the officials to free. ukraine's army faces dissenters soldiers refused to take part in the government's crackdown. what other media turns a blind eye to. the rock descends again into a war zone as al qaeda linked extremist sweep across the north armed with hardware left behind by american troops. presence in east ukraine claim their city was firebombed overnight by the military is already in routes as a result of ongoing artillery attacks. and yes or no g.m.a. countries could soon decide independently whether to ban the cultivation of kinetically old crops despite the u.s. pushing brussels to expand their global trade.

to welcome you watching r.t. international coming to you live from moscow now in iraq radical islamist militants linked to al qaida are reportedly planning to take baghdad after successfully advancing in the northeast so-called islamic state in iraq and syria group has already captured the entire province of which you can see here including its regional capital the extremists then move south in captured the cities of baiji and create their advance was just told to one hundred kilometers from baghdad it's thought the government's now asked the u.s. to carry out drone strikes against the insurgents when a porn are explains how that might mean washington engaging against its own military hardware. while leaving behind a sovereign stable and self-reliant iraq two and a half years later. the people america left behind are running away fleeing for

their lives on hold a million people have already escaped from iraq's second city mosul off the i.s.i. al forced the army to retreat reports say gunmen have also sees a nearby oil refinery town iraq's prime minister calling for a state of emergency after hundreds of gunman took control of strategic parts of the northern city of mosul by wednesday militants had seized the turkish consulate in mussel kidnapping the head of diplomatic mission and two dozen staff members some thirty thousand iraqi soldiers reportedly turned and ran as militants from the islamic state of iraq and syria known as isis moved in unleashing an all out assault on the city they've taken control of hospitals police stations they have taken control of ammunition dumps and weapons stores that the fleeing government forces of would be left behind many of the abandoned weapons and military hardware

now in the hands of hardline terrorists were imported into iraq from gas where i think you all are aware of the shipments that we've provided that include the delivery of three hundred hellfire missiles millions of rounds of small arms fire thousands of rounds of tank ammunition helicopter fired rockets that iraqi security forces and don't forget about the u.s. supplied humvees here you can see isis insurgents riding and inspecting the vehicles driving them across the border into war torn syria critics call it an unintended consequence of the u.s. war in iraq coming home to roost there weren't any real sizable organized militant groups in iraq until al qaeda of the mesopotamia rose during the night to fight back to the u.s. invasion to help the army we've trained them for eight years and that didn't seem to work bush dismantled the original iraqi army after the u.s. invasion and that's the root of the the problem. u.s.

war in iraq cost washington close to one trillion dollars in the lives of more than forty five hundred soldiers hundreds of thousands of iraqis have reportedly been killed while the u.s. was looking for w m d's and spreading democracy. the unified and competent iraqi military that was allegedly established has buckled weapons that were made in the usa are now in the hands of america's enemies and the country left to fend for itself in a state of crisis. r t what at least two million people have been displaced by the violence in the rules the reports of mass beheadings being carried out by the extremists investigative journalist robert perry who's a middle east specialist believes iraq is collapsing and the u.s. should take responsibility. well it suggests that the iraqi military is indicating that it's beginning to collapse the clearly this is a very divided country in terms of the question of stability or instability the

u.s. invasion in two thousand and three was the force that shattered this nation and it's been hard to imagine how it's going to be put back together in any meaningful way since then you had even someone like senator joe biden now the vice president suggesting some years ago that the country should be divided in three that we have a sunni section a shiite section and a kurdish section and it seems to be moving in that direction. you can keep across developments in iraq by heading to r.t. dot com where you also find expert analysis on the key causes and plays in the troubled country. residence in savannah's can train what way you can overnight to see the sky lit by what they claim were military fire bombs being dropped on the city slavyansk is a focal point in the conflict and locals say artillery fire has been ongoing for days schools hospitals and government buildings have been partially destroyed water

and power supplies are regularly cut off ukraine's health ministry says more than two hundred people including nine hundred children have been killed in the yeast since the government began its military operation where as well as the regular army the ukrainian government has also been using national guard conscripts and they were the main force behind the military assaults in the east but entire units have since headed back to kiev claiming they're on paid and have been abandoned by the government. in mosul but i got better sources that i'm a man. according to official papers we don't exist where in the illusion it's like we haven't been deployed here we haven't got any ammunition nothing we were sleeping on the ground because we didn't even have can't they just sent us. here and forgot about it and while all the generals and commanders were sitting pretty near we were guarded by the us the p.c.'s who were sent to fired like cannon for

their. fish. to show us we haven't been paid we're going around six hundred or so ruble here two months ago and sit we didn't have any food instead we've been feeding us with promises that it's going to happen to morrow but we're tired of waiting. and there is a closer look at the crisis that is splitting ukraine in today's edition of worlds apart here on r.t. international now i know that you've just returned from ukraine does it feel like a whole new country compared to the previous times you visited it no i think that would be overstating the fact it is true that there is a great deal of hope among but this is a fresh start but equally people's memories are longer than seven or eight years and for many it's just the same old thing one oligarchy has effectively replaced another.

now america's hunger to dominate the genetically modified food market could get curved on the other side of the atlantic is the e.u. molds where the individual countries should have the right to ban such crops brussels has long pushed for greater international trade in g.m.o. use even though more than a half of member nations are against them or europe correspondent peter oliver has this report the meeting of the environment ministers in brussels on thursday could be an important step toward seeing genetically modified foods banned in some countries in countries like here in germany we've seen a massive outcry against didn't let it be modified food people preferring to shop it organic stores like the one behind me now the reasons they've given for this of several. most notably health reasons people who are against g.m.o. foods are saying that there's not enough research on the fact the research hasn't even being done one other concern revolves around trade in genetically modified

foods at the end of june we're going to see the negotiations on the new transatlantic trade and investment policy really getting into full swing at t.-t. as it's known well its critics say this could allow american companies to pass off g.m.o. food stuffs with felt having to let europeans know they say that they will the standards of food in the united states just aren't up to scratch with days in europe now we have seen bans in the past just recently apples from the united states were sold they weren't going to be allowed to be imported into europe so whatever the result of the environment ministers meeting in brussels it does seem that when it comes to the general public in europe they didn't g.m.o. a resoundingly no. effects on people's health have

dope perceptions of genetically modified food for years in that time there have been many studies on just what the board she crops might do to the human body this graphic shows you if you research as link them to potentially causing diseases such as cancer allergies and also childhood learning disorders g m o's may be divisive in europe but china has taken a much more robust stance as election discussed with parties neil harvey. seem to be proud of putting their own corn into the market and the reason for that is because the chinese no longer want to buy the american corn in fact if we put it into numbers and we can see that the sales and the import has dropped significantly this year china already rejected one twenty five million tons of corn the wall street journal put it into money and said that american trading companies lost more than half a billion dollars already we need to mention that china has been the one of the biggest buyers of american corn over the years five million tons per year and the third largest importer and this year the sales of american corn to china dropped by

eighty five percent and this is all over the fact they don't want g.m. food now presumably this is because the public are demanding this is well i mean they are the consumers of the rule indeed the main reason cited is that the corn has been genetically modified the chinese government revealed it by what we spoke to an expert from tokyo research on agriculture and he told us that this may be a very very good move for china the chinese consumers actually getting more sophisticated they're getting more qualities consumers so they're looking for value and for emotional value actually in products if you buy a strawberry jew or in china and it mimics the tastes of fragrance and. that it has no ethical emotional value to the consumer and as you know china rising middle class in china is rather conscious of the program wants to buy. it could be

a great spin to that we recently had a statement from the russian prime minister that russia also wants to sort of abstain from buying genetically modified products and it has enough soil and enough capacities and enough capabilities of growing its own natural food so in the north of china where i would particularly corn and other grain production as well so we knows maybe it will be russian corn in the chinese markets. still ahead the cabbies taking a stand against technology over a nap which they claim lose them passenger money that's coming up in a couple of. take that as a sign that the united states would be more last ok with they always are still calling the shots in ukraine inside undemocratic fashion as long as they are in line with the u.s. national interests the united states i think its influence over ukraine over.

of course i know. even the head of the cia has been welcomed with open arms in ukraine in recent times so of course the ukraine which is western leaning does indeed pound if you like to american overtures. sigrid leverage or. was able to build on the most sophisticated ruble which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything too much mission to teach me why you should care about you and. this is why you should care only.

taxi drivers have brought major european cities to a halt because of an increasingly popular smartphone app which they say puts that job risk ati's party boyko explains why cabbies in london think it's just not fat. it's a species that she rode the british capital for well over a century but is london's iconic black cab about to become extinct as another beast encroaching on the taxi's turf a smartphone app called. well the up works by tracking your location and showing you the nearest cars available so i'm just back to newbury my driver olim john will pick me up in seven minutes. once i arrived at my destination the app will tell me how much i owe and it will be charged straight to my bank card thought london taxi drivers say it's in legal for

any vehicle other than a license taxi to be fitted with a meter that can calculate your fare it's running the show must follow you is a meter and therefore should be regulated by. the car he's one for if you can people do volunteer for the diary or the form or pay for the cab pay for the profit. is for as pale. as competition is healthy the capitol's man says the black cap is part of the fabric of the city but there needs to be real technology that can drive as protesting head don't want to be in london they're not happy with the capital's transpose authority for allowing the app to operate now several thousand of them have gathered in central london and they've brought traffic to a standstill google goldman sachs and of amazon become police their billionaires to

skate over rush one. of the big louie's of the brushwork bust only reason really london i believe to them this is still a good start looting ends up money we work hard we don't all use all the knowledge and blood comes along books for the. that's about about i don't know why you got i just got tripped up over not going to accept it but isn't the first threat to the hackney carriage the fact treat that builds it went bust and was only saved by chinese investment it is you know the quintessential kind of icon of london and if it works it's awesome everyone's time around here like a fair city fair enough but the irony is that by demonstrating against the new smartphone app the beleaguered london taxi has generated some priceless publicists for the very company they say is driving away their customers. london taxi trouble

isn't the only cause a banga on the streets of london at the moment is also a growing resentment over plans to buy britain's first ever water cannon the crowd control method packs a punch but london's mayor has brushed off public concerns and is even offering to be blasted by the water cannon himself you can read more about this at r.t. dot com and also there is a moment the story of how an online chat with fellow a video game is protected a woman in arizona being roped. in. one of your cultural phenomena like these policies i think you know. a pleasure to have you with us here on our t.v. today i roll researcher.

now all eyes will be on brazil over the next four weeks starting in just a few hours when the world cup kicks off hundreds of thousands of fans will be there millions of us watched the country put on a footballing spectacle but the lead up to the event was marred by need daily protests over the huge cost course read as you narrow on a twenty four hour strike jeopardizing fans trying to get to the cities and stadiums and the spiralling cost have left almost half half of brazilian skeptical about holding the tournament to told what is going phillips found that the die hard fans the game is all that matches. how you. think he's also chosen to turn to the to do because of all the teams competing in the world how was he did you thought it was coming just to gaze.

at these hundreds of the two children who volunteered to take phones in the opening ceremony and some today as we can see the one don't really for the fun for us so what really came crashing down not to disrupt proceedings they continued and that kind of got out that this was the way the flow. of the world cup the twenty twelve companies took your emitters they would focus on this the first in south america for thirty six years i'm here asking people how they feel about it oh it's so exciting to be here in brazil just to enjoy the book cover the atmosphere with the fans from around the world was in the city simply took all the football spanish maybe ok i was how good good good so how do you feel about this world cup they are so much thank you to me years ago you were there i should let you know how do you. really believe me i was

so the world cup i want to kickoff in brazil was the feeling from the fines this is great for those who don't see. and it all gets underway tonight when host brazil take on croatia in sao paolo. some other news now from around the world a suicide bombing in libya's second largest city has injured several people you happened near a military checkpoint in benghazi when an explosive device hidden in a car was detonated three soldiers in two civilians were among the wounded is still that the troops be targeted declaring support for a former general we don't leech a military campaign against islamist in. the united states has resumed the use of drones in pakistan after suspending the program last december to allow talks between the islamabad government and the taliban at least sixteen militants were killed in an air in air strikes on their hideouts in the northern was year to stand province a few days ago taliban fighters launched brazen attacks on the country's largest

airport in karachi killing dozens of. troops from around the democratic republic of congo have clashed on their shared border congolese officials accuse rwandan soldiers of crossing the border and kidnapping a congolese army corporal he was then killed but rwanda insists congo's troops attacked first triggering the exchange of fire. america's intelligence agency is on a mission to improve its public image and has been holding its first public conference the cia has already got a presence on twitter to try and reach give the agency a more human face his artes. and on what came up at the conference cia director john brennan was upset with the media was how is he said distorted the narrative is with regard to the work that the cia is doing all these reports about drone strikes edward snowden's revelations about the u.s. government trampling on civil liberties all of this is not to john brennan's liking

his mission is to restore the public's trust and not only of the american public but also of the public globally foreign governments are becoming embarrassed of their cooperation with the cia because of the bad perceptions that are out there and that worries john brennan who have been dismissed. the narrative seems to be skewed. the narrative. after nine eleven a lot of trust was put in the cia then as the director said it went the other way he obviously did not focus on how the agency managed to squander that trust either by providing flawed intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in iraq or maybe due to the drone operations which reportedly kill more civilians than terrorists or due to how the agency managed to miss the boston marathon bombers even though they had the warnings john brennan was not there to talk specifics journalists were not

allowed to ask questions only the participants of the conference and those were scholars georgetown foreign service students intelligence professionals the questions that john brennan received were very general character and this was the first cia conference on national security by the way they were not allowed to film anybody in the audience the cia has just launched this twitter account and all of this is a result of john brennan deciding to engage in more public. to fix that tarnished image of the agency and while the image conscious intelligence community tries to defend its ways and means activists have launched a new campaign support whistle blows being hounded by the authorities it is backed by the so called courage group in berlin that runs edward snowden's defense fund spoke to some of the organizers the reality of the situation is that we don't live in an ideal world and we need to support people who bring out seriously uncomfortable truths so we have the reforms in the united states that allow people

to come and talk about real serious abuses of power about fraud waste and abuse we need organizations like courage to be able to support people where the state has fallen short and unfortunately in the united states those united states have really fallen short for edward snowden i think anyone that speaks truth to power whether it's a whistleblower a journalist or a publisher. those are heroic acts and they should be supported there are many with supplies that are examples of how the united states treats trees teles and it is they basically persecute them and that is what they have done with that with snakes you could see it last year when they doubt the president's plane trying to find him so i think that the united states has a long way to go in protecting treaty tell us as they should coming up next here in r.t. hopes on a boy his whether a new president can bring real change to violence played to crack.

in london in one of the caring hearts of one of the capitals of loving liberal e.u. they've implemented a plan to finally get almost people off the. treats at night so did they provide these desperate people with the jobs they could at least earn a few pounds and have some human dignity of course not they put down spikes everywhere on the ground so that the hobos have nowhere to sleep yes that is right they're laying down spikes to keep up the homeless just like dragon's teeth keep out tanks now if this happened somewhere in say bangladesh on a bad day i might say well that is their business but all the liberals in the e.u. just constantly cry from their ivory tower to the whole world about how we all need to be tolerant and be taxed to death to help people but as a guy who grew up in

a bad neighborhood i can tell you that liberals never want to live near the people they claim to want to help you know henry ford was one of those guys who said that you should never give anybody any handouts so what he did was give the disabled and the poor are decent paying jobs at his factory so listen up you liberal loony bin if you want to get those evil yucky print for people off the streets just put them to work it will read your city of its homeless problem a lot faster than spikes will but that's just my opinion. trying to scare. people are going to. feel like. the sort of thing everybody should. be.

allowed to live. their life like. six. cases. sometimes for nothing. this. is not just a story. he will be. if you see the state he will be. teaching you all that. hello and welcome to worlds apart it's only been

a few days since patrol person who was sworn into office but then now for the west to throw all of its diplomatic support behind him is here really a new beginning for ukraine or rather a continuation of the same old policies that plagued the country for the last twenty plus years well to discuss that i'm now joined by james nixey head of the russia and eurasia program at chatham house mr nixon thank you very much for being here on the show thank you very much now i know that you've just returned from ukraine doesn't feel like a whole new country compared to the previous times you visited it. that's a great question. no i think that would be overstating the fact it is true that there is a great deal of hope among some but this is a fresh start but equally people's memories are longer than seven or eight years and for many it's just the same old thing one oligarchy has effectively replaced another so it's a mixture quite frankly this is after all a in some ways

a divided country and so for some yes it's a fresh start in a new country and for others it's more of the same and a general pessimism but another my down situation will repeat itself in the years to come while i remember watching one of your earlier interviews on the russian presidential election and you described that vote as free but not fair i wonder how you would characterize those election was a free and fair. i actually think that it was free and fair not just because of my own very if you like and life experience my microcosm experience of having been in a death or bliss and seen no malign manipulation of the vote but also because. all of the o.s.c. observers saw broadly speaking a very free honest fair attempt.