transit routes. you all best way to the heart of most. grounds a rally in the ukrainian city else about to fall and a shadow of defiance against the self declared government in kiev and to voice support for the new mayor chosen by popular will. the real path into the e.u. it's not going to be the german path it'll be the greeks have. experts warned that financial aid from brussels and the international monetary fund may prove a slippery slope for ukraine. washington mulls over whether to leave three thousand troops in afghanistan beyond two thousand and fourteen as a bilateral security agreement with kabul hangs in the balance. british muslims cry foul over their government's campaign against radicalism and say they're being turned into scapegoats.

we're watching on t.v. national coming to life in moscow now the political upheavals in ukraine's capital are. sparking a backlash in the south and east of the country with people making it clear they do not recognize a new self-proclaimed leadership the movement's gathering pace in crimea and antonymous region that's home to major industrial hubs and prime tourist spots well it also predominately ethnic russian and the largest rallies have been held in the naval heart of sebastopol worry pro russian mayor has just been appointed reading a wave of part of writing a wave of popular support and r.t. is it worth his going off reports on the situation there. for the past few days in the city of sevastopol which is also the country's second largest seaport and home

to russia's black sea need a fleet scores of people have been taking to the streets protesting everything that's been happening here in the if in fact they haven't recognized the new authorities and moreover they've taken down ukrainian flags from government buildings and put up russian once moscow has been saying that it will not intervene into the situation here and has been calling on western partners to follow its examples now but it has also voted for a new mayor who's gained his supporters by promising to protect the city from the ultra right if what you are referring to the nationalists more of whom have been taking new government posts here in kiev so clearly the already existing gap between the east and the west is now growing and we do want to see it with our own eyes and we're actually planning to go to see us properly later on to report about the events there from the ground and russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov has

once again warned western powers against encouraging the new regime and its nationalist an extremist elements. radicals are now threatening to move on those parts of ukraine that disagree with the methods being used by the opposition so our goal is to help the ukrainian people are brotherly nation we want to understand who shores ukraine's new government including how it's going to stabilize the economy we do not want ukraine to try radicals and nationalists were now clearly trying to play a leading role on the wave of this revolution and they're also taking decisions that could harm a significant part of the country's population. and tackling russia's stance luxembourg has become the first european powers so far to voice concerns over the rise of radicalism in ukraine says the turmoil began details now from our teaser. firstly i have seen at least five european officials parading through the

independence square in its early stages making statements about the fact how everything is fine and dandy it is absolutely a. democracy in its best form but now we are hearing from the foreign minister of luxembourg who actually is the first person on the official level from the west so indicate that in fact there is something sinister going on on the my done also known as the independence square in. the european union has no right to support extremists those who are using violence the nazis as you call them europe is familiar with them we have to fight all extremist forces including those in ukraine us this is very important all ukrainians who hate violence and extremism need to find a compromise and restore peace. now about those who russian foreign ministry is calling extremists and it refers to as nazis well let's have a look at some of the leaders of ukraine's so-called revolution for example alexander music. a man of a radical views that he's actually participated in in the chechen war he went to

the caucasus while fought on the side of the terrorists and prided himself on the fact that he personally had several tanks and armored vehicles and despite that he still managed to run for the ukrainian parliament a couple of years ago again he's one of the leaders of altering arsonist movement and then there's also alleged that he will hold resistance in one of the three leaders of many of them i've done of the independence square movement and he is openly not just for civil but also anderson mythic making numerous statements to the in that regard that have actually gotten him into quite a lot of hot water where the jewish population of ukraine one of the most active in propagating armed resistance against the ukrainian authorities has been the right sector and ultra nationalist group that has been becoming more and more active in kiev over the past couple of months and these are the words of its leader but it would be.

so this is what we're looking at this is the type of people that the west has been until now is openly supporting and if you look at the fact that just recently just on tuesday in fact we have heard a synagogue in fact has been as it has been attached to one of the friends sounds all of this is leaving all of this really should leave us somewhat worried and apprehensive as to what exactly is. going to happen there next. keeping up with the situation in ukraine on air and online com of course as extremist sentiments bubbles to the surface within the ranks of the opposition our crew in kiev has been posting food ultranationalist and even fascist symbols appearing around the

embattled independence square so find out more on instagram. now meanwhile with ukraine's economy balancing on the verge of default the country's new leadership is welcoming western diplomats in the hope of getting urgent aid e.u. foreign policy chief catherine ashton has promised support and washington said it will weigh in too in addition to an i.m.f. package but as our delay here chef skinner reports many europeans are not so happy about saving ukraine from default. edu members stayed greece we don't have any jobs and at the same time we have debts to pay they should support us now that we're in great need e.u. member states spain the funny thing is i'm unemployed i have two children we don't get any government help and it's hard to survive each month but if we don't have money for us how can we give it to ukraine. and revolting ukraine a country without even association deal with the e.u. . the e.u.

is as plain with carrots and sticks the there's economic integration which was going to mean that big parts of the ukrainian working population will see a deterioration in their living style the fantasy about entering your of the the the streets be in line with gold that's a fantasy because the real project is it is an i.m.f. based us they're already programmed. with questions about who will leave ukraine into the future and whether the country will stay together one thing that's clear it's the ruined economy that needs to be revamped first even before the euro my down protest kicked off there was a talk of a possible default in ukraine in november its external debt three hundred sixty billion euro it was one of the main reasons why king of refused to sign the trade pact with the e.u. fearing it could aggravate the situation even the more you november last year europe offered only several hundred million euro to ukraine but with the opposition now taking the reins the e.u. is ready to give

a whole lot more luxury maybe even members such as greece and spain can no hardly afford. that spain can't help now. i'm just speechless this idea is worse than anything. first they put greece. and then they all for ukraine all the money let's see russia ski on t.v. watching from kiev ukraine and aspirants are now saying the twenty billion euros the e.u. has promised key if could be bad. spent elsewhere it's actually the amount that greece needs as a struggle to get back on track with brussels has so far kept athens waiting for a third bailout installment well it is also about four billion more than the plans to span on supporting growth and fighting soaring unemployment this year and earlier we asked patrick here on the global markets now as for devi advisors group whether you were actually capable of following through on its promises to ukraine.

the situation has not changed months ago the free trade agreement collapsed a because it was skewed in favor of the european union secondly because the european union offered a derisory eight hundred million euros knowing the european union's financial situation has not changed we've got all manner of people the governing party in the u.k. all sorts of politicians across europe even mr to scream neighboring poland is saying that effectively it's going to be impossible to manage to be very loud fish with phones at the same time frankly the new ukrainian government is is effectively in la-la land that mean they're already asking for thirty five billion dollars that's up from the fifteen billion dollars that had been agreed to by the by the president mr young the cove it's just a few months ago with with russia i was there for it's really a mess the european union does not have the political capital to spend on rescuing

ukraine from twenty years of economic mismanagement given the problems in the backyard of the euro zone stay with our tina national as we bring you updates and expert analysis on the uprising in ukraine and coming up later this hour a village goes up against a massive and astri. like family my fellow villagers here are going to face a terrible prospect of our homes could soon be razed look at our businesses destroyed and i see have to a small community in eastern germany who stand to lose their homes and livelihoods due to the expansion of coal mining.

the. economic down to the final. day the new york shanghai and the rest of life join me kate will be every week.

welcome back to watching r t international nato defense ministers will be meeting on wednesday to discuss the western military presence in afghanistan this as the white house weighs up whether to start preparations for total withdrawal of u.s. troops by the end of the year the signing of a bilateral security deal may look unlikely at the moment but washington is reluctant to release its hold on the region as r.t. is going to stick around explains. it's not easy for the obama administration to communicate reasons why the u.s. should stay in afghanistan past twenty four teams the administration hasn't been able to sell those reasons to president karzai has taken a toll troops presence made his country worse but washington definitely does not want to leave afghanistan for good and one of the reported options is that those three thousand troops would be deployed to bases in kabul and bob graham and would not do much traveling across the country now the other option which the pentagon reportedly favors more is leaving ten thousand troops behind and also leaving more

bases open the pentagon argues the closing of some of the bases would hamper drone operations in pakistan washington's main argument now remains that afghan forces cannot stand alone against the resurgent taliban to increase the pressure congress has recently slashed planned development and military aid to afghanistan to roughly half by half to one point one billion dollars there is also an understanding here in washington that in order to not lose of ganesan completely they may have to make a now to the taliban force they'd been fighting for more than a decade. so many of the recent developments show how far we have come from initial declarations like the us saying that he would leave afghanistan by the end of twenty fourteen in washington i'm going to check on our team. now take a look at how the war has played out in numbers the intervention of ganesan has cost u.s. taxpayers more than five hundred fifty billion dollars equal to the average annual

salary of ten million american teachers throwing a poor shame is a matter for used by the troops referring to the anti-tank missiles that cost eighty thousand dollars each over a thousand nations committed forces to the nato led campaign while austrian islands and just three and seven soldiers respectively the u.s. deployed and nine the sound but recent polls show that sixty six percent of americans believe the war was not worth fighting one former u.s. army major told us washington is deliberately trying to maintain the image of a never ending conflict in the country. they know we're definitely leaving why continue wasting lives trying to get us out but it seems that we're sending an opposite message talking on leaving can thousand to twelve thousand which would still seem to be some kind of occupying force with or without cars ice concurrence certainly there's an element within the us always wanted to maintain an occupying

force they want to maintain the appearance that we're in a endless war so that they can therefore justify these claims of extra constitutional extra judicial powers on behalf of the. so called commander in chief as they now identify the president now faced was rising islamophobia at home and the urgent need to tackle the threat posed by competence returning from the syrian war the u.k. government is stepping up its campaign against extremism but some members of the ball to a million strong british muslim community now feel they are being victimized as artie's laura smith reports. preventing terrorism a powerful phrase used to excuse all manner of abuses from government spying on their own citizens to foreign wars now muslims in the u.k. are accusing the government of scapegoating them in the fight against terror and creating what they're calling a cradle to grave police state they say the police strategy known as prevent

monitor's muslims and tries to change ideologies in every area of their life so it's an all encompassing policy that is touching on every aspect of muslim life in a negative negative way which encourages discrimination you've got to remember that . when one person has been affected in this way the whole family as they tell their family they tell their friends they tell others so this is becoming a shared experience amongst the muslim community the whole community is now experiencing what's happening in prevent despite the fact that human rights organizations have branded the strategy unexpectedly intrusive into the lives of ordinary muslims and based not on preventing terrorism but on changing ideology beliefs and values it appears set to be enshrined into law and it's not the only example of politicians seeking to make capital out of apparently discriminating

against muslims gerard batten is immigration spokesman for the u.k. independence party he wants british muslims to sign a code of conduct that affirms the equality of all people equal rights for women rejects violence and promote tolerance but i can't see how anybody could object to it i mean if you say to anybody anywhere in the world do you think that people should be treated equally men and women should be treated equally you know there should be no violence there should be no compulsion in religion everybody should be free to follow their own religion who would not sign it only people who don't believe those things batten on. the document would help moderate muslims to distinguish themselves from extremists but muslims themselves say it's just another way of singling them out and it doesn't lead anywhere it does what leads to. you know fascism against other communities this is what inevitably will happen as more and more people think it's perfectly horrid to target women who wear hijab only get

them to sign a code of conduct the worry that as policies like these become part of everyday life casual islamophobia follows pitting community against community and dividing society you're a smith. and also in britain the media report says all homeless people across the european union could potentially be given a roof over their heads in the blink of an eye. was the number of homes across the continent standing empty and the news head to our consul more details also on. evidence comes to light in history are you suggesting that our planet may have become habitable much earlier than previously thought it's all there for you on our website. right the same. first trip. and i would think that you're.

on our reporters there. in. the in the. now time for locals in sochi to take a break as the excitement of the winter games calms and the city gears up for the paralympics meanwhile russian media have been hearing from the one man without whom the sporting extravaganza would never have happened and that of course president vladimir putin and here's our farmer with details. two days after these olympics have ended mr putin has been singing the praises of russia's athletes to the nation's media he said that before the games at best many people had said russia would finish third in the medals table of course they finished top with a record haul of medals including thirteen gold and he went on to give a lovely little anecdotes about one of the biggest stars of these games the figure

skater adelina sotnikova he told the media that he'd actually met when she was only twelve years old they had their photo taken with each other and then at that time she predicted that one day she would be an olympic champion how true that was mr putin then also addressed the criticism that russia had faced in the run up to these games and said that basically it had come from two areas all these years we have been working in conditions of criticism but it was constructive criticism in the first place very friendly and helpful on the part of the international olympic committee i am sure that without such friendly criticism and support we would have still managed to do everything but i doubt whether we would have done it with such quality because we like the enormous experience of our friends from the i.o.c. this was their gift to us however there was and i'm sure there still is another group of critics who have little to do with sport their main concern is competition

in international politics their job is different and they use the olympic project to achieve their own goals in their anti russian propaganda efforts whenever a strong competitor appears russia in this case there is always someone who doesn't like that but we starts working against it however they fail to understand how deep the changes are in washing society or changes that have affected its very nature and mr putin ended by saying he hoped these olympics it shone russia's soul to the world and shown a new russia which the rest of the world should not be afraid of and. all of our interview with the russian leader focusing of course on the sochi olympics is of course available on our website so be sure to check that out at r.t. dot com. despite attempts to switch to greener and last year germany produced its highest level of brown coal tricity since nine hundred ninety but

there's one village in eastern germany that risks losing everything over countries hunger for fossil fuels as reports. welcome to outer wash population two hundred forty one it's a place that steeped in history the bell in this church was forged before columbus sailed for america and locals here have centuries old claim to the land it's we're all rick schultz was born and it's where he intends to die his family has owned this farm since fifteen sixty she learned a trade from his father and plans to hand the business down to his son. this has been our homeland for centuries it means everything to us but my family and my fellow villagers here face a terrible prospect our homes could soon be raised and our businesses destroyed. it's what's beneath the land an estimated two hundred fifty million tonnes of brown coal that threatens to wipe out

a wash and two nearby villages off the map they have machines or strip mining the ground or brown coal and you can see a size of this operation a coal mine behind me is already the size of several small towns but the company. wants to grow this we dish energy giant wants to double the size of the open cast mine vote in fall needs more lignite for its power plant one of the dirtiest in europe the local children call it the cloud making factory it's one of the most polluting fossil fuels and it's supposed to be a thing of the past germany gets nearly twenty five percent of its electricity from solar and wind with a goal of eighty percent renewables by twenty fifty yet the country burned more brown coal last year than at any time since the one nine hundred ninety s. the dirty downside of chancellor merkel's nuclear phaseout more than nine hundred villagers are at risk of being displaced and for some there's a feeling of history repeating itself in this region thousands had been resettled

after the second world war when the communist government depended on brown coal to power its cities and factories. it makes me furious just furious first the government comes in starts developing alternative sources of energy and now we've come back to brown coal i feel very disillusioned we simply can't go back to old practices. residents have launched their own campaign to keep the diggers at bay but it's questionable if they can keep up the fight these are tiny villages with aging populations facing an energy giant with deep pockets a definitive decision has yet to be made on the fate of the villages involved in fall does move in it likely won't be for many more years and approval by state authorities is still pending although local activists aren't optimistic so these three villages will basically be gone if the plans if the parents go through the parliament through. our laws

protect the interests of the coal mining industry and the industry managed to convince politicians that have the country abandon scald l b major problems with electricity supply. the company has said that it will recreate outer wash elsewhere a church for church promises a house for a house but for residents like all rick schultz giving up is simply not an option. over here. my ancestors fought in the thirty year war with sweden in the seventeenth century and they defended this land and i will also stand firm and fight for my land i cannot imagine what happens if i lose this battle. reporting in outer wash germany i'm lucy catherine of and coming up next is breaking the set with host abby martin here r.t. international.

judy cox a utah mother out of spite but an entire line of t. shirts at a popular chain store after a 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 cause the scandal and more importantly it will make the company lose a few dollars technically the girls on the shirts aren't 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 internet 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. for the young girls cammo for the future hunter. between two and three hundred million guns united states so you can act like they're not here and keep kids away from them. the pass' sound is a large you know i mean this teaches them

a lot of response ability and simply come to play through the eyes of children if we can do it for our children for our future like the country to save. the day. happy monday all i'm abby martin and this is a great game does that just today secretary of defense chuck hagel announce that the u.s. army will be reduced to its smallest size since before the second world war and it only took us seven years to do it now that's progress the size of the army will drop to somewhere between four hundred forty and four hundred fifty thousand by two thousand and fifteen but before we all pop the champagne bottles keep in mind that less of ground troops are needed as this country continues to outsource its military to private mercenary forces and the spending cap for new military spending

in two thousand in two thousand and fifteen excuse me is still four hundred ninety six billion dollars not including the wars that will be paying off for decades to come for perspective consider that the two thousand and fourteen budget provides only seventy seven billion for transportation infrastructure development and a mere seventy one billion for education so if you think that this tokenistic reduction doesn't do nearly enough to read address the out of control military budget then join me and let's break this. it was. very hard to take a. look. at what you have had sex with her hair.