japan commemorates two years since the catastrophic tsunami that caused the world's worst nuclear disaster in decades as debate rages about whether the nation should ditch atomic power. when islanders decide whether they want to stay a british colony in a vote neighboring argentina slams as a silly game. and to serve or study israel's bitter divide over all the religious jews who are allowed to have a compulsory army duty. on the edge of the russian cavalry watching r.t.i. marina joshie it welcome to the program japan is marking two years since its

biggest record of the earthquake and resulting tsunami which triggered the world's worst atomic disaster in twenty five years because astra he killed nearly nine hundred thousand people and crippled the fukushima plant in northeastern japan spewing radiation and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes thomas witnessed the aftermath of sastre and earlier shared the most striking moments with me in the studio. when i first arrived what struck me the most is that the scale of the disaster was much larger than what many people may even remember in fact what you had was you had the earthquake you had the tsunami then you had the nuclear disaster and then the lingering disaster after the fact so traveling to the coast homes destroyed villages decimated and the people doing what they could to try and pick up their lives days we don't get the testers claim that it's not enough is being done to clean up the contaminated areas so in yours i mean you visited some of the areas you saw some of the things that were being done there right after the

disaster hit so what is your personal experience well the people we spoke to have a great distrust for the government they don't at that time they don't feel that they were getting all of the information that they needed to for their safety and i can tell you that from the get go there was a lot of mistrust in the government about how the situation was being handled on the ground but as asked in japan fuel global debate over whether nuclear power should be phased out completely but can a country like japan and some other nations actually afford such a radical measure barden's been looking into that side of the story. we look at first of all there before the before this leak nuclear energy made about twenty five percent of japan's energy needs afterwards all nuclear reactors were suspended some have since been restarted to try to cope with blackouts far away in germany public politicians were horrified by what they saw unraveling in japan and that

led in part to the blunders tags decision in may two thousand and eleven to end all nuclear power in germany by two thousand and twenty two in france a very different policy since the one nine hundred seventy s. france has really pushed nuclear energy as a clean and safe provider of energy it still makes up nearly eighty percent of france's and energy needs and there although public opinion has changed slightly it's still more in favor of nuclear power than it is in japan if we look at japan again the new government is more pro nuclear energy than the previous government was but they're going to have a big a big time trying to convince the japanese population that it is worth it one thing they have on their side is that nuclear power is demonstrable cheaper than other

alternatives and fossil fuels or renewables there just isn't enough of those renewables yet to try and cover the gap ever more on how japan's recovering after seeing entire towns wiped out and others are banned because they're just too dangerous to live in at r.t. dot com we've also got more expert opinion and bring your the latest pictures from the anti-nuclear protests and commemorative events taking place. well the islanders are voting in a referendum on whether they want to stay

a british overseas territory the poll has been dismissed as a silly game by argentina which lays claim to the islands it says were still won by britain almost two centuries ago british m.p. george galloway says the u.k. strategy of the fold and is provocative. it's a preposterous exercise in relation to what is a proposed appendage of british colonialism britain has recently upped the ante sending a prince of the royal blood prince william down there to the south atlantic we've deployed this nuclear armed submarine and we are now saying that we're not prepared to talk to argentina about anything it's quite clear that the islanders have rights they have rights to a minority way of life that need to be gotten by international agreement but the territory itself very obviously belongs to argentina if someone came down from mars and saw them up so where are the falkland islands lie all the argentinian

continental shelf and drive the distance between the falklands and the united kingdom once a great colonial power or no a small nearly bankrupt country off the southwest coast of europe and was told that the small nearly bankrupt country was continuing to assert that it these islands while the man from mars would laugh unfortunately we're not laughing you're in britain because we're continuing to foot the bill and if you dot com we're asking you what's the next step buyers you know will be if open islanders decide to stay british let's take a look now the number spread so far as you see behind me now in just a second so forty percent of the viewers say that argentina will declare the vote rigged or illegitimate slightly fewer think folk winners will be told to move to britain by their south american neighbor of fifteen percent expect argentina to announce a new referendum in five years while just eight percent believe when is areas will

finally back off from its claim or tell us what do you think just cast your vote at . to other stories now some serve in the army others study theology and that's causing growing frustration among secular jews in israel over the all draw a religious refusing to do national service but the deeply orthodox say they're playing their part obviously or has a story. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is struggling to form a government five weeks off to parliamentary elections he can't get potential coalition partners to agree the stumbling block whether or not ultra religious orthodox jews should serve in the i.d.f. the religious parties are certainly beginning to understand things have changed they're going to find themselves challenged on many fronts military service is going to be one of them and as a result they will have to conserve their political capital to fight on the things

they care about most most ultra religious jews have never been in the israeli army and religious political parties have never been pressed on the issue like they be now but genuine parliamentary elections saw a new play is coming to the fore on yahoo needs in his coalition if he's to form a majority government but they're insisting the religious played a part. like this woman who spearheaded a campaign with other like minded israeli mothers they're fed up with what they call an injustice that the children should serve one other student to thirteen oh god that something is very unfair that we are going to give our children to the army not knowing if we are going to get them back in fifty percent of the mother or the new. do not have to warry because their children do not go to the army iran is twenty eight years old married with two children while others his age were doing their national service he was here starting far from being apologetic he feels the

contribution he makes is as important if not more. of the backbone of the jewish people i think my obligation first of all is to preserve the jewish intellect and the jewish mind for our city for this country's sake and for the generations to come and yes while i might be not putting my life at risk and also contributing to this country's security they also say which doesn't make any sense for me that for each student that study the torah is soldier is not getting killed so if you are taking twenty two thousand eight hundred were created until now for independence day until now what does it mean if you didn't study enough. but the frustration among secular israelis who make up most of the population goes beyond just army service they complain ultra religious jews don't work or pay taxes while receiving disproportionate government support just about every city in israel has

a religious neighborhood like this one in ten israelis is all to also dogs the challenge remains how to include them in a society that is increasingly hostile to them scipio rome spends hours trying to count israeli attack on islam towards the ultra religious she blames the media and the growing divide between the secular and orthodox communities all of the minorities here are protected but there over the people it's not allowed to hate arabs it's not allowed to hate. right wing's it's allowed to hate her in the community it's ok the problem is the article she writes are read only by those in her community far away from the politics being forged on the national stage whether netanyahu eventually chooses to include religious partners or leave him out of his coalition there's no running away from the growing internal divide in an already divided country policy r.t. jerusalem. in syria it's suspected that rebels there are getting u.s.

training to stop to remember all the syrian opposition on the twists and turns in a deadly saga that shows no sign of ending part of that conversation later this hour. and the battle continues for british war veterans who are putting their medals under the hammer for food and before news after the short break. emission free couldn't take should free transport judges free. agent three. free. free.

download free blog plug in video for your media project a free medio dog tom you. see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. play. it. and.

the end. and. play. clue. and.

thank you. welcome back here with r.t. syrian rebels are reportedly receiving training from the u.s. in their fight against president it's claimed to be taking place in jordan and some americans involved are in military uniform but some members of a divided here in opposition say military support from abroad is only deepening the syrian crisis as one of the opposition the years explained to his arabic channel. two of them and i want the opposition to be united for at least we would know who

to negotiate with but unfortunately there are many small armed groups we are trying to establish contact with the most rational and far seen opposition representatives respect international humanitarian law and the basic constitutional principles that unite us as syrians whose actions aren't based on religious beliefs or malicious murders there's no method. it's an aside what is your view on the main political problems for the syrian crisis. for example the preservation of assad's presidency civilian death and their position being supplied with weapons and a cult will have so hello to well first the arms supply should be stopped completely both for the rebels and for the syrian army second concerning the presidency we need time syria needs a boat ten to twenty years a parliamentarian ism to eliminate the idea of destroying one person and the role of the president so we can see that the majority of syrians support our program

that will redistribute power from the president. so fun to afraid of clashes with a government which is going to be formed in istanbul and it is considered to control so-called free districts mostly not you have. we are far from it still i think that if a project starts with the french foreign minister statement and then was discussed in istanbul's lobbies over three months the project doesn't have any future it is likely to be a farce and it will actually be much better if it is not realized at all because it won't gain any support or respect they still don't have a worthy candidate for prime minister they don't have any political modesty the correct way of thinking or political experience. and on our website do you still think of our hitler as evil personified well in austria were sizable number of people in

a poll saying xanadu leader wasn't all that bad. i already told gary and priest of god selling his pricey rolex watch to pay church bills was a good deed his cash strapped congregation thinks otherwise to tell you why. they fought to save their nation and europe from materially but manteo britain's wartime heroes are finding that out a country is a staring is one battle they can't win it's highly decorated world war two veterans are forced to sell their medals just to make fans we are firth has a story i fired assured burst from five hundred feet producing strikes on the porch

and a dull flame appeared soon it began to dive steeply exploding into the ground these are the private extracts from the flight logs of world war two night pilot brands but bridge despite being a highly skilled and decorated pilot his story has remained largely untold until now ninety two and suffering without scientists bronzes in a nursing home and his family struggling with high care costs have put the incredible momentum up for sale i said that these are your medals we're sending them and that was a smile and there was a sort of recognition that. you know this this is what these were his so i have no doubt that he's probably got some on the stand thing off. this happening the family to raise more than one hundred thousand pounds at the auction with their father's nursing home costs averaging around fifty thousand pounds

a year and that is it is the money will go a long way to paying for their father's treatment the ice and tell the remarkable story of a man he began the war as a conscientious objector but he wended it is arguably one of britain's most prolific night flies and the story. short absolutely true never really because you only have room for the engines hoping that maybe lives will be so. pleased to see. a parachute emerge from any time so this is prances pilots flying logbook and slowly unusually he also includes his combat reports now this particular one you can see describes one of his exceptional achievements during the war where in one night alone he shot down four enemy german planes now that was absolutely remarkable and was described by

a fellow night flying eighth as one of the most exceptional sorties flown during the war. and he looks at playing there's that recognition that it's part of his life of all of the. people so quickly so. yeah i think it's yes the elderly care i think needs to be more funding for really care so that they don't have to sell all their possessions and all their what they fought for of their home you know in order to pay for their care that's that's the hardest thing british but friends do receive a tax free pension but with sky high living in care costs and often that's simply not enough. shockingly and it's estimated that ex service personnel account for around one in ten of the u.k.'s homeless politicians are criticised for abandoning but shien's in the hour of need leaving it to charities to pick up the slack and we

have hundreds of people who come to veterans and their dependents who contacted several year who need help with care looking at the ageing population it's not likely that those the number of people we help would go down anytime soon every year in the u.k. there are key paid. people for their country but in a nation where everything goes for the only added to the number of leading from brown over to story is an important reminder that the rest of the year away from the ceremonies and the cameras and money versus the truth of facing. challenges the boy in love go on to serve. london. now is take a look at some of the stories from around the world. the suspect accused of the gang rape of a medical student on a bus in delhi last december has committed suicide in jail ram singh who was the driver of the bus was found hanged prison officials said the five men were held in

isolated cells after other inmates tried to attack them the vicious assault on the girl sparked nationwide outrage was demands that the culprits face down. but one opposition leader has confirmed he will run for the presidency to replace lately the previous use his announcement to accuse the government of using travis's death to push the candidacy of nicolas maduro the opposition leader is main campaign themes for the able for teens all are high crime and poverty as well as the government's devaluing the currency by more than thirty percent. security in egypt seems to be at its shakiest in a month as police officers across the country go on strike despite ongoing street violence officers accuse the government of using them as political pawns their action follows trouble that we can't after death sentences were upheld over twenty one ports stadium riots beltre reports. so i got to the security

headquarters is a powerful reminder of the past five days of bloody clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in a bid to quell on rest a day ahead of the contentious verdict on last february's football riots the government removed the police and put the city security in the hands of the army activists here say a military takeover will only antagonize the situation and is an example of president mohamed morsi ignoring their demands this is. the government has been got an army needs the rights of the people and those who have been killed portside is not going to be more secure with the withdrawal of the police it won't help us at all the ports are you do officers are supposed to be in the street taking care of the country that's what we asked for with the police leaving there will be chaos now the people will have to secure the city themselves tension between protesters and the police has been high since last year's riots and when the military replace

them on the city streets there was an initial optimism but that all changed after the court's decision the atmosphere changed on saturday when the verdict confirmed that twenty one people will face the death penalty and a further five or seven ice instances residents here say that the army will not protect them as the local authorities bowed to pressure from the capital at a funeral for protesters killed during recent clashes spicey founder of the green eagles ultras saeed's football fan club says the police used excessive force against local demonstrators treating them worse than their counterparts in cairo he believes the death sentences are further proof the city is being targeted towards side has been persecuted for the last thirty years and president mohamed morsi is keeping the status quo created by the last regime the president wants to wrong the people of portside and instead satisfy the cairo old tribes who are wide. spread

across the country now there is a risk of everyone being racist towards portside aid the military for their part to maintain they are a protective peaceful force and that portside protesters have not been singled out they say police are merely responding to the level of violence from those attacking key government buildings meanwhile on the banks of the suez canal protesters burn tires to prevent boats from ducking saying they will escalate acts of civil disobedience until there is a fair trial with further violence on the horizon this could be the toughest challenge yet for morsi and his military about true for r t put sayit well after the break crosstalk on whether n.g.o.s can really be considered non-governmental and what purpose they really serve.

the month before the oscars and what annoys you with their predictions and the month after everyone complains about the results but it is a big talked about much as the few hundred people who gathered to protest the glamour filled awards show what protests they are askers you ask. well although the film life of pi won the oscar for best visual effects effects to you that made the movie look so amazing were the men hughes has filed for bankruptcy quickly after the film's release you know that seems like a bit of a discrepancy i mean the group that made the best visual effects in the world in two thousand and thirteen is flat broke how can that be this reminds me of how the lead creators of call of duty modern warfare two were let go directly after the release of the game which to date is the eighth highest grossing video game of all time this was done supposedly to dodge paying them the royalties that they you know

earned through hard work the problem is that we live in a world where only the bottom line count making as much profit as you possibly can damn the consequences it's just good business practice they say well it might be profitable but it's bad for society and it's very bad for visual effects and videogame artists but that's just my opinion. please. hello and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle non-governmental organizations or n.g.o.s what purpose do they serve today and are they politicised can n.g.o.s really be called non-governmental if it receives money from governments and what about the donors are they disinterested parties.

do cross talk n.g.o.s i'm joined by david rieff in new york he is a writer and senior fellow at the world policy institute and in pittsburgh we cross to clifford bob he is a political science professor and became university and author of the new book the global right wing all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in fact that means you can jump in anytime you want david if i'm going to you want to people say today that in jails are over politicized how do you come down on that. i think everything is political so for me you know this doesn't come as a kind of shock horror of all ation that n.g.o.s or political i think the more interesting question would be what kind of politics they represent and whether you can say that and geopolitics have a right wing or a left wing to the extent those. those categorizations still mean anything cast to

them you know polish human rights is a politics the u.n. charter is a politics so the idea that we're going to be suddenly shocked that the ngos are not perfectly neutral perfectly objective that seems to me that really does seem to me a little bit of posturing on the part of perhaps also governments that don't like n.g.o.s but also perhaps on the part of one ngo wishing to discredit another and you're ok cliff where do you come out on this it's very interesting what we just heard right i would generally agree with what david has said i think see n.g.o.s as basically the equivalent of lobbying groups domestically and they do clearly have political agendas even if they may not like to put put it quite in that form even something as supposedly neutral as human rights i agree is a political issue highly political and in fact i'd say that trying to portray yourself as nonpolitical in.