harsh rhetoric builds on the korean peninsula with many south koreans fearing war as pyongyang suspends access to a crucial industrial zone that is jointly run with sold. the ten day countdown to the presidential election kicks off in venezuela with the chavez blast acting president in a race against a washington opposition leader. and a stone deal on the un adopts a treaty supposed to control global trade with conventional weapons it's hailed as a landmark by some criticized for a lack of clarity by a. thanks so much for joining us here on our day i'm live in moscow with your world why.

north korea has suspended south korean access to a joint industrial zone now the latest move in the ongoing conflict with washington and seoul also says it will restart a nuclear reactor to beef up its arsenal after washington moved its military closer to the korean peninsula south korea based journalist joseph kim has this report from seoul. the south korean president is newly elected north korea doesn't want to test her limits and perhaps if she's willing to change her policies towards north korea and the game's main objective is actually to start dialogues with the u.s. with north korea's recent what the u.s. calls provocations it's actually been easier for the united states to pivot its military back and see something that the pentagon has said that it was wanting to do to rebalance back into east asia so because of this we've seen

a larger increased presence of military expansion by the u.s. into east asia during these annual drills something that we haven't seen before we're seeing a lot of money spent despite the eighty five billion dollar budget cut that the u.s. is currently going through these threats from north korea or what people say are perceived threats have actually become common and to many people in south korea but this time around the rhetoric has actually gotten a lot harsher so many south koreans are actually getting more of an eerie feeling on what this might turn out to be i don't feel a direct threat but i'm getting a little anxious sense can't even the south korean government is taking a coup worse this time so it feels like it is getting closer when the u.s. is more forceful it has a less positive effect from the perspective of a south korean citizen i feel anxious and it doesn't feel like protection. first of all it's not the first time north korea has issued threats so to us we don't feel

the threats we don't perceive them to be dangerous but it seems there are a lot of things happening inside kim jong un's regime it seems that the u.s. is doing those things to make correct evaluation on king john so that the nuclear problem doesn't see it and i'm putting stress with south korea with the joint military drills but i don't think it is really helping in terms of into korean peace to. and in the meantime of the u.n. says the deadlock has just gone too far north korea early claimed its missile units are combat ready and warned of a possible preemptive strike on america and soul. has written extensively about u.s. foreign policy and east asian politics and believes that both sides should know they are playing a very dangerous game when you escalate to this point any small mistake can turn into a major catastrophe and that's the danger north korea itself knows that if it didn't

attack if it is attacked the united states it would be committing national suicide united states would retaliate in a tremendous fashion north korea does not want to commit suicide i believe north korea is doing all this so it can get to a point to actually negotiate some kind of peace agreement with the united states but the north korean threats are very dangerous and sound very sinister and i think they look up and they see these b. and b. fifty two supplying this is a reminder of the tremendous power firepower the united states inflicted on north korea during the korean war and that's a reminder to the north koreans of the absolute danger of war with the united states made it also gives their state kim jong un and his very very monolithic authoritarian state another way to you know we yield this to show the north korean people that indeed there is a threat so in some ways i think by escalating it to this point the united states is playing right into kim jong un's hands and again the access to north korea

hasn't been an easy task for foreign media. is among the very few who have managed to report from the reclusive country here on r.t. he shared his thoughts and experiences with my colleague to bang months. to be honest with you i haven't had a chance to talk to many ordinary people six years ago when i was there in north korea but i don't think the situation has changed i talk to the officials there and i didn't hear a single negative word toward south korea i got the feeling that this was more about north korea versus the west and the u.s. rather than being against their neighbors. and eyes and i thought back then i still stand by that by this thought that this conflict between the two koreas is more about something inspired from abroad rather than being an internal issue between the people of the two korean of the two koreas i mean they're very close they used to be one country they used to be one empire they are divided politically by the thirtieth barrel they're not divided by any other way what you know impression on north korea. mean he he's come people have said he's coming to change the is he

really going to do things already changing you know we saw google officials in pyongyang unthinkable just five six years ago we saw dennis rodman i mean it's just maybe just a show but still he wants to show that he wants to be more open than his dad and he's pretty says he's grand who is also a power he recently said he likes american computers mad computers is interested in everything happening in the world in particular the technology he said that the country needs to embrace the technology but the question is whether kim jong un will be the man to reunite careers and not to go to a full out war with the south. he could not be with us here on our t.v. today the death of a palestinian prisoner in an israeli jail has triggered mass protests with more demonstrations expected in the city of ramallah this with tensions simmering in the region the last twenty four hours have seen israel and gaza are exchanging fire let's get more on this now from our views are really good joining us live from

ramallah good to see you are just a how far have these protests spread. well they have spread to several cities of course in the west bank also you've talk talked about. basically this was a very heated and uneasy morning for the region there have been protests in several cities including ramallah where i am right now as well there's not lose and hebron now hebron is something that we should be special attention to that was the hometown of. the prisoner who died just very recently in an israeli jail and we're expecting more protests a very kind of i guess strenuous protest to take place there on thursday when when he will be buried there so we're watching out for that very closely but of course there was also the exchange of fire between israel and gaza for the first time since the november true so really a lot of tension in the air now why is this happening this is happening because of palestinian prisoners sixty four sixty four year old prisoner died in an israeli

jail after he was diagnosed with cancer in february or to be more precise he was diagnosed with cancer at the end of february now palestinians are accusing israel of not providing sufficient treatment to the man because he has complained about his health. actually in summer of last year and nothing literally nothing was done . no information was provided until march when doctors told him that he has cancer literally has days left to live so of course this left a lot of palestinians incredibly angry and of course there is you can see that their sentiments were best expressed by the palestinian president mahmoud abbas. we have sent a letter of complaint to the israeli government and to all the international institutions regarding this unfair action that israel calls the death of my sorrow our being in prison we will continue our struggle to free prisoners in i ask you to

read a funeral prayer for is death. now the minister for prisoner affairs of palestinian authority has also has also called on the international community for four and an internationally led investigation into the death of a. prisoner of course still people are outraged you have to understand this is the second palestinian prisoner to die in an israeli jail in two months in february a thirty year old man died in israeli jails from a heart attack that has also spurned a lot of protest so we're really at this very uneasy period in the middle eastern conflict situation and we're watching it very closely because we can expect more clashes to be happening in the west in the west bank in palestinian territories as well as on the gaza israel border in the immediate future or at all it is

a really good. thank you. it's a right now it's one in ten minutes past the hour time the presidential race has kicked off in venezuela in ten days time the country will choose the successor to the. two main candidates acting president nicolas maduro and his opposition challenger and they both started their fish will come pains with huge rallies benefiting from a chavez is personal blessing to become the next president maduro made a pilgrimage to the late leader's birthplace to win the election in his honor opinion polls show is leading the race server as rival centrist state government is . perceived by some as the u.s. by he told supporters he's the solution to venezuela's problems for creating a free market economy combined with strong welfare spending my colleague kevin owen spoke to dr francisco domingo head of latin american studies at middlesex

university he explains why my daughter is currently the favorite to win. the most to be a formidable communicate so he's he's old. this able to use in bali land which he used the masses very he conveys very good messages he's very good very astute politically and i think he's doing very well that's why he's leading in the polls is gaining if you like from the spontaneous outpouring of grief or for chavez is he capitalizing for want of a better word on the grief oh i'm sure there is a lot of sentiment about it i mean of the charges was a figure of hatred in the international media now the population of venezuela realise how much he was loved was two million actually that came out in the streets to be a bit him fair world as impossibly was the biggest demonstration in the history of the country and any candidate whoever they are would be foolish not to use it

however the key point is that i think is the message people are saying you know the mother is saying to them do you want the continuation of what you had with him for forty years improve in a perfect in need or do you want to go back to the bottle days of republic which the british represent and the message in that sense is very clear last mother oh i see this is really in between ten to forty percent in the polls. this is r.t. and a landmark deal to regulate the arms trade and the un adoption treaty aimed at controlling exports of can be exports of conventional weapons it's hoped to advance the concerns of humanitarian issues but critics doubt its effectiveness with claims of big loopholes those details just ahead for you. but for now the afghan president hamid karzai says the taliban leader could run for the presidency in next year's election he made the comments days after his return from qatar where the afghan

government agreed the group can open an office in doha if indeed they renounce terrorism nato is pulling out its troops by the end of cars eyes turn the afghan government pushing for peace talks however the taliban is refusing to speak directly with president karzai describing him as an american puppet and they hope to use the doha office to facilitate peace talks with the united states r.t. contributor afshin rattansi says nato is conducting a war zone is only helping the insurgents political ground. the american public may be thinking what was the point of this debris relatives of all the thousands dead they must be getting a very strange picture of afghanistan if the taliban under mullah omar is going to run afghanistan is it going to be a pull out of course lots of people are asking their hundred fifty thousand nato troops there now and already people are talking about fifteen thousand remaining on five different bases the continuous drone attacks and the atrocities committed by u.s.

and nato nice to have troops of course do catalyze pro taliban support it was only in the past week or so that a u.s. commando unit were thrown out of new york province after allegations of complicity in kidnapping torture and summary executing people in the province because i told the americans they better get out and of course those kinds of atrocities abound that i wouldn't support. ati's who's reported from afghanistan intends to cover the region and she explains what's behind cars a claim. he's made this point numerous times before calling for the taliban to participate in elections is that the stand is so open and democratic that even mullah omar working to disarm essentially could run for office of course the reality is that this is a complete political nonstarter because the taliban have been very clear in their position they do not see the karzai government as being legitimate they have openly called it as a puppet of the united states they refuse to hold any sort of negotiations much

less view the constitution as legitimate or all for any sort of candidate so again this is just sort of wishful thinking perhaps or rather a rhetorical remark by president hamid karzai than any sort of reality on the ground because the taliban has refused to negotiate with him there really isn't very much that cars i can do in the situation for the taliban the number one position is this effectively to remove all foreign troops from the ground in afghanistan in order to do that why negotiate with the so-called puppet government when we can talk to the occupiers themselves but there's divisions within the taliban as well do they actually hold negotiations or do they fight until the occupiers the u.s. forces leave the country there's also divisions within the obama administration about this because while this war has been encouraged credibly costly to the united states and the taliban have long been an enemy for the u.s. many factions in the administration see the political solution as the only possible sort of way forward i mean it's been more than clear that military might isn't

enough to eradicate the taliban so somehow talks have to take place but at the end of the day i don't think anyone actually relist tickly expects peace with the taliban anytime in the next few years for sure when i was in afghanistan most of the afghans that i've spoken to have seen this deadline with the looming trepidation in fact they think that once the americans draw down and there's no indication the americans will fully withdraw from the country but of course they will leave a massive power vacuum there is the potential for the country to descend into civil war and it also really remains to be seen what happens with the elections in two thousand and fourteen because again if the country doesn't isn't seen as sort of having a legitimate. elections it really could spark much much much further unrest than we've seen so far. this is all tea and food for thought while toughing austerity is biting families across britain the tons of food being thrown away every year later on here i'll see we meet the volunteers proving the perfectly

good product for no reason i'll report on that and other stories after the break.

about international and world in the very heart of moscow. it's good to have you with us here on our. show in moscow now the u.n. general assembly has passed a treaty to control the trade of conventional arms it prohibits the export of arms to countries on. weapons that could be used for war crimes or terrorism it also requires states to prevent conventional weapons from reaching the black market but

as aussies guy in a reports many feel the deal is a big us clarity. the treaty that the un general assembly passed this tuesday is the first attempt by the international community to try and regulate global arms straight the treaty covers the export of conventional weapons and that's a long list that includes fighter jets worship's tanks as well as small arms the document has knowing foresman mechanisms so the success or failure depends on the will of the world's major exporters and care they are the u.s. accounts for thirty percent of global arms sales russia twenty six percent germany friends china seven six five percent respectively the figures are provided by the stockholm international peace research institute they cover the last four years of arm sales by the way this global. is worth around seventy billion dollars and four out of five of the world's largest stakeholders in this business happen to be permanent members of the un security council two out of which abstained from the

vote that is russia and china they cite a lack of clarity in the language of the treaty in the part where it says arms transfers should be subjected to risk and human rights assessments first so it's supposed to tie arms sales to the buyers record on human rights which sounds like a very good idea but then this raises all kinds of questions like do brain or saudi arabia have a perfect human rights record so the treaty leaves lots of room for all kinds of interpretations russia being actually supportive of the effort to regulate arms sales says it abstained from voting for the treaty also because it has not been arms sales to non-state actors. despite the calls of a number of states what was not reflected was the bottom of the supply of weapons to non or thrown into the. this is a significant shortcoming which will inevitably have impact on the effectiveness of the international arms trade treaty. even though the united states supported the

treaty at the year when congress has made it clear that they will not let anyone tell the us who to sell arms to so it would be like the kyoto protocol the one that set obligations on industrialized countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases the u.s. also signed it and yet never ratified it gun manufacturers like lockheed martin or a northrop grumman have an origami of lobbyists on capitol hill to make sure that their ability to sell weapons and profit is not constrained in any way but then thomas countryman the assistant secretary of state to lead the american delegation to the talks defended the treaty saying it will actually give american weapons manufacturers a better competitive competitive position in the world so maybe the u.s. government is actually trying to help it's done producers by supporting the treaty anyway the international community seems to night it on one thing and that is something has to be done about the unabated flow of arms in the world but as they say the devil is in the details in washington i'm going to check out. while the

u.k. government is pushing for further austerity thousands of families across the country are finding it more and more difficult to pay for basics even the likes of food i mean while supermarkets and restaurants are embracing a throw away culture binning tons of good products every year probably boyko went to meet the volunteers who are trying to battle the trend. so that's again going to be good going into the deserts. down here we've got. a lot of. spring onions again. goods and absolutely free daniel volunteers at the people's kitchen it's an eco conscious collective in east london their aim to say food that would have been thrown away by shops and markets at the end of a day's trading today daniel and chef tom are preparing to wow two hundred dinah's with a feast made from discarded food as

a chef of same for being wise to every restaurant and i've done. the supermarkets and even larger scale at these big markets so the through that we're taking is not good enough to so to throw away it's kind of a not agree mostly forgotten that nobody's really doing anything about it in the western world and it's just sad really that nobody has respect for the food it's just kind of ok so there's some want to when there's people starving not just in the other countries where this food came from. in this country one in five of the u.k. population lives below the poverty line but there's a dramatic discrepancy the rest of the population spends an average of just eleven percent of its budget on food. institute of mechanical engineers says that that's fueling a tragic throwaway culture with four point four million tonnes of food binge avoidably each year in this fridge with. its ridiculous year loads of groceries and you can

see. these are just perfectly good maybe one or two bad ones it's really a matter of sorting them having someone to sort them so this is a huge scale the fear that someone down managed to salvage for their kitchen is likely to end up here phil in fact over ten billion pounds worth of food is thrown away in the u.k. each year that's a colossal amount of waste for such a tiny island and before fruit and vege even hits the shelves up to three quarters of it is discarded by farmers just. not looking good enough at the moment we pay supermarkets and other food businesses to trash the planet to grow food and then waste a third of it we need to make a demand as consumers they change their behavior as well when we go to supermarkets and see that all the carrots straight and all the apples look the same we need to think why do all those fruits and vegetables look the same what did the supermarket do with all the demand actually they stalk fruit and vegetables as they grow in

a huge variety of uniformity competitive supermarkets don't help by tempting customers with two for one deals consumers alert into buying excessive quantities of food up to half of which ends up in the bin or spent many years visiting the skips of supermarkets and. you open up a skip and what you see is a ray of perfectly fresh good vegetables and fruit and other foods that have been thrown away and most people think gosh how disgusting to get food out of the it's true it is disgusting but what's disgusting is that with throwing away the consumption food and every link in the supply chain continues to perfect. timing dan can keep proving that finale there really is such a thing as a free lunch. see east london. and behind bars and

a starving for justice hunger strikers in guantanamo bay prison being engaged now in a desperate act of defiance for fifty seven days and the rest of their health is growing rapidly however officials continue to talk down the scale of the protest and the pentagon says there are thirty nine men refusing food lawyers insist however it's more than three times that number. on the issue in a few minutes here's a preview. so these individuals that thomas keeps wanting described as innocent based upon the obama administration's review had the opportunity. go in front of a federal judge and get an order requiring their release and i've failed to do so so suggesting that the court has concluded there is a legal basis to hold them so i think thomas overstates his case and then with respect to what charles is saying you know you're kind of outside and i'm going to say i try not to engage in a little spanish i don't want to engage in or if you are you a lawyer a little level i think that i think let me finish please i don't want to gauge on

this question as a political matter but i think it's going to be very difficult for any president whether it's obama or bush or republicans or democrats in congress to want to expend political capital on a politically unfavorable call it is not what do it justice what does it have to do it just didn't care what does that have to do with justice off what does it have to do with just exactly thomas go ahead yes it's tough but you do it it's tough but you do what you do the right thing by the way i don't know whether you know it but i'm the guy who won the right behavior as corpus for those people and if you really know what it's a very thin review of the most any evidence that the government has could you could justify their holding it under hey b.s. that's why the administration did a thorough detailed review for each individual to see whether they really posed a threat and it concluded they don't and they should be released. we just saw a very brief preview of what if you want to see crosstalk in full it's just

a moment away because they with us here say. do we speak your language i mean some of the laws are not advanced. use programs and documentaries in spanish what matters to you breaking news a little turn to to thank goodness he did stories. spanish. visit.

more news today. game fled. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are the day. we see. is a. glowing welcome across talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle a promise made a promise not kept the prison facility at guantanamo bay remains open and not to be closed any time soon many of the inmates have been cleared of any wrongdoing nonetheless they languish mostly about obama's.