if you care about human to. dish why you should. only. the countdown to the next winter olympics begins it's exactly one year until russia hosts its first ever winter games that promise to become the most unique as well as the most expensive in history. but now officials are in a celebrate tory mood russia's president has lashed out at overspending even sacked a key figure behind socially twenty fourteen. and the man behind america's most controversial drone deployment strategy goes before the senate and icon for men in a confirmation hearing to become the head of the c.i.

a. plus the turmoil in tunisia intensifies fresh clashes between anti-government protesters and police are accompanied by political chaos with the ruling islamists defying the prime minister's decision to reshuffle the government. world news live from our moscow headquarters here watching our team with me lucy confident of well it's now exactly one year until the opening of the twenty fourteen winter olympic games here in russia special giant clocks in the country's largest cities have begun the countdown for the events that is going to be held in the black sea resort city. sochi now the main celebrations marking the count

down. back to the camera for the countdown have taken place in sochi itself or on and off with a spectacular gala show argues andrew farmer is in the city for us and shows us how the preparations for the games have been going in the mood on the ground. but he she can see the spirit has when the troops on the way it's like a city sky just a peculiar that would be spectacular screeching shapes not. pay at the beach games to keep stuck in the east time for several reasons the state maybe the first one to be held within acceptable to barbie this is a big concave scene things like a diplomatic speak he's going to be very compact you will be able to just jump into trying within fifteen minutes you can be in the mindset of my piano to enjoy the finer things a second late night shit is that easy being built and spread something very unusual

and not repeat history comes skanks hope a nice expensive it gives me something to do something to keep billion dollars but if you do look around and see what money can buy the organizing committee says a soldier will be ready in twenty. meanwhile authorities are also keeping a close eye on the progress in sochi before it becomes hosts or hundreds of thousands of sportsmen and women and guests from around the globe but now russian president vladimir putin has been personally checking the olympic venues he says he is generally happy with what he saw he did however fire one top official for delays and cost overruns and construction work following this abrupt conversation take a look in your view are there any cost overruns and yes a serious increase in costs but since they use their own funds for the construction on phones. it's financed by the funds of krisna police who's the shareholder of crescent sped dances so it's largely finance at the expense of sperm bank yes and

these cost overruns are paid for by sperm bank yes is spending one of the costs of this whole facility costing what's the overall was it what your initial even assessing the amount of the loan. what's a rough estimate. is initial pressure one point two billion now it was in one point two billion has turned into a big. yes we'll do a good work let's move on. to some cutting words there by president putin which as we reported didn't go without consequences for at least one official of course will be monitoring the developments in sochi right here on our team as it readies for one of the world's biggest and most prestigious sporting events stay with us.

well from drone strikes to torture techniques tough questions are in store for barack obama's nominee for the cia head at his confirmation hearing in the senate which has just kicked off now it's already been interrupted by protests but it has now resume john brennan is widely seen as an architect of the u.s. drone strategy in an effort to avoid scrutiny around brennan's canada see the u.s. president has even agreed to hand over classified documents justifying the killing of american terror suspects abroad now that is after years of keeping it a secret as art and it can reports confirmation might broaden the horizons for america's drone fleet. 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 kill 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 counting 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 us 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 where you come. live 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 you. i did state 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 the pride 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 claiming 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 worth 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 pfister chicha consequences that inevitably come with the use of force. as we have seen deploying large armies abroad. our best offense 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. get more analysis now on barack obama's pick for the cia head as well as the implications that this choice holds we're going to be joined live right now by activist and author david swanson david thanks so much for being back on the program now mr brennan is of course known for methods that have frankly enraged and even alienated many of america's allies especially when we're talking about interrogation methods on the drone program what in your view would his approval his confirmation in the senate mean for washington's foreign policy. it would mean that someone who was deemed unacceptable for years for e.v.a.'s because of his involvement in torture and rendition about

which we've learned nothing but additional negative information is now acceptable because he engages in a program of murder and the goodness of the murder outweighs the bad nissel of the torture and this is actually how people think and how they talk that murdering people is or legal more acceptable more moral and just in good then capturing people and torturing them as if anyone is captured must be tortured and so forth and as if we must have a ground war anywhere we don't have a drone war that this is how they are thinking and it is it is absolutely revolting there there are many americans who do object but we're in a minority well they have had harsh words for sure but. you may be in the minority of course as you mentioned john brennan was forced to withdraw his own planet as a back in two thousand and eight over the same sorts of issues so why do you think president obama so came to see him at the at the head of the agency if we are to know that this is in fact controversial. well obama thinks that he can get it

through and that it's not terribly controversial and he may very well be right i certainly hope not some friends of mine just interrupted the hearing and forced it to a stop and take a break and everyone be removed from the room as it began is the confirmation or rejection hearing for john brennan but congressman percentage had a bill to prohibit extrajudicial killing a couple of years ago and got six co-sponsors out of four hundred thirty four a recent poll found that while only twenty four percent of americans support killing americans with drones eighty three percent support killing non americans with drones so there is a clear bias you can do the math and see what percentage of americans are bigots but that david at the end of the day we are having this conversation now this confirmation hearing has raised a lot of questions about the targeted killing program it is at least being part of the media discourse right now do you feel that there is perhaps some sort of

a shift some sort of a change where people are really sort of waking up and asking themselves whether this is a rational policy that that works in the u.s. as favor and as morally. ok frankly yes it's starting it's picking up i don't know how fast or how far it will go and i'm trying to nudge it along it's coming from the domestic side as well charlottesville virginia where i live became the first city to pass an anti drone resolution twelve states are looking at them there are these concerns about surveillance and weaponized drones with the in the united states and it's opening up the conversation about the foreign use of drones as all of these absurd memos were i dragged before us for charged with mass murder i could not say your honor i have a memo i've drafted explaining why this is ok and a president should not be able to do that either but that seems to be where the debate is going unless we can keep pushing further and harder the awareness of the outrages that are being committed the civilian deaths the children's deaths the

targeting. americans and all americans. well i'll certainly be curious to see whether those civilian deaths will be actually mentioned in that hearing but i guess we'll be holding our breaths thank you so much david swanson author of the book war of the law a blogger and activist who is joining us live from the u.s. . government protests are increasingly turning into violent clashes with the police in the capital security forces have used tear gas to disperse crowds now the interior ministry meanwhile the political crisis in the country is deepening with the ruling is a must party rejecting the prime minister's call to dissolve the government and form an interim cabinet in the wake of the assassination of. the secular opposition leader well are to his very own maria for notion that has the latest from tunis. the day after the assassination of the prominent opposition leader here

in the tunisian capital it seems that temperatures are still very high and tensions are still at a very dangerous the very risky level the level that is threatening and challenging the security and stability in this country treasures happen continuing throughout thursday we've seen many many people on the streets and we've been hearing them chanting and to governmental slogans and i've been many clashes between police and opposition supporters today again and again police has been using tear gas against protesters but not only the clashes between protesters and. opposition supporters have been going on here in tunisian capital my crew and me we've been attacked today here actually by a group of youngsters we are and the only reason for that because it was just because we filmed them and they have been feel md and i think that tells a lot about how is the situation on the ground that it could be described as something very close to chaotic we've been hearing about similar violence and

similar disturbances throughout the country especially in the southern part of tunisia where the headquarters of the ruling party has been vandalized people are saying that friday will be even worse on friday they say the protest may go even more violent intentions may go even further because friday will be the day of the funerals of the opposition leader also we've been hearing that the country's trade union has been calling on national wide strike on friday that means that the country could be paralyzed i've heard from texas driving today that no one will be working to course it will only a great the things. part is maria there now here in our team you were here to deliver the news to you but sometimes we want to hear your point of view now if you head over to our web site r t v dot com you can vote in an. online poll and weigh in on what you think the outcome of the latest bout of tunisian protests will be

now you will find four options to choose from there let's take a look at how the opinion has been divided so far from those of you who have voted there is the results right there on our plasma screen now the outcome a majority of you have already voted think that tunisia will in fact plunge into further rest now almost a third of you fear that the latest upsurge of public unrest could in fact lead to a government crackdown on protesters that is in fact what we've been seeing now a little fewer of you a slightly larger smaller number believe that the country could in fact see another revolution and almost one fifth of you on the contrary think that the leadership is ready for a political concessions and we've got a lot more stories for you after a short break go online vote in the poll and stay with us.

technology innovation. developments around. the future covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so poorly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you. are welcome is a big. news today violence was once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. for a shelter on the day. this

week out of here and you're watching our team it's going to be a battle between the north and the south and the e.u. meeting in brussels states on a collision course over spending plans for the next few years britain is the loudest voice among those calling for a budget cut something as fiercely opposed by a southern countries heavily dependent on the e.u. funds the artes tests are still reports for us from brussels. we've seen some of the leaders who had arrived here already making strong statements first of all david cameron continuously saying that if the budget is not brought down to a level that he is happy with there will be no deal we've heard from countries who are saying that they may use their veto if they are not happy such as the czech republic to simplify the vicar 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 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 of officials here and this has not gone down well with 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 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 can see a lot of the national interests coming here to the forefront certainly not happy with what if you read between the lines would say you hypocritical. that rebate is worth three point five billion euros and is seen to be wanting to tackle that point also the u.k. is coming into this summit this is the first time since that referendum that he said that he would pose the question of whether they should remain. twenty seven reelected in the twenty fifth. 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 on 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. imposed on them on their livelihoods of their pension their potential jobs well that you cannot agree upon a budget of their own. well while the e.u. leaders are fighting over where to cut there's one item that's apparently immune from any austerity measures the e.u. is reportedly planning to spend over three million dollars to wage a so-called propaganda blitz on his critics in the social media well nigel farage from the u.k. independence party says the project would violate one of the main principles of the european parliament. they decided that they going to train in house staff in the run up to the european elections of twenty fourteen train those people to go online to look at facebook twitter other social media sites and to correct that's their word not mine to correct any misapprehensions that may exist about the european

union and i have to say the fact that it's a parliament that is doing this that is using taxpayers' money to do this says a lot about the institutions that all what about parliaments is the person is it's him a chair of parliament he's the speaker in westminster he's the chairman in other parliaments around the world but he and all the rest of a staff are supposed to be neutral they're not supposed to take any political position at all and the fact that the parliament decided it's going to spend money time and resources doing this shows you that frankly they're no better than a banana republic this is all the mcgarvie would do or someone like that so i think many people outside would be shocked by it having worked there myself for thirteen years i'm not surprised at all they are really really scared they're scared that from north to south to east to west all over the european union citizens are saying we've never voted for this thing to become the united states of europe we've never

asked to have the majority of our laws made somewhere else and we want to do something about it so they're scared and they're fighting back well stay with us during the next hour max keiser and stacy herbert will reveal the politicians they say are responsible for the financial turbulence and. saudi arabia has ordered its retailers to construct one point six meter tall barriers in the middle of their stores a rather unusual demand is that something related to everyone's favorite buzzword terrorism no it is to keep male and female coworkers separate saudi arabia is pretty infamous in the west for its laws regarding the sexes and their segregation activists always want to go to other countries to convince them to adopt western

attitudes that deep down in their hearts they secretly want but often they miss things like the fact that it was saudi women who ask for the segregation feeling uncomfortable while buying products from men according to a.f.p. you know some people in countries like saudi arabia or north korea might actually like living a radically different lifestyle and even if they don't like living that way well it is their job to fix it not by some sort of western intervention when i want to live in either of those countries not really do i want to live in a country with the saudi arabian concept of gender no not really but part of having freedom of choice means being able to choose things that i may think are backwards or illogical you know let them have the walls in the stores if they want western civilization you know if it's truly the end all of human evolution then they'll take those walls down eventually on their own but that's just my opinion.

twenty one minutes past the hour you watch him best. on to you with me now to share this go welcome to the program russia's resort city of sochi is getting ready to host the winter olympics of twenty fourteen and that's already attracting plenty of attention for likely becoming the most expensive olympic games in history their own system a good price tag is fifty one billion dollars that's nearly ten times more than the cost of vancouver's water games that was just two years ago and the big question of course is is it worth it so i have katie called being here with me to talk this in great detail so katie is it worth it the question that is the burning question

a lot of people would say yes simply because it's all about the legacy of russia it's about what put in the history books and also the future to not just the thought gee but russia as a country and what it means you know when when it was won in two thousand and seven there was euphoria people were jumping with joy it means a lot to the country and in terms of cost eighty five percent of the infrastructure it was actually done from scratch and that's why it's such a lot of money you know as you say we're talking about roads we're talking about bridges as well as our lawns and tunnels going through the mountains pretty cool stuff that's on the judge also twenty thousand hotel rooms made up so that they're going there and talking about a global scale three point five billion viewers are expected to see in all its glory when the games kick off will showcasing it is fine but i mean fifty one billion dollars that's an absurd amount of money right and the more you spend obviously the hoarders to make profit and we have seen profitable olympic games in

in their history in twenty two two thousand and two salt lake city actually made one hundred mil on his games and beijing made one hundred fifty million two thousand and eight so it is possible we're going to make any money at all it's well it's not about the money that's going there not seem to be all that about just now because it's all about the fun it's all about the excitement of it all and some from the business side i have yes of course i will in. this is money ok i would say the local businesses cafes the restaurants people working in these hotels that are being built just now they're going to be that they benefit is out of all of this and also the multiplier effect we know when money comes into our region it really helps everybody out and in terms of the infrastructure that's been built about these roads is realized right there not just that the guy is off his way by all there for decades potentially centuries to come so we're talking about attracting tourists after the games yeah what kind of two or so we're talking about because i mean these are probably domestic tourists from within russia because when you know i can hardly imagine that europeans would want to come to sochi with the abundance

of summer and winter resorts over in europe lots of competition definitely so i think that's a long shot at the moment so realistically it is the domestic market but come on it's russia under fifteen billion people it's a big market right now and today we spoke to mark who he's the c.e.o. of when i have a steroid and he's actually at the moment attempting to build the biggest hotel in europe and he said exactly that it's a common believe that the airlines are going to decrease the few the fares and their russian internal tourism is going to take off here it's going cruise for many reasons i doubt that we're going to have a lot of international. destinations been attracted here but domestic travel is definitely going to pick up because so many russians are just not going anywhere and there is a category of russians were traveling internationally but it's still not more than ten percent so if there is a. serious number of russians who just prefer to stay in their own country and if

you imagine that the airline fares go two times three times lower it's very convenient to come here two three hour flight and you don't have to cross the border guards but you're not spending time on the on the. border control so the offering all the know is going to be attractive for sure. yeah he says the chance of a date and a modest at the moment the domestic market is very much on the radar well i suppose one way of actually trying to make the money is by overcharging the potential spectators for the tickets are we going to see any of you know i really know and i hope not because i would be a travesty ball looking at ticket prices today that they were built by the. apparently forty two percent going to be below one hundred dollars that's good so that's affordable the lowest will be seventeen dollars something of students that are really keen on their sports they'll be able to get involved as well or people on the lower end of the salary.