ukraine's president signs a trade deal with the you along with the leaders of georgia and moldova it's the very same agreement which ignited the february revolution and armed conflict in the ukraine's a defiant east. also in the way cash for rebels the u.s. president pushes congress to cough up half a billion dollars in aid to the syrian opposition fighters to help train them and provide equipment. plus just fly the long delay in opening a kilometer is five billion dollar airport in berlin is blamed on a fake engineer given a key role in the project. once

again my name is the harvey and you're watching r.t. international. first this hour rebels engaged in war with the syrian president are in line for a half billion dollar wouldn't fall 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 report now 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 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 them overthrow governments not only how is it created absolute chaos and bloodshed it is arguably help to strengthen 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 has 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 repeatedly changed his 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 was suspended after american supplied equipment fell into the hands of islam missed fighters although

earlier this month the white house confirmed it has actually been sending lethal aid to the syrian opposition antiwar campaign a brown back it says that the u.s. is split when it comes to taking sides in civil conflicts it shows the united states appears they have a schizophrenia foreign policy there they're saying they demand unity in iraq behind the central government which is fighting what they call islamic extremist from uses and at the same time they're funding these same the 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 well inside syria there are ten million people in need of humanitarian assistance that's according to the latest u.n. assessments and it represents almost half of the country's population artie's we have financial reports now from one city where people are returning to their homes

that's 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 thus when the smallest western area known as the moon was controlled by armed drug tell 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 authorities here everywhere graffiti or three stars that means free syrian army is controlling this area big syrian military cannot enter six months later return to the main square if. you feed the syrian army expect town after months of fierce battles and numerous offensives officers say i can take off my flak jacket my dear for if. it's friday

today and the officers tell us that all the shops are closing the restaurants a closed eye roll out so lots of people in the streets but there is another reason actually many residents fled this town and entire area of cologne in an attempt to escape from atrocities. at the city's mosque the heart of this predominantly muslim town crowded trains have just finished. most of these people when they returned to their town recently when the hot outside. my home was hit and destroyed saying their god the army is now back to mood is also home to a big christian community a different place 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 qaida or free syrian mostly officially they were religious groups jihadi islamists but in fact it

was normally a ginormous anything else their religion. money. oh this young man shows us what used to be a jewelry shop it was looted and then set on fire. at all but let me go bouyeri 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 just a week after we left the town fighters attacked the army positions in the region again several are the areas across. held by rebels or jihadists it seems that despite the army's recent six hours it's still too early to say when this devastating war will be over. rich nationality from syria. and other news ukraine is and today a trade agreement with the you the very deal that started events that saw the

previous administration toppled but ultimately led to the ongoing bloody standoff in the country's east president signed the association pact in brussels and says that 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 demonstrating react very different form we are really for europe we are ready for peace but in eastern ukraine there appears to be little support for kiev the self-proclaimed republics of done yet. with a population of more than six million are refusing to recognize the new leaders and are openly critical of their european ambitions more than three hundred fifty people have been killed two hundred fifty seven of them civilians since kiev launched its military operation against the defiant eastern regions but president

poroshenko is determined to set course for europe. so let's see why aligning with the e.u. appears so attractive for kiev and where the possible catches could lie well the deal will remove tariffs on almost all goods traded between ukraine and europe that is of course if it meets e.u. standards which it 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 hundred 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 for those in ukraine supporting the association agreement with the e.u. have high hopes for the deal but not everything pro european ukrainians are hoping for is on the table right now although brussels promises ukraine to establish a visa free travel that's not actually mentioned in the association agreement the freedom of employment within the e.u. is only for member states and there is no actual guarantee of eventual e.u. membership. and as for europeans who are still bearing the burden of austerity

they're not really into expanding their union right now the blocks energy commissioner warns 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 the e.u. isn't ready to integrate a country like ukraine at this stage and that's a sentiment 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. ok i'm sorry we can't bring you to grow but we can move on with this story because the week long ceasefire in eastern ukraine has been broken several times by the army and local militia has expired president poroshenko demanded that anti-government forces lay down their arms during the truce they refused saying that here should stop massing its troops around restive

cities and towns the fighting continued with some reports suggesting civilians were caught up in the army shelling again let's talk more about the turbulent situation in ukraine's east with an abundance the political commentator for e.u. reporter magazine thanks to time speak to his first the truce in eastern ukraine as we just mentioned it is expiring a lot of people say it hasn't really been observed anyway do you think this will see an increase from now on in the violence. well i think first of all our petro poroshenko showed himself as a man who was ready to go over dead bodies not allegorically about the literally to sign the association agreement and the green it was at the heart of the conflict so it means that we can't force see any small for any even of this situation because people are fighting for their jobs for their lives and for their identity so you mentioned a lot of things which are absolutely right but the point is that people don't understand it now because there is information about kate and they have an illusion

i have plenty of allusions for example that they would have these are presently they will have our european living standards just overnight the moment their new president will sign an agreement now president poroshenko also said that if another round of talks with the east fails to day he said he will take in his own words a very important step what do you think he means by that. well i don't think that he really means a lot because he shells already a lot of neglect towards this situation. in the east south of ukraine so are he doesn't pay attention he doesn't invest in itself and that is the result because the ideas he was chosen as far as a sort of general can do that of the west of the european union and the united states and he fulfilled his promise and he signed the agreement and basically he doesn't care what happens afterwards because as we know during elections he invested his own seven million fortunes to become

a president so you can't expect him as a genuine caring about his people he's definitely not he's a career businessman who cares about his own good so far about the east of course it's tragic and everybody knows in russia for example or in the east about the events are taking very tragic course about here in brussels today is a cheerful day because of the egos are absolutely blue states and european union machine is more and more likely like soviet union so it means they can't reverse they can pull back we will go on and the final result is basically an important and maybe cheerful though what hasn't been it's all cheerful though the several breaches of the of the cease fire we've had the army and the anti government forces blaming each other for those breaches things really should learn very. well i think that the point is of course that poroshenko never really invested himself in this

the selling of the conflict because he invested in south in pleasing the west in signing the. everything to make your craniums feel and think that this is so she should remember will bring a lot of good to the country so he hopes that the moment he signs the agreement it will crush the will of people in the east to go on fighting and then he thinks that also this the forces are so equal that he will win a victory earlier or later and of course maybe it will be later because people are very concerned about their future but the forces that process so are equal in this fight and you see that they are trying to they're out there shelling the peaceful population so it means that one day they will the uprising will be suppressed so that is the hope and that is the plan and basically today is a victory is feasted by bureaucrats are apparatchiks who are like soviet union and

a part time for oppression if we would like to report their success and that's the whole thing is all about because nobody can tell you about here about of it the profits of this association agreement for the european union because there is plenty of cheap labor here there is no more need of cheap labor from eastern ukraine so basically nobody knows what to do with with this association agreement because for example in france the farmers are paid not to develop their lands so there is a crisis of prophecy not of deficit and the reason no and so what will happen to ukrainian people after the signature but we know that many today will celebrate their victory because the egos are boosted. reporter magazine thanks for joining us. next to the british monarchy is enjoyed wide public support for many decades but coleman is actually knows just how much the crown is costing them

according to the latest a new report almost thirty six million pounds was spent last year to support the family but there are some hidden price tag. most of the public are completely unaware of correspondent during a culture of 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 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 of oil 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 is one of the most expensive government institutions in the world the important point is that the want to cost 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 a lot of people still work well in fact a poll last year found that forty five percent of the british public 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 which hold it no matter who you are no matter. who your parents are you. rise to the highest office in the last few traces long to have a rich woman even though most brits love their queen there is 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. few facts for you more than eighteen million pounds is spent on keeping the rules fed and properly maintained and that's equal to two thousand pensions more than thirteen million pounds goes towards keeping the royal palaces spic and span and that could 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 graeme smith believes that the royals actually insoles 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 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 and worlds then get to choose how they spend it. and then report on how they've spent of 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 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 it's a bit of a nonsense. still to come this hour the will turns

a blind eye to thousands of african refugees how counted in the sinai peninsula. but a militant. troll doing it in their mats this is. 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. the stories we cover here not going here in iraq other big story the extra headlines and talk there's a reason they don't want you to. point. out now let's break the set. speed cool language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six of the yard p.

interviews intriguing story to tell you. in troy arabic to find out more visit our big. dog called. i think that the pakistani military does realize that the pileup on have become a problem for box fun but it is just too late the taliban have sunk deep roots in pakistan and now it's very difficult to beat the enemy. when it was previously your friend and your ph. first shuttle for takeoff in twenty ten the opening of the third largest airport in germany has still not happened delays poor construction and corruption scandals

plagued the project from the very beginning or at least be to all of the reports now on what's or rather 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 berlin brandenburg the airport 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 and moreover the man that designed it it's a merge that he 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 the 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

a business card that said i was an astronaut would but that mean i got to go into space quite likely for 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 airport could open next year no sixteen seventeen maybe eighteen maybe never 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 it berlin brandenburg open it certainly hasn't gone smoothly here. for thousands of african refugees to search for

a better life in israel ends up in torture camps set up by human traffickers in the sinai peninsula more than three thousand migrants per month come from. alone many of them are kidnapped for ransom and tortured until their families pay if they don't human traffickers reportedly killed the hostages more than four thousand people are estimated to have been killed since two thousand and eight and around a thousand thoughts are being captivity right now and just last month the president a very demanding an investigation by the international community has remained largely silent with israel in particular ignoring the problem on its own doorstep known as the follows a swedish eritrean activist who tried to raise awareness about the victims of torture by putting their plight on screen. they were melting plastic bags and dropping it in their bags this is.

american as the foreigners talk to an isa now we are in the now she says is a big difference in the way the captives are treated i have seen kids children two years old being tortured there were some kids have to watch their mother being burned alive and they survived so this was the kind of people that i talk to the torture is it's not any as are 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 deaths the type of torture and the millions of dollars that have been made by these hostage takers. well it's it's 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 it took a few days for him to be released so this happens all quite often to westerners as well but they're out with a base and they don't get to experience the torture as the african refugees that it has to do with was race. do stay with us here and i'll tell you up next to take a look at europe's attempts to shift away from nuclear power in technology update. 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 republics 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.

right. now i. want. if the problem of signing. on marinating in the financial world moves without cutting back to serious developments having not started it very slowly taking on the demand for credit not going to get any economic benefit in life there are blue and they are bought.