explosions fighting in the heart of the syrian capital as rebels announce a full scale offensive against damascus amid yet another diplomatic attempt to end the crisis. america sends its own agents to patrol britain's airport of the london olympics while the u.k. is forced to draft more troops and police security contractors more than they should. muslim immigrants in belgium describe a new start to which they say is nothing more than a guide for arriving in the civilized.

global news around the clock this is on with me wrong life in moscow syrian opposition fighters have taken their battle to the neighborhoods of damascus with reports that the city has witnessed explosions and intense daylight shoot down to. the capital now joins us live here on the program good to see you today understandably from various news outlets all around the world we get conflicting reports of what's really going on in damascus to tell us what is the situation where you are. well it seems that damascus is going through really tough times but i wouldn't describe what is going on here in the syrian capital as dramatic as some media shows that and as of course opposition wants to see it in the last seventy two hours there have been many reports on the clashes between governmental troops and the rebels in at least five city neighborhoods not far from the city center

just several kilometers away from the center of damascus and this is actually the first time that we see a battle happening and going on inside of the city in the very heart of the regime and this is i guess one of the most important achievements of the opposition the syrian capital since the beginning of the uprising last march has most of the time been under governmental control and the closest the fighting has ever moved has been in its suburbs some time to fourteen fifteen kilometers away from the city in the outskirts in the eastern part in the eastern part of the of the musters outskirts in the area known as duma they were. assaults against against opposition hotbeds some two three weeks ago but the clashes have never taken place inside the city and this is exactly what is going on right now the opposition has been claiming that the army has been using more tires and to be killed and helicopters and has been shelling the areas where the rebels are this information is very hard

to be very far and it's very hard to reach these areas troubled areas where the clashes are going on right now in damascus but what we can confirm. we are hearing shootings here in there in damascus and absolutely different parts of the city from time to time we even see smoke coming out from again different parts of the city and we've also been hearing helicopters flying over the syrian capital but again i wouldn't describe it as dramatic as for example what happened in duma was as i. mentioned very interesting. is that the syrian rebels in their official statement now is that this operation that they called the damascus volcano and earthquakes quakes of syria. the mention that the main goal is.

this how they describe that the first strategic step towards bringing syria into a state of complete and total civil disobedience well it tells a lot about what the rebels actually trying to achieve and it is of course far from any piece of prosperity or any dialogue with the regime so far we haven't got any reports on casualties and. casualties among civilians but we've been getting information from governmental sources here in damascus that's many of the terrorists have been captured and many of them have been killed a few in number have surrendered so it's very hard at this point to say who is winning and whether there is any winner and how successful the are these how successful the rebels are but what is clear is that the armed groups have achieved to spread panic among people here to mask a few of them left on the streets few cars on the roads at the time when we actually see traffic jams here in the syrian capital so of course this is one of

the things they really achieved but i'm not sure about how successful the military terms. as you say of the opposition there in damascus has been successful in spreading terror and fear throughout the syrian capital as you know us here in moscow we're standing by to hear about the end of the meeting between what some are calling the last dipped last ditch diplomatic attempt for a peace deal kofi annan speaking and meeting with russian president vladimir putin so that's from your end in damascus we have more to come on the story here in moscow maria phenomena thank you. meantime georgia board of the president of the syrian u.n. association believes at the end of the day the leadership will repel the rebel attacks in damascus we have heard the voices of bombs and bombardments and so forth we heard the exchange of fire i think the syrian authorities is able to keep in damascus to keep the

security in damascus perhaps what we have witnessed in some parts of damascus. tiny amounts on the security of the city but then of course cannot really. truly predict because things are changing and i suppose what we have to do is to wete for the next forty eight hours we're in for a defense and as i was saying to what is more if a national who's in damascus are right here in moscow the u.n. arab league peace envoy to syria continues on his diplomatic rollercoaster of course kofi annan and he's just met with president putin here in moscow hole amid deep international divisions on how to curb the drawn out crisis in syria artie's a short thomas now has more on this. it certainly is a very tricky agenda for kofi annan right now as a situation in syria is degrading as a time of progress isn't forward in fact let's just take the situation just at the

beginning of this month where syrian rebels met with sergey lavrov here in moscow and at that time they said they were not willing to deal with president bashar al assad since then they have launched what they are calling operation the damascus of volcano and earthquakes of syria the stated goal of that operation is to bring in syria and i'm quoting here bring syria into a state of complete and total civil disobedience now of course this puts kofi annan in a very difficult situation he is charged with finding a peaceful solution to the conflict there on the ground in syria now in doing this he must meet with all sides that means the west china russia and of course the opposition and president bashar al assad russia says that the west is not living up to the geneva agreement that was agreed on just a short time ago and in fact they're using this as an opportunity to impose sanctions and possibly even military intervention of a foreign kind this is something that russia does not absolutely does not want

russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov said the west is trying to blackmail russia to swing over to their side also lavrov says that hillary clinton's threats to russia on their position on syria are overstepping the mark and are beyond the scope of decency and just plain bad diplomacy if you look at the west and their push for regime change in syria russia says that this is really unrealistic for a couple reasons because the bush are all assad enjoys the support of a significant portion of the people however russia does say that bashar al assad is not in power because of russia's support of the rich regime rather because of that support of people and in fact russia has stated repeatedly that they do not support the a shot saddam regime rather they are not taking sides they support more of an open dialogue of all parties involved. sean thomas reporting while the syrian crisis fills the headlines there's a massive effort to keep unrest in another country. grains of stories are doing

their best to silence the popular protests searching hospitals for wounded activists and cracking down on foreign journalists who are ultimately trying to cover the uprising. pretrial hearings are into the second day bradley manning the man the u.s. accuses of leaking a trove of intelligence documents. it is just now turning ten minutes past the hour here in moscow u.s. agents are on their way to london for the olympics reportedly to boost security at major airports the news emerged just days after a private security firm contracted by the british government said that it couldn't provide the stuff needed now be up to police and the army to make up the shortfall a solution that's left u.k. authorities rather red faced from the capitol with more our correspondents are. as athletes and guests start to arrive here at heathrow airport for london's olympic games they'll be met by all the usual sites including loans that

immigration as u.k. border officials struggle to cope with the shit numbers involved but it won't be just u.k. officials felt come across some may be surprised to see american agents operating on british soil the u.s. transport administration or thorazine has reportedly been allowed to bring in its agents in a move aimed at helping british authorities to secure american flights in and out of the u.k. the agents apparently won't be allowed past boarding gates or the u.k. aircraft but them if presidents could prove controversial in the u.s. they've been accused of performing intrusive pat down it's just the latest confession that britain's been forced to make to the u.s. which doesn't believe the olympic host has done enough to ensure the security of the games the american team will reportedly bring with it five hundred f.b.i.

agents to protect its athletes and diplomats plus a five hundred security staff all of whom will be operating on british soil raising questions about sobering to the american on the follows a catalogue of failures on behalf of the security company that won the contract for the games g four s. earlier its admitted it couldn't provide the number of security staff it had promised that meant that three and a half thousand soldiers and hundreds of police have had to be drafted in at the very last minute to plug the shortfall the head of g four s. is appearing before m.p.'s to explain himself and the possibility even more troops may be needed in the coming days. reporting right that while in bahrain government protests are gaining momentum the following an official by. on all opposition rallies demonstrators say that the authorities are brutally suppressing them and attempting to obscure the scale of the uprising local doctors say police are

monitoring the hospitals and arresting people admitted with rubber bullet wounds expressing support for opposition on twitter has landed one of the country's top human rights activists not bill and our job in prison he had earlier been arrested for appearing on julian assange has exclusive program here on r.t. how the crackdown has reportedly even spread to foreign journalists attempting to cover the protests that are the almost from the party says the media blackout is aimed at keeping unrest from harming bahrain's oil based relations with western companies so. we are a neighbor of saudi arabia using a million barrels a day. and i see. years and billions of contracts with. us. that's why they meet here and waste going to be. for homebody and i don't. for average the majority of rage

against the arab spring that's why. they are not only to the enemy was that i think probably the media are not. the enemy force by any price. but always the other stories available at www dot com also on line for you h.s.b.c. europe's biggest bank it's exposed for doing business with companies linked to terrorism all those details on the. web site. cuban architect has been forced to spend forty seven days on a ferry between. before finally being allowed to set foot in russia details of.

just a few minutes we'll get to the update for you a belgian. controversial kit from immigrants it's a move that some claim is another nail in europe's multicultural and those arriving from north africa say they feel insulted they say the document triggers islamophobia and social stereotypes this investigation to watch these tests are oscillator. did you know that in belgium the flemish eat healthy live inside their homes most of the time and don't make noise after ten pm or did you know that men and women are equal and it's forbidden to hurt someone mentally or physically including your partner or children and that if you want to get a job you must learn dutch well these are just some pointers about the country in the new starter kit given to the moroccan government for distribution to moroccans who have gotten the official go ahead to immigrate to flanders it also includes

a short video featuring testimonies from recent immigrants about their experience. in a modern society based on the principles of. where freedoms and rights for everybody also we've obligations with separation. and equality of. with no discrimination principles but some were left rather dumbfounded by the kind of information the packet contained. when you see that in belgian living who is what does it mean it means americans live in trees. and two three am because he's drunk and it keeps me awake during the kids to explain that he must respect the hour because we do not make news in belgium after ten pm this is around the world the starter is meant to provide basic information but it may be too basic for the proponents of the initiative to target immigrants with low skill or educational

levels but critics say that what's written in it and some of what's come with it are simply patronized and insulting raising questions on the stereotypes locals may have on the foreigners coming to their country. and i think there's a very large share of racism in this excuse me but that's not how we educate about two thousand five hundred moroccans immigrate to flanders each year as part of family reunification or marriage migration as soon as they arrive they can join the civic integration program organize. by the flemish government which primarily focuses on teaching dutch law. sure it's important to point out that in order to integrate you need to speak dutch i have no problem with that this is what i have a problem with is this social cultural references they explain to you that in order to find your place you must culturally match a certain model those in favor of the starter kit insist that the initiative aims to manage possible false expectations about belgium and to address the fact that

integration has been ineffective so far you are able perfectly able to get the belgian nationality if you want belgian citizenship without even knowing one of the official languages of this country and this reflects i think the whole idea of what they call in and integration policy which isn't really an integration policy because it's completely up to the people coming here to if they really want to without if they're really want to integrate but for those who do want to integrate something else they can expect to find out is that the flemish are like walnuts part of the outside but softer on the inside and one more thing it raise a lot of belgium but it doesn't rain money does or cilia r.t. brussels. and neighboring brussels are desperate to fight the debt crisis a leading german think tank suggests that people should sacrifice their savings max keiser and stacy her but her going to be here for us next hour to expose all the

darkest secrets of the financial world. germany on a miss make the rich by the german it's a two for economic research you suggested that those with a substantial private fortune be forced to hand over ten percent of what they have over two hundred fifty thousand euros they're talking about confiscating wealth to pay for debts that were run up by corporatists and neo fascists and you know this is haven't we seen this movie before yes called scapegoating we are now at war without any equivocation whatsoever this is just one of the side about a policy issue it's not about an economic theory it's about a war world war three is on. it's good to have you with us here on r.t. today it is the second day of the pretrial hearings for bradley manning the u.s. soldier accused of releasing u.s.

intelligence documents to wiki leaks his lawyer says manning has been tortured over the past two years that he's been held in solitary confinement the most serious charge that he faces is that of aiding the enemy which carries a death sentence chase mater the author of the passion of bradley manning says washington's a reaction to the leaks are severely overblown. they want to make a big example of him i think it's an artificial crisis. each new wave of leaks has been greeted with hysteria and sky is falling rhetoric of armageddon and none of these dire predictions have come to come to pass or anything remotely like it frankly we need to know what our government is doing there's nothing very radical about that sentiment it's used to be a central part of the american political discourse that you should know what your government is doing the obama administration did promise to be the whistleblowers best friend and instead they have prosecuted more whistleblowers than all previous

administrations combined under the espionage act i don't think whistleblowers are ever going to stop this long as there is injustice and wrongdoing in government there will always be people who had great personal risk in a great personal sacrifice will tell the truth and get the word out and that's a very good thing. before we join katie for the business let's get into the artsy world update now we'll start with a blazing fire in turkey it broke out on us in a skyscraper there as you can see from the pictures here hundreds of people had to be evacuated from the it's called the apollo at tower in istanbul is forty two stories high mostly comprised of apartments and offices the crews did manage to extinguish the blaze there saying a possibly wiring could be behind. a russian soyuz spacecraft has successfully docked with the international space station with three crew on board it launched from the baikonur cosmodrome in southern sudan just two days ago veteran russian cosmonaut yuri melich chain co is joined by an action or from japan

one from nasa and they'll be floating around above our heads in till november. well occupy protesters have gathered in rural california outside a holiday camp where they say the world's wealthy elite hold high powered talks although it is a vacation hot spot the activists claim this is where influential figures make important policy decisions are away from the eyes of the public. delves into the secret world of the one percent are millionaires billionaires the people that control the world control the central banks the build nuclear weapons i mean this was their summer playground straight from the san francisco airport headed to montevideo a city with beautiful redwoods and picturesque coastlines. the perfect getaway for the world's rich and powerful and in fact every year ceos media moguls and high level politicians flock here to the bohemian grove secluded camp out there making

business deals there they're talking policy that a lot of conversation a claim which members deny their motto here is that weaving spiders come not here which they claim means there's no business discussions it's just the vacation from the wealthy men author and activist mark dice has a rare grove yearbook issued every decade showing everything from men in drag to high profile politicians giving speeches the book shows george w. bush and his father giving lakeside talks along with presidents jimmy carter and richard nixon others who have attended our david brooks of the new york times along with c.e.o.'s from c.n.n. and fox jimmy buffett david rockefeller and henry kissinger mark also has an official two thousand and five membership list of grove attendees your typical warmongers george bush sr colin powell richard perle and your typical republican establishment and cider. for hundreds heeded the call to

protest. the people in the growth are about to be conquered. activists felipe in the siena worries about dangerous policies that are drafted from within the redwoods the nuclear program was discussed here and then developed later the fact that reagan was here in eighty and then afterwards we had the reagan revolution we know you're very well known and an event with so little transparency has bred theories some of them pretty wild about what goes on on the inside especially at the creation of care ritual where grove members burn a coffin effigy to a forty foot. peace and justice activist cindy sheehan speculates on the lack of media coverage as they are part of that you know they're saying they're the propaganda arm for the one percent the corporate media is the one percent. i mean if you look at it that way n.b.c. m s n b c c n n fox they are of the corporate one percent they're not going to do

negative stories about themselves about capitalism about global empire and war. how can someone own a two thousand year old redwood grove that's the question of the occupiers are asking about the bohemian grove which they say belongs to everyone and not just the one percent. here at the gates of the bohemian grove a line of right police made sure that everyone didn't gain access to the layer of the one percent. r.t. montevideo california. time for that hour katie good to see you again the wall street bankers. said but what on earth are they doing exactly that question they're ready for action but at the moment i'm not really sure if i'm entirely sure because sorry i'm not sure if i'm entirely still there we go because what we did was we opened up with gay and now we've gone into losses a lot of that is because ben bernanke the federal reserve chairman he's actually disappointed some more because it's looking like this is not going to be any

stimulus not he signs of a slowdown in economic activity this year and stubbornly high unemployment so right now it's a little tough so in the first hour trade for the u.s. market is one cousin so you saw it goldman size was stocks dropping eleven percent in the second quarter because of the deteriorating market so that's one to watch but as you can see we've now gold's ever so slight losses to the state's case that we are moving on now but it will be the big reasons not the full cost the has admitted using schemes to minimize taxation almost a third of the company's present is were employed through postal service companies that allow smaller contributions deals helped the b.b.c. to sidestep millions of pounds in national issue it is now the company is. rangelands with standard industry prices but agreed to review how it pays its big

net a. little if they have been dealt another blow rating agency moody's has slashed the credit raising of the banks. in the italian government bond rating agency says that the problems in greece and spain have boosted the default risk but it's today moody's has dropped seven banks by one notch and another six by two notches now talking of banks europe's largest like a just b c is accused of helping criminals terrorists and even mexican drug dealers to launder that money though the u.s. financial watchdog issued just three hundred page report on monday detail in the lack of control of the bank the bulk of the allegations all related to the bags u.s. subsidiary based in new york just bases management has acknowledged and lapses in compliance and promise to fix or right now if that was treasonous have a look at the european markets they're now in the second balls of the trading day

and we know there was a lot of anticipation of what was going to happen and as we can see you get a mixed viewpoint view just the two tens of descent down in the dust on harvard in positive territory move on to the calling card which will be able to see how the traders favorite is performing and it's no surprise it's changed it we've now got a red arrow almost gave you just one twenty two twenty eight as for the ruble though it's sort of an hour today and it's looking to finish up stronger against the u.s. dollar and the year at the end of the trading day so let's check out how the markets here last curve the thing to finish on this how do all the positive days as you can see we got gains of the r.t.s. on the mises we have just abduction growing three point one percent in the first half of the yes let's get a snapshot of some of the biggest movers and shakers then forgot most bank at the financial records of the in a merger talks with rival committee to create the current. second ologist private lens up we have the laws of. six point six says his first words an expert on

the one hundred fold but interesting the results was that she. expresses it all right it's going to the oil prices we've got them trading to the highest level in seven weeks in new york and that summit speculation that us will decline tensions with iran was. more about oil the most hated but how do you place it or prices in the same way they were interest rates in the u.k. officials. there inquiry into my befits and scandal to see if prices have also been pushed up meanwhile price agencies like plans that the no on the avocations saying there is no say we are safe between my boat. in fifteen minutes. with the latest.

wealthy british style dogs that's not on the tires on. the. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into a report. to the folks who are in more mouths to feed.