transit route the report your best way to the heart of moscow. a bittersweet goodbye the sochi winter games are officially old were capped by spectacular it's really a ceremony going down in history or it's remarkable performances as well as someone usual records and highlights. ukraine's newly installed leadership issues an arrest warrant against alsa president also on leashing a hunger for the members of his former ruling party. scotland's and out referendum means britain's iconic national flag may be in for some major changes well enough he said. so many things would have to be changed and we ask some britons how they feel about their adoring want to be your country's most recognizable simple.

martina national coming to you live from moscow i'm arena. of the twenty fourteen winter games have bid farewell capping sixteen days of tough competition with a dazzling closing ceremony our very own and isa now in their teens sochi studio was lucky enough to witness the games from start to finish and she takes a bittersweet look now at how it all went. this and it's overwhelming we've seen so many big breaks and heartfelt losses cheers and tears here in sochi over the past weeks a lot of nail biting competitions nerve wrecking races and great performances all of those are going to go down in the olympic history and this great celebration of sport certainly was sealed with a finale to remember you were taken further on a journey through russian culture picking up from the opening ceremony it was

a tribute to the russian greats in the arts music and literature and the organizers didn't miss the opportunity to poke a little fun of themselves over the infamous olympic ring that would open at the start of the games of course the biggest excitement came from russian fans after the host nation searched at the top of the medal count with a total of thirteen goals and a spectacular moment of course to the farewell show was the magnificent fireworks display. now a dazzling ceremony there of course plenty of olympic moments to remember we put together our top five sensations from sochi for you we begin with the day they managed to grab eight goals all of them in speed skating and actually twenty three out of the twenty four medals they want in sochi were in speed skating and number four

a rising star of figure skating seventeen year old nick of a she became the first russian ever to take individual gold in women's figure skating i'm very proud to have won a gold medal at the age of seventeen it's such a great feeling it's a bus with everything including with myself the sensation number three the new russians korean born speed skater victor on he won three golds for his new homeland an american snowboarder vic wilde who married a siberian and joined russians the olympic team to become one of the gold medalist i didn't have any good for the united states. that wasn't going to reach the goals that i wanted. it was an opportunity to get people's. person station number two is norwegian biathlete although in our born die then he became the most decorated winter olympian of all time a great performance for his sixth and final winter games and of course the top stop goes to team russia for their overall performance of the host nation making

a victorious comeback from the vancouver games and making it to the top of the medal table at home with thirteen gold medals thirty three overall the olympics have been tough and tiring for the medal hungry athletes and also an emotional roller coaster ride for the fans. has more now about the lucky ones who made it to sochi to support their national teams stand out from the crowd wigs schemes flags as passionate diehard fans will do anything to support that chosen country this month's olympics has brought an interesting read of characters from russia and around the world the brighter the better as they patriotically standard for their sporting heroes to some it's taken lots of preparation. as soon as it was announced that the two thousand and fourteen winter olympics would take place and saw as he started getting ready for there are

a lot of things are prepared for it helmet clubs posters flags for others it's the first time in russia a face paints an extreme outfit so the only accepted food of its highest spread the love and leave your inhibitions. so she's been stick it has been great like it has been a great. having fun. if you like at all everybody's friendly. the russian team finds house located inside the olympic park is a central beauty point as an internet. museum more than ten thousand deliberate families come here every day sharing emotions impressions discuss russia's victories and watch the competitions life russian foreign old everyone is part of the pic team well as the russia two man bobsled team school gold better to have your photograph taken here in the russian fun house there are also various

other locations where you can pretend to participate in various winter olympic sports. fans are invited to participate in physical competitions complete all the courses on the computer and they can try the hands on olympic sports equipment it's also true to the i was told is from a pos lympics are on display and over one hundred fifty sporting champions from previous games but my guest appearances so far. the funhouse is open daily for all who are interested in like the games themselves or his people from different countries together extreme fans included meaning it's less about medals i'm willing . to take embrace the sport uniting people even if you all dressed up as presently. the sochi olympics have broken lots of records and it's not just sports we're talking about almost half of the planet was watching these games at some point with at least three billion viewers and talking

about fans they set a surprising sound record with their vocal cords during one of victor on speed skating races but the cheers reaching one hundred ten decibels and here's another record quite an unexpected one thirty four babies were born in sochi on the day of the opening ceremony of the city's highest single daily total of newborns ever games will also go down in history for the weather becoming the warmest winter olympics in history we're certainly not complaining there's been lots of sunshine and not snow the olympics of course officially over we're left with a lot of things to look back at but we're also looking forward to the paralympic games starting in less than two weeks. well there was there he said he's now in there with all the olympic highlights from our thirty studio for you well of course bidding a heartful goodbye to the winter olympics we asked you to submit your feel good moments and highlights of the games to our work facebook page and thanks for sharing your such moments with us no surprise you picked russian gold in the latest

figure skating there and some were also impressed by the national team's parade while others selected the sublime performance by russian figure skating rupie an olympic darling yulia need scam when our online team has war on them with the games of course heroes and most touching moments if you can there any time you like r t v dot com. right to see the. first part. and i think you're. on our reporters were very. instrumental. to other news now in ukraine ousted president on a college has been put on a wanted list for quote

a mass murder of peaceful citizens that's according to the country's acting interior minister after taking the reins of the ukrainian capital the former opposition is now busy establishing its own order and it suggesting banning the once ruling party of regions which has declared itself the opposition seventy four delegates have already withdrawn from the party saying they fear of reprisals the names of some members wanted for questioning have reportedly been circulated to airports while vehicles are also being searched on the roads around the capitol and others trying to make their voice heard are being gagged. the c.b.c. gets your jets the pay as you see in the whole world the soul of us. yes. now this finish their task there he was earlier doused with and i septic liquid asked and tried to speak out for ousted president they can a cottage in a western ukraine city rough now going off takes a lot now at how the political crisis is continuing to unfold freedom democracy

independence as mind on hayles what the downing of the dictator and mourns those killed in kiev a city or street battles perhaps the way certain groups of the opposition have been acting can hardly be called democratic around five hundred offices of the now ex ruling party have been burnt down those with a different political stance or physically attacked inside the parliament most of those which right now it's more about emotions rather than political rivalry the most important thing right now is to prevent all targets from audience bound completely because then the situation would lose all knowledge in a sea of people is that. the president has fled the capital saying a coup has been carried out while the parliament passes new laws as fast as a printing press. taking down officials and appointing their old political rivals including putting the right wing hardliners in government posts such as i leave you from the nationalist bubble the party taking charge of the prosecutor

general's office and the worst of it was just for me was a new regime is taking shape really quickly and with the use of strong measures it has nothing to do with democracy because those coming to power will go on with pursuing tough policies and they will conduct massive expansion of the eastern territories. among the first laws adopted the banning of russian as the second official state language despite nearly fifty percent of those living in the east of ukraine being ethnic russians the public is stalled from now on the right wing is going to be heavily present in ukraine's law enforcement at the moment the situation in kiev is basically controlled by radical paint. well with with us who are pursuing a very very militant agenda which is a political course i think he is an utterly discredited man he cut deals with opposition leaders who were quite obviously since the nineteenth of january no

longer in control of the crowds and here there are reports that foreign journalists have been promoting different values from the rebels have now been put onto a wanted list as well as trying to temporarily ban russian t.v. channels many are now raising the question if this is the type of democracy so many ukrainians put their lives on the line for. foreign policy chief catherine ashton is visiting here to meet the new interim leadership and she is there to discuss measures to keep the country flow as reports emerge that the ukrainian treasury is anti the e.u. has already pledged to provide a grain was twenty billion euro once and new government is formed tapped the international monetary fund confirmed its commitments to provide with financial support bail gorbachev the former president of the soviet union thanks that the west should let the people of ukraine decide their own political future. move to trickle down to have you seen what's going on there it's outrageous you need

a bulldozer to push all the consultants from the u.s. and the e.u. . they should let the people decide for themselves issuing recommendations to nations is unacceptable we shouldn't. all sides need to head to the negotiating table and took one month or six months if needed to come to an agreement eventually. and coming up after a short break we'll be looking into whether the iconic union jack should be replaced this and more still to come for a hearing her to international. transit

route to vnukovo report your best way to the heart of moscow. wealthy british style it's time to. go. to. market so why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy comes a report on our. welcome

back you're watching r.t. international now u.s. intelligence agents have reportedly started spying on german ministers and adds even after president obama told them to stop bugging chancellor merkel was get now more details on this from artie's lucy coffin of who joins us live from berlin hello there lucy so what happened to washington's promise to stop spying in france then. well that's certainly a question that the german foreign minister is likely to ask his counterparts when he visits washington on thursday the national security agency was allegedly monitoring three hundred twenty eight people here in germany mostly politicians also business leaders and this is according to a german newspaper here built which says its info comes from a high ranking n.s.a. employee here in germany now that source was quoted as saying the agency had the order not to miss out on any information that the n.s.a. is no longer able to monitor the chancellor's communications directly the interior

minister a close confidant of miss merkel was also allegedly watched as well as several firms such as s a p a competitor of the us company oracle this allegation was rejected by the u.s. national security council spokeswoman who said that the united states did not spy to give american firms competitive advantages the german interior ministry so far refusing to comment on what it called allegations of unnamed individuals but this is of course bound to make things quite difficult for on the lower merkel keep in mind revelations last year about mass u.s. surveillance in germany in particular of miss merkel's mobile phone had shocked this country sparking some of the most serious disputes between the two allies in a decade and when the spy scandal initially unfolded here in the n.s.a. leaks have come to light the german saw that there were other countries who had a more privileged partnership with the united states as far as information sharing was concerned that germany was actually one of those countries where the n.s.a. was snooping a lot a lot of data being gathered

a lot of phone call information monitored as well and the german government was quite taken aback by this at the same time the german public had been quite critical of miss merkel's government for being too soft on the u.s. spying as a result we've seen a tougher stance here the german chancellor now pushing for a european communications network and also pushing for a so-called no spy deal with washington the german foreign minister is due to visit the u.s. on thursday but he has said that he has doubts that such a deal would have very much of an effect back to you. because much for bringing us the couple of reporting in from berlin for us. which martino national online for you today not in my backyard and you giants may claim fracking is safe for their bosses clearly don't want to knology anywhere near their homes more on the controversial statement from exxon c.e.o. had to r.t. dot com. plots internet giant google claims robots will be able

to understand us better now we understand ourselves more details on the futuristic forecasts are just a click away. now moscow court has handed down sentences to eight opposition activists ranging from a suspended sentence to four years in jail they were earlier found guilty of using violence against police during a mass rally in the russian capital may twenty twenty. joins us live now with more details on. bring us up to tell us what are the courts have to say. well basically initially the prosecutors have been asking for anywhere from five to six years in prison for the a defendants who we've seen on trial today however the judge has ruled that sentencing of sentence is anywhere from four to two years in prison for seven of the defendants where the one person receiving a suspended sentence now all of this goes back to the demonstration held in may of

two thousand and twelve when what started off as a peaceful form of protest turned out into a skirmish with the police with the with the police. with this is what the the people who were on trial today have been incriminated with that is organizing mass and arrest and instigating violence against law enforcement authorities now initially there were twelve people on trial for this however four of them have been released probably an amnesty at the end of last year and during this sentencing today in moscow in the near the courthouse in the center of the city several hundred people have gathered now. roughly ninety of them have been detained after they were they end up blocking the street for several hours however we are getting reports that those people are some of them are already being released at this particular moment. all right thank you so much for this update your english the reporting there. what nineteen or national the union jack has long been an

inspiration for artists fashion and an enduring symbol in pop culture but with scotland's in the pants referendum just months away there's growing talk about whether the iconic flag will mean a make over and there are already several designs around an artist laura smith went to find out what people in london think about the. campaigns on both sides of the scottish independence debate a hot in op the factions have until september to sell their idea of how the union should look going forwards westminster says an independent scotland would lose the pound but hardly anyone seems to be talking about something even more simple legs at the rest of the u.k. could lose if scotland declared independence the union jack scotland's represented on the flag by the blue background and diagonal white cross but if scotland left the u.k. might have to give that back old these flags would become obsolete and replaced with balls the u.k.

charity the flag institute has most tops and suggestions so let's see what people think the noise is looking want to see. who's got the oh we're all kingdom so the current state you were king the man i. know is to fame she got one. some of these are my favorite british one ok and what what you think of the idea which think of the concept in general i would have to try and do what is going to more. tax and everything so i don't want to change i suppose it makes more sense i mean that's one point of having it in there or in a part of the u.k. anymore that's quite attractive. she should kitchen dish and old flag that you know be difficult for people to have any change really yeah i mean to be sad. so many things would have to be changed. it really was that the dignity. you know the union jacks enjoyed

a resurgence in recent years becoming an iconic brand again apparently everything from high fashion to soft furnishings it would be haute for britain to discard it and indeed there are no firm plans to change it even if scotland does declare independence but david cameron and alex salmond might do well. the. as this war of words gets just here in. the brain a funeral procession for an anti-government campaigner has turned violent activists threw molotov cocktails at police who reportedly interrupted the funeral and attacked the mourners the uprising in bahrain has been ongoing since two thousand and eleven with thousands protesting against the sunni mark came. three people were killed including two children when a grenade exploded at an opposition rally in bangkok leaders of the protest movement blame the government for the attack while the prime minister has been damned it as an act of terror more than twenty people have died in thailand in the

last four months in the ongoing anti-government demonstrations. at a german barai group has marked the anniversary of the bombing of the city of four john by the british air force during the second world war the commemorations sparked angry opposition from left wing groups more than a thousand people showed up to protest against new nazi worried as ations over twenty people were injured when police used pepper spray to keep the groups apart. in venezuela one of president doers critics as and in gauged in an armed standoff with army officers who came to arrest him general angela davis who's accused of masterminding a trap to kill the government supporter are themselves with and sold rifles and refused to surrender the officers were than chased away by supporters in anti-government rallies across the country have left ten dad and violent clashes over the past weeks. coming up on a two year national our latest special reports desert winter but if you're watching

us in the u.k. prepare to go on the ground with. judy cox a utah mother out of spite but an entire line of t. shirts at a popular chain store at her local mall the reason that she bought them was because she feels that the images of nearly naked women on them violate her local towns decency code she wants to make it clear though that she feels the store has the right to sell this type of shirt just not displayed in an exterior window ultimately her plan is to return the shirts on day fifty nine of the store's sixty limit let's hope for her sake they don't have a no return policy i bring this up because this is a great example of a nonviolent form of protest that actually works because the scandal and more importantly it will make the company lose a few dollars technically the girls on the shirts are even fully exposed believe me

i checked thoroughly and i would even call them r. rated by local communities have the right to be more conservative than the rest of the nation if they want to be and it's good that judy cox actually did something rather than just sitting at home on the air complaining about moral decay across the country hey if a housewife from a small mormon community can stand up to the man what's stopping you but that's just my opinion. it was a. very hard to take. that back with that are required.

to clean sleep sleep. sleep. sleep the people. i don't see how european countries who are member of the european union can solve the problem without leaving the european union so it's obvious that countries like great britain or france you named francis specially with increasing poverty in my opinion they have a difficult they have a difficult time to solve these problems but i think at least they should rearrange the principle rules of free movement of persons and improve the system.

it's no accident that ali built his cafe on the very edge of the desert. he knows that any adventure into the sahara will always take this road. he sells water coffee and coke but trading has been slow today. but on top of that he's heard worrying news on the radio unlikely though it sounds does snow in neighboring egypt. which could threaten the deserts main event a festival that attracts thousands of tourists. a mild desert winter is when business usually peaks and when the sahara really comes to life.

geneseo a small way of shape slice in the north of perhaps the most famous desert on earth this small country is known as the sahara games. for fifty years the annual desert festival has taken place here it's an event that draws people from all surrounding countries. these people's lives are deeply intertwined with the desert. the many preparations for the festival began six months ago they've gone deep into the desert every day on an exhaustive training shuttle the main event is camel racing any prize in a sprint race is a great honor but winning the forty two kilometer marathon is considered especially prestigious the young boys in the small town of doulas dream of such

a fix. three seemingly endless sand dunes begin just beyond the town's borders. like every other man in the region image hopes to win two years ago he and his camel came first in a sprint for us. i'm confident about this part of the race because my camel is quite familiar with the area but i do have some doubts about the long distance marathon i haven't entered it before with this camel. because the festival only takes place once a year image needs to make a living for himself and his camel so he dons make up and colorful national costume to pose as an exotic sultan for tourists which is particularly popular with some women traveling under him. as camel though is less than impressed these are pedigree racer and only interested in entering competitions he frequently and loudly expresses his disapproval. life is centered on his

camels in the desert. i love this this in my life this is in my. in the in my heart. and now my time in this not working interest and now this is my friend as everything for me in life because this government love me for one time this government like me. a man has always shared a special relationship with his camels there was a time when he trained these beautiful creatures to appear in a hollywood movie that was filmed in the sahara. your own movie is named. i am more of. this i give it then and the government entities and the basing that i wanted in last year's marathon omar came first but no one can.