a plea for peace russia and syria washington to shift its focus to international negotiations and a joint message warning that. syria. and terrorism. the mall barack obama tries to. intervention ahead of a crucial. refuses to concede defeat.

or to have a company you're watching. with me. now president obama is sharpening his case for military intervention before a crucial congress will be making a string of media appearances later today before meeting democrat lawmakers and addressing the nation on choose day the senate could vote is the early as wednesday and the house of representatives may take another week to make a decision while many in congress aren't convinced by obama's pitch they want to see more evidence of assad's involvement in last month's alleged chemical strike according to a washington post estimate a majority in both chambers of congress are undecided and here's how the senate vote would play out if it took place right now the house of representatives could prove to be obama's biggest challenge it's dominated by republicans who are overwhelmingly against the military plan. gauge the mood on capitol hill a report does contain images which some viewers might find disturbing. 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 this is ministration has failed to show me the direct threat to the united states of america we have absolutely no guarantee it won't 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 when you talk about war and peace the public and congress definitely here deserve to hear about both sides the president's aides are saying that he will listen to congress the president himself

face hinting that. he might not be listening to congress which of course begs the question why this charade in congress them. when it comes to popular opinion polls consistently show over fifty percent of americans are against intervention in syria the numbers are even higher in france and eighty percent of british people want security council approval for any strike similar sentiments are shared in germany and in italy in turkey the majority of people don't want their neighbor attacked either former intelligence and military officials in the u.s. have meanwhile sent a letter to president obama which says chemical warfare in syria was a provocation by the rebels mcgovern worked for the cia for three decades and was among that group he told r.t. as kevin owen about the politics behind the planned intervention. last 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 a 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 the way 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've been 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 or 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 it can be confessed perjury or 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. negotiations not missiles are the best way to resolve the

syrian conflict that is the joint message from the russian and syrian foreign ministers who have been meeting in moscow russia sergei lavrov his still wants to see these so-called geneva two peace talks take place and says a u.s. attack on syria would derail them the russian government had offered to send a delegation of lawmakers to washington to discuss this but both senate and house leaders turned down their proposal u.s. secretary of state john kerry has meanwhile met with his british counterpart william hague in london kerry suggested it is sad could avoid a strike if he was to hand over his chemical weapons arsenal that idea did cause a stir but the state department later said it was merely read rhetorical and not as serious of syrian political analyst says damascus wouldn't have considered such a move anyway. this reminds us for example with the with the situation prior to the iraq invasion in two thousand and three when iraq was quite encouraged to hand over

whatever. you know what and munitions they had that could actually harm any attacking force we remember al samoud missile. one of the end of the day old at the top and was that was that the americans did but that iraq had really big teeth to resist anything so i don't think the syrians will be falling into the same trap here the parliament's rejection last week over the last ten days of this military action which was quite surprising to everyone and i think it pushed america into consulting their own parliament and probably france to do the same i think president obama and his administration would want to have whatever support they can. you know whatever leverage the british government could actually help them with in trying to convince their own congress and said it in order to vote in favor of a military action should the congress and the senate refuse such

a strike you know what would be the alternative would it to go back stronger to the security council would it to go solo or a strike how would britain behave in such a case and really doesn't know who in the british parliament really been and nor does it mean a maybe now while the country's civil war rages on we're about to bring you a report from the frontline an ancient christian village in the mountains north of damascus has been besieged by syrian rebels who have now driven government troops and. witnessed all this is a report. we so what more lulu looks like right now this is a very sad picture would used to be picturesque 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 i don't big and in french what also is home

to dozens over. this now looks like a battlefield and i want to know how to take a look at what we saw. there are military so that my little. hotel this is the mountain top or tell what you want but. right. now we're just interrupting that package because russia's foreign minister has just finished talks with his syrian counterpart and he's now making a statement on the possible u.s. led military strike on syria so let's listen in to what he has to. think you.

ok well we will bring you a quick translation of what he has to say in a couple of minutes bring that to you when we can. in the meantime though still around the corner for you ugly echoes from the past often the bright we travel to a place inside africa where the ghost of apartheid is very much alive plus the people of. all political correctness officials set their sights on a christmas market putting a stop to traditional cheer with. people scratching their heads to keep. the interest. given the fact that.

the russian. stories others who refuse to. face is changing the world. so picture of today's. from around the globe. with. its technology innovation all the least of elements from around russia.

the future. please write the scene. first strike. and i think you're. on our reporters' twitter. and instagram. libby and the no. one. and. if the main competitor girl on the market is mother nature. may customers struggle with goods. fight for each drop from an interview supply. let people think i are prices pure or want to. live on our

teeth. they use it up there and wash their hands. and flush their toilets when the same water. as soon says selling and spraying water. i. welcome that now as the wife as i was saying just before the break russia's foreign minister has just finished talks with his syrian counterpart in the made a statement on the possible u.s. led military strike on syria and to talk more about this we can now go live to our own thomas sure what more can you tell us what we learned from what sergei lavrov said well yes a very big development sergey lavrov russia's foreign minister says that he promises to support john kerry's initiatives when it comes to syria handing over their entire chemical weapons arsenal by next week this is

a move that john kerry mentioned earlier today after his conversation with william hague the defense secretary or the foreign minister of the u.k. and basically it was kerry's way of giving syria a way out to prevent a possible u.s. led strike and right now sergey lavrov has said that he's going to support that idea and he's going to work with syria to make that a possibility to make that actually a reality so some big news coming from the foreign minister of russia just in ok thank you sean that's artie schoen thomas there just giving us a quick update after that press conference by russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov. moscow's acting is poised for a second term in office after winning sunday's election with just over fifty percent of votes his main rival alexina valli put up a tough challenge though securing twenty seven percent and is demanding a runoff r.t. senior political correspondent the niece now he has been following the developments

. i've been in. is number now with one hundred percent of the votes counted is fifty one point thirty seven percent but his main rival anticorruption leader. fared much better than expected really at twenty seven point twenty four official results formally will be announced later but it looks like with one hundred percent counted these are going to be the numbers now when polls were taken when he started campaigning he was only getting around ten percent so he really did do much better than people thought but another thing to take into consideration is turnout only thirty three percent of registered voters showed up that's surprising a lot of analysts because in recent years we've seen a lot more people politically active you have social media we had anti-government protests back in two thousand and twenty eleven and it was supposed that a lot more people would come out to vote that wasn't the case and this was the first time moscow was voting for a mayor in

a decade the last elections were in two thousand and three and even then turnout was at fifty percent so that's come as a bit of surprise just to let you know a little bit about for viewers more so about these two top candidates surrogates have been of course incumbent mayor he's had quite a bit of success in moscow traffic in bringing moscow up to higher european standards and he promised to basically continue that line obviously it's worked alexina wine and his demographic tends to be younger crowds he did a lot of grassroots campaigning lots of handing out flyers going to districts himself and that is very new to russian politics so for or against it certainly has to be said that politics are taking on a new life here in russia. got plenty more stories for you online it called including. big. revelers get in touch with their wild side at the hindu harvest festival in southern india you can see all the best

pictures in our vision gallery on our to. buy some belt tightening why not waste a few billion dollars well that's happened in the u.k. military according to a spending report that has just been released r.t. dot com tells you how those costly blunders in the bag. plus a russian lawyer who gunned down six people last year after breaking up with his girlfriend i'm posting a hate manifesto online has been sentenced to life in jail and you can get the full story at our. news today violence. these are the images the world is seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day.

now statue of a man who was behind some of the ugliest policies of apartheid stands just a stone's throw from south africa's capital. and it's not just a museum to past injustices traveled there. half hour drive north of south africa's capital 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're returning to the dreams of the forefathers to create an independent entity with their own

laws flag and language welcome to claim for an aspiring whites only enclave if you're black you can visit but only for a few hours and with special permission but there's a little there's redistrict. we don't actually say that. 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 hendrix a vote the former south african prime minister considered the architect of a party eight although signposts are written off the cons 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 claim fronting 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 great show but we are we feel strongly about our identity and we want to protect that and preserve it. came from jane's residents include professors engineers and other middle class professionals they pay fees to a carpet of board that. gives them 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 it's residence aid 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 arise the benefit of a certain racial group. nomic involvement many of our young people that weren't even born in the aborted don't have access to work that don't have access to

education. 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 then my freedom get to work. and that's when we come back here. under a party to the white afrikaner led government forced black south africans to live in homelands now decades later the dices turned and many white often 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. a quick look now at some of the stories making headlines this hour in chile police have broken up a nineteen pinochet march using tear gas the massive rally in santiago was to mark

the fortieth anniversary of the coup that brought the dictator to power crowds commemorated the tens of thousands of people killed and tortured by the military john to which ruled until nine hundred ninety right squads moved in after groups of demonstrators built barricades and lit fires. an explosion near a primary school in china has left two dead in seventeen injured at least ten of the wounded are children witnesses say a three wheeled motorbike pulled up in front of the building just before the blast security had already been tightened it education institutions after a surge in violent knife attacks. now jimmy's time on a tradition of festive christmas markets is under threat in berlin the authorities are saying religion should be taken out of the celebrations and made the same decision about ramadan some think the cancels political correctness may do more than more harm than good artes peter oliver investigates we may just be approaching

the start of autumn here in germany but already minds are turning towards christmas and in particular the traditional german christmas market these markets which pop up all over the country that sell handmade christmas stories and mold wine generally regarded as fun for all the family and they've become a major export from germany for us popping up as well all around the world however this year in berlin they could be in for something of a change of name in one particular region in the quiet suburban area of the capital councillors there have ruled that the public celebration of religious festivals isn't allowed which will see the christmas market become the winter festival market now this rebranding has ruffled a few feathers but it does have its roots and if the situation made earlier this year the islamic community in this part of town had wanted to hold public celebrations to mark the end of ramadan they were told that they couldn't and now

next year's celebrations may go ahead under the name of the summerfest to go alongside the winterfest in a move that critics are saying could just end up upsetting everybody. what we've ended up doing is not just prohibiting ramadan so abberations we are prohibiting the soul of all religious holidays under the pretext of equality but i think we are forgetting that some of our cultural traditions are based on christian traditions i'm interested to see if they're also prohibit the jews from so brilliant hanukkah i wonder if our multiculturalism will go far. so over the coming months we're just going to have to wait and see how locals and tourists alike take to the rebranding of a centuries old german tradition. well let's go back to our top story now we've just learned that russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov has proposed that the sad transfers his chemical arsenal to secure storage where it can

be under international control let's hear what he had to say. for we saw the statements by john kerry who. will that would be no strikes if damascus hands over its chemical weapons arsenal to the international community we don't know whether the syria would agree to it but if it is possible to see. international community control over the chemicals weapons and if that helps to avert a strike then we are ready to negotiate with damascus or the idea of syria handing over its chemical weapons was put forward by u.s. secretary of state john kerry in answer to a journalist question in london but the state department later backtracked and said that statement was merely rhetorical and not a serious offer but it does appear still that russia has taken an interest in that

approach with lavrov stressing that he would support any scenario that would have a military strike on syria. if you mind the british foreign secretary he was in office when the decision was made to strike iraq explains why there is a need for caution before making the same mistake against syria. fans of the shocked your football club and kind of conduct kazakhstan believe that a certain special ritual help them achieve victory against the world famous scottish team celtic this ritual was sacrificing a sheep at the stadium as someone who lives in kazakhstan for two years i know there's a real meat eating country with deeply rooted traditions in livestock racing so

this news is unusual but maybe it's not completely bizarre for the culture of course defenders of animal rights who don't seem to realize that the sheep would be turned into people of the next few days anyways demanded that you a full officials punish the shock to a club for the actions of individual fans this is the same logic as if someone wearing a sexy tim kirby t. shirt went around robbing liquor stores i am not responsible for the actions of people like this program and it's not like i'd ever advocate robbing liquor stores and i doubt the shocked your management secretly arranged for fans to slaughter the sheep at the stadium where the slaughter of animals is acceptable to you or not well that's one thing but we don't need to regulate the morality of individuals in other countries via soccer especially if that regulation means punishing the football clubs who are responsible for the actions of individuals but that's just my opinion.

welcome to sophie and co i'm sophie shevardnadze and today we're talking about syria the u.s. congress is voting on about his proposal to bomb syria an operation he claims will be surgical not intended to instigate regime change that was seen as the full and if we have why aren't we learning. striking syria an absurdity righteousness city america's ships sit on the horizon but do they carry hopes for a solution or nails for the coffin of assad's presidency. can the west reads the reality of conflicts in the east.