on r.t. tonight lawyers clash and shake northern ireland yet again after belfast council's decision to fly the union flag from city hall for only eighteen days a year. mali government forces chase militants out of a key city with the help of french military airstrikes after president francois stated intervention in the area will continue for as long as necessary. and washington says it'll reassign its afghan mission to assisting local forces from the spring now sparking speculation that it might be trying to keep up its military muscle in that chaotic country.

very good evening schieffer just joined us six now eleven pm moscow time this is r.t. and our top story than around a dozen people have been injured in the latest outbreak of loyalist clashes in northern ireland tensions been running high for more than a month after belfast council decided to fly the union flag above city hall for only eighteen days a year sarah ferguson the province for us looks into what else is feeling the unrest to recreational rioting that's what some people are calling it. has it been taking place all across the fast in the past weeks many of them peaceful but in pockets violence breaking out in the craters is on the other side many of them young their faces covered this place come under attack with rocks and bombs mark easton's the director of the east belfast mission creep is working with

young protesters to try to calm the tensions some kids are doing it for fun or doing it for more sinister motives in terms of control terms of par in terms of ego some are doing it because it's sexier than the playstation you know young girls are doing a girls even with young children we've seen on the streets i don't think a fully realized what their actions can result. in some ways having a laugh and yet there's nothing for me. on the surface and this has been about the decision at the beginning of december to limit the number of days the union flag flies at city hall but in what's been the most sustained outbreak of violence since the one nine hundred ninety eight good friday peace agreement and it's clear that the problems run much deeper one of the protesters here asking.

them. to start. on the street to protest against. a nice senator baucus a very retail flack. rubbish and. you know but when he wanted also it on the streets for his election we can make for do you think the protesters would predict that any kind of compromise when it comes to this year could bring the flag of the play down not said. we know we're not going to get a backup plan or an election because it's the majority. only unionist warns now to try to reengage politically but we're told much more will need to be done there'll be no quick fixes here i don't think there's any silver bullet i think there's different things need to happen economic. investment political

investment community investment by and by all the stakeholders in these communities to try to resolve the wide raft of issues that are a blight here say far there's been over one hundred people arrested more than sixty police officers injured and millions of pounds spent in policing these riots and in lost business revenue. there these riots have been highly localized the damage has already been far reaching this is a new generation bringing violence back onto the streets of belfast it's a far cry from the dark days of northern ireland's complex that doesn't make it any less trouble. fell fast just. for the christian science monitor told me the rest is being flared up by the changing demographics. the prototype of the ship despite the appearance of some

groups such as the ulster people form new ones entirely sure exactly what it is that the protesters want northern ireland in general and belfast in particular have traditionally been protestant unionists loyalists to areas and the recent census results should northern ireland no longer has a unionist one it's more a sort of fifty fifty situation i mean what can city hall do is got itself into a real rock and a hard place isn't it if they overturn the decision it's going to look like more brawls take it over potentially cause a flare up on the other side this stuff. if

nationalists do get drawn into it and you do want to get much much worse. obviously also a suspect device so most viable small explosives. today no it's not yet clear. but these are not good signs french pilots been killed in fighting in mali as the european nation continues to launch air strikes against islam is militants comes after mali's government troops chased rebels out of the key center aided by the french military the u.n. security council called for a speedy deployment of international forces to battle the rebels who seized the north country laws they feel and since made significant advances president announced right at the intervention in mali would last as long as necessary from space independent journalist robert honeys believes the french foreign policy though contradicts itself. i think that as long as the french people aren't too bothered by the consequences of this sort of intervention they generally favorite

has a great military tradition in france and they've grown accustomed to interfering other people's countries but if you if the minute it starts to get nasty i think you'll find they'll be a very quick a reversal of public opinion these sort of islamic extremists they're very tough soldiers and they've grown tougher over the last twenty years and if france starts to find that these people have been armed as a result of the intervention in libya and all the arms of the swilling about in the in the sahara as a result of that intervention ironically instigated by france then they're going to find it's a very dangerous place to intervene that mali has requested help and they get it instantly when the central african republic requested help from the french forces there they were told our no we can't interfere to tell any particular regime were neutral. it to do even if you had wanted to destroy the

credibility of france and the western countries over the last five or ten years you couldn't have done a better job by the absurd contradictions of what they do meanwhile two french soldiers have died in somalia during a failed mission to rescue hostages also being killed the raid in the area began hours after french troops intervened in mali they'll government troops battle rebels there there are currently nine french people held hostage across northern africa. americas to leave local forces in charge of combat operations in afghanistan and switch to a support role the sions in afghanistan and switch to it some u.s. president barack obama after a round of talks with his afghan counterpart on what's being hailed as the last chapter now in the u.s. afghan mission but if that is going to hit you can report samaritan involvement in the country looks set to rumble on. during his election campaign president obama may have sounded very resolute to leave afghanistan in two thousand and fourteen but the white house is now negotiating terms to stay there the president said if

u.s. forces stayed their role will be different but critics argue it's an attempt to rebrand a military presence which both the majority of americans and afghans oppose i want you to listen to a president obama said about the mission after twenty fourteen i think. you know although obviously we're still. two years when. i can say with assurance that this is a very different mission. and different task and a very different footprint for the u.s. if we're able to come to an appropriate agreement now one of the key points of the agreement that the president mentioned there on that key point probably is immunity from prosecution for u.s. troops so that the afghans cannot prosecute any american soldier if they commit a crime that's the deal that the white house couldn't get from the iraqi government the u.s. wanted to keep some troops there but couldn't because of how the opposed the iraqis

were to allowing the u.s. to further operate there with impunity but with homemade karzai it could be different he indicated that he is willing to give that immunity and that he's willing to bourg it besides he knows that he's in power because of the americans and many experts believe his government will collapse in no time after americans leave but whatever post twenty fourteen deal comes out of their negotiations it might not be easy for washington to sell it to the american people because despite the administration trying to present of ghana stand as a success story in many ways they see it as a failure and don't understand why their troops should stay any further policymakers in washington can't really come out and say that they don't want to walk away just just pack up and leave from such an important geopolitical position now that they've spent billions and billions of dollars to have a presence there but such chill political calculations may not sound very appealing to the american people at a time when the country's head over heels in debt but he's been hearing how despite

this latest announcement the afghan government is in no position to take full control. the american government is sort of caught in a paradox it didn't want to give up afghanistan it wanted to use it as a strategic base but can't win a military victory they have to begin to draw down whether they will leave completely i don't think so so now you have cars i hear in washington meeting with obama he is extremely vulnerable but he is seen within the afghan population as nothing but an extension of the power of the occupiers and the afghan people like all occupied people resent the occupiers and they resent those who are their collaborators so karzai from time to time sounds like a nationalist he stands up any how is a little bit against american atrocities again trying to play for domestic consumption but at the end of the day karzai is seen as just that is a collaborator with the occupation a very rich collaborator so he may have a way an exit plan of his own scripted out but i think he knows that without

foreign occupation his government's days are very very precarious. one of the afghan prisoners washington troops to the dust of their home for themselves people in new york what they think of the country's campaign in afghanistan. their views there when you're over there it's because of the wonderful oil and. it's all about money well that's one view anyway the views of the decade long invasion from the the streets. later in the program also to find out if the prime minister's support salvage the u.k. struggling textile manufacturers the brakes were. good leverage. to build the world's most sophisticated. doesn't sound anything. to teach me the creation and why it should care about

humans and. this is why you should care only. for the. technology innovation is development from around russia. the future covered. news today. these are the images. from the streets of canada. corp.

the roads and bridges that the flickering electrical grid america's infrastructure is creaking and it's becoming a big problem even though mother nature has played a hand in wrecking supplies recently the government is earmarking money for almost anything other than energy explains. over the past decade america has spent hundreds of billions in the name of national security wars military intervention fighting terrorist and hunting online hackers meantime getting much less attention is a domestic danger lurking in and lighting up every corner of the country the u.s. power grid in recent months federal officials have warned that america's electric cables substations and transformers are not sufficiently secured and are vulnerable to attack by anyone with a weapon and some basic know how experts say the energy grid is also outdated and

antiquated unable to prevent outages from cascade unable to prevent outages from cascading in october superstorm sixty three billion dollars in damage more than four and a half million people lost power and new york was left crippled by massive floods leaving much of the city including half of the big apple plunged into darkness two months after the storm the streets of downtown manhattan remain clogged with tubes wires and heavy equipment because dozens of the city's iconic skyscrapers still rely on generators for power things like this. major buildings. that does not occur in hong kong and shanghai. because they have built systems designed to deal with the reality of nature. but is this kind corners feeling to invest in you know most of you reckon economy when it comes to america's

electricity ninety percent of the grid is privately owned by utility companies beholden to investors. and your. law actually. operated and. now. only by regulation own the federal government has meant that law it regulation to state local governments though it possible to haul. the grids to gather that is say there are many reasons not only financial but also policy reasons where really changes have to. if we want to change our safety and livelihood the changes aren't just limited to the grid engineers have warned

that many of america's bridges roads dams levees and power plants are in danger of crumbling if not repaired especially as sea levels continue rising even one bomb is nothing compared to what hurricane sandy did across the northeast a thousand miles of destruction there was a very very big natural event. and you know to have congress not funding the year. repair of the basically infrastructure. is just staggering short sighted a broken foundation that risks the chance of becoming the nation's biggest homegrown danger marina portnoy r.t. new york. checking other websites not as always plenty there but you might like these hundreds of aboriginal rights activists have staged a mass rally in canada the biggest failure but cover they're pledging to bring the country's economy to its knees find out why i wonder why the more about it online

rage to be floating economy there is some greeks have declared war on the mainstream media we were talking about this week if you want to get up to speed on it as well it's online now for first time in george's modern history the country's lawmakers overturned president saakashvili as veto and set free two hundred political prisoners some of the many stories of r.t. dot com. israel's prime minister binyamin netanyahu says stopping iran from making a nuclear bomb will be his truck priority if he wins the upcoming parliamentary vote the threat of attack seems so real to many israelis in fact that they're already snapping up gas masks and renovating bomb shelters as policy of found for. mushroom clouds confusion hysteria this is israel's last day according to a young filmmaker who wants to shock his country into taking action i've created with more be to share my thoughts and my fears with the world about the potential

threat that is coming from iran if you ask me this same question two years ago i will say that people don't think about it so much but today it is different we can see that the majority here of israel are preparing themselves i think most. mentally mornings grandparents are holocaust survivors from a mania a foreshadow he fears of what could come it took hitler six serious to kill six million jews and it will take. all six minutes that's why and maybe some or many israelis are really uneasy fearing iran might be building a nuclear bomb and tehran isn't mincing its words threatening tel aviv it will teach it a listen if it tries to attack first warning is waning missiles will make sure israel does not survive the center of israel is a problem and that's where we have to move forward not only that we haven't got

enough voters it's very very populated so everything that is falling in this area can cause casualties in two thousand and six during the second lebanon war rachel balmer also and her family hid here from the katyusha rockets raining down from across the border she never imagined she'd be restocking her shelter again so soon and for potentially more deadly consequences of course i'm afraid from the war with iran because nobody wants war and peace. and now i have also some rain children five grandchildren and i'm afraid i'm afraid because my cells will go to the army there are soldiers in the air i don't want it the recent war with gaza was a chance for tel aviv to test its iron dome missile defense system but israelis are anxious in part because of widespread media coverage of just how unprepared for war

the country is many bomb shelters and residential buildings are rundown and neglected or have become furniture storage rooms while most of israel's arab citizens about to twenty percent of the population lack shelters altogether as the chances of war start looking all too real the army says four times as many israelis are collecting state funded gas masks then they were several months ago i am a big concern it's not like i think they're going to be aware of. just. the side my fear is thinking and with impending doomsday predictions circling the country no one wants to be caught unprepared police fear r.t. television british clothing manufacturers are calling for support from the prime minister and government amid growing concerns over the lack of products made in the u.k. but with more more clothes being imported from overseas the task could prove tricky but that is laura smith founder. it's got the british flag on it but all these

clothes made in britain a quick look at the label shows they're not made in china or made in vietnam anywhere but here and down on the high streets the story's no different you'd be hard to find anything with a made in britain label on it in any shop a recent survey by a daily mail journalist found just one item in sixty three with a british made label but now david cameron and his ministers are being urged to back british from their hats to their socks and wear only british made clothes it's not impossible there are companies that still make clothes in the u.k. including the firm that's doing the urging private white p.c. but the vast majority of what we were ninety percent at the last count and including everything i'm wearing today is made abroad since two thousand and fifty

two percent has jobs in the textile industry have disappeared and we imported twelve and a half billion pounds worth more clothing than we export it last year even some companies that trade on their very britishness don't manufacture here so even if david cameron and his colleagues did pledge only to buy british it's unlikely to revive britain's ailing textile industry. expose washington being bluffing about the troop withdrawal from afghanistan than was the entire mission justified in the first place big questions from the big it's out his residence the streets of new. the obama administration has recently said that it's considering having no troops in afghanistan after december of two thousand and fourteen is that a good thing

a bad day or a totally made up thing designed for political shenanigans this week let's talk about that do you think he's going to do it he said that's a years ago and didn't have been sat on by it so why does he keep saying it if he doesn't mean it. to get people like and their families will be happy with hopefully you know you finish what you started what did we start and what do we have to finish what is finishing mean i guess to capture or. do you think that we've defined what it means it's tough because you know we don't know everything i think we need to have a world presence to maintain the market why is it up to us to maintain a well presence why don't we just get out of everyone's business well that's a good idea too but if no if we don't do it nobody will and otherwise the world's going to go to war and we were in his stabilizing factor and until now and time it's been us but we're the ones causing all the wars. it depends on your

perspective i guess i'm sort board more defending than attacking but don't you think that there are some people in the world that feel like america imposes its will on their countries just put america's will lose its freedom and democracy at its heart it's not a fanatical you don't think it's its own might be money and imperialism a little bit too i don't believe that it is imperialism. and what about money do you think that money might drive some of our reasons for most of course but money is going to help everybody i don't think it's happening i i just came back from afghanistan so oh so you don't believe he's really going to pull the troops away. entirely i think that i think that there our presence there is important and therefore sustaining what we've done so far my opinion is that the reason we are over there is because of the wonderful oil and i don't have it's all about money and. that's

a marine as someone who puts your life on the line doesn't that make you mad it makes me really upset because we have a lot of marines that are dying each and every day in afghanistan you know and you know for god's sakes i can be next you know so it does make me pretty upset that he's promising something that he's not owning up to the bottom line is we're so used to having u.s. troops all over the world up in everyone's business that we probably can't imagine us pulling out of anywhere and that makes americans the world's bullies whether we like it or not. all the way much stacey on how japan is teasing europe these days with a wad of cash the lace titian the cars report on the other just a couple of minutes.

you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so 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 harpur welcome to the big picture.

welcome to the kaiser report i'm max kaiser and today's headlines we've got an ass so that's taro aso head of japan's ministry of finance we've got a sterling crisis brewing thanks to the british ask george osborne with a little help of course from the mightily deranged bank of england but first has facebook used your likeness and personal info to promote a fifty five gallon tube of personal lubricant and if so you could be in for

a payout of as much as ten dollars stacey however yes max our first headline indeed is facebook's sponsored stories settlement means it's facebook's turn to pay you apparently facebook has been sending some of their users that they could get up to ten dollars from the company because according to the lawsuit it alleges that the facebook ads used facebook members names the likenesses to sell products without their consent case in point facebook used one member's name and face without his knowledge to promote a fifty five gallon tube of personal lubricant under the terms of the settlement any current or former facebook users who have their identities shown in a sponsor story add name to name profile picture photo excited or could be entitled to a check from facebook you know on this show i mentioned a new concept in sexual like insect and such like and this is what social networking is evolving to mark zuckerberg.