it's. rise against austerity in greece thousands rally against cuts targeting the country's most vulnerable leaving even the most austerity hard greeks incensed. euro woes take their toll on the french with freshly elected president francois hollande to watching his ratings plummet by economic. russia turns eastward in the asia pacific summit economic and political ties with china growing at a strong which could the u.s. and its move influence in the region. plus it's a dead heat between the republicans and democrats in the race for the white house with both candidates looking to set up a remarkably similar. with

the top stories of the week and today this is the weekly with me rule research. restless night in greece's second largest city of thessalonica with some fifteen thousand protesters taking a stand against a new wave of punishing budget cuts waving banners chanting slogans and even burning flags at the event was by and large peaceful it's a small army of police officers looked on by these latest cuts are especially painful to the country's most vulnerable including pensioners the low income workers and dependents but not everyone is against the cuts. in athens to assess how the austerity drive is going to decide whether the. deserves more

belloc money. reports from thessalonica. minister antonis samaras has said that he will do everything within his power to make sure the greece remains within the euro zone however he did acknowledge that the cuts that is government were making were both unfair and painful for the greek people but as unfair and painful as they are he says that the necessary as without being in the eurozone greece would die as a nation now also says they're important is in terms of the country men taining any credibility that it has left on the global financial stage and not credibility is said to be tested quite soon is all it is from the so-called troika arrives in greece to see whether they've fulfilled their part of the bargain when it comes to making the cuts that they were asked to do on whether they received the next round of bailout money a massive thirty one billion euros worth of assistance whether those cuts are

necessary they're certainly not popular here in thessaloniki we've seen thousands of people out on the streets of greece the second city demonstrating against the way that the current governments are handling the financial crisis when anger and the way the government is dealing with the crisis when they're doing is wrong it's not just in terms of protest the greek people are airing their their grievances with the current government if you look at the latest political polls we're seeing that some are ases government lies in second place behind a a opposition party that anti bailout money was perhaps more worrying though is if you see that in third place is the ultra rightist party golden dawn party that has a far right agenda some of called neo nazi and they certainly have a seemingly growing popularity here in greece which is concerning. many people many

people i've seen out in the streets here in thessaloniki protesting what they call the fascist organization i have to say though this demonstration thessaloniki far more peaceful than some we've seen in the past in greece that people are upset they're airing their views but they're certainly not of the violence a that we've seen in cities like nothings as people demonstrate against the handling of the financial crisis. reporting right there well it's not only in greece where the cuts are being met with a wall of public protest in portugal government slashed just a social safety nets have been dubbed an act of war against the working class next door in spain anglo merkel's visit sparks street protests demonstrators demanding an end to berlin's meddling in madrid's affairs thanks to the daunting financial storm clouds over the eurozone with the blocks central bank forced to roll out the artillery and the e.c.b. says it will now begin buying up the euro nation's debt to stabilize their borrowing costs until adviser marco pierre tolly believes this is not the solution

. they refuse to deal with the issues it says it's very simple that you would have to foot fiscal integration which means that the germans have to sign for everybody else's debt and you get your. shared lied for the debts and further fiscally. you have a split of the euro there's no two ways about it in the meantime what you can do is keep printing money which is what everybody is hoping for is just a drug to keep printing it to actually help the situation until the politics can catch up with the politics has been lacking and they've had lots and lots of meetings but we're still no closer to. lucian for the eurozone. it is anything but smooth sailing for the larger and more stable european commies as well in france the president's ratings are in freefall as waste war and

economic weaknesses take their toll on the public and as artie's tesser our senior explains traditional means of dealing with stress just stand cutting it anymore. france may have lost its title as the country with the highest per capita consumption of antidepressants but the french certainly have at last a peasant is that now with even more reasons to be unhappy because the new record unemployment levels an economy that's just not growing and great prospects all around and when they look to their new president they don't expect much of a future either so much so that sixty eight percent of french people are fearful for their future close with a record high of seventy percent in two thousand and five shortly after jacques chirac was reelected for a second term but france did manage to beat all other presidents in unpopularity after just one hundred days on the job. came after nine years in government and. bad ratings after only four months. so it's

catastrophic situation for you when you vote for change and you relate as the president doesn't have even a plan. to deliver. the reforms you vaguely promised i mean of course you are. adding salt to injury the state just threw a lifeline to a struggling mortgage lender by guaranteeing its debts after a long and explicitly declared the world of finance as his enemy during the election campaign this craziness has to stop i think this financial sector is spending on the other side billions for things which are not a priority for us. francis began sending direct aid to anti assad regions in syria a former french colony a move that. shortly followed a last promise to recognize a provisional government formed by the opposition an all too familiar style in french foreign policy that irks citizens like mathilde despite having voted for

a law and what she calls france's intrusive behavior she says is all about securing for national interest. we can change president but the foreign policy doesn't change both main political parties decided to go to war in my native country to send the french army to go and kill people and i rico today it is syrian money abroad they were trying to get just like what happened with libya the french have a superiority complex to a point where they imagine that they are the one saving others but they don't know is there we see other people for their money. a teacher at a local school and a mother of three this is what she tells the kids they see the film they tell the kids to study hard improve their language skills and they must think of their future outside of france your own force and that this point the french have clearly lost patience does or sylvia r.t.

paris. and artie's coming here live from moscow still ahead for you in this hour but of crossing the line here's the u.k. policy toward syria could back fire as reports suggest british fighters are already heading to the front line that they could possibly end up bringing the violence back home. also but brain deals with protests the country dailies as the end the war demonstrators define a government ban on an authorized rallies despite police cruiser. now the world shifted to the east this week as heavyweight asia pacific nations gathered to decide how to prop up global growth and the cool damp weather of the russian far east didn't chill the warmth between russia and china whose friendship is seen as a major asset to economic recovery retreatment is reporting from the city of that of a stock. when vladimir putin was rounding up the results of the apec two thousand and

twelve forum which russia hosted for the first time he basically again praised the fact that apec is extremely important as a region and as an organization it accounts for around fifty percent of the global economic output and global trade and therefore the shift is happening globally towards this region and russia is no exception and. china plays an extremely important role as a driver of global economic growth actually in an exclusive interview that the president gave r t prior to the sport that it was and also stated the importance of russian chinese relations china is indeed becoming a global economic and political hub china has taken up this new leading role by not only in russia's eyes but also in the always of the whole world nor what makes this rather special however is that russia and china are neighbors you know special relations took thousands of years to evolve to where they are. over the coming

years we are bound to achieve a one hundred billion dollar turnover rate for that exclusive interview is of course available on our you tube channel you can catch it there but also what was i think more important was the q. and a session which followed that round up of the four of them and letting a person have a chance to comment on this state of russian and european relations of course the euro zone is now in a crisis and therefore that in a question was asked as to what is happening between russia and europe is there a trade war he answered the situation is far from a called trade war and the fact that your commission is now right now looking into gas problems a so-called own monopoly position on the eastern european markets is based on the economic problems in the region and that basically europe now wants to transfer some of this economic burden onto russia and a rather peculiar and taunting i would say question that led. and was asked to comment on his recent stop that he made prior to the apec summit and that was your

model in russia to teach a flock of cranes to fly south he was using a hang glider and the journalist said that basically it's created a whole wave of internet jokes and a comparison also was made to russia's electoral race that only sixty three percent of the cranes the site had to pull the curtain and the other decided to go somewhere else and this is what he had to say not all the queen's fallujah mediately only the weak ones don't it's from it was going to i must admit it's also the leaders fault the pilots phoned the not all the koreans fallujah mediately if i was too fast and too high he can't keep up there are also birds who don't fly in a flock even if they aren't part of the flock they're part of our population and they should be taken care of as much as possible. and i was listening to that q. and a at the international press center here and the answer was followed by

a standing ovation. dimitri medvedev reporting right there well it's not just economic interest that russia and china have in common there have also been agreements on international disputes much to the detriment of the u.s. that's according to financial consultant to money. the tie between putin and hu jintao been extremely strong and this is frankly been at the expense of relations with the us and not overtly obviously but when it comes to issues like syria and iran there is a great deal of coordination between the two sides on those political issues then you know these things spill over into the economic side as well of course you know we're starting to talk about how both countries handle the oil embargo that the u.s. has been sort of pushing on iran you know russia as a producer and china as a consumer they both you know the fact that they're harmonizing this really sort of

helps to. counteract u.s. and u.s. influence and the ability to which the u.s. can exert its influence on its european allies in asia and japan specifically so we're seeing a lot of that. now syria has refused to be a punching bag for western nations lashing out at france for backing the rebel seeking to oust president assad it's after washington intensified calls to provide armed groups with weapons who have been trying desperately to seize i mean ition and guns but also the u.k. david cameron called again for assad to resign to make way for a new government formed by the opposition and although the u.k. insists its support for the rebels is limited to non lethal aid parties laura smith reports that fighters from britain are already on the front line. to most britons going about their everyday lives the war in syria seems worlds away but for a few it's a struggle they feel personally involved in as the u.k.

government portrays president assad as an evil dictator there's evidence that britons all going to syria to fight for the opposition birmingham area m.p. khalid mahmood says some in his community have already gone there is particular individual who's actually gone back to baghdad at the moment and is going back in a few weeks time who's been engaged in fundraising supporting people and putting people together to go back to get people who signed it. and made work and other are . saying that they're going to support the resistance some says mahmoud of british syrian extraction others of british muslims who feel their faith makes this their struggle but whatever their reasons for going the fear is what they'll be when they return they're trained in the art of warfare but also radicalized as well and then they want to then continues on radicalization they want to bring more people on

board and then perhaps to. resolve some of the gripes they have here that's blowback the u.k. has already seen from another conflict here in london on the seventh of july two thousand and five the official report into the seven seventh's bombings reveals the existence of rumors that two out of the four bombers had been to afghanistan for so-called violent jihad back in the u.k. mohammed sidique khan and that town with together killed fourteen people in combined suicide attack specific and seven bombers were only vaguely known to the authorities and that could be the case for fighters returning from syria too it's all very well to notify the u.k. borders agency but in reality there's very little. well they can do people that may leave here to fight in syria will not go directly to syria they may stop in turkey or levon on iraq so the government will not be able to really know the.

nation there's no real way of telling whether they're actually going to end up in syria there is no way to know. who when they enter syria who they'll be liaising with what ideologies necessarily how ideologies and viewpoints might change in syria these are the scenes that could greet them on their return and he islamist organization the english defense league is unlikely to take further radicalization of british muslims lying down creating more bad feeling and deeper fissures in an already divided society full western who's british freedom party is allied to the e.t.l. says militant groups are preparing for a confrontation we're going to get further and further into this horrible situation of them and us and them and us and then you have small scale violence that starts and then it's the tit for tat and that's why. i think we literally entering into

a religious civil war scenario so far the government's given the syrian opposition eight million dollars for non-lethal equipment including communications but ordinary britons could find themselves paying the far higher price of unrest and insecurity at home for this support for the syrian opposition laura smith r t london. and bahrain is another country witnessing daily protests and violence though this time incited by the police security officers resorted to tear gas and stun grenades to deal with scores of peaceful demonstrators who defied a government ban on authorized rallies activists packed the streets demanding democratic change in the release of political prisoners saying the ruling family is ignoring their calls on tuesday bahrain's court decided to hold the guilty verdict for opposition activists accused of plotting to overthrow the government. asia

times correspondent things that the protesters are only just gaining momentum. the protests in a very which are absolutely legitimate it's the kids of a shiite majority seventy percent of the country protesting because they are treated as second or third rate citizens in their own country you don't hear anything in a wash it down in paris in london about it they are talking about regime change in syria they are talking about the bombs that iran does not have from the beginning this this the saudis especially the court gone off the air at the very the very they sold to washington the idea that this was an iranian plot in where ever happens in bahraini is always view by the saudis and by washington as a minor disturbance in of course the u.s. does not want to compromise its position as being the aircraft. got already an angel of the persian gulf. so just turning twenty minutes past the hour here in the

russian capital the barack obama's captivating showing of the democratic national convention this week appears to be paying off and you polls give him an edge over republican rival mitt romney if only by the slimmest of margins and with just two months to go until the presidential vote both candidates will be working overtime to outshine the other and their artie's reports that may be one rather large challenge. in two thousand and eight rock obama turned us politics into something of a pop culture phenomenon we meet at one of those defining moments. a moment when our nation is at war our economy is in turmoil the democratic presidential candidate accepted his party's nomination value to rebuild america's moral standing and break from the policies of his predecessor the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in washington and the failed policies of george w.

bush four years after change occupied the white house america is still at war twenty three million citizens are unemployed and most of the national security policies cemented by george w. bush continue unabated or have been expanding their total fixation of what were illicit abuses under bush imprisonment without trial spying without warrants we've now replaced imprisonment and torture largely with assassination which is actually not a moral improvement under obama's leadership guantanamo bay remains open the patriot act has been renewed warrantless wiretapping extended but cia black sites have closed targeted killings have been justified drone strikes publicly acknowledged military commissions codified however enhanced interrogation like waterboarding has been banned critics say obama has not only double down on bush's policies he's also raise the stakes signing the national defense authorization act made him the first

us president to assert the right to assassinate anyone anywhere without any legal sanction if there is a war cries out there we can the war cries iraq obama should tops the list this made many of those who voted for him hoping for change left disillusioned in fact what they appear to have voted for was more of the same obama's ratings are now the lowest of any incumbent president since the one nine hundred eighty s. the two major parties are very this are very much the same on all the important issues when it comes to a spending more money than we have. engaging in foreign conflicts that we can't afford the cost of america's overseas military campaigns have contributed to a u.s. national debt that topped sixteen trillion dollars this week while obama's america is running on empty critics say wall street continues to play largely by the same rules that led to the global financial crisis there hasn't been regulation of the

banks in a sufficient way and that the main crisis affecting the united states which is to say the financial clutch on the global economy and the corporate struggle hold on the political system hasn't changed at all because president obama comes from a coalition that led to that in the first place since obama has stepped into the white house america has seen an unprecedented rise in grassroots movements like the tea party and occupy wall street though both very different one thing uniting them is the claim that the people of america are being ignored by their own government the two major us political parties have historically gone to great lengths and have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to highlight their differences yet following obama's first term in office the biggest change may be that more voters are likely to see a democrat and a republican as two sides of the same court merino court ny r.t. new york. now you can follow this and many other stories we have online let's check

out what's standing by at r.t. dot com right now russian prosecutors a target the more exotic forms of corruption sex bribes sparking debate over just where to draw the line on and listen payments. technology gives life a chance for us research is successfully tested robotic prosthetic so driven by the power of the user's mind. this is the weak leader on r.t. with me rory sushi and it was at this week that canada expelled all iranian diplomats sun closed its embassy in tehran declared iran a state sponsor of terrorism and slammed its nuclear program and stance on syria this pushed relations to crisis point to ron promised retaliation calling author

were a pawn of the u.s. meanwhile in israel or the rhetoric being used by the sworn enemy iran is actually proving useful to some trying to justify a relentless push for new settlements forcefully i went to one of the israeli and claves to explain i was the call to prayer religious jews walk past a mosque in judaism's second holiest city the scene speaks volumes about the gap between two peoples living cheek by jowl forty five years ago the part of hebron the largest city in the west bank was returned to jewish control since then around six hundred jewish families have lived in this small enclave outnumbered by palestinians they vow they will never be driven out despite the fact that jewish settlement in hebron is widely considered illegal under international law and so they justify their presence in part by looking for an enemy the fact that. there is

a distinct target to get the jews out of her own is not a and and in and of itself it's a means to an end that being that they don't want to use in her own they don't want to is in jerusalem but even more than that they don't want us in tel aviv or in haifa or anywhere else and instead of pointing fingers of palestinians the secular movement has begun championing the claims of iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad he strikes fear and uncertainty in the hearts of most israelis is their rhetoric their lot of faith means but all of them in the future this is not exist and that they don't. remain this eight or and over again but the hostile talk from tehran is having unintended consequences the settler movement is mocking ahmadinejad's comments inadvertently putting him in the camp when israel's most widely circulated daily newspaper recently listed the safest cities to live in

a time of emergency most israelis didn't notice that listed among the so called cities of refuge where civil settlement alongside residential centers within israel proper. is doing for the settlers what they've been struggling to do alone and that is give them legitimacy by terrifying ordinary israelis so they forget to distinguish between israel proper and the settlements but a growing chorus of empty settlement protestors is calling on the government to cool down and stop buying into the politics of fear it's obvious that our government is talking about iran as a diversion diversion from the no peace with the palestinians with the with the what's going on with the settlements with the amount of money that there's threading on the settlements nonetheless the settler movement is moving full steam ahead behind me is palestinian have run permission to drive through this boom comes from the israeli army that sits here just outside palestinian have run inside. we

should have run this is the perfect example of how israeli settlements and palestinian villages and cities exist on top of each other and for as long as the cities can play on israeli fear and convince israelis that muslims want to kill them wherever they are they'll continue building the settlements and ordinary israelis will remain focused on the freight outside their borders while they've been look at what is happening in their own backyard. hebron. back with the headlines in just a couple of months have to see some. more

news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are on the day. mission free accreditation free. for charges free arrangement free. free. too.