yeah there are those like the new i who sing who are no strangers to picking a side and making it known he's long been voicing his discontent at what he calls a repressive regime and today facebook is one of his main tools in coordinating dissent coalition activism has evolved in syria for me i feel that my voice goes further now back then it started with stating an opinion going to jail that hitting a dead and no one would even know about it that has changed now that people are

more politically aware hussein has been thrown in jail says he was tortured and finds himself constantly looking over his shoulder. i was detained for spreading the word on the violent crackdown in daraa but i'd feel like a coward if i didn't risk by life while those on the streets are doing so asking for the regime to fall a call staunchly opposed by those on the other side of the wheel. with me to give them the chance. to get the thing. while political curiosity and activism among syrians are growing whatever side of the divide they're on people here see the future of their country is at stake but all are adamant that future is firmly in their own hands. does our cilia r.t. damascus. and you can also have your say on the developments in syria at r.t. dot com we ask you why president and president assad is still in power while gadhafi is not. so far the majority believe it's because china and russia have

opposed to foreign military action against syria just over a fifth think bashar al assad has more popularity and national support than colonel gadhafi eight percent of you say that the syrian opposition movement is clueless while the rest believe assad's a continuing hold on power is down to his ruthless reputation please cast your vote at r.t. dot com. anti wall street protests continue to swell in the u.s. as demonstrators say that hundreds of recent arrests have only inspired them and brought more people to the movement protesters say they are fed up with the rule of banks and bonuses flowing into the pockets of the rich while ordinary workers and the poor continue to suffer meanwhile protesters have literally given the brush off to a call by new york's mayor mike bloomberg for them to leave a park so it can be cleaned with demonstrators saying it's merely an attempt to remove them after he recently attacked their campaign parties report my explains

why the protesters are doing their own cleaning. the occupy wall street protesters are taking part in our massive cleanup effort today on wall street all the demonstrators hundreds of them that have been camping out there and sleeping there for weeks are pulling out their brooms their mops even toothbrushes to clean every square inch of zuccotti park the park that they've been camped out in the reason why the demonstrators are doing this is because new york city mayor michael bloomberg paid a visit to the park personally on wednesday evening walk through and told all the the protesters that they would have to temporarily leave the park on friday so that it could be cleaned up now the protesters believe that this is an effort city officials are making to remove them from the grounds that they have been camping out so they decided to take the initiative and clean the park on their own now of

course the occupy wall street movement has been referring to themselves and the majority of americans as the ninety nine percent they believe that one percent of americans the richest that live in the u.s. basically hold the vast amount of money and that the disparity between rich and poor is growing deeper and deeper some facts were compiled by a variety of different organizations and those statistics include the fact that the top one percent. forty percent of america's wealth this disparity according to reports is worse than it's been in the past twenty five years at its worst level a second point is that the top one percent take home twenty five percent of america's national income and the third point is that the top one percent owns half

of the country's stocks bonds and mutual funds this is just. a little wreath a synopsis of the what the occupy movement has been were burnt and when they talk about corporate greed possibly or when they talk about. economic disparities within the united states. or does marina portnoy reporting for us there and sticking with this story the demands to trim the huge power of big banks seems to be falling on deaf ears in the white house and is granted you can explain washington isn't ready to turn its back on old friends. investing in politics has proved to be good business in america just a few million dollars in contributions and some lobbying can bring it company billions in bailout loan guarantees tax refunds another stimulus all of the expense of the every american taxpayer both in the election system it's in the ongoing lobbying in service to influence industry these are powerful powerful businesses

their whole business model is around using influence to break the rules of the game in their favor so far u.s. corporations have been successful in ensuring that the laws introduced to regulate wall street after the financial meltdown of two thousand and eight don't function those measures were effectively scuppered by u.s. lawmakers the corporations were also successful in keeping their tax cuts intact and finding loopholes for getting billions of dollars in refunds the government of the one percent for the one percent by the one percent and the picture wakes and self passes rules that allows the banks to get the regulated it restricts our democracy three years after washington gave almost a trillion dollars of taxpayers' money to bail out corporate giants unemployment in the country is over nine percent the national debt is well past the tipping point and the congress is looking to cut essential social programs her thousands of

americans took to the streets to ask where is their bailout and how can i live in a country that arrests one hundred nine while in people and doesn't arrest a single one of these bankers or the people would cause this to us just boggles the mind in the meantime goldman sachs one of the main architects of the current crisis is richer than ever it is announced seventeen billion dollars in bonuses alone for its staff when asked about the impunity enjoyed by the corporations president obama said a lot of that stuff wasn't necessarily illegal it was just. immoral and many agree it pretty much stays that way but not only do the lawmakers come under fire for accepting generous contributions from corporations and then acting to return the favor but the president himself was accused of bias and cronyism on a number of occasions one of the most recent scandals involves a solar energy company celebrity which went bankrupt and cost taxpayers almost six

hundred million dollars that's the amount that the government approved in loan guarantees despite receiving persistent warnings about the company's financial stability the deal was pushed through by a foundation which in turn was a major donor to president obama's election campaign since last year corporations have been allowed to funnel as much money as they want into political campaigns now they don't even have to disclose the amounts they spend their upcoming trial by elections is very serious the new law effectively gives the corporations even more influence in washington leaving many americans in fear that their voice might no longer count what drew all these people onto the streets of washington and other cities in the u.s. is the understanding that their government and their legislators represent the interests of the top one percent as they call them the very wealthy corporations that can afford influence in washington to skew the system in their favor. are t. washington d.c.

. and still ahead for you this hour digging deep. the eurozone rescue fund gets the green line for more money but cash strapped greece sees no light at the end of the austerity tunnel. and the ultimate light snack check out what's being served up in space as we often fail the process of cosmic catering that's coming up . a new criminal case has been launched against ukraine's former prime minister yulia timoshenko she has been charged with laying the burden of debts from an energy corporation she headed on to the ukrainian budget this comes just two days after the machine code was sentenced to seven years behind bars over her gas contracts with russia here's our correspondent in kiev. this story is very complicated and pretty dark because this case in fact refers to fifteen years ago when the unit i'm ashamed to was i was the head of the united energy systems of

ukraine company she signed several contracts with the russian defense ministry and according to prosecutors and key of she owes four hundred million u.s. dollars to the russian defense ministry and the essence of this new criminal case is that she passed right to put this debt on to the cranium shouldn't this violates the ukrainian law this is of course a very interesting new twist in this saga with the trial of you look so much and go indeed two days ago she was sentenced to seven years in prison who are abusing that power during the signing of contracts of gas deals with russia back in two thousand and nine this new case may only add fuel to the fire off a very tense and very furious ak is a very furious reactions from all over the world we've heard reactions from the united states which condemned the prison in the view that so much and so we shall we heard reactions from the european union which said that a possible agreement on association between the european union and ukraine could be canceled and even an invitation for mystery on a coach to visit a meeting in brussels in

a short future may also be cancelled we also heard very harsh reactions from moscow which claimed that all those gas deal signed in two thousand and nine were completely legitimate we've already heard very interesting statements from president bush who said that in fact this particular law under which he was too much ankle was present could be a bullish in ukraine decriminalised by the ukrainian parliament and thus. could be set free but according to many experts she will still be unable to run for president or run for parliament and will still have to repay almost two hundred million u.s. dollars in damages which she inflicted to the korean budget party's election they're now moving on the expanded eurozone bailout fund has been given the final go ahead slovakia's parliament has approved of the four hundred forty billion euro facility after tuesday's vote against it solve the country's ruling. coalition collapse the increased cash would go to struggling at nations such as greece that athens grinds to a halt in a forty eight hour strike against the government's austerity policies demonstrators

marched and waved flags during the latest in a series of rallies and protests to hit the cash strapped country along with the bailout fund e.u. leaders are seeking to prop up the banking sector but financial analysts are saying a more rescue cash is not what the country needs. if you stop promising anyone four hundred forty billion euros it will cheer them up for a while not expects that we'll see over the next few days or a certain amount of probably fairly short lived before you're over this but it doesn't address any of the fundamentals the f.s.f. itself is quite a flimsy mechanism you've got to bear in mind that most of this money isn't cold hard cash it's promises to pay and the promises to pay as you can make the promise but then when somebody actually expects the money to turn out you can see the promise evaporate very rapidly essentially since the start of twenty ten is that as long ago as it's been pretty clear to all and sundry apart from it turns out most of the leadership greece's debt is unsustainable you're talking. one hundred eighty

nine percent of its national income owed is dead so these forecasts to be sending fifteen percent of that national income on interest payments next year this is unsustainable greece at some point has to default the real question here is whether when not to fall happens it will be big enough to break the very bad cycle that greece is now locked into a high debt to fall in growth this is a crisis of regulation this is a failure to climb down and what banks were doing it failure to clamp down on the ways that they were trying to pass risk amongst themselves the way they thought they could carry on simply printing credits and making loans to each other forever more with no real consequences we're seeing the end of that process i think and the banks themselves are very happy about it they don't want to suffer the losses from the gambles that they took some time ago and he defaults that might happen that saying greece this affects french and german banks started they're not going to. banks over here it's pretty much like dominoes rattling across the continent. a look at some other stories making headlines around the world. three people have

been killed and thirteen are hurt in a restaurant blast in downtown rio before it opened for customers after staff arrived the explosion caused damage to apartments in the building above where the cafe was located an investigation is underway but a gas leak is the specter of it is feared gas may have been. in the restaurant the day and night before when it was closed for a public holiday. an estimated four hundred remaining fighters loyal to colonel gadhafi have pushed back interim government fighters after a day of fierce street fighting in his home city of syria this comes as the new libyan leaders have backtracked on their claims that one of gadhafi says sons scene has been captured in the besieged city meanwhile human rights group amnesty international has accused of the country's interim leadership of torturing thousands of detainees and called for the abuse to stop. at least fifteen people have been killed and almost fifty wounded after

a twin explosion attack rocked eastern baghdad according to officials a device went off near a house in the shiite city district just moments later a car bomb exploded in the same area as people were gathering at the site of the first blast the terrorist attack follows an earlier series of bombings targeting iraqi police that struck the capital on wednesday killing dozens. in a french inquiry into attempted rape allegations against axed international monetary fund chief dominique strauss kahn has been dropped for lack of evidence journalist tristan bent on has accused him of trying to rape her eight years ago during an interview with the prosecutor's office says strauss kahn had admitted to behavior that would qualify as sexual assault but that he couldn't be charged for this lesser offense under french law as it happened more than three years ago earlier this year he resigned as head of the i.m.f. over different attempted rape charges against a hotel worker in new york which were later dropped. cosmonauts and during

a long stay aboard the international space station food is one of the few distractions from their day to day routine but preparing a meal is no easy task for scientific chefs at home who must stir up a space safe menu that's both nutritional and tasty artie said peter all over for a lunch that's out of this world. after traveling at phenomenal speed for two days cramped in the small space of a soyuz rocket cosmonauts arriving at the international space station going to be packing but how do you eat in zero gravity. but it well you have to be a bit more careful than down here on earth every little piece of food that gets out of your group will float away and you will not be able to keep track of it to make sure cosmonauts enjoy their lunch without worrying that the rogue morsel will disappear into the inner workings of some potentially life saving computer equipment the russian space agency designed this special table is a threat to the others you know there are two heating compartments here in this

eerie and in between is a trap for crumbs it works like a regular vacuum cleaner this is important because choking on a crumb is very risky in zero gravity you can have grieved consequences. all the food eaten in space has to be specially prepared here on earth that preparation doesn't come cheap cosmonauts need three thousand calories a day that's the same as an olympic sprinter and providing that cost over six hundred dollars a day with most emissions lasting for six months each cosmonauts grocery bill comes in at a hefty one hundred ten thousand dollars per mission and those prices it's no wonder that the people behind cosmic catering a proud of their product. as the chief designer of space food twenty three years of experience in the space food industry i can probably say that russia's space food provides the healthiest the safest and the most nutrition rich diet for

a cosmonaut. even the most simple food requires special care and attention this factory in moscow produces space spirit and the work which goes into making it ready for all but it is almost as high tech as the i assess itself that. there is no mold and there's bread you know mold spores we've developed the recipe which stops molder of the bread doesn't go bad for fifteen months thanks to the special recipe and technologies we use when baking it. even when it comes to something simple like bread there's still plenty of choice for your hungry cosmonaut. all in all we make five types of bread gingerbread white bread that's what i have here on the table now right bread with caraway bread moscow style and dinner bread. currently around one hundred sixty options because we know what's on board the international space station including all of the tastes from home from soups to main courses and desserts and even the basics from salt and pepper the bread.

pretty good after a hard day's work on board the i assess it's nice to see that some of humanity's finest minds still have time to play with their food. ok i've got a yellow one for you good color nice and bright you ready ready. yummy here a couple more this make it three keep them coming. these are all over arty. news looks at this hour up next we talk to a new york hip hop artist who has been with the anti wall street protesters since they first took to the streets over four weeks ago he shares with r.t. the disappointment and frustration behind the outcry.

occupy wall street has now entered its fourth week of demonstrations and this may have now things brought this nation to forty five p. two hundred cities and over the past few weeks many well known names have thrown their support behind me in my current get proper optimus and a revolutionary immortal technique thank you for joining me thank you. having me on a program within the first few weeks you came down here to speak to the crowd from what i understand you were very bothered by the fact this movement was being marginalized right now for one week into

a mainstream media is down here we see all the satellite trucks around why do you think they have gone to report about what is taking place here and throughout the country you know this is an old phrase in the media if it bleeds it leads you know the more shocking the more outrageous it is the more that they want coverage because they know that all the stations the smaller media outlets the blogging sites those sites that may not be necessarily mainstream media and have the attention of millions of viewers are starting to actually pay attention to what's going on here which one is which is one of the biggest expressions of democracy in the past few decades here in america i think the tipping point might have been the arrests the mass arrests of nearly eight hundred people peaceful protesters on the brooklyn bridge it took place i know you've been very outspoken about it and of the police brutality i think that very much the police brutality when it hit the when it hit the internet became viral because you saw a bunch of defenseless people that were simply expressing their freedom. to speak

their mind in a public place then they were penned all of then they were sprayed down they were obviously not in danger of harming any police officers and then all of a sudden you see white shirts coming out wore off and and seemingly unable to be held responsible for anything that they do almost as if they're above the law i want to ask you about something that new york city mayor michael michael bloomberg said about this demonstration he said that these protesters are trying to destroy the jobs of working people in new york city mayor michael bloomberg said that his step instruction is not productive do you think that this is. an illustration of disconnect what do you think about no i think that's a perfect illustration of a connect his connect to wall. street bloomberg is what seventy five percent or about owner of bloomberg l.l.c. has a sixteen billion dollars stake or so down the wall street this is business of course he feels threatened and he's going to do whatever he can including making the

police more and more confrontational to elicit the type of negative response that he wants from these protesters he wants to goad them into violence he wants to make them argue amongst one another he wants to find issues of race religion sexual orientation whatever he possibly can him and people like him to exploit people that are coming here who just simply want to express themselves how is this anything but a democratic expression of freedom of speech what makes them a man can actually come back to us to step aside from the occupation and hide from the visual what do people need to do when we start costing them money when we start bleeding them down that's when they get the mess that's when they get it through their heads oh my god when people look at this nation they see republicans completely in the hands of corporations democrats pandering to them nonstop we see them also involved now to the president as part of expanding was expanding

occupations not standing up for human rights you know being blind about several global issues that are important to people here because they reflect on our democracy what we do outside of america defines our democracy here there was a there was a sign out here that said you know police offices you one bounced check away from being out here with the rest of us to look at a lot of people think they're angry they're screaming at cops but you're going to stand there just working class individuals whose their boss the mayor the mayor is getting money with wall street he's literally. he's closer to wall street than america is this really you know i mean. that's that's his homey those are his people when they die you pours out a little liquor for them so when he says. something to the police commissioner the police commissioner says something to the white shirts and the white shirts kicked down to the soldiers this is a certain amount of cynicism that i have when people say oh they're all evil they're all we can know they're not evil they're all we can the people that are

innocently following orders if they don't follow orders they lose their job like the sign said they're one bounced check for being right here with the rest of us to at some point everybody has to question what they're doing and why they're even here what they're doing at their job if there be express of their democracy and a greater question what did they ever really do to be considered an american. would you fall out of a pool in new york or new jersey or kansas that's why you're an american would you have a stand up for you kumin rights in your civil rights that you have a question of government trying to infringe on your civil liberties would you ever try to reform a government that's done nothing but reach this country dry stealing from people constantly. if people come here from the opposition people of consistently been a part of taking advantage of the people that are here that are upset at what we're doing because it exposes what they've been doing this whole time which exposes the corruption behind closed doors then we know we're on the right and i'm telling

people right now that i'm going to continue to come back down here to this movement i was here when it started i won't be here when it finishes because it's never going to finish because we can never stop reforming our democracy the moment that we stop reforming our democracy it ceases to be a democracy at the moment that the revolution stops that means the revolution has been betrayed we're here to stay and we're not going anywhere. wealthy british style it's not. find. out what's really happening to the global economy. headline news tonight into.

broadcasting live from the. e.u. your top stories from around the world headlines right now. syrian activists sound of the alarm over new crackdowns of despite loyalist crowds in the capital while president assad battles global pressure on his rule. in the u.s. anti wall street protesters take up brooms to promote their cause as they say. the lower manhattan park but won't be evicted demonstrators are accusing big business of trying to buy elections. and a former prime minister faces a new charges two days after she got seven years behind bars for abusing power. with moscow. and up.