midnight here in moscow welcome you watching r.t. with me kevin oh in our top story oil prices have jumped in response to the latest heated exchange between iran and the u.s. over the persian gulf or the critical trade route in the strait of hormuz washington says its warships will continue their mission in the region despite warnings that they should stay away iran threatened to block all shipments through the strait of hormuz if new western sanctions hit its exports that threat came at the same time as a ten day long naval exercise which showcased new aircraft and medium range missiles the u.s. who ships are stationed in the area it maintains that it won't tolerate any hindrance of age iran's already suffering from four rounds of sanctions and the latest bill signed by president obama on monday saw its national currency dropped by ten percent to

a record low i read an expert on middle east affairs told me he thinks diplomacy is the only way out of the current stalemate sanctions will damage all sides. the oil prices now have increased this comes at a time where birth europe and the year worse are witnessing a very very a dire economic situation economic problems both in the u.s. and europe and this latest step taken against iran will only of course that the president for increasing economic problems for the west in general escalation won't serve any side whatsoever we've seen the economic situation in europe or they'll be somewhat i believe very soon between the french leader and the german chancellor angela merkel to discuss the economic situation and so it's in nobody's interest to continue with this and they have to head back to the negotiating table the european union has agreed in principle i repeat in principle for not for an embargo on iranian soil now will that have. been in effect will they take this measure in

practice june we will see a meeting on general of the thirtieth for the european union regarding this matter i doubt that that will happen on a bill even a from now until the end of this month until the end of january we might see some kind of a solution with players like turkey coming in trying to of course bring about a solution where i ask you what you think about this developing story on our website we're asking what do you think of the new sanctions on iran well this is what you've been telling us let's take a look at the graphs. so far over half of you that have taken the trouble in time to talk to or say iran will be pushed into a corner you think in new sanctions as an act of war fifty four percent seventeen percent of you believe the u.s. measures simply won't work and as you can see there the rest pretty evenly split between say the world economy will suffer as sanctions drive oil prices skyward and those of you think it's only going to hurt ordinary people in iran the ordinary man and woman on the street cast your vote at r.t. dot com. the iowa work orcus was the first major hurdle for

republican candidates in this year's american presidential election and it's already claimed some early casualties too but as many expected the symbolic primary failed to provide a figure that the party could rally around the vote came as a surprise to many with big spender mitt romney beating is strongly conservative rival rick santorum by just eight votes trailing with a very small margin was wrong paul the only candidate who's against a war with a rand michele bachmann who represents the right wing tea party movement has suspended her campaign there after a dismal showing the current governor of texas rick perry on the other hand declared that he's staying in the race despite earlier reports that he may pull out of these poll results the former congressional aide and different joel rubin believes it's what paul would perform best in the run up that was marred by sex scandals mudslinging and tit for tat. in his foreign policy is very distinct from the other camp. in that he has

a more isolationist viewpoint he wants the united states to retreat from international conflicts in their national affairs in some areas that can be good he's opposed to military action with the ron who was supposed to be iraq war but the other candidates are all extremely hawkish on foreign policy very neo conservative and ron paul does stand out among them he makes voters want to support him but inspires leading the party and getting other republicans on board to really change the agenda no he hasn't done that he's someone who says i am a free american and i can make it on my own and that's what ron paul really embodies but republicans also understand that that kind of positioning will not win the general election against president obama well as the republican campaign develops is a growing question over just how much of a challenge you still pose to the of income to power a wave of hope four years ago his chances of beginning to look good but now with many previously ardent supporters expressing frustration with his broken promises

and corporate influence he's one of his more. three years ago one historic campaign turned us politics into a pop culture phenomenon. the democratic candidate achieved unprecedented support international fame and a record breaking six hundred fifty million dollars in donations. thousands of new yorkers celebrated the victory clutching an enormous american flag hand sewn by obama supporters but the winds have changed and the very same democratic symbol waved in honor of the president elect in a way each straight from a show straight has been donated to the movement that became a phenomenon in two thousand and eleven or thereabouts when people holding out david move food organize the flag project after being inspired by obama rhetoric

a dream shattered by the subsequent years of politics as usual early what's inspiring me as up as a lot of us like that that's the thing that's inspiring you know like that's why i brought the flight so ws and the thing that inspired me about it is the fact that it's a grassroots movement. that had a like a very clear and transparent process artist shepard fairey seems similarly just an chanted releasing an updated version of his iconic hope poster replacing obama with his now clear support for occupy wall street with an economy still in crisis wall street largely unregulated social programs slashed and over forty five million citizens on food stamps it all starts with you making a decision to get involved obama's familiar prose may not be enough to win back his familiar fan base who didn't produce what people wanted him to produce in two thousand and eight professor and author dr cornel west was one of obama's biggest

supporters i think he's got the because you've got the new season. at the version is taking part in more than one hundred campaign events but last april the prominent intellectual told r.t. that obama has failed he's a friendly face of the american empire abroad he's in the process actually of becoming very sadly a. big finance and a puppet of big business and any politician here knows they're in trouble when the hollywood a listers start turning their backs are you happy with the way that obama has been running the country. you know. and i think i really think he misinterpreted his. his mandate yet the approval rating show voters are even more turned off with the alternatives leaving obama seemingly the lesser of two evils america's president clearly enters the twenty twelve race

amid a growing band of disillusioned democrats most will still back barack obama over his republican rivals arguably with heavy hearts in two thousand needs he was the unassailable candidate of choice this time mr obama is likely to stay in by default. new york. still ahead few this euro woes rage into the new year athens is now threatening to pull out of the u.s. so the declared default unless the e.u. agrees to pump into the economy it's the work of. damascus has criticized the u.s. for sending an envoy to cairo for talks with the arab league about ending the assad regime's crackdown on dissent syria's foreign ministry says the u.s. is interfering in a phase the third one of its business the baskets is pulled out heavy weapons and tanks from cities after pressure from reality he says that security forces however are still killing civilian protesters as quote

a lot of political. western sanctions in syria are likely to be followed by intervention. i think we will see further sanctions and we should remember that sanctions both in former yugoslavia and in iraq were the pro used to war there was a way of softening up the those countries for direct intervention by nato and by american american forces the americans and its allies in the west are desperate to get a handle on the arab spring which is broken out that was one of the reasons for the intervention in libya we want to create a loyal ally of the west in the region although i think it's more difficult because of the rise of islamic forces there this is a very dangerous movement in my opinion and i believe that what will happen in two thousand and twelve there will be a western intervention american intervention in that region because there for that one because i think there is a logical work here which which cannot be stopped no. polling stations are closed in egypt after the final day of a three stage vote the country's first democratic election in more than half

a century final results are to be announced next week with the muslim brotherhood being the favorite softer clinching the deal in the first two stages the vote last year earlier rounds were overshadowed by clashes between protesters and the army egypt's ruling military generals have been accused of clinging to power and now face anger over their handling of protests liver fifty nine dead since mid november recent army raids to a western sponsored n.g.o.s have added even more concerns over the country's stability we caught up with regional politics expert jeremy sold now his outlook on the development of the arab world's coming up in fall a little later this hour in artie's latest interview. when we look at what's been happening in the middle east policies the western governments of followed since been this year they have always had the noble motive and we're doing this for this very very good reason but we don't have to be terribly skeptical or cynical to understand that actually behind the noble motives is self-interest if we look at

what happened in egypt the west backed mubarak right to the very last and there was no longer possible to back in when it was indefensible they dumped him. greece has declared that it could ditch the euro and leave the euro zone in as little as three months that is unless the e.u. and the i.m.f. fund it with the second one hundred thirty billion euro bailout talks over the cash lifeline of stall for months with creditors demanding an overhaul of greece's economy which they see is ultimately doomed belgium business journalist to your involved believes the numbers say it all the greece's exit is unavoidable. the greek economy is going down like a stone. g.d.p. contracted by four percent in two thousand and ten by six percent in two thousand and eleven and there is probably worse to come in two thousand and twelve and i think we are now at the point where everybody in greece realizes that we cannot go

on like this and that unrest and even in the country is becoming so much of a threat that some drastic things need to be done and my reading of what the greek government is doing is that they are trying to that they are looking for an alibi to offer to their public by which they can say well it's not our fault it's the international community that pushes us towards the exits of the euro zone and i think also here in europe at the brussels that quarters of the european commission people start to realize they really are at the end of the road there is no other option left for them they're in a deadlock they cannot rewind the greek economy and so they are facing in a big black hole. well the economic crisis has been just one of a whole host of ends that made twenty eleven something of a roller coaster across the world you can find more of that coverage as well on our website r.t. dot com where we also focus on the nine other major issues too that shape last

year's of them folded and bring you our correspondents firsthand accounts about reporting from world hotspots in our testimony series is online. also on the ice the planet party we've got a lot of pictures pictures now galleries the culture in the high spirits around the world as we all should in twenty twelve something else for you there are t.v. dot com. it's seen as one of the biggest blight so modern day britain tackling gang violence there is proving really difficult with the government saying a firm response is the only means of dealing with it but the growing criticism that those attempts to improve the situation aren't actually addressing the roots of the problem laura smith explains. and often also. the dark underbelly of life in britain is in a city's gang culture dramatized here for a television series for gavin it was real life he got into a gang to escape

a feeling of powerlessness an abusive home life where money was a constant struggle see in the stores a young. star. to. be angry over the top. name for the crazy. people. at his lowest ebb gavin admits to having stabbed a girl and his story isn't unusual in deprived areas nowhere is the question of how to solve the gang problem in london more relevant than here in new and it lies in the shadow of london's two thousand and twelve olympic park but it's also got more gangs than almost anywhere else in london around here young people say you start just by hanging out with your friends on the streets and you end up in

a spiral of gang violence and fear. in you are more than half of the kids are living below the poverty line and they don't feel the government's doing anything to help them how can you hold me if you don't understand you have to have a. i don't. know in a bar. in london and the neighboring bar was good. and the neighbor does good. in london. so i was there to government really knew and understood would be happening. when gavin met sheldon thomas an ex gangster himself he turned a corner and they're now working in a team to get young people out of gangs the government claims it wants the same thing and having laid the blame for august's riots firmly at the door of gangs their solution the carrot and stick method are as you found some excellent police

work to identify and manage the highest risk on members through a combination of targeted surveillance enforcement and arrest for any offense however minor and positive offers of training employment and drugs treatment for those who want a different life but for those not prepared to break away from violence they will face harsher and tougher punishments but this isn't going to work according to sheldon thomas who feels the government is forcing him at every turn what they do. the manifestations of gangs gun violence birders gang rape drugs to deter that's just a manifestation of the causes of it causing stem from family breakdown moles the window from society as a whole while the government rhetoric sounds encouraging other policies will undermine both carrot and stick economic austerity cuts will mean sixteen thousand fewer police officers on the streets and services that deal directly with gangs now

will have their funding cut by between twenty and ninety percent in some areas that means young people like gavin in the future will have nowhere to go but the st lawrence smith party london. well as the british government plans further crackdowns on criminal going some are already feeling the full force of the law to ban the been sentenced to fourteen and fifteen years behind bars for the racist murder of a black teenager almost twenty years ago the judge said the punishment would have a much tougher of the men had been adults at the time the brutal stabbing of stephen lawrence shocked the country is a stark example of racial division. a series of explosions in the second largest city in afghanistan killed at least thirteen including a child the first blast happened as a suicide bomber attacked a police checkpoint where the bombs went off the violence comes a day after the afghan taliban announced plans to open an international liaison office in qatar so good could be a step towards formal peace negotiations. thousands of people taking to the streets

in northern peru protesting against the development of a gold mine the demonstrators say waste from the works will taint their water supplies the protests come in one of the country's most heavily mined regions it also has a history of troubled relations with neighboring farmers and ranchers. developments in the arab world in north africa once again draw an international focus towards its impact on the middle east regional. but jeremy next gives altie his outlook for twenty twelve.

thank you jeremy for joining us here on our team as well as call put it when it comes to the middle east there west talks idealistically and acts brutally if it's true if you agree with this what should be done what can be done to prevent syria from falling into these patterns look at what's been happening in the middle east and the policies the western governments of followed since the beginning of this year they have always had the the noble motive we're doing this for this very very good reason but we don't have to be terribly skeptical or cynical to understand that actually behind the noble motive is self-interest if we look at what happened in egypt the west backed mubarak right to the very last and there was no longer possible to back him when it was indefensible they dumped him and with him with the

president of tunisia and then they moved very very quickly on libya what was happening in libya that was absolutely terrible in many cases in the name of human rights they kind of attacked libya the same with syria you know it's kind of it's a protest movement of democratic change and reform which are very worthwhile motives to support but there is another agenda here which has to do with broader global and regional strategies what has the libyan scenario failed in syria will the western powers change their tactics i think that libya was the template for syria kind of went to the u.n. they got the no fly zone was lucian and that opened up libya to aerial attack and i think they thought that they could repeat this in syria but it didn't prove to be possible largely because of russia actually because russia made it plain that it would not support another no fly no fly zone over a solution in the security council so this left the government of britain france

and the u.s. in particular with you know they had to work out what policy they were going to pursue or still feel. they would like to intervene in syria but they realize it's not the same as little or nothing as libya is a different situation altogether thanks so much the risks are much greater the danger is a much greater because intervention in syria how do you describe it whether you're talking about a buffer zone or you talk american military humanitarian corporal as the french foreign minister does. the same thing the invasion of another country and syria would resist that iran would get involved actively get involved it's hard to take the fall back position i think is to support. certain activities inside syria which are calculated in the downfall of the assad government and its replacement by. government will be formed presumably from. we presume would take take over in your book the unmaking of the middle east you chronicled alone in

a bloody history of western invasions in arab lands with all the efforts by the u.n. and arab league of arab league is the threat of foreign military invasion for syria is in the past right or not here of course is still a possibility of course as to the possible to do rather do because it's so risky for intervention would be risky however it was done would be to kind of maintain the support for what's happening inside syria on the side of the opposition like the calculation would be that sooner or later these precious if they were interned would result in the collapse of the assad government well as compare syria with the league and iraq to what extent the syrian national council similar to libya's national transitional council or iraqi national congress rocky national congress was almost a fiction the leader no support inside iraq whatsoever he lived outside iraq for

a long long time and he was pumped up because they wanted to create this exiled body called the iraqi national congress so there was an iraqi voice in the propaganda war against saddam hussein the libyan situation the lives of the libyan transitional council as you know basically would affect us from the governing tripoli jump ship when it got too hot they took a uniform and then went to benghazi and the transitional national council for all of whom we didn't know we knew some known problem we can't say the syrian national council. is largely composed or the mixture of people who have the roots are inside syria but the dominant i think exiles. has been in paris for a long time like read one. who's based in washington and he's very very close ties with the state department you know what kind of clout of hold of these people have inside syria i would say not much. you know so there are similarities between these

councils and of course you know that the transitional national council for national transitional council in libya. recognize the syrian national council as a legitimate representative the syrian people it's not this is simple as that so it's kind of part of the campaign against syria of which that that now the loop what is now the libyan government is now part elections at various levels currently and to go in in syria with more had so what do you think will bashar al assad remain in power as a result and we have a very very dangerous situation in syria which could have exploded into a very very nasty. part of breakdown inside the country and could lead to a regional war so in this context let's see if this is given a few months and see how the process works for does have. a base of support so i don't think you can say that the party would be doomed the moment they call free

elections that could do well. one stream cascading from mom slopes to view is miss mirage. but this beauty brings deaths and a speed of more than four hundred kilometers per. stepping down along. i had a family i lived in a fairly nice community wasn't which was an upscale it was just like you know archie bunker society ok then they started showing up here what happened was my company decided i could get cheap labor and they got rid of us factual proof is there. was

a legally blind legally we have to get up every morning we have to go to work and you know we have to pay our bills only have to do it man and that's just the american dream and if you want the american dream you have to go by the last i figure is here's one of the major trails in the united states. i watch and they run run down my property and about this noise. was a little chap mean that cockroaches from coming over the wire is protecting the country i'm the kind of guy who doesn't mindedness pants dirty so i come out here you know we're all immigrants as well that we all accuse i'm sorry. this is our time. to reclaim the american dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth that out of many we are won that war we breed the we hope. to me the american dream is to live in peace and prosperity and freedom and

a government under socialism is not a government a free. hand you. have very motivated out cross the country who are activists who are willing to fight for what they think is right for themselves but in fact this forty four bridge project. i. mean. we are drowning in property crowding and i think it's threatened by it's cutting off our. it's making real democracy. all but impossible. if they shoot something inappropriate for the public they can easily be.

casualties of war ok. i wish he would have never happened but it has happened. in a war a t.v. camera becomes an unnecessary what destroys their own safety all foreign nationals including journalists and inspectors should leave. and the sclera what happens with such witnesses i got among my site. where many checks. to see her shoes shooting on our. mission creep couldn't take three days for charges free. range means free. three stooges free. old free broadcast quality video for your media projects free media.

how are they watching our top stories the u.s. says its war ships will stick to their missions to recruit out of the persian gulf despite warnings from iran to stay away the standoff continues to drive up oil prices and tension. the republican presidential candidate race gets underway in earnest but voters remain indecisive over just two to put forward to capitalize on disillusionment with barack obama. the euro's woes flare up again after a christmas well with athens now threatening to ditch the eurozone.