the countdown to the next winter olympics begins is exactly one year until russia hosts its first ever winter games that promised to become the most unique and the most expensive in history. all officials want to celebrate remove russia's president lashes out at overspending and sacks a key figure behind sutley twenty fourteen. and turmoil in tunis here intensifies fresh clashes between anti-government protesters and police accompanied by political chaos the ruling islamists defying the prime minister to reshuffle the government. the u.s. military killing machine is set for a boost as an architect of america's drone strategy faces a confirmation terry to be head of the cia.

world news and much more twenty four hours a day you're watching r.t. broadcasting live from our studios here in moscow i'm kerry johnston let's go straight to our top story now it's exactly one year until the opening of the twenty fourteen winter olympic games in russia special john clocks in the country's biggest cities have begun the countdown for the event that will be held in the black sea resort city of sochi where the clock is also ticking for the organizers you say final preparations are on track and finishing touches are being done to make the event unforgettable and shortly we'll be talking to our correspondent andrew farmer in sochi about what exactly is being done to deliver the games to remember meanwhile authorities are also keeping a close eye on our work has been completed before such he becomes hosts hundreds of thousands of sportsmen and women and guests from around the globe russian president vladimir putin has been personally checking the olympic venues and says he's

generally happy about what he saw the low he did have some harsh criticism at times . takes up the story now. this is a very exciting time for russians especially for those living in tsotsi with just one year left before the games are said to start eighty percent of all they news are official numbers are saying are already completed you have to understand this is a very unique a limb pick games this is the first time the first games there are taking place in the sub tropical area never before has it been done also you have to understand look at this this is february and we as we're edging closer to the games you have to understand this is going to be a very unique event because literally you have the beach and then fifteen minutes drive you have the snow capped mountains so if you're tired of watching snowboarding or ski events you can always take a break down by the beach and possibly work on your town as well so you can see it

right there snow and then the beach now of course the president was in sochi to a look at the construction and what's happening down there on the ground and he was pretty much happy with everything he saw but there were some things that he heard that did not leave him very happy and also of course did not leave some of the officials happy as well. or the really cost overruns yes a serious increase in costs but since they use their incense for the construction unfolds. it's financed by the funds of. who's the shareholder of crescent spared so it's largely finance at the expense of sperm bank yes and these cost overruns are paid for by sperm bank yes it spending one of the costs of this whole facility cost plus the overrun. and initially be reassessing the amount of. what's a rough estimate. initial price or one point two billion. in one point two billion

has turned into a billion yes well done good work let's move on. and of course the russian president was being sarcastic at that point in fact the man who is responsible for the cost overruns and the delays in work has been sacked but still the person. but still the process of the construction continues and are to his very own farmer he has all the details from saatchi. well the olympic spirit is starting to flow here in sochi i'm stood in the center of the olympic park and in just under an hour's time there will be a shift ceremony to mark the one year to go countdown it will take place at the bolshoi that will host the ice hockey finally lympics finally come to town but tonight he will host a spectacular eye show which will include former and present figure skaters from russia as well as three hundred or so should be something worthwhile watching the

end of that speech we think from president putin and then there will be a great display to light up the sochi sky a year before the opening ceremony will begin with that opening ceremony will start at the stadium you can see behind me i hope the fish stadium that is yet to be completed but it is the only venue to be completed here at the olympic park there are five others staying at the moment and they're all up and running and what's more it's all very compact you can literally walk between any of them within about five to ten minutes and then there's hope you will be able to see when you hear lympics if you're lucky enough to get a ticket jump on a train and then you'll be up in the mountains within thirty minutes in that class not put you on a this is similar story everything's been built from scratch pretty much so you've got new ski ramps you've got. being created and there's even the. ski resort which will be an international student in the same right when the union troops arrive is being done yes they are very expensive it's costing

something like fifty billion dollars to make the most expensive in history they will be ten times more expensive than the last winter olympics in vancouver why you may ask well largely because everything has had to be created from scratch on top of that huge amount of infrastructure has been put in place here and is still being put in place if you drive around sochi is a bit like a building site there's a layer of dust on most things you touch but for example the yesterday was saying three hundred roads are being created five hundred kilometers of road and railings have been put down power supply in to sochi itself to give you an idea how to be doubled in order to accommodate all this work so just talking in general terms you can see there's been a lot of upheaval and it would be very expensive but tonight we're going to get a little flavor of what we might be able to see the olympics when this ice skating show gets underway in about fifteen minutes time.

moving on now it's going to be a battle between the north and the south and the e.u. meeting in brussels on a collision course over spending plans for next few years britain is the loudest voice among those calling for a budget cut something fiercely opposed by southern countries dependent on the e.u. funds also to report stuff from brussels. there's bickering even before they actually sit down of the negotiation table and if we were to divide it to simplify the vickery going on right now it would be between northern and southern countries you could say the wealthier nations versus those that actually depend more on the e.u. funding on the one hand you have countries like the u.k. germany the netherlands denmark these countries are supporting harsher cuts to the e.u. budget david cameron being the most radical and controversial taking this step now

he has been demanding since november last year in two thousand and twelve that was the first try today is the second try and since that until now he's been demanding for cuts in brussels bureaucracy for instance he wants to reduce payments officials here and this has not gone down well with brush brussels officials he also wants to reduce their pensions for instance but on the other side you have those countries who are dependent on these forums and one of the loudest voices on this cap is a lot of friends now he is saying and pointing a finger at the u.k. saying they want cuts but at the same time they are very protective of the so-called u.k. rebate this is the money that the u.k. gets back from the e.u. as a return for their payments on farm subsidies which the u.k. does not benefit from and which france benefits a lot from you could see a lot of the national interests coming here to the forefront of france while it's certainly not happy with what if you read between the lines would say hypocritical taken by the u.k. that rebate is worth three point five billion euros and first of all it is seen to

be wanted to tackle that point also the u.k. is coming into this summit this is the first time since he had an announced that out referendum that he said that he would pose the question of whether he should remain in the e.u. twenty seven reelected twenty fifteen of course this is a possibility of a creating even more tension in the u.k. with the cost benefit of actually being a member of the e.u. interpreted by the other members not being a team player in this regard. and also as this talk is happening talking about budget cuts at the e.u. level we see the budget cuts on a more local ground level we've seen the protests continuing even until today people very angry at the cuts imposed on them on their livelihoods of their pensions are on their potential jobs while the e.u. cannot agree upon a budget of their own. to this. reveal the politicians they say are

responsible for the financial turbulence in the e.u. . now into news here antigovernment protests are increasingly turning into violent clashes with police in the capital security forces used tear gas to disperse crowds at the interior ministry and then earlier in the southern city of gas hundreds of demonstrators threw stones and chanted slogans latest wave of public trust was unleashed by the assassination for me and i made a secular opposition leader in a long time business dominated government meanwhile the political crisis in the country is deepening and the ruling is the most part of injecting the prime minister's move to dissolve the government and form an interim cabinet waco assassination little analyst danny makki told r.t. it's now a too late to reshuffle the cabinet to save the situation. this could act as a calculus for more violence and war and. of course the media with the hope of the

arab spring we don't live in an area where you have the arab street litter size any small change of course if you can create content and hatred within society and this is essentially museum out where you have mass protests against the government we have many calls for the government to resign you have outraged public outrage against its affiliation which has been deemed has been committed by. close links with the government this is being denied that this is in government but this really shows that the arab spring is not necessarily going to force a change in good it has been a force for aggression it has led to more backward policy and it showed the muslim brotherhood they really have no tangible political policies what they are and what they have done is essentially replace the regimes which they have supposed overthrown and they have continued the same the same regressive and negative policies which have been undertaken by the previous us. of course we're always

eager to hear your views on the stories we cover at r.t. dot com we head to our online poll and let. just know what you think the outcome of the latest about using protests will be well there you can find four options to choose from let's have a look at how it's panned out so far today in terms of people who've been voting here we can see it on the screen hair and a third of those who've already voted think that they will plunge into further unrest around a quarter for the latest upsurge of public unrest to lead to a government crackdown on protesters a little less believe that the country might see another revolution and almost a fifth of you so far today on the contrary think the leadership is ready for political concessions we'll have more news for you after a short break stay with us here on r.t. .

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welcome back and more world issues for us to explore now well from drone strikes to torture techniques tough questions are ahead for barack obama's nominee for cia and his confirmation hearing in the senate john brennan is widely seen as not protect of u.s. drone strategy in the effort to avoid scrutiny around the baron's candidacy the u.s. president has even agreed to hand over classified documents justifying the killing of american terror suspects abroad so after years of keeping it secret there's artie's going to chicken reports brennan's a confirmation broaden horizons for america's drone fleets. in the shadows no more drones are moving into the mainstream was drone makers in the u.s. military pushing to defend the killing machine drones are more properly titled

remotely piloted vehicles allow us to do is to project capability without projecting vulnerability and their revolutionizing warfare by allowing us to see and keep you from half a world away a major drone manufacturer lockheed martin has financed an hour long documentary on drones aired recently on u.s. public television touting the technological capabilities of the killing machine from trailers like this pilots of the predator and its larger cousin the reaper have killed thousands of individual since two thousand and one using remotely piloted aircraft contrary to popular belief actually provides the greatest degree of ethical oversight for their use of this young man in pakistan would probably disagree several of his family members died at the remote hands of a drone more than a thousand other civilians were reportedly killed by u.s. drone strikes in pakistan and yemen we find ourselves murdering people in many

cases children with no evidence whatsoever that they're involved in any criminal or terrorist activity the numbers should not come as a surprise considering the broad definition the obama administration gives as to who should be on their kill list the leaked memo on targeted assassinations from the us justice department suggests the us government can kill people even without evidence that they are actively plotting against america if you extend the logic or studio logic being proud by the white house now you come to the lift you might say that we're in danger of going over we're getting very close to zero thought crimes that if somebody a u.s. citizen or otherwise is believed to be thinking something that could lead to actions against the united states. then this illogical logic would present the idea that it would be ok for the president to order that that person be killed despite the un raising concerns about the legality of the use of drones the us is said to

expand its remote control warfare setting up new drone bases across the world the latest announcement a new facility in asia where obama has redefined war during intervention in libya he made the case that the war powers act in a private because there was no risk to american soldiers and so under that rationale he can expand the global war while in his state of the union address queening that we don't need perpetual war for peace but it is perpetual war when you can drop bombs on any country and then claim that it's not working john brennan often referred to as the architect of the administration's drone war how it's the new opportunities for the us to wage wars without risking american lives there's another reason a targeted strikes can be a wise choice the strategic consequences that inevitably come with the use of force . as we have seen deploying large armies abroad won't always be our best all in

all the u.s. now has around ten thousand drones in its fleet not all of them carry weapons of course a lot of them are for surveillance both domestic and international there's a great push both from the administration and the drone makers to present them as america's next best thing john brennan if confirmed will soon be at the helm of the cia and no one doubts that under him the program will expand even further the goal is pretty much clear to be able to control the world with a remote control in washington i'm going to. well coming up later in the program in britain the private messages between internet service could be decoded and monitored the government says it's to keep the country safe. iran has extended a helping hand to egypt. to the cash strapped country now sudan may also be in line for assistance all this despite the fact that tehran itself is subject to several

rounds of us back sanctions over its nuclear ambitions well for more on this we're joined live not by any political side mohammad marandi thanks for joining us here today on r t so iran is ready to hand out loans it seems but how much of a blow have the international sanctions been to its economy. well there are not really international sanctions there are western sanctions the united states and the you are trying to prevent countries from purchasing iranian oil and they've also attempted to shut down all trade through the iranian banking system thus making it difficult even to import medicine and as a result people have died in iran so the e.u. and the united states do have blood on their hands already but the economy here though it did take a blow. it is continuing to function pretty much

normally although prices have gone up and the reaal has devalued but business is does continue. think though they are giving or offering these loans basically to encourage trade between iran and egypt and sudan because iran believes that the overthrow of some of the dictatorships in the region have opened new opportunities to bring about greater regional cooperation and iran wants the help of these countries away from the american orbit as it were but indeed you mentioned which is currently relying on the u.s. aid is tehran keen to challenge washington's influence in the long. well i think. in iran the feeling is that the united states and the e.u. are already rapidly on the decline in number of dictatorships that they have been backing have been overthrown dictatorships that they are backing like saudi arabia

and other oil rich arab regimes are growing their future is becoming more questionable and attempts by the united states the e.u. and the oil rich dictatorships to create a civil war in syria and to overthrow the syrian government so far failed after two years so american policy in the region is not doing well and the iranians feel that as time goes on it is the iranians who will be in a stronger position although the united states has been very brutal and the e.u. towards iran by trying to prevent trade by trying to hurt ordinary people and even now iranian radio and television networks english persian arabic and spanish have all been banned on the european satellite. asia so the freedom of information is being blocked by the united states and the e.u.

so the people across the globe can't hear the iranian voice which isn't the ultimate irony and very very briefly is it just business or we seeing some kind of geo political shift with iran making alliances with egypt and sudan very briefly. yes i think that iran and the alliance is something that the iranians would like to see ultimately but this is it will take quite a long time but i think that the relations between iran and egypt are improving pretty rapidly and i think in the future we will see these relations improving even further ok thank you very much indeed iranian political analyst side mohammad marandi thank you. the british government is considering using the so-called black boxes to monitor private citizens internet use in the interests of safety or the move has been criticised as a pointless invasion of privacy and the deputy director of the big brother watch

organization says the new measures would do nothing to catch people who pose a real security threat the u.k. government seems to think that it's necessary to monitor the communications of every person in great britain rather than actually looking for the people who are actually committing crimes they're going to drive those people further and further underground of the internet and they're only going to capture the the innocent and the incompetent as far as i'm concerned not by any means saying that communications data isn't important but when you have the director general of m i five talking about the evidence that was used to make this spill and calling it pretty horrific assumptions that we've been made that the m i five obviously going to need this information and will react to this information if they're saying that this bill isn't based on fact it's based on fun see full. imitations of facts and this is why we need to go and have a very hard look at this bill get more evidence have

a much further in-depth consultation to actually get the facts about what is needed and how it can be done. moscow is denying claims by tokyo that two russian fighter jets entered japanese airspace just off the northern island of hokkaido tokyo earlier lodged an official protest in connection with the alleged intrusion that lasted less than a minute and sent its own combat jets to meet or two are said to be su twenty seven jets when a russian military spokesman confirmed the pacific navy fleet were performing shuttle flights in the area but no violation of airspace took place a similar incident happened just a year ago in japan scramble its fighter jets when several russian planes flew close to its territory but later admitted they did not breach it's a space. well the international news in brief for you. to run supreme leader khamenei has rejected the u.s. offer of direct talks over its nuclear ambitions saying the two countries cannot

negotiate when tehran has a gun pointed out it comes just a day after washington tightened the economic sanctions on iran and restricting cash from oil production u.s. vice president joe biden made the offer of one to one discussions last saturday. leader of hamas is in talks with palestinian president mahmoud abbas about forging a coalition government led mentioned that both parties are getting ready ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections and pushed the fatah movement headed by a pass out of the gaza strip in two thousand and seven sparking a conflict between the two sides. on the wildfires in australia are making their way across the south of tasmania one emergency services are braced for worsening weather conditions forces of called on some locals to move inaccessible that is until the danger has passed this latest wave of fires comes after bush was

destroyed nearly two hundred properties last month. well just up ahead the kaiser report stay with us. no longer represents the. live.

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