world record. the russian figure skating pair of wow judges with their short program and continue their pursuit for gold plus. no need to. go ahead today despite the fine weather. a ukrainian judge who ruled against rioters involved in the storming of government offices is shot dead by on their own the same lens in that case that police are viewing as a revenge attack. a lot of the people you know that see the. earlier . r.t. travels to south africa to explore the nation's struggle to overcome corruption

poverty and deep divisions left after the passing of nelson mandela. you're watching artsy international with. welcome to the program day five all the saw to winter olympics is in full swing and artsy is of course continuing its special coverage now there is plenty of action on the slopes spot for russian fans right now it's all about the figure skating the. call have already made history in the pair short program with a record score and they're on their way to restoring their country's dominance in sports well arty's andrew farmer is in the mountain cluster and he discussed what's in store with only so now a down and studio. sun is at the sudan on my back as i speak and that's

prompted concerns about the possibility of melting snow but organizers have insisted that everything is fine and all events will go ahead as shai jewel today and that's included the women's downhill which produced an absolute classic we've seen a dead heat between slovenia's tina maze and swiss since dominic design and that means they will both walk away with a gold medal and that has never happened in this event in the olympics before but coming back to the weather just yesterday temperatures were as high as plus sixty degrees up rose a plateau where the extreme park is held we also saw a number of crashes in the men's cross-country skiing and some of fleets of suggested that this is because of mushy snow when i spoke to one athlete from new zealand early this morning and she said you know what athletes just have to get on with it. coming into this event you know we know such as a little bit warmer we know the pipe conditions can be a little bit bearable we travel all around the world and we ski different halfpipe

so you know as a professional athlete you turn up to a half buy and you just have to adjust to it so i'm not worried i know by the time my event comes up the pipe is going to be perfect and i should also mention that here in sochi it has got europe's biggest snow making system that's got hundreds of tons of snow stored under special blankets up in the mountains which they can shovel out when it's needed and they've also got hundreds of snow makers up there so if needed and it might be temperatures are due to rise again tomorrow they have at least that to fall back on it's quite warm down here in the coastal cluster as well but returning to figure skating what are russia's chances of winning gold in the paris skate tonight their high hopes are there but are also high notes for maxine frank of intensity on evolution they are within touching distance of getting that gold medal in the pairs it's the free skate tonight and they have chosen a piece of music for that which is very close to their heart says andrew lloyd webber's. jesus christ superstar so what could possibly go wrong well the only bad

omen i can think of is that a number of figure skaters have used his music in the past but none of them have won a limb pick gold in fact the closest any of them has first come to doing that with silver in vancouver but i don't think that's going to be a factor did you think in fact i could be being a little bit stupid by suggesting this and it certainly doesn't deter the russians . but it's one of our free skating programs will be andrew lloyd webber's musical jesus christ superstar in fact i've been dreaming of making this happen sousa was a child a love affair in march last year we saw this musical on broadway and now it's time to perform it all selves if you just i can see the larva new program the enjoy fine tuning into a lot with every single training session we discover someone you insist to make it even better i'm sure it will be all for the olympics yeah and if they did win gold tonight they truly would be superstars they would be a limb pick world and european champions. and we've been hearing from top athletes

from all over the world on their experiences of course up a saucy winter games and here's what some of them had to say. i'm definitely impressed with the russian did everything is wallace the. taking very good care and i think that's all that matters for the games being so close it feels like just a big family. is very exciting the night of the crowd was there there was some new sphere so definitely olympic by before you come over and i really sure would to expect and. you know everything's been great so far whether it's you know the food or the commendations or the rooms or you know the village seems to be. unbelievable just from the outside and going in and practice and so we have a great set up you know in the village it's been great so far. we're going to. a good push the food every day and we get to meet with other assets and it's been

a pretty good set up so for. all the latest on the olympics is available online and our special selection twenty fourteen dollars r.t. dot com right now we're reports in there on how the russian president is and says hainan foreign the gas and such and you're about to see it or maybe you have already and of course we'll be bringing you live updates on all the sporting events . in other news in central kiev and central ukraine i should say a judge died in hospital overnight that's after being shot at by are known assailants police believe the attack may be linked to his professional activities and for more on this i'm now joined live by our team. i like say hello to you what kind of professional activities are the police referring to here where the thirty four year old judge. by dmca died as you said overnight from the multiple wounds he

received presumably from a shotgun two shots were fired at him according to the interior ministry board and they do connected with his professional look to us this is not a first case of adjudged killed in ukraine assassinated in ukraine but definitely given what's happening in ukraine right now the fact which is drawing the biggest attention is that he recently dealt with several of those rioters who attempted to take over the administration building in this particular town of crimean and he placed them under house arrest they haven't met yet been convicted even though they are charged with inciting inciting we've all day or anything of the kind but he put them under house arrest and several days later he was killed there is no direct connection between the activists he put on the house arrest and his murder because he's been dealing with some other cases mostly civil cases like returning of debts different inheritance splitting of property this may have caused his assassination

ministry are about that at the moment but definitely given what's happening in ukraine as i've said in particular with so many radicals taking part in those poll just of course this is drawing attention in the first place so we're not hearing about a direct link naturally with everything that he was doing before that's what many people are soon experts of course while you were there during the unrest in kiev so you got a chance to see anyone speak to the protesters from both sides how radical are they would you say you see the protest itself the part which is happening in kiev it's split at the moment there are protesters who consider themselves as peaceful. there are radicals and the recent interview by the radicals leader the movement which is called the so-called prophet probably sect of the right wing sect it seems they're not controlled by anybody anymore they're not taking orders from the country's political opposition they're not taking orders from anyone they have their own conditions which they put forward to the authorities and waiting for these conditions to be fulfilled and moreover which is very peculiar here in that

interview mr jarosz the leader of the of the right wing sect the said that if the authorities use live rounds against them against the rioters against the protesters they have something to respond with which is definitely giving more fuel to the whole situation suggesting that they have live weapons stored in those houses they've taken over and definitely this is causing serious concerns now in ukraine so no signs of them backing down in the not at the moment. thank you very much. ok well we'll be moving on with more news coming your way included in the upcoming trade pact between the e.u. and the u.s. the so-called consequence of trade and investment partnership negotiated behind closed doors promises an economic boost could see european governments losing ground to foreign corporations. and destroyed the strop and discredit snowden's leaks shalhoub writes our spines have been plants in misinformation and or in the poets and so on the traps all the details after the break.

there's a city when you're in the arctic you have feel entire world at your feet she looks like a fairly simple ship but really she's not simple. and full of people have access to the nuclear icebreakers the real king here is the polar bear and ice breakers come second not a single complex expedition to the arctic can be conducted with the russian nuclear powered fleet of ice breakers under. operation in. the northern sea route russia's arctic ice breakers.

welcome back to r.t. international now crowds will be flooding the streets of johannesburg in a few hours time for a rally led by south africa's democratic alliance opposition party activists want to raise the pressure on the governments over corruption soaring crime rates and widespread poverty artie's policy or reports on the on rice that's been deepening since the death of nelson mandela. we're about to enter one of the most dangerous

townships in one of the most dangerous cities in the world this is the south africa that mandela left behind never know what to expect when you go on the most recent days of the quiet some days you just up and down there are a lot of downs in south africa now days away from the cameras all is not well in the land of mandela twenty six year old constable corrode burma later knows it all too well for five years he's been patrolling the streets of johannesburg to try and instill some sense of order. and now we are entering. there's a large majority of. poverty. a lot of that the early hours of the two for better life better way of the. crime where i am right and the few places in south africa today we crime is more rampant or poverty more in demick than alexandra township twelve kilometers northeast of johannesburg it

was once the headquarters of the african national congress and the same to of anti-apartheid activism but it's as if time has stood still here many residents feel forgotten by mandela south africa is quite frightening situation for us but if . you really make the best effort this morning township is home to maybe a quarter of a million mostly black south africans sixty percent of them are grindingly poor and unemployed as we drive along the stench of mounds of garbage overwhelms us the stats are sobering each day on average more than fifty people are murdered in south africa another fifty attempted murders take place more rape happens here in a country of fifty two million people than in india a country of one billion the police are struggling to cope. here rick. can i answer that truthfully. yeah you can say real sufficiently to

me or yeah but it's up to us to. train the police. and understaffed and according to a new poll a staggering eighty three percent of south africans believe they're also corrupt which means the good guys like a robber and his partner often put their lives on the line without sufficient backup do you think skate or make any difference to a situation. we can only hope. for to those days but. the residents of alexander though are too busy packing their daily reality to worry about what life without mandela will bring twenty years after he came to power they still waiting on promises of jobs and economic prosperity. and xander township south africa. and over on our website so voiceless majority

genetically modified mace crops are likely to answer forms in the that's the spied staunch opposition from over a half of the unions member states that stores a line for you right now also there it turns out that causing atomic armageddon does not necessarily require a huge bomb newly released reports show that u.s. special troops during the cold war were trained to use backpack nukes capable of massive scale carnage behind enemy lines. right on the street. first street. and i would think that you're. on our reporters when they're. in school. to be in the. hot.

will continue now with the europe which is set to lift on almost all goods imports of from the united states the move follows talks on the sole call transatlantic trade and investment partnership treaty the idea is to provide an economic boost on both sides of the atlantic bought as artie's marina portnoy reports the changes could give corporations on precedents of influence over governments tonight i'm announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive transatlantic trade and investment partnership with the european union because trade that is fair and free across the atlantic supports millions of good paying american jobs. grand promises minus any explanation it's been one year since the us president announced the establishment of a transatlantic free trade agreement known as taft they had been negotiated in total secrecy away from the congress and the people. the better about six

hundred corporate executives corporate lobbyists. negotiating the deal with the united states trainer of the two. with the other countries sweeping u.s. surveillance has cast a cloud over negotiations as germany threatened to pull out outraged over washington snooping on its european partners but if the free trade treaty actually goes through it promises both sides of the atlantic massive gains of up to one hundred fifty nine billion dollars as more exports are expected to create more jobs but the profits could come at a cost to citizens critics say the treaty would get rid of policies put in place to protect the people danger here is that this will amount to deregulation that basically will be a race to the bottom and health and safety standards will be diminished in an attempt to create some kind of huge market was the same standards for example genetically modified foods are not labeled in the u.s.

while in europe it's mandatory but in the name of free transatlantic trade any regulations against rose is an impediment to trade and therefore. should no longer call they're simply removed by the trade agreements. then europe is ordinarily open. to g.m. . regardless of what the european people walk under the treaty cars and pharmaceutical drugs could reportedly eyed up being tested only one spy the exporting country instead of the current standard of dual testing be it fracking banking or flying taft critics argue will leave governments with no choice but to change policies that better suit the business needs of private corporate power what their hope is is to have to find the lowest common denominator between the u.s. and and and e.u. standards that then make it more easy for there to be quote unquote trade big call

our regulations and our standards that hurts. health and safety treaty they're called as opposed to barriers and and we believe that those many of those standards are there for very good reason public support for safety standards and regulation may be the very reason american and european citizens have been kept in the dark about what may turn out to be the world's largest free trade agreement. new york. and in other global news straight fry it's have broken out in rio de janeiro following the deaths of two young men in a police shooting security forces used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up cell phone crowds brazilian police claim the victims were suspects in the robbery and were fired on while trying to flee demonstrates a say the men of war and this since. about one thousand homes have been evacuated due to flooding in sao there in england and wales with

hundreds of residents still at risk severe flood warnings are still in place with strong winds snow and sore and brains expect that throughout wednesday the extreme weather which has been factoring the u.k. since the end of last week has been already called the worst in decades causing large scale damage. several members of an taliban militia have been killed in pakistan's northwestern city of peshawar gunmen entered the house of the group's chief shooting him dead along with eight of his relatives the incident has dealt a blow to the government which has been forcing militias some of the taliban in the country's tribal zones and it comes despite. talks. sending out viruses hijack and social media accounts and bringing down computer networks those may sound like hackers techniques but they're also in the arsenal of

brits and spies according to leaks from edward snowden or tiscali boy support the tactics being used by g c h q. list of g.c.a. latest antics reads a bit like a cartoon villains manual edward snowden has revealed that a covert unit within the agency is messing with targets social media accounts so that changing their profile pictures on facebook they're posting i'm deleting status says and they're sending cryptic messages to their friends and family containing dissent from ation about them now g c h q's joint intelligence threat research group even uses on waiting journalists to funnel information about potential targets and they're also into honey traps they pose as attractive women online in order to get potential targets to meet with them in person i think what's unique in this area it's the first public proof that we've seen that serious issues

of illegality have been brought forward the interference of other people's communications the violation of the privacy of hundreds of thousands of people if the government knows everything about true information is power and then they have enormous power over you which we always say something interesting here with all these revelations what does the blackmail start do you see h.q. isn't a spy agency like m i five or m i six it's a government agency tasked with collecting and analyzing data and yet these most recent revelations show that they're also includes sending viruses and launching denial of service attacks against websites the attempt to do denial of service attacks organizations they don't like are deliberate attempts to obstruct to deceive i think was the phrase they use they say they call it deny disrupt degrade and deceive i mean it's like

a james bond movie but this is this is the stuff they're doing and have been doing for years but this is the first proof that anybody's had that they've actually done it and yet how kids who don't work for g c h q. face prison if they do the same and they campaigning for civil liberties here in britain say they want to know why probably boy k. azzi london. police h.q. may be playing dirty but it's still lagging behind this larger partner america's national security agency that's when it comes to the scale of its spying operations and internet freedom campaigner told us that mass online surveillance is making people increasingly reluctant to speak out and see anybody advocating for the removal of curtains in everybody's house because we have nothing to hide i think that there's an expectation of privacy here in the u.s. and around the world that's not being respected and when when that expectation is not respected free speech suffers we are much less willing to speak our minds

online or offline if we know we're being watched and recorded and tracked are much more less willing to engage in political activism to assemble to organize ourselves for whatever causes we believe in and if we feel like the authorities are watching our every move and even if the authorities right now might not necessarily be antithetical to the things that we believe in maybe the next president or the next congress or the next government will be and know to be able to use all of this data that they're collecting against us. more news for you in about half an hour from now a clash of opinions next n.p.r. lavelle's crosstalk after a short break to stay with us. i

marinate join me. for in-depth impartial and financial reporting commentary contribute and much much. only on the bus and. that is obviously more for the ladies because it's pink. women wanted to avoid rate they really need to buy guns and learn how to use them. this is the one that i want to go with but once again it's the fear factor for women definitely the target of the gun lobby one you don't kill them when you kill anybody but if somebody would you would just prefer. i know to say more and more if that's really scary marketing tactics which implies that women have some sort of moral obligation to own guns to

protect their family and young girls shoot out here too so we do have a pink or. more kids young kids choke on food than are killed by firearms if being armed made us safer in america we should be the safest nation on earth were clearly not the safest. you know. united states has as many think tanks as the next ten countries combined yes one thousand eight hundred twenty eight takes to tell three hundred million people how to sing. one of the wonderful marman along. the face i'm sure you don't own.

a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i'm sure. the few. economic ups and downs in the final. days the longer the deal and the rest until you meet a few it will be a briefly told me. as

a. glowing welcome across all things are considered i'm peter lobo elise conversation of two american officials the f. bomb and an agenda revealed a senior u.s. state department official victoria nuland and the american ambassador to ukraine said on tape what many have claimed all along. plans to overthrow the elected government in here on this edition of crossfire our scow this embarrassing leak changes the political battlefield in ukraine. to cross-talk developments in ukraine i'm joined by my guests no voice in washington he is director of the rice institute for serbian studies in new york we have cars cousy o. he is a research associate at the canadian institute for ukrainian studies at the university

of alberta and in london we crossed to alexander me curious he is an analyst and writer on legal affairs for a journal in cross talk rules in effect means you can jump in anytime you want and i encourage it alexander i go to you first in london this week with victoria nuland were you surprised by it all because for a lot of circles around particularly in this part of the world it confirmed a lot of what people thought all along that this is a not so covert overthrow of a legitimately elected government in kiev saluki that's exactly what it is let's be absolutely clear about this what nuland and the ambassador would call talking about was who is to be the prime minister of the ukraine miss nuland wants. to be the prime minister of the ukraine not mystically who is the other opposition leader who is currently more popular and she wants to. do this into a way that is contrary to the actual government of the ukraine which is led by mr

curve which so we have a situation where the united states through missing you newland is actually maneuvering to put its person in charge of the ukraine against the government there and in ways that do not conform to the constitution or the laws of the ukraine or and which have nothing to do with the election with elections in the ukraine terrace in new york city how did you react to the to the leaked conversation because it's quite embarrassing and i would suppose if you take it at face value it shows the true intentions of the united states about regime change and care of. i think this is i wasn't very. i didn't think this was such a great big deal every government whether it's european union britain america russia as well will be discussing between themselves who they would like.