coming up on r t was so a convent power grid under attack a former federal regulator claims sniper shot up a power substation while the f.b.i. denies that it was an act of terror will have more details on that attack ahead and just one day until the start of the sochi olympics athletes representing nations from around the world are warming up before the events of the begin a report from the resort city coming up. and the birth rate in the u.s. continues to drop are americans in a romantic recession we'll answer that later in the show. it's thursday february sixth eight pm in washington d.c. and i live near a david and you're watching r t america. a former federal regulators calling an

april sniper attack on silicon valley's phone lines and power grid a terrorist act according to a wall street journal report it is all thought to be caused not by some glitch in the system but rather by an entire group of snipers who shot up a silicon valley substation for nineteen minutes last year the snipers knocked out seventeen transformers before fleeing the scene the incident took place the day after the boston marathon bombing which kept it out of the media spotlight and now one former federal regulator is going public about the sabotage john while inhofe was the chairman of the federal energy regulatory commission at the time so this is the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred falling off also caution that if this were replicated across the country it could take down the u.s. electric grid and blackout much of the country utility executives and federal

energy officials have long worried that the electric grid is vulnerable to sabotage the grid is most notably vulnerable to trees hitting transmission lines in fact one tree in two thousand and three knocked out power to fifty million people in the eastern u.s. and canada for days in the april incident a blackout was avoided due to utility workers who were able to reroute power around the site but the substation was knocked out for about a month the f.b.i. says it doesn't believe a terrorist organization cause the attack but it still remains a mystery who the perpetrators are and how they pulled it off. and we are just one day away from the opening ceremonies for sochi winter olympics fans an athlete's are arriving in the resort city and so is the olympic flame artie's mark andrews has the story well after one hundred and twenty two days the torch is finally here in the sochi area to arrive yesterday on a yacht on the black sea which you can see behind me it's more of the one hundred

twenty three days will be complete at all make its way to the opening ceremony tomorrow night at the time will be fourteen minutes past eight of course to present twenty if you go back to two years ago we had the likes of david beckham james bond and queen elizabeth the second he made appearances so everybody is really talking about who will be carrying the torch tomorrow earlier on today we had we had. the i.o.c. president he was also carrying the flame i also a surprise visitor from the likes of ban ki moon the general secretary of state for the united nations as well as famous russian actors and musicians and we caught up with the french figure skater brains you bet and this is what he had to say about the rising excitement here in the area so i feel good and everybody from the french team pretty good so everything is small you know the village and everything it's close. close to. we can go by wall

there is not that big security so we feel we feel free and we feel confident and also the world famous tennis star maria sharapova added her comments on the excitement surrounding the twenty fourteen winter olympics sim in the black sea the same day as you can drive an hour to the mountains and stinson the best slopes in the world and you know no one really believes me and i am i know that everyone will be able to experience something. of course it's quite interesting to the fact that the games actually started today why is that well that's because there are twelve. you have been spotted since the bank to the games in twenty and of course everybody is talking about what will be carrying the torch and who will win those magnificent medals. to the various journalists yes they know it was r.t. correspondent martin andrews from sochi and the sochi olympics is also in the spotlight on tonight's politicking with larry king russian ambassador surrogate

kislyak and congressman dana rohrabacher both address the issue of safety at the winter games here's a look at what's to come the obvious first question with the opening ceremonies coming friday night how safe is so she it's safe it's saved because we have taken hold in this measures in order to deny. terrorists would be terrorists any chance of success and we are going to succeed in that so it's going to be a wonderful. day for sportsman for a younger generation. hope it's going to be remembered by them and by many other people including your viewers as something very spectacular positive joyful there has to be those some concerns with all of the threats with the kurds as previously in the as a month or so in moscow how much security is in place. while

the result lot of his security that were put in place and. certainly terrorism as a global phenomenon. so when you talk about think about terrorism target it's equally applied to russia as it applies to your country and i will just to point to the recent super bowl that was so well protected that i understood your law enforcement also they that kind of threats all challenges the very seriously so russia is a responsible country and we certainly have a lot of assets to deploy which we have already done and we are pretty comfortable that everything will be fine there is a great deal of cooperation going on right now i know mike rogers would prefer the be more cooperation a higher level but during my recent visit i talked to various people involved and

i've been briefed here as well and there is a significant level of cooperation much higher level than we've had before in trying to prevent this sort of radical islamic terrorism from taking the lives of innocent people no matter who were country they come from who would like to add to the olympics. so tune in for that young more tonight at nine pm right here on r t america with the twenty fourteen winter olympics about to begin you would think the u.s. media would be reporting on athletes and sporting events russian hockey player alex ovechkin who plays for the washington capitals called out the media today he told the washington post quote i've been in three olympic games i remember tyrann and vancouver and nobody said something bad about vancouver enteron why you guys always try to find something bad in sochi so it's resident takes a look at some of the more bizarre stories u.s. media is actually reporting about going into the olympics check it out.

it's one point you know lympics are about to kick off and so to russia we should all be excited to root for our favorite athletes right the problem is the american media hasn't bothered to even tell us who the hell those athletes even are instead the media is only focusing on really weird stupid stories for example all the mainstream outlets the new york times the huffington post fox news all of them they all just ran the same story that russia is blocking a shipment of chobani yogurt to the us the limpia eds as the times puts it yogurt

industries political allies are outraged mind you all countries have very strict laws about importing dairy products for good reason the us is own international dairy foods association has a lengthy testing process for importing any dairy but for some reason the media has decided to be outraged that us the limpia had to remain unnamed can't have their precious new york made a greek yogurt chobani at the olympics and other weird story the american media has decided to focus on is the toilet in sochi yahoo sports reporter tweeted a picture of a sign in a sochi bathroom telling people not to flush the toilet paper but rather use a basket as provided this is standard procedure in many countries and is actually a lot better on sewage systems but the reporters said that without question the thing that is most surprising him. in sochi not the athletes wake time or practice

schedules not compelling stories about the road to the gun for tuition but the fact about not flushing toilet paper that's what he's most surprised by that's what he reported and his tweet was reach we've had thousands of times the coverage has just been a haven is c.n.n. conducted a leaving poll asking americans if they thought a terror attack was likely to happen and we see all but promises you'll get hacked if you go there fox news tried to get mitt romney to say that the games will be dangerous and even he was like why the hell are you asking me this what's your problem will be saved it's almost as if every american media outlet is trying to report sochi bashing stories faster higher and stronger than their competitors for some reason that has more to do with politics and a lot less to do with the actual spirit of the olympics that's the motto of the

olympics by the way that's higher stronger but you probably didn't know that because everyone here is too busy reporting about the toilets instead tonight but to talk about that following me on twitter at the president. and opening statements began today in the trial of a florida man accused of killing an unarmed teen forty six year old michael dunn is accused of fatally shooting seventeen year old jordan davis davis was gunned down by done at a gas station in jacksonville florida november of two thousand and twelve for allegedly playing loud music dunn claims that he felt threatened by the teen and says he may have seen some of him in his friends carrying a gun though it was later determined that police found no gun in the vehicle don then shot inside of the vehicle eight or nine times before driving away leaving jordan davis dead here's

a portion of the opening statements to the twelve member jury first from the prosecutor then from the defense. different. point in there is. a new color for teenagers and sure in chief. he was your age. are. your. story interrupts attempted murder. guilty of the first group or. were not heard is that anybody deserved to lose their life. went on to watch just because. michael dunn after the facts of this case and the wall had every right to go to wall to not be a victim. jordan davis has been compared to that of trayvon martin who was gunned down by george zimmerman in february of two thousand and twelve coming on the heels of the martin trial the dunn trial is likely to once again put florida's

controversial stand your ground law into the spotlight zimmerman was found not guilty in the death of martin and now his innocence is being played as a promotional ploy just recently a boxing promoter announced a match between zimmerman and rapper dmn max the rapper was allegedly chosen out of fifteen thousand applicants who wanted to fight zimmerman and will have to see if don's next fight will be in the ring or behind bars. and we're just learning that eight l.a. police officers who mistakenly fired on two women during the manhunt for ex cop chris dorner will be allowed to return to the field after they get additional training that's all according to the l.a. police chief charlie back who had this to say about the decision i have confidence in their abilities as l.a.p.d. officers to continue to do their jobs in the same capacity they had been assigned in the end we as an organization can learn from this incident and from the individuals involved now this is all in reference to the mistaken shooting which

took place on february seventh of last year when officers were protecting a potential dorner target when one of the newspaper delivery women threw up a paper onto the pavement in the early morning hours an officer saw the sound was a gunshot and opened fire margie crohn's a forty seven suffered minor injuries and her seventy one year old mother emma hernandez was shot in the back so was this all the right call i spoke earlier with pete air at cop blocked out or to discuss this along with some other police related cases making headlines i first asked him if someone has to be shot and killed versus just shot and injured in order to be for an officer to be charged well unfortunately what we've seen all too often draw the stage is you know if the police employ engages even in an action that causes the death of an innocent person or the death of someone unjustly then even if they are charged and very frequently

guilty us to if this was the correct finding in this case and i think for the police and you know they're called they would say that yes that is the correct finding the police person called these eight involved talented and well qualified but obviously there's no deterrence in these sorts of actions when there's no accountability when they're back on the streets and when the people forced to pay the so. and then target taxpayers are supposed to be serving right now the civilian police commission that found the officers had violated this policy to begin with also blame the department saying the officers weren't staffed properly that the sergeant wasn't trained to oversee such a protection detail and that there was no operational plan in place so should there be some kind of punishment for the department itself and then alternately individuals are responsible for their actions so i would say that the eight individuals that were responsible for foreign news round that hits at least seven

other houses. are responsible themselves and whether the institution l.a.p.d. should be you know in some way culpable we have to step i think it's important to step back and realize that that institution just like all police departments are founded on a double standard that say the rector's have the right to steal from people they say they protect and able to protect and then they're taking the taxpayer money from people in the area so they are saying was ok for us to do something that you can do we can steal from you to protect you so when you have an institution that sort of produce perverse incentives it's not surprising that you see outcomes like this right why do you want to turn to another story regarding miriam carey that's the woman who was killed after a car chase near the capital last year we're learning that her family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the secret service and the u.s. capitol police as a lawsuit is for seventy five million dollars now considering how the situation unfolded i don't know if you remember in detail what happened but do you think that

she has a strong case here. well unfortunately what police stations have done the court system here in the states it's a carry over from. the english court systems in large part and then the feudal system there said the king can can cause no wrong and so what does translate into here in the states today is what's called a whole fight immunity from police employees and unless courts rule that yes you can go ahead and and sue these police employees then they're immune from being sued in their individual capacity so i don't think that we're going to see much in the way of accountability even if this doesn't form the core system and one of the does and there is a settlement reached again it's not going to be the triggermen that are on the hook for is going to be area taxpayers right well let's go to a more recent case a twenty eight year old florida man was shot to death after assaulting some people take a look at this cell phone video of the incident. thank

you. so he was naked and had apparently been biting people's faces aren't that's that's what's been said they don't know if he was under the influence of any kind of drug but they apparently tasered him and then afterward shot him three times i mean do you think the police did all they could in the situation or is there something else that could have been done should have been done what's your thoughts on that. yes i mean i wish i could give you a more direct answer not being there myself and not having all the details i can't come down with any one hundred percent accuracy but what i do know is that some people in the area the brother and the father of one of the people that have been pursued by the gentleman did step on to try to come to the aid and to turn that attack and that's something i think we should emphasize more and more instead of the default being turn to the so-called authorities we should look out for each

other in our communities look out for ourselves know them as we all are so as we have responsibility to take care of ourselves and ideally to take care of our neighbors hoping that they would do the same for us so i know florida is an open carry state as a lot of concealed carriers were good but ultimately with the police employees involved i would hope before any of them would ever use deadly force they would think what would i do is this person that i'm about to shoot that was a family member what if they were my aunt what i try to talk them down what i add one way and there needs to be some questioning as a first line of defense for sure but i want to get to the last question before we have to let you go which is looking at law enforcement in the justice system because we're just learning that attack this judge has again considered the scenting sentencing for this sixteen year old kid claiming affluenza this is a teenager who killed four people while drunk driving and he'll be sentenced to ten years probation. considering what we've seen with harsher sentences for lesser crimes are i mean are you surprised by the sentencing. not at all i mean it really

it just underscores the fact that the criminal justice system isn't built to protect people is built to protect the legitimacy of the those active in the criminal justice system and people with money and we see to the rather rattus being used against people who question the legitimacy and against historically against minorities and people that they want to keep oppressed so the fact that they might be more favorable to people with money isn't a surprise all right well paid erekat block that our thanks for all your insight. well it seems one social pastime is on the decline in japan and it's not one you might readily think of according to studies put out last year young people in japan have increasingly abandoned sexual activity and dating altogether and with japan already having one of the world's lowest birth rates some are concerned about what this will mean for the country's dwindling population artie's alexy arash at ski

reports thanks but no sex says this japanese woman in her mid thirty's she's now on her second marriage but intimacy with her husband is off the marital menu. after i had a child with my first husband i lost interest in sex we divorced i remarried but my second husband lost interest in having sex with me so i have actually got used to having no sense at all this is becoming a trend which now has its own name in japan sexless according to recent polls more than sixty percent of a married man and near half of women aged eighteen to thirty four are not in relationships more over forty five percent of women and a quarter of man aged sixteen to twenty four were not interested in having sex at all for the country with one of the world's lowest birth rates this spells huge demographic trouble we used to have a very large population but now we're rapidly shrinking with if things carry on as the your japan's population will be half of what it is now by the year twenty fifty

already that would be seventy eight million we have indeed struggled to find many couples openly showing their affection in the multi-million capital of tokyo and what makes the situation even more bizarre is that japan has always been a world heavyweight when it comes to the matters of sex but your show our area in tokyo is one of the all this thread light district in the world for centuries that has been thriving now its streets are practically empty for almost four hundred years it has been restricted to the locals now with japanese people having less sex the businesses here had to open their doors to foreigners mother the home. she used to be called coup. in love and war and in one of those brothels now runs a special course called sex counseling helps people resuscitate their basic instinct sometimes through hypnosis she even urges men to dress as women to make them understand what the opposite sex feels like she says the government is partly to blame for the situation taking on. the government stricter regulations from

sexual. even sixty commercials disappears from t.v. these first young people to build their show in their sex lives now they have more interest in social media and dating becomes annoying to them. not only social networking but also high unemployment among the youth generates this widespread celibacy and sexual reclusion say researchers many simply have no money to date and get married young the amount of just the about two hundred people every month but with growing numbers of those are interested in intimacy in population of one hundred sixty million this is just a drop in the ocean lets us have c.r.t. reporting from tokyo japan. and sexual activity may not be declining in the u.s. but birth rates definitely are the fertility rate of women in the u.s. fell to a record low for the second year in a row in two thousand and twelve according to data released by the centers for disease control and prevention the particularly rate is the number of births per

one thousand women aged fifteen to forty four according to the december twenty thirty report in two thousand and twelve the u.s. fertility rate was sixty three that was down about one percent from sixty three point two in two thousand and eleven which is the previous all time low it marks the fifth year in a row that the u.s. birth rate has declined and the lowest rate on record since the government started tracking the fertility rate in one thousand and nine so what is causing the falling birth rate to give us some insight on that i was joined earlier by andrew foster is the director of the populations. buddies and training center at brown university i first asked him if people are postponing childbirth because of economic conditions even though there's been an overall sort of upturn in the u.s. economy since the crisis you still see very high unemployment or under employment among the youth population so it's not surprising when you particularly interviewing those groups that they are uncertain about their futures and obviously

it's child is a is a major long term commitment sure well let's take a look at the other side of this because some people say that it has more to do or at least equally to do with more education and higher rates of contraception or use of contraception in fact people have even pointed specifically to shows like m.t.v.'s sixteen and pregnant or teen mom is there any evidence to support that that is indeed contributing. well in terms of they take the last point that there is sort of evidence in the kind of the developing world that media plays a big role in people sort of identifying with small families i think in terms of trying to sort out what's happening in the u.s. is there really isn't any very strong evidence on that point and the other thing i would say is that while you can see a sort of small blip in fertility when measured properly in fact u.s. or till it has been fairly stable remarkably stable actually for twenty five years particularly when you look at the fifty years preceding that so so i don't think that you want to make a big deal of a relatively small change over the years in just saying well and or as far as i

understand it is very important for the population to replace itself at least for economic reasons if the birth rate does continue to drop and perhaps a little bit more dramatically could this really is fact the future of the labor force for example well i think i think they may think they realize that most people who enter the labor force over the next twenty five years at least the of the native population of already been born so we're not going to see any sort of major decline in the labor force in the us as a result of a declining birth rate for twenty years or so after that yes they'll be declining any sort of change in the size or composition of population requires the economy to respond but if we're talking about a period of twenty years you can see things like sort of more robotics and sort of replacing labor so so from a sort of production standpoint it doesn't seem to be so critical they'll be ample time for the economy to kind of figure out how to deal with the relative shortage of of sort of new workers from

a labor of perspective do you think it might adapt so what does the ad government do you think at least the government bears any responsibility in trying to sort of lift that birth rate and furthermore what can be done to restore the population or at least make sure that it doesn't dwindle the way it has and they japan. well in my view the government has a clear role in sort of ensuring that people that children have adequate health care good quality education and those things will in turn i think make it easier for families to to think about child bearing and understand that they can do that they can successfully raise a child so rather than directly intervening on the fertility side i would say that sort of making making it easier to be a parent through through the availability of those kinds of services is a place for the government to step in and i think those can have the desired effect you're talking you know indeed those things need to be put in place enter foster professor at brown university thank you and parents have been outraged over pictures that surfaced from an adult pajama party and no it's not because the

parents weren't invited rather it's because that pajama party took place at an entertainment facility usually used by children called crazy kids and the photos that leaked showed some things parents don't exactly want to imagine happening within a kid's facility pictures of women seemingly drunk scantily clad wearing next to nothing c.b.s. two in new york reports that the invitation to the event said it would be good clean wholesome fun though orgy no smut strippers or sexually lewd content but the invitation did apparently say there would be some tasteful nudity and the party throwers asked that no cameras be brought inside of course we now know that rule was broken in the aftermath the management at crazy kids has continued to apologize for what they're calling an obvious lack of judgment and to restore the public's trust they've decided to close for an extra day of cleaning and sanitizing but then

again no sanitation may be enough to remove the images of those pictures from parents' minds and that does it for now for more on the stories we cover go to you tube dot com slash r t america and check out our web site r t dot com slash usa can also follow me on twitter at amir a day that for now have a great night. i think. i would rather as questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on our t.v. question more. well

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