the syrian army says it's advancing into the country's key combat zone the rebels deny that while the mainstream media does little to provide the real picture. a un report slams israel for kicking palestinians off almost a fifth of the west bank territory turning it into a military training ground. plus pilots in spain find themselves in a steep economic dive as financial collapse forces airlines to introduce measures which could potentially put passenger lives on the line. from moscow with me marina joshie the syrian army claims to have seized

a key rebel held district in the northwestern city of aleppo violence broke out there less month after a major flow of militants into the area opposition friendly activists accuse government troops of using heavy weaponry which results in civilian deaths although colonel doug macgregor an author and decorated u.s. war veteran says that seems unrealistic. well it's been some years since i saw the syrian army up close but what i did see convince me that of the arab armies in the region the syrians were by far the most competent and capable and they maintained good discipline so we have to assume that the syrians have moved very deliberately in aleppo and that suggests that they have probably moved to seal off the rebels in the enclaves or in the areas that they currently hold to do that they have concentrated armor and artillery for direct fire not for indirect fire and they will move very very carefully with infantry and engineers in support with the object of doing as little damage to the infrastructure as possible because the more

damage you do to the buildings the more likely they are to create defensive positions for the people you're trying to eliminate so i would say based on my again limited experience of the syrian military that the rebels in aleppo are now in serious trouble. now as the mainstream media is over reliance on amateur footage and dubious reports from syria it's becoming hard to tell what's true or false in the conflict and some experts suggest that is a pattern familiar to any resolution in the region over the last few years i just read a fortnight it takes a lot. in the arab world millions have been seen uprising. in the western world then one international news channel is standing accused of falling short on providing a full picture of the revolutions it was a great g.p.s. . devices human rights were supporting. them some time to raise the flag that a lot of the people i was. killing and torturing edward mortimer conducted an

independent review of the b.b.c.'s coverage of the arab spring the public news channel was criticised for many things including a lack of reference to video which wasn't authenticated and repeatedly using the word regime its use of words carries a place. connotation regime is something i think you know that starts the reaction. i had to the b.b.c. refer to the british government as the camera regime you know. so are you guys i'm not sure i asked one of the executives i said you know how do you do five hundred people what is your policy and they actually give you different audiences to ousted leaders and one military intervention later the b.b.c. now claims it will address its mistakes meanwhile across the atlantic america's corporate owned news networks still pioneer subjective rhetoric that the syrian

regime of bashar al assad regime is now also facing another dynamic critics say more than one year of flawed reporting on syria may already have hard wired public perception to see only one side of the story the focus is on action coverage that reinforces a preconceived notion of what's going on and of course the government you know of syria is all dead if everything that happens there is a result of what assad is doing there or not doing. again that's in the interests of people who want to intervene and want to overthrow this government washington has made no secret of its desire to force syrian president bashar al assad out of office and serious in syria with questionable impartiality many mainstream media outlets in the us have been seen portraying the syrian opposition as a single entity at the forefront of a democratic uprising there are now overwhelming humanitarian grounds for

intervening in syria critics say the very same news outlets have not been so eager to report on the less appealing actions of syria's washington backed opposition to the jihadi the people were very much involved in trying to undermine the syrian government and they have signers they're just as they had in libya this isn't just a question of western democracy good. bad it's a much more complicated musical forces involved here media doesn't seem to be keeping up with them as syria approaches its most delicate tipping point many experts say the western media machine should avoid oversimplifying a sixteen month deadly crisis that even the international community so far has been unable to resolve marina port i.r.t. new york despite u.s. claims as providing only non-lethal assistance to the syrian opposition american

weapons are still flowing into rebel hands says activist on middle east and un issues phyllis bennis the full interview with her is coming up next hour. there is already intervention under way the western countries have provided the military of saudi arabia the military of cutter that's where they buy their weapons from they buy american weapons so it is already western weapons that are going in it's not coming directly from the u.s. but it is weapons of the west the danger of that escalating. it is very serious. a u.n. report warns israel it may be in violation of international law after it cordoned off nearly a fifth of the west bank for army training israeli forces are demolishing palestinian homes and driving people off their land saying they might spy on military drills party's policy reports from one of the villages. i'm standing in susi

a palestinian area that has been earmarked by the israeli government for demolition there are many similar situations just this week in the palestinian village of jim these really soldiers went from house to house searching for weapons and ammunition now they found nothing but that was not before they literally turned people's kitchens in particular upside down these soldiers searched through bags of sugar and rice and salt and bottles of olive oil now this comes as the united nations issues a new report outlining that the israeli government has declared some eighteen percent of the west bank closed military zone for training for so-called firing zones this is roughly the same amount of the west bank that is in full palestinian control the report highlights the humanitarian effect that this will have on the roughly five thousand people who live in and around these areas and it also says that they are

now in direct access of danger at the same time we're talking here about people most of whom are herders who need fields for their cattle to graze on and many of these fields are being taken away from them so this will affect their livelihood at the same time many of them are routinely arrested or detained for defying military orders we're talking here about people who have very little access to electricity and to water they essentially don't even have an infrastructure when it comes to housing and to any kind of normal facilities that people in the western world take for granted the report of course israel an occupying power and reminds the israeli government that international law condemns any kind of confiscation of private or public property unless it is for military necessity now the israelis are going to have a hard time claiming that the establishment of firing zones or areas for training these soldiers is of military necessity policy r.t.

. in the south hip on hills well it's funny about the stories waiting for you later this hour including an appetite for apple i phone so i pads in. iran the prices may be hired by the businessmen aren't letting us sanctions stop high tech they were on from staying plugged in. now with a thirty seven year delay the u.s. has launched a program to help clean up the aftermath of the vietnam war it will help purge the soil and water of traces of agent orange a toxic defoliant used during the conflict the substance is still causing illnesses and deformities among the local population but man i believe washington's motives are in purely humanitarian it isn't like one of those things that you just start spraying and it goes away this is a pathway for centuries and it is definitely seeped in i'm not a scientist but it's definitely seeped into the water table and everything and what the what the u.s.

is proposing is really rather paltry. to come up with forty three million dollars to clean up denying which was a large military air air base you know this is just really the tip of the iceberg of the problem but i mean you cannot you have to question the timing of it and it can only be viewed as you know a concern to try to like. vietnam closer to them because of the growing influence that china has as a emerging superpower around the world. it was more in the u.s. legacy at r.t. dot com as well as a lot of other stories including specs appeal. for orthodox jews can now keep their thoughts on god and eyes off scantily clad women thanks to the help of someone usual glasses. plus those very same glasses q. be useful for drivers in say pittsburgh motorcyclists there are facing fines for taking their girlfriends for a ride on the back of their bikes in the buff and distracting other both wrists.

nuclear. radioactive fallout old government betrayal. and lauded and claude how can the truth be revealed if there's no official evidence there was a very great danger to the servicemen concerned who were given no problem protection and to the people of this country generally because of radio like the full. the secrets of the tests.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then something else you hear sees some other part of it and realized everything you thought. i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

so sidled that's how the two biggest labor unions in spain have described the government's anti-crisis measures and the astaire it is particularly life threatening when even the highest of flyers are affected as are to hear chef gary ports spanish pilots say their passengers are being put at risk to save cash. fly fly fly at any cost more when you can get just about the same thing for less money since low cost airlines took more than half of spain's aviation market many regular companies have gone bankrupt so of course they choose low cost flights it's cheaper the seats are less comfortable but it's not such a big problem in a trip after all and this discount model is supported by the state over the past

three years the larger part of the government's two hundred fifty million a year investment into aviation was allocated to low cost airlines this scheme is simple lower expenses all round but while passengers are happy it's cost turbulence in the cockpit as pilots find themselves less and less motivated. we don't have high salaries anymore there's no prestige about our work as it always being we turn to the bus drivers were only doing it in the skies nowadays we even have to pay for our insurance and buy uniforms for ourselves the industry has become a mess since two thousand and eight the number of recruits in spanish flight schools has been dropping rapidly and the general economic situation has also been affecting the quality of graduates. in employment rates already. and that's why many of our graduates have to take several jobs just to survive. it is not difficult to see that degrading pilot quality may have serious consequences not

only has the job been suffering in spain over the past several years with less and less people actually willing to become pilots but also experts say the policy of the local. airlines is harming the most important thing and. which is the security spanish pilots working hours are already stretched to extremes new legislation to increase them to sixteen hours a day is now being considered by the european union there is we go over the limits here then the problem of stressed and fatigue personnel arises prison pulled the law says there must be at least forty five minute breaks between flights but in reality it's barely twenty minutes. with twenty minutes between flights it's almost impossible to conduct a proper check of an aircraft in terms of force without any security check. it's clear that cheaper flying is essential to keep europe moving during the financial crisis but pilots and aviation specialists shudder to think what could

happen if low cost airlines increasingly cut corners and dangerously push those who keep us safe in the sky. looks you are shifty r.t. reporting from madrid in spain largest financial gorham exerciser has spoken to the former head of risk at the bank of scotland turned whistleblower and is exposing financial fraud tonight at seven thirty g.m.t. for the kaiser report but here's a preview of. what percentage of those working in regulatory oversight and compliance in the industry are clean that is the say they're not corrupt when i was working on wall street for example at paine webber an op and i'm sure certain every every year at christmas time i would bribe our compliance officer as did every broker at these firms there was no that compline ops there was crooked you give a big enough christmas bonus any over overlooks margin requirement deficiencies the overlooked fraud he overlooks all the tricks of the trade there's two points the

first is you have to have no professional qualifications to be a chief risk officer a chief compliance officer or a chief internal audit and so that's one thing the second thing is if you report to the executive what's going on the second you stick your head above the parapet and the messenger gets well and truly shot so i don't know the answer the question but i would be all surprised if it's quite a lot of people who are going to be prepared to. see things that they should cover so all system doesn't work. now despite u.s. imposed sanctions the iranian capital's apple stores are full and thriving high tack use of tehran love i pods and macs as much as anyone and creative businesses aren't letting a little thing like an international blockade get in the way of feeding that appetite i despair for explains. i pads i phones i pods apple's cool overall popularity

has meant that their product familiar sight everywhere from our workplaces homes and on our high street there's one place you might not expect to find products like this on sale and that the iranian capital of tehran where apple along with many of the u.s. products abandoned the functions that had been in place the year but it seems that techs are the iranians are managing to outsmart this u.s. embargo and products like the not only popular in toronto they're widely available as well just like any other apple next door this one in tiran is bustling and busy . i have no difficulty in importing electronics from the us nor do we feel any impact on imports from sanctions doesn't come so easy indeed is getting technical support and updates for the products but we still manage to get them all the time. the circus of u.s. sanctions has been mainly on iran's banks and oil industry in a bid to curb the country's nuclear ambitions but when it comes to the bans on

consumer products alternative trade routes and enterprising a rainy and tradesmen have meant this in forcing the sanctions has proved virtually impossible in fact it's estimated there are now hundreds of traders in the capital selling these kids. the only impact of these sanctions that we see is higher prices which alter the real sinking against the dollar we're also forced to charge more from costa mowers in order to keep getting our shipments bypassing the sanctions and people still want to these gadgets even though they've become more expensive. some of the sanctions working. sanctions have not had the outcome because if the higher you were going here new sanctions are being announced by the u.s. congress or. the western powers the fact that they're coming up with new sanctions . is an indication the door thanks so it's been

a good working in fact many critics of the sanctions feel that far from the achieving anything banning these products in buggies a punishing the very people who will help in building around future creative individuals musicians film editing is right is the fully key part of apple's kind tell the world they've on one hand the united states talks about internet freedom and the importance of iranians being able to communicate freely access the internet discuss you know whatever they want to be cell phones and i other hand are saying sions make it so that cellphones are basically illegal in iran the very u.s. sanctions against iran are increasingly being prevented in effect if and outdated and certainly see no match for the young iranian generation and able to stay connected. now let's take a look at some other stories from around the world libya's transitional council has

handed power to the country's general congress the first elected legislature since last year's uprising the two hundred seat assembly dominated by moderate islamists anus to form a new government within thirty days however the authorities are facing daunting challenges as powerful militias in different provinces continue to fight for political influence. clashes broke out of the chilean capital after thousands of students took to the streets demanding radical changes to the country's education system they have also been rallying against a newly proposed law which would severely curb an authorized protest and tighten punishment for those who breach peace demonstrations happened rocking the country for more than a year now. hundreds have been evacuated from their homes after hurricane ernesto hit mexico's caribbean coast damaging buildings and pulling up trees thousands of tourists were given temporary shelter to wait for the gale to pass there's also the

risk of flooding in some regions and the three major oil export ports on the gulf of mexico have been closed. and it's time now for a business update with natasha and we're hearing that russia is set to boost its business ties with asia tell us more absolutely and many really pin the hopes on the upcoming apec summit in russia's city of lot of us talk more on that in just a moment but first let's check out the equity markets and of course we'll start with asia where they're quite old beat investors expect a lot of statistics coming out of china july inflation both consumer and wholesale came out a few hours ago and that slower for a fourth month or zero that makes it the policymakers really for the stimulate the economy and we're still waiting for china's capital investment production and the retail sales figures and they're coming out of a. about an hour tokyo's nikkei is gaining more than one percent after the bank of

japan left the key interest rate unchanged earlier today on wall street overnight u.s. stocks ended once the session mixed the dow closed flat to positive extending its previous day's rally while the nasdaq closed in the red and let's check out the currency markets euro is bouncing back against the dollar after sharing value on wednesday on the week data from the euro zone both major currencies retreated against the russian ruble on wednesday we'll bring you the latest as soon as the russian markets reopen and less than one hour's time and let's now see how they closed on wednesday here the figures as you can see they posted moderate losses less than ten percent each recovering most of the ground ones crude started trading above the line and it's still staying above the line of the sour let's see crude here it is crude futures resume their climb out for briefly dipping into bread on

wednesday mainly thanks to all those statistics coming out of china that are already made mention gives investors some hope that there will be more monetary easing for the world's second largest economy and that will of course boost the global economy just like st petersburg is considered to be russia's window to europe the city of lots of us to become another window and this time to asia the far eastern city is finishing up the preparations for the asia pacific economic cooperation forum known as the apec it's hosting the event for the first time and apparently the forms price tag has already topped twenty two billion dollars that's almost twice the official cost of the london olympics the meter move denko explains why the cement is so important for russia. the fact that russia is spending so much money on the apec summit seems ridiculous of first glance but let's face the facts

russia's stance in the region is not as strong as it could be now it has become a member of the world trade organisation promoting trade liberalization is easier than ever before especially for the host of the event next there are obvious perks in trade let's take a look at this for example russia is an energy and metals champion though it's producing seventy percent of the world's allen many of copper and nickel asia on the other hand is the main consumer of energy in metals and it accounts for fifty percent of the world's consumption of aluminum forty percent of copper and nickel this is a multi billion dollar market now let's take a look at china at its main port of shanghai the country imports resources from around the world but it takes more than a month to ship from brazil twenty days from south africa and two weeks from australia now would be so much quicker and this means cheaper to import from russia's than in a port just four days finally growth in asia projected at eight point four percent

developed countries two point six percent max plus shifting priorities from europe to asia would mean development for russia's lagging far east. indeed developing the far east is an important priority will bring you all the latest from the business desk in less than fifteen minutes meanwhile you can always check out our site or to dot com slash business all right absolutely thanks very much andy well in just a few minutes we'll speak to the last american ambassador to the savita union that's after the headlines stay with us.

she good leverage or easy to mccurry was able to build a news most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach creation why it should care about humans and work this is why you should care what you're only on the r.-g. dot com. did those started here before going global and. why are. you. choose your place take your stand. to.

make your statement. spread the word. michael strickland. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom hartman welcome to the big picture.