the enemy. when it was previously your friend and your. cash for rebels the u.s. president pushes congress to cough up half a billion dollars in aid for syrian opposition fighters to help train and i'm provide equipment. president prepares to sign a trade deal with the e.u. the very same agreement which ignited the february revolution an armed conflict in the country's defined to east. plus it just won't fly the long delay in opening a kilometer five billion dollars. is blamed on a fake engineer given a key role in the project. welcome

my name is the harvey and you're watching starting in. rebels engaged in war with the syrian president are in line for a half billion dollar windfall from the u.s. president obama has asked congress to approve the money the aid also aims to counter the radical islamist group isis which is also fighting assad and terrorizing cities in neighboring iraq artie's marina porn are takes a look at the possible dangers of washington's multitask. the obama administration is requesting for lawmakers to approve five hundred million dollars in spending for the purpose of arming the syrian opposition the white house claims that only appropriate vetted elements of the moderate opposition would receive direct training from the u.s. military and be equipped with american weapons and ammunition u.s. officials insist that the weapons would serve to help empower the syrian people and

help them push back against the government as well as the militant extremist group isis which actually has been fighting to topple bashar al assad since the civil war began more than three years ago however as recent events have shown american weapons may very well end up in its enemies hands just two weeks ago isis an all out assault on iraq's second largest city mosul causing a reported thirty thousand iraqi soldiers who were trained by the u.s. military to turn around and run as a result sunni extremists have seized stockpiles of american weapons and ammunition as well as u.s. humvees the bloodshed being unleashed in iraq by isis has arguably been strengthened by the fact that militants are fighting with u.s. weapons in afghanistan the taliban is now armed with u.s. made stinger missiles which according to reports were originally sent to libya when the obama administration was arming the opposition rising up against former leader moammar gadhafi for more than a decade the u.s. has been drowning the arab world in weapons arming locals to help the governments

not only how is it created absolute chaos and bloodshed it is arguably in terrorist organizations because the weapons at least some of them are ending up in the hands of the enemy as for syria the devastating civil war killed some one hundred fifty thousand people and the international community does agree that something should be done question is is sending weapons to one side of the conflict which includes terrorists the best solution reporting from washington d.c. marina. r.t. . washington's consistently changed this mind on how to help the rebels in syria it was over a year ago when the u.s. first approved direct non-lethal aid in december twenty third teen it was suspended after american supplied equipment fell into the hands of islam ist fighters although earlier this month the white house confirmed it has actually been sending lethal aid to the syrian opposition and the war campaign of ron bakir says that the

u.s. is split when it comes to taking sides in civil conflicts it shows the united states appears the policy there is seeing the demure unity in iraq behind the central government which is fighting what they call islamic extremists from ice or uses and at the same time they're funding these seemed armed groups in syria to take down an independent nationalist and sovereign government in syria what the u.s. is doing and has been doing this finally in money guns and more occupation tools in a region that it considers to be vital because it's resource rich that's about it inside syria there are ten million people in need of humanitarian assistance that's according to the latest u.n. assessments and that represents almost half of the country's population auntie's maria financial reports now from one city where people are returning to their homes after the syrian army took it from our dribbles. this road in central syria

used to be beset by snipers and anyone driving here could be kidnapped that's when the smallest western area known as the moon was controlled by armed drug that's all your brother next to the syrian lebanese border is just eighty kilometers from the capital damascus but it is like a state within a state that has its own security forces police and even the army you can see is symbols of new of forces here everywhere graffiti or three stars that means free syrian army is controlling this area a syrian military cannot enter six months later return to the main square if if if. if you know the syrian army expect townspeople after months of fierce battles and numerous offensives officers say i can take off my flak jacket my dear friend a very. back then the breach of this border region was

a significant blow to serious security with weapons and fighters easily get in in. well not anymore the town over here is now totally under the control of the syrian authorities and we actually can see everywhere the official syrian flags with two stars syrian officers everywhere and banners with newly elected president bashar al assad it's friday today and the officers tell us that all the shops are closing the restaurants a close eye roll out see lots of people in the streets but there is another reason actually many residents fled this town and entire area of color. in an attempt to escape from atrocities. at the city's mosque the heart of this predominantly muslim town friday prayers have just finished. most of these people who only returned to their town recently my heart outside. my home was hit and destroyed thank god the army is now back to brood is also home to a big christian community

a different face he used to live in harmony here for years until islamic rule was imposed by the rebels many being religious zealots some linked to al-qaeda mostly officially they were religious groups jihadi islamists but in fact it was normally asian or anything else their religion was money. oh look this young man shows us what used to be a jewelry shop it was looted and then set on fire. with luck made all bouyeri they were on motorbikes they call themselves the free syrian army they used to also take food coming to town from damascus often they were also kidnapping people locals hope the dog days a gun for just a week after we left the town attacked the army positions in the region again several other areas across syria still remain house by rebels or jihadists it seems

that despite the army's recent success it's still too early to say this to the state in war will be over. rich nationality from syria. the british monarchy has enjoyed wide public support for many decades but do mere commoners actually know how much the crown is costing them rina kosovo takes a look at some hidden price tags that most of the public are completely unaware of . over eighty percent of brits believe the royal family brings in a significant amount of revenue for the country each year some five hundred million pounds according to the case national tourism agency well those have been complaining for the abolition of the monarchy believe that figure is incorrect and they're ready to show british taxpayers just how much of their money really goes towards funding live oils their public group claims the estimated annual cost of the monarchy is almost three hundred million pounds which is around nine times the

official figure published by the royal household why this disparity apparently the official figure excludes a number of costs including security royal visits and lost revenue from the dutch cheese of lancaster and cornwall if there were public figures are to be believed it would mean the british head of state is one of the most expensive government institutions in the world the important point is that they want to close a lot more than many people think. but even if those figures were made public there's every chance that the majority of the british public would agree that they want to he was still worthwhile in fact a poll last year found that forty five percent of the british public shelters strong support for the monarchy up from twenty seven percent in two thousand and six a survey released this month showed that prince william has grandmother and his father are all more popular than the country's top rates of politicians remember the crowds for will's wedding but more people are now saying not having the option to choose who benefits from taxpayers money is also important there's also

a principle of democracy about whether it's right that the head of state should be . ready to treat position rather than one chosen by the people and there's also a question of the message it sends to the young people growing up in this country i would rather that the young people growing up in this country were told that no matter who you are too much away you're born much of who your parents are you can rise to the highest office in the land and that would be the case is going to be have a really free money even though most brits love their queen there's a growing number of those who would like to see their money go towards improving the country rather than the country's palaces marina costs of a reporter from london forty. more than eighteen million pounds is spent on keeping the rules fed and properly maintained that sequel to two thousand pensions and more than thirty million pounds goes towards keeping the royal palaces spic and span not to provide four hundred forty students with scholarships and the money

spent on the families travel costs well that could feed more than three thousand three hundred homeless people republican them smith believes that the roles insole to people suffering from austerity whether the spending by the world family is going up even by their own official figures it's going up you know that they spend four million pounds on. renovating a house for prince william. no the public does not owe these people a living it doesn't owe them a house and they need to start cutting by tens of millions not increasing their income and their wealth whilst we are cutting public services and public jobs government simply hands over. millions of pounds to the worlds of the world's then get to choose how they spend it. and then report on how they've spent it themselves countering it and a lot of spin. and misinformation of course if you look to other countries in europe they have similar heads of state at fraction of the price so the republic of

ireland for example they get to choose their head of state does a similar ceremonial job and they cost less than ten million pounds every year so clearly you know having had to stay for three hundred million pounds is a bit of a nonsense. in other news german specialists find a way to rescue chancellor angela merkel from the prying n.s.a. and they do that by giving her an upgraded proof cell phone the chances contact over with a monkey quite happy about that because they now have to pay two and a half thousand euros just for a chance to get all the details on the story at r.t. dot com. check this story out even if it's wet and cold watch ten grey seals being returned back to the wild several months of treatment at a wildlife center in st petersburg and that is in the in motion section of party dot com. now first federal for

takeoff in two thousand and ten the opening of the third largest airport in germany has still not happened and now there are even suggestions that losses for the taxpayer could reach as much as one hundred fifty million euros every year peter all over reports on water rather who is behind the ongoing disaster. at this time of year an airport should be bustling with holiday makers jetting off for their summer vacations not here though at. the airports two years behind schedule the only people the construction workers still working on the project with costs spiraling out of control it's really become a comedy of errors the latest scandal involves the fire safety system moreover the man that designed it it's a merge they didn't have any qualifications to be in a position to do so what he did have though was a business card that said that he was an engineer turns out that wasn't worth the

paper that it was written on but how does a man with no qualifications find himself in a very important position on a multibillion euro project to find out more on this i'm joined by steve from the party of reason safe if i had a business card that said i was an astronaut would that mean i got to go into space quite likely for it was the space agency was run by the same people that are running this airport wouldn't surprise me at all what's going on here what's happening with this project right now cost overruns without end technical disasters and political decisions being made and in my opinion it's probably due to the fact that government agencies bureaucrats are trying to make a huge project which should have been better left off to a private consortium to build as it was initially intended to be i mean we don't even know when this airports could open next year no sixteen seventeen maybe eighteen maybe never who knows but thank you very much there we go we don't know when it's going to open some estimates of put a final cost of around ten billion euro on finally getting this airport brandenburg

open it certainly hasn't gone smoothly here. they stay with us here on all day international plenty more to come for this hour including the we'll turns a blind eye to thousands of african refugees held captive in the sinai peninsula. melting plastic bags joining it in their mad so this is. an israeli activist tries to drum up support for her campaign by putting the terror of human trafficking and torture in the screen more details just ahead. there's a medium leave also we leave that may be. part of the scene motion security for your part of the physical. issues that no one is asking with the guests that you

deserve answers from. politic only on our team. choose your language. if we can we know if you're going to. choose the consensus you can. choose the opinions that immigrate to. choose the stories that impact the. choose me access to.

welcome back you're watching r.t. international cover thousands of african refugees the search for a better life in torture camps set up by human traffickers in israel in the sinai peninsula on three thousand migrants per month come from the eritrea alone many of them are kidnapped for ransom and tortured until their families pay if they don't and traffickers reportedly killed the hostages or the four thousand people are estimated to have been killed since two thousand and eight around a thousand are thought to be in captivity right now. last month the president of eritrea demanded an investigation but the international community has remained largely silent with israel in particular ignoring the problem on its own doorstep on their own as the foreign office is a swedish every three an activist to try to raise awareness about the victims of

torture by putting their plight on screen. something. else in plastic bags dropping it in their bags this is. the political machine. and amount of stuff on us talk to us he's a nice and now a on the in the now and she says there's a big difference in the way that captives are being treated. i have seen kids children that are two years old being tortured there were some kids that have to watch their mother being burned alive and they survived so these are the kind of people that i talk to the torture is it's not any other tortured

like we see horror movie or something it's where people are torture twenty four hours a day deprived deprived of food deprived how is there not more international weirdness about what's happening in finite the amount of deaths the type of torture and the millions of dollars that have been made by these hostage takers who. also have to do with race you know we we have seen americans getting kidnapped in the sinai. it took only twenty four hours to release them last year a norwegian woman was kidnapped in the same area and it took about a week for her to be released. we've seen last year also an israeli man being kidnapped and also took a few days for him to be released so this happens all quite often to westerners as well but they're out with the base and they don't get to experience the torture as . it has to do with this race.

you know the news ukraine is entering a trade agreement with the you the very deal that started events so the previous administration toppled a lot really led to the ongoing bloody standoff in the country's. president petro poroshenko who signs the association pact in brussels later on friday so he believes this is the way to carry out the will of the nation the people demanding european future very clear every single region of ukraine. support one candidate demonstrate him react very different form we have read it for europe we are ready for peace but in eastern ukraine there appears to be little support for kiev the self-proclaimed republics have done yet skin the ganske with a population of more than six million million are refusing to recognize the new leaders and the opening critical of a european ambitions the week long cease fire has been broken several times by the army and local militia expires today three hundred fifty people have been killed

two hundred fifty seven of them civilians since kiev launched its military operation against the defined eastern regions first president poroshenko is determined to set course for europe. now let's see why aligning with the e.u. appears so attractive for kiev and where the catch could lie the deal will remove tariffs on almost all goods traded between ukraine and europe and that is if it meets e.u. standards which he doesn't at the moment and will have to spend about one hundred billion dollars in order to do so winning a place at the european table ukraine will no longer be russia's preferential partner at least five billion dollars in trade global financial markets expert patrick young believes the association deal with the e.u. is a grave mistake. ukraine which last year was in a catastrophic position how that signed a free trade association this year is going to associate with the european union

are the point when it's on the brink already of economic disaster this is a catastrophic move for the ukrainian economy the only winners i do this are a few sadly deluded egos whether they're in brussels whether they're in washington who believe somehow or other they've achieved a great deal political victory for the people of ukraine there are no jobs to be hired here there's only going to be job losses there is no economic growth to be hired by suddenly having western european goods dumped at little cost onto your marketplace this deal is a disaster it's a very very tragic day for the people of ukraine who want to improve their economic outlook or those in ukraine supporting the association agreement with the e.u. have high hopes for the deal but not all of what pro european ukrainians are hoping for is on the table right now brussels is not keen to rush through visa free travel

with ukraine so far the freedom of employment within the only for member states and there's no actual guarantee of eventually the membership and that's for europeans who are still bearing the burden of stereotypic well they're not really into expanding the union right now the logs energy commission awards that the bailout for greece is peanuts compared to the billions that brussel would have to cough up to save ukraine's ailing economy the president of the european commission says the u.s. is not ready to integrate a country like ukraine at this stage and that's a sentiment that is also echoed by the foreign minister of europe's powerhouse germany and brussels is facing a huge battle to keep its old members at the moment rather than welcoming new ones sorties police reports. less than a month ago a year a skeptic earthquake rocked the european parliamentary elections and t.e.u. parties claimed first place in britain france and denmark leaving the e.u.'s image

battered and bruised now one man wants to give the european union project the ultimate make over by helping citizens form an emotional attachment to the let's face it the winds ling e.u. brand it's a monumental task its. role is to make it fun so we can make you laugh and we can turn the european union into something you can actually talk at a dinner then we've done our job at brand e.u. hate q tongue in cheek post is talking about e.u. teams in the world cup or interspersed with more serious messages about the inception of the european union and the fall of the berlin wall will be translated into all twenty four languages of member states but in the u.k. you cape's european election victory shows that to some voters around you is past its sell by date the problem that the european union has is that it's a product no one wants to buy in the sense that it is something of the last century

not this century it's a tough time to be launching a pro e.u. campaign the e.u. parliamentary vote reflected disenchantment with e.u. policies such as immigration austerity and over regulation across the member states here in the u.k. the prime minister has even had to promise and in out referendum by twenty seventeen if he's reelected so for the brand new brand e.u. turning the club's image around is a matter of survival if we don't come together as a people of europe and we start seeing this separatism in scotland for example. need to leave. could see a potential break up of europe it's an independent campaign which means brussels isn't funding it nor do they have any influence over it but according to the man in charge of the rebranding project the european union

a grateful for the help. london. up next i'll take you to larry king discussing the violence in iraq with a full moon the rain in full that. the federal migration service of russia has recently received more than five thousand requests for political asylum from ukrainian citizens these requests come from refugees who are fleeing the conflict in the eastern part of ukraine in fact i personally know people who are from the ukraine who are now essentially trapped in russia because their native regions are at war with the kiev government there is a classic mainstream media talking point about russian aggression and russian imperialism which gets repeated constantly in fact so often that is not even a question but if you stop to think about it if you were trapped in a region at war and you were going to escape odd foot where would you go into the

heart of the aggressors imperialists no you go in the direct opposite direction interestingly enough in both this conflict and the two thousand and eight war in georgia the overwhelming majority of refugees flee towards russia excluding some sort of bizarre stockholm syndrome it seems that for people in break way republican ukraine and georgia russia is a safe haven they often say that people vote with their feet and in the case of the most recent wars in european history it is clear whose feet are voting for whom and no mainstream media talking points can deny that but that's just my opinion.

we've got an updated perspective on the violence in iraq from a former marine who fought there does the u.s. have any good options in the crisis plus the latest on the problems within the veterans administration then the right to keep and bear arms it's at the heart of one of the most controversial parts of the u.s. constitution and a red hot topic in american politics my go all month attorney former speechwriter for president clinton delivers a biography of the second amendment it's all next on politicking.

president a new book on the second amendment later in the show but first we'll focus on what's happening in iraq and the latest on the scandal within the veterans administration joining me to talk about this is dan caldwell a former active duty marine who served in operation iraqi freedom he's currently the issues and legislative campaign manager for concerned veterans of america he joins us from washington dan we'll talk about the veterans administration in a moment but what's your read on what's going on in iraq well it's an unfortunate situation and i think it's a result of a very schizo phrenic foreign policy in the middle east that we've seen during.