i am. told. syria pledges to retaliate to while its close ally iran ones of dire consequences not to israel launches a bombing raid on a target near damascus. unique footage just surfaces of alleged that you committed by mali and troops and tons of freshly taken from islamists this amid a news blackout on civilian casualties and french plans to hand over the operation to local troops completely. one i'll get to in british

taxpayers quote followed made revelations of back door hikes for the complicating what once there is an already bloated texas to. and obama's pick for defense secretary goes before the surge as confirmation hearing starts with local protests already coming from the israeli lobby. is eight pm here in moscow you live with us on our t.v. with me to bomb would say it's good to have you company syria says it may take action against israel after its flying to just reportedly violated to syria's sovan team and bombed a military research complex close to damascus meanwhile diplomats in syria are friendly iran says that the attacks whole significant implications for israel

artie's policy is in tel aviv with more details. now we are hearing from syria that israel did launch a military strike inside their country israel has not commented neither confirming nor denying these reports the syrian ambassador to lebanon did say that it was not clear when ever tell you what happened and that it was up to the powers that be to decide on such decisive action but he did say that it was an option and that it was and would be a surprise now the iranian deputy foreign minister has also stated that this israeli attack has serious implications for the israeli city of tel aviv and those are indeed quite harsh warnings what we understand from syria from syria and sources is that the israelis hit a research center not far from the capital city of damascus and that at least two on site workers were killed there are also reports that the strike hit a convoy of weapons that was making its way from syria to lebanon and now

washington reportedly was warned by israel of its intention to strike inside syria this kind of comment coming from a high ranking american official who has spoken on condition that he not be named it is important to mention that a couple of months ago iran's revolutionary guard did say that assad had friends in the region who had not yet entered the fray the quote was that these planes were poised to strike out in case there was an intervention in syria earlier this month is well deployed its i am going defense missile system to its border with syria necklace of a growing concern that they could be some kind of use of chemical weapons as i mentioned earlier we have no comment yet from tel aviv there also has been no comment from washington moscow has said if indeed these reports are accurate that the israelis did strike inside the syrian territory it is a gross violation of the united nations charter the arab league for its side has

slammed is role for these alleged strikes. saying that they are a flagrant act of aggression and a glaring violation of syria's sovereignty. for more twenty four seven updates on the reported israeli bombing as well as opinions from inside the middle east pollers the twitter feed and one of the latest tweets as she is citing the he prefers bush as a syrian rebel group has actually claimed responsibility for the attack on the military research center be a damascus. we also buy a me as a q where digital pan-african newswire you he says the air strikes in syria all part of a foreign plan to bring down the assad government. well it's quite interesting that the israeli government as well as the united states has not officially responded to this provocation against syria it is inevitably a situation in which they are opening up a nother front in the war against the government of bashar al assad part of that

strategy of course has been a deployment of patriot missiles in turkey which is also a nato country on the border with syria the syrian government there has been quite resolute in his campaign against these rebels over the last two years although the rebel organizations out many of which are backed by the united states and the other nato countries have caused a lot of disruption and dislocation inside of syria they have not shaken the result of the syrian government to maintain its position of authority inside the country so this is of course is another effort on the part of the backers of these rebels to further weaken and destabilize the government in damascus. r t has managed to get exclusive footage of what's believed to be atrocities committed by the mali an army in a town liberated from islamist rebels with the help of french forces and information on civilian casualties in mali has been notably sconce we spoke to local journalists gonzalo one child who told us of the originals of the disturbing tape

as we continue moving north we find reports of extrajudicial killings and evidence of more crimes we have heard of the mud of a few citizens by molly and soldiers in the town of survivor not only did they kill them they shove their bodies into the drinking water well ok today in the center of the town like in the rest of the population watch groups are hearing of cases where people are being prosecuted for trying to earn a living under the rule of militants all sixteen year old adama says he was unknowingly employed as a cook and butler by jihadists but was now being accused of terrorism the butt of a lot of after i stopped working as a cook in the town of do when i went to see. there there i met an old man and i asked him for a drink of water he said that he won't share water with terrorists i said that i was in a terrorist and i was just thirsty little then i was put into prison i am no terrorist you know i didn't even know that i was working with militants i only realized that

through the rumors i started hearing it and then when everyone went on to the frontline i was just cooking crude for them no one even talked to me i think persecution zoë say reportedly becoming widespread in the area of arabs and to exist said to be persecuted on charges of allegedly collaborating with the militants you know the government and the french troops are fighting against our contacts in timbuktu also told us that shops belonging to arabs are being looted. the french officer retaken the final major of the city of condell from the say there will soon leave mali handing operations over to government chains need of a news to international consultant and former deputy speaker of the belgian parliament says this is a bad idea considering the low discipline and like all funding in the west african nation. what i hear now is how this surprises me i mean first of all to mali an army does hold a grudge against the people who are lost some from the northern part of the country

and secondly the soldiers of very low grade and at very little dominance at such as a they're not really a regular army in that sense there's only. hardly a state apparatus functioning how can you really just have people and examine what they do you can't you just ground in a country like that so the only thing you can do correctly is if you think people might be terrorist is hold them and arrest them and detain them but you certainly are doing this kind of extra judicial executions but it totally surprises me that this is going on right now this country needs support yes this country needs are out but why is it that this help only comes in the form of military invasions that's a basic question usually we should ask ourselves. and there's also fears of sectarian revenge attacks in mali following the french led military campaign more on this as well as images from the conflict on country on r.t. dot com.

they were sent. has started a confirmation hearing all of one of president obama's most controversial choices for a key job in his team chuck hagel nominated to be the new defense secretary has been under fire for his stance towards iran and is accused of being anti israel artie's gannett she can explain why certain political groups are so against his candidacy chuck hagel has been under attack since his name was floated as president obama's pick for the defense secretary position it would see attack ads on all major u.s.

t.v. channels saying what a terrible defense secretary chuck hagel would be all who are december and much of january they've been running these ads you know between commercial as of beauty products prescription drugs and what got so somewhere between those you could catch attack ads like this one secretary of defense chuck hagel president obama says he supports sanctions on iraq voted against the legal voted against labeling iran's revolutionary guard a terrorist group and while president obama says all options are on the table for preventing a nuclear iran legal says military action is not a viable feasible responsible option president obama or secretary of defense chuck hagel is not responsible option. that ad was sponsored by the emergency committee for israel so what that truck a will do to deserve that as a u.s. senator chuck hagel has been critical of israel's policies he's been critical of the israeli lobby in washington here's what he said the political reality is that

the jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here i've always argued against some of the dumb things they do because i don't think it's in the interest of israel i just don't think it's smart for israel and of quote among other things chuck hagel there to say that u.s. interests should trump israeli interests if they conflict he supported direct negotiations with iran and unlike many other politicians here in washington who keep repeating the all options on the table mantra but these publicly they say that chuck hagel has been straightforward in saying a strike on iran should not be an option and he has also been a proponent of a more even handed u.s. policy with regards to these really palestinian conflict and the u.s. has been anything but even handed on the issue it's also for statements like this one that he has been under attack take a look this is chuck hagel in two thousand and six the united states will remain committed to defending israel our relationship with israel is

a special and historic one. but it need not and cannot be at the expense of our arab and muslim relationships. that is an irresponsible and dangerous false choice some saw president obama's decision to nominate chuck hagel as his message to these really hard liners we actually heard president obama say there is too much war talk going on and maybe nominating chuck hagel is his way of bringing down the tension and not not everybody here in washington likes that message but what's interesting since the beginning of the attack campaign against chuck hagel over these two months or so many of the attackers have sort of withdrawn their objections over chuck hagel nomination some say could be because they were see behind closed doors that as defense secretary chuck hagel is not going to make any drastic moves to really challenge washington's foreign policy with the doxies. well gary is government doris' of the energy independence it's

just best to block a russian finance nuclear power plant after a invalidating and national referendum that backed the construction plan. wealthy british study done. time to. go to. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to conjure reports on our.

sigrid laboratory to kirby was able to build its most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tim's mission to teach creation why it should care about humans and. this is why you should care watch only on the algae dot com. they're watching our t.v. it's good to have you with us now from all in the chuck hagel is prospects of becoming defense secretary i'm joined live by phyllis bennis director of the institute for policy studies has been has a goal told in the senate i hate all the hearing that he's ready to act on iran if needed i mean what used to be he's used to be far from trigger happy about striking iran is he now backtracking on that. i think that he is prepared to say almost

anything to get by the senate that means he will follow the line which is that there isn't that obama has used this notion that quote all options are on the table we can expect him to say that we can expect him to talk about the importance of the relationship with israel all of those things he will be repeating i think it's true that every nominee who comes before the senate. will use the language that they were they will use the language their great being will persuade the members of the senate who are not sure to vote for them what they actually stand for is probably better identified by their earlier writings when they were not running for office. many say that hey girls nomination could somehow mean that the white house is is not in favor of so many of a minute should we policies anymore what we want to. go has said in terms of iran

does this prove them wrong. i think that angle has never been outside the box he has not been one of those inside washington calling for escalation against iran in fact he came out against unilateral sanctions in favor of diplomacy officially that is president obama's position as well there are enormous pressures coming from pro israel lobbies coming from the neo conservative forces in the tanks and in the media calling for broader escalation for war against iran he has resisted that and i don't think the fact that he said. the magic words if you will during his testimony today is a shift i think just stands on the side of those insiders those washington insiders who are less so eager to go to war that doesn't mean there is no chance it just means that it's a very unlikely possibility that the table in such

a lightning rod came under so much attack before he was even officially nominee and yet president obama stuck with him and said yes we are going to recreate you know two to keep him as our as our candidate we're going to do and i thought about it and i still think that that is a very important sign that president obama is prepared to pull back from allowing the road israel views and the new interests. the dominant role in determining who we can have an avenue at egle is among the supporters of the so-called a global zero movement which sends all the complete elimination of nuclear weapons and a worldwide regime of inspections does this mean we'll see some sort of a witch hunt from haydel in charge. unfortunately i don't think that he is as committed to complete abolition as the title of that organization would imply think

that he is willing to look at the actions of scaly in fact u.s. nuclear the u.s. nuclear arsenal that in self is very important you know chuck hagel is not a peacenik chuck hagel is not anyone i would want in charge of the military in charge and state department charge of any of those but it's relative relative to other members of the senate relative to other potential. candidates he represents a very different set of possibilities i think that we would be mistaken to assume that because he had signed on to the zero call for nuclear weapons that he will in fact even argue within the cabinet to reduce dramatically the number of nuclear weapons but i think it's important that he is not someone who wants to escalate nuclear threats by the united states he is someone who recognizes that you cannot speak only of nonproliferation for others if you don't speak of disarmament

or yourself. he's going to have a quite a challenge with wrapping up the lengthy and painful u.s. military campaign in afghanistan is the up to the job of mean he's not your first candidate but can he do it. i don't think the issue is his capacity i think you know that this is a political position where you are the political leader of the of the pentagon i think the biggest challenge he's going to face is less about the withdrawal to afghanistan which are unfortunately i do not think he is prepared to move more quickly than president obama's plan for withdrawal the only combat troops by the end of twenty fourteen i don't see any indication that he is going to push for a quicker or a more complete withdrawal where he is going to have the biggest challenge i think and part of the reason that he was under so much pressure now is when we start talking about cutting the military budget whether that's in the context of the

current. the current laws that are in effect that require a massive across the board cut beginning march first of this year or if it's about any particular military projects the the f. thirty five bomber for instance. he is somebody who has said that the military budget is loaded and should be cut how much he's prepared to cut i think we don't know yet that i again i don't anticipate that he is prepared to go too much further than president obama has already indicated i think what's important to recognize is that the difference between having secretary of defense who is prepared to. cut the military budget to recognize the need to cut the military budget is a very important step beyond that of having somebody who says as others how there can be no cuts it would be disastrous for there to be any cuts that was the position of the former. secretary of defense leon panetta so listen as i'm going to

have to cut you three right there thank you so much for your time phyllis bennis they director at the institute for policy studies talking to us. bulgaria's government does expect. two top block of the russian finals construction of a new nuclear power plant this comes after a national referendum voted in favor of the project the vote however was invalidated due to a low turnout will hear is allies in europe and the us fear the project would mean energy dependence on russia mr room in offshore officers authorities they did their best to bring the vote down.

four hundred million dollars in debt and ukraine and such also russia for all time to play find out online how we've managed to get so far into the red and how it hopes to get out of it. and craving for coal energy hungry china is burning as much of the black stuff as the rest of the world combined with levels of air pollution in the countries gone rocketing that's online for you.

which is government has raised taxes twice as fast as cutting them according to a new report putting a damper on david cameron's pledge to grant a lower tax country for the show almost three hundred judy hides from the ruling coalition further complicating an already notorious system. picks up the story by the end of this parliament the u.k. public will have seen cuts to some one hundred and nineteen various taxes that all sounds great but for a government that's promised to create a lower tax country needs that they've actually increased some two hundred ninety nine of the taxes might be somewhat confusing the brits assume going to see an extra levy on carbon dioxide emissions that means energy bills are going to go up they're also going to see an increase in air passenger duty which means more

expensive air travel and then some of the recent changes to u.k. tax law are quite simply bizarre revenue and customs recently increased to be eighty for hairdressers renting a chair in a salon and then who can forget the recent baked goods scandal when u.k. tax code stated that it pasty would only be taxed if it was sold at above ambient temp. critics say the system is simply too chaotic britain has one of the most complex tax codes high taxes they kill jobs increases prices and it lowers wages so the time when families are struggling with the rising cost of living the idea of so many tax increases will really make life difficult for them it's clear that the british government is in desperate need of cash to deal with the dismal public finances which means that by trimming a little bit of tax here and adding more tax burden that by twenty fifteen the u.k.

treasury hopes to get an extra eighty four billion pounds in tax compared with the year before they came to power but critics say that once again is the british public which ends up out of pocket. artsy london. now to some international news in brief define his own government's warnings against traveling to libya british prime minister david cameron has flown into tripoli on a surprise visit the prime minister plus the u.k. support for the country and help with with its from our democratic transition earlier british authorities warned of an eminent threat against its embassies in tripoli warning its citizens to leave the country. workers in athens have gone on a two day strike with hundreds on the streets of protesting against austerity measures that will make a deep cuts to their pay five hundred medicals job chanted slogans in front of the health ministry doctors sport workers and public transport staff to target

a number of different demonstrations across the greek capital. egypt's top politic politicians have reportedly signed a document renouncing widespread violence at protests across the country the agreement came at a meeting attended by the leader of the muslim brotherhood and the heads of liberal and secular opposition movements it was called as president morsi cut short his trip to germany over the ongoing andras at home without securing any backing from berlin blog and journalist a while ask and if morsi had received european support tensions may have spiked for them. i think the public the public will be very upset if foreign countries start lending a hand to president mohamed morsi while he is executing these very oppressive measures against his people he has cracked down on

a lot of freedoms sidelined editors arrested people and justly and i think that. the sentiment in egypt is basically a rejection of mohamed morsi and the monopoly on power that he that he's he has and it's not so much as mohamed morsi he's he's viewed here as a puppet to the guidance bureau so unless he starts taking control and actually doing steps taking the country forward towards a democratic transition i think people will not be pleased otherwise. the latest edition of the kaiser input is coming up in a couple of minutes here on r t staying with us.

you know i can kind of sort of understand the mindset of an evil dictator i have trouble understanding what is going on or maybe not going on in the minds of the terrified cogs who believe all the propaganda give up all their rights for the lucian of safety to coach jerry seinfeld who are these people well maybe some of them may be working at your local school braindead bureaucracy zombies at a pennsylvania school suspended a kindergartner note kindergartner as a terrorist threat because she threatened to shoot another student with a gun that shoots soap bubbles i guess this was all a mix up because the girl she wanted to shoot didn't understand that it was in reference to bubbles and not bullets children in kindergarten can often misunderstand things but the administration of the school seems to be no smarter than six year olds immediately going into total panic mode guess what this is hardly the first time that something like this has happened remember the kid who pointed a piece of chicken at a teacher and said bang the thing is that the real terrorism of the event is that

the mental sleeves of fear propaganda that work at these schools are raising a generation of children to be just like the somebody shoot me with a bubble gun that's just my opinion. welcome to the kaiser report episode number four hundred i'm max kaiser for four hundred episodes we've been exposing markets finance scandal jamie diamond.