coming up on r t four days ukraine has been caught in the grip of chaos lives have been lost while protesters and authorities clash now a peace deal has been reached between the government and opposition leaders but will it calm the storm of violence the latest on ukraine just ahead and the sochi olympic games are near the end of competition team usa took on canada and men's hockey for a chance to play for gold will have an update from sochi coming up. and opposition to the u.s. drone program in yemen continue to grow a new human rights watch report claims that a drone strike on a wedding party violated president obama's rules to protect civilians more on the u.s. drone program and later in the show. it's

friday february twenty first happy friday everyone eight pm in washington d.c. i'm not in lopez and you are watching r t america well let's begin tonight in ukraine it's a country that has commanded attention from the mainstream media this week with images that look like scenes from world war two or from the end of times. these are the sights and sounds that have been broadcast around the world from ukraine people can't help but look because this is a first world country with deep rooted culture that appears to be collapsing in on itself viewers around the world care at least temporarily anyway because the images are absolutely captivating and will continue to be until the next crisis comes along anyway now at the end of this while it's could be in the making as we speak a peace deal has been reached between the ukrainian government and opposition

leaders that is expected to end all of the bloodshed earlier i spoke with r.t. correspondent alexei yarrow sheff ski who was on the ground in ukraine and i first asked him to outline the terms of this new deal. well essentially this is the biggest concessions that the ruling party could have ever made to the opposition and not only because they agreed to hold the early election although the date has not yet been set. and even though the even agreed to return to the constitution of ukraine of two thousand and four which essentially gives more power to the parliament rather than the president something that he only called which changed in twenty ten when he was his second year in office he basically gave powers to himself now it's going back again to the parliamentarian republic here in ukraine but the probably the biggest concession and this is unimaginable to be completely honest with you i was shocked when i heard the news that the parliament ratified the lower decriminalizing the criminal law the article of the criminal code of

ukraine which landed. because a former prime minister the lady the whole world knows pretty well in prison for seven years she's already spent two years in prison and she is definitely seen as the main ally as the main as the main enemy for unocal which politically has been so reluctant to let her go from prison and that he actually sec rafah is the trade agreement with the european union because the e.u. was demanding to let some are saying could go only then they would sign the deal so this is a very big news for ukraine and in fact this is the word on the ground right now that ukraine may have released its future president from prison here what is the definitely the biggest concessions we've seen to date the last time and alexei i can't help but notice that you're outside versus yesterday when you were in the hotel kind of bunker down a little bit more what you say bad things are finally starting to calm down as a result of this new deal between the ukrainian government and the opposition

leaders how are they responding to it you know we would all very like to think that this is the year that the story may be dying down the streets of kiev may return to peaceful life in. but this is not the case as far as we may allege because literally just minutes ago one of the leaders of the right wing sect of the so-called right wing section which is the core of the protests the guys who are literally instigating all the fighting and all the front line have a he spoke from the stage over here at the independence square behind me and he said that he cared little about any laws about any concessions made by the government he made only one straight demands that you got a call that you must resign by ten o'clock in the morning on saturday otherwise the right wing sect will attack with weapons they will try to storm governmental buildings and they will again be back to full exact mode so this as as this statement is creating some serious concerns i mean there's a sort of

a panic spreading around many journalists in this hotel right now the same hotel which was fired at and we ourselves were fired at by sniper bullets at our live position during the many journalists here right now told me that they are actually considering to evacuate from here if things are starting to get really nasty and nobody can rule that out because we've been to that point before on wednesday night the opposition the president agree on the truce on a cease fire to work out of some kind of agreement on thursday morning the right wing sector shows that they care little about any kind of agreements they go into full attack mode almost two hundred people died as a result of that attack so you can see for yourself it's still unstable it's still far from being a true is and we're still far from saying this is all over and we can go home that was our key correspondent alexei yarrow on the ground and kenya now in the midst of all of this fighting and all of this political disagreement for him political interests are also at play in ukraine congressman dana rohrabacher slammed his

congress his colleagues this week for taking sides in all that turmoil he says no one knows for sure who started the alliance in ukraine and he accused the protesters of using quote brute force representative rohrbacher as the chairman of the house foreign affairs panel on europe and he joined me earlier to explain why the peaceful protesters are being portrayed as just that. well they are they are represent a large segment to me of the ukrainian population but we have to remember ukraine is a very divided country you have about half the country really wants closer relations with russia and the other half of the country wants closer relations or the european tilt to their country these are two diametrically opposed to using these people feel very strongly about well these type of issues should be settled at the ballot box and i'm just wondering first of all what is this idea about having

foreign countries have to sign off to an agreement between ukrainians themselves that that's kind of odd that this government that government signed off on the on the agreement this should be left up to the people and it should be settled out of the streets but in the ballot by ballot even if they didn't like what their government was doing they should kick him out of the next election i'm just wondering that no matter who wins the next election whether this president remains now if you feel really strongly about it you're willing to really get out in the streets and risk losing your lives you can force any position onto the ukrainian government that would mean there'd be a lot of turmoil in the future and as you say we are seeing these guy in metrically opposing opinions playing out in the streets with this crazy violence that's going on now senators john mccain and chris murphy traveled to key of in december senator murphy said quote ukraine's future stands with europe and the u.s.

stands with ukraine while senator mccain proclaimed quote america stands with you do you think that this kind of speech as appropriate. no i don't and i think that it's up to the ukrainian people to decide what is in their best interest and yes the russians by the way worked through what it is is those were the there's a lot of people in the republican party who are still treating russia as if it was the soviet union the cold war is over. decided that he would like to have and of course there's no reason why he shouldn't be representing the interests of russia he is the president of russia he offered the ukrainians a deal and if they wouldn't go towards the european direction well ok they have a right to accept or reject that their government as a writer accept or reject it without having us trying to say well if you accept any closer ties with russia that must mean you're a puppet and you're corrupt and your gangster well the united states that's really

interfering locally with what ukrainians should be deciding for themselves and i understand that president obama actually called president vladimir putin today do you think that that call even should have taken place. well i don't know what he was talking about. it would be nice of. mr putin and the united states were both dedicated to getting back to the democratic process and allowing elections to happen and allowing people who are elected to make the decisions for the country in this case i don't see a dichotomy i don't see mr putin opposing that and that should be our position as a as americans. that we believe in the democratic process so i just you know mr putin is demonized by a lot of people here and there when he's overwatch you know for russia's self-interest we're acting as if this is the old cold war days and it was a communist overture to do something to dominate the world well putin has

a right to watch out for the interests of the people there just as the way we do in the united states and just as the ukrainian government should be doing what you know for the interests of the people of ukraine so it all boils down to business essentially what you're saying now let's talk about this peace deal you say that if ukraine wants to have peace then they should go to the ballot boxes and do it there now with this new deal they're saying they're calling for early elections for of in the for presidential elections by december does this peace deal undermine the democratically elected government since a centrally it reverses the constitution and forces are early elections i mean what kind of a message doesn't send to protestors does that say that if they go to the streets and riot that they will get what they want. well they went to the streets they don't necessarily we don't know whether they went to the streets and rioted or not there's a lot of evidence to indicate that people were being shot that the authorities once

they were in the streets started brutalizing them there's that evidence but also there's evidence that there are hotheads among the people who were demonstrating and they all weren't as peaceful as is being pro-trade and victims as they are being betrayed the most important thing now ever is the rule of law and yes human rights have to be protected people have a right to demonstrate and express their opposition to government policy but also we have the rule of law to think about that would want a government is elected it should be the that is the group of people who were elected to make decisions are the ones who should see the policy now what we've learned ukraine now that if it looks like it you can have you really disagree with what the elected government is doing you should go to the streets and just raise holy hell until those policies are reversed or until there's some change made in

the procedure well certainly that's not going to lead that's i could lead to peace in the ukraine in the future so certainly i don't does lie on both sides and we don't really know right now who is insinuated this kind of chaos that we're seeing play out in the streets and we all have too much time left but we've seen the last few years massive demonstrations happen throughout the arab world recently in turkey and the crane we've seen the play on the european union with austerity riots we've even seen them here in the u.s. with the occupy movement what's the appropriate response from governments to movements that happen like this and are taken out to the streets. well the important thing is that all people in these countries whether it's united states are elsewhere these people have a right to demonstrate they don't have a right to blockade straits or to occupy territory but they have a right to protest and to express themselves and their opposition to government policies is as aggressively as they can without stepping on the rights of others

and. you know in the united states if you have an occupy movement the only thing wrong with that is they were occupying territory and sitting down and saying oh we control this now well as long as people are are just in parks and and having protest meetings and things like that without actually taking possession of a given part of town people's those rights need to be protected but at the same time elected government. that that principle that the elected people see you can be a very small minority you know you had hundreds of thousands of people out so the the right of the majority to elect its government policies shouldn't be stepped on either congressman dana rohrabacher from california thank you so much for joining me i hope you come back again. a new report by human rights watch claims that a december drone strike in yemen might have violated president obama the rules that he set himself for their use at least twelve people were killed in the strike that

was carried out by u.s. military's joint special operations command the first reports about the strike claimed it was a wedding procession full of civilians who were killed no no no the military said it was an al qaeda group it was definitely an al fighter group but then the military backtracked after human rights groups started digging into the story and it acknowledged that it was a wedding procession in fact that the drone hits however the military says if believes that most the people who died were in fact al qaeda militants but here's what the new report says in this back and forth human rights watch found that the convoy was indeed a wedding procession that was bringing the bride and family members to the groom's hometown the procession also may have included members of your arabian peninsula although it is not clear who they were or what their fate was now the report went on to say human rights watch found no evidence and the obama administration has provided none of the individuals taking part in the wedding procession pose an

imminent threat to life in the absence of an armed conflict killings then the killings would only be a violation of international human rights law i was joined earlier by ben swann founder of ben salon dot com and he gave me his impressions of this new report and whether it will change anything. well i hope for that it will but i'm del feel that it will at the same time look the obama drone strike policy is becoming almost infamous in that there is all this rhetoric that goes out there from the old president himself from the administration from the military from the cia we have so much rhetoric and yet nothing ever changes in terms of the policy the policy seems to be completely lawless no matter what new rules they put into place no matter what memo seem to be sent out nothing really changes the policy itself is lawless under our rule of law regardless of any small changes they might make to it now president obama promised more transport transparency from the drone program in his

national defense speech that happened back in may and yet the us has a policy to not talk about drone strikes to not even acknowledge that they have it if he wants americans to support this program as being effective and legal and as being necessary why not talk about it. because it's in the legal it's not necessary and it's not effective i think when you really get down into the nitty gritty of what this drone strike policy consists of you for have stories exactly like the one you're talking about look you have a wedding procession in yemen the administration says we know that members of a.q. a.p. are there. launch this drone strike they kill the wedding party family members relatives friends say there were no al qaeda members there and you wiped out this entire group of people because your intelligence was bad because you and your mr mark and we see this happening over and over again so the reason you can never really truly sell this to the american people is because when you say that you're now going to have a policy that's transparent and you bring transparency to a drone strike policy immediately anyone who takes

a look at it will say well this is a terrible policy but consider the fact that when a drone hits a target it blows up about a square block that's about the amount of space that is hit when the actual drone strikes and as a result of that you have so much collateral damage associated with drone strikes that you would never be able to sell this as effective and necessary and even a reasonable process i'm glad that you made that analogy to kind of help people understand just how impactful drone strikes really are with that block radius so let's focus on what's going on in game at the moment now the bureau of investigative journalism says between fifty nine and sixty nine strikes have happened in yemen resulting in the deaths of dozens of civilians and even children is the u.s. shifting attention from pakistan to gaming at this point with these drone strikes in your opinion. well the but they're also moving drone strikes to mali they're moving into somalia right now if you take somalia pakistan and yemen those three

countries there are something like about one hundred in twenty children who have been killed in the last few years as a result of drone strikes us children alone we have thousands of people who are dying who are just referred to as collateral damage that was ben swan founder of bet's one dot com. well let's go to sochi now where athletes are entering the final weekend of competition before the closing ceremony on sunday let's take a look at the leaderboard challis the u.s. leaves the medal count with twenty seven russia is just one behind with twenty six medals followed by canada norway the netherlands and germany now the talk of the town today was all about the semifinals of men's ice hockey the u.s. took on canada hoping to have a better outcome than the women's hockey team yesterday i was trying to earlier by artie's richard bond portfolio on the ground in sochi he filled us in on the latest with that u.s. canada men's hockey match. was a double disappointment really for the united states against canada or over the

last two days canada losing odds of a bit of royals from north america ones or nothing in the men's semifinal but i came hot on the heels of losing american women losing to canada's women free to two in overtime second time obviously. the united states has lost a candidate in the women's section after losing of course in vancouver in two thousand and ten the same for the men as well very of course lost in vancouver as well free to sidney crosby goalie in overtime giving the katie famous big cherry four years ago another forty for the americans where we had a much vaunted all friends coming into this time with the canadians twenty goals in four games but unfortunately just couldn't solve the canadian mind carey price of the montreal canadiens thirty one shots. for a shot it's the americans just one able to generate the olsen's and they have managed to in the previous four matches the one goal was good enough for canada in

the end scored by jamie benn of the dallas thought of as he deflated a shot pasqua week to give canada the all important victories have united states i'll play off against bin laden for bronze medal while canada move through to the final well they'll play sweden who want gold in two thousand and six and is another better loss for the us i now live just being a hockey fan myself but whatever events hand were handed out today and what which medals i have were actually given out. oh it's a great success for the united states in the within slalom mchale shifrin won gold the second gold for america in alpine skiing so far but shifrin only eighteen years of old age but she left a field in a weight really to claim that gold medal for the united states also the u.s. claims a silver in the men's five thousand meter short trying to relay losing out to the

eventual winners russia and it was really was a great. day for the russians in the space in the short trying speed skating led by victor on the south korean who next turn to compete for russia two years ago around going on to win the five hundred meters to claim yet another gold medal for his adopted country and then just literally about half an hour later held russia hold of the united states to claim gold in five thousand meters a relay and also there was a line for ukraine well obviously the country's been. in the midst of a political crisis which has really affected some of the athletes have decided to run home the ones that they'd say they want to claim their first gold all the sochi olympics in the women's biathlon four by six relay now we saw a really impressive opening ceremony is about what the closing ceremony will look like. obviously the actual closing ceremonies being come down kept under wraps it's

very secretive nothing's been given away about what i actually might happen but i do have one piece of information that julie shoot with in ice hockey player. who's just completed a four for lympics she will be carrying the flag for the united states at the closing ceremony she well she has a high degree from harvard and so i was a very well educated and but for she she was unable to add a good gold medal to her impressive career which will end with free silver medals and one bronze artie's richard concorde fleet then talk to russia thank you so much . all right well if you are around the dinner table right now or challenge down on a late night snack fair warning you're probably going to want to put down your food it for the next few minutes for this next story remember a few months back when kentucky farmers killed off a bunch of baby pigs because they were sick with the poor sign epidemic diarrhea virus well a recent undercover exposé by the humane society shows that farmers are taking

a disturbing approach to thwart that very to seize from happening again r.t. is less well brings us this gut wrenching story. pigs crammed into cages that barely fit their bodies great spilled with dead piglets beds mothers and other adults want. sound insights from an undercover investigation conducted by the humane society and what they did is they ground up those pigs. to the breeding cells the graphic video captures what happened that iron maiden hog farm in omens borough kentucky the humane society found more than nine hundred piglets died in two days these factory farms are interviewers for disease experts say the feeding of baby pigs and their feces to mothers is for the animal's own good lives wagg strong is the chief veterinarian for the national pork producers council the process of controlled exposure making sure that all of the pigs in the

barn the the mother pigs get exposed at the same time is a way we use to protect the unborn piglets in the new piglet so come along the poor sign epidemic diarrhea virus has infected thousands of pigs in several states throughout the u.s. health experts say it's not harmful to humans but deadly to baby pigs a piglet smoothie sounds a grizzly but wagner says it's the only way it's not an appetizing picture it's very safe and it's what we have to do to protect the big. piglets because there is no other way to immunize or vaccinate that's in response to allegations of abuse after the video release the kentucky livestock coalition says quote our animals are our livelihood and the health and well being of livestock is priority number one for farmers we won't stand for defaming a producer trying to save his herd during a crisis but animal rights advocates say industrial farms are

a breeding ground for disease and criticize the widespread practice of using gestation crates the cages barely larger than the animal's body sometimes the sides of able to coming out the side of the cage and they're in this cave for three years so they're immobilized for their entire life i mean if you like you know we were jammed it will cause a could never get out a stark contrast to smaller and more traditional farms like this one we visited in the michigan heartland when they're outside like this they're in their environment you see the tails growing back and forth businesses like whole foods pride themselves in avoiding me products brave on industrial pig farms now dozens of other companies say they plan on doing the same and stop selling pork products raves in these controversial gestation crates and the last twenty words we can sixty major american food retailers from mcdonald's to costco to cracker barrel

that have said hey we have a problem with this we want you to give us poor that doesn't code from operations that can find themselves in this way but with an estimated ninety five percent of pork coming from industrial pig operations it's unclear if or when free range pig farms will be the norm in washington liz wall r.t. . well the merger of comcast and time warner cable is causing a lot of controversy with critics saying that it will become a giant communications monopoly if it is allowed to night's resident takes a look at this potential merger. with.

comcast and time warner are considering merging into one giant cable company and many smart people are saying that's a terrible idea since it will constitute a giant brawl and monopoly and comcast and time warner are all no it's not there's no monopoly here it'll be fine. but one of the founders of comcast julian brodsky actually already called comcast a monopoly belt to a crowd full of people who laugh he's retired now and recently gave the keynote speech at a corporate event called the founder factory's imposing him before the merger idea became public and a.v. company reported his feet and posted it on you tube so up there now and in this speech brodsky actually says about comcast some parts of it were a natural monopoly i can say that now i never would have said it. he meant that as a joke as an i can call it a monopoly now because i'm tired but i was never called it

a monopoly when i was working there and the audience just laughed at his joke in the speech he says that comcast grew to an enterprise value of about one hundred fifty billion dollars by being obsessed with growth and taking advantage of opportunities to buy up all the competition when someone in the audience asks him if he had any regrets he. sad that he regrets not buy every single cable system he could have he says a lot of outrageous stuff that just smacks of a monopolistic mindset but he doesn't say any of this licious lee he says it all very nicely like it was all just good business but the comcast time warner merger would arguably be very malicious indeed if a huge giant terrible monopoly in nineteen of the twenty largest markets in the us with access to more than thirty million subscribers according to reports. as economist paul krugman put it comcast perfectly fits the old notion of monopolistic

as robber barons evil warlords extracting tolls from all people past that sound about right even acts as the sea commissioner michael copps said this is just such a far reaching deal it should be dead on arrival when it gets to the department of justice and the federal communications commission for approval but regulators probably will approve the deal because the us government caters to the needs of big business not to the needs of the people it governs it's almost as if they think they're playing around with just a lot of monopoly bodies tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter as the resident. that does it for now but for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash our to america check out our website r c dot com and follow me on twitter at

meghan underscore lopez have a wonderful night. wealthy british style. market. can. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports.