militants are controlling major cities in iraq a show of strength not since seen since their battles with u.s. forces a decade ago we look at who these insurgents are and how they became so strong. while in syria al qaeda linked rebels and other opposition groups are engulfed in bloody infighting the forthcoming peace talks are under threat from the growing divisions among those aimed to topple assad. approval ratings for either leaders dip into an all time low as bailouts and austerity trigger a clearance sale of countries assets to patch up a budget hole reports on how many people are upset with the move by at a borg it may not be as much of

a jackpot as one might think. europeans gather in the streets to protest against the controversial initiative declaring that they are not ready to sell history and culture to keep economies afloat. and playing it safe concerns are growing about how athletes and visitors will be protected at russia's upcoming winter olympics he is in sochi to see what is being done to secure the olympic host city. and live from moscow recapping our week's top stories this is our team with our weekly program. now al qaeda affiliated militants have been occupying key areas in iraq's anbar province for over two weeks now tanks have been deployed in the provincial capital of ramadi and the army hasn't been able to drive insurgents out of nearby floozy either militants haven't had such open control in major iraqi

cities since the u.s. led invasion in two thousand and three. and looks at why they are gaining strength . young good luck to little with little not integrity they run on chaos emboldened by the fighting in syria these al qaeda linked militants overran parts of iraq including the city of the literature. we have said earlier about the serious situation will actually go into iraq and this is what we were warning about chaos in neighboring syria deep as the u.s. and its allies threatened the syrian government sending the signal to the rebels to fight on to the detriment of the 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 be honest you the 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 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 walk has been a breeding ground for extremists since the u.s. invasion now residents of fallujah and 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 needs as more missiles we heard the u.s. government say they decimated al qaeda is needed but the groups that continue their cause. 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. the jihadists entrenched in iraq's western province are from a group called of the islamic state of iraq and the levant the us military publication says the organization expanded its influence significantly last year and now boasts over five thousand members now it was formed back in two thousand and four a year after the u.s. led invasion of iraq began these sunni extremists were initially known as al qaeda in iraq after pledging allegiance to the infamous organization the group's leader said this summer that its goals are to tear down the border between iraq and syria and to destroy both governments many of its members are fighting against president assad in syria and of the group says they carried out a suicide blast in lebanon a couple weeks ago anders care guard is

a former danish intelligence officer who served in iraq he believes that al qaeda is as strong as ever and that iraqi security forces are overmatched in my opinion. has never been on the run it might have been downscaling due to pressure but once this precious lifted the organization is back in full force and it uses these. pulses to regain its bring the fighting ability of these the isis for instance is very strong but very contained to the localized battles and one thing. isis and the rebels has is is them and that they want to continue fighting and the iraqi army really hasn't got a chance to fight these militias. and to all to eradicate them. meanwhile in neighboring syria the strengthening of al qaeda linked groups has led to growing infighting between once allied rebels fears clashes between rival

opposition factions have killed at least seven hundred people this week according to the syrian observatory for human rights almost one hundred of them are believed to be civilians who were executed by militants from the islamic state of iraq and levant and the outbreak of a war within a war has prompted to some western politicians and others who previously it rooted solely for assad's removal to change their stance here are just some of the latest statements now former cia director michael hayden said that the assad regime is beginning to look like the lesser of all evils the former u.s. ambassador to syria iraq and afghanistan ryan crocker agreed that assad is not as bad as the jihadi russia has long been warning of the threat of some opposition groups in syria pose foreign minister lavrov has welcomed of the realization of this in the west infighting within the ranks of the syrian rebels is threatening the russia u.s. brokered peace conference that is it due in less than two weeks time the world's

top diplomats are in paris right now to pressure syria's main opposition group the syrian national council into taking part meanwhile u.s. secretary of state john kerry has already expressed his confidence that the council will participate in the peace talks but journalist john white believes that the c n c excuse me the s.n.c. lost its status on the ground a long time ago. it seems clear there since he spread a little credibility on the ground it can deliver nothing on the ground over the rebel factions or what associate people. see or most of them and we have the straight people to other groups so or the us administration is increasingly desperate to try and couple together some kind of syrian opposition and they can do business with this city in a position of the city national council no really only exists sate of syria and it only exists. us patronage so this is increasingly

it seems like a feel process that is about to hit the ball. the past five years it could hardly be called the good times for leadership it is seen public support and confidence in lawmakers diminishing and eventually hitting a record low this data comes from a new regional poll the study suggests that the tumbling approval rating is linked directly to the budget cuts and economic woes take spain for instance where public support is drastically low or ireland which has just successfully exited its bailout program despite that the aftermath of the e.u.'s austerity demands is still driving the numbers down the skeptic u.k. used to top of the critics list with only around a third actually backing out brussels is even lower than that of dropping below thirty percent. the approval rating declined has not changed the belt tightening policies of struggling countries governments are putting some of their most

valuable assets up for sale just to stay afloat as artie's are silly tests are silly a reports. it's been dubbed the great european fire sale in a bid for cash these are just some of what's been up for grabs but even funds raised from headline grabbing deals might not be enough like six greek island sold for eight point five million euros an italian island sold for two point nine million exclusive rights to use the coliseums image on their products for fifteen years twenty five million euros government debt in the euro zone is greater now than it was a year ago and some of the sales have led to public anger and frustration bestselling history and culture best selling beauty a priceless and they've attached a price tag to it i think that's absolutely reprehensible there's absolutely no guarantee that that privatization will help consumers ritual and one of the most surprising items recently put off the market was. for a little over

a million euros you get a maltese passport and therefore becoming the e.u. says it a move this big put on hold this two thirds of the public at opposition leaders cry foul the very. same legal gone through us which. meant a huge international damage which was uncalled for because more go to date has one of the lowest rates of unemployment in the whole european union it's a question of principle over citizenship should not be full of on sale proponents of privatization see it as a necessity for nations that are in dire straits but also warned that by europe at a bargain may not be as much of a jackpot as one might say if i were investor i wouldn't be buying many of these things all of these countries have serious political risks for any kind of foreign investor anybody trying to. buy a house and italy has to reckon with the possibility that ten twenty years down the

line a government is just going to nationalize whatever they whatever they want to nationalize but for what it's worth this sale continues tesser silvio r.t. . iran and of the six world powers have announced the date when they will officially begin implementing the nuclear deal reached in november on january twenty eighth tehran is set to start scaling back its atomic program the process is set to be completed in a half a year period that the agreement covers in response four point two billion dollars of you running assets will be unfrozen in several stages despite this agreement of the push for fresh sanctions is gaining new supporters in the u.s. congress president barack obama has already stated that he will veto any such bill should one be passed some experts think that western powers have many reasons to be looking forward to ron's reintegration into the world economy. the fact of the matter is the reason there's this to touch with iran there's two are good two factions are good the the militant pro-war israeli factional one side that could

never have peace with iran no matter what and then you have the fact that the world the west and the world needs iran they need the liquidity from petrochemical exports they need trade there's a stack of global stagnation economically right now and opening up iran into the world trading theater is going to do a lot to increase trade and obviously move money around the world and goods and services back and forth at a time when it's much needed so there's two two camps here battling it out one to keep iran closed and other council would like to see iran open for trade. there is a natural resource more precious than oil and it is so scarce in certain areas of the middle east that it could spark major conflicts later in the program we look into how a lack of water could become a tipping point and a number of already volatile regions plus.

japan is becoming a fertile ground for the far right with nationalists calling for the country to regain self-respect and to reassert its presence these stories and much much more after a short break here on r.t. . millions around the globe struggle with hunger each day. what if someone offers a lifetime food supply no charge. they can they're very strong again and we think that. the.

priest. out there is no. evidence any problem with genetic engineering. is free cheese. stress. free. enterprise is profit. for these golden rice. welcome back you're watching our team now tens of thousands of police officers are carefully monitoring access to olympic venues and transport hubs that is what security is like in sochi right now as it prepares to host russia's first ever winter games in three and a half weeks. toured the resort city to see what else is being done to protect

athletes and spectators. but twenty second olympic winter games in two thousand and fourteen i wore the to defeat the. i as soon as russia's black sea resort was awarded the game seven years ago i. question the choice of taste city such as close proximity to the volatile cooper says region because they are huge cools for concern. and the recent twin terror attacks in volgograd some seven hundred kilometers from sochi every ignited some of those lorries organizers say security has been their main priority since day one from the very beginning of the construction phase the state that. made those with months to prepare the special measures to stop them from the screen and all their old materials check in all the venue and prepare 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 the sales of dangerous hunting equipment and for the duration of the games there's also a controlled and stretching sixty kilometers along the coast and twenty five kilometers inland and encompassing all venues. in terms of security so it 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 but no 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 with the bulk of the work now complete with all venues and transport

networks built and tested sochi. now just waiting for the sporting world to descend pull scott's altie. or the sochi olympic torch relay continues in the central russian town of michel therrien ski on monday previous stops included the north pole the bottom of one of the world's largest lakes and even open space james brown showed my colleague lindsay friends what the olympic torch looks like he also recap the best moments of the flames journey to sort. this is my. personal torch it's as you can see very one of the car and see that there 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 oh yes you could train that you hold it up 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 down under water into my car so you have the burning flare torches specially made and passed very impressive on the water and then flew the torch bike with a man with a jet pack on to the. very good video but it was it was a sight to be seen. there was one amazing moment and a real once in a lifetime moment was going with the tools 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 and then this opportunity came up to go on this nuclear icebreaker he's huge. and that was cut through to me to think. it's fueled by two gigantic reaction. which is

a strange feeling in itself when you go and stand by. we we're going to go to the north pole with the flame and we maybe it's the. lesson for hope that it was a world record pace that arrived in the middle of the polar nights with the liberty to watch in the north pole for the very first time in history. now the u.k. is battling a new wave of floods the extreme weather has turned to some areas into islands flood alerts are in place across the nation on the in motion section of our website we've got footage and all of the details for you. plus metros around the world saw scores of people in their underwear taking part in no pants subway ride day the annual event began twelve years ago in new york and is spread globally you can head to our to dot com for the full story and of course photos.

to people have been killed and twenty injured after a suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying a police recruits in afghanistan's capital kabul the taliban have admitted it to carrying out the assault the militant group gaining strength remains a major concern especially ahead of the upcoming withdrawal of nato troops scheduled to be completed by the end of the year american officials underlined that it's crucial for security in the country that some of its forces remain in afghanistan beyond that date the president karzai is refusing to sign the deal that would make that possible for the latest reports from top u.s. negotiators say it's unlikely the pact will be sealed before afghanistan's april presidential elections former british lieutenant colonel richard williams says it's crucial that the country starts dealing with internal problems on its own. i believe what we tried to achieve is to set the conditions whereby an

afghan government can deal in a normal violent way with all of the groupings involved including. if there is conditions are set and it should be here and what we're likely to see. a compromise between what kabul wants and what the taliban wants which will see a afghanistan model along over the next period of time perhaps the next ten years but there can be any great strategic victory if we want to call it that or any great strategic outcome or oil and gas conflicts will be superceded by water wars in the future that is the warning from experts as the world's population grows access to clean water resources is rising in price let's take a look at this map and you can see these blue dots mark the places where conflicts over water speeds have broken out since the one nine hundred fifty s. these include small protests as well as more serious a large scale clashes there have been one hundred seventy eight disputes and the

number of hotspots is rising in particular the struggle for water in the middle east is a key issue in some ongoing conflicts artie's peter. reports. the bible tells us that within a short distance from here jesus turned water into wine two thousand years later the great american might be turning the wine back into water but has been living in the golan heights for over thirty years each day he attends to his many arden orchards keeping his wine in a center that was once a syrian bunker he is proud of the wine he produces but knows that in the absence of water none of this would be possible but only may eventually waters and morgan regions gets the second main resource that it would have other than the lamb who. needs water and without it you will destroy all the crops and destroy all the farming here it can turn the golan heights into a desert and it's not just about the golan heights rainwater from its catchment

feeds into the river jordan providing a food of israel's water supply the disputed region with cease from syria after the six day war and residents of the golan remember that water was a key issue in the conflict and one of the stands here understands the importance of the work that all the water supply of israel because every door was very mean. it's prone to the security of getting the food we can say that it is there must. respect the resolve to have all over what the fall says it's a worldwide rule that whoever controls the water controls the land but the problem is in some places this very issue of water to go around feeling you have the common water officials by several foreign nations there's always the possibility of pressure ridges conflicts that should be manageable or spread out of control and examples of possible conflicts are plentiful syria's major water sources travel

through turkey and iraq making it vulnerable while jordan is reliant on a river with syria bowl today egypt. recently expressed concern of a countries using the up to now to generate electric power in the dry landscape of the middle east is a prize more precious than diamonds in its absence famine and drought are quick to follow but this is a region that very seldom needs an excuse for war and water shortages might just tip the balance. in the golan heights in senegal port authorities in jakarta have promised to provide food water and medical treatment to the crew of a russian fishing vessel they were caught up in a weeklong diplomatic spat over the seizure of the trawler in the ship with eighty two crewmembers on board was taken by force after being accused of trolling in the country's coastal waters but with no official explanation from the car moscow has called it an act of piracy greenpeace stepped in and decided with senegal provoking

russia to accusing the african countries government of acting on a tip off from the environmental group for now russian diplomats are undertaking steps to assist in the vessel with obtaining its earliest liberation and departure but a senegalese official has demanded russia pay a fine for the release of the ship. so take a look at some other stories making headlines around the world police in egypt have fired tear downs had supporters of the ousted president mohamed morsy are in clashes at cairo's main universities one thousand protesters have been detained and several injured from the fresh outbreak of violence comes just two days before a planned vote on a draft constitution. at least twenty one people have been killed and dozens injured in explosions and military clashes across iraq capital baghdad was hit with two car bombs the blast targeted morning commuters at

a popular bus station at least nine violence has been on the rise in iraq in recent months reaching levels not seen since two thousand and eight. a bushfire. is raging in western australia threatening both lives and properties at least twenty seven homes have been destroyed so far an emergency warning has been issued over several towns officials say firefighters will be unable to reach some remote areas and they are people to do whatever they can to protect their homes. and nationalist voices are getting louder in japan far right groups are calling for a stronger country with a tougher immigration policy and beefed up army artie's alexy found out that the angry rhetoric is raising 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 you know the latest protest korean workers were described as cockroaches which needed to be exterminated this man is one of those behind the nationalist wellies in japan he says he'd like to see japan more close a site more and more there was an openness and we've been to open to the world and now foreigners come here and commit crimes i want us to return to pre-war period where we were closed and self-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 that such rallies have been on the rise. those are not the only foreign nationals and delegations getting their stick from japanese nationalists there are locals who have directly suffered from their country 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 part 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 right 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 ensure the peace of our nation without proactively taking a role in the peace and security of the world why don't we take steps forward on the issue of constitution amendment but not everyone is buying it and more far reaching goal could be reshaping the regional balance of power. there's been talk among high profile politicians including former prime ministers on launching

a public debate on whether japan should have nuclear weapons it never materialized but it's something that the ruling elite has been pondering for years now and non-pacifist japan let alone 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 a reality exhibitionist yahtzee reporting from japan. coming up after the break artie's it business show venture capital with host kitty pilgrim stay with us.