fighters retake control of an ancient christian sanctuary in syria i made rising concern over the fate of the country's religious minorities. american lawmakers a lean towards a revolving barack obama as a serious war course as a group of former u.s. intelligence officials claimed the president's being misled in his case for intervention. and early results were put moscow's actually lead us to the gates of beyond and out front in the landmark mayoral election but his main opposition rival puts up a strong fight. right

here this is r t live from moscow you're with me to mom would say let's take a look at our top story this hour islam is the stream savva rest of the syrian army on of the ancient christian village of mali which has been besieged since last wednesday the village was seen as a beacon of tolerance in the syrian society and one of the oldest christian places of worship artie's maria phenomenon has just returned from. we so what more lulu looks like right now this is a very sad picture would used to be picturesque a village surrounded by mountains in the central part of syria where you feel like time has almost stalled where people train in numerous churches all across the village inn and i make the language over jesus christ in greek in arabic and in french what also is home to dozens over.

most of this now looks like a battlefield and i want to know how to take a look at what we saw. in the row militants and my little now and our. hotel this is the mountaintop hotel which was. right above. but as i said the militants first of all. exploded the car at the checkpoint to enter the village and after that they took the mountain tops i feel. they are firing from this position and this is the highest point in the village and also the army you find. god in mali so their position is very strong and a very good no one can say for sure now for how long it will last my lul is

a very symbolic place it's reflects how the entire syrian society used to be a very secular society and a value very tolerant society and right now we can see that this society is shaken and this is exactly what is happening with the entire syrian community so it is a very symbolic and. recently we saw. posted on you tube where people who call themselves jihadists mujahideen who invaded malula they are in my loan this video they're saying that they came to my lula to protect people from brutal regime of bashar al assad how cynic is this we were in mali last year in spring and i have to say that i haven't seen any place even here in syria where life is so calm and is so peaceful and of course cynically is

that they came there to protect people with guns with mortar bombs and with. which actually contradicts the whole the entire idea of protection. coming up later today in a cross talk peter lavelle chairs debate between a u.s. journalist and a syrian opposition figure on the ramifications of american intervention. if you. attempt to try to use military force from outside to overthrow the present regime you are going to set up a situation where there will be a civil war in which the jihad is have a very very strong hand or arguably a stronger hand today then the jihadist resistance to assert what about these jihadists who they represent you they represent you in the new syria after the bombing ins are absolutely not all you need to do is look at the footage the l.c.c.

has provided of the massive protests of people going out against the jihadists. whether barack obama's finger firmly on the syrian intervention trigger u.s. lawmakers will convene later on monday to debate going to war but the white house has made it clear it still has a say so on whether to bomb damascus regardless of what capitol hill things now congress is as skeptical over obama's case against assad as even administration officials admit they lack undeniable proof to implicate the syrian government and the deadly use of chemical weapons u.s. senators are almost evenly split into those for and against intervention with half of the chamber still undecided while the law and more populated house has more lawmakers are firmly against or leaning towards turning down the war crime and she

can has the latest from washington you may find some of the images in the report distressing. the upcoming vote in congress might not be as slam dunk as many thought it would be considering the support for military action in syria that congressional leaders have previously expressed members of congress admit that they are being bombarded by calls from their constituents ninety nine percent of whom demand that they vote no to the administration's plan to bomb syria now two hundred seventeen votes are needed to pass or to fail the administration's plan all representatives who are leading know right now actually vote no president obama's plan to attack syria will fail at least in the house they said ministration has failed to show me the direct threat to the united states of america we have absolutely no guarantee it will expand no guarantee of peace in the region the cia has prepared a video presentation that shows the aftermath of the brainless attacks in syria it's a collection of gruesome videos that were previously posted on you tube it's designed to sway members of congress to vote yes on bombing syria but the videos as gruesome

as they are do not offer proof that the assad government has carried out the attacks nor does the four page on classified report released by the administration earlier members of congress are supposed to get the proving classified hearings but as congressman alan grayson said they're being given intelligence briefings without any hard evidence to support administration's claims that the syrian leader has ordered the use of chemical weapons here's another cab the members of congress are not allowed to discuss the classified hearings so we have no way of knowing what the administration has actually provided as evidence lawmakers are unable to discuss the evidence the classified evidence even among themselves unless they are inside an approved reading room and as congressman grayson says questioning the official account of events is quote actively discouraged is that the obama administration is doing what it calls flooding the field in other words trying to monopolize the conversation dominate the discourse and provide only information in

favor of an attack to members of congress and to the public i think that's unfortunate. there's always two sides to the story we talk about war and peace the public and congress definitely here deserve to hear about both sides the obama administration has not put forward any other options but bombing syria which by so many accounts will extend the misery of the syrian people will undermine international law and will steer more hatred towards the united states in the muslim world not only does the obama administration's refused to take yourselves classified evidence to the un security council which is required under international law but it seems it also keeps u.s. lawmakers in the dark about the details of the evidence they have and as far as the administration's response on whether or not the president will go ahead with a military action in the absence of a congressional approval both the president's aides are saying that he will listen to congress the president himself is hinting that he might not listen to congress which of course begs the question why this charade in congress then. the latest

polls show most americans are also against intervention in syria the figures are even high in france and the u.k. was sixty and eighty percent respectively are against military action similar sentiments are shared in germany and italy while in syria's neighbor turkey the percentage of those against intervention even higher at only seventy two percent last month alleged deadly use of chemical weapons in syria was most likely a publication by the rebels according to a prominent team of former u.s. intelligence officials are now appealing to the white house to screw up its war plan same president obama is being misled into believing assad was responsible cia veteran ray mcgovern is among the group and he told kevin irwin why he things the case for intervention is politically motivated. yes friday kerry went before the cameras and say we got to do this and here's the not intelligence assessment mind

you but the government assessment meaning the white has white house had a chance to massage it had it edited ok here's the assessment it didn't hold up to scrutiny or apparently the military got to the president and i see some evidence of this next thing we know that the president has changed his mind on saturday afternoon and the only thing that really intervened was the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff martin dempsey telling the president look you know it's going to be really hard as we're going to be really hard to explain what we have to do this now we could do this tomorrow or next week or next month we don't really have to do it now and the president said that and justifying his delay now what's more evidence lindsey graham and john mccain the next day just took off after the joint chiefs of staff chairman in a very personal and vindictive way because they know that finally the military leaders went to the president said look you know we know we know you're being told

that this is going to be easy and limit all our stuff but these guys and these gals don't know a thing about war we do how do you think the congressional votes going to play out in the upcoming vote which way is it going to go i talked to a congressman last night for five minutes and it was very clear that he pledged to house leader nancy pelosi that he would vote according to what that what the president says because we have to protect the president and are you could have are you going to say that the president is why you don't have to say the president is lying when you do need to say according to our information is that the president being given cooked up intelligence because john brennan the head of the cia and james clapper can be confessed perjurer have thought it in their interests to to cater to the wishes of the white house which have been very clear this time we want to strike syria. all the ballots are now come to a day in the moscow's mayoral election stay with our team as we discuss the results

in-depth that a couple of minutes. ok . i david crockett welcome you to take a virgin it's a little while in the middle of the chesapeake bay on the virginia. county. and you're all in the chesapeake bay probably one of the best areas in the fall for . this is an old picture of ten year island before the channel was good for oh here. gone way up there. is going. right here

are some of the headstones from graves that for you this is a fruits that's what we don't want happen to tangier all and we want to get some protection and make sure that we don't go into the chesapeake bay like i did in other communities. all the face i think i've you know. the pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today.

big bucks for. everybody to do the job the premise is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open process is critical to our democracy albums. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and our press difficult we've been hijacked light handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once built just by job market and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem try rational debate and real discussion of critical issues facing their fun for you know ready to join the movement then walk a bit. thanks

for staying with us here on our chief for more international news and analysis now just outside of south africa's capital stands a statue of the man who was behind the ugly policies of upon tait at the white only enclave which allows black visitors only under special permits but this is not some sort of open a history museum it's a very real self-sustained community politically and when to expel. a half hour drive north of south africa's capital petrolia and you'll be forgiven for thinking you've traveled back in time it might be two decades since nelson mandela was sworn in as the country's first black president but communities hankering after south africa's apartheid past when racial segregation was enshrined in law are starting to wave their nationalistic colors when white people first

advanced into the interior of south african eighteen hundreds this is what they saw before them vast dissolute stretches of land and now one hundred fifty years later they were turning to the dreams of a forefathers to create an independent entity with their own laws flag and language welcome to claim fontayne and aspiring whites only enclave if you're black you can visit but only for a few hours and with special permission for there's a little. blood. if you go to work you can come in the first thing that greets you is you coming to claim fontayne is a bust of hendrick for vote the former south african prime minister considered the architect of a party eight although signposts are written off we can see the language spoken by the town's one thousand inhabitants who can all trace their lineage back to the european settlers who arrived here in the sixteen hundreds residents insist they are not racist it's just that they don't welcome jews catholics or any english

speakers either merissa has lived in came from tain for six years she says she feels safe here there's no crime and she enjoys being part of a community that shares the same culture and history this is private property so we're not taking anything from anybody else so we don't think i think it's a racial but we feel strongly about our identity and we want to protect that and preserve it. claim for danes residents include professors engineers and other middle class professionals they pay fees to a copper to avoid that. gives him water and electricity the community has survived largely without the help of the government it has its own water pumps and a natural reservoir and there's a shopping center a bank a school overtime and center and several small businesses its residents say it's self-sufficiency born out of necessity they dream is to create their own flag and currency the problem. is that many of the law or both. benefit

of a certain racial group. konami. many of our young people that weren't even born here go to work. iliza smith moved here after being unable to find work she now cleans houses a job she's very grateful to have my skin and all that i there is no i'm not black abroad for work no work and in my free i get to work. and that's when we come back here. under apartheid the white afrikaner led government forced black south africans to live in homelands now decades later the dice has turned and many white off the corners feel that white homelands are the only solution but many south africans fear their communities that came from tain a merely lingering outpost of the apartheid era threatening to return the country back to the dark days of its racist past policy r.t.

came from tain south africa. after a tough four contests are to be moscow's next there may come been set against a way on and it seems likely to get the job back but is main opposition rival alex you know while new medicines secure always a third of the vote to discuss the outcome of the landmark elections are with me is and is there now our senior political correspondent dmitri bhardwaj political analyst for what the voice of russia radio station michael either of editor in chief of g.q. magazine in russia and in london and alexander make your. legal expert and blogger joining us now i will side with hugh who is our political senior political correspondent here how are things standing right now in terms of the polls i just want to give you the numbers one hundred percent of the votes have been counted surrogates are down and is that fifty one point thirty seven looks in the twenty seven point twenty four and it's thirty three percent turnout quite

a light low turnout actually for this election but election the violin actually did much better than people thought he would at least according to polls that we were polling you know when comparing started speaking about doing very well in terms of how he did because i think a lot of people were quite skeptical as to will he do better but he has i'm going to go to alexander make yours in london right now and ask him this how would you assess his results that he's done so well in these elections. and well i think one shouldn't exaggerate this he got twenty seven percent out of the thirty three percent so he's done well obviously it's not a landslide in his favor i gather he got about six hundred thirty thousand votes. in terms of you saying that it's not a landslide it's interesting that you're saying that because he's gone on to say that it was such

a tight race that he wants to go over to the second round in order to go to each of here i mean would you agree that it's not a landslide he has done well but it's not as so well and what do you make of. his assessment as as a candidate and how he's done in this in this race well obviously i'm not going to say that twenty seven percent or twenty. even in his internal polling is a landslide that is quite obviously not i think basically what we're seeing is a very heartening resurgence of. competitive politics grassroots campaigning street level stuff that we haven't seen since well ninety six really so to me that's a that's an interesting thing to consider and also the life turnout i think everyone will probably agree has benefited because his his electorate seem to be

a little more motivated. than suburban and what we can see that we're debating because he did go out and do those quotes from his campaigning and he used twitter large social media a lot but he has said he wants to go out and protest these results if they don't go into the second one is that fear given those results that annie's that and our guest in london have just said that. i'm not sure it's in his best interests actually. obviously i don't have any more information than you do in terms of what the real numbers are. i would i would suspect that they're not too far removed from what we are what we're seeing so even if you know there was some institutional support to you to get to be on in over the to the you know to the fifty one percent i'm actually not sure the only benefits from doing the second run and because in the run up he would get similar results and sit down and would have improved

results because he would. pick up quite a bit of melnyk of and other candidates vote just for our audience let me jump in that fifty percent plus one is what's needed is what i think you know in your coffee is the color of your skated it just to explain what your audience probably doesn't know as well because we really don't hear and you very much thinking about it is ok but i want to let's talk about the man in a volley himself and i'm going to go to you mr bobbitt i mean he he in the west he's seen as these this poster boy of the new russia is that how you seen here at home well i would not agree with that i agree with me that he managed to more bill is he's electorate and that was the key to his success actually if you look at the number us. you know that billionaire who ran during the presidential election he got. about two hundred thousand volts more during that presidential election but because during the presidential elections people are more mobilized so there is

a certain segment of mosque or population we brought up on the average season of on the s. and embodiment or their lifestyle over their interests i think that's about fifteen of may be up to twenty percent of the population of the city and these people are more than. by not only because there are all of these stories surrounding him which more belies his electorate he is facing criminal charges he may end up in jail you know there is still that. he's case in the appeal right now so he actually is there for it curious whether they wanted it or not by the squad decision and by several are the events the more village he's a doctor it i don't know if it was done willingly or unwillingly that's that's an open question but if you look at the number of their faults that the leftist candidate is what during this election and i think that in your sense socialist are

all leftist p.r. you know people there are also support and corporate slogans they want twenty percent of the vote but they are electorate was not more voiced so i agree with you that it would be wrong for not only to demand the second row now first because the majority of the political class most of the analysts they all agree that this was a relatively more or less to lection and second because he would not get. me just jump in and say that i just want to clarify that i'm not saying it's ethically or morally wrong for a moment to be on the second round i just don't think it's politically expedient of this point and that's of first of speaking about that i want to jump back to mr make your is they in london or how do you say that the west is perceiving now volney in terms of his politics in terms of what he stands for in terms of how the world outside of russia sees them because like mr bobby said here it's kind of like

a fifteen you know whatever the numbers are that some people like that he represents this kind of lifestyle that therefore how is the scene overseas. well people overseas which is to say the west which is to say those people in the west who are interested in russian politics who are not of course that many people what they are always on the lookout for is a attractive political in russia who is against mr putin and who will win an election in russia against mr putin and at this moment in time they think mr involved he might be that person i don't see it myself i don't see that these results suggest that but that's what they hope he says the things they want him what they want to hear hear from him and they're hoping that he will be that person . i want to go back to you we in the past people have said about me that he's a little bit inconsistent he's always been like i don't want to do politics i want

to be this lawyer who blogs about the inconsistency of the government in this and that and now he's back in he's running independently for this electoral seat was and urging protests over this what can you tell us more i just want to get i guess in that as well i think there's no doubt that number and wants to be and is ready to be a politician i think you bring something very new to russian politics i personally am really surprised that the turnout was so low i guess i assumed because we've been seeing so many protests he was sort of the face of the anti-government protests a couple of years ago during the presidential elections that more people would come out i might be a little bit biased because i live around the corner from his headquarters and my whole neighborhood is very prone. him calling for protests what's interesting for me is that. it's not really clear what you can base those protests on so i think either way we're going to see thousands of people on the streets of moscow tonight not for me it is more interesting because of a little bit of that we should keep in mind that actually the protests that took

place in moscow in two thousand and eleven two thousand and twelve there were a lot of media coverage but if you look at the numbers this was a relatively small percentage of most corporations that took part in this process so i agree with alexander basically of the west is always on the lookout for someone who would be at the same time liberal and democratic and win elections in russia unfortunately that's my opinion i disagree with me i think that in russia you have to choose either you are a liberal or you are a democrat because liberals have not won elections in russia since one thousand nine hundred one one thousand nine hundred three i think after the confrontation between yeltsin and the parliament when people generally supported the liberals in one thousand nine hundred three since then and especially since the default of one nine hundred ninety eight people. never voted michael let me. jump in mike right well i just wanted to. you know in terms of town of only seen here

not just in the west well a lot of the you know so-called liberals and so-called protest electorate they're not going to huge fans and i'm not a huge fan of them politically in any normal political traction that i'm asked about to say that you needed normal political situation only would probably be my ideological enemy for god's sake the guy i want to outsource police work in the city to private security firms that's in his in his you know in this program that to me that's a complete anathema but anyway the point is this is about the return of competitive politics people voting for and of only are not even the silly voting for him it's not a cult of personality quite yet bang gadd a lot of people are voting for a return to actual street level politics why not give any people that meaning to the poll we saw so much motivation so much political activism why.