still pens tear jerking poetry keep. norrish. we post only what really matters out r.t. to your facebook you street. cash for rebels the us president pushes congress to cough up a pawn for a billion dollars in aid for syrian opposition fighters to help train them and provide equipment. cranes president prepares to sign a trade deal with the e.u. the very same agreement which ignited the february revolution and armed conflict in the country's defiant east. plus it just flaw in the long delay in opening a kilometer is five billion dollars that is blamed on a fake engineer given a key role in the project. once

again thanks for joining us my name is the you're watching r.t. and. first rebels engaged in war with the syrian president are in line for hoffa a 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 marina portnoy takes a look at the possible dangers of washington's multi-tasking. 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 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 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 them overthrow 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 its 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 that was suspended after american supplied equipment fell into the hands of is limited to fighters although earlier this month the white house confirmed it has actually been

sending lethal aid to the syrian opposition and to walk on pain of brian becker says the u.s. is split when it comes to taking sides in civil conflicts it shows the united states appears to have a schizophrenia foreign policy there are you seeing the demeanor of 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 and 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 made for national reports now from one city where people are returning to their homes after the syrian army took it from armed rebels. this road in central syria

used to be beset by snipers and anyone driving here could be kidnapped that's when this last western area known as the moon was controlled by armed drug was told 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 and police and even the army you can see is symbols of near our 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. remains well if if if. if you have the syrian army expect town after months of fierce battles and numerous offensives officers say i can take off my flak jacket my dear friend. back then the breach of this border region was

a significant blow to serious security with weapons and fighters easily get in email. well not anymore the town over here is now totally under the control of the syrian authorities and we actually can see it everywhere they're fishel syrian flags with two stars syrian officers everywhere and banners with newly elected president bashar al assad it's friday friday and the officers tell us that all the shops are closed all the restaurants a closed eye roll out see lots of people in the streets but there is another reason actually many residents fled this town and the entire area of cologne 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 the town recently won the hearts of. my home was hit and destroyed thank god the army is now back to boot 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 no religion or anything else their religion was money. well this young man shows us what used to be a jewelry shop it was looted and then set on fire. all told. but let me don't worry they were on motorbikes they call themselves the free syrian army they used to also take food coming to town from damascus they were also kidnapping people locals hope the dark days a gun for just a week after we left the town fighters attack 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 as it's still too early to say when

there's devastating 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 according to the latest annual report almost thirty six million pounds were spent last year to support the royal family but there are some hidden price tags most of the public are completely unaware of the cost of a explains. 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 but those have been campaigning 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 the royals 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 the republic's figures are to be believed it would mean the british head of state as one of the most expensive government institutions in the world the important point is that the want to close is 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 the budget he was still with was 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 no matter where you are born much of who your parents are you can rise to the highest office in the land would be the case is going to have a retrieve even though most parents 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. check out some of the figures more than eighty million pounds is spent on keeping the royals fed and properly maintained that's equal to two thousand pensions and more than thirteen million pounds goes towards keeping the roll palaces spic and span that money could provide four hundred forty

students with scholarships and the money spent on the family's travel costs could feed more than three thousand three hundred homeless people republican graeme smith believes the rolls are an insult 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 world's and 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 a head of state for three hundred million pounds it's a bit of a nonsense. now in other stories that we're covering german specialists find a way to rescue chancellor angela merkel from the prying an essay by giving her the upgraded spy proof cell phone the chancellor's contacts other might not be quite so happy about that because they now have to pay two and a half thousand euros for a chance at all the details on our website www dot com and also online. even when it's wet and cold force ten gray seals being returned back into the wild up to several months of treatment a wildlife center in st petersburg get all the video in motion section of

dot com. first shuttle for takeoff in two thousand and ten the opening of the third largest airport in germany has still not happened delays poor construction and corruption scandals have plagued the project from the very beginning speak to all of the reports of watts or other who is behind the airport's bad karma. 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 and 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 flying 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 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. do stay with us here on alt international plenty more to come this hour including the world turns a blind eye to thousands of african refugees held captive in the sinai peninsula. are melting plastic bags and dropping it in their beds this is the burns an israeli activist tries to drum up support for her campaign by putting the terror of human trafficking and torture up on the screen more details just ahead. as ukraine struggles with a ceasefire the regime in kiev says it is committed to an association agreement with the e.u. the impact of which could be truly painful for the ukrainian people dividing

ukraine continues. we speak your language or not a day in. the music programs in documentaries and spanish matters to you breaking news a little turn to angles kid stories. for you here. in troy altie spanish find out more visit i. think the. economic up and downs in the final months they belong to the old sang i and the rest because it's going be a little be every week on. we're

combining it with alton and tonight. for thousands of african refugees the search for a better life in israel and in torture camps set up by human traffickers in the sinai peninsula one three thousand migrants per month come from eritrea alone many of them are kidnapped for ransom and tortured until their families pay if they dunks human traffickers reportedly kill the hostages or 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 and 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 stuff on us is a swedish eritrean activist who tried to raise awareness about the victims of

torture by putting their plight on the screen. and. they were melting plastic bags and dropping it in their bags this is. the political machine. and marijuana's the finest spoke to an isa now on in the now and she says there's a big difference in the way that captives are 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 tortured 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 gaffes the type of torture and the millions of dollars that have been made by these hostage takers who will. 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 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 few days for him to be released so this happens all quite often to westerners as well but they're out with days and they don't get to experience the torture as a free country so it has to do with race. and other news today ukraine is entering a trade agreement with the e.u.

the very deal that started events so the previous administration toppled a lot of really lead to the ongoing bloody standoff in the country's east president petro poroshenko who signs the association pact in brussels later today so he believes this is the way to carry out the will of the nation 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 and with a population of over six million are refusing to recognize the new leaders and openly critical of their european ambitions the week long cease fire that's been broken several times by the army and the local militia expires today or three hundred fifty people have been killed two hundred fifty seven of those civilians

since kiev launched its military operation against the defined eastern regions but president poroshenko is determined to set course for europe. now let's take a look at why aligning with the e.u. appears so attractive for kiev and where exactly the catch could lie will the deal will remove tariffs on almost all goods traded between ukraine and europe that's 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 and will lose five billion dollars in trade global financial markets expert patrick young believes that 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 it kept

us strong 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 those in ukraine supporting the association agreement with the you have high hopes for the deal but not everything pro european ukrainians are hoping for is actually on the table right now brussels is not keen to rush through visa free travel with ukraine at this point the freedom of employment in the e.u. is only for member states and there's no actual guarantee of the eventual e.u.

membership and that's for europeans who are still bearing the burden of a stereotypic well they're not really into expanding the union right now the blocks energy commissioner warns that the bailout for greece is peanuts compared to the billions that brussels would have to cough up to save ukraine's ailing economy the president of the european commission says that the e.u. is not ready to integrate a country like ukraine at this stage and that is a sentiment that's 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 as artie's police explains. 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. 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 capes european election victory shows that to some voters brand new is past its sell by date the problem that the european union is that it's a product no one wants to boy 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 a new 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 degree branding project the european union are grateful for their help please r.t. . as quickly round up some of the stories for you from around the world starting in

iraq where the government forces of retaking control of the buys she all refinery from only sis extremists and that's despite conflicting reports that militant forces are poised to take the whole passivity or productions remained largely unaffected by the current fighting however or commodities reached a nine month high in trading over the last week. as were clashes with police and protesters continue in berlin as despite earlier arrests hundreds blockades to prevent the eviction of refugees living and for school only forty asylum seekers remain in that building has been occupied now for more than eighteen months. the lack of trust in the world bank and the i.m.f. has led china to establish its very own rival global financial institution beijing is starting with one hundred billion dollars in capital and aims to overtake a similar project in the region which is highly influenced by japan so far twenty

two countries are shown interest in the new land including some rich states in the middle east china though says it would go ahead with the ambitious project even if nobody else wanted to one of the first tasks will be setting up a new version of the ancient silk road connecting the country to europe china expert professor and lee believes beijing is quite right to fund its own projects. i think that this is just a further extension of what china's been doing china has come from pretty much a backwater country thirty years ago to now this world's second largest economy and china is basically showing the world that if there is a will there is a way china has been somewhat frustrated with the world bank and the asian development bank in terms of. the funds coming out of these energies to support infrastructure projects so china i think basically decided that if they want anything done here they're just enough to fund it themselves and bring along

a bunch of partners so i think that's the prime motivation it's largely to expand their trade and economic influence. next see here and i'll tell you what the crane stand to gain from the cessation agreement with the e.u. will it divide the country even further that's what's being discussed. just a few. 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 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 and 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 we are publics in 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.