and. as france celebrates military success in mali we take a closer look at the possible complications the campaign could bring. peace its military chief says his country is on the verge of collapse but says the army will stand firm as protesters ignore curfews in another night of violent anti regime protests. and president obama looks to police chiefs of the us cities devastated by deadly mass shootings to support tougher gun control rules many there are still defend their right to bear arms.

live from our studios in moscow you're watching r t with me and he said now it's seven pm here in the russian capital our top story this hour president francois hollande has held france's military intervention in mali as a success the malaysian army has made big advances against islamist insurgents all with the assistance of french troops but an earlier artie's tom barton told me about the progress made so far and the problems that have come with it. the campaign starts with french troops about two and a half weeks ago sweeping up from the center of the country up to with these islamist held areas meeting very little resistance really they are they go on there was an incident here in qana where in fact a french helicopter strike killed some civilians apart from that the french had

been welcomed with with street parties and crowds coming out to greet the convoys as they arrived in each of these towns the islamist militants retreating not wanting to stand and fight many people thinking that they have been retreating further into the deserts in the north there's only one town of appreciable size left to capture after the fall of of timbuktu without nearly without a shot fired and then it seems that the next stage of the operation will be to try and hunt out islamist militants who have gone to hide in the desert and many observers think that it's possible a guerrilla war may result in the desert there after that there is also an increased involvement from other countries and ecowas force of west african troops but seven thousand five hundred of them are coming into mali to take over some garrison duties and steadily take over the fighting role from the french there's also been talk in brussels of e.u.

troops being sent to train some of the local soldiers and the u.k. has announced it's going to send a small force but then other soldiers also to protect those those troops sent to train local soldiers as well and a new house was already involved as well and it was there was absolutely so far the u.s. has been sending aerial support it's been sending transport planes refueling planes it seems now though it's reported that the u.s. may be in negotiations with an easy chair next to mali over the possibility. see all of the drone base there and those drones flying from near the border with mali could take part in these operations to try and hunt out islam as militants there there's also been talk of a u.s. base down in. the south of mali the details of that not really clear at the moment it is worth noting though that is very rich in natural

resources oil gold you renia a lot of those exports go to france and the u.s. so we have talk of drones a u.s. base how far could this possibly spread. the question on many people's lips as the as the first phase of this operation winds up where are these militants going to go where is the violence going to go raising the fears that around the region this fighting as the militants are pushed out of the strongholds they've been in they could scatter all over the place and spread violence with them and it might be a fair argument then to say that the french might be getting a little bit ahead of themselves by claiming this is been a successful mission. the u.k. government has announced it's sending three hundred fifty non-combat military personnel to mali and west africa this only two weeks after prime minister david cameron's players that no british army boots would step on mali soil a labor m.p. jeremy corbyn says it would have been better if the prime minister had kept his

promise. david cameron is getting sucked into something that i don't think he's seriously thought through two weeks ago we started offering transport planes to france we then sent force protection to back up the transport planes we send trainers and we have additional force protection to protect them we don't have surveillance aircraft going overhead there are reports of u.k. special forces i think we've been dragged into this the danger is the more you send any troops in trainers over anything else just suppose something awful happens like one of the training groups is killed by what are termed to be insurgent forces what then happens you then go after those groups you then have a greater british military involvement we may well be in for a quite a long high tech surveillance. warfare being conducted by the french and possibly with britain and others. against people that know the terrain very well will be

hidden by the local population this could be a very long and very nasty conflict. that of the egypt's army is warning that the country is on the verge of collapse after almost a week of violent unrest between the government and opposition militias earlier the cabinet pushed through a law giving the military power of arrest while the president declared a state of emergency and curfews in three provinces this was ignored by protesters who took to the streets on mass across the country calling for regime change in cairo crowds continue to clash with security forces leaving piles of burning debris in the street and there was no breakthrough in attempts at a compromise as the opposition ignored calls for a national dialogue by the president after midnight game co-founder of the council of trustees of the revolution in egypt says the military could be playing out its own game behind the scenes. resurfaced interpretation of what's happening

definitely that there are groups who are willing to savage. anything and try to embarrass the government specifically morsi and the military. on the surface however there are deeper interpretations of what's going on some of the interpretation goes that the military council or the military is behind all of this so that they can have. the grip over the saudis canal and intensify their presence militarily over there probably we don't want to see an economic development of this specific strategic area because it would hand over to civilian oversight of the canal rather than military oversight of the canal according to the new constitution something called the national defense council this council in most countries and previously had an advisory stature now it has more of an executive branch and it has more military members on this board. which

outnumbers the civilians including the commander in chief the president which means they can force the president to take certain decisions which we have just seen in the past couple of days when they had the commander in chief say that he will declare martial law or emergency emergency law in those specific areas. some news coming in from syria activists and rebels say the bodies of sixty five young men have been found on a bank of a river in the northern syrian city of aleppo i must warn you that viewers may find the following footage extremely disturbing most of them have their hands tied behind their backs with gunshot wounds to their head the bodies were covered in mud and show signs of decay activists say more bodies could still be in the water at the moment there is no information on who carried out the killings.

meanwhile syria's rebel coalition is in paris to plead for aid and political backing to overthrow the regime the opposition needs money to stay viable but its efforts to form a provisional government have so far failed this is france warns islamic militants could gain ground and plunge the country into further chaos if cash flow is not secured archie caught up with one of the leaders of the opposition and asked him what he thinks is needed to bring peace to syria. we need this some new weapons against iran plays you know because bashar assad says. airplanes to damage villages and cities and their civilians that we need to protect ourselves our children from killing every day we have more than sixteen thousand children were dead for at least twenty two months ago

something unbelievable it's a lot right so to help syrian people and to help and syrian crisis you need weapons and money is that is that correct yeah sure sure and we need political support also who can cooperate with the man killed more than sixty thousand people we are concerned but we are not afraid you know because of major duty of fight terror groups in syria is not extremist is not dearest only fighting for the freedom and dignity and what a loss or group from iraq are these people fighting for freedom and democracy is why they're fighting for freedom and democracy but maybe we will face some problem with them anyway they are just a small part of their evolution is here. but these people are recognized even by french president as extremists and terrorists all over the word you can

find extremists but they're not their real picture only a small part of it please recall denies that. so you are absolutely sure that you will be able to control them these people you're very sure very sure about that. well what the opposition adamant extremists make up only a small fraction of the armed rebels and that it will be easy to control them historian gerald horne isn't buying into that scenario we are reassured by your guest that if the if the dissidents come to power they'll be able to handle elements for fraud but there will be an dissidents at the same play when they were with nato in two thousand and eleven and toppling colonel gadhafi now they are seeking to do the same thing in syria which suggests that they have nothing learnt even the most recent lessons of history now we see that in been ghazi which was the

cradle of the old against gadhafi the north atlantic countries have asked their nationals to sleep in ghazi because resumed impending terrorist attacks wants by those they just hope into power so i think we should get with a grain of salt what your guest said in that interview there putting civilians in harm's way by wanting attacks from crowded urban communities i was also struck by the fact that cure guess that he would not be involved in any negotiation with the assad regime the way wars in is the true negotiate with those who are shooting at him and that is how this war should end but if they refuse to negotiate that tends to suggest that this conflict will continue indefinitely. still to come seeking shelter the number of homeless people in britain looks just looks set to rise dramatically with many believing that new government policies will only

further aggravate the situation that story and much more after a short break. he used to. be free. to leave.

a mission free accreditation free. for charges free. range month free. three stooges free. download free blog as well as a video for your media project a free media oh god r t v dot com. it's coming up to quarter past the hour here in moscow your with our team well senator john kerry is set to be approved as america's new secretary of state present. to succeed hillary clinton who's stepping down after four years in the job for more let's now cross to dr stephen zunes political and international studies

professor at the university of san francisco based for being with us over the years kerry has been known to flip flop on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues seemingly being pro and anti war at the same time at least according to some people and you suggest in a recent article that he basically fits the neo conservative ideal of a hawkish bush type politician first of all how is that so and second of all what can we expect from him as secretary of state. it does seem a bit ironic given that the international prominence an antiwar vietnam veteran really was person a set monthly meeting like meetings in a highly critical of the readiness for example since america and terms of being a nuclear arms race and other issues that he's definitely moved human rights leader in his career he was an outspoken supporter of the iraq war and not only ging among the right wing minority of democrats on capitol hill that though to authorize the

war but and not only. making up these samples tales about massive biological and chemical weapons stockpiles them nuclear program and then deliver the live response from the iconic thing that you were when it was clear that that was all wrong that they had no so-called weapons of mass destruction he said he wouldn't vote for the war anyway because saddam hussein was a terrible dictator and they had the capacity of making those kind of weapons sometimes vengefully of course but that criteria there was at least twenty or thirty countries with our hearings ngs that have or have the capability of those things unconventional lessons and kerry was essentially taking a real conservative line that hey we have a right you know are we in dayton yes i'd like to talk about more recent regime change if i may obama recently in fact held egypt in libya as a success stories of u.s. foreign policy thanking hillary clinton for her help in regime change there well kerry be a team player on for the regime change do you think. well. and that

was interesting actually because you know i think could not support the pro-democracy movement against. mubarak mubarak was a longtime friend of clinton's actually among the people in the streets and well the debate was going on two years ago it was a moment he was really pushing to either stick with mubarak or maybe pass it on to generals threw them on some of the course or in he was out of the supposed to mubarak and u.s. intelligence agencies here is actually taking some more critical roles of the united states said to me this is also in that sense you know you need to be more moderate resistance and live yes of course this support that war where you know as well nationally it was a positive vote among the circles quickly became a proxy war of less by may so and and his support of. the dangerous center the do again continue this idea that the united states sends

our largest four miles of an arsenal law not to mention there's a serious car could live and we were going to start to morrow and legal arguments you know iraq was a disaster but now in libya we're seeing all those consequences in terms of two hundred thousand men under arms. in these militias not controlled by the government you see the fall of roads i'm always algeria elsewhere is the same partner shortsightedness that we seen so many other colleges and what about what about syria i mean kerry has been has been quoted as kind of being in favor of dialogue with the regime that was of course way back but he now advocates arming and training syrian opposition forces along with nato strikes another flip flop do you think i will actually see him in the future be an advocate of regime change of being active as those neo conservatives would want to send. well there are it's

clear that you would like to see resumes in your yard the question is by rule remember one circumstance. if you are unclear whether it is one of the more daughters or older of saying hey there's a syrian struggle here militarily of kurds first some other others through recent drug assumes you are you very much the problem for first. reverse those who say they would certainly be more. play a more active role and a partner if you will in their struggle which is unlike yours of course of some or general indigenous nationalists. for them so if you lose your. doctor soon i'm sorry to interrupt you i was going to say we will certainly have time to see how. senator kerry unfolds as secretary of state i confirmed confirm now that he's just been approved by the senate so he will certainly it's more of course

a formality but it is now official as we've been speaking senator john kerry will be is now the secretary of state will be the secretary of state dr stevens is from the university of san francisco thank you very much for your analysis this hour. with president barack obama has met with police chiefs from cities in the u.s. where mass shootings have occurred he wants their support for a review of the country's gun control policy obama's proposal of tougher gun regulations and a ban on assault weapons has divided public opinion with many standing by the constitution second amendment the right to bear arms archie's going to teach or can reports. white house proposals to regulate gun sales there are a wave of protest among those who believe the second amendment of the constitution is in danger as our amendment that there are a right arms it is a god given right to the sanctity of the second amendment to meet heated national

debate someone makers of even threaten to impeach the president to protect the constitution we're going to use every tool possible to fight in the ministration which wants to abrogate the constitution but do u.s. lawmakers feel strongly about all amendments of that same constitution last month congress seamlessly without much ado passed legislation which gives the government sweeping powers to eavesdrop on communications and review e-mails of anyone they want it's called the foreign intelligence surveillance act the president amendments act completely is an infringement on your fourth amendment right against unlawful search and seizure and basically does away with the probable cause requirement there's been no national debate on the fourth amendment the mainstream media have been mute on the subject so to score it now as people don't even know about it if you're really savvy and you read a lot of online media you might have heard about pfizer being reauthorized

otherwise you're just totally unaware of it and how can you have an opinion on something that you're unaware of that proved to be true as we went out to ask people whether they knew what feisal was and what it could do to their fourth amendment rights have you heard about five. but no no sorry i think i have some idea that it has to do with our taxes but i don't really know but not surprisingly the same people did have opinions on gun control to keep our guns were pretty pro-gun control right now the government spying bill is not the only legislation that sneaked under the radar of public debate indefinite detention of americans without trial made legal is seen by many lawyers as a blatant violation of the fifth amendment which guarantees due process that was. something that should have been discussed in the presidential debates and people were begging the moderators to mention this it was never mentioned it was just not a part of the debates the constitution may be secret too many in the us but it seems in washington to bypass it it's enough to say to magic words national

security to do is pass these bills i feel like all that has to happen is literally like dianne feinstein waves a letter and says national security and the fear mongering begins and shuts down any kind of debate yet we're having a freewheeling debate on guns some argue it's money that keeps the gun debate at the forefront the national rifle association reportedly spent around twenty four million dollars on congressional elections last year and even more on lobbying to an extent when even as the majority of americans support some regulation on guns god is dizziness believe no substantive legislation will be passed by the congress so he is not going to be able to get anything through congress so i think that the second amendment will be ok the media in the us essentially broke into two camps each bringing all kinds of arguments against the other both sides again and again

reading into the text of the second amendment or doing what proposal would or would not be infringe on the people's right as nasty as they get sometimes but that's what a national debate should look like but one can't help asking where was that big that heated debate when other liberties were at stake in washington i'm going to check out. twenty people have reportedly been killed in a plane crash in kazakhstan the plane carrying five crew and fifteen passengers went down near the city of el monthly in the country's south after one pm local time reports say there were no survivors the challenger two hundred operated by a consulate companies was on an internal flight and crashed while trying to land in harsh weather conditions investigators have recovered the plane's flight recorders and are now examining the data. a look now at some other stories from around the world

a suicide bomber has blown himself up inside somalia's presidential palace in luggage issue killing two people and injuring three others the attacker detonated his explosives outside of the main gate of the residence after being stopped by guards for questioning the president was out of the country at the time of the attack. in belgium police have dispersed thousands of steel workers with water cannon they're protesting against the plant closure of a coke plant and six production lines which could lead to the loss of thirteen hundred jobs the firm which announced the plants along with other steel companies face a lack of demand for steel and iron ore this is potentially another blow for belgian workers after the recent announcement that ford car factory will sat down. in just a couple of minutes breaking the set with artie's abby martin stay with us. rep

or fiasco actually caused a fiasco by singing a song highly critical of president obama ironically at a concert in honor of his second inauguration according to the huffington post he was thrown off stage by security for insulting the dear leader the sounds really bad like something out of one thousand nine hundred four where thoughts come out of nowhere the second you say something out of line about the party. to the song loop it was singing had been going on for thirty minutes at that point this rant was more like a hip hop filibuster stopping the whole show and dragging on and on and so i think security just wanted to silence him in general not silence his anti obama opinions so you know loopy next time when you want to bring up obama's drone usage or total disregard for the constitution then keep it under three minutes and everything will

be just fine but that's just my opinion. you live on one hundred thirty three possible so food i should try it because you know how fabulous i had lunch i got so many i mean family and i know that i'm still really messed up. in the old story so actually. it's a little worse for the little thing the white house or the. radio guy. what. did you ever seen anything like this until the.

sun i mean martin this is the breaking of the set so this weekend was international holocaust remembrance day it's marked you can hear on the anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz around the world politicians religious leaders and others mark the occasion remembering the millions of senseless deaths that occurred during world war two or nazi germany and the axis powers targeted several groups of people for extermination gypsies jews slavs the disabled and homosexuals were all labelled as undesirables they remember and was not without a taste of controversy that or rather poor taste former italian prime minister silvio berlusconi probably said that wrong has taken a good bit of heat for his praise of former italian dictator benito mussolini suggest made quote done good despite a telling anti jewish laws and he defended mousseline his decision to ally with hitler he did over clarify saying that he condemns dictatorships but i think is kind of missing the point i mean it was a holocaust remembrance day and you think so too and put down that remote and what

about to break that set. let her or she's going to be like. oh. i've got a lot of issues regarding the middle east on the show after all it's a region of the world that's in korean significant changes and seen a growing resistance from its people over one country i have not touched upon yet is morocco which in its close premix price proximity to the media libya and egypt countries that were all revolutionized by the arab spring and i love morocco didn't encourage official uprising like its neighbors there is growing dissent against its regime happening yet similar to jordan morocco monarchy has implemented reforms and established certain governmental bodies to quell dissent and fact because of this it's been labeled by some as the smartest dictatorship in the world and one characteristic of a smart.