a dazzling twenty fourteen opening show is followed by an inspired dutch team occupying the entire podium in the men's skating. equipment failure could have ruined the dreams of olympic gold for some german ski is. already that is if their russian opponents haven't put a rivalry aside to help them out. of his street violence and gulf. protesters clashing with police setting government buildings a blaze all the soaring unemployment economic stagnation and corruption. plus a suicide bombing reportedly carried out by a british citizen in syria it's sparking fresh fears that hundreds of western

volunteers could pose a threat when they return home from the war. headquarters this is our international live from moscow with me will receive. the twenty fourteen winter games they are now in full swing the first day has been a success for the norwegians up in the mountains and the dutch down on the black sea coast just a bit earlier in the program i spoke with our correspondent paul scott for all the very latest details. the netherlands a prolific speedskating nation and they have plenty to cheer off today one of the sochi twenty fourteen winter olympics they secured a one two three in the men's five thousand meter however there was disappointment

for a russian birthday boy even scope of who could only finish seventh on his thirty first birthday without success for. the netherlands puts them in second place in the medal standings at the moment they are behind norway norway have won more medals in winter olympic history than any other country they currently top the table with two golds to their name we understand has already been a display of true olympic spirit i want to know about that yes well it may be the first day of the sochi winter olympics but the experience has certainly been on display now a number of german athletes would have been under prepared for their events because a machine that they use to prepare their. biathlon competitors basically their machine broke and they were asking around scratching around different federations looking for assistance they went to austria who refused to help but the russians did decide to rivalry to one side and the machine to the german side the germans can prepare for their events now the president of the german olympic sports

confederation has been quoted as saying that i have never experienced this kind of solidarity before in my time as an official so the olympic spirit is certainly on display in sochi and we've talked about spoken about the medals that have been decided on saturday five in total on saturday let's find out a little bit more about those medals he's my colleague. who actually she's a dream to finish and take magill around. and it's a good enough to get one they'll be taking. these goalies reflexive cheese landscape could keep. me just some of the beaches of the black sea it's designed that will be useful in some areas in peaks with

a curiously paralympians will get you to the exits. and olympic gold. always an average of five hundred twenty 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 their 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 olympic debut it's 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 the winners' medals are not worth their weight in gold which is only used as a final casing in fact their rule value is just a few hundred dollars although any athlete will tell you they are in fact priceless andry pharma r.t. . and about with the olympic hopefuls and saatchi is a familiar face from a very different discipline globally we're now in a violinist of an estimate has qualified for the women's slalom representing thailand and she's hoping to deliver a virtuous or performance on the slopes this time around. so explain that. and give the date three days when he. said what he and by you can you get out of these eight days when i played. and had

a show the next day and i have to say that. we. may need. something and i think the minute the i am serious moment it's easy but i got myself. saying. is that he might even say that nobody thinks that he. would like to be in it is he. now will the sporting action was preceded by the glitz gloss of the opening ceremony is that he said with more of the highlights of the show the city is still low 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 culture still city the two and how our so 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 lympics stadium to witness this extravaganza this ceremony featured the olympic parade of nations this time with a difference athletes not didn't enter the stadium from the side as usual but marched right from the middle emerging from the changing mound of the world and of course there was a grand fireworks display to match the dazzling show. well the culmination of the ceremony was of course the lighting of the olympic flame with going to two of russia's most celebrated athletes soviet hockey legend of luck. legendary figure skater. she actually showed her emotions with us here when i see him soon. yes there is a girl is going east so let's look at it it seems it's my destiny to do everything as a pack but it's a fantastic experience it's so great that we've been entrusted with such an honor i have these games will be extremely exciting it's always exciting at the olympics everything is brand new here the weather is beautiful and it's creating

a festive mood for everyone especially the athletes and it's very important because the olympics has long been about so much more than just sports because that's all shared with security very tight in sochi we spoke to one movie star who knows all about keeping people safe stephen so you go here's a friend of lot of. martial arts expert and he believes people should feel very secure at the olympic games i would agree with some of the folks who are saying that 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 and everybody's cooperating and working hard in their own perspective areas so i think that as a world we all support each other to try to make any olympics anywhere in the world a secure wonderful event where politics are kept out of it. you can find out

absolutely everything that is happening from our twitter team our feed has a list section where all the sporting disciplines are sorted into categories it's the simplest way to keep across all the tweets coming from the very people that are competing for gold and an army of fans willing to share their experience of saatchi twenty fourteen online. the g. twenty four promises in the exhilarating winter. make over now and the rest of our lives take justina for sochi twenty four take. on. becoming to live from moscow ten minutes past the hour here with r.t. international for your. work up on saturday to streets of broken windows and smoke rising from government buildings the day before thousands of protesters across the country went on

a rampage in clashed with police authorities have vowed to prevent further violence after the worst rioting going back to the one nine hundred ninety. yeah basically hundreds of people there getting injured in three days of protests so in a state where forty percent of the population is unemployed in the capital city you have both both or at least fired rubber bullets water cannons on tear gas to try and disperse the crowds in other parts of the country protesters for security forces and then torched local government buildings and the unrest initially erupted over the closure of several state owned companies that was sold off and then collapsed on a private ownership political analyst dr mark mason he says the violence is growing into a full blown up rise. forty percent of the population of bosnia they are simply employed without any work whatsoever so these conditions are like a not at all surprising that we have

a mass popular uprising some of the police may come over and that's one of the back doors that has been actually studied by social scientists 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. still ahead here on the program on r.t. international an issue of immigration people in switzerland prepared to decide whether the influx of foreign workers should be all the critics say it's going to be the economy that feels the effect of that. and for now it is damage control in washington this after a leaked recording of a phone conversation apparently involving the u.s. assistant secretary of state ultimately revealing the depths of americans of all

involvement i should say in ukraine's anti government unrest so that would be great i think to help glue. thing and have the u.n. help glue it and you know the e.u. well the use of strong language by victoria nuland was recorded while she was talking to the us ambassador in kiev just called outrage suddenly from the german chancellor angela merkel she called newton's choice of words completely unacceptable international affairs comment had a record as off he says the compensation shows that america's a well overall neglect. to all the states it still continues on a global level. this story would not have gained traction it would not have achieved the exposure it had if that word had not come out i'm afraid that maybe 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 us ambassador is the one that has gained at the

notoriety for better or worse that it has what you're really seeing is just casually and callously of the u.s. state department plots political transformation and other countries outside the legitimate which is say the electoral arena how is it in effect engineers regime change now even going down into the most mind my new particulars as to who should and should not be a future prime minister while the us state department did not deny the authenticity of the recording saying that nuland has already apologized for comments but washington's continued claim that it's not involved in ukraine's political process well it certainly left the state department spokesperson on the back foot. it shouldn't be a surprise that there are discussions about events on this and it's more than discussions though this is the u.s. midwife in the process there is a difference between private discussions that happen in the interagency process in the building and what we convey publicly as a u.s. government that's what you do as. if you're saying privately behind the scenes that

you're cooking up a deal and then you're saying publicly that this is up for ukrainians to decide those are two totally different things are just around the corner here without international a facelift for the israeli army. when the recruiting numbers are down and good commercial just might do the job after a very quick break report white israel's taking to the airwaves to try and boost its combat units. very good intelligence unit attached to u.k. dropping in london. whole range of different opportunities to information they get from the media. people can give them information to get

trained of information across borders is actually quite complicated but what we do is in egypt intelligence function is to use all range of sort of independent information gathering we have relationships for example with interpol helps us find out where there is drug trafficking going on. gridlock. was to build a new. version of leave. anything mission to teach creation why it should care about humans. this is why you should care only.

for the un brokered cease fire. has been broken both sides are blaming each other it has delayed the international aid convoys that were on their way to help civilians a red cross truck has been fired upon and several people reportedly injured as well . as residents were evacuated on friday part of agreements reached at the geneva two conference on the syrian government says it is ready to continue talks with the opposition. but the rebel delegates don't enjoy popular support inside syria where radical islamists dominating the fight against assad and the militants bolstered by hundreds of european volunteers. as. a british you heart is known. 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 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 believe now that there are about three hundred fifty britons over there making up the contingent of some one thousand westerners and this is a new development reinforces of the urgency expressed by a governments here and how the. deal with this specific group of jihad is scary they are contras passport. information is finally come out they were 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 battlefields that we've seen around the world need there rapidity with which we've seen the large numbers of foreigners be drawn to the battlefield is from my perspective i'm

president of the numbers that were being they were hearing created about our news for 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 return home group of britons already threatened to carry out terrorist attacks in the u.k. and this is believed to be the first direct threat to come out of syria reporting from london i'm tesser cilia. the swiss pairing for a referendum on whether to cap immigration polls showing creasing support for the plan to limit the number of foreigners moving to switzerland some warn it could backfire on the economy. has been finding out. 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 at miss underestimated the situation the number of people coming here 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 law 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 this will save the 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 figure is over forty percent so what's behind this push to keep outsiders out of switzerland will some experts say motion 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 summer and it's populist politics and it's just anger in there in this field but as elsewhere in europe anti immigration messages seem to be resonating and pollsters say even voters without political affiliation may vent their frustration calm sunday voters like this. swiss businessman who owns a cosmetics 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 franking without foreigners in there is no way to run to risk this out waiters and cooks from other countries switzerland is highly dependent on this work force for in ten companies in switzerland including nestle are founded by foreigners last year they created around thirty thousand new jobs poets it's a bit weird that now they are against the foibles because they need them i mean we're not stealing the jobs we're just taking the job they don't want to do so that's why i think it's so this so this potentially lou i don't understand 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 forty in switzerland and lucy catherine of. and we come with you live from moscow is the latest edward snowden leaks detail how you came teligent stops at nothing when trying to get the information it needs reports accuse the british intelligence agency of using sex cyber attacks on propaganda to get to the targets the full story for you right now if you dot com. why is there another one for you now the mars rover curiosity captures an image of planet earth taken directly from the surface of the red planet those exclusive photographs for you now on the web site. but for now on the program the israeli army says the number of people willing to serve in combat units is falling forcing the government to look for new ways to try and improve things and the media has been called on to help and now t.v. commercials praising military service have become the latest recruiting weapon all

the survey reports. these really army has a new fight on its hand and 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 week if to put claims he's strong. as is the i.d.f. soldier be managed 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 me 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 as it is sure what i did is important

and 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 and 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 where he's off thinking twice about whether they want to put their life on the line to serve their country you value a lambs also fighting the statistics the it for special unit veteran runs boot camps encouraging high schoolers to follow his footsteps into the i.d.f. elite squads so there you can see that in certain places over in israel the parents. prefer that their kids will see in much more safer places. in. the i.d.f. spokesman peter lerner insists the drop in number doesn't change things. the idea

if i can still keep the country safe 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 combat units the cyber is a very important computer but you need the people that stand in front of the an enemy and save the border for all the glory it will come back here next may not be fighting the biggest battle of their existence heaping themselves going. policy r t tel aviv. thank you so much for joining us here on r.t. international boom bust is coming up here next on the program it but there if you are watching in the u.k. you're about to see parts of los angeles that many choose to ignore.

recently and online poll by the liberal doe's 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 white anger while they pose the question was defending leningrad 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 differs 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 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 distant second then all those great and wonderful me these would have been worked to death and shot a nazi death camp it pays to make a few sacrifices for society fascists my opinion. that. pen there and this is boom bust

i marinate and these of us stories are bringing for you today. accountability in the financial world never ever not well until now three senior banking executives from being now defunct anglo irish bank went on trial in dublin this week we'll tell you all about it coming right up and then author and investment banker first well it is a lot of on the program today we're talking real estate and housing bubbles both past and present and finally it's friday which means it's viewer feedback today here on boom bust and harrison and i address your questions some as concerns a live on the show you won't want to miss a moment so let's get to it. in

dublin ireland this week the trial of three senior banking executives who almost bankrupted the country got underway now the former banking exacts all face charges relating to a loan scheme which attempted to prop up the anglo irish bank during the two thousand and eight financial crisis sean fitzpatrick will and william mcateer face sixteen charges of unlawfully providing financial assistance for the purpose of buying shares in the anglo irish bank now sean quinn a star witness in the trial was at one time the richest man in all of ireland he borrowed billions from the bank to fund a global problem for the celtic tiger boom years however when property prices collapsed across the world when millions had to file for bankruptcy now the anglo irish bank was ultimately bailed out costing the irish taxpayer and european union tens of billions of euros now the case marks a rare criminal prosecution of banking officials involved in the two thousand a lot of praise this and with hundreds of witnesses millions of documents and

a trio of nationally hated figures the trial is. proven to be one of the most complex and controversial in the history of european financial crimes but here's the thing at least ireland is attempting to bring justice to those wrong during the financial collapse and here in the us home of the so-called masters of the free world nothing not one banking executive has been brought to trial sure there have been some fines a couple senate hearings the impression that some form of action is taking place but no real action nothing is taking place in fact jamie dimon he just took on twenty million dollars for a job well done this year at j.p. morgan my new same year that he had to pay billions tens of billions of dollars to the justice department of justice will let you decide.