because nation when it's fast metal at such a twenty fourteen we're close that the bronze will be followed by a gold later on sunday but aside from the celebration of winter olympic sports. let's bring our buddy and structure in the western media dishes out an avalanche of criticism the raising questions about whether the hype and money are justified plus in the weeks other headlines. and you know. the message reportedly coming from the u.s. assistant secretary of state as a leaked phone call reveals the depths of washington's involvement in new brains political. on the votes are being counted in switzerland following a referendum on a controversial plan to put a limit on immigration. the

latest news and the week's top stories you're watching the week here on r.t. international with me. under our welcome to the program and a russian finds finally have a reason to celebrate every day through all the twenty fourteen winter olympic games in sochi the nation's first medal is a bronze and it's going to all go grab after a breathtaking women's three kilometer speed skating final and a little less more we'll be joined live by our correspondent later this hour but only it was spoke to him and he actually spoken to a man responsible for luring american tourists to song and he says his job has been

made much more difficult by the negative coverage in the media. we've had some people back out because of what they've heard on the news do you think the i mean why do you think there is such negativity in some parts of american media around so even if a year and a half is unjustified i think because of what they call the ring of steel i think this is a very secure place i think i would be more on secure an american classroom that i would be in sochi itself just because of the security here when some of those great jim summers tourists decided to back out would you try to convince them how did you sell stocks into them which will say well we told them that the place where we we would be staying would be in a very secure location. and one of the major parts here of the sochi have lurked on us like a lot and so i think those are about as secure as you're going to get let's talk about the infrastructure that has sprung up around this such a region is sochi set to become a tourist hot spot off to the games you think is going to be

a legacy of tourism here while they're in better position certainly because they build new highways they've got a great train transportation now. in there they're more up to date with their electricity grid and stuff like that so i think they're prepared but as with any city that's going to give birth to a modern resort you're going to have labor pains and you were up in the mountains i believe last night watching this right of course is the name because it is about the spoil what about the venues how they look how they holding up to the beautiful of these ski jump we we saw men's short short jump last night and i was incredible when you're going up the gondola and overworking the ski jump there is just it's quite magnificent it was awesome what a great time. and the team is of course in such a for all of that following all the events that are taking place in the olympic campus so and you can keep up to date anytime by logging on to our official instagram page videos and photos from the olympic capital join us on instagram dot com slash r c and you are keeping

a close eye on sorcery it's slopes trying stadiums and parks as well counting the models following the reaction and bring you all the latest updates on air and on our website our dot com and our correspondent paul scald is coming up shortly live from sochi let's now wait over that moment as well. the g twenty four team promise to be called to meet in the exhilarating winter boards in. germany and use in the way i'm a criminal and the rest of our look at news team for sochi twenty four take. on r.t. . and while this week a massive gas by a top u.s. diplomat revealed washington's true ambitions for the anti-government protests that have split ukraine as well as its attitude towards other european partners are unimportant to reports in ukraine we stand for the principle that all people have

the right to express themselves freely in peaceful. and they have a say in their country's future as it turns out washington isn't just cheering from the sidelines. in this video posted anonymously on you tube my understanding from that u.s. assistant secretary of state victoria nuland and the u.s. ambassador in the kieve are heard orchestrating ukraine's political future playing a game of verbal chess with ukraine's opposition leaders i think yats is the guy who's got the economic experience the governing experience he's he's the guy you know what he needs is clear on a book on the outside he needs to be talking to them four times a week the embarrassingly conversation goes from bad to worse when washington senior diplomat drops the f. bomb dismissing the european union's role in ukraine 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 the state department has shifted into damage

control refusing to confirm the authenticity of the audio while admitting that victoria nuland has apologized to her european allies for the profanity she's apologized for a comment to she's not admitting she made which is itself a confirmation that the comment wasn't indeed made but will she hasn't apologized for the plans to midwifery new government in ukraine you know the way she's she's apologizing for you but she's not apologizing for trying to overthrow a government in kiev and calling it popular democracy the diplomatic scandal here as nuland arrived in ukraine for her second visit in less than two months back in december she was walking around independence square handing out snacks to protesters this time around the assistant secretary of state promised to feed the country with financial support if necessary political reforms are implemented at a press conference nuland refused to comment on what she called a private diplomatic conversation this is a devastating revelation and

a very important revelation because it show. that washington is not only manipulating but washington is dictating who shall be in the government and they have taken the power away from the people. bring up or naive party. victoria nuland hues of strong language has caused outrage from germany's chancellor angela merkel has dismissed the comments as unacceptable and lurd the new voluntary to speak of the belgian parliament says the conversation is a clear demonstration of how america really regards are the state open to real good diplomacy behind closed doors this confirms a long stance of the united states and the e.u. by the way towards the new countries dillies dana to should feel totally democracy . going to countries this once more undermines the whole country of transparency

and democracy building and but to do building of political institutions these are all ideological afterwards into ones politics in other countries and also by the way shows how casual these people can talk about the the politics of another country. and now back to our top story on the twenty four same wintel of pigs in sochi russia in front of finally have a reason to celebrate on day two over against the nation's first medal is a bronze and has gone to all the grounds of breathtaking women's three kilometers speed skating event and to tell us more his aussie is paul scored live from sochi hi there paul so tell us more about russia's found success. well the all not over russia's first medal at these home games goes to older graf she claimed to bronze in the women's three thousand meter speed skating event in the adler arena however she was powerless to stop the dot dutch domination of the event but i reinvest

claiming gold and russian sports fans will be hoping that the first medal of these games is closely followed by the first gold medal of these games a little bit later on on sunday there were three rounds left in the figure skating team of ent and russia currently lead the overall standings helped in no small part by a perilous performance from fifteen year old you need sky in the ladies' short program another big hype for a place on the podium is forty two year old al but he's announced that he's going to retire after these games and he's hoping to go out on a high he's currently in second place in the hof way stage of the men's louche competition which also concludes later on sunday evening while there's also hopes of home success in the women's biathlon seven and a half kilometer sprint so let's take a look at the medals table and how things look at the moment and you can see that norway currently still lead the way but the netherlands and the united states of america are not far behind so we are now well in to day two of these winter

olympics and it's the athletes who are starting to make the headlines however these games are still being plagued by negativity in some parts of the american media as you saw me discuss with my guest brian white a few moments ago my colleague honest honest to see it now has more. hundreds of world class competitions involving thousands of top notch athletes sports fans all over the world rejoice it's time for a live big game fun again and some of them are pretty disgusting but why feed the excitement word of a possible new terror threat character a terror threat terrorist threat and your world champion and multiple gold medalist for buzz kill. the western mainstream media and the olympics is a wonderful time for contrails to get together in order to despise each other and or treat each other like crap it's only happened once every two or four years you

know there's not a lot of time you've got to come together and hate each other and not a second has gone to waste from picking any little thing that might be off to fifty toilets but not one that could be flushed to toilets i buy that i have two toilets right next to each other just spells party that doesn't spell bad conditions three million years to be exact trapped one very tiny room left if that paint there trashing things the problems that that come up in every olympic games as these were unique to sochi olympic stadium has always been accused of being an overpriced boondoggle that was constructed shoddily not ready until the very last second every single one that i can remember a media war against the saatchi olympics taken to a ridiculous extreme but my impression of fox news is that they're just sitting around the office and they go hey it looks like no one's russian to get to sochi am i right i'm going to go eat lunch. fine there's definitely who are spinning tiny

flaws into viral sensations facts or actual sports reporting be damned. it's really kind of unpleasant to watch more to the point it's pretty counterfactual as well going so far as to say that the games are being held in a war zone as opposed to what's really a black sea resort. even though plenty of work went into security hysteria reigns the airwaves boatwright of something bad happening in sochi well it's increasing by the day taking the fear of yes toothpaste to an extreme toothpaste containing explosive material it is terrifying all right did you hear all. the tooth paste is going to explode it was even staging tests on hiding explosives and tubes were c.n.n. commissioned this changed i start brushing my teeth i stop loss and i think that might help solve the problem no matter how much the media act as the doomsayers of

the games toothpaste will be toothpaste and nonsense will be nonsense in the end the olympics will celebrate joy excitement and victory there will be winners and there will be losers hopefully able to move on with at least some snippets of dignity you're not concerned at all you're really not really truly can we piece about why and especially if you're going to r.t. new york. and more world news coming your way after a short break. or . well. it's technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future

covered. i marinate join me. for impartial and financial commentary interviews and much much. only on bombast and only.

this is the week here on r.t. welcome bach votes being counted in switzerland following a referendum on proposals to limit the number of immigrants allowed to come and walk in the country the bill could put susan and all those with the e.u. on free movement with it also home country's economy as she is in this account of her poor. well today is the day that swiss voters decide whether to put up new immigration barriers to their european neighbors a vote that could trigger the country's exit from the single european market the nationwide referendum could count the number of e.u. citizens who get residency permits here which would undo a longstanding deal that lets swiss an e.u. nationals move really essentially an open borders agreement now to understand what's really behind this initiative you do have to look at the numbers switzerland has a population of just eight million people but it's seen a massive rise in immigration over the past decade in fact an estimated eighty

thousand new residents come here each year and one fifth of the population is foreign born and that's simply too much according to the right wing swiss people's party which has pushed this referendum forward we think we have to respond to tell the people we have to change our constitution we have to write that switzerland controls to immigration again and that's what we're going to do now critics of the initiative say that it sends the message that foreigners aren't welcome they also warn that it could cripple businesses this economy is actually booming just three percent unemployment here and experts believe that's because of not just going to foreign labor especially folks who have skills to work in fields like health care or internet technology and if you look at the arrivals from the e.u. between for example twenty ten and twenty twelve a large majority sixty nine percent in fact were highly skilled now there is also the issue of brussels switzerland isn't a member of the european union but it has signed on to

a lot of the blocks policy in order to gain access to that single market i mentioned earlier where switzerland sells half of everything that it produces that access of course could all be at risk. there are serious problems in terms of labor recruitment and. there will be erosion of the relations to european union. this. is not compatible with the treaties which are signed between switzerland and the european union so this will lead to. the existing treaties they will be. finished. with salute is a very very complete roof because it's highly on the european market well for now upon and of immigration are still a minority but opinion polls have shown the initiative gaining traction there could of course always be a surprise at the ballot box and will simply have to wait and see what is evenings

results to find out we're putting in zurich switzerland i'm lucy kaplan. a nun and a churchgoer have been cold on russia's sun holly an island in the far east of the country after shooting inside of a three troll a gunman armed with a rifle opened firing during six other parishioners the suspect who was detained right after the incident was an employee of a private security company investigators are trying to determine the motives of the twenty four year old church it's a lot more international news in brief this hour that two owners of a bangladesh clothing front tree have been denied bail after they surrendered to the authorities on sunday the husband and wife are facing homicide charges for a massive fire that killed one hundred twelve workers two years ago the couple could be sent to prison for life or found guilty in five considered the deadliest in a nation that to use as cheap labor and relies on garment exports to the u.s. and here were. secure as you saw security sources say

say a bomb explosion in yemen has killed a senior intelligence colonel and wounded to other people the blast happened outside the oil ministry building in the capital sana'a the latest attack on top officials isn't this the militants are with ties to al qaeda are thought to be behind that. an airstrike in gaza has critically wounded a palestinian her according to the israeli military was behind multiple rocket a tyrant the man is said to be in a critical condition has been identified as a member of a small militant group in gaza and was hit while riding a motorcycle according to israel's army thirty three rockets have been launched into the country since this start of the year. rolls three thousand protesters wave flares and lit fires during a rally against what they call state repression and this punished capital madrid demonstrators are unhappy would be governments recent legislation allowing them to

be fined for filming police and joining and with wires arriving in spain such as regular protests because of a steady measures and twenty six percent unemployment one of the highest in europe . a new e.u. report this week pointed to a wave of corruption sweeping through the bloc brussels estimates that losses thanks to shady deals amount to billions of euros. their estimation that corruption costs in the european union is no less than one hundred twenty billion euros each year and that is the equivalent of an e.u. annual budget so it's a lot of money we're talking about the figures were revealed by the e.u.'s home affairs commission in its first ever annual report on the subject the agency's chief called the problem breathtaking and warned it eroding trust in democracy and philip plays and they pay for their flemish nationalists passes as while highlighting bribery on

a national level they reported north brussels overall complexity. problems in some member states are huge and widespread and the problem within the european union is that all the member states are in danger of being contaminated the by this problem because when you are in the euro zone for instance and when one of these member states in the eurozone has a big corruption problem world this problem will be felt by the other member states within the euro zone that's a problem with greece for instance so the problems in one country are becoming more and more the problems of the other member states would i find surprising them with i find interesting at the same time is that the european commission has made this report on corruption in the european union but it didn't make a survey of corruption within its own institutions and didn't have any specific

information about corruption with the e.u. funded projects. french far right activists around it in paris against the all female pressures group from an accusing it of provoking the country's christian community hundreds gathered in the center of paris calling on famine to shut down of its headquarters in the french capital and return to ukraine read the full report on our website. and this revealed just exactly how it was snowden managed to get his hands on such a vast amount of classified n.s.a. data find out more now. a british council fighting extradition to the uighurs accuse their government over would cope towing to washington the dominance of phase line behind bars in america on charges of fraud which they vehemently deny and the pair claim british officials

are refusing to stand up for their rights as to see their reports one morning fourteen months ago a life changing knock on the door with two policemen from scotland yard and they said were i was sorry mr dunham would come to arrest you and your husband since then they've been out on bail and are fighting extradition to the united states to await trial after claims from the dunham's former company in the us that they have more than one billion dollars in illegitimate expense claims something the couple say you are without merit showing as evidence that they've gathered the dumb say they're not afraid of trial but their worst fears be said to the states is the possibility of being denied bail and spending here is behind bars apart from one another simply waiting for their day in court if we're away from this country is my father's eighty four very good chance he would have asked why we're confident we would win. because we are innocent but we would then be shipped but the u.k.

there's no compensation and. wrongful act for the ocean. can you imagine coming back to this country you know three or four years later no harm no money no job and you are now in you know sixty two sixty three years by and trying to rebuild your life controversy has long surrounded the u.s. u.k. extradition act of two thousand and three signed in the wake of nine eleven critics claim the agreement is biased against the u.k. if you're a u.s. citizen wanted by the u.k. government you have a higher standard of evidence that you need to provide in the u.s. and also as a u.s. citizen you have the opportunity to go to a u.s. court to plink your case and unfortunate for british citizens there is no such opportunity to have your evidence tested in the u.k. court before you were exploited and that's a basic unfairness to an independent review in two thousand and eleven found at the treaty quote does not operate in an unbalanced manner but this contradicts findings

of the parliament's joint committee and human rights which called for a renegotiation to ensure british citizens get the same protections as americans conservative m.p. who sits on the committee looked at nationalities of those extradited and found at thirty five britons have been said to be us and steve thousand and four versus just five u.s. nationals who may be opposite journey that seven times more but for every argument on this side of the atlantic a counter is thrown back the united states has never denied a request under the treaty whereas the united kingdom has denied multiple requests from the united states if the relationship is in balance i would say it's imbalanced against the united states but that is little comfort to the don imus and others like them who teeter on the edge of desperation knowing it's very lives at stake from the moment they put us on a plane. first opportunity we can't. just or sylvia

our t. london. well the pot is next on international. the first recreational marijuana shops are now open in colorado finally the question of what effect legal marijuana will have on the american public can be answered with real world experience you know there are a lot of people out there with strong arguments as to why we should legalize this controversial play it firstly there are plenty of things just as bad for us as marijuana or worse like beer cigarettes anti-depressants and mystery fast food meats which are totally legal secondly young men are often thrown in jail for the absolutely victimless crime of smoking marijuana i could see punishing someone for drugs like crystal meth which can and do turn people into maniacs but have any of

you out there ever heard of someone breaking into people's houses on a we ramp age no no you haven't the downside to all of this is that across america the world people are looking for change and they want to massive storm rise but when the masses are stoned out of their minds it makes things in life that we shouldn't tolerate become very tolerable we now call allow us to make it through another day of our miserable lives so that we can live without going through all that effort of trying to make things better or challenge the system legalizing weed will just pacify the masses even more but that's just my opinion.

hello and welcome to worlds apart the collapse of the soviet union seemed to agree or firm capitalism as the only viable economic system only to see it down to a major crisis a few decades later and as the whole world still struggles to recover from the downturn brought about by the greed and excesses of a selected few can capitalism be really trusted to reform itself well to discuss that i'm now joined by russia sylvia one of the founders of the conscious capitalism movement mr society thank you very much for your time and you know in the later years of the soviet union when structural deficiencies for already obvious some of the fishes talked a lot about the need to create socialism with a human face and a deal was that it would be based on the same with comic principles but with human

experience add the core of its value system and i think many thought it was redundant because social is by its very definition it was supposed to be humane and had these human streak about it isn't capitalist by its very definition supposed to be conscious and rational well let me go back to your premise which is about socialism being inherently rude to me the way in which it was expressed actually ran counter to human nature because human beings want to be free we are unique species that actually not only creates value but exchanges where and with each other this is something we're almost programmed to do and if you look historically across civilizations in a human societies every time we have been given the freedom to focus on what we choose to focus on and then to be able to exchange with others we have prospered through the wasn't deny that in the ideology of socialism their idea was that if

you are the. ad that was the highest form of freedom when you could contribute to decide and by doing so also improve your own wellbeing that was at least the ideology that was arguably never put into practice i think the underlying premise of socialism is the notion of a fixed by and therefore the onus is on the fair distribution of those limited goods or those outcomes fundamentally what capitalism shows us and what business is all about isn't expanding by that there's almost no limit to the amount of value that can be created when people come together and they cooperate and they elevates the amount of value that there is exchange constantly and if you look at an i phone you buy it for a few hundred dollars this several billion dollars of technology that's inside of that but through the system we're able to get access to that militantly much lower amounts and this is you know the opportunity to create an expanding pool for you.