poison and politics the u.s. hands that intervention in syria is possible suspecting assad's government used chemical weapons but not yet finding any firm evidence. head to the polls in the second general election since the financial crash of a wait when the country let its banks fail but later made a stunning turnaround to growth we take a look at its success. americans tuning out a new study showing cable news audiences dropping off as lucy viewers are getting burned out too many views not enough news.

good to have you with us here on r.t. our top story well the u.s. has yet to decide whether the red line has been crossed in syria president obama reiterated the use of chemical weapons would be a game changer washington says there's growing evidence the arsenal was deployed by assad forces with some u.s. lawmakers now pushing for direct action in the country or he's more important as more u.s. president barack obama was delivering some fierce words in the aftermath of tables comments he indicated that washington will conduct its own independent investigation into syria's alleged use of chemical weapons and a separate probe will be conducted in conjunction with the united nations america's leaders said the world can't stand by and permit the use of chemical weapons obama has previously stated that the use of chemical weapons by damascus would be a game changer in the u.s. position on military intervention into serious civil war now according to white house press secretary jay carney has confirmed that military force is one of many

options that president obama is hardly considering carney said as a general principle the united states the ability to act unilaterally now these revelations of course come just one day after u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel claimed that the u.s. intel that u.s. intelligence officials believe with some degree of varying confidence that the syrian government has used chemical weapons against members of the opposition specifically sarin gas u.s. officials claim the attacks in question took place last month in new york and in the outskirts of damascus however a letter that the. white house has sent to members of congress states that washington cannot confirm the archon of the chemical weapons allegedly acting in lockstep with the u.s. british prime minister david cameron has come forward insisting that his government has limited but growing evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the syrian military according to reports m i six operating in syria smuggled soil out of

country to be analyzed for chemical and biological contaminants however you came military scientists reportedly said the soil contain treece is some kind of chemical weapon though it could not positively identify the type of weaponized chemical now in an interview with the b.b.c. cameron said he worries that western leaders might fail to act in syria because of the experience of foreign intervention into iraq now we all know that britain france france have been voicing. unconditional support for syrian rebels and reportedly providing the opposition with military and financial aid in the meantime the syrian government is now is blaming the opposition for the march attack near aleppo which killed several people and ask it says organised organizations including al qaida have repeatedly threatened to use chemical arms while fighting with the opposition so here you have a scenario where in syria the opposition groups and the government are pointing fingers at one another and you have the u.s.

and its western allies presenting this harsh rhetoric of the use of chemical weapons by the syrian government but they don't have all the full facts in place u.s. statements on the use of chemical weapons by the assad forces started with various levels of confidence in reach the point of president obama saying the world can't allow the systematic in the country washington still verifying the names of such attacks samples used to make the assessments were supposedly collected near aleppo in march the opposition in the syrian government pointing fingers at each other for the attack also read two reports of cases of chemical weapons being used in derived damascus suburb this is one of the commanders of the opposition free syrian army recently claimed they have fighters among government troops securing syria's chemical arsenal u.s. the story in general the horn says this leaves plenty of room for doubt and provocation. it's deja vu all over again we will remember the disaster as an adventurous u.s. and british invasion of iraq in two thousand and three based on allegations of

weapons of mass destruction that proved to be faulty therefore we must ask some very difficult and searching questions for example what was the chain of custody with regard to the samples taken from the battlefield of syria to laboratories of london and in washington was there or was there the possibility of contamination or foul play or hanky panky with these samples and how can you show that the regime rather than the rebels actually use these alleged chemical weapons and since we already know that security and divisions within the military is driving the conflict in both syria and iraq how do we know that some renegade soldier in the syrian military who is actually collaborating with the rebels watch these chemical weapons so as to provide a rationale for intervention by london and washington these are difficult questions that must be answered. we're asking online what you think is behind the allegations

of syria's use of chemical weapons click on r t dot com to cast your vote and see how the figures are stacking up this hour so far sixty eight per cent saying that's nothing but an attempt by some countries to start an invasion on the pretext of chemical weapons use almost twenty percent think it's the rebels that tends to push for foreign intervention in the rest of the votes about evenly divided between those who think it won't change anything in the course of the conflict and those who say the red line put forth by the obama administration has been crossed by the assad regime what do you think click on r.t. dot com and cast your vote. today. these are the images. on the street. for asians rule today.

iceland is voting for their next parliament to leave the island economy further along the path to recovery which has been steadily following since a spectacular meltdown back in two thousand and eight back then it allowed its enormously indebted banks to fail saving the home depositors though from the burden of a bailout since then i suppose been making an impressive comeback artie's natasha has more. iceland has seen it all its banks crash to government resigned its currency devaluated and its businesses of all sizes have co-ops and that of all can over up to grounding planes all over europe making the island nation the headliner for weeks on end but that was years ago while today thanks to timely precise policies of the help from the international monetary fund it boasts some of the healthiest growth rates in europe one point six percent and it's no small triumph considering that back in two thousand and eight its banks debt was eight times the

annual g.d.p. so the people took it into their own hands and negotiated major debt write offs at times it does seem like it's the only country in europe that's got it right take a look at this war to go greece and spain continue to spiral deeper into their excruciating financial mess their current deficit to g.d.p. ratio is just under three percent they have no money and plenty of debt but the borel war to serve their bond obligations back in two thousand and eight i slid the deficit to g.d.p. ratio was twice that of the pigs yes iceland allowed its banks to collapse under their own debt wait technically bankrupt the island nation managed to get an impressive job of turning its economy around its banking sector return to profitability its businesses restructured their debt and it kept growing and many of their people were able to keep their homes and five years after the most

devastating financial meltdown in its history it boasts the lowest jobless rate in europe less than five percent now the euro zone's strongest economy germany has five point four percent so if some think it's iceland that was humiliated the world over they should definitely think again. oh showing in iceland now that they're turning away from the ruling coalition that lead the economy to its steady growth voters have been lured away instead by the opposition and its euro skepticism during the zero eight banking crisis when i suppose economy was on the brink of meltdown the e.u. seemed to be a safe haven parliament voted in favor of joining the bloc in the island state applied for membership since then though the eurozone has been bogged down in a great deal of its own trouble and now many icelanders feel they may be better off not joining especially since they already enjoy free trade agreements and are part of the shang and travel area dr steven mccabe from birmingham city university

things i suppose independence from the e.u. help it recover. is the find in road who says on the edge of the world i mean it's in this with the it's an isolated nation. and indeed is an island and so it's effectively as we've seen in this country it's stuck it's fingers up at the rest of the world and so we're not giving you all your money back home what can you do short of inviting iceland which was never on the agenda. has been able to look to its own sort of and to look after itself if you like. european economies such as you have. you mention on in portugal much more into linked into europe iceland is not and so what he's been able to do is to sort of concentrates reinvent things it's good up. industries but there was talk about joining the e.u. but i think that that's the question that they realize that this. recovery has to

remain isolated to be independent as it were. assumed to come to light this is the country's former prime minister yulia timoshenko has just had her baby for a pardon rejected and she could be charged with murder after a short break stay with us. which is a cultural contemporary i mean to logically tory and so joining me to honor. the second as we bring you the glitz and the best in the.

international and the world in the very heart of moscow. thanks for staying with us thirteen minutes past the hour t.v. news networks in the u.s. seeing a slump with a new research poll saying audiences are tuning out in greater numbers the pew

study shows viewers are starting to shy away from some cable news networks that devote more air time to opinion and partisan analysis than the hard facts and on the ground reporting or he's got a takes a look. it shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody that all media or opinionated to a certain extent we all are a study by the pew research center gauges the extent to which the three major us channels are opinionated on m.s.m. b.c. opinion fills a full eighty five percent of the channel's air time according to this study fox forty five percent c.n.n. about the same the study says since two thousand and seven they have all cut back sharply on the amount of actual reporting on their airwaves what filled the void was relatively cheap provocative debate the studies suggest that by becoming more and more opinionated the channel has been losing their viewers this annual state of the media report says nearly one third of consumers that they surveyed said they

have abandoned a news outlet because it no longer gave them what they had counted on either with fewer or less complete stories professor chris chambers is here to talk about this thank you so much for joining me q what is your personal appeal and why is the viewership down do you agree with that would probably agree totally i mean you have people who are not getting full news right now they're getting and sensationalism of the news packages that they are getting in the hard news that they're getting the time is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. a lot of media outlets including the large ones like c.n.n. are cutting back and laying off reporters researchers producers closing foreign bureaus around around the world so the supply of hard news is shrinking it's being replaced with opinion and not just any opinion but opinion about a lot of nonsense and i want to ask you about the percentage of actual reporting that they do two weeks for several weeks in a row c.n.n.

and other news channels have been covering this story you know with jodi areas and the girl who killed her boyfriend and then that day out live coverage every day and then there was this rape case the two young man raped six. awful thing again follow ups live coverage day and day out why did they pick these stories to follow up on with the. case it's obvious you have a beautiful young woman a dead boyfriend who had kind of a shady past i mean it's taylor it's almost a hollywood movie script the other one is the steubenville rape it touches a nerve around the country of two teenage boys and young girl raped and so this sets off a lot of emotional forces but to. cover this day in day out without giving any depth to it i mean it does both stories an injustice and masquerades as hard news because it really isn't hard news when you're rehashing and churning a lot of

a lot of things a lot of opinions basically but that that was a lot of depth in bass laurie i was actually more worried about what was left out but for example what i was wondering about why wouldn't they pick for example the guantanamo hunger strike to follow up on it was it because there the story didn't have the words sex and rape and to. hear it it made it it doesn't it doesn't have the word sex in it or something. or look at a whole can people mostly and it's a very difficult issue politically legally and culturally for the american people to handle always been that kind of an issue so that if there is great also it has two strikes against it already i mean and the third strike is that there's no breaking news none of the none of the people at the hunger strikes have died or maybe rioted and taken some guards hostage so the breaking news is strike three so it's out i mean there's no coverage of it in the mainstream media outlets so it's just not to touch unfortunately thank you thank you for the care thank you very

much well it's difficult to conclude what comes first here a national considerations editors personal preferences or the sense among executives of what viewers want but if you believe this study and their statistic. whatever they're doing has to change because they're losing viewers in washington i'm going to. be a martin and comedian can have their own take on the how the u.s. tries to cover news stories in search of better ratings years or sneak peek at what they talked about in breaking the set. of the biggest threat facing this country two weeks ago what the hell happened they just need somewhere to point the frantic america they just want to keep because it's good ratings rates every whether it's real or not it's everything you put on there i'd be afraid be up right always cracks me up right and then every commercial break do you have anxiety and of course the threat of domestic terrorism took its place really quickly what i found most interesting is how some lawmakers tried to link it to immigration finally figured out if they just wear

a sombrero and eat it taco that's all it takes to get through i mean is this really the respect he has for our f.b.i. that all you have to do to. commit an attack on the u.s. is where libor a t. shirt. wearing the said coming your way a little more than an hour here on are also available any time. let's take a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe hundreds of protesters descended on a royal air force base in the u.k. after unmanned drones started being remote highlighted from their newspaper revealed discretely move its mission control to the washington airbase from the u.s. drones against taliban fighters in afghanistan critics say drone warfare has led to countless civilian deaths and feel resentment against coalition forces. a nato

plane has crashed in southern afghanistan killing four servicemen and initial reports by the block it didn't stay where it came down but indicated no enemy activity at the region at the time the deputy governor of the bull province claimed a foreign aircraft had crashed in shock joy and the area was immediately surrounded by international troops. u.s. military says another three detainees have joined the hunger strike at guantanamo bay detention center bringing the total number of protesting inmates to one hundred out of one hundred sixty six held there the strike started eighty one days ago over a growing abuse allegations and indefinite detention without charge but also coincides with the obama administration's recent decision to keep the facility open despite election campaign promises to close the controversial site russian officials recently blacklisted by the u.s. spoke publicly for the first time since the ban went into force they rejected the allegations against them washington accuses the people on the list of being a link to the death of lawyer sergey magnitsky in police custody more than three

years ago medina coaching of his more. they say that the publication of this list was a politically motivated decision and that the u.s. side was not objective and making its decisions as it couldn't be possibly aware of all those documents that surround this case as the documents are still in court and never became public and that the magnitsky law was a drop to the beast on political motives and that the law has no legal force and no legal consequences and the country and only represents an additional political pressure on russia now the u.s. magnitsky list was published on the twelfth april and includes eighteen russian officials who are banned from answering the united states and their asses and now according to the washington's version of the events sixteen of these officials are directly responsible for the death of. the game of new ski worked as an auditor and an accountant at hermitage capital management and was the main suspect in

a major tax evasion case and he died in a pretrial detention facility back in two thousand and nine the russian officials opened a legal case over his death however in more as two thousand and thirteen russia's investigative committee dropped to the investigation into the data. as it had determined that no crime had taken place before the us us magness kill list was published russia warned that the response would be similar and really in accordance with the rules of parity and indeed in less than twenty four hours russia responded with the same list with the same number off officials also eighteen american officials there are banned from entering the russian federation however the russian list consists of two parts now the first one includes those people who are involved in human rights violations and legalizing torture at guantanamo detention facility and the second part of this lest in both of those people who are responsible for

numerous human rights violation. those russian citizens abroad however they are we poor sods and these lists are only you're sure it's for a show not the list and that there are extended versions off the list said that both countries presides and reportedly a u.s. extended first not the list even includes some gritty high level top russian government officials the ukrainian political thriller about far from its final chapter this is jailed former prime minister yulia timoshenko his pardon request was turned down and on top of the seven year sentence already serving for abuse of power she may now be prosecuted for murder her defense team says the charges are nonsense artie's like sarah reports from kiev from being allegedly beaten up by prison guards to seeing her supporters stormed the hospital where she's on the growing treatment ukraine's former prime minister yulia timoshenko has been in a lot of trouble lately she has no served eighteen months of

a seven year prison term for abuse of power when she signed gas deals with russia in two thousand and nine but this could get a lot worse because of her allegedly to an assassination almost two decades ago in one thousand nine hundred ninety six ukrainian member of parliament. was shot dead in eastern ukraine back then a confession by want to use killers shocked the country. the man who painted for the job mentioned that shared by killing was ordered by a man nicknamed it was obvious to us that under pasha he meant by the laws the rank of ukraine's prime minister. was that him could never face charges for those allegations he spent twelve years behind bars in the united states for tax evasion and fraud and is now seeking political asylum across the atlantic but in the typical ukrainian rollercoasters style twist the name has surfaced again to go with tymoshenko. yes we have proof that lives are in co paid the

first five hundred thousand dollars to the gang which. then another two point three million dollars were transferred to the assassins by yulia tymoshenko tymoshenko is currently on a second trial for alleged acts evasion and money laundering in the one nine hundred ninety s. when she led the united energy systems of ukraine company that could seriously increase her prison term but if any connection to sharon's murder is proved she would remain behind bars for life her lawyers were quick to describe the accusations as nonsense because. the testimonies of the so-called witnesses and nothing concrete they all refer to what they were told by other people who died or were killed ten to fifteen years ago this is all i've seen that they have against this case was made up by the ruling elite when they understood that the gas case against him is forming a part. but political analysts say that in the case of ukraine's politicians you

just can't rule anything out as most of them do have skeletons in their clothes that put. almost every politician in ukraine can go on trial some didn't pay tax some were involved in corrupt schemes but as long as they obey the rules of the political game they're not prosecuted by calling the president and the government illegitimate after the change of power went beyond the boundaries of a democratic political game and hence the rules of the game were changed that was. this third case against him is now in a preliminary stage it is still unclear what kind of evidence investigators have against but they seem confident there is enough to press charges before summer the thriller which is the case has been rocking ukraine for almost two years now and all this time supporters of the former prime minister have been think you think the essential street all the recent developments in the saga are clearly suggesting they will not be leaving anytime soon. let's see we're. reporting from kiev in

ukraine. breaking the set coming up next stay with us here on r.t. . the movie world war z z being for a zombie which stars brad pitt as one hundred seventy five million dollar budget has been recovered by paramount executives not because this is probably yet another stupid violent zombie movie but because the chinese might get offended according to the wrap dot com china was supposed to take the blame for starting the evil zombie apocalypse this time but china becoming the largest foreign market for american movies made artistic integrity fly out the window to protect the bottom dollar as is tradition and hollywood this is not the first time that there has been

pro-choice censorship in hollywood the remake of red dawn which was originally a cold war era a minstrel show against russians was supposed to show a chinese invasion of america this time however they have changed it to north koreans who can't even defeat the us military in south korea let alone at an away game in the usa the thing that is interesting is not the censorship is the fact that they will censor movies for whoever's got a lot of cash big markets won't be offended but countries with small market. well this is a complete prostitute mentality show that loved any guy who's got bills in his palm you know i was always pretty sure there were a lot of prostitutes working in hollywood i didn't know they actually started making the movies but that's just my opinion. to live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous i love. i mean.

i guess i just really. the older we saw actually. the worse for losing the white house or the. guy with. what. we're about to do never seen anything like this i'm told. i'm abby martin and welcome to breaking into the set so today i had the rare opportunity to share good news for once to start the show samara saw we listen in political prisoner will and his eight month hunger strike in exchange for an early release from israeli jails esol was first arrested for taking part in military activities against i.d.f. vehicles back in two thousand and two and was sent to twenty six years in prison he

was then released as part of a prisoner exchange but was arrested last july and since august of two thousand and twelve sawa has been protesting his the tension by refusing food and only taking water vitamins and sugars for two hundred and sixty six days over the last two months of sol his health has been a deteriorating his heartbeat slowing forcing him to put on artificial ventilation at the same time the unrest among palestinians with escalating to the point of fear of a third in the fatah samara was allowed to die while the great news of his early release prompted a saw a way to write a victory letter in which he states quote now i plead for a continuation of the popular movement and its escalation on a.