coming up on our t.v. all eyes are on so she has toppling athletes from around the world compete for gold silver and bronze next to wrap up from the first days of the competition in the twenty second winter olympic games and the u.s. drone program has a new chilling target the obama administration is building a case for a drone strike on an american with alleged ties to al qaeda but there's a catch more on this story straight ahead and he's best known for his action packed films but steven seagal is much more than just a hollywood hero coming up an exclusive look at how he takes down the bad guys both on and off the silver screen.

it's monday february tenth eight pm in washington d.c. and meghan lopez if you were watching r t america well i don't know about you but i was glued to my television all weekend watching the world's top athletes compete at the sochi winter games in sochi russia the massive opening ceremony showcased two thousand eight hundred athletes from eighty eight countries who are competing in ninety eight events and then the competition kicked into gear so let's take a quick look at the medal count up to this point well canada leads with seven medals three golds three silvers and a bronze the netherlands and norway take second and third place also with seven medals each the united states takes fourth place followed by germany russia australia and france. today there were competitions for the men's five hundred figure speed skating women's ice hockey women's singles and lucia and a number of other sports i spoke with r.t.

correspondent paul scott reporting from sochi he gave us some highlights from over the weekend. well i think i think the highlight from a russian point of view is quite easy to point to it came in the figure skating team of and where russia secured gold with a win in the extremely dominant display and there was the emergence of a new star as well fifteen year old usually a late night sky she put into absolutely peerless performances in the ladies' shorts on free programs and really is the new dolling of russian sports and she was helped along the way by a real a real legend a figure skating i'm talking about you have. it was the biggest cheer of the weekend when he took to the ice and he's a really interesting story for you he was touch and go as to whether he was even going to make these games he had a number of injuries he's been plagued by back injuries in the injuries over the years and that to go on such very less than twelve times in recent years but he did come back he was fighting fades and he was equally as foolish in his display in the

men's free program so between them youth and experience fifteen year old. becoming one of the youngest of a gold medal winners in any winter olympics in winter olympics history combined with the legend in the fans favor that is you have any push and i think that was undoubtedly the highlight for russian sports fans over the course of the weekend and i think the who pays in the figure skating and of course other events there's plenty more golds to follow now were there any surprising when that happened over the weekend or even today. the surprises are at a premium at the moment i would say in some respects is absolutely no surprise it's sunny when it comes to the speed skating event where the netherlands the dutch are absolutely a dominant in knots in two events so far they've already had a one two three gold silver and bronze in two events so they are absolutely dominant spend kramer he claimed the men's five thousand meters event in the speed skating down in the arena down by the coast here in the black sea resort of sochi

and there was a silver bronze also went. netherlands an interesting lead today that continuing their dominance with another one two three this time in the five hundred meters and that will a victory for they were twins who actually secured medal so the dutch keeping it in the family that had the one of the twins one gold and the other one won bronze no surprises i would say dutch dominance in the speedskating now norway has historically dominated the winter games are they continuing that trend this year well no i have one more medals in winter olympic history than any other country and they took the lead of the course of the weekend they were on top of the medals table and as we told greit now they are still very much there will thereabouts i think pretty much info place at the moment just behind the netherlands and kind of a let me tell you one interesting story of norwegian ole unappealing doll and he won the biathlon ten k. sprint event on saturday to make him the joint record holder for the most amount of

winter olympic medals in history ironically or perhaps not so surprisingly alongside another norwegian now this evening he had the chance in the twelve in the hoff k. pursuit event to become the single most decorated olympian winter olympian in history but unfortunately he only needed was a top three finish in the twelve and a procedure event bronze would have done it for him it would be his thirteenth winter olympic medals seven of them of course gold but he finished fourth he was a little a little over one second off the pace that prevented him getting that bronze medal and creating history so norway are still very much there were there about spezza i think will be mixed emotions they're saving for only on the dollar and now paul i can hear behind you music i can feel a lot of people moving around despite the fact that it's actually pretty late there in sochi so what's the atmosphere like for you as a journalist covering this yeah well we're actually by one of the many live sites

in and around the sochi region that door to door of around sochi which is a little further along the coast. which is where the coastal cluster race with all the indoor ice events where that taking place and of course up in the mountains across napolitano so these live sites. all around the region wait in the water in sochi by the pool it's on no show if you can you can make it out it is just beginning to wrap up to the atmosphere has been pretty spectacular throughout the course of the evening there's a giant screen west spectators gather to watch all the sporting events and also the medal ceremony which take place every evening at eight fourteen pm of course that's twenty fourteen to represent the spectators are gathered together to watch the medal ceremony there's also a stage which is now closed there's nobody on its. various musical acts all throughout the evening and as i say this isn't the only one in the region so the atmosphere is pretty pretty good a pretty special in and around sochi on the region at the moment and every single evening as well i have to say there's a fireworks display not far from here on out no expense spared it's pretty

spectacular now one of the things that has been obviously dominating the headlines recently is the security situation in sochi so what is this security situation like from your perspective in the olympic village. well the organize is a cane for the security presence to be reassuring rather than overbearing there are around forty thousand police in security office who officers who are in and around the sochi region at the moment and as i say the organizers became that the presence was an intimidating it wasn't overbearing and i think it is reassuring everywhere you look you do see a small gaggle of police officers walking around it does reassure you that the area is pretty secure of course there's a lot of talk about the so-called ring of steel and the fact that they on the rest of all the rest of caucasus region is not far from here on the terrorist attacks in volgograd between christmas and new year of course but the issue of security firmly in the spotlight and i think there was sort of some apprehension some tension

perhaps in the buildup to the opening ceremony last week before the games out slowly started but now the games have begun in the sports are starting to dominate the headlines i think people in and around here are starting to unwind and relax a little bit more r.t.s. paul scott bringing us the latest from sochi games of twenty four team thank you so much stay warm. world athletes are also weighing in on the atmosphere in sochi from hotel rooms to the security situation take a look at this so far everything is going to mazing it's running like clockwork and everything's just going really really well there hasn't been any problems as of as of today my parents have been a little bit worried that it's like just be careful what you do and don't really wear the uniform when you have you know when you don't need to just be a big cattle but the security is really good so it's better than we thought it would be i had a really great time here and i have nothing bad to say so far well organized and people are really friendly here and they're having

a good time however critics are still mincing words snuffing out the olympic flame with comments about the dangerous competition courses and the mass murder of stray dogs are to correspondent on stasia churkin to takes a closer look at the sochi backlash. well some saatchi athletes may gain points in their opponents' take a sleep on the slopes the mainstream media are looking for a more widespread tumble this is during the opening ceremony something look off here yeah a glitch keeping one of the olympic rings from lighting up glitches are more than a regular occurrence in any games but pundits will tear them apart until blue in the face all played in the winter olympics in sochi russia if even a remotely reasonable assessment showing russia and nothing more than a normal light is brought up we've been received well we have a nice hotel our accommodations are justified but from what i hear from some of the athletes who are doing some of the training they're quite satisfied statements like this fall largely on deaf ears while negative tweets about hotel room conditions go

viral for days on end there was a fifteen year old girl who flowed through the air and later ended on ice on. all right and i'm for to care about outcome for your bad was in a hotel room meanwhile america's only recent history has always gets easily forgotten there was corruption at the winter olympe. pic's in the united states several people were tried for this romney was brought in to quote to fix it which he did with millions and millions of dollars from the u.s. government you basically want to know more these days the former presidential candidate is on the news to give his expert take along with other notable sporting event analysts time to rein in the mantle on this actor jiang russo you know him from the godfather if you really want to get into sporting event issues at this last super bowl they busted child sex ring something tells me that ranks up

a bit worse on the scale than the thread count of the sheets in sochi with the simplistic bad guy approach towards decide she games the mainstream media might as well have expected dancing bears drinking vodka at the opening ceremony there weren't any bears on bicycles drinking out of vodka bottles there were no drago didn't show up at any point from rocky. we were all shocked taken aback that the bull crap we've been sold for forty years wasn't dancing around instead an opening reflecting russia's long history and diverse culture a legacy of sochi will be that if it continues smoothly as it has in the competition part as a very successful olympic games the ceremony aired in the u.s. ten hours after taking place with edits made to cut the speech of the head of the i.o.c. and providing little translation context or explanation to the historic episodes presented anchors even going so far as to suggest the viewers google it there's

a tremendous ignorance gap here and this is what the media both creates and panders to as the days go by olympic athletes will show more and more impressive results stealing the show from poisonous media stories while the corporate media outlets continue to play a game of their own turning sports into politics and making news venomous but with already dwindling ratings and as more of their tricks are exposed they may be en route to becoming just white noise as they sit your going to party new york. well one of the mainstream media's biggest criticisms in the weeks and months leading up to the winter olympics has been russia's so-called gay propaganda law and whether russia homosexual athletes will be in danger if they fly and choose to compete in sochi but as the saying goes when you point of blaming finger in someone's direction there are four more that are pointing right back at you the residents a lorry harnessed with more on that.

case you missed it the olympics are going on in russia right now and in case you missed it the american media is rushing to use this as an opportunity to try to make the world think that russia has the worst anti-gay laws on the planet but that's just not true for it in fact according to the washington post the only anti-gay language in russian law is the propaganda of homosexual if them among minors is punishable by in the ministry to fine that's it if you spread a gay propaganda to kids you get a fine in the us however we have a lot more anti-gay legal action eight us states and many cities and counties have

anti-gay provisions in them or as yale university once called them in a paper no promo homo provision you topple have is the advocacy of homosexuality arizona prohibits the portrayal of homosexuality as a positive alternative lifestyle alabama in texas actually mandate that fact education classes emphasize that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and those states also mandate that kids be taught that homosexual conduct is a criminal offense even though that would just be flat out unconstitutional so remember that as you read articles in the new york times about how russia is going to throw gay olympic athletes and trainers in jail for being gay it's just wrong when you watch chevy's ads that feature same sex weddings over shots of america. to protest russia's anti-gay laws it's a load of crap when you read eighties statement that russia's law is harmful to l.

g.b.t. individuals and families and as the birth of society it's a bunch of hypocrisy when cho by any yogurt says they oppose russia's anti-gay law ask them how they feel about america when you hear dr university tell you that they are against russia's laws and support efforts to improve quality tell them to go back to school when you hear president obama making a statement on russia suppose that anti-gay stance that says the u.s. does not abide by this criminal action in any big tell him to review his own country's law the bottom line is no matter how you feel about gay rights the notion that russia has the worst anti-gay laws ever is just plain wrong tonight to talk about that by following me on twitter at the residence.

while immigration reform has dominated the national debate for the past year and yet despite the protests and despite the promises little has actually happened in the realm of reform well it turns out that one change was quietly approved by the obama administration recently the measure would ease restrictions for asylum seekers who might have ties to terrorist groups the notice was put out by the department of homeland security as well as the state department last week announcing the changes people who provided limited military support to terrorist groups will no longer be automatically barred from becoming an american citizen so this would give people like morteza assadi a chance to finally get his green card over a decade after he initially submitted for it now as a teenager assad he handed out flyers for a sect of the mujahideen that opposed the government of ayatollah ruhollah khomeini in iran in the early one nine. eighty six that group was taken off the terror watch list in two thousand and twelve assadi was never an active member or

a contributor to the group and he has been living in legal limbo in for ginia for years as a result of this section of the immigration law some lawmakers have become vocal supporters of this change to the law and a press statement senator patrick leahy said the existing interpretation was so broad as to be unworkable it resulted in deserving refugees and asylum is being barred from the united states for actions so tangential and minimal that no rational person would consider them supporters of terrorist activities but not everyone agrees with the obama administration's recent move senator jeff sessions released an opposing statement saying that it is deeply alarming that the obama administration would move unilaterally to relax admissions standards for asylum seekers and potentially numerous other applicants for admission who have possible connections to insurgent or terrorist groups we need to tighten security standards for asylum not relax them even further. so this move toward more inclusive

immigration standards comes after the president promised to be more robust with his executive actions during this year's state of the union address that happened just last month lawmakers of course have promised for immigration reform this year however with midterm elections right around the corner this recent change could be the only form of immigration reform an american see for quite some time. well while the u.s. is loosening its immigration standards switzerland is tyson tightening its laws voters that narrowly passed a referendum over the weekend that would limit the number of foreigners allowed to live and work in switzerland this is a stark change from the open door policy that the country has promoted in the past along with its other european counterparts voters fear that foreigners are taking over their jobs and causing a spike in the cost of housing are to correspondent lucy catherine off looks at the economic implications of this decision for switzerland as well as for the entire european union. what's will and voted to shut the door to european union workers

setting up a showdown with brussels as well as a potential exit from the single european market now the so-called stop mass immigration initiative was the brainchild of the right wing swiss peoples party which wants strict quotas on foreigners for switzerland to essentially abandon its free movement of people treaty with the e.u. and supporters the we've talked to say that they're worried immigration is driving the lens that is undermining local workers and that is where the public services. had argued that immigration caps would in fact cripple economic growth and experts do say that the swiss in column e. is. not just might or labor especially when it comes to folks with skills to work with fields like here in the with there's a big need for skilled workers but despite the very real economic concerns despite the fact that we're just three percent many voters will ultimately swayed by the argument that switch will simply cannot take in any more people now in order to

understand why you really do have to look at the numbers about a quarter of the country's eight million residents aren't swizz there's been a huge uptick in immigration in fact about eighty thousand new immigrants came just what's real and last year alone the vote will likely mean severe repercussions with brussels you have to remember that switzerland isn't a member of the e.u. but it has signed on to a lot of the blocs policies in order to gain access to the european markets for switzerland sells more than half of everything that it produces with five hundred million customers there's a lot of money at stake here it's historic vote that is likely to have a significant impact on the swiss economy as well as on relations with the countries the european neighbors reporting in burn for r.t. and lucy catherine oh well despite mounting international criticism against the american drone program it appears as though the u.s. has picked next target and this one is an american citizen the associated press has confirmed with four u.s. officials. that the u.s.

is now targeting an unnamed american who is believed to be an al qaeda facilitator and who is actively planning attacks on american citizens overseas officials are now in the process of building a case against the man to prove that a drone strike against him is legal constitutional and necessary the justice department will then present the president with a formal review and the president will have the final say this newest information comes less than a year after president obama promised americans more strict drone regulations in a national ticket defense speech for the record i do not believe it would be constitutional for the government to target and kill any u.s. citizen with a drone or with a shotgun without due process but when a u.s. citizen goes abroad to wage war against america and is actively plotting to kill u.s. citizens and when neither the united states nor our partners are in

a position to capture him before he carries out a plot. his citizenship should no more serve as a shield than a sniper shooting down on an innocent crowed should be protected from a swat team many congress members have expressed criticism against america's use of the drone program even with the new policies that have been put in place those include house of representatives intelligence committee chairman mike rogers the president's may twenty thirteen policy changes for the u.s. targeted strikes are an utter and complete failure and they leave americans lives at risk now the a.p. has agreed to withhold the name of the country of the man in this new matter because they say that it is national security or at least they're told that it's a matter of national security the suspect would not be the first american killed by a drone strike he wouldn't even be the second person to date there have been four americans killed by drones the muslim cleric anwar all locky was killed in yemen

back in two thousand and eleven along with some air con all aki sixteen year old son was killed in another strike two weeks later and then in pakistan jude cannot mohammad was killed in another attack now all along he was the only reported u.s. targeted killing of an american the other three were considered collateral damage meanwhile a new article by glenn greenwald and germy scahill details the national security agency's role in drone attacks according to the article the primary method used to locate targets is a computer analysis of metal data and cell phone tracking technology often times that data is inaccurate and other words instead of using informants on the ground who are watching us suspects movement the drone targets the area where the suspect cell phone is located and sometimes that phone is in the hands of a friend and sometimes that phone is in the hands of a family member rather than on the suspect himself the information comes from a former drone operator who worked for the joint special operations command as well

as the n.s.a. now it was bolstered by an edward snowden docu. and that detail this geo location technique so just when you thought just when you thought that the n.s.a. only controls people's lives it looks like it also plays a role in some people's deaths as well. meanwhile an unlikely ally is working to broker increased cooperation between the u.s. and russia steven seagal is known around the world for kicking butt and taking names an action packed movies like under siege but now he's putting down the toy guns and picking up politics as his next action packed adventure liz wahl reports. one of my missions in this life is to try to bring us together as real brothers last spring six members of congress went to russia to learn more about the brothers accused of the boston marathon bombings they brought along action star steven seagal a friend of russian president vladimir putin to serve as

a diplomatic liaison but as an american was trying to do the best i could. think of for what i believe in and what i believe is that russia is an extremely important ally and the cold war is over and we meaning america should really have an open mind in an open heart in terms of trying to create closer and closer better diplomatic relations with russia he said. in vietnam the seventh degree black belt is best known for his roles in action films like above the law and under siege. under siege. beyond taking down bad guys on the big screen he does it in real life as a reserve deputy sheriff it's all captured in his reality t.v. series steven seagal lawman now in its third season seagal is taking his police work to arizona he's partnered with the infamous sheriff joe arpaio as the top law

enforcement officer in maricopa county arpaio has been criticized over jail conditions and alleged racial profiling we you know the bad guys down and we arrest them and you know over here they're always trying to make these innuendoes the joran part was a racist and a racially profiled and he hates mexicans and it's hilarious because ninety nine percent of guys on my team a mexican and most of the people we arrest are not mexican we don't care if you're chinese japanese filipino german dutch we don't care if you break the law and we could sue. it's to when he's not putting up a fight he's finding his seagal tells us how buddhism shapes his world view what's important is to look into the nature of your mind and find out how we as human beings can help each other how we as human beings can be. more thoughtful.

really practice all truisms be more compassionate and try to make the world a better place there have been rumors of seagal running for governor of arizona we asked him to set the record straight on his political ambitions lot of people who asked me to do it in maybe an arrogant thing to say but i think if i do run or did run i would have a real good shot at winning the problem is. at this point in time i i don't think i qualify because i've only been in arizona for four years and i think you need a five year residency so there's a lot of little things going on but we may run for governor another time so he's not ruling out that governorship for the future or now we'll have to wait and see if his diplomatic efforts pay off and stop the arizona liz wall r.t.

and before we go don't forget to tune in at nine pm for larry king now tonight's guest is former facebook executive randi zuckerberg still talk about how more women could enter the male dominated native tech industry and much more here in a snippet of what's to come at randi brings up the growing addiction to mobile tech and social media. gosh the stats that we found researching this book that thirty percent of women they would rather give up having sex for a month or a year rather than part with their mobile phone for even a weekend fifty percent of the people that we talk to would rather go to prison for a night than deactivate their social media accounts so that is what a complicated relationship is we're not talking about my wife you know i never jumped into that you know it's interesting because there's actually there's all these studies that show that you have kind of dopamine bursts in your brain when you get an email or text such that it's addictive the way cocaine as a deck and i want people course constantly doing you see because it is in the

desert that's why people text and drive the literally risked their own lives and that's a great cause they disagreed and i mean this is it curable i think it is i mean before i started writing this book i wouldn't have thought that tech addiction was even a thing i would have laughed but i truly believe it is a real thing they're treating children as young as four years old all right all you tech junkies so take note down watch the show tonight at nine pm but that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to you tube dot com forward slash r t america check out our web site r c dot com slash usa and don't forget to follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez for now from all of us at r t have a great night.

i'm. a society i think corporation kind of can. do and the banks try to get all that all about money and that's like that for a politician writing a lot and west. bank or something. there's just too much. of a side. that wealthy british style. tires.