western warships and fighter jets move to within striking range of syria as the u.s. and britain look set to go bar the war torn state saying it's time to mass because should finally fall. the warmongering comes as un inspectors probing an alleged chemical attack which western powers blame on the syrian army will speak to the head of a fact finding mission that searched in vain for rocky weapons of mass destruction a decade ago. talk of the third greek bailout creates a headache for europe's political elite as chancellor merkel attempts to appease indignant german taxpayers with an election looming. and a major air show gets underway outside moscow with cutting edge technology world

class flying skills on display to an expected half a million strong audience. it is three pm in moscow watching r t with me marina joshie welcome to the program now it looks increasingly likely that syria will face a military onslaught with the british media now reporting that war planes and transport jets are being deployed to the u.k.'s air base in cyprus lying just a hundred kilometers from the syrian coastline the island is expected to become a launch point for a u.s. led campaign against the asa government as are so many reports from london. various reports here have suggested that there is indeed a signs of muscle flexing in the region particularly surrounding syria it's been reported here by the guardian newspaper that warplanes and military transporters

have been moved to britain to cyprus citing the two commercial pilots who regularly fly from larnaca in cyprus have spotted a c one thirty transport planes from their aircraft as well as attempted small from ations of possibly european fighter jets from their radar screens and also at the guardian says residents living near the airfield have confirmed to them that there's been an increase in activity in the area over the last forty eight hours and it has to be noted that officials from the british airfield there have denied any military build up in the area the u.s. has been ratcheting up its rhetoric as well it's been reported by reuters that the u.s. navy was expanding its mediterranean presence with a fourth ship capable of launching long range subsonic cruise missiles to reach land targets in syria and now we also know from the white house that obama is

weighing a military strike of limited scope and duration it's been said it will take no more than two days and involve sea launched cruise missiles well as far as international law is concerned we know that up until this moment there has been no military operations in syria because there has been no agreement at the u.n. security council whoever now it seems that turkey britain and france are saying that they can have a village her office without the u.n. mandate of the french foreign minister long five use it said acting without one possible and in some circumstances can be bypassed the box international law is defined by the u.n. now how exactly this will be interpreted will become clearer as we continue to follow this developing story around syria. all the aggressive rhetoric from washington has pushed it into another round of hated exchanges with russia the two countries join our plan conference in geneva aim of brokering peace between the warring sides and syria is now close to collapse well joining me live oh is ours

was a conference for more on this so we said tell us how have the two sides been reacting to the situation there well as you mentioned russia and the u.s. have been scheduled to meet in the hague on wednesday night this is to discuss setting up an international conference on finding a political solution to the crisis in syria now on monday a u.s. state department official indicated that the meeting would be postponed because of ongoing consultations over an alleged chemical weapons attack in syria and that russia meanwhile had expressed regret about that decision the deputy foreign minister had said that working out the political parameters for a resolution on syria would be especially useful now with the threat of force hanging over that country the russian foreign minister foreign ministry spokesman had also issued a statement tuesday in which he called on the international community to show quote prudence over the crisis and to observe international law urging against a potential military intervention now the intense international pressure does come

on the heels of reports that a chemical weapons strike that may have killed over a thousand people in syria now a team of u.n. experts have actually arrived to damascus three days prior to that incident they were supposed to investigate a different incident and then there were reports of a mass poisoning in a suburb legibly killing hundreds of people the team did go on to investigate that attack but came under fire on monday as they were heading to the area they were able to reach the site to collect samples and to interview some witnesses but they weren't able to stay there very long just in half an hour and of course we have to keep in mind that their missions mandate is really to determine whether chemical weapons were used in the incident and not to assign blame on who was responsible for using those weapons now in. of the most aggressive language used by the washington administration the secretary of state john kerry had accused the syrian government of indiscriminate slaughter of civilians and the efforts to cover up its responsibility for what he called

a cowardly crime he. also said that the use of weapons chemical weapons against civilians in syria was undeniable and that the obama administration would hold the syrian government accountable for what he called a moral obscenity now russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov has warned very strongly against pre-judgment about the use of chemical weapons he also said that intervention or any potential intervention by the u.s. or its allies in the syrian conflict without a u.n. resolution would be what he called a very grave violation of international law and risk repeating past mistakes so he also sort of raise some questions about the timing of the incident and why there was such strong international pressure on action now as opposed to earlier when the reports of the alleged chemical separate chemical attack incident had arisen right well sure a while ago a syrian foreign minister gave

a news conference so what did he have to say on his government's position that's right well walid mall and the syrian foreign minister spoke in damascus he lashed out at the international community saying that syria would defend itself with what he called available means that the tapped unclear exactly what that be he accused the british foreign minister of giving the wrong information to the public about syria's use of chemical weapons he also claims about the u.s. secretary of state john kerry had no evidence that syria sanctioned the use of weapons the syrian foreign minister also went on to suggest that israel would somehow benefit from any potential u.s. led attack against this country and he rejected claims that the syrian government had obstructed the work of u.n. weapons inspectors say. he said as a matter of fact they dealt with the inspection team with absolute transparency so i'm unclear if those remarks are going to make much of a difference in the. international decision making process at the moment but those

are some of the things that he said in that press conference all right listen thanks very much indeed for bringing us this abbate on the situation in and around syria now the director all of the beirut based center for middle east studies there says the u.s. and its allies have hundreds of targets already lined up to strike in syria. maybe. you know and it's difficult complicated and maybe land was not discovered this may be even if it would be for you know by. the cruise missiles. you know it want to get you know they have been called to get. they do a one hundred datta gets you know get a day and they do a three and get you know grade b.

now the prospect of a devastating bombing campaign spearheaded by america out with no united nations mandate is starting to look for syria what does history tell us about where this could be leading are just going to takes a look back at it was previous military ventures. the obama administration is looking for ways to intervene in syria without a mandate from the united nations the president's national security advisers bring up the nato bombings of former yugoslavia as a possible blueprint for an intervention in syria you may not remember at the time none of the nato states that participated in the bombings of former yugoslavia offered legal justifications for their actions it was labeled a humanitarian intervention and with the help of a very one sided media campaign it was engraved in the public memory especially in the west as a success story and little has been reported that the humanitarian intervention turned into a humanitarian catastrophe on the ground what some call

a success was two months of bombings thousands of people dead as a result both serbs and kosovo albanians went after seventy eight days of nato bombings serb forces withdrew from kossovo there was an ethnic cleansing of nearly a quarter of a million serbs and other minorities from cos of all allied forces used cluster bombs attacked civilian infrastructure including power plant bridges factories the headquarters of serve radio and television in belgrade even the chinese embassy and yet despite all the destruction and casualties washington saw it as a victory with the same bravado several years later the us made the case for a unilateral intervention in iraq in that case they did not even bother to seek a u.n. approval washington presented false evidence and went on with a mission to remove saddam hussein from power nearly two hundred thousand iraqis died as a result of that intervention millions lost their homes and two hundred thousand is a modest estimate iraqis continue to die in terror attacks every day and most

recently in the nato went beyond its un mandate and effectively carried out a regime change what was called the humanitarian intervention resulted in a nation engulfed in chaos and terror. those are the precedents that washington has to look back to when considering an action in syria in washington i'm going to check on. already spoke to hans blix who had the un's weapons inspection team to iraq before and during the two thousand and three u.s. led invasion he says western media are now piling pressure on their governments to take action in syria. i think that the public opinion and the media in the west will be pressuring the their governments to do something and they say that this is such a horrible thing that there must be a punishment there must be action you cannot sit with your hands just folded so the public say that you know you must call the police we will call for

a world police but the question is who is the world police is the united states is it nato it should be the security council and after an intervention which could take place i don't exclude that it's going to happen what will they do will just have been a punch on the nose and then telling the belligerence in syria that they go back and continue to fight the war the mandate is to establish whether chemical weapons have been used to or not and the way they go about that is that they go to sites and they may take samples of dust and of water and they will have to analyze that ascended to independent lab orators to lab orders they cannot just accept samples given to them from some rebels or from some site that will not take them tell them who committed the attack but at least it will be able to tell them that yes the chemicals were used we see it as in the main as a contest between rebels and the government in syria but of course the intervention

is there it is in large measure a arresting match between saudi arabia and iran and on that resting much the u.s. is on the side of saudi arabia because they would like to isolate iran certainly saudi arabia is not in syria to work for human rights it is there because they want to weaken iran that's the main purpose i think the yes you know i think you're right in saying that iran and the and the usa u.s. and russia or to get together and try to to sort out and to get a solution for syria might even make it less difficult to solve the nuclear problem concerning iran. alas dictator doesn't take business. it seems coming out we were poured on the arrest of

a russian potash company chief after he day or pull out of a partnership with a belorussian state owned firm that's still to come here in our team. it was a. very hard. to get along here one that you never had sex with that there's no. one.

but led. welcome back to watching r.t. now it's takeoff time for one of the biggest events on the global every nation calendar cutting edge technology in aircraft construction multi billion dollar contracts and a spectacular fly program all an offer of the week long max show just outside moscow well in france as more from the top here. max has reached its twentieth year

here in russia what it's really about is bringing civil groups and militaries from around the world together to share ideas both can push the boundaries into the future also it's about discussing expansion from both sides if you take for example this aircraft they choke it's about meshing the utility side of things it can haul heavy equipment and supplies long distances and it's also about transporting personnel with the comfort of these leather seats it's going to draw interest from the civil side and the military one of the biggest draws every year is the flight program this year eighty two russian aircraft will hit the skies doing aerobatic routines that will be five jet teams twenty aircraft from foreign countries will also have the skies will be three different teams one from france one from china and one from all over europe it just goes to show that no matter what is in the skies or on the ground after twenty years max is still going strong.

well third bailout for greece is now necessary and unavoidable according to you and german officials by chancellor angela merkel who's trying to calm a riled up electorate insists that a lot last money will be needed this time around well together with the two prior bailouts the total sum of money loaned to athens would stand at a quarter of a trillion euros a sound the war of so greece's g.d.p. and makes repayment a distant hope and the country itself matters are desperate on employment records allowing record levels with more than half the use jobless cases of suicides and

homelessness have rocketed these last few years but germany remains adamant for more sturdy artist peter oliver reports now on what may be going through german leaders minds. more and more we're seeing senior figures from the world of european finance coming out and saying that they think that it's almost inevitable that greece will have to have a third bailout if it's to try and ease its ailing economy particularly here in germany that is something that would be looked at germany has been one of the major contributors towards the towards giving money to the ailing greek economy and of course we are in a period where there's a general election on the twenty second of september now to talk a little bit more about this and what is to be done with the greek economy i'm joined by dr marcus kerber who is a professor of political economy institute of technology and the founder of the think tank thanks very much for talking to me are we seeing mrs merkel and other

leading german politicians dancing around the issue of what's going to be some rather painful decisions they going to have to be made in the near future as a matter of fact it turned out to be unavoidable to meet greece needs some extra money and instead of trying to. conceal this from the public by saying no it will will not come the german finance minister in straight consultation with from machall admitted in public that there will be a third package this was to limit the damage that would emerge from a denial of reality if they continue appeasing policy and continue bailouts instead of saying now let's. draw a bottom line capitalizes on the believe of european politicians that the greek sped away would be damages. once you call their bluff it will be all over

independent of whether the greek want or don't want to care thanks very much for talking to me so greece addicted to bailouts and dictated to debts as well that debt. is partly being financed by taxpayers from around the rest of the eurozone most notably from here in germany where all the best amount of money has been as come out of the taxpayer coffers in order to to help out their neighbors in the south however when germans have been polled about whether they would like whether greece should receive this type of money well overwhelmingly sixty two percent of them have said no that they shouldn't be getting any more money from germany it seems that that is definitely the case ahead of what looks like a potentially inevitable bailout. that the should future a few years you have over there have a few that. it's too much we're subs need some too or we'll be giving everything away we're driving here in broken roads we don't have enough kindergartens there's

money. in mentioning there are a lot of people in germany you also have problems we should also invest the money into germany we shouldn't just be giving the money away with thinking about syrian people here so the german people though we see alternately will be called on to foot the bill not happy about giving money to greece. well the early figure being floated for and new greek bailout to stand billion euro as though as recent history suggests that's likely to go up by the alternative for germany party election candidate paul hampel says the germans are well aware of the true purpose of the bailouts. even the last german understood already that we don't pay money to help the greek people or that there is nobody unemployed who would help german funds it is the financial market that bangs and the people who have given loans to greece they want the money back and they got it back from this money it's quite simple as itochu the dept of greece is about three hundred fifty billion euros three hundred

fifty billion euros and you just have to put mathematics books from school to understand greece can pay back and uli maximum two point six billion two point six billion just with one percent pay back one percent interest rate and it's more it's about four and plus and greece will be in debt for cade's who is that solutions. well we have plenty more stories for you online today including punishable charity north carolina police threaten to arrest members of a church group for distributing food to the homeless so i had to r.t. dot com for the full story and t.v. stars when hundreds of ordinary citizens on the streets of india's largest city mumbai show their anger at the gang rape of a young photojournalist you can see the full video of that protest online. now snatched by the man nicknamed europe's last dictator it may sound like fiction

but that's what's happening right now in belarus out of russia's largest producer of potash soil nutrient was arrested there after being lured to a business meeting where the government's a barrage of charges now face him all for breaking off a partnership with a bell russia stay firm or it's now get more on this from artie's business correspondent katie pulled him thank you so much for joining us and you know to talk us through this not easy and not straightforward situation looks like a scandal brewing there between the. sizing actually is just go all the makings of a hollywood movie really isn't this guy a mist about gun to his being described as the first hostage in the potash rule because he's gone over there for a meeting and he's been invited by the officials by the government of better ruse sunda and he's probably thought going after doing a good time as to what business deals and whatever else it is it is not going to taint the apple in the way and you know most guys look and this is just again one

of these happening to one of our most powerful rich influential guys he's now all states television in handcuffs being surrounded by the police so what isn't moscow's reaction to this so far well so far there i am groot to say the least we've got the russian deputy prime minister hugo chavez out of he said it's all inappropriate and not fitting the ship obviously you know. the history between the two countries xover states very close ties and this was thought to be a cash cow for batteries that may use their country a lot of money and that's why there's a lot of bitterness because they've they've lost a lot of money because of the collapse of the business arrangement as you said is a twenty three billion dollar industry is possible and why did it happen i mean what's the reason and what's behind the scenes or spirit you know i think marina i don't think we know the half of it at the moment i think there's going to be a lot more details to come but your county has accused bellerose county of going outside of its its agreements out on on contracts but i think the situation is

going to escalate going forward it really is and has gone from economic to very much political situation of the moment so there'll be a sequel definitely to the story absolutely where we will say we will be indeed thank you so much katie for bringing us more on the situation there. now take a look at some other stories making headlines around the world protesters calling for every cultural laws to be revamped have clashed with riot police in central colombia riot squads use tear gas and wield of baton to force stone throwing demonstrators off the streets it's the eighth day of a nationwide strike aimed at forcing governments to broaden subsidies and fuel prices. a massive wildfire in california continues to sweep through you somebody national park edging closer to a large reservoir that provides most of san francisco water supply the blaze has also damaged two hydroelectric plants forcing the city to switch to other power

sources more than thirty five hundred firefighters are battling to control the fire which has been raging for eleven days now. the venezuelan government has set up for oil an assassination attempt on president maduro earlier this month arresting two presumed hit men in the capital caracas officials say they were working on orders from four of venezuela. it's not the first on that as well as said it's derailed and assess a nation plot against the president the most recent was two months ago reportedly orchestrated from colombia and the united states. all you have today here on our team coming out is breaking the set with abby martin. sometimes it seems like in the face of giant corporations people are just sort of

helpless i could be pretty pessimistic myself about what a few individuals with no real money or power could really do against the system but you never dull in fact if you remember tour discussion about ammonia doused pink slime being used across america and frozen fast foods well shift jamie oliver has actually managed to shame mcdonald's enough on t.v. to get them to back down and stop using this ultra processed form of quote meat at their establishments also we recently discussed gamer rage at the rather racist portrayal of russians in the game company of heroes two well the rage actually worked and thanks to the seventeen thousand signatures on the change dot org petition the game has been pulled from russian shelves by the developer the thing is that massive corporations do a lot of bad things because they have no morals and are obsessed with profit but because they have no morals and are only obsessed with profit the second you even slightly threaten their cash flow they will instantly start cowering at your feet sometimes but that's just my opinion.

you live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous i had lunch i got so many i mean family and some towns that i've seen really messed up. in the old story so actually. the. worst we're going through the white house chief of a. radio guy and four minutes from the. globe are about to give you never seen anything like this i'm told. that guys i mean martin this is breaking this set it's now been thirty three days

with this a blower edward snowden in complete legal limbo as he awaits his fate in the transit zone of the moscow airport you see despite being granted asylum by venezuela bolivia and nicaragua snowden cannot leave the u.s. government's cancellation of his passport so looking for any kind of refuge in the meantime snowden is applied for temporary asylum in russia which would allow him to remain in the country for one year is sound request prompted the white house officials to ask russia to extradite snowden the government officials have refused to return the whistleblower but this government wants snowden back so bad that they're willing to make a huge concession see i just found out a few hours ago on a breaking a.p. news alert that attorney general eric holder will not seek the death penalty for snowden wow i guess that means we can all just sit back and relax now after all it was the death penalty that we're also concerned about right has nothing to do with the fact that snowden would be indefinitely detained a charge with the air.