what's really happening to the global economy is a report on our. flexing its muscle our kind of voices banners over swathes of the rug while washington funnels arms to stay forces for what's predicted to be a bloody counterattack. and the syrian rebels turn on each other in a merciless turf war with over five hundred fighters killed in a slum as much as they were just one week sparking a change of heart on some point that that's. what a month before the winter olympics daughter the host city is putting a my already on security to make sure we games remain safe and undisturbed. confidence in the e.u. leaders has never been low was called into a new poll at least in the hard hit areas of europe where governments are square blameful for lucian's true and entrenched economic crisis.

has just gone the midday here in of the russian capital you love with us on r.t. international for this week's the weekly with me tongue with say the black flag of al qaeda was of this week raced over to iraq's cities which are now under the control of jihad is bent on creating a new islamic nation but the real bloodletting is yet to begin want to experts as about you rocky army and tribal militias mobilized and prepared to contra tac artie's ganesh if you can reports. young little with little integrity they run on chaos emboldened by the fighting in syria these al qaeda linked militants overran parts of iraq including the city of fallujah we have said earlier

that the serious situation will actually go into iraq and this is what we were warning about chaos in neighboring syria deepened as the u.s. and its allies threatened the syrian government sending the signal to the rebels to fight on to the detriment of a political outcome islamic groups have now taken over the opposition movement there and have even chased the western backed leader of the free syrian army out of the country to beason asked you to relieve it along because if you kick it they're going to come out and bite you and that's what we did when we invaded iraq you know three and it can bite not just somewhere far in a war zone but here in the u.s. american intelligence and counterterrorism officials now say islamic extremist groups in syria with ties talk to a recruiting and training americans who have traveled there to get them to carry out attacks when they return home there are dozens of extremist islamist forces

that are operating both inside syria and over the syrian borders iraq has been a breeding ground for extremists since the u.s. invasion now residents of other parts of the country are bracing themselves for the iraqi army's assault as it attempts to drive militants out of seized areas the u.s. is supplying hellfire missiles and other weapons to help the iraqi government in the fight the last thing for needs is more missiles we heard the u.s. government say they decimated al qaeda is needed but the groups that continue their cause expand and what they thrive on best is chaos the u.s. backed chaos to iraq and in syria washington support for armed opposition has benefited extremists in washington i'm going to check on our quiz. as you know it is a group now said it should be in control of illusion and ramadi is the islamic state of iraq and the levant also known as isis it's seen as

a formidable fighting force and it's militants among the most radical cells in a syrian isis is self dates back to the early years of the iraq war it was formed in april two thousand and four by sunni insurgents and soon after a pledge allegiance to bin laden two years later it was rebranded as the state of iraq in two thousand and thirteen its military successes against us again strong influence in syria we saw it add to its name and of course and then also developments the group has taken control of loot in other parts of the province in iraq and proclaimed an islamic state earlier we spoke to iraq war veteran adam told us the resurgence was essentially going to need by the u.s. occupation i've had a long way since my time an illusion two thousand and four and been able to step back and you know i've been involved in a lot of various efforts here in the united states to help veterans out with

p.t.s.d. and things like that so i it's it's is it's incredible to see that you know a lot of the rejections that those of us who understood what the war was about at least figured out when we got home coming through now because when you understand the nature of war as a racket you want to stand the true motivations behind the united states and varies an occupation when you want to stand what kind of puppet government was installed in iraq your stand it was really only a matter of time before this happened. in syria western nations are watching in horror as their favorite rebel groups turn on each other just this week almost five hundred opposition fighters have died fighting each other actually this last week in the turf war that appears to demonstrate is that it's more hardline islamist running the show now that fact is causing quite as care among the least prompting them to change stance former cia director michael hayden said that the us saudi regime is beginning to look like the lesser of evils former u.s.

ambassador to syria iraq and afghanistan ryan crocker agreed that assad is not as bad as the jihad is russia's foreign minister of course welcome the change of stance manual of the writer a german journalist who has just returned from syria says the moderate opposition is now extinct. the term syrian opposition is as strong as it could be this these groups are neither syrian nor opposition so they don't have in their interest the good the benefit of the people or of the country to screw ups are very very often influenced by the west by turkey by the goal of states we have to imagine or to see those groups more like militant gangs like a sort of mafia so those groups who claim about themselves that they represent the moderate opposition of the moderate moderate rebels don't have any influence on the

battlefield we know in the meanwhile that the fights on the ground are told by islamic extremists. u.s. have ganesan relations are put under more strain since joining me is over a security deal which washington sees as essential are hit after american troops accidentally kill eight mistaking in four minutes and that's coming up syrian r.t. international. so achieve the host city of the twenty fourteen winter olympics to see one of the biggest security operations in the game's history tens of thousands of police officers have been deployed and access to the area strictly monitored with the aim of preventing any disruption when events begin artie's postcard takes a look. the twenty second olympic winter games in two thousand and fourteen are war there to defeat the such. as soon as russia's black sea resort was awarded the game

seven years ago. as a question the choice of host city such as close proximity to the volatile caucasus region was they argued a cause for concern. and the recent twin terror attacks in volgograd some seven hundred kilometers from sochi have reignited some of those worries organizers say security has been their main priority since day one from the very beginning of the construction phase the state that sort is made those with months to prepare the special measures to stop them from the screen all their own materials checking in all the venue and preparing incredible measures of the security to provide this safe environment here with less than a month to go now until the games begin tight security measures are already in place around forty thousand police and security offices are expected to be on

patrol all sales of dangerous hunting equipment a bond for the duration of the games there's also a controlled stretching sixty kilometers along the coast and twenty five kilometers inland and encompassing all venues so. in terms of security sochi is a special case because this whole area is authorized to visit this only there are security details from a number of countries including the u.k. and u.s. working here. on those security forces will be coming together to protect places like this is the brand new purpose built train station in the olympic village is going to be one of the main transport hubs during the games moving thousands of spectators. we have cameras intercoms that connects you with the engineer and the police present train stations and on the train security is pretty tight. with the bulk of the work now complete with all venues and transport networks built and

tested sochi is now just waiting for the sporting world to descend pull scott's altie such. that it is not a limp it torch relay has seen a collection of first evers this time around it's been taken to the north pole underwater and into space and artie has of course been following it all the way now what about georges even ended up in our studio brought to my colleague losing friends by our teeth. this is my. personal torch it's as you can see very one of the car and souvenir let me let me have a look at it i mean this this is not light by any means heavy this respect but yeah it is what two kilos about four actually really yeah you could make your own train that you thought about that is heavy quite and this is a better record breaking relay for the olympic torch going places it's never been before you were following it which one of the milestones do you think was the last

memorable are important i think for me i've been to several. going to by car was amazing they took the torch under water into my car so you had the burning flare torches specially made them pass very impressive on the water and then flew the top back with with a man with a jet pack on to the on to the shore very good video so that it was it was a sight to be seen parts there was one amazing moment in a real once in a lifetime moment was going with the torch to the north pole you see on t.v. and you read it and then you think wow that must be really must be very interesting never going to go there and then this opportunity came up to go on this nuclear icebreaker he's huge. shit can come true to me to. is fueled by two gigantic reactions so you. which is a strange feeling in itself yeah and standpoint. but we were going to go to the

north pole with the flame and we made a. lesson for hoped it was a world record pace arrived in the middle of the polar nights with deliberate torch in the north pole for the very first time in history. we've got the highlights of the olympic torch is journey across russia on our website check out the follow the flame section also while you're at r.t. dot com you can see my radiation spreads despite the efforts to contain the hazard is leaks readings of head eight times the japanese government safety standards even at the edges of the contaminated zone more than that on line. u.k. schools or take the fingerprints of over eight hundred thousand students a third of those without their parents consent officials say is done for the sake of security of parents and civil liberties groups are questioning the methods that and more stories that r.t. dot com. many europeans blame

politicians for their difficult economic predicament that's according to a new continent why paul the new stats show very low approval ratings for the e.u. leadership in economically devastated spain for example more people than ever before the top politicians have done a poor job through the financial crisis ireland has seen a strong believe in norway by increasing financial hardship there's seventy percent think that used to approve but now that's jumped to under half of that and the euro skeptic u.k. just under a third now think that the leadership is doing a good job. money makes the world go round they say and so now it seems the vultures are g.'s marie for national i went to visit the makers of a new local currency in paris which is out of reach for the wheelers and dealers in the stock market. these colorful rich tangle of notes and not money but they have

a real value you can go shopping with these bills in your wallet pay for dinner at a restaurant the idea of alternative also called complimentary currencies that people of businesses agree to use for transactions within a particular area a district quarter with just a street may look like something from a kid's game but the reasons behind it are far from child's play. per week first practical local currencies stay within the region developing like ticks second idealogical a lot of confidence in official currencies make people want to have something they understand that they can control and that they can trust and not just something that is printed you don't know how with new control and leads to speculation alternative forms of money have a history stretching back decades and appear to be growing in popularity especially

tough financial times on the resume you nothing bang splay a lot with money and often risky games but at the end of the day ordinary people have to pay for mistakes and losses this is why people want to have a currency that they will be sure will serve them and not go disappear somewhere in place called paradise as global finance system so manx today's maced famous headline grabbing alternative currency is the digital bitcoin but there are dozens of others and he's worldwide in france europe's second largest economy people exchange services and goods via at least twenty different types of complimentary currencies and their numbers are growing a lot of the slain is behind one such project the one probably outside paris she says she never considered paying with anything other than euros until the advantages of an alternative became clear. but as with the euro is that it's definitely not just a mode of exchange but it also. became

a mode of speculation to feed banks my local currency and support local projects and develop a real economy on the ground which means it works for us the people. now because restaurant is part of the project and all over the flower shop and ironic supermarket it is on king. here. that are people in the world of finance a woman nothing else but to make people who are all for their own benefit why should we allow them to do that this sticker indicates this restaurant accept cash the red means of fishing a peach in french but also energy and the slogan was over your c.v. is used to express someone is in good health and full of energy which the local currencies hail friends certainly seem to be experts claim complimentary currencies will never replace an official one however if trust is undermined hard enough in conventional money people may start looking for

a different type of change race nationality from france. british m.p.'s discover a growing gap between the country's military and the public people apparently most of them to understand the purpose of the military a what if she won the story coming up here. becomes fertile ground for the pla wide as activists gain ground with it all four of us to be and for the army to be ready to go into action if the need arises as a way to stay with us. i think the fact that these weapons can fly a semi autonomous lead for seven thousand miles to you know the locations where unfortunately my military and the cia are attacking people in countries with which

we are not at war to me is simply horrifying and as many you know already argue it's a violation of international law for its assassination i do not support assassination by my government period. the. pleasure to have you with us here on our t.v. today i'm sure.

this was staying with us here on our team. national for the weekly bad news for washington came out of afghanistan this week a top american negotiators that it was highly unlikely a new security agreement would be reached before the afghan presidential election in april the deal if signed would allow a portion of u.s. troops through remain in the country after the official withdrawal only to the tensions between washington and kabul have been aggravated recently after american soldiers killed a toddler mistaking the child for militant ledwidge in lawyer and former military officer who served in iraq and afghanistan explained why the us once the deal so badly no settlement in my view anyway is likely to have any chance of success by settlement time the sort of political way forward for the american perspective and the support troops because what'll simply happen is that the partially an

insurgency in the south that we call the taliban is likely to take a far greater stake in any political arrangement after the election assuming of course that the elections go well this is an absolutely crucial deal for the americans. playing a very dangerous game here the cards aren't that good because our house has all the good all the good cards a diplomatic spat is going between russia and senegal after the west african nation seized a fishing trawler it in two crew members of the vessel were arrested or made allegations saying to veggies in the area were illegal greenpeace also stepped into the well taking the side of the senegal causing russia to accuse the government of being the group's puppet however later the organization condemned the use of force against the russian ship and denied putting pressure on senegalese authorities. the british public is becoming disconnected from the country's military and have no

idea why it's still needed that's according to a recent the u.k. parliament report british citizens were mostly opposed to the wars in iraq and afghanistan and there is reportedly reduce a public appetite for overseas interventions now some people have questioned the military's like of a real strategic mission in the world and have to budget cuts are putting the army's capabilities to carry out missions address despite being one of the world's top defense spenders britain cutting down our personnel by nearly thirty thousand over the next six years artists as a soldier has more. the army's recruiting but applicant numbers are slow to pick up amid thousands of layoffs there's a massive drive to recruit army reservists but leaked mid year army memos revealed the number of people listing of beyond the reserve over a three month period was just three hundred sixty seven barely

a quarter of the target the ministry of defense said that after wrapping up the recruitment drive in september there were more than fifteen hundred applicants in the first four weeks and that it's too early to make a conclusion but this young man says he simply can't be convinced my grandparents were in the air force actually during the second world war of the time enjoyed was not such a bad idea to be joining the forces because they were fighting a war against fascists and i don't agree with the way they. used it was used as a force. to and this morning that was arrested to commemorate the conscientious objectors to military service those who would exercise their right to refuse to kill you at the time of the first world war for instance they faced a restaurant jeers from some of society who view them as cowards but times have indeed changed. a decade of fighting in iraq and afghanistan

has made the british war weary a most people join forces to be in the peace business not in the war business because such is a threat to their livelihood nobody wants to be in a war because to be in a war activists have also lashed out at recruitment campaign started at sixteen and seventeen year olds who according to one recent study are more susceptible to post-traumatic stress disorder at the moment we're asking a sixteen year old to read an interesting point to drink a pint of beer that we don't trust to fight in a general election we're asking that question to make a very far reaching legal commitment towards a career like having a baby care of foreign accounts or the ministry of defeat. the report completely ignores the benefits and opportunities that a military career offers young people but for this young man it's a career path he is a ready to change his mind about the star trek to the job anyway we're going to have to show people that if you're joining the army no you're not going to be sent abroad to shoot people you've done nothing against. the source of your article.

joe blanton is a former british soldier who refused to serve a second tour in afghanistan on moral grounds he was later jailed and spent five months in a military prison he believes politicians are trying to come to opposition with an aggressive p.r. campaign because i was with had questions been the military was just not for them it's nor it's not the oxford debating society obviously you're just told to crack on and politics have nothing to do with you why defense they mean offensive capability and i mean invasions and the use of drones and special forces which is increasingly the trend clearly people want to be secure. and that's not what people in the public generally have a problem with what they have a problem with is repeated. operations along the lines of iraq afghanistan libya nearly syria they were not sympathetic to those in the corridors of power who stop these walls and this is part of the reason why we've seen increasingly the call of

the law and eyes ation of of the military and you can call it a hero or a zation. to other news now making headlines so human rights activists and lawyers and journalists are huge markets across the u.s. demanding guantanamo bay detention center be shut down the day it was symbolic it was the facilities twelve anniversary protesters demanded president obama deliver on his broken promise to shut down the prison down calling it a dark mark and america's record. tens of thousands of protesters are gathering in thailand's capital bangkok for a citywide shutdown fine for monday the mass protests and shooting down the government of prime minister should i want to stop another homo prime minister of the corruption action medical centers have been set up around bangkok to rally. tens of thousands of protesters are flooded on the streets of gold bolland in support of jailed members of the at a separatist movement

a march in the bust region of spain was originally organized to call for convicted members to be moved to jails closer to this family but it became much border with support from two main political parties those demonstrators marching in favor of peace and human frank the far right in japan is on the front to forge a demanding a tougher stance on immigration and a reinforced on me and as our g.'s allies here russia ski found out to the nationalistic just beating is forcing some difficult questions. it's become a tradition in japan when some foreign officials are subjected to verbal abuse on this particular occasion japanese nationalists made their feelings known loud and clear to russia's foreign minister china and south korea have also been in their crosshairs one for an island dispute the other for sending too many labor migrants to japan where the latest protests korean workers were described as cockroaches

which needed to be exterminated this man is one of those behind the nationalist rallies in japan he says he'd like to see japan a more closer citee one and all they want we've been to open to the world and all foreigners come here and commit crimes i want us to return to pre-war period when we were closed and south sufficient despite criticizing the government for its immigration policies the movement could not be feeling more comfortable since twenty twelve when she and so are there was reelected as prime minister such rallies have been on the rise. those are not only foreign nationals and delegations getting their stick from japanese nationalists there are locals who have directly suffered from their country for becoming on the far right these school teachers have been protesting because they lost their jobs for not complying with what they call ultranationalist regulations in schools. should be made as an obligation to listen to the national anthem before classes until my pupils spawn of who were not

even japanese and it wasn't obligatory to stand up and then i got fired but it's not only about instilling national pride speculation is rife that with all this stronger japan hype is eager to amend the nine hundred forty seven constitution namely article number nine which braves japan from having any kind of army other than for defense purposes in the increasingly intertwined world we can't ensure the peace of our nation without broad actively taking a role in the peace and security of the world why don't we take so. forward on the issue of constitutional amendment but not everyone is buying it and more far reaching goal could be reshaping the regional balance of power. there has been a talk among high profile politicians including former prime ministers who want to get public debate whether japan should have nuclear weapons it never materialized but it's something the ruling elite has been pondering for years now. and non-pacifist japan let alone

a nuclear power would send shock waves across the region say experts but for now even with nationalist voices getting louder polls suggest that such ideas are still some way from becoming reality next year russia reporting from japan. this week author talks christians around the world celebrated christmas. one. and last call around a quarter of a million believers took part in then i have a night services in the capital three hundred twenty six churches the biggest one was held at the main crisis a vicar pedro it was a double celebration for worshippers as at the same time also hosted a relic known as the gifts of the magi said to be the gifts given to jesus by the three winds. are putting the adventure back into the money as artie's business venture capital is up next.