ukraine's two biggest cities are braced for a military blockade this siege approved personally by the country's new president also. a government by going to film a military assault against them one of a series of similar strikes for control of a critical border points. israel fires rockets and mortars out gaza as the country's the funds forces launch a large scale offensive against hamas for all territories. and france existed if the us dollar of its privileged status of a dominant currency following in the footsteps of those who have already shifted away from america's financial supremacy.

the line welcome you're watching artsy international thanks for joining us now on top of being a ball cranes to largest metropolises in the east are now facing a siege if we take a look at the map and we'll see where dawn yet says located right here where someone a million people live and then if we move over to a guns then up to five hundred thousands are here and both of them have rebelled against the country's president approved a plan to surround the cities and. towns for us. the operational leadership in kiev announced that the cities of the nets and lugansk will be besieged so that the anti government forces will be sealed inside without any chance to get any support from anywhere outside and all that with continuing attacks the next is the city with

a population of one million people in regards to be home to more than four hundred thousand residents and of course fears a rise in right now that the consequences of this siege could be more dramatic we're here to rehear every day many times a day we also know that multiple rocket launcher known as good art or hey it was also used here i hope you can see these images it was caught on video both sides claim that they are not targeting and they will not target the residential areas but we have to tell that it happens sometimes and this is why me and my cameraman although we are now in the city center we have to work in flak jackets on monday a shell landed just a few blocks away from where we are now heating a car and reported bribery going at the scene and today as a minibus also was hit in the city center and reportedly two people were killed as well well while the army strategies all bristly to target those who they claim are terrorists and separatists who can see that ordinary civilians often become victims

. of. sure. let's remove. what is what is a shrewd troyer. through. those are the. local residents those who didn't flee lugansk are also worried about humanitarian issues such as water and electricity supplies abscessed of food drinking water medicine it is not clear how different institutions how hospitals clinics care homes will be functioning in donetsk and lugansk at the time of the decision we saw it. slowdowns can limit or worse suffering a lot from these problems at the time of their time their well we can say that the anti-government forces are now in high alert preparing for this teach you to find their checkpoints and you also hear that several bridges around the city were

destroyed which could be they attempt to stop the trade in troops but local residents are also getting closer to something that could be destroyed already as patty this is the situation here on the ground right now and fears are that it could even deteriorate. from lugansk. now for more perspective on key has congress inhibitions let's talk to marcus papadopoulos politics first web magazine thank you so much for joining us now considering it took the military almost three months to take but we're talking about the nets there's twenty times more people really ready for the trial and do you think. world vattel depends on where kiev has the was also is to take on a city as large as don its case and what we know is that they certainly have no moral compunction in killing hundreds of ukrainian civilians for mortars from the

tank shells frew airstrikes however what we also need to consider is whether or not washington and brussels who are the backers of kiev whether they would be happy with kiev prosecute in a major offensive against a very very large cities such as donetsk which could bring about. a lot of shit it could result in hundreds possibly even fouls and or civilian casualties so on the one hand we need to consider whether kiev has the resources has the ability the know how to to confront a city in a battle scenario and on the other hand whether washington and brussels would be happy. to do that and i don't mean from a moral perspective because we know that the american government has no moral compunction in scene bloodshed around the world we've seen that in syria we've seen that in iraq but it wouldn't look very good from a p.r. perspective if if their puppets in kiev over southern have an immense amount of

blood on their hands but why do you think that we've seen this sort of change in strategy here the mention yourself that we're seeing in the military's words the arts hilarie mortar airstrikes and that's why do you think they've changed their strategy now. because they can argue we now have in the form of petro poroshenko and democratically elected president who is a legitimate president that's what the ukrainian government will argue and of course that's what their backers in washington and brussels can argue and are arguing therefore the ukrainian government can prosecute an offensive of any nature now knowing that the americans and the europeans are backing them so that no matter how bloody it will get the ukrainian government knows that western media is not going to report on it because western major follows the line of western foreign policy

and if things get to difficult for the ukrainian forces in say donetsk undoubtedly there will be some form of military assistance being given by the americans and the europeans that could be expert soldiers sent there to advise the ukrainian commanders it could also be in the form of satellite information logistical support but also we can't rule out that the ukrainian forces could be receive in military hardware from the americans possibly former soviet equipments you said yourself that the u.s. has no morals when it comes to bloodshed around the world but still we're seeing dramatic footage we're seeing the videos we've seen the humanitarian crisis right now in the east of the country where is the condemnation you mentioned yourself for example when it comes to bashar assad that's made in a city he's a villain so why is there a different treatment when the constant crane and the u.s. state department and the u.s.

in general. well i wouldn't draw a comparison between syria and ukraine i think they're very different situations but it's only news outlets such as r.t. who are actually telling the world what's happening in eastern ukraine and what's happening in eastern ukraine is a horror show we're talking about civilians including women and children dying on a daily basis maimed on a daily basis but the ukrainians will keep on doing that because they are backed by the americans principally also the europeans but america is a superpower and they are backed by them and now they can claim they have a legitimate president they can go for an all out victory in the east starting with donetsk but also we need to make it very clear undeniably kiev is on a roll at the moment they have scored numerous undeniable military victories however the next battle will be to win the hearts and minds of the population in eastern ukraine who they have terrorized for the last few months terrorized with

mortars with tank shells with and strikes from helicopters and combat planes and with scud missiles so they might be winning militarily but they've got to now face another bout so and that will be quite a battle so win the hearts and minds of the people they've been killing and injuring on a daily basis absolutely it will be very hard to regain that trust as you said marcus papadopoulos editor of politics for us web magazine thank you very much. well a video of an intense clash between the cranes national guard and answer government fighters has been posted on the internet reportedly filmed at a contrast of border type points. you.

could the much the. usual. but do not new. that says so it's our fault over this checkpoint for more than a month now so it's no surprise that this is what it looked like after the battle you can see yourself the desert and according to a conversation heard in the video the outline area is heavy with snipers. where kid has an entire defense industry than its army the rebels it seems are making do with relics from the past take a look at this this post-war soviets hank spent decades as part of an outdoor museum exhibit but it seems that someone just couldn't bear walking across the way the times being towed away for repair work to see it returned to active duty though even if every answer service it still won't be the oldest.

know this old exhibit b. i call the world war thirty four was hot wired right on the pedestal last month it's even been seen whizzing about the east though ammunition for it might be hard to come by. our website is running a live update section on the ground with all the latest as it comes in so our home . the u.s. has arrested the russian citizen outside its territory on suspicion of cyber fraud the hacking and the theft of personal information but it's a move that's provoked the fury over the russian foreign ministry as much in a question of reports russia's foreign ministry is outreached after a russian citizen was arrested outside history on

a foreign land now the ministry is calling this eight de facto kidnapping and yet another unfriendly gesture coming from washington the ministry as that is being kept in the information blackout and is demanding a more details from its american counterparts now what we know so far is that for months he was in the maldives when he was detained by the u.s. special services and he was a leader transferred to the island to wam. where the charges were read to him and this is a not the first time of the u.s. has a rush to russian citizens in flooring to retreat and we interpret that was the among them and two years ago he was diminished to twenty five years in prison for illegally treating arms while another russian citizen a pilot. was sentenced to twenty years in prison back in two thousand and eleven for drug trafficking and since then there's been a number of reports of him being denied medical assistance at the prison facility

where he is being housed at the moment such cases have become a nother sure point in the russian american relations with this latest arrest is unlikely to improve the situation. as drill has launched a large scale offensive against the hamas controlled gaza strip readying itself for potential ground in phase and as part of a new operation the name protective already targets of at least fifty sites in gaza and injured more than twenty palestinians that's according to local medical for scholz. joins us from israeli palestinian forder hi there paul la nouba. us up to date on what we know so far. well these many prime minister benjamin netanyahu has reportedly instructed the israeli defense forces to prepare for a possible ground offensive in gaza now we're hearing these reports as we hear that

the israeli army also instructs a call up of several thousand more reservists and this is in addition to the one and a half thousand who have already been called up since the early hours of this morning some twenty eight rockets have been fired at israel from gaza one of them was intercepted we have heard no reports of injuries or damage i'm standing on the israeli gaza border and as i was waiting to cross to you we could see israeli warplanes in the distance dropping bombs on gaza we're hearing from gaza hospitals that they're in a state of emergency that many people have been brought in with quite severe injuries particularly off to one of those bombs fell on central gaza according to palestinian sources islamic jihad has now joined him us in firing rockets at israel the south of israel is in a state of lockdown residents have been ordered to remain indoors and almost by the hour you hear the sirens sounding as another barrage of rockets is aimed at the country this indeed has all the makings of a long term military operation it certainly has been in the pipeline will quite

some time in over the past few weeks there have been as many as three hundred rockets fired at israel in just last night eighteen projectiles were fired within the space of minutes we're also hearing from the palestinian president mahmoud abbas who has warned israel to call off this offensive so certainly a situation that is increasing dramatically by the minute our correspondent paula slater thank you very much for that updates or were actually to stay with that story because there's also a bombardments are not exactly on missile and palestine and two thousand and four around seven thousand civilians were killed in an operation name. i had the poet's and them days. and that was triggered by the deaths of two israeli children from a militant rocket in two thousand and six summer rain to the deaths of more than one hundred innocent palestinians and they fell victim to the so-called militant operation so years later blood flowed in operation cast lead also known as the gaza war and nine hundred twenty six civilians pillar of the fence is one of the most

recent operations that israel started after a kill the local chief of hamas the outcome was more than one hundred palestinians now this year is action hasn't seen any and the victims of so far but the number of wounded is climbing at an alarming pace new details in the blame game over who carried out a chemical assaults in syria have come and satellites to the u.n. . sarin gas was inside reports of be found in rebel held areas. we'll be reporting on that shortly we'll tell you how the terrorists are seen all strategic from p.r. point on the government's part of the. success. stories we cover here not to.

break the set. down in the final. night in the red light. that no one is that we began that.

this is our sea and for national thank you very much for being with us all the friendship for our announcement a service i'm going to break the dominance of the u.s. dollar after urging the use of a variety of currencies for global payments this comes after america slapped a nine billion dollar farnaby empire bob banks for helping countries of void sanctions one that's been broker and financial commentator peter schiff says the u.s. currency is far from the perfect global currency of choice. i think the united states is very dependent on the rest of the world it's just incumbent on the rest of the world to figure that out but the u.s. dollar is still functioning as a reserve currency and so the dollar is a part of a lot of transactions but there really is no reason for the dollar to be at the center of these transactions because the dollar shouldn't be the reserve currency

of the united states doesn't share any of the characteristics that it had when the dollar became the reserve currency just a matter of time before it no longer functions as a reserve currency and i think the more we end tag and eyes the rest of the world with the spying or with these huge fines on foreign banks the quicker that process is going to be to unravel the latest target of the u.s. punitive financial machine is germany's second largest bank commerce bank now america is accused in the institution of also violates in the sinai and now it faces a fine about least five hundred million dollars well america's retaliates remeasure is like that one for states to seek ways to break the dollar dominance but it's no easy task and so as the currencies used in some eighty five percent of the global exchange deals but some countries have already found ways to shift away from the dollar and the biggest example of that is in the eurozone and eighteen countries

some of which are among the world's economic powerhouses are making transactions with each other completely avoid in the dollar and of course last year trying to sign the massive currency swap agreement with which allows the country to exclude the dollar from the equation when doing business with the block and on monday the brics countries agreed to form their own bank was a council went to the i.m.f. chair of the brig's group things signed probert olds things the u.s. often resorts to force to make others use the dollar. the united states does defend the dollar with of course its military force now it's been seen on a number of occasions with countries that have been arguing that they should move away from using the law then found themselves subject to united states sanctions and of course even in some cases military force so every there is a great deal of concern about not just the way america runs its economy its enormous deficit which is now reaches seventeen trillion dollars

a day but of course the way that the american public policy is very active around the world which some people do not like. they are on secretary-general has confirmed that in syria two cylinders seized by government troops consigned sarin gas the country's name has announced that it's a cold over that in rebel held areas not long after the deadly chemical assault last august back then the lethal gas had. forces in the attack which claimed hundreds of lives earlier we spoke to theatre possible from the massachusetts institute of technology conducted an end dependence to insert into the use of sarin near damascus and he told us that he believes the rebels were behind those attacks but could have never produced sarin without any outside help. well it is speculation but certainly. there have been reports here in the west that there is some of the hottest sooty jihadist elements

had been given help from the turkish government and the sara you with the precursor chemicals. to mix the sara once you have the precursor chemicals. i would say it's easy but it's not completely out of the possibility that they could do that so they got help from somebody. perhaps the most likely source would be the turks. radicals from a terror group formerly known as isis are in full throttle such an author's lama caliph that they found it a week ago in territories captured in iraq and syria and then staggering thing here is the lightning speed of their progress they now have all of the attributes of a fully functional states including passports and oil based economy and even the banking sector artie's marina portnoy brings us more news. in

a very short amount of time the extremist group controlling parts of iraq and syria has taken rapid steps to turn their self declared islamic caliphate into a bonafide state according to reports the militant group best known as isis is ready to begin issuing official passports to citizens in most school iraq's second largest city as well as making our broad religious call to arms isis is also allegedly recruiting judges doctors engineers and those who have military and managerial skills the work force that isis is attempting to build will need to be paid of course not a huge problem for the sunni extremists who are virtually in control of iraq's largest oil refinery according to reports isis has already tried raising revenue through oil sales and lots of money's been spent on image building as well the militants have been releasing annual glossy assessment reports outlining statistics

related to things like assassinations suicide missions bombings and geographic expansion the organized p.r. move aims to lure more investors and fighters it's a level of organization unprecedented for islamised militants in the region and while isis already claims to have an army of more than fifteen thousand loyalists the hottest group is reportedly recruiting and kidnapping children as young as ten years old to fight for the islamic state in addition to educating employing recruiting policing and campaigning i says is also confronting the downfalls of governing a state dealing with your very own whistleblower according to vice news the extremist group has somebody working on the inside reportedly revealing classified information such as the identity of leaders and all of these factors combined paint a troubling picture of a threat hardly anyone anticipated. r.t.

new york. and in other news an entire it's had an alpine fellow been sold on e bay it's located in the northern pm own region there a national park and it also boasts fourteen with scenic names on it all the price it's a bargain that's why the need for innovation the asking price for the entire village is two hundred forty five thousand euros though this might be a great amount for some political analysts pall over such deals are the result of the european economic crisis not the first case in italy actually of villages which are being sold but this is the first time actually that people leave in those houses and they decide to quit the place selling everything and try to change life so evidently it doesn't mean that it's an easy economic situation for that suffer in france or suffers of similar situations where the number of customs for sale is

incredibly high and they're relatively cheap agriculture has been subsidized but finally. i mean this is not allowing these people to really make their living out of it so the cutting in the in the budgets this is reflected in the place of the less infrastructures. and in perspective for these people the only thing to do is to sell and run away. and we'll have more news forget about half an hour but in the meantime devoted to bright besides what abby martin can stay with us. when people talk about human rights violations you should involve some pro western protesters getting beaten up and responsible mainstream media is usually to bomb

somebody somewhere so good thing they haven't picked up a story from detroit that the u.n. is calling a human rights violation residents of the motor city or well sadly the former motor city who are hundred fifty dollars or more behind on their water bills are getting their water shut off completely the water and sewage department is five billion dollars in debt and that is a justification to crack down on deadbeats on the surface the seems like an open and shut case of course everyone has the right to water especially detroit which is near a huge bodies of fresh water that other cities could only dream of but on the other hand if the poor don't pay for water then us taxpayers will be paying for it for them and that's not fair i think this is not so much a case of a right to water but a right to decide employment and a crapshoot for the city government back when people in detroit had good salaries and a government that wasn't flagrantly corrupt they would have any problems paying for their water bills but that's just my pain.

crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want. to. leave.

what's up folks i mean martin and this is breaking the set so last week the supreme court voted but hobby lobby is exempt from writing four types of contraceptives guaranteed by obamacare the ruling claimed the mandate violated the corporation's religious beliefs since the court sided with the false assumption that birth control equals abortion considering how i would be using morning after pills are lumped into the exemption but despite the ridiculousness of the granting corporations religious rights supporters of the decision of responded that it's only a narrow ruling which only applies to those or types of birth control called into question right well it only took one day for that argument to fall apart to see just one day after the ruling the high court ordered that appeal courts really hear cases worked.