russia. ukraine scraps preparations for a trade agreement with the. parliament rejects the bill which was one of europe's main. controversial demands for u.s. soldiers to remain in afghanistan a wrangled over at a key gathering of tribal elders. the. major concerns. peaceful.

twenty four hours a day. ukraine has decided to hold preparations for trade agreements with the e.u. it comes after the country's parliament rejected a bill which would have allowed the jailed former prime minister yulia timoshenko to receive medical treatment abroad. he has more tricky relations between brussels . it is a sharp turn around for ukraine's aspirations to sign the e.u.'s association deal next week in vilnius now the ukrainian government says that it has suspended all preparations for signing this document during the eastern partnership summit mostly as the statement from the government says to nullify any potential economic threats to ukrainian economy if this association deal is to be signed basically this means that ukrainian government believes that the economy is simply not ready for signing this association deal the first vice prime minister of the government due to boycott the former energy minister specified that the government is looking to

create a three way commission consisting of ukraine russia and the european union to understand the mechanism of how the ukrainian the current economy should work should it eventually sign the association deal this turnaround comes after numerous warnings by experts that ukrainian economy would simply not handle going into the european association at the moment because most of its machinery and heavy industry would have simply collapsed simply for the fact that the korean factories are employing different standards than to the european union and they had to be more denies completely which could have cost more than one hundred billion dollars so the ukraine now takes a break just to get over it to think how it could eventually nullify the threats and risks to its economy. ah ukraine's opposition has booed the parliament's decision to reject an agreement allowing convicts to get medical treatment abroad now that's

a key requirement to a potential e.u. trade deal as we've been explaining a little earlier and that opposition turned even more angry when the government said the talks all that deal was scrapped too so let's talk more on this with artie's cross he's joining me here in the studio this looks a little drastic from you nick overaged sure what's the thinking here well i think on the one hundred got to remember that ukraine is always occupied a key position between east and west on the european front here so. i think on the one hand he's playing political political hardball news looking at a very cruel political reality he's looking for clarity on compensation for losses that ukraine will encourage the ukrainian industry will incur upon entering into some kind of free market relationship with the european union this in particular in relation to gas prices on the one hand and the impact of products and how competitive or competitive ukraine will be once it enters if we're to enter into a relationship with the european union like that that's on the one hand on the

other hand which is it has a legacy we all know that yana coverts was was moscow's guy and is much closer to moscow than he is to brussels and i think that very of made it very clearly on a coach that he wouldn't be allowed to have a foot in both camps and you know russia would would take certain positions and adopt certain positions towards ukraine were they to get into bed with get into bed with brussels and what about the i.m.f. he's in effect told them where to go to. you has indeed he did well a little bit of background moody's has downgraded ukraine to pretty fault status which is along the lines of greece basically think of it as a potential default like that now the i.m.f. on top of that has made demands on coverage that he sees as politically untenable they've asked him to raise you to. the price is light gas electricity water by forty percent in ukraine that's politically untenable for any prime minister to to do on the other hand the i.m.f.

approached the new coach with loan conditions for the next tranche of cash that they would like to offer ukraine and he looked at the deal said absolutely no way not under those can not on the conditions that you bring to me ok let's put all the politics aside what about the ukrainian people themselves what do they make of being part of the e.u. is it really what they want is it perhaps that mythical city where the streets are paved with gold sure sure but i think again we need to remember that ukraine has. two distinct cultural elements to it on the east in the west and i think people on the west and western ukraine look more closely to the european union and in east ukraine to look towards moscow but having said that i think if you do what's you're not seeing reported in the western press quite a bit is that the millions of ukrainians who emigrated legally and illegally to the european union and wash dishes and work there for years in all sorts of jobs are now finding it more difficult than ever to get work to keep work and to send cash back home and i think what you're seeing in ukraine is a realisation that in fact in europe the streets aren't really paved with gold thanks very much indeed artie's i have across to you there live in the studio and

now i believe that we can cross live to oxford in the u.k. and find out more about why ukraine and the e.u. need all may not need each other let's talk to u.k. journalist neil clark he's been closely following the story neil now that ukraine has halted these trade talks with the e.u. who's actually the bigger loser here. i think we're going to talk about losers but we should be to well winners and ukraine's had a great victory today i had a strange week ukraine they lost in the world cup qualifying playoff to france on tuesday but today is more important really because this deal would have been a disaster for ukraine it would have wiped out millions and i mean millions of jobs it would have risen prices in the ukraine and i think it is a lucky escape really because i think that this deal was bad news for the ukraine it would be like somebody today going back in time to nine hundred twelve and buying a ticket for the titanic it would have been a national suicide for the ukrainian government to sign this and yet they were very close to signing this deal was just a week away what really prompted that u. turn do you think. what i don't really know but i think it's great news and i think

that obviously russia's come in there and try to persuade the ukrainian government ukraine are going to seen sense not only a minority of people actually wanted to steal so it's a good day for democracy as well and all the propaganda the e.u. has been pumping out to the ukraine saying you've got to sign this deal is going to be great news while it's absolute nonsense if you look around the region below all the countries that have signed up to deals their economies have suffered badly and it's the economies that haven't belarus for example that have done much better so there's a great myth that you know for countries of the xo she spoke countries that you've got to join the e.u. or sign trade deals or the e.u. to have prosperity is actually opposite if you want your country to be ruined then join the e.u. or sign a trade deal so in a way it's carrying out a clever balancing trick here ukraine has said it wants to preserve a revive its trade ties with russia before continue talking about the deal with europe is it actually possible to appease both to keep both happy is it worth. it depends how far they go down the e.u. pass doesn't it really because let's suppose if the who if you've been in the e.u.

already they would have signed up to this disastrous trade embargo on iran this all in bargo which has been absolutely nuts for the e.u. to put that through so the e.u. so the ukraine benefits for not being in the e.u. and i think the future the ukrainian it's russia it's quite clearly got to be russia doesn't it for for energy deals for its economy the e.u. is a sinking ship it's the titanic of twenty. thirteen and no one in their right sense of the right state of mind want to join a sinking ship or buy a ticket to join a sinking ship so the ukraine's future must lie i think with russia with belarus and kazakhstan in a customs union which is a way ahead for ukraine it sure suit the ukrainian economy and where you put forth a very persuasive argument but surely it's so many you're craniums would disagree with that rather look west rather than world. only forty five percent want to destroy a deal and we've got to counter it you know to factor in the propaganda the enormous probably you propaganda that goes out in the ukraine and this sort of myth that you know the streets the are paid with gold the e.u. the e.u.

is as i said before sitting ship and if you look around the region look at poland what a disastrous economy the poles have got you know thirty percent youth unemployment poles i mean to emigrate to britain to work it's a tragedy compare that with belarus where they've got very low unemployment belarus isn't in the e.u. like poland it's done much better than poland and so the evidence the hard evidence around this region tells you that joining the e.u. or actually signing trade or the e.u. is not the way to go it's a disaster it might be good for the elites but for the ordinary people ukraine would be what would have been deindustrialized by this deal factors would have been closed prices would have got up unemployment would have risen and so we've really got to puncture this kind of myth that the e.u. is the way to prosperity for eastern countries in europe it's not russia is the country that it's growing russia is the country that can offer great deals to the ukraine and that's the way that's the way the future lies i think we're going to get your perspective we'll thank you very much indeed live from oxford u.k. journalist neil clark here on r.t. good to see you go. back. u.s.

troops may remain immune to afghan laws and still be carrying out military operations after their combat mission ends in twenty fourteen now that's what a draft security deal suggests you know afghan president said he wants it to be signed after the elections despite admitting there's little trust between him and washington the loya jirgah council of elders has started debating the draft and according to the agreement up to sixteen thousand u.s. soldiers will stay for ten more years and possibly beyond are we playing a support role for afghan forces while still being able to carry out military operations against al qaeda and its affiliates and it also includes raiding afghan homes and exceptional circumstances that's an issue which has been extremely difficult for afghans there's also another stumbling block the deal gives american forces immunity to afghan law placing them solidly on the u.s. military jurisdiction sultanzoy he's a candidate in the upcoming afghan presidential election says the government is not considering the will of the people. i think the afghan president is trying to use

this as a personal game the people of afghanistan. and others who are involved in this country we're tired of or we're tired of bickering and we're also tired of. being playing politics with the lives of people of afghanistan on one hand the president wants to portray himself as a patriot on the other hand he's not able to even take care of corruption rule breaking the rule of law and good governance that's what the people are suffering from he's trying to distract the people of afghanistan from what he hasn't been able to do to for this country meanwhile has claimed washington has paid more than one hundred fifty million dollars to middle eastern companies which are funding terrorist groups in afghanistan and that's what an internal u.s. government report has revealed. investigates. the u.s. special inspector general for ghana stand reconstruction found out that the pentagon has hired forty three companies with suspected ties to terrorist networks

the data comes from the pentagon's own classified investigative reports and commerce department list of terror connected companies and now the list of these forty three companies including a road construction firm presumably owned by a leader of the hakani network the network was blamed for an attack on the u.s. embassy in kabul that killed sixteen people two years ago the u.s. army has carried out a classified investigation and said there was evidence of a direct role of both the company and its owners quote in the facilitation and operation of the hakani network and that approximately. from one to two million dollars per month flows to the network to finance its activities the inspector general said i've seen the information quote and it made my hair stand on and he said well not just the united states government subsidized. the taliban al qaeda network those groups that are trying to shoot and kill our soldiers from

these specter general members of congress have heard about billions of dollars simply wasted in afghanistan now they have evidence suggesting that u.s. taxpayer money goes to finance terrorists or suspected terrorists the same networks that the u.s. is fighting despite these findings the pentagon has resisted permanently blocking the companies from getting more u.s. contracts because his lawyers say they cannot use the evidence against these companies because the evidence is classified a special expected general for afghanistan reconstruction pointed out what he called the absurdity of it he said we can probably attack them via drone on monday and will issue them a contract on tuesday in washington i'm going to check out our. live here in moscow with you twenty four hours a day this is r.t. coming up the first steps to freedom some of the bailed greenpeace activists are reunited with their loved ones on the destiny for the rest of the gang still hangs

in the balance a special report on the oil platform storming cases just ahead. states are on the way to launching the drawing program after leading members of the block signed an agreement to invest in new unmanned aircraft technology plans are launching activists who say it's difficult to determine whether the drones will be used only for peaceful purposes or. this report. group has been dubbed drone club and their intention is to develop a new generation of unmanned aircraft over the next ten years now the reason that they're doing it this is that they believe they're being left behind when it comes to drone technology by countries like the united states and israel currently both britain and france do operate drones they use the american bill to report drone interesting lee enough though germany has said that they are opposed to the use of any kind of weaponized drones and the european defense agency has being quick to

point out the known weaponized uses for drone technology however the use of drones particularly by the united states in countries like pakistan and yemen and the widespread civilian casualties that are being caused well that's left drone technology as a very emotive issue and here in germany the war activists on top each about the decision to develop them here are very very concerned i think that the very nice phrasing that they've tried to say it sets for to control human trafficking over the mediterranean airspace and so forth for surveillance purposes i don't see them necessarily helping migrants coming from africa from lampedusa didn't help just to save any of those people so there is no control about these things they can say is being used for humanitarian purposes but actually they could be used for lethal purposes well this comes after a recent u.n. report that was somewhat damning of drone technology in fact referred to them as

being a danger to global security and that by using these type of weapons it encouraged more nations to try and acquire them we spoke to an activist from the german drone campaign who's just attended the drone summit conference in washington back explain to us what's fueling the fears of campaigners. german drone campaign is against the use of drones for war surveillance and oppression defining what that is needs to be addressed by the international community certainly very many surveillance drones can be weaponized and. using them lethally is integrated very closely with the surveillance capabilities we fear that it will be used to prevent peaceful demonstrations even in europe and certainly in border control could be very lethal it's on the borderline of the war situation if they are ever

armed. a mass exodus is bringing christianity in the middle east to the verge of extinction the new bloodshed in countries syria and iraq is causing christians to. face sectarian violence the details on the story coming up in just a few minutes. with economic up and downs in the final. day of the deal and the rest of the. case it will be a briefly told me. one

of the wonderful. peter limone. a pleasure to have you with us today. christians in the middle east are facing increasing sectarian violence for the civil war in syria and instability in egypt and iraq forcing them to flee their homes u.k.'s minister for faith has called on western governments this week to protect christianity from becoming extinct in the countries where a mass exodus is taking place reports for many christians in the middle east the

arab spring has been wintry at best the international society for human life says that borne out of the defeat five acts of religious discrimination in the world today are perpetrated and carried out against christians nowhere is this more acutely felt than in the middle east and north africa if you look at syria for example weight in the state of the total population is christian a third of them have already fled from the civil war that started two years ago and that number continues to grow after the murder of father best in years nasa last june two thousand and twelve the threats and the persecution of christians escalated so much so that many today say the night me facing the questions of syria is the same night me that the questions of iraq have been living under since the invasion in two thousand and three. a oh i believe it is all systematic and planned foreseen christians to leave in iraq for instance less than two hundred thousand christians remain we do have concerns we do

hope we can stick to our land syria which is the cradle of christianity we also hope that the pope and heads of christian denominations shall call for denouncing violence and adopting dialogue in august this year the christian town outside of damascus was attacked by rebels tens of soldiers were killed and many residents fled it's still not clear how many of them have not returned to the village and where in syria they have been displaced. earlier i visited the town of holmes where a syrian soldier took me to the frontline and showed me the damage the rebels had carried out against a local church one hundred this is the church unfortunately it was not like that before look at this destruction in mass from here the explosions were coming down on people praying and of course people started crying out for help from us because the priest was raised here and they were captured here in the church elsewhere in

egypt to be muslim brotherhood supporters have blamed christians for the armies also of the president mohamed morsy more than eight hundred christian sites were attacked and some thirty two churches razed to the ground while in iraq after the american invasion back in two thousand and three half of the iraqi christian population lived for other middle eastern countries and american think tank the pew forum says that christians face overestimate and oppression in one hundred and fifty nine countries this is nearly three quarters of all the countries on the face of the policy on teen television. just a reminder we have plenty of stories for you on our website including the extraordinary start of a brand new island off the coast of japan on the sea volcanic eruptions earth's newest land mass. of ash and smoke billowing into the air a bird's eye view video is just a click away. plus one of the world's leading all

producers is under fire and it's not drilling activity that sparked public outrage this time at your web site and find out what big british oil giants will have to pay for arresting and bullying those posting pretty cool messages on the company's facebook page. several more greenpeace activists have just been granted bail by courts in st petersburg bringing the total number to twenty six eleven have already walked free ahead of their trial for hooliganism and the others will too once their bail money is posted on reports now from the city. the saga over the greenpeace activists detained for their protest against arctic oil drilling does continue new developments thursday as russia's president vladimir putin weighed in again on the issue reiterating his position now he actually praised the greenpeace group's goals which he called noble but he condemned the environmental group for its tactics on the use of when the

platform was being created an emergency situation this could have led to one mistake by operators that. they should not have been distracted from their work. can be accomplished by any means but at the same time the state should be leading the u.n. secretary general meanwhile ban ki-moon also spoke out on thursday he urged russia for more leniency towards the activist saying that environmentalists also have a key role to play in society now all of this comes as the courts here in st petersburg continue to grant bail to activist as you had mentioned six more received a bail were released on bail on thursday just to bring our viewers up to date thirty of course had been arrested back in september when the greenpeace activists stormed the gazprom oil rig out in the arctic a russian security forces later stormed their ship the arctic sunrise arresting all

thirty those continue to be released as you had mentioned the toll now on bail at twenty six people and of course on friday the courts here in st petersburg will continue to hear the bail hearing so the story does still continue there. the e.u. is considering a generalized guidance to fracking the controversial technology which has been raising major concerns among environmental experts and activists across the globe let's take a closer look at the practice and its risks well the method involves breaking up rock at least one kilometer below ground opponents say there could be grave environmental consequences warning the use of explosives in chemicals it contaminates water supplies and pollutes both the ground and the air but advocates of the technique say it will help to solve the energy crisis and create more jobs e.u. members are deeply divided on the issue while energy giants are pushing for widespread exploration artie's pretty boy has been following the resistance of europeans to

fracking in their countries. a number of european countries have had large scale anti fracking protests take place recently as sort of the prospect of more drilling has been rolled out across europe but one of the largest anti fracking stories to take place over recent months happened in accra mania where locals actually formed a human chain around an area where u.s. oil giant chevron was given the green light by the remaining in government to begin exploratory drilling now i travelled there to cover the story and i spoke to a lot of the locals there and they are all most of them farmers they live off the face of the land and for them they were genuinely frightened by the prospect of their groundwater being contaminated their food not being safe to eat they were talking to me about having to safeguard the health for their children and they see

it as government siding with large corporations and not protecting the interests of their citizens who are talking about genuine risks that they see from this technology fracking has been associated with air pollution water contamination water depletion earthquakes and of course climate change oil and gas companies have spent billions of dollars really selling a story about how fracking is safe and the reality is quite different i think that's something that anti fracking campaign is an protesters in the us and in europe on no doubt reassured by is that large scale protests and citizens opposition to this technology really does work for example france has just held a ban against fracking because of the environmental risks involved. put a book and i'll be back with a news team with wolf in just over half an hour from now in the meantime the naked truth about the controversial queens of topless protest.

in my research i randomly came across a sad statistic according to the montpelier a center for the constitution only twenty eight percent of americans have actually read the constitution although the overwhelming majority claimed that they understood some of it and now we see why the constitution especially the bill of rights are getting whittled away the average person doesn't really know what their secret covenant with the government actually says which means the government can get away with reinterpreting the agreement to suit their needs and not yours because no one is the wiser but if you think i'm going to say where average american how dare you then you are wrong the problem is that any kind of philosophy or ideology or just even asking why seems to be getting out of favor in educational

systems all over the western world and beyond i mean shouldn't the average american be taught in school about you know america and like the constitution and capitalism how can the society advocate praise or defend values they don't have any idea about please let's get the stuff back into the educational system but i shift my opinion . yes. you can be my best friend. but this was only the.

moment something. like this when you would sing joe subway if it was your job for the press to lead you to only a fraction looms didn't. he just say you should look this is a. huge. thank. you . therefore we will. get the oscars look well good for the filming of this will be a good boy the boy you give him. and yes this is so nice to moves that are still moving to the movie do.