round of. protests are expected to greet president obama as he arrives in the west bank with palestinians unhappy over a lack of movement from the u.s. and israel towards a two state solution this is obama reaffirms washington's unbreakable bond with a television. bull in a china shop russia's prime minister slams the e.u. over its handling of the cypriot economic crisis and a cool welcome as brussels officials arrive in moscow attempting to calm the financial storm. and syria's government and opposition both demand an international probe into an alleged deadly chemical attack that both sides are blaming on each other.

i welcome good to have you company watching r.t. coming chief live from moscow four rockets have reportedly been fired from gaza into israel where u.s. president barack obama was on his first foreign visit since re-election the strikes have been prevented the american leader from arriving in the west bank where his helicopter landed just minutes ago our correspondent paula slayer is there these are live pictures incidentally and she brings us the details. there were four rockets that were fired from the northern gaza and town of beit hanoun as israel two landed inside gaza but one landed in the backyard of a residential home in the southern israeli town of store water now there were no injuries although there was some damage to the back yard this coming on the second day of the american president barack obama's visit to the region and just hours before he will arrive here in the palestinian city of ramallah said he obama so far

is speaking primarily to the israeli public and he admitted as much last night after he met with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu he said that his goal is to talk to his rabies he's spoken about the importance of israeli security and he's also committed american financial assistance to israel particularly in terms of military programs beyond two thousand and seventeen when the current contracts expire now there's been very little mention so far of the palestinians of the peace process of the continued israeli settlement expansion and this is in stark contrast to the speech the president gave back in two thousand and nine in cairo when he said that one of his priorities in terms of his foreign policy was resolving the palestinian issue having said that though there is a lot of mistrust between obama and netanyahu there is a lot of areas and disagreement they certainly don't see eye to eye on the issue of iraq and here we have mr yahoo continuing to call for a military strike while obama continues to say that all options are on the table

and that there is still time for diplomacy so certainly in this what we see is that despite the p.r. efforts there is no running away from the fact that mr han yahoo still holds firm to israeli commitment even if it means turning his back on his close allies we here in this clip israel can never see the road to defer nurses to others even to the greatest of our friends there's already been a handful of demonstrations against the american president here in the west bank and certainly today the police already now. are in full force on the streets there's a strong security presence and this is and in anticipation of the thousands of people who are expected to come to the streets to protest against the american president president's arrival here the plan is for him to meet at the mccotter the palestinian headquarters you see behind me he'll be meeting with the palestinian president mahmoud abbas as well as the palestinian prime minister salam fayad no real information that we have at this stage in terms of what will be presented

during those talks but we do think that the american president is likely to ask the palestinian leadership to resume talks without preconditions now this is an israeli position the palestinian position is that there needs to be of attention one hundred sixty seven borders there needs to be a halt in construction of settlements and in this respect the anticipation and at least the analysis on the ground is that obama is not going to push the israelis but rather push the palestinians to meet the israeli demands. political analyst you but he says palestinians are angry over an apparent lack of desire on the part of israel and the u.s. to bring peace to the region there's nothing substantial to be expected from this visit the primary goal of this visit is to embellish obama's image as an unsigned matanya whole personality and so this is mainly a public relations visit that is meant to improve the status of the democratic party in the united states visibly the israeli lobby and the u.s.

congress of all the things that are supposed to be discussed during obama's visit to occupied palestine i think the question of iran being a target is probably the most important one on the list obviously we have different agendas here but at the same time let's not forget that all of the prominence of iran and the gulf area and across the other broods on the view has also upsetting nato's balance of power and that aids them as far as this so-called peace process. there's nothing on the table really and all that is being asked of the palestinian authorities so for this to accept unconditional surrender the israeli terms. and as always we want to hear your views on the stories we cover so today in our

online poll we're asking what you see is the real agenda behind president obama's visit so let's take a quick look on how opinion is divided so far an overwhelming majority think that it is just a p.r. stunt from the white house that will bring no real change a quarter believe a barmaid is there to win some time for diplomacy and to keep israel from striking around just under ten percent say obama is cozying up to israel and should have given more time to palestine and just four percent of you there believe the u.s. president really is determined to revive the peace process you do have time to cast your vote or you have to do is go to r.t. dot com while the president of the palestinian authority mahmoud abbas also appears to have little hope of tangible results from obama's visit the pair meet later on thursday in exclusive interview with artie's arabic channel about says obama has plenty of words but shows very little action when it comes to israeli settlement expansion the full interview is coming up later today but here is

a quick text. in these statements president obama has repeatedly voiced his opposition to illegal learned it's an obligation and we think his right now all that remains sees to translate words into action but i have always asked americans and europeans to tell me if there has been less single miscalculation on my part in domestic or foreign policies over eight years or well these are real makes mistakes every day so why do you let them know. big talks over a small country moscow has become the focal point in athens to solve the cypriot economic crisis e.u. officials are in the russian capital joining the cypriot finance minister the ailing euro zone state is running out of time to avoid bankruptcy after the

country's parliament rejected preconditions for any new loan. as this report officials are gathering in the russian capital including the head of the european commission or barroso they're expected to discuss the crisis in cyprus with the russian of gordie's and this is happening after prime minister dmitry medvedev had some really strong words to say about the whole situation but so far the e.u. together with the cyprus parliament have unfortunately acted like a bull in a china shop i think all possible mistakes which could have been made in this situation have been made the prime minister didn't stop there he also compared the approach with which european union officials are ready to deal with bribing bank accounts through how he's dealt with the money of soviet citizens meaning expropriation of private property now the cypriot finance minister is also in moscow on wednesday he met with his russian counterpart and also with the first

deputy prime minister there is speculation that cyprus is asking russia for a loan the finance minister said that no official offer has been made straightforward he stressed he's not leaving the russian capital until an agreement is reached and now all this is happening despite angela merkel being completely furious with stripers for even talking to moscow about this earlier she directly called on the country not even to consult with anyone on its current economic problems except for the us also and the so-called troika of p. investors earlier the cypriot quadrant rejected enjoy this bailout proposal which included taxing private bank accounts and. the countries or the cypriot. media reports that the country's parliament is to review one alternative where of trying to resolve the crisis on thursday in that many details are not known but perhaps it could include our plans to tap into social funds or at the retirement

fund through through which simply its authority squared to collect around five billion euros which is pretty much the same amount we would have collected would be introduced of this tax for private very good crowds to meet time for the country is running out of the supreme banking system is still shut down and the country's president has said that the crisis must be resolved before the end of the day. the european central bank says it will cut cypresses funding starting from next week if no rescue plan is agreed well robert always chairman of the bruges group which is nice focus think tank believes the u.s. pressure on cyprus exposes a worrying hierarchy within the bloc it seems that certain countries such as germany are we pushing their own agenda and those countries are to small and can't really stand up to the larger interest in the your opinion the large financial interests of french and german banks are really pushed around and are and are

bullied and do not get a good deal and this is very dark from the e.u. to try and take a percentage of the savings of the people in banks which is actually we could argue that's actually breaching e.u. laws on protection protecting deposits so it's actually very silly and it's also bullying and he's actually counterproductive because it's now threatening the whole banking system in southern europe but because people see you is no brained of those who have tapings in bank accounts he's no friend of protecting deposits and bank profits on what actually is this really otherwise should be. well this story has generated a lot of opinion and artie's max kaiser will give his unique take on the cyprus crisis later today. they just keep blowing this. chunks of vomit in people's face the people in cyprus are being knocked down with projectile vomit coming out of the mouth of the e.c.b. in the i.m.f.

christine lagarde projectile vomiting into the face of the people of cyprus and saying it. and they're saying i'm not eating vomit and i'm not a proper just either christie and then the new york times all right what's the big deal america ross sorkin i don't see anything wrong here meanwhile he's sucking christie's vomit down as fast as you can. taste of the kaiser report coming up later today now syria's government and rebels are both demanding an international probe into an alleged deadly chemical attack they've traded accusations as to who was behind the assault near the northern city of aleppo that killed up to thirty one people and wounded dozens of others. is following the developments reports that chemical weapons have been used in the. area off the aleppo province this is are not clear at the moment as people were

rushed to hospital after the attack if you had visible wounds to their bodies but they were clearly suffering from some breathing difficulties now that seems of the assaults were saying that they saw other people falling to the four dying witnesses have confirmed to r.t. that people have been suffering from effects of what seems to be some sort of gas. who is good for. a short green. where you're. over there. now who could be behind this attack both assad's forces and rebels are pointing the finger of blame at each other but the rockets reportedly fell in areas controlled by the government the syrian rebels have long tried to overrun the weapons plant located in the very same area you can see on the map right there aleppo and then also fear that is the place where some of the country's chemical stockpile is said to be

stored in fact the syrian government said in december that rebel forces plundered supplied of chlorine gas and some time ago this video was posted online showing animals purportedly being killed with chemicals those behind this footage affiliated themselves with assad's opponents and threaten to do the same with those who support the syrian president yet all of this evidence doesn't seem to convince president obama deeply skeptical of any claim that in fact it was the opposition that used chemical weapons and interesting use of the word skeptical with the stakes being so high one of the biggest concerns for all is this an area where syria's chemical arsenal falls into the hands of extremists fighters among opposition forces as history has shown there are examples when fighters supported by the west have eventually turned their arms against their backers now let's for just a moment imagine that extremists among the rebel fighters could get hold of chemical weapons how bad could the longer tags for example of two thousand and five have

been if that was the case we've already seen images of a chemical attack on a subway in a huge city in one thousand nine hundred five in tokyo by religious sect now imagine a similar scenario but staged by people who work throughout the conflict in syria initially supported by the west. coming up later this hour and hopeless the condition of guantanamo bay prisoners deteriorates as they continue their hunger strike with the first official reaction coming off the more than a month of silence. in the u.k. government finally awards world war two. veterans who took supplies to the soviet union some considered. after they were refused permission to accept russia's award what's been described as the worst in the world.

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welcome to the big picture. is he. welcome back a top u.s. general says the hunger strike among. the government's fighting to close the

facility rejecting a poll mistreatment and the desecration of the koran the number of participants acknowledged by the pentagon is now risen to twenty five but. in its more than one hundred. brings us the latest. what we see here is a small protest in front of the white house one tata mohon out of the media spotlight for a while now you don't see much coverage on major u.s. news channels even with the hunger strike going on there right now so these people are trying to draw attention to the detainees more than fifty lawyers representing the president sent a letter to defense secretary chuck hagel urging him to help in that letter they said the participants health had deteriorated alarmingly and some had lost more than twenty or thirty pounds that is nine to fourteen kilograms medical experts say by day forty five participants can experience potential blindness and potential loss of hearing so what prompted these people to resort to such

a desperate move i was a consultant on if you were the case. those men would tell their attorney basically i don't want to talk with your what's the point of talking with you i don't want to know the date i'm going to get out of here but there are people all. oh as many of the detainees have come to believe and this is what they say we've heard this from their lawyers that the only way out of guantanamo for them is in a coffin in january state department shut down the office that was working to close guantanamo more than half of those detainees are sitting there with papers from the u.s. clearing them for with yet with no hope that they're ever going to be free again the officials are certainly trying to downplay the hunger strike but they're pressed for answers and they sure know what's going on and what cost the strike in the first place marine corps general john kelly and it's his command that oversees guantanamo he was testifying in congress this wednesday he said the prisoners had launched a hunger strike because they're frustrated take

a listen they had great optimism that guantanamo would be closed they were devastated when the president did you know backed off at least their perception of closing the facility that has caused them to become frustrated and they want to get this i think during that you don't get it back in the media. on our part will continue to press for answers as the strike continues and involves more people in washington i'm going to check on. my wall large parts of the media have been playing down the story r.t. has been following it from the beginning and we've got a timeline of events on our website where we have also gathered comments by the un prison officials detainees lawyers and activists try to give you a full picture of what is going on there had to r.t. dot com for that also while you're there you might find. the voyager spacecraft may have just become the first manmade object to exit the solar system find out all the details online plus meet the road and it almost caused yet another meltdown at

japan's fukushima nuclear plant find out how close the country came to disaster all because of one rat knowing through a few wives more online. dot com. striking civil servants have booed the british chancellor george osborne as he announced his intention to stick with the stereotypic more than two hundred fifty thousand people were involved in the industrial action is the chancellor live it is twenty thirteen budget to parliament spite three years of spending cuts and tax hikes the country is still on the brink of a triple dip recession richard wellings from the institute of economic affairs says the chancellor is suffocating the economy with this policy. other people are pretty pessimistic about their long term outlook they don't think there's going to be this two or three percent growth that the government predicts in a couple of years' time obviously the big question mark is what happens in the euro zone which accounts for around forty percent of u.k. exports and if that just goes from crisis to crisis and as we've seen recently in

cyprus that's going to really have a very good name effect on growth in the u.k. so it's completely unpredictable this huge uncertainty in this context a cautious chance that would have actually made great to spend the cuts now to actually put the public finances on a more prudent fourteen but what we didn't see was any massive program of deregulation and this is really the way for him to get out of his car and fix instead we saw even more tax complexity and more red tape being piled on the office to have top of all the stuff coming from the european union the that which is very very harmful to the u k. a select group of u.k. world war two veterans have been awarded by prime minister david cameron for their service during the arctic convoys the convoys brought supplies to the soviet union in the fight against nazi germany last year london was criticised for rejecting moscow's offer to grant the british veterans a special award and now reports feeling is a gratitude are tainted with sadness and anger. a quarter of a million men took part in the arctic convoys over seventy years ago sadly today

just a handful of those brave men still survived after decades of campaigning the case convoy veterans are at downing street to pick up their new limited medals but launch projects will be worth a long. bridge between a wonderful day long time coming but. one that will be a sadness his own ship might has crossed the bow on full time during the war ninety two year old vic bashford served in the royal air force as an electrical engineer he was part of a secret operation that traveled on board the first optic convoy to russia back in one thousand nine hundred forty one. urging mr juju to start a second front to grow back. into we're in the frog to relieve the pressure on

the russians mr churchill so we will soon use them airplanes and we'll soon you of them in the fly them will so near them into the buying time and. i will treat you and we will show you some more appliance so that's how we came to to be in the in russia during world war two british ships transported around four million tons of supplies food and munitions for the soviet union more than three thousand sailors didn't survive the journey west subzero temperatures and german air raids were a fact of life on earth. on the rigging on the royals on the dirt and you got this crash. on the frogs and of course you got the die after die out of there so you can be a bit frightening last year the british government came under fire for blocking veterans from receiving a special commemorative award from the russian government that medal was to be

awarded as a symbol of gratitude for all that british veterans did to help the soviet union during the darkest days of the war and we now know we went through the who was yet despite the opposition of m.p.'s the foreign office blocked the move saying the fight against nazi germany happened too long ago for the men to be recognised effectively leaving some veterans to die without recognition for their service and the thanks state as i think it's disgraceful absolutely disgraceful that the we would not become a doom's i mean all stroy humans are those that the american. though been awarded it motivates that one of us normally to the russians it was to us. so this arctic star is. a little bit of.

software in it. you know. not with the pride that i would add on. the russians. for those who braved the arctic waters and served their country all those years ago it's a day of celebration shaking hands with the prime minister followed by a reception on the h.m.s. belfast with that arctic stars in tow but for many it's a celebration that's left a bitter aftertaste for the owner that's come too late for those who could still wear it. london. coming up after a quick break the tough financial choices facing cyprus are up for discussion in the current.

wealthy british style it's a time to explain the. markets why not not. why. what's really happening to the global economy with mikes concert

for a no holds barred global financial headlines tune into cars a report. download the official. yourself. stream quality and enjoy your favorites. if you're away from your television just. now with your mobile device you can watch your t.v. any time anywhere. when their own country can't offer them a living loving mother sometimes have to leave their children behind. the dream of millions of migrants the children might choose their.

i want my children to win over moscow. russia has become. migrants working hard to find a way home. by imax kaiser this is the kaiser at four yeah we're still in new york city stacey before we start i want to oppression of time square nine hundred sixty five. i will sign above times where it's all gone now well max people really want to know not about the callahan but they want to know about the cyprus man what's happening on the streets of cyprus so we're going to talk about that because there's you know there's a little song called by fiscal cliff richard i don't know if you recall this we're all going.