so when the global financial homeless will take place. they promise to show a delivery the olympic flame is ready for its final sprint into the opening ceremony marking the beginning of the twenty second of winter olympic games. welcome to our winter olympics coverage here on r.t. international. well they did promise it would be spectacular and they went all out to deliver the opening ceremony of the twenty fourteen olympics underway and living up to the billing that's. one of our correspondents in the lower cluster right near the venue where the opening ceremonies been taking place paula good to see you you

lucky boy being there for the twenty four. of the opening ceremony is obviously still ongoing it has been a spectacle so far we still at this stage don't know who it is who's going to be lighting the olympic cauldron. of course the twenty four winter olympics open but let's recap what we do know about the opening ceremony was promised to be high tech pyrotechnic display a journey through a russian history and that's exactly what they've delivered it started off with the emergence of the athletes around three thousand of them from eighty different countries coming out from around the center of the stadium the stadium was rocking when the russian team came out they have course came out last they came out the music was interesting it was a combination of the two mixed in with we will rock you and indeed the stadium was rocking when the russian athletes came out then there was

a slight change of tone and we were greeted by a skating display from the three mascots from the head the polar bear. and the leopard as well they did lighted fans with their. joy numerous mascots and then there was another change of tone as we were taken through a russian history a very brief version of rustic russian history of course there was a nod to the emergence of christianity in the orthodox church before there was a knowledge meant of peter the great and of course the emergence of russia as a great naval power and then they decided to turn the attention to what russia has given the world in terms of the arts and culture over the years and focused on in particular literature and the tall story novel anna karenina they were pulling the dances and the giant trains suspended from the ceiling now the spectacle is still ongoing it's going to climax without an impact torch being late and with a spectacular fireworks display as well certainly sounds like a phenomenal ceremony as you're mentioning it still ongoing paul you've certainly

become very familiar in the recent past can you tell us all the is it is the lympics city ready to host this global event. i think the message from organizers for some time now has been that she is ready and i think we're witnessing that is very much the case there have been some issues to be ironed out over the course of this week and in particular the hotels for for journalists but perhaps a little bit rough around the edges but these problems have disappeared over the course of the week as we've built up to this opening ceremony which is taking place this evening the venue's are already and have been for some time now that's the main concern of course it really is just about the sporting athletes the venues are ready they've all been tested to international standards the athletes are ready and raring to go and i think the message from organizers that they've been saying for some time now is finally being listened to this city this region is ready. just down where you are was just down there a week ago frankly utterly donnish. looking everything does not ready to go so

we're looking forward to more imports from you. many thanks indeed for that. now in the midst of all the sportsmanship there is another contest that for many years no less important top designers worldwide have put all their efforts into making the teams the gold standard fashion. reports. course all the eyes will be on the procession tonight at the opening ceremony and indeed what people are wearing other uniforms are they costumes all of they indeed political statements so let's give you a wrap of what you can expect tonight let's go straight to the german team they stand out from the crowd we have them design by blocking out that whole coats in what could be described as a rainbow childish garish effect with that bright colors of pink yellow blue green a few people have said that it's a nod towards the anti gay attitude and subjects running the controversy of the games but personally i think it's just a throwback to the cab as

a my little pony so that's the german team for you expect them to be there tonight said be selling out in the procession let's move on to my opinion and what i think are the most stylish and chic uniforms that will be showing tonight they are of course america some say new york is the fashion capital of the world and the costumes uniforms are designed by ralph lauren they were unveiled last year and of course they are here in the pico says that coat with slim sweatpants with a floppy hats with a star design in the colors red white and blue so personal thumbs up to the american team now let's go from something quite acceptable to the weird and wonderful let's take a look at the scandinavian country of norway and the curling team in the zigzag efforts of what you can see now in the colors also is red white and blue they wanted to feel at least on the ice with what they're wearing and they certainly will be wearing those outfits so fingers crossed that costume will work for them

because personally i would not want to wear that outfit living also a great guy he's been in the papers and covered by lots of the media it's the mexican ski championship herbert's von holzen who and he's actually just one eighth mexican he's actually descendant of german royalty people say he's a prince. other people he'll be wearing the lehrer outfits and you certainly won't miss him in his truffled ruffled succeeded with his red tie and become a band that's the prince hubertus von holding her moving on to the russian bombshell that is arena recently she posed for a glossy magazine wearing just lingerie with her curling stone she's got lots of tongues wagging lots people are looking forward to seeing her tonight of course she isn't just a pretty face but she is a celebrity here in russia of course and i would also be seeing other teams from around the world including great britain and the rest of the russian team so while three billion people might be watching the opening ceremony for the famous torch

bearing other people will see it as a fashion and somewhat political statement regarding what people are wearing let's look forward to an excitement here is just incredible. and the excitement here is palpable in the r.t. international news room as well it's good to have you with us in half an hour we launch our special extended coverage of the olympic games our studio overlooking the seaside portion of soft she will connect you with dozens of correspondents guests and athletes and saatchi with all the latest are rumors predictions and a reaction in the twenty second winter olympic games of twenty four to. thirteen twenty fourteen promises we call to make an exhilarating winter for. joining us in our make every now and the rest of our limp news team for sochi twenty four take. on our team. here just about twenty five minutes and the coverage

continues from alba here on r.t. international the e.u. has refused to comment on the role that washington is apparently playing in ukraine's very own game of thrones leaked phone conversation between top u.s. officials to expose the inner workings of the state department. so that would be great i think to help glue this thing and have the u.n. help glue it and you know the e.u. . well in the intercepted phone call the u.s. assistant secretary of state victoria nuland drawing a full roadmap of how a new ukrainian government should be organized on things more important i have this explanation from new york. well what you hear during this four minute conversation is basically two top u.s. officials strategizing about how to form you crane's new government it sounds like they're playing a game of chess with the opposition leaders as the pieces on that chess board they're trying to determine which opposition leader has the best economic and

governing experience to work inside ukraine's new government and which opposition leaders should remain on the outside it's a bit shocking to actually hear i had to listen to it a few times to really grasp the fact that there are strategizing on how to put together the government of another country instead of paraphrasing everything let's let our viewers actually take a listen for themselves. which group uses obviously the complicated electronics you're. going to minister to the prime minister and you've seen some of our notes on the troubles in the marriage right now so we're trying to get a read really start worrying. i'm glad you sort of put it on the spot where it fits in your scenario so i don't think leetch should go into the government i don't think it's necessary i don't think it's a good idea in terms of going to the government just let him sort of stay out in doofus judical homework and stuff i think he does that he's got the economic experience the governing experience he's the he's the guy you know what he needs

his cleats into any book on the outside he needs to be talking to them four times a week well clearly this is a highly embarrassing situation for the united states particularly because we've been here u.s. officials insist for so long that they're not involving themselves in into ukraine's internal circumstance. for for the spokesperson for the for the u.s. state department she had a pretty difficult day on thursday jen psaki was put in the hot seat journalist one after another reporters have been asking her why u.s. officials are interfering in ukraine's internal problems out. one point four spotted said point blank that the leaked conversely from the us he's attempting to construct a new government in a sovereign country and actually bring officials in from the un to seal the deal one thing u.s. officials had not spin their way out of is the profanity and dismissive tone victoria nuland used when referring to the european union and its involvement in

ukraine for that an apology was issued she's been in close contact with you high representative ashton also let me convey that she has been in contact with the e.u. counterparts and and of course has apologized but. for these reported comments of course you're not good for me to call that your shoes i'm just not going to speak to a private diplomatic conversation but i'm obviously speaking to the content of the reports. misaki also tried to make somewhat of a joke when she was in damage control mode when she was referring to the use of profanity when it came to victoria nuland the assistant secretary of state let's take a listen you may know the story of how she lived on the russian boat for about eight months when she was twenty three in she learned how to perfect perhaps certain words in a couple of languages so perhaps it speaks to that more than

a pervasive viewpoint you know suggesting that she is a predisposition against russian no i was suggesting that she learned russian curse words and curse words on that even though she said. she i was making a joke about her learning the first words on a fishing boat there you see a u.s. person trying to make a joke out of a situation that is quite scandalous quite embarrassing not sure of any high official i officially in ukraine are laughing at this moment after their hearing this leaked conversation on you tube about you know the united states strategizing on how to build a new government in a sovereign country. while the reactions are just rolling out the german chancellor angela merkel has now called the use of such language quote unacceptable load of stay for my deputy speaker of the belgian parliament he says this is just a sneak peek into the real world of diplomacy open to do real good diplomacy

behind closed doors this confirms the long standing of the united states and the u. by the way towards other countries did this dana to show for a full game ocracy you do so with the old logic countries this once more undermines the whole of transparency and democracy building and but to do building of political institutions these are all ideological afterwards into ones politics in other countries this is what they but united states has been doing for decades it just confirms a long stand it also by the way shows how casual these people can talk about the the politics of another country. and i had a chat with susan lindauer a journalist an antiwar activist she says the u.s. is actually aiding openly fascist groups colony rioting in ukraine. the u.s. media would like to portray the ukrainian revolt as a populist uprising of peaceful protesters who've had enough and they choose

to move towards the west what we're seeing is that that's not true at all washington has been manipulating this the whole time from behind the scenes we know that washington is providing at least ten million dollars every month to the ukrainian opposition the united states has parked a warship off the coast of ukraine which is providing tactical support and intelligence to the ultra nationalist groups now all true nationalist is a very nice word for fascist these are neo nazis chechen terrorists and fascists and if they were coming into the streets of washington d.c. there would be and there would there would be horror among the elected leadership of the country. and if you want more just ahead of the website it's got it all linked to the leak itself as well as the reaction of the u.s. state department is a few clicks away dot com. and just

a bit later in the program here on our two international david cameron puts the screws on the scots delivering a speech punctuated with nationalist rhetoric and the waxing lyrical about what he says are the benefits of being part of the united kingdom. i marinate join me. in our home and. work very contribute and much much. only on bombast and.

there's a scene when you're in the arctic you have the entire world at your feet she looks like a fairly simple ship but really she's not symbol. and full of people have access to the nuclear icebreakers the real king here is the polar bear and ice breakers come second not a single complex expedition to the arctic can be conducted with the russian nuclear powered fleet of ice breakers we undertake a unique operation in. the northern sea route russia's arctic ice breakers. it's a national lie from moscow our special coverage starting again in about ten minutes from now on the british prime minister wrap himself figuratively in the british and olympic flags today calling for scotland to vote against becoming independent from

the u.k. but as david cameron kept up the pressure from the olympic stadium in london the scottish national party has heavily criticized him for giving the speech south of the border. he wasn't actually talking to the scots he said he was actually talking to everybody else in the english the wealth of welsh in the northern irish he said four million scottish people would be able to vote in this referendum but in fact sixty three million people would be affected everybody in the british isles and he all the people who don't have a vote to play a party said you don't have a vote but you do have a voice so what he wants everybody to do is or tweet anyone scottish that we know and tell them that we don't want them to be that's essentially his message today we want you to stay and that message betrays his worry really and could be quite timely in the recent poll has shown that support for scottish independence south of the border has leapt

a little bit in the last few months january poll showed twenty four percent in support up from twenty one percent in november so he'll be slightly worried about as far as the points that he made goes he stressed this intricate tapestry of the u.k. as he called it he said there are business ties agricultural ties but there are also personal ties to he said his name is a scottish clan name. parent me and he also made the emotional case for staying part of the union and this is where he really played the scots at their own game of course they have the scottish national party has appealed to national values and this is what david cameron did in his speech he said that the u.k. is more than the sum of its parts and that he cares too much to stay out of the argument he really laid it on very sick talking about g.b. not just to refer to the olympic team but to refer to the united kingdom as it stands at the very minute and so he's been accused by the scottish national party

of using the olympics in this way as a political tool and he certainly did leave at that point also a lot of people have asked out sort of outside in the real world. in the stadium where he made the speech why did he go to scotland why is he making a speech from london his argument of course is that he was talking to the people of england wales and northern ireland he wasn't necessarily talking to the scots the scottish national party accusation again is that he was too cowardly to go to scotland that he won't come and he's too scared to take part in a face to face debate about the future of the united kingdom. is a pro independence are reversed he says the main selling point of voting yes in the referendum is simply to see the back of the conservative party. i think it was a very ordered speech members of the new campaign a but a month ago were urging the scottish government not to politicize the commonwealth games and there we have david cameron standing in front of the velodrome connecting

the olympics to the great british but it so there's a huge amount of hypocrisy there but i think we look at david cameron and we see everything necessary a bit independence if you ask anybody for independence for a one line answer to the question why would you want to vote yes the answer is because there will be new governments in scotland for ever and there he is there we are at the moment suffering under policies like the bedroom tax like the austerity budget from a from a tory government yet again no matter whether we have a scottish parliament no matter how many liberty m.p.'s ascended to westminster we didn't vote for under the inflicting of policies on us. and many stories for you one line right now including a rather ugly moment for c.n.n. after released its list of the world's ugliest monuments the broadcast i decided to label an important world war two memorial as unsightly target a furious reaction from veterans who fought the nazis r.t. dot com but the full story for you right there right now. while you're there also

on line for your celebrity is a photographed on the red carpet but the earth is photographed from the red planet a robot rover curiosity has sent back the first ever photo of our planet taken away from us. before now on the program the syrian government has confirmed that it will take part in the second round of geneva peace talks there's a shuttle for monday meanwhile for people in the syrian city of homs there has been some respond from fighting thanks to a three day cease fire it'll allow civilians to be evacuated and humanitarian supplies to be sent in and those fleeing will join the estimated three and a half million refugees already driven from their homes by the ongoing. in civil war party's policy where when to meet one a family among them. too high but mark live is a refugee in her own country forced from her home by civil war she and her daughters are hiding some two hundred kilometers from the village in

a three room apartment they share with another family their crime supporting president bashar assad. the terrorists want to kill me they broke into my house to find me they looted everything they kidnapped six members of my family all because they are looking for me. a lot has been said about the desperate situation facing refugees who fled across the border to neighboring countries but most of those forced from their homes by the spiraling violence are displaced within syria itself these internally displaced people remain extremely vulnerable and their numbers continue to swell. i've been told many times to stop supporting assad and everything will be fine but i won't change my principles and they'll win we will fight his first got hold of through high birth she was eight months pregnant they keep her so badly she lost the baby but she refused to change her politics. i ran away with my children my mother is very dear to me it is now the second age

faster all that has passed without me being with her my mother has god by her side he will not abandon her. they are kidnapping young people sixteen year olds and they're cutting them into pieces when asked if she'll give herself up for family sake through high bank in fact says no. if i die i want my daughters to continue in the same way everybody is going to die my mother may die but you will meet their last victim i mean. syria's death toll stands at more than one hundred thousand with no sign of fighting a beijing for many internal refugees home remains a distant dream for those like it's only their ideals that gives him the strength to carry on policy r.t. damascus syria. some other headlines now with a global snapshot let's get into the world update there's been

a fresh wave of attacks in iraq where a car bomb and a shooting of taken six lives in the country's north another thirty reportedly injured as well now the incident follows days of bloody attacks on civilians and bio dad across the country at the un rest in iraq shows no signs of easing it has already left more than a thousand people dead since just the beginning of this year. at least one hundred thirty people mostly police officers were injured when protesters in northern bosnia took to the streets there the high rate of unemployment and corruption riot police used tear gas to break up the rallies that spread to other parts of the country the crowd responded by throwing stones setting tires on fire and attacking local government buildings the protesters ruptured after four state owned companies were privatized and then later filed for bankruptcy. at least four policemen were injured by two blasts in egypt's capital and the bombs went off.

along where the security forces vehicles were parked has been a spike in attacks in egypt ever since the military coup occurred last july. well it's fantastic to have you with us or an aussie international if you do just stay tuned for a moment our exclusive coverage coming up what's coming up in just about four and a half minutes live from such. low the flame. the olympic spirit travels with the flame from its birthplace in greece. join james brown for an elemental and epic journey around russia and beyond.

where i. play. there's a scene when you're in the arctic you have the entire world at your feet. she looks like a fairly simple ship but really she's not simple little billy a handful of people ever have access to the nuclear icebreakers the real king here is that the polar bear and ice breakers come second not a single complex expedition to the arctic can be conducted without the russian nuclear powered fleet of ice breakers we've undertaken a unique operation. the northern sea route russia's arctic

ice breakers. in. playing. live. i marinate join me on into impartial and financial reporting commentary

contribute and much much. only on going bust and on. clay. speak old language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on the team reporting from the world talks about six of the c.o.r.p. interviews intriguing story to tell you you. see if in trying. to find out more visit our big don't know it's called. if the problem begins at the level of the bad legislation that's created a like

a an environment where dragnet spying becomes the official policy of the governor. three letter agencies bad laws created the situation it's only better laws are going to remove that pressure that's going to going to effectively say on a policy level we don't think dragnet spying i.e. collecting a massive haystack and then trying to find little needles in is the way to go so one of the things that you find out when he talked a lot to young people as i do is that they they simply don't trust that stuff they put up now that it's supposed to be for just ex-wives and close friends will wake up one day now everyone seeing it right you know so they don't they want the they want a service at that center where i lived all the way every photo that you see of that is what it would be shaking hands with want to go back to tell you something about is going to go ahead and get a jump in water so i want to get through i want to remind everyone that facebook being a private company doesn't mean that they have necessarily have the public interest and good i mean there was a quote from mark zuckerberg that came out several years ago where he said there is users worse quote f.

ing idiots for giving them all their data. alone a very good evening welcome to sochi this is our special coverage of the twenty fourteen winter olympics has just kicked off with a glittering opening ceremony and as we're speaking is still continuing my name's kevin i would and you can stay with this i mean it's in now way wow what a sell it has been so far i'm having a little trouble staying focused because it's still going on so you know real frank they promised it would be one for the books and they really took that promise to heart didn't they can yeah absolutely stunning simply stunning it's just that would be just more whole thing through over our shoulders than on the teles most spin really amazing real riot of colonist sound and excitement i tell you one of them think the people are taking on the next task of putting on a show going to.