across the u.s. attempts to shed light on the desperate hunger strike among guantanamo detainees take on why disco. so i've written predicted to tumble down the path of greece is its price tag doubles in just weeks by analysts in light of money despite the island's financial quarantine. cats are is flashing the cash abroad buying billions of dollars in the cuban government bonds and investing in your real estate and what's being seen as a big hit by international influence. and from a brand new poll scratched child on the moon we tell you about russia's space gender as the country marks fifty two years since years ago and the flight into orbit.

international news and comment watching r.t. come in she live from moscow. from east coast to west more than two dozen u.s. cities have seen protests against america's infamous jail for terrorist suspects activists demanded the closure of guantanamo and try to draw attention to the mass hunger strike against far reaching mistreatment there artie's marina portnoy is in new york where one of the rallies has been taking place. times square is considered one of the best places in the u.s. to advertise a product a message or a brand and that is why civil rights attorneys human rights groups and many activists and protesters are out in the streets of times square right now to raise awareness about the hunger strike taking place at the guantanamo bay detention center and it is clearly garnering a lot of attention to what those are saying that have been turning out on the streets as they're calling on the obama to administration to immediately address

the ongoing hunger strike that began in early february at the island prison according to attorneys representing the detainees there they say more than a hundred men are participating in this hunger strike they say it began when when the detainees there say that the u.s. officials mishandled that their plans during a cell search and not say what sparked this ongoing hunger strike according to a u.s. u.s. military officials they say only forty one men have been on a hunger strike and at least eleven are being force that they say nobody's lives are in danger but that is not what lawyers are telling our team take a listen i saw men who have dramatically lost weight the people that i met with had lost over thirty and forty pounds what they told me is about men who are too weak to come out of the prison they told me of men who are skeletal that's the word they

used who are near death who are so weak they can't move they told me about pressure tactics right now within the camp by the authorities to try to break the strike things like withholding the delivery of clean drinking water these are people who have been refusing food for over sixty days they need water to survive or they will die and they talked about tactics like that withholding of bottled water to drink and being. forced to drink from the sinks in their cells which are attached to trial it's now this new york rally is part of a nationwide day of action to close guantanamo and end indefinite detention protests are also taking place in over twenty six cities including chicago l.a. and washington d.c. i think that anything to show mamma or the government is wrong and that people don't support it is a good thing i don't think is a legitimate. vehicle for for for trying these people i mean because they're not

being tried is a problem last week organizations including the center for constitutional rights amnesty international and the united nations called on washington to immediately shut down the guantanamo detention center at the u.n. secure minorites chief released a statement saying that america's failure to close the controversial prison and release detainees is a violation of international law currently there are one hundred sixty six prisoners being held at the island prison and at least eighty six have been cleared for release reporting from new york marina r.t. cindy who's a lawyer for one of the guantanamo detainees told us that her attempts to get the u.s. government more involved in solving the crisis at the prison have got nowhere. it's interesting we wrote a letter to the secretary people. regarding hunger strike and are concerned as

more hear about this and we got a response from william leeds our secretary neagle which indicated to us that. the u.s. is going to continue to do the main thing to keep the detainees alive and it seems that what they mean is for someone to be in their nostrils and the fact that international red cross now if. they're here is condemned for a speedy this could be a turning point and force feed them and. do you either take other measures to keep them alive then you have to at this point provide them the respect the process of respect their homeland to respect the qur'an searches talk to them about what it is that it's going to meet and this is right to keep them alive. but also has been

keeping a close eye on the hunger strike at guantanamo since the day it began and we've been gathering opinion from noise and human rights activist maryland up for you in a special section. called. averting default or rescuing cyprus is back on top of the east to do list and will be tackled at a meeting of the blocs finance ministers on friday the mood though is grim with revelations that nicosia will need billions more than originally thought still partly under financial quarantine is now up to the island's authorities to come up with thirteen billion euros which is twice as much as just a few weeks ago officially the rises to to delays in getting a bailout deal with the speculation of billions leaked out from shuttered banks both illegally and three lupo although that might be the least of the worries in comparison to the president has been said is artie's tests are still. it dominated headlines for much of two weeks a year is

a nation on the brink of bankruptcy the banks were closed cash rationed and capital controls put in place cyprus of blows heavy losses which could rise to up to sixty percent on wealthier depositors in order to clinch a ten billion euro e.u. i.m.f. bailout last month it had however initially planned to would reduce a levy on deposits of less than one hundred thousand euros supposedly protected by state guarantees before backtracking in the face of widespread protests this has been a meeting that was protesters for the past few days is just a few metres from the parliament which is just over here but people's argue voices did little to change the inevitable painful outcome for the country the general view being communicated from here in brussels is that the cyprus is unique and the measures imposed on the country as part of that bailout package will not be used as a template for other troubled euro zone nations but not everyone is convinced the

president has been set up and unless you've been hiding under a rock if you're in a country like savina for example or any other one of those countries that might get into a crisis you know by. repeat across the going to see what happened in cyprus they're going to pull their money and that could cause a vicious circle in fact a new e.u. law is already being drawn up where first shareholders would take a hit if a bank fails and then possibly unprotected investments and deposits case in point is cyprus officials insist that deposits below one hundred thousand euros are sacred but a separate example has already sown seeds of fear i would be trying to single cent i have from europe because the president has been said that when the going was i'm afraid that this will happen in greece afraid not for my future but for my children's. not hope it will not go with you authorities we have it's absolutely possible but some argue that the final decision on cyprus may not have

been all that letting banks fail which by the way was fundamentally a good decision if you have losses i think it's fair to the people of all the thousands who have opposed to their money who have gained a lot more than people who send their money to other banks in other places of europe. that these people who have taken the risk also know taking the losses and after all that said and done some say what's more problematic is the inevitability of another cyprus debacle if the underlying problem of unsustainable public and trade deficits are not tackled at the core europe and america a bleeding to death and they're not doing anything about it they must go bust so unless they turn around it is no sign that going to then the dominoes must fall for cypriots they now know all too well how hard it is when it's your dominoes turn to

fall does our sylvia r.t. brussels. for five years on from virtual bankruptcy iceland is quickly becoming the northern hemisphere is come back king the island nation's banking sector collapse spectacularly in two thousand and eight with taxpayers making it clear they weren't to back to pick up the tab you could look at where that leaves the country half a decade on. vul not a member of the eurozone or the european union for years iceland was considered the most effective now liberal free market economy in europe that was until its bankruptcy in two thousand and eight foreign debt spiked banks close down and the national currency plummeted the wallbank european union and the international monetary fund also known as the troika demanded that iceland be up at the time it meant every citizen would have to pay one hundred euros per month for the next fifteen years to cover the debt of private bankers nationwide protests erupted

sounds familiar except unlike in cyprus greece portugal and others these protests made iceland's president reject the troika's demands and the trio went while threatening isolation and sanctions even raising comparisons with cuba which rekick stood its ground at a nationwide referendum and around ninety percent voted not to be the debt in fact they went even further starting criminal investigations into why so much money was old even jailed some of the country's top bankers and while they were added ordinary citizens rewrote the constitution which now obliges the government to keep all work in the public eye unless it's a matter of national security of course now for more earlier i spoke to a professor of political science and one of the people who took part in the revision of iceland dushan the european union was shouldn't. be icelandic state the icelandic taxpayers were responsible for that of private banks in the end that case went to any two national court now the after court found that iceland was in the

right not iceland was not responsible for the payments and refused to claim of the standard but it's roots they hard initially forced about the current relations between iceland and the rest of europe are you guys still friends they claim that iceland would basically be flushed down the toilet and would not be able to. sort of. equal in europe but that proved false relationship if you were to. normalize. international investors are coming back to that country. thanks i've stabilized quite a lot the only thing to add here is sure there's lots of information on this story in blogs and social networks what you want to find it in mainstream media why perhaps to avoid giving ideas to anyone else under pressure alarm bells rang at the

white house is the pentagon warns north korea may have nuclear missiles meanwhile american war he leaned toward the korean peninsula president obama calling for an end to north korea's bellicose the day we hear about what's driving the standoff in a few minutes time. campaign and game venezuela chooses a new president chavez choice runs against a free market poster boy for possible venezuela choose after coming down taste death self-styled socialism or free market model venezuela votes fourteenth. he became a symbol of the nine hundred ninety s. he personified the russian mafia in the kremlin. he was a twentieth century arrest buton. in just a few years he rose from junior was

a multi-billion and senior politician. has declined was as rapid as his meteoric rise and ended in exile his death is now as mysterious as his life. better. welcome back qatar is expanding its financial presence abroad buying up foreign assets with tens of billions of dollars struggling euro pain in arabic calling means may welcome the investment but some experts question whether it's good business or building up global influence his belt true and where money is guy. as

egypt's president mohamed morsi is struggling to mend the egyptian economy it's on i can't tell one of the richest countries in the world has said that it will buy three billion dollars worth of gyptian government bonds much needed help at a critical time egypt is also suffering from a natural gas shortage at the moment causing blackouts across the capital the qatari foreign minister said last week they would also consider becoming one of the major suppliers to egypt that sickly as they have the third largest natural gas resin reserves in the world as the battle rages in syria the qatari government is also saying they will support the rebels they have given one hundred million dollars to the notch then the syrian national coalition is saying they want the rebels to be armed however they extend that and their interests outside of egypt and the arab world building a global empire they have reportedly been invested in many countries including the u.k. the u.s.

france singapore malaysia iraq just to name a few and dition qatar has been diversifying its areas of interest and investing in many sectors including the media fashion petrochemicals and india and indeed financial institutions however the real push off for the super wealthy but tiny emirates appears to be front surprisingly they have a favored real estate in the french riviera as well as paris buying up several casinos now it is not just luxury property but they are investing in they have apparently a gifted three hundred million euro a fund to underdeveloped areas all fronts including in a tourist suburbs which house key french muslim communities this guitar officials say is all part of a global strategy to ensure that investment revenues exceed that of oil and gas by twenty thirty particularly as their reserves are looking to run out in the next hundred years however many fear this aggressive expansion of its economic presence

abroad is in fact consuls a deliberate move. increase their political influence abroad in addition to possibly exporting its own particular conservative brand of islam as its investments are increasing year on year it is yet to be seen what power this tiny yet super wealthy emirates will wield in the future. while international affairs journalist neil clark believes plats are is trying to shield the lack of democracy within its own borders by claiming to support it abroad what qatar is doing is it's using its vast wealth actually to pursue a political agenda and this is the warring expect it because in the middle east. played a leading role in trying to undermine and bring down regimes in the region. which claimed to be a great support of the arab spring a lot of democracy but there's a real disconnect in a democracy people criticise syria and say well you have the same ruling family for forty years we have the same hooting family guitar robot hundred fifty years and

what qatar is trying to pursue is a critical agenda which is put a sort of form of islam around the region its own sort of agenda and this is the worrying thing because there's no democratic mandate for this and i think we see this quite clearly in syria where qatar has been one of the most prominent countries in offering support to the rebels and the islamist groups there. in venezuela campaigning has officially wrapped up with mass rallies ahead of sunday's presidential election hundreds of thousands marched in the capital caracas in support of interim leader nicolas maduro while the opposition married in the north of the country judo is the political successor to the late hugo chavez who died from cancer last month today on r.t. we'll hear from american musician and prominent street activist immortal technique he believes it's important that chavez his legacy lives on. he's not god you know to me he's somebody who was in a position of power who decided to troll the united states infinitely and very well

in fact. really made his case in front of. the rest of the world and said a lot of things that they probably thought but didn't want to ruin their relationship with their foster daddy here to be able to say. washington is trying to downplay a classified but mistakenly publicized report which states that north korea already has nuclear capable missiles but the report sanction by the pentagon brings into question the reliability of any such weapons north korea's missile forces have also been observed to be increasingly active these past few weeks u.s. south korean and japanese warships in turn have surrounded the north territorial waters president obama had earlier personally called on pyongyang to end its bellicosity but r.t. contributor afshin rattansi says the reclusive state has good reason to beef up its

security. john kerry the united states government. spreading all this fear and we must remember that it was the united states who sought to bring stealth fighters in guam just destroying the six party talks and also just remember the context that the united states in the fifty's killed twenty percent of korea's population twenty first century has proven time and time again that nuclear weapons perhaps are ones only deterrent against united states and nato posturing nature war of course iraq afghanistan because libya and libya are will hang in the imaginations of many developing world leaders because it proved because it was good after he got rid of his nuclear weapon program people are going to want w m d the united states is ramping up its military facilities in east asia and obviously for seeing that china will become a super power and all the time kim jong un has repeatedly said when he said one

month ago we don't want war we want to talk you just think of it the other way around if north korea was putting new nuclear capable still planes just beside the united states and had previously killed twenty percent of united states population . we can see what i can draw in north korea is afraid of united states. barbarism as it has been historically against our country. as more coverage and analysis of what's happening in the region at r.t. dot com and while you're there you can tell us what you think is driving the tensions in the cories in our poll s. so far solid half of you think it's all part of washington's strategy there to keep asia on its toes eighteen percent believe it's bringing shit between all the parties involved which could lead to a conflict in the same number incidentally eighteen percent that's up from the previous kim jong il is trying to boost his own power base at home through all the east tensions fourteen percent believe north korea is basically trying to secure

more aid as a result of this from south korea well you can change those numbers of course you have to do is cast your vote at r.t. dot com. russia is celebrating cosmonaut extent today marking the first manned flight into orbit by yogi guarin back in nine hundred sixty one i'm fifty two years later the country still has a big space agenda from building a space port from scratch to reviving the main program the details from. this now only looks like a pit dug in the middle of nowhere but in just two years time this will become one

of russia's top priority facilities tucked away deep in the tiger forest in the russian far east this is the construction site of russia's brand new spaceport. an ambitious project worth ten billion dollars it will become the main and the sole launching pad of all russia's manned space ships starting from the year twenty eighteen but the first test launches are expected to start in just two years time and will replace in many ways the baikonur cosmodrome which certainly belongs to kazakhstan and the geographic location of the drum is much more convenient. baikonur it's understood that when a space ships to take off some parts disconnect from the vessels and fall into the ground in this case they will not be falling into the ground or more likely be falling into the ocean of course there will be some disadvantages when the cosmodrome is finished is completed but for instance the transportation of rockets from the more school region to the far east will take twice as longer than it was

to the baikonur in many ways even the construction even the idea of building this drum in the russian far east is already a major breakthrough for the russian space industry but probably the most crucial significance of this brand new cosmodrome is that it will take an integral part in russia's lunar program almost half a century since soviet union lost its race to conquer the moon russia is willing to relaunch the lunar program we understand that by the year twenty thirty a manned space ship will fly to the. circle its orbit and possibly even choose a site for building an observatory on the lunar surface which may soon be followed by other facilities like helium five mining shafts and even possibly possibly hotels if the scientists find the lunar surface and habitable by humans so definitely an interesting spin to that story but of course we have to wait until

the year twenty thirty to see whether russia's lunar program can be successful but we know for sure that these space ships will be launched from here from the russian far east. while those who are at the forefront of today's space missions have been getting some top level congratulations from president vladimir putin while visiting the cosmodrome in russia's far east promised the new space port will make the job of creating an easier. well if you want to track russian space history you can check out the gallery on our web site pioneering moments are caught on camera there that dot com. coming up breaking the set highlights high even entertainment shows and stories can't escape a political angle in the us media. with

oil pipes bursting in arkansas people across the usa start to realize that they are moving towards what the atlantic calls the infrastructure cliff in short america's infrastructure started to get a bit old and according to infrastructure port org the u.s. needs about three point six trillion dollars of infrastructure spending by twenty twenty to turn things around the site sponsored by the american society of civil engineers gave all aspects of american infrastructure like bridges and drinking water and schools cetera some pretty bad great except for solid waste from a well for some reason in their opinion everything in the usa is going to crap except for america's ability to throw solid crap away i'm not trying to sit here and scare you there is nothing to fear this is a big challenge but it is a very possible one to accomplish according to cost of war dot org the last ten years of war of cost about three point one trillion dollars just cutting wars in half by fifty percent could put

a huge dent in the infrastructure spending and what about all those billions in bailout that were spent you see the money is there it just gets wasted if the money stops getting thrown away and start getting spent a well planned infrastructure then the infrastructure will start paying for itself rock'n infrastructure creates wealth so don't fear the infrastructure cliff just stop wasting money or allowed politicians to waste money and everything will turn out to be just fine but that's just my opinion. so. you live on one hundred thirty three possible suppose i should try it because you

know how bad the less bad luck i got so many i mean family and such i know that i'm still really messed up. in the old story so actually. it's. worse for the little thing the white house or the. radio guy. what. have you ever seen anything like that i'm told. welcome the break in a set i'm your host abby martin you know it seems that on every issue important to americans the problem reaction and solution is always framed by the two dominating political parties in this country the problem is that these two teams democrats and republicans more closely resemble a single party one that stands for imperialism than corporate gain yet several

political ideologies are gaining traction in the us but have virtually no representation in the political and media establishment so if you've tuned into the show hoping to hear the dueling perspective of democrats and republicans well you've come to the wrong place because today i'll be hosting a discussion with people who represent the voices of a growing alternative will be talking about libertarianism anarchism and socialism very philosophy is gaining momentum as more people are becoming disillusioned with the status quo to talk about everything from the role of government to an ideal society i'm joined now by a brilliant panel and breaking the stats first ever alternative voices to. bait started with scott crow author of black flags and windmills and founder of the anarchist common ground collective and peterson production director at freedom works and editor of libertarian republic dot com and eugene puryear former vice presidential candidate of the party for socialism and liberation thanks so much all of you for.