meet. the latest news on the week's top stories barack obama's tough foreign policy action kicks in quick after soft talk security is control the white house for another four years. urged by western powers to step down and placing death threats from rebels the syrian president exclusively tells r.t. if you'll stay until he's voted out. of the some of the most intense austerity clashes in months greece faces more protests as the sides of the current budget. and israel takes aim at its neighbors firing its first rounds at syria since the start of the conflict after killing six palestinians in retaliation for attacks from gaza.

are you watching artie's weekly news review i'm kerry johnston well first to republicans in the us are licking their wounds after voters put democrats barack obama back in the nation's top job it was a close race that ultimately ended in a clear winner of a hardliner mitt romney but obama's soft campaign talk on foreign policy soon transformed into tough action even before all the ballots have been counted he's going to check out experience. in the wake of president obama's reelection there was no sense of euphoria as in two thousand and eight but his victory did come as a relief to most americans his challenger mitt romney was widely seen as more aggressive especially his foreign policy rhetoric also a seemingly out of touch with middle class america we are an american family and we

rise or fall together as one nation. fiscal clipping for him right after reelection is the so-called fiscal cliff a combination of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts all we need is action from the house. and i've got the pen ready to sign the bill right away. but averting the fiscal cliff is probably not the first issue addressed by the president. he also rise the drone strike targeting a group of al qaeda militants in yemen on wednesday the u.n. has raised concerns about the legality of such strikes due to reported heavy civilian casualties on the lack of transparency on the u.s. part we're in uncharted waters when it comes to policy american policy related to drones this way the administration impose financial sanctions against iranian officials so the u.s. planes were jamming satellite broadcast and blocking internet access and you read that comes on top of a whole lot of other sanctions that have been put in place by the u.s. which proved to be crippling for the iranian economy the goal is not to change the

iranian government's decision making it's actually leverage ordinary civilians against the iranian government and to threaten to topple the government by inciting you know food riots or you know people who are unhappy because they can't you know their grandparents are dying and can't get medicine and on friday despite president obama's claims the u.s. should move away from the cold war thinking in the laces with russia the white house launched its first permanent military presence on polish soil the issue has been a constant sorting the side of relations between moscow and washington as the u.s. also plans to install missile interceptors in poland but the president every other democrat that i'm aware of is also made it clear that if it needs russia is still opposed to it still sees it as we're just going to go ahead and believe the president's actions so far have shown while he may be talking soft he's acting

tough looking at some of president obama's first moves after reelection one could say he takes the idea of america being the wall police very seriously but the question is who can hold that world police itself accountable in washington i'm going to check on. a former cia officer told r.t. that obama needs to break free of the strings being pulled from the political right . what i would suggest is that he call a press conference what he would say is you know the campaign is over and i found out that i've been grievously misled they told me to say that iran had threatened to wipe israel off the map and i found out that they never said that matter of fact the israeli deputy prime minister sort of said ok ok they never said that and so my speechwriters are being canned i'm going to get some new speechwriters the intelligence community keeps telling me that he run has not yet decided to build a nuclear weapon and so i'm going to get rid of all those folks from brookings

other places who are the soft on which the speech saying well you know you still have to worry about this instead of negotiations once these troublesome people have their own agenda are dismissed then he has a square chance of saying look we're going to do it deal with iran just as i said five years ago we're going to talk directly to them and we're not going to let that be sabotaged by either israeli intelligence or israeli official or not ose within the neoconservative camp in washington. well from voting machine glitches to bureaucratic barriers voting wasn't exactly straightforward for many americans strong enough to sign states with occupations to scrutinize other countries elections. report later. now syria's president has rebuffed the western calls to step down and warn that

foreign intervention will spark a global disaster this in an exclusive interview for r.t. this week it's online it's halting dot com and we'll be sharing it with you later on this channel interview so if you haven't also explains what bashar assad had to say. the thing that really mark me the most is how really how much more complicated situation inside series that from what we see in the media because i talk to people yes the country is divided but even the people who didn't like us before this conflict started are now so scared that fundamentalists will come to power fundamentalists who are fighting on the side of the free syrian army and syrian people are not about that and this is like the only secular our country that had a lot of different religious groups always living in peace with each other whether it's sunni or shia or always or christians so they're really scared that if the army will fall apart and then you know you have this extremist muslims coming to

them and asking them to basically be just like them so it's not just about assad i think people feel like whether he goes or stays. it's only can get worse if he goes because it will get i mean that the terror attacks will continue and the fundamentalists will come to power so they're very scared of that. that he's not a western puppet he also denies the fact that civil war is taking place in his country he's saying that it's not a civil war it's a conflict where he has to fight different fractions of terrorism. as on the fact that the financing of this terrorist fractions was unprecedented and it was coming from abroad what he also said that if the west were to intervene militarily it would have to do you know a far cry from atlantic to pacific the prize will be an invasion and it's going. to be more than the whole world came before because if you have a problem in syria and iraq the last phone call. somebody in the region and coexistence with it will have to do in your face. to the

pacific and you know because you know. i don't think. it's going. to go but you do so nobody came here what's next. president assad says that only elections can determine his future but it seems that not everyone agrees the free syrian army chief says they want the president's head on a plate. in his statement to your channel he said he would not leave syria you know this very well because he will not be able to leave syria he and his people will not manage to leave the country the free syrian army will not let him do this he will not get out of syria long enough you'll be lucky if you notice the same fate as. the this the syrian opposition say they've signed an initial agreement to form a new umbrella coalition conference and the syrian national council has lost

support in syria itself but the key activists there yet sound officials. top generals says the country may launch and limited military intervention in syria is this winter. mr frank says any foreign action could topple assad at this point. a nato type no fly zone massive massive air strikes no i don't think. the regime can be defeated because their air force is being supplied it still has a lot of reserves and i don't i don't see it a measured got nato or a ground invasion i think what we've seen so far of this opposition which is actually splendor and some ways they've got a very steep slope to climb the only reason we have that almost tissue quality was the threats and that could jordan and the political pressure that was put on

them they had to do something this weekend do you think the west is going to show up in qatar and arrange a show and no result to know how long it will last we don't know and it's been twenty one months into libya you recall and there are factions still aren't glued together and they had the benefit of the thousand bombing runs by nato so i i think that the other problem is not the groups themselves which are very disparate but the lack of support. now among the syrian people and what they have lost in terms of respect with through a lot of crimes they've committed a lot of assassination to massacres this is a last ditch effort in a sense to try to put together by a ball opposition and only time will tell if it's going to stick together well there's acquited teeth in greece but the crowd are keeping a vigil outside the parliament in athens as lawmakers vote on next year's budget

that's make comfortable reading for hard pressed citizens but the approval for the country to secure another international known throughout the week of parliament has been debating wage cuts and tax hikes that turned out he voted through on thursday that decision that violence but police trying to secure the parliament building pelted with petrol bombs by furious crowds honest in a populous sense austerity cash tied to it is about external control of the greek financial policies. the release of these low my wages long delayed thirty one point prior. tranche that's the only thing that the government has just if you give the program. the program is unfair and probably is going to bring more recession then a recovery or leaning light year what they want to do is to have full control of

the terry gratian i was ready as disempowerment off and peace to have a say in the market. so really it's a new condition to do with who is in control of the budgetary administration in greece is it the greek government or is berlin. last seen everything. well less than a month after a deadly assault and siege on the historic opposition stronghold find out just how much is not been revealed about your beds is britain's first invasion that's off the shore. as his day starts at five am even earlier in the winter tending to his flock of story hundred sheep in the mountains and pains of. thirty five years old it wasn't

the life he dreamt of having studied accounting but he dition unfamiliar duty dictated that he would take on the care of these animals after his father. has just made camp at their winter found stage setting up his ute judicial to fenian round tent made of diskin. his p.c. back amongst his family as his job is a lonely one and tough going out in all weathers braving extremes of plus to minus forty degrees celsius it's just that i've used them there are certain difficulties there's not enough time for everything i'm almost alone my sister works with my mother my mother is seventy five she's very old and i miss mountains when i'm in town and i spend a lot of time here right now probably so on the surveys are simply carrying out the work that his father did and his father before him nothing has changed over many many centuries and that's half the problem it's hard work and many people don't

want to come into the industry now and it's really fit there could die out altogether. it's difficult to manage everything alone i used to have people who helped me but they were no good they didn't take care of the sheep with all their hearts they hurt the cattle. with people leaving them coming to the countryside the region's government is having to act making the life of the herd and more attractive than promising largest subsidies for a lie still and organizing cooperatives for the sale of day put out to ensure the huldah get the highest fairer price i asked sympathizes with those youngsters leaving for an easier more profitable life day in their publics capital because ill but he no longer wishes to join them he enjoys his pasta way of life now looking for a helper who shares his enthusiasm but more time on his hands he says matter of fact way he can start to look for a new wife. i

mean so she can only use city in europe on the hosts of the twenty fourteen winter the pick. songs. thank you. so much. thank you. dog days are. fridays like. it's so.

welcome back israel's military is engaged on the both its northern and southern frontiers right now the country has fired into syria in response to a mortar attack on the golan heights and television warning of tougher action against militants in gaza surgeon some of those from the palestinian territories reports. only on sunday afternoon israel fired into syria in territory for the first time since the nine hundred seventy three war as spoke earlier with the israeli defense forces there's a unit who did confirm that these warning shots took place he said that they were in this once to a mortar shell falling near any israeli military post in the golan heights now these ladies to me that they were the target they do believe that the shell was part of the byproduct of the internal fighting taking place in syria between forces loyal to assad and rebel fighters but the army is saying that if one hundred made

more attacks on syria that violates the disengagement agreement between israel and syria now there have been several such incidents over the past two weeks just last week three syrian tanks crossed over the demilitarized zone between the two countries alarming israelis and also causing them to raise the alert in the area the idea has filed a complaint with the united nations saying that any kind of quiet immigrating from syria into israel will be responded to also on the southern israeli border we have seen a clear out of violence between the israelis and palestinian militants the latest we heard from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is that his country is ready to strike harder against the gaza strip if it does not stop attacking israel he made these remarks today sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting in which he said and i'm quoting that the world must understand that israel cannot sit idly by while attempts are made to attack it the hostilities along the israel gaza border have

it's going to choppy particularly this past weekend this follows israeli airstrikes that killed six palestinians four of whom were teenagers and two of whom belonged to the militant group islamic jihad according to the gaza health ministry spokesperson there are a number of people who were injured the biggest stands at around thirty eight including children the problem though is that often in these israeli airstrikes israel lands of killing civilians and not militants as its intention. is a must have taken responsibility for this attack they worked for israeli soldiers that were wounded in it and response from the palestinian side was dozens of rockets that were fired into southern israel early on sunday morning the whole south of israel is in a state of high alert and this comes of palestinian militants about to take the range for these steps now flare ups along the israeli gaza border are quite common and we had seen already two flare ups this month this though is one of the highest casualty counts in gaza in a single incident in recent months. and sectarian violence between rival religious

groups breaks out in neighboring lebanon three people died in a gun battle between the sunni followers of a hardline cleric and his brother fighters comes at a time when shia muslims looting has been a mark and ten day morning ritual instant is the latest in a spillover of violence from neighboring syria which analysts say is a mirror image of lebanon's sectarian divides. balik clashes have broken out in warsaw off to around twenty thousand people not polish independence day justice chanted anti-government slogans and threw firecrackers security forces and rubber bullets tear gas and batteries to the situation. two police officers were injured and several right wing nationalist were detained. the nuclear watchdog says iran is carrying out what could be cleanup activity at one of its key military bases which it i.e. any it wants to inspect for nuclear research projects the parts inside hasn't been

visited by the un since two thousand and five and some western countries suspect iran of using it to hide elements of a weapons program iran strongly denies trying to develop a nuclear deterrent and the i.a.e.a. says there is good reason to believe the iranians will cooperate with inspectors. at least twelve people have been killed and dozens more injured in the devastating earthquake in myanmar six point eight magnitude quake struck near the largest city of london they are not saying a bridge three workers into the river is the biggest earthquake to hit the country since twenty one. now libya is trying to tout its wealth of ancient ruins to tend to respect off the revolution kept visitors one away but the country's most recent history is off the map of holidaymakers aren't likely to then much about the deadly siege of bani walid less than a month ago altie sara firth explains. we're here at the world's travel market

a trade say taking place in london where people can consulates their holiday inspiration or that scout exotic spot for a honeymoon a one country you probably wouldn't expect to see being touted as a tourist destination and that's libya the places where the tourist interesting the site is a political sideshow it's completely safe guaranteed it's got to be safe more than even pounced big towns like london or my new york but there's somewhere that is not mentioned in the guide burke bani walid a desert town this remain loyal to formally to colonel gadhafi it's just a few hours try southeast of the traditional tourist destination tripoli but it's a world away from the safe environment the two guides a pitching. the town's become the scene of some of the sisters fighting since the libyan uprising last year that despite reports of indiscriminate shelling and gas attacks on the local population at the hands of the libyan army there's been an

almost total media blackout in the. story for more than a fortnight before anyone else picked it up back in london and despite libya being showcased it seems that bani walid has once again been conveniently left out the conversation when i saw this. it was a ghost surprise and i came. back of the situation at the moment and if we have so many people it means situations they could be coming most and we can think for next season to do something with libya and it's a wonderful country so. what about what's happening. what do you mean what's happened was being happening there there's been fighting do you know about that no we went to confront the tour operator i saw you speaking some people each telling them about what's been happening in bani walid at the moment. this is. for the future.

because it was deeply disturbing is that despite a growing body of evidence about crimes against civilians and increasingly vocal concerns from human rights organizations the media and government remain resolutely silent i've got to sort of package this as a success it's very important for nato so we have. of these countries have been liberated in inverted commas as great places to go great places to invest and the reality for the everyday person in these countries is a living hell really pick up one of travel information and you'll be given reasons to visit libya and undoubtedly there are many there's a concerning silence here that's been echoed by the u.k. media a seeming refusal to talk. about what's been happening in places like. the reality is that the new government is struggling to control its militias and bridge the divides that remain in the country but none of that you're going to meet about.

five months behind closed doors is taking its toll on two in the sun it's feared the whistle blows here eighteen mental health and human. rights the cost the cia forces job in really was forced to train. in times of force one of mick jagger's go friends from the sixty's auction off the well known. tells. us election wasn't without its glitches with some reports of voting irregularities but its overseas polls which seem to be that you consent americans want to see

a chicken in their reports. you know like to me to tell you the truth honesty is the best policy while maybe not in u.s. elections two words define why people hate america double standard on everything in this presidential election season these two words are back in full swing the basic definition of a double standard is a rule or principle unfairly applied in different ways to different people or groups let's find out if this is relevant to the us election system from questionable voter id regulations to shortened early voting time slots to gerrymandering were rigged drawing congressional district lines to favor certain party laws affecting voters rights are passed left and right and vary state by state do you have an eric holder this video shows how easy it is to attempt to steal attorney general eric holder's vote when an idea is not required i should forget my id. yet places that do ask for

a government issued photo id can affect over ten percent of americans that simply don't have one there is an attempt to prevent large numbers of people from actually exercising the ballot election monitors usually serve the purpose of keeping track of in discrepancies and while the u.s. likes to keep a close eye on the way elections are handled abroad even the carter center which goes a rod and does the great work of monitoring elections. refuses to monitor u.s. elections on the grounds. basic standards of integrity when election ideals are not met elsewhere criticism runs rampant elections in venezuela elections in iran elections in russia. the press will go to town on any sign that the outcome was fixed and while nitpicking abroad is all the rage the elephant in the room remains a noticed at home policy makers and to a great extent our media and and trickle down to the american people have literally

the literally think that the rest of the world is stupid. that they don't see it that everybody naturally house to admit you know admire us that we're great and it's not the case well obvious flaws are met with a deaf ear here in and year out a flawed election process continues to be the first vote cast in the us and it's their future in our party new york. as sochi gives out for the twenty fourteen winter olympic games volunteers across russia starting in own preparations to help the city greet the world itself the bank. catalonia wants to get its independence from the rest of spain locals feel that

madrid texas all of catalonia economic success is a way putting the region into debt trust me hard only to have it all taxed away is very aggravating i can see why people are frustrated but the people who want independence have a very odd slogan kevin lonia a new european state so let me get this straight you want independence but you want to stay in the e.u. is that what you mean what exactly would that change that's not really gaining independence that shifting dependencies staying in the e.u. means you won't have control of your borders you'll still be on the euro see all of your own currency you will be able to establish your trade standards those will be dictated to you by brussels and if you don't like the austerity measures from outsiders like in madrid then you might want have a conversation with the greeks because being an independent country in the e.u. won't save you from people messing with your finances all i'm saying is that big truly independent means answer to no one not madrid not brussels but that's just my

opinion. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. resistance is not of politics but a culture. is couldn't get. through. on its own. cultures of resistance.