the. officials raise the alarm over corruption on the world sucking one hundred twenty billion euros a year from the european economy roughly the size of the total budget and what's worse the poor it warns this may be just the tip of the iceberg. as the u.s. reportedly plans to back up its syrian diplomacy with more weapons for the rebels an r t crew travels to a damascus school where the children refuse to be victims of conflict. and with the winter olympics just days away on the gay propaganda boycott the battle still in the minds of many we talk to the city's l g b t community to find out if the law as really affected sierra life in sochi.

what unity or national coming to light from moscow i'm really joshing welcome to the program e.u. officials have uncovered a corruption pandemic sweeping member states was one hundred twenty billion years lost to shady deals each year that figure was published in a report by the e.u.'s home affairs commissioner who warned out the scale of the problem is probably even broader and getting worse are just peed all over highlighted for us the most boring details. over half of those who were surveyed have said they think the corruption within the union was growing seventy six percent of those who were asked thought the corruption was widespread within the european union twenty six percent said that they'd been directly affected by corruption government effectiveness at tackling corruption though only twenty three

percent thought that they were capable of doing that and seventy three percent a huge number three quarters almost saying that they thought that the best way to get public services was through bribery just into who's put forward this report the e.u. commission or an unelected body they have made the headlines themselves a few times when it comes to some of the more leftfield laws that have been imposed upon e.u. citizens now their report didn't look into e.u. institutions and that's certainly raised a few eyebrows people wondering just how much more than one hundred twenty billion a year in backhanders of being going on if the e.u. and looked into themselves u.s. secretary of state john kerry has reportedly admitted washington suffer in a diplomatic defeat in syria according to two senators who met with him privately america's new strategy could include sending more military hardware to the rebels as al-qaeda is accumulating power in the region and maria financial reports that

just inside the country something more guns won't help. lesson of arab league in a syrian elementary school these boys and girls may look like ordinary kids but they've already faced a lifetime of adult experiences they must have the cover at which it was bad but let's call them day and cross the road i saw sarah and then a missile fell somewhere nearby me and my cousins ran for cover the next day when i went to school on teacher told us that sarah died god bless her was that. sarah sister was also killed that day is now afraid to go to school a choice pons was a bravery that many grown ups would be proud of but. i hear from my parents teachers and friends that there is a lot of people dying but i will not surrender i will continue to started to rebuild my country. amid the violence of

a projected war the kids grow up very fast so i feel afraid because of various and i feel sad because it's not ok to see kids killed like this it's not good the searing kids die when various. d.-r. is eleven years old the syrian conflict has claimed for his relatives he was eight when it started and his had no real childhood seems so long i ask myself these girls why did they die so they have nothing to do with this conflict so why did they. this story's not unique in almost every syrian school direct casualties like these. last november the entrance of the school in damascus old town was hit by three mortars four children and a bus driver died at the scene i haven't been able to accept these deaths until now they were my kids i can clearly see their smiles and hear their voices i still see them in my dreams nothing can justify this no religion no moment of thinking makes

it acceptable. but life the principle of the school tells us must go on the holy are increasing the pain is immense both the children and the administration have been deeply affected but it's also encouraged us to continue or to train and are learning the mission of education is to bring up new engineers and new doctors new teachers to build up this country we have to resist this violence and this will be anything but an easy mission after a short break kids at this school in damascus are back to their classes but thousands of other syrian children all across the country still can't make it as their schools are destroyed and families displaced there were around twenty thousand schools in syria before the crisis today at least if easy for them a gun and even if the reasons school nearby parents are simply too afraid to let their kids out of this site once a thriving nation with

a strong education system syria today faces not just a crisis of the present but of the future to regional schnaase teams from syria a lot of important spending time in the capital of the winter olympics before the games get on their way as welcome members of the international olympic committee in sochi and as the world's top winter athletes arrive the hat of the i.o.c. is confident that the whole city is more than ready for the games are just false god is there for us. well organizers have been saying for some time now that sort she is ready to welcome the sporting world and of course all gets underway on friday evening at eight forty nine pm local time the contents of that two and a half hour spectacle are a closely guarded secret over the last twenty four hours or so actually spectators and journalists have continued to arrive in and around sochi the reports are emerging the number of hotels a colony in complete hotels they're going to house spectators and journalists but the president of the international olympic committee thomas bach who is here in

sochi says he's confident that everything will be completed in time on the games will run smoothly at the olympic stage is ready for the base. of the world. we can see this in the sports facilities. there we can see in the olympic village which are all of. very high quality about eighty percent of the fleets can literally walk from their beds in the real each to their competition bring you. something i have never seen before or any olympic games. also went on to address the issue of security saying that he is assured the games will be secure all that is a direct quote of course the recent twin suicide attacks in volgograd less than a thousand kilometers from here have heightened tensions but part went on to draw

parallels with the two thousand and two winter olympics which were held in salt lake city just a few months after september eleventh and the other issue that of course has overshadowed really the buildup to these games is russia's adoption of the law banning the propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors now many critics feel that this is infringing gay rights on my colleague martin andres has been out and about in sochi and he's been finding out how if at all the new law is affecting the lives of gay people here in the city. thousands of athletes visit is expected to arrive this week and three billion people are also estimated to watch the winter olympics this month for some however the games aren't about spiritual progress they're about gay rights on the controversy surrounding last year's legislation that restricts children being given information about nontraditional relationships a similar law to the u.k. section twenty eight that was imposed for two decades in the late eighty's we had

to the city's only beach front gate venue my act like house in english for a club that's been in the city for more than thirty years it seems that and it's beating subculture is far more liberal. some people think traditionally one of the more tolerant russian cities when during the soviet era russians from all over the country could holiday here. club owner and his partner a man have been a couple for over thirteen and said although they don't agree with the law they remain mostly unaffected by it and while business is booming they describe the west's response as heavy handed and an overreaction. pop of color i think it really bad it negatively affects gay russian people because society blames them for spoiling the olympics for an important opinions are still divided on sexuality in russia and this club does give something of an insight into the reality of gay life here the one i'm in the club and i'm meeting people. meeting like any other gay bar

that i've ever been to. backstage the performers are getting ready for tonight's performance in preparation for the club's new foreign audience english songs have been added to the show. the performance here can't believe the media attention which is gay scene has generated in the west activists abroad have spoken loudly in great numbers but the reality is that the issue is more complicated than it seems while so many algae to communities they are brought in last year that bring in a new way the baby and violence and the situation has to be changed and they gave up you know rush to get the ballot and even somewhat. well people do not roam the streets handed hand in sochi behind closed doors at such clubs people can be openly affectionate and one thing is for sure whether you have conservative or liberal

views this month is going to be a celebration of sport to remember. r.t. sochi. meanwhile. along o. with members of the international olympic committee has visited sochi is national park were endangered species are braced the president enter the enclosure of a persian leopard olds only other members of the delegation prefer to stay outside the animal shelter. and i t. is ad the heart of the winter olympics and we'll be broadcasting daily from sochi throughout the games and online at twenty four teen daughter dot com.

now it seems the german government is now getting away with it sloppy snooping controls coming out to say leaks force a country's main hacker group to file a criminal complaint against the government over its part in the spy scandal. plus and the war on drugs it seems that it's the u.s. the warty is who are on the back food with more people who and countries turn into hubs for illicit trade now israel is one of them. at any org there's a high security cemetery with a shadow we cast still have to meet a woman who was even denied the right to visit the grave of her child their.

new york london. the whole world is on the hook for. the future of the original one a further one than the any there are further to hang up the courts that believe at the end of the street another one the more transparent society gets the money or the public hears become we see military and state unfairly forces mobilized against people who blend into the city who inhabit the city the more people trust electronic devices the more new front slows the. the fear that has a thousand. welcome

back you're watching are to live from moscow back to our top story now and the one hundred twenty billion euro corruption and burden that's been detailed in a european commission report well to discuss the findings i'm now joined by phil quietus member of the european parliament for the flemish nationalist bombs belong party thank you so much for joining us here on our international to talk about this report and the situation in the e.u. regarding corruption so you are a politician so without naming names have you witnessed corruption. of the person on the witness corruption a member of polity that's always been very critical about the way that the

situations work and even as the national level of this is the same the so we have never been approached by any people to do any corrupt business and we are all over and we have always been the critical towards the lack of transparency the lack of you know accountability and that's often found in me in the public business so no i personally have never wished that witnessed it myself well you know what's interesting here is that because of the findings detail of the massive scale of corruptions we're out of the european union and you know i'd like to ask you what is driving the strand and what's behind all this which is a. well you of course the situation is different than in the different member states of the european union and some member states there is a widespread problem a huge problem whereas in other countries especially the nordic countries this is

less of a problem but there is a lot of money going on a lot of e.u. money for instance that is being distributed to regional funds structural funds etc and it's very difficult to keep track of this money. and there is a lack of like i said a lack of accountability and lack of transparency. easy sometimes national level or even regional level to do things with this money is not meant to be done i have to remind you that the court overall this was of the european union has. hit that in two thousand and twelve four point eight percent of the total e.u. budget has been misdirected has been misused that is certainly hans christian and then of billion euro so yeah it's certainly unprecedented as i just said but you

know going back to this report i mean what is it is a just a p.r. move or is it really a genuine desire by brussels to actually bring out the guilty parties to con ability. yes well i think it should be an objective to do so because the problems in some member states are huge and widespread and the problem within the european union is that all the member states are in danger of being contaminated the by this problem because when you are in the euro zone for instance and when one of these member states in the eurozone has a big corruption problem well this problem will be felt by the other member states within the eurozone that's a problem with greece for instance so the problems in one country are becoming more and more the problems of the other member states with i find the surprising and with i found interesting at the same time is that the european commission has made

this report on corruption in the european union but it didn't make a survey of corruption within its own institutions and didn't have any specific information about corruption with the e.u. funded project but why and i mean why is it having a gun and have they got something to hide then why do you think that happened what's reason well. well that obviously they have things to hide the wood good the lack of accountability is a long running problem in the european union as a european parliament don't have enough overview over what's going on what's going on in the member states for instance also with e.u. funds that are meant to be used in specific ways but on not meant to advance ways so what we need is more control by the e.u. but also control within the e.u.

and then i have to say that olaf for instance which is the e.u. ante for all of this is not independent as an organization because it has to report to the european commission all right that is true problem yes indeed think it's a much for sharing your views with us here on international running out of time so we have to leave it there that was field glass and would be from the flemish nationalist bombs belong. all a breach of citizens' privacy in germany is apparently too much even for the country's leading hacker organization the camera's computer club is suing chancellor merkel and the government for failing to prevent the u.s. and britain from spying and germans are just spoke to one of the activists behind a move. we have strong indications that the german government. and or her together with the american spies on all of our editors are live at the moment even if the

whole media blitz covering but they stay very very passive and they if for us it looked like they were just waiting until the storm is over and that's why we want to force the federal prison prosecutor to start real investigation on what is going on and want beyond wrong and how the government not only the american all the others are insured invading our digital lives it's still not proven that any of these matters really help finding terrorists and all the other excuses they find and that's just a new way of power and which is fundamentally destroying every everybody's privacy and probably will also be of big danger for the democracy now trillions spent sounds dad but the global war on drugs is turning into an even steeper uphill battle the u.n. says almost three hundred million people around the world are in dictates to illegal substances and zakk the global trafficking that work is growing artie's

policy reports now on how israel has unexpectedly become a major hub for the drug trade. like most major cities there is a dark side to the television night scene armed with a hidden camera we visit one of the popular downtown nightclubs everything's on often short of doing drugs in the middle of the room i was using drugs in a twenty five years but you know. stuff and there are sixteen years ago. i fell to the heroin and this was a terrible one he is a former user he spent many nights in prison and paid the ultimate price we were living on the street do you know if we want to do it you know you just you know you want to use this you're getting the worst for an hour. to get it again so it's a circle the soup can come out from a lot of people coming over from the circle my wife she died from the drugs. she

couldn't stop with four borders drug smugglers are entering the country from all sides although in this instance security forces managed to make an arrest they cannot stop them all israel has a starve role in the most recent wooldridge drug report issued by the united nations office on drugs and crime alongside brazil it's listed as a country that is a major manufacturing importer expulsion and user of narcotic drugs i can confirm that more than fifty percent of all the drugs that enter israel a seized but this is obviously long term counter police operations that will take place and continue working with the into porn is twenty five representatives that are here in israel and therefore information is transferred on a day to day basis but maybe that is not enough based on figures that the israeli police know about and based on the suspects that we've arrested there has been an

increase in attempts that's correct all sides agree this is a dangerous situation and that israel has to do more so people like wanny will have . once again i think gets through this. even the government even the govt. people understand that it's it's a disease the situation in israel is not substantially different from that in europe or in the united states. simply a riot in the country fashionably late point of c.r.t. television. and to more international news in brief now in yemen shia muslim radicals and sunni tribesmen have agreed on a ceasefire in the north of the country and while in the capital sanaa at least two soldiers have been killed in about a dozen wounded in a bomb attack on a military bus on monday thousands of shia protesters marched through sanaa accusing the sunni led government of mass corruption and abuse of power. peace talks between the pakistani government and the taliban have been dealt

a setback the sides were due to meet on tuesday for preliminary negotiations by the government now says they can't go ahead until the islamic militant group clarifies certain issues the taliban has been waging an insurgency in the country's tribal zones since two thousand and seven and the army recently stepped up its raids on militant strongholds last month more than one hundred ten people were killed in clashes there manny of them soldiers. get a national peacekeepers in the central african republic have been engaged and firefights while trying to stop looting in muslim neighborhoods and the capital the communities were earlier attacked by rival christian militias forcing muslim residents to flee their homes apparently over six thousand troops from france and the african union are in the country trying to quell months of sectarian tension that has killed more than two thousand people. to the astronomical ambitions of the high tech world now. on our website find out about

a crowdfunding device that lets you know when the international space station is right above you and. city mayors and pot friendly now once vie for even more liberal rules on the rewind of seeking the legalization of homegrown we all the details on our team. will stay with their teen or national as we explore a life through a sound and lances with a big city they'd rather. the first recreational marijuana shops are now open in colorado finally the question of what effect legal marijuana will have on the american public can be answered with

real world experience you know there are a lot of people out there with strong arguments as to why we should legalize this controversial play it firstly there are plenty of things just as bad for us as marijuana or worse like beer cigarettes antidepressants and mystery fast food meats which are totally legal secondly young men are often thrown in jail for the absolutely victimless crime of smoking marijuana i could see punishing someone for drugs like crystal meth which can and do turn people into maniacs but have any of you out there ever heard of someone breaking into people's houses on a weed rampage no no you haven't the downside to all this is that across america and while the world people are looking for change and they want the massive storm rise but when the masses are stoned out of their minds it makes things in life that we shouldn't tolerate become very tolerable we now call allow us to make it through another day of our miserable lives so that we can live without going through all that effort of trying to make things better or challenging the system legalizing weed will just pacify the masses even more. but that's just my opinion.

the united states has significant technological over the rest awhile that it is now using that spy on the rest of the wall then there was the deal between the u.s. and england where u.s. spy agencies couldn't spy on people in the u.s. but british a spy agencies could spy on people in the u.s. so the government said alright each of us will spy on the other's citizens and then we'll trade and that way it will be surveilling our own people so this is what i think of as the scandal. sissy's of the culmination of globalization. nowhere else in the world

a conflict so strongly concentrated as. cities are of the ebus and the savior bustling with possibilities yet vulnerable. those wanting to home a society ambushed the city and its daily life in. cities a defenseless against this form of terrorism. their inhabitants vulnerable. to cities respond to this threat. does fear change our open lifestyle.

cities are exciting it's incredible cities all of human life. sediment patients of all of human history they all landscapes of power. london once the heart of the british empire. along with new york and home cologne still in the center of the global financial industry. symbol and driving force behind the international monetary flow. twelve million inhabitants over three hundred languages countless ethnicities and colleges london is a prototype of a global networked mega city and a laboratory for security measures a lot of the changes in cities since the nine eleven terror attacks in new york washington were already on the way before those attacks so it's important to sort

of stress that the nine eleven attacks have led to certain changes intensifying that we're already on the way most importantly i would say there's a increasing preoccupation with security as defined by the state as defined by big companies and as defined by those in government. professor and also the stephen graham teaches and researches on security and surveillance and the militarization of space cities are getting more and the focus of conflict this is not entirely new currently however this new context is it's leading to another scut sense of renewed emphasis on the city a society of violence of conflict. throughout history rules have.