the. games are on now having kicked off in sochi with a dazzling show and now a record ninety eight sets of medals up for grabs in fifteen different sports party keeping on top of the winter olympics with its special extensive coverage on air and. bosnia engulfed in street violence with crowds clashing with police and torching government buildings across the country angry they say it's soaring unemployment and corruption. a terror hub of thousands of foreigners reportedly recruited by a hardline islamist in the syria and train for attacks as the war there rages on.

eleven am in moscow i'm at present good to have you with us winter games in sochi now officially underway in the olympic schedule for the next sixteen days a busy one r.t. international closely following the games from our so she studio set up to give you extensive coverage of the extravaganza artie's and he said now a has more. this it is still rumbling really can feel the energy in the air after what we saw last night with the opening ceremony of course kicking off the twenty second winter games here in the russian cul still save the two and a half hour show took spectators on a breathtaking journey through russian culture and history more than forty thousand spectators from around the globe packed into the fish to the stadium to witness this extravaganza the ceremony featured the olympic creative nation this time with a different athlete's not didn't enter the stadium from the side as usual but marched up right from the middle emerging from

a changing now of the world of course there was a grand fireworks display to dazzle it off but we have correspondents and reporters throughout the city not only down here in the coastal cluster but up in the mountain clusters artie's andrew farmer a stunning celebration we had down here now it's time for the athletes to get down to business the first medals are up for grabs in the very first ones we've won here in the mountain cluster and that will take place in the men's snowboarding slopestyle finals which is due to take place around about lunchtime the rush is best hope to medal today actually take place down the coast to cluster and it could be the perfect birthday present for the speed skater but if he turns thirty one today and will be competing in the five. that's an event where he won the bronze medal in vancouver four years ago but there's a very good chance he could do even better today there would be more fans supporting him pushing us forward certain to give us additional strength additional energy to the mind and to the feet we definitely skate faster to the joy of the

fans at the stadium to the millions watching the broadcasts well the medals and so those are a fascinating design and how they are made is pretty interesting too i took a closer look. it's what all athletes in sochi a dreaming of a podium finish and then a limp dick medal around. and if they're good enough to get one they'll be taking home something. these goals reflects on cheese landscape by the jacket weeks of present yana week to sandy beaches of the black sea is designed that will be useful lympics and paralympics for the curiously paralympians will get new medal for the efforts. that got. an olympic gold medal weighs an average of five hundred twenty to five hundred forty grams

a paralympic gold medal is about six hundred seventy just six hundred eighty grams but the reason for the weight difference between olympic gold medals is because the titles of different sport disciplines vary in length they have to be engraved which means that the longer the title of the disappointed the lighter them. no matter what their weight each one takes a staggering eighteen hours to make it starts on the late the medals are cut to the right size a special machine creates that icy looking center and the game's trademark patchwork quilt pattern is engraved reflecting russia's cultural diversity all part of twenty five different manufacturing steps a record thirteen hundred medals have been minted in this way for the sochi games where twelve new events will make their intake debut has been a big undertaking for russian jewelry manufacturer adam ass they've needed two tons of silver which is the main ingredient and it does mean that when his medals are

not worth their weight in gold which is only used as a final casing the fact they're all value is just a few hundred dollars they actually tell you they are in fact priceless so the jacket piece of grass that they honor imprinted on the medals but they're also leaving a lasting impression on journalist because fisher is. it has been receiving rave reviews it might sound a bit surprising simply because none of this was here just a few years ago but i spoke to one is strange and she believes that the results of those who could actually rival the french alps are going to be quite a few of the good crowd ski resorts in the world and these are the best looking mountains obscene and these are beautiful mountains here a ski lift everywhere the infrastructure seems right on really really impressed this place has had so much negative press in the last week i think some of it's coming from americans who just get off the plane get off the bus and just expect russia to be bad you know i know some small things haven't worked. is

a problem with my shower in my apartment but this is these are small things to to me it doesn't mean russia has broad brush or is beautiful so he's a happy journalist let's hope will be plenty more and of course we'll be keeping you up to date on all the medals that will be won throughout the day a unique combination of snowy mountains up there and warm seas down here sochi was practically built from scratch to host these winter olympics there are eleven brand new athletic benyus divided between the coastal mountain clusters and they're all connected by a thirty minute journey and that's the reason why sochi was dubbed as the most compact winter games in history everything is small you know to different age and everything is close we can go by wallach and there is not that big security so we feel free and we feel confident seems like we're going to put on a good show here in russia. like the scale of the close is insane and i've been they say. in general i think the russians are very enthusiastic about sport and

about the olympics so i expect them to play great hosts to the world and so far what i've seen has been very impressive but we spoke to hollywood star and martial arts expert steven seagal who has a close friendship with puts and he believes there's no reason to doubt the efficiency of the security measures put in place here in such i. i would agree with some of the folks who are saying that sochi is probably one of the safest places around right now and i think the world you know in all of the different countries that are participating in the olympics are all very concerned about trying to make this a wonderful experience of everybody's cooperating and working hard in their own perspective areas and i think that as a world we all support each other to try to make any human picks anywhere in the world a secure wonderful event where politics are kept out of that steven seagal there

speaking to our team will be extensively covering the games here in sochi keeping a close eye on everything that's happening both at the seacoast and in the mountain cluster for now back to you in moscow. artie's a nice in our way there from our sochi studio where we're keeping a close eye on everything that's happening at the winter olympics there on air and online and also in the twitter sphere where we have our twitter feed set up in order to handle everything that's going on with all things a limb pick our list section there as all the sporting john resorted into categories a quick click takes you to the first competition the men's semifinal slope style that kicked off a little more than an hour ago and is now in full swing american athlete shaun white was calling on his fans to wish him good luck lead twitter in the u.s. snowboarding team is tweeting big cheers from the crowd as russia's so boy it is taking its second run now so don't miss any of the action from the games by following our twitter coverage.

the g twenty four team promise is the ultimate in the exhilarating winter. storm and it's in our way to make seven zero and the best of our lives take these teams to sochi twenty four take. on. turning now to some of the day's other top stories thousands of protesters in cities across bosnia storm local government buildings and clashed with police as anger over unemployment an economic stagnation turned violent war than two hundred people wounded in demonstrations most of them police in the capital sarajevo rioters set the presidential building on fire along with police cars and tires authorities fired rubber bullets water cannons and tear gas to disperse the crowds in other parts of the country protesters hurled rocks at security guards and torched local government buildings unrest started over the closure of several state owned companies that were privatized and filed for bankruptcy analysts mark mason thinks the violence could turn into an uprising. forty percent of the population of bosnia they are simply employed without any work

whatsoever so these conditions are like i'm not at all surprising that we have a mass popular uprising some of the police may come over and that's one of the factors that has been actually studied by social scientists is that when about five percent of the population say they have had it with the government and they get some significant fraction of the police forces to say i'm through with this too i'm joining the protesters pretty much the end of it for the government so we want to watch that very closely. switzerland reading for a controversial vote to curb immigration and right wing politicians blaming foreigners for the country's woes saying such measures though it will damage the country's economy a closer look still to. but first elite recording of a phone call shining new light on washington's role in ukraine's anti-government

unrest assistant secretary of state victoria nuland tape discussing how to solve the crisis. so that would be great i think to help glue this thing and have the u.n. help glue it and you know be you europeans made no comment on that recording audio also capture newlin talking over what role each opposition member could play in a new parliament u.s. state department hasn't denied the authenticity of the recording but said nuland already apologized for comments with german chancellor merkel calling it unacceptable international affairs commentator rick rose off into the conversation as example of u.s. plotting regime change. this story would not have gained traction it would not have chief the exposure it had if that word had not come out i'm afraid that it may be obscuring the actual content of the discussion which is all but you know presenting a blueprint for regime change at least significant words to get issued during the course of the conversation with the u.s. ambassador is the one that it's gained at the notoriety for better or worse that it

has what you're really seeing is just casually and callously the u.s. state department slots political transformation and other countries outside the legitimate which is say the electoral return zero is in effect engineers regime change. even going down into the most mind my new particulars as to who should and should not be a future prime minister. still to come when recruiting becomes an army's number one goal there is nothing left to do but launch a commercial after the break or part of my israel is taking to the airways to both to boost its combat units. that is fighting some police got a good intelligence unit to u.k. dropping in london. range of different opportunities

to information they get from the media push will blow. people can give them information to give information across and it's actually quite complicated we do as in egypt intelligence. to use range of. independent information we have relationships for example with interpol helps us find out where there is drug trafficking. secret laboratory. to build. tombs mission to teach creation and. this is why you should. only.

corteen minutes past the hour syria's government confirmed its participation in the next round of geneva peace talks set to take place monday or radical factions are thought to be gaining momentum in the war is thought to overcrowded tens of thousands of foreigners potentially causing an intelligence headache in their homelands or reports from london. a british heart is known as. tommy is believed to be the first brit to have carried out a suicide attack in syria after a vehicle packed with explosives was taken to a prison allowing some three hundred prisoners to escape now british citizens along with other europeans travelling to syria as young as sixteen and fighting alongside jihad as groups of long been a concern for authorities it's believed now that there are about three hundred fifty britons over there making up the largest contingent of some one thousand westerners and this new development reinforces of the urgency expressed by

a governments here and having to deal with a specific group of jihad is scary they are countries passports. the information is finally come out that we seeing this actually happen in syria however given the trends that we've seen in syria over the past few years it's not surprising that we're seeing british individuals or foreign individuals more generally becoming involved in suicide operations on the ground i think if we compare this particular conflict in syria with the jihadist battlefields that we've seen around the world need the rapidity with which we've seen the number of foreigners be drawn to the battlefield is from my perspective i'm president of the numbers that were being they were hearing quoted about. the news from british intelligence and it presents a very difficult picture for them to manage in sounding the alarm over this phenomenon authorities are regreasing be worried about what happens with these individuals returning home group of britain sub already threatened to carry out terrorist attacks in the u.k. and this is believed to be the first direct threats to come out of syria reporting

from london i'm test. our shared your software crash there's reason to worry that you're being watched fresh leaks from edward snowden suggesting british intelligence to use special tactics to discredit those they've been spying on with banned cyber attacks among them but r.t. dot com for the details they're also. making. touch almost feel real implanted nerve electrodes making it possible to give feedback in prosthetic limbs more on this medical breakthrough a click away. swiss voters set aside this week on one on whether to put a cap on the country's influx of migrants a controversial bill proposed by switzerland's nationalist party plans to introduce quotas against foreigners some say shutting the border though would only cause problems for the economy are enough ports. welcome to switzerland breathtaking views plentiful jobs and low taxes it's no surprise that the streets here are

growing more crowded some eighty thousand new residents arrive each year a significant number for a country of just eight million our industry our economy meets immigration to a certain point but everybody under and mr underestimated the situation the number of people coming is much much higher than anywhere else in the world on sunday switzerland will ask its citizens whether to reintroduce quotas for immigration from abroad including e.u. members although itself not a part of the blog switzerland has signed on to the e.u. rules on freedom of movement if passed the initiative would pit the swiss against an angry brussels but supporters aren't worried the swiss parties said the swiss said that political elite they were very enthusiastic about joining the european union ten years ago. but people changed they saw the disadvantages they saw the

immigration is tremendous much bigger than we thought and so there was also a change of thinking and anti immigration slogans are gaining more traction here in switzerland at first about a third of voters supported the initiative now that favors over forty percent so what's behind this push to keep outsiders out of switzerland for some experts say motions and a lot to do with that. there is competition in the housing market competition. in treasury. and there is competition in the labor market so. it's populist politics bloody this is just anger in the in this field but as elsewhere in europe anti immigration messages seem to be resonating and pollster say even voters without political affiliation may vent their frustration come sunday voters like this. swiss businessman who owns it's medics factory the name as a manufacturer i profit from this the more people i sell my products to the better

but i'm also a swiss citizen i don't want to live like a sardine in my country switzerland is tiny and we simply can't accommodate all the immigrants the country can't take anymore. but the proposed curbs also take aim at highly skilled workers there is no way to run the hells or education system. because there's no way to do modern business in particular financial services frank south florida's in there's no way to run to rescind this out wages and cooks from other countries switzerland is highly dependent on this for tools four in ten companies in switzerland including nestle are founded by foreigners last year they created around thirty thousand new jobs forty to be tweeted that no they are against the foibles because they need them i mean we are not stealing their jobs we are just taking the job they don't want to do so that's why i figured so this so

this potentially lose i don't understand how this sunday's vote is likely to strain ties with brussels but the fear is that it could have more economic consequences than the country bargained for reporting for r.t.e. in switzerland and lucy catherine of. turning now at some other stories making global headlines the evacuation started of dozens of civilians trapped in the besieged syrian city of homes for a year and a half buses now loaded with women and children ferried at least eighty three people from the area after an uneasy ceasefire was achieved between rival sides the p pause in the fighting was the first visible result of of geneva two talks to try ending the country's civil war thousands of civilians still thought to remain in the besieged city though without food or medicine. in brazil a world cup stadium worker has been killed in a construction accident the portuguese national. was hit in the head while dismantling a crane becoming the third person to die at this site and the sixth overall

facility fatalities are causing concerns about working conditions in the build up to the event many brazilians say they're unhappy about the huge cost of the games while the social services there remain severely underfunded. at least eighteen people have died in argentina after a bus crash into a lorry in the western city of mendoza the truck was being driven at a high speed on the wrong side of the road local reports say it had brazilian license plates and was stolen the bus was carrying thirty people on its way from the city of cordoba and burst into flames upon impact finally in the news blog as israeli army recruiters say the number is choosing to serve in combat units is falling the government has started to look for new ways to pump things up a t.v. commercial latest weapon in the military's arsenal is artie's paulo sleeper reports . these really army has a new fight on its hand numbers in combat units are down potential recruits are shying away from signing up fighting it seems has lost its glamour the i.d.f.

is concerned it's circulating videos like this online that celebrate the strength of the israeli fighter in this one a weight lifter proclaims he's strong. as is the i.d.f. this elderly man is drinking strong coffee and this teenage girl is pounding strongly on drums both clips in with the catchphrase now the idea is strong surely cause smiles when he watches the videos the twenty five year old served in goal army one of israel's most prestigious fighting brigades he spent two and a half years in and out of gaza a close friend of his was killed there in the line of duty like others he's asking of serving in combat was the right decision for sure what i did is important needs to be done but i don't think it helped me in the long run not for finding a job and not for my education i think i would do things differently if i had the chance again. and the stats seem to support him over the last three years

motivation among youngsters wanting to serve an idea of combat units has dropped by nine percent more noise weight he's off thinking twice about whether they want to put their life on the line to serve their country you value a lamb is also fighting the statistics the if for special unit veteran runs boot camps encouraging high schoolers to follow his footsteps into the i.d.f. each squads through the you can see that in certain places over in israel the parents. prefer the. wolf in much more safer places like the intelligence where you cannot be. the i.d.f. spokesman peter lerner insists the drop in number doesn't change things the i.d.f. . can still keep the country safe it is part of the situation where the types of threats have also changed it's also the result of an atmosphere where there are

other units which also are substantial. in the type of defense that they supply for instance technological units the army stand on the comb through this cyber both and compute the thing you need the people that stand in front of their own enemy and this save the ball do all they do it was come back here next may not be fighting the because bastion of the existence keeping themselves go in. tel aviv. next our documentary team trains its lenses on eye laser scanner oh last angels coming up after a short. recently

and online poll by the liberal dozhd t.v. channel that's rain in english has caused quite a storm of rage across the country how could a stupid online poll cause russia wide anger while they pose the question was defending living grad from the nazis worth it because retreat in their opinion could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives what is offensive from culture to culture difference a lot but from a russian perspective fighting to the bitter end to stop the german genocide machine was worth it this is basically like if a somewhat popular news outlet had a poll on martin luther king's birthday asking well slavery really that bad it was a poem for the economy but why would someone create this poll is because the people who wrote it are sick with the disease are types total self infatuation egoism and greed in other words were a generation mean mean mean these people could never imagine sacrificing the great and wonderful me for any cause sacrificed me to the dog sees

a plus for me i'd rather kiss their boots and learn german but it wasn't for millions of russians put their self-interest as a. second then all those great and wonderful me s. would have been worked to death and shot the nazi death camp it pays to make a few sacrifices for society the fascist my opinion. with creating these sustainable operations focused on profit making him and from what you are advocating my term self-interest sense of that is what your government says has always been the case and had businesses for hundreds of years without using the label of what i think was what god capitalism do was this notion that economists brought to it which was the idea of profit maximizing the.

fact that. they were going to go digital the price is the only industry specifically mentioned in the constitution and. that's because a free and open press is critical to our democracy schreck albus. role. in fact the single biggest threat facing our nation today is the corporate takeover of our government and across the silicon we've been hijacked like handful of transnational corporations that will profit by destroying what our founding fathers once built up my job market and on this show we reveal the big picture of what's actually going on in the world we go beyond identifying the problem trucks rational debate and a real discussion critical issues facing america to find a job ready to join the movement then walk a little bit there. in

response to the intense law enforcement and skip around some local residents have made it their job to watch the police. my mother in law father both came to california in one nine hundred fifty six and they both got a job downtown l.a. work in a bullock's department store on seventh and broadway. my father he'd been living downtown is since. but my mother she lives out in the projects the bad part of it

was that i ended up hanging out in my mother's old neighborhood where i ended up joining the gangs and so for near i got into my diction my addiction landed me in front of a judge. because you're doing robberies he said you don't have to go to state prison so they say as soon as me to an eighteen year state prison. in prison i became really more radical i was on the revolutionary side before i got out you know i promised all of that when i get out i would give back the wrong that i've been doing as a gang member and growing up in my life so when i got out the first thing i did was i came back to steal a role. so one day to bicycle security goes from the biggest improvement different color suburbia shirts had this woman twisted

a home up in the air and it was about to break the woman on so i say what are you doing man let the woman cohen goes you crazy because i got shot a picture got by i say so you go to break she got a pipe and i am so the lady was free man i know i know. i lied right so she tried to run for him to learn to go i said my letter goes with a little girl and she opened up her hand it was a my lighter so i told us so when i was a homeless man some that we don't know but it's for sure i'm still the general so i tell myself i got to go get me some soldiers while i'm you know walking around here to talk to one of my friends and he told me man you need to go to l.a. can they do that kind of stuff. and so from him witnessing an injustice a day later he's. gone through leadership development classes and now three years later he's our leader human rights we're going to answer my job is to is to keep trying to wake up the messes you know and keep you know.