no water food or power city authorities say the east ukrainian city of under siege by troops is a state of humanitarian crisis. is locals its ground troops from gaza as a new three day ceasefire takes hold with making and another push for a long lasting troops. that american officials slam a covert u.s. aid operation to stoke unrest in cuba under the guise of a formalised health program.

visitor international coming to live from moscow with me. and we begin with breaking news this hour and an announcement from lugansk city council in eastern ukraine it says the regional capital that's under siege by kiev stroup is in a state of humanitarian crisis they're running out of food and people are forced to live without electricity water or gas internet and phone connections are also cut off. now correspondent mary international is in lockdown for us she says it's barely recognizable. lugansk is a shadow of its former self it was once a flourishing regional center with a population of half a million today it is largely abandoned and dangerous destroyed schools and hospitals silent reminders of and go in conflict and this is the hotel in the

center of the god square we used to stay just two weeks ago there were gas here mostly journalists but also ukrainians running from violence in the towns of crime i thought against libya as they used to be two major percenters of the large scale military operation here in eastern ukraine there was also chinese restaurant on the seventh floor but now as you can see the town has been shut down the sign says. tahoe is quote the further we go from the center the greater the destruction all of his house was damaged when a shallow exploded in her garden and sort of the flowers she planted there is now a deep crater that is there i'm sure when you break a deal is i who are them i suggest that they. do would you do you like other locos here who haven't already fled the fighting on good has taken shelter in a basement here to get back you shall not. be a fool to sign my junior bachrach be an actual back to dicky i grew to love you

pretty good how i get your back many of those sheltering on the ground seek. and desperate attack you know where you are just there you go up here sure you're not she did very brave warrior one night here. as we're speaking military city drops out like cows are a constant problem here the lines were apparently repaired just before we arrived not down in the way you. look at it but i knew that out of those. if it hears the look where is your data really going to go out with very being the reason shelter under almost every apartment building in lugansk and there really empty there's another basement that the has recently become home to local residents and it's not that they hide here at the time of intense shelling and environment you can see there literally live here every family has its own

place here like an apartment building but underground in one of the car doors o.-meter the youngest resident i've seen here so far he shares many of the fears of the older people here. paul says. this. was just got off the shelves of. their children's school and was at nine pm every day people in different basements recites the same prayer. they ask for god to protect them and bring them peace but as the shelling continues around them the furthest a day to plan a had is to moderate when they say they will meet here again. brief notion r.t. lugansk ukraine. now overnight witnesses and the local activists say the ukrainian army has been bombing residential areas in the city of gori of got near the

regional capital. they claim caves forces are using heavy weaponry including advanced rocket launchers that were recently deployed in the area and this video here is purported to show some of the hardware deployment anti-government forces claim the army seeking to take control of areas surrounding the nasa had of an all out assault on the city itself people in another suburb also a recent crackdown hotspot are in despair. you know you know you did you said you know they do you know look i mean you are going to you go you very visual review of the reasons you were. i. so now let's take another quick look at a map of the area well you can see right here that some of the urban targets of

artillery fire around. the army has been trying to close in on the resistance. they've now affectively form a triangle around the city on the goal of the military operation from the very start to explain the scale of the looming operational put together a few facts about well it's ukraine's fifth largest city with nine hundred fifty thousand inhabitants last year to regain its style is the most attractive city for business in ukraine that's according to forbes magazine and it's a topic anomic hub and the center of the nation's mining industry just two years ago its streets were filled with football fans want to host the euro two thousand and twelve semifinals. over four hundred thirty ukrainian troops crossed the russian border appealing for sanctuary and some of them have already returned to ukraine but android an area that's free of fighting is the largest number of

ukrainian military personnel to lay down arms and the russians however smaller groups have done it before and the latest word describes their motives. but fortune sitting on the phone you don't forget we have witnessed so many deaths and other terrible things so all of us are very happy to be here we've been given new clothes and managed to rest and we're very grateful for that. which was where we were encircled we had no way out so to keep the manpower safe our commanders decided to escape to russia and i think for no clear reason the ukrainian population is destroying itself because on both sides we and they are the same people are not in the book. well you know how dare to come to learn about the history of reported morale slumps within caves military and some offbeat ways the government came up with to tackle the problem.

write the scene. first strike. and i think you're. on our reporters there. in. the the in. israel is drawing its troops from gaza and the a seventy two hour cease fire is now in place and troops have pulled back to defensive positions well these are the latest pictures from the area the i.d.f. says it has completed its main mission of destroying hamas on the ground tunnels as the truce began with rockets were still being fired from both sides efforts to broker a permanent cease fire are now underway in cairo. and

on monday hamas accused israel of breaching its own partial ceasefire by bombing a gaza refugee camp officials say an eight year old girl was killed and thirty people injured in that attack here are some of the pictures from gaza city that were taken shortly after israel an ounce it seems fire on monday people are seeing it clearing the rubble from a bomb to house. and israel is no stranger to military ventures but every time it launches one civilian lives are lost as well let's now take a closer look in two thousand and six israel invaded lebanon to take on hezbollah fighters and almost twelve hundred lebanese civilians were killed but has war remains a potent force to this day and in two thousand and eight the operation cast lead killed more than fourteen hundred palestinians four years later a similar operation took the lives of one hundred and thirty three gazans civilians

in gaza and the present campaign was said to target hamas hideouts and tunnels but nearly nine hundred gazans have been slain israeli strikes have also destroyed thousands of homes and left nearly five hundred thousand in gaza homeless. well while international criticism of the israeli operation rings out peace activism is becoming increasingly difficult in israeli society obviously are met some of those who still want to be heard. valid. so these people are israeli haters they're not jewish even an arab wouldn't behave like this they call themselves beautiful souls but they harm the jewish people. israelis opposed to the military operation of finding it increasingly hard to get their voice heard about the right wing is when people do speak up their sheltered don't and physically attacked it's extremely hard to demonstrate. when you're fighting because the

people are doing the fighting are our kids or brothers or husbands people are saying things and selling things and doing things violently that they would never even dared in past years the rightwing is more vocal than ever. they need to be executed executed between us and the arabs there will be no peace they don't want peace if they had wanted peace they wouldn't shoot rockets bombs at us and with every passing week the number of people attending the antiwar protests in central tel aviv grow steadily smaller this is a pretty poor turnout but it's not unexpected the israeli left is a pretty quiet voice at the moment imagine what the shouting is that they're racist government cannot bring security and that is bad but godless of whether it's to measure all or gods our. payload is one of the few who's not afraid to speak his mind dances at home and just watch people dying it's due. to my brother

in gaza if you know right now that tomorrow. my uncle died in lebanon thirty years ago i want the war to stop that's it and he's not alone one he is not your typical peace activist an operative in israel secret services for more than twenty years the fifty seven year old is now a campaigner at combatants for peace once a new force of the occupation he now works alongside palestinians and former israeli soldiers to dismantle it very rarely left. briggs's. striving to be left to be heard because. we are small minority a when there is a war if we can call it what's happening in the war people tend to sympathize with . with the state and not to be a to talk against it's not easy to be on the wrong side of public opinion but for me and others like him hope that with time they will be on the right. signs of history. tel aviv. coming up london move scotland with

a trip to the stars we take a look at the future of the space industry in great britain. in justifying their stance they're citing all sorts of what they see as international precedents in cost of the coming referendum once called london but the response that they're hearing from the wife is that what you're saying is illegitimate but what we've been doing is still full of life the measure if you break into there still good luck america does is right. for other people for centuries like russia or countries like this straight. but whatever america does is right because america doesn't.

choose your language. make it with oh if you're going to. place yourself choose the consensus. choose the opinions that immigrate to. choose the stories that impact your life choose. to. welcome back which international now some u.s. officials have accused their government of undermining global health programs it's after revelations washington has been secretly using an h.i.v. prevention campaign in cuba to ferment political unrest there and the undercover operation run by you say since two thousand and nine has been unveiled by the associated press here is going to come with more. it's no longer

a secret that some of the u.s. government aid programs have a dual purpose the u.s. agency for international development usaid known for overseeing billions of dollars in u.s. humanitarian aid was dispatching venice oil and posts to weaken and peruvian young people to cuba hoping to provoke a revolution in their young latinos often posed as tourists they traveled across the country and recruited people whom they believed they could turn into political activists a form administrator with a venezuelan over the station who participated in this effort said there was no safety net for these inexperienced workers if they were caught by cuban authorities so the spying program involving the use when don't even after the scandalous the rest of the album gloss in two thousand and nine who worked as a sup contractor for the usa he's now serving a fifteen year sentence in cuba the u.s. trying to foment on wednesday in cuba is nothing new of course but this latest

investigation by the associated press reveals how humanitarian aid programs were used to that end such as in a child the prevention workshop in memos a paint by the a.p. is labeled as quote unquote the perfect excuse for the program's political goals the government actually is they are hiding the fact that some of their programs have a dual purpose speaking about this they should be workshop program the usaid said quote it enabled support for cuban civil society while providing a secondary benefit of addressing the desired cubans express information and training about hiv prevention. when a u.s. state department spokesperson jen psaki was asked about the revelations she denied the use a program had a mixed mission. the first thing that people will ask them is how do we know that you're not cia well strengthening a civil society and empowering a civil society to be more capable it's something that that was the focus of this

program and that's again i think what's been communicated with any who have is the secretary comfortable with this apparent mixing of missions we would disagree with that characterization. now let's get reaction from pastor salim ramadi who specializes in relations between cuba and of the u.s. mr already thank you so much for joining us here on out here international so what do you personally make of these tactics i mean recruiting people under the guise of innocent assistance while undermining the nation yes this is another example of how the united states interferes in cuban internal affairs we all know that is the goal of the united states is to overthrow the cuban government was that i didn't protest from nine hundred fifty nine until ninety ninety one but now it has . become a bubbly goal since one thousand nine hundred two we. voted cation over the head of

originally law we one thousand nine hundred two. we although that in two thousand and nine innovator u.s. contractor under us was arrested in cuba sentenced to a very severe. sanction was sentenced to fifteen your turn prison for trying to undermine. independence by financing helping. helping organize the inner not of the internal this isn't ok it was no this was not the first dime that things like that happen in cuba do you expect the cuban government to react somehow taking action against western n.g.o.s for example after this particular instance. well as we all know this is a very serious breach of international law and he's not allowed under international law to try to undermine another government or to

interfere in. human affairs but this is also a violation of cuban law it would be also violation of any other law with france in the united states in russia and in any other country so the cubans are used to the . intent of trying to undermine the other system. the problem is that these students maybe were not aware of the risks that where. taking by. participating in these kind of programs ok well like i say to age and sad they had no safety net in case they were caught but you know why would anyone sign up for this in the first place what are your thoughts well it is not credible because as i said before. under overthrowing the

cuban government it's not the public object to the public goal it's written in. the hands sort of. back to the two programs that the bush administration published in two thousand and four and two thousand and six so we all know that there's polisi of regime change in cuba from the united states well you know something very interesting is that some agents came from other alleged american countries what do you make of that i mean does that mean that their governments are also complicit in any obvious what's happening there. i don't have any information of that but my question is where is the student aware of the risks that we're taking by participating in this kind of program and the my the other question is who would have taken responsibility if these students were arrested by the cuban authorities. two and sentenced to

prison term because this is a repeat of a very serious violation of cuban law. all right i was live from france professor soling ramani thank you so much indeed for your thoughts here on our to international thank you. now one dennis seeking to ignite the u.k.'s space industry and possibly will scotland in the process are desperately boyko looks into the prospect of space tourism taking off and britain. the scottish are being promised all sorts to stay in the u.k. but now they're being sold on trips to the stars. that's because the british government wants to reach the final frontier or rather build a space port for commercial space travel by twenty eighteen and scotland has a shot at housing the launch pad the u.k. space industry is growing at an astronomical pace it already contributes over in levin billion pounds to the u.k.

economy every year it employs a vet thirty thousand people bought as the focus of one british satellite building company put it u.k. space bombs are always piggybacking on someone else's rocket so ministers say that this is an industry that needs more room to grow and that means having a place in britain to launch these from the government's come up with eight possible remote seaside locations for the potential space space six of them are in scotland where there's an independence referendum in just six weeks some social media responses accuse westminster of dangling a scottish spaceport and the potential local jobs and economic growth it would create as a carrot for scots to stay in the union and if you listen to the gas company they will say that they want to work very closely with russia if you listen to the press because our side nor this would be

a complete two countries and really they are good working towards this so you are already going to or perhaps when we do scottish national party leader alex salmond says that whatever the outcome of the referendum scotland would still be the best location for a new base but the rumble is that scotland won't want to gift an independent scotland a spaceport that would create jobs that could be kept south of the border wretched bronson's virgin galactic. is already advertising space tourism in the window display of its london head courses from the end of this year anyone willing to stump up one hundred and twenty thousand pounds can take a trip into space from a spaceport in new mexico these are just the sorts of that shows that ministers here hope they can attract with their very own launch site the transport department told r.t. that it's consultation would focus on the suitability of all eight locations and

questions about potential scottish independence were premature either way the shortlist is expected to be unveiled at the end of the year after the results of the scottish referendum becoming. a london. and a reminder of our breaking news this hour an announcement from lugansk city council in issue in ukraine it says the regional capital that's under siege by keeps troops and is in a state of humanitarian crisis the are running out of food and people are forced to live without electricity water or gas internet and phone connections are also cut off we'll bring you more details on the story in about half an hour's time. and we should thank you. and after the break creation of false memories and cia spying on the senate battle more in breaking set.

a few weeks ago we discussed detroit's plans to shut off water to those who can't pay their bills logically what a basic human the system he could get taken away some protesters gathered to give their opinion on the issue at our plaza and what is the response from the state maybe some sort of dialogue or explanation as to why they have to turn off. the water no they turned up on the high tech quote non lethal weaponry against the protesters they used an l. red system which basically blasted the protesters with sound which sounds pun intended to mean until you look into it and read that the weapon can cause permanent hearing loss the company even admits this is true at less than fifty meters we see all across the country so-called non-lethal weapons being used to very harmful and even to well we thought ns but why does this happen because they

make breaking up protest easy and safe for the cops remember in the old days when you had to physically break up protests or things like el read allow any coward to just flip a switch to disperse a crowd with not a drop of blood visible and the fact that it seems not harmful as the police to be justified in using it whenever they want for the sake of the constitution i think no police forces should be able to use a spell read technology but that's just my opinion. and happening guys i'm happy martin and this is breaking the set over the past few

weeks many detroit residents and on thursday after the city decided to shut off water services for more than fifteen thousand people due to delinquent bills but just sixty miles south of detroit the city of toledo ohio is dealing with its own water crisis for entirely different reasons see over the weekend five hundred thousand people were warned not to drink their tap water thanks to an enormous toxic algae bloom in lake erie the main source of tornadoes drinking water while this type of al. the growth is naturally occurring the scope and size of this particular bloom could almost certainly be blamed on human activity see algae feeds on phosphorus and nitrogen which is heavily president agricultural runoff from farms and sewage considering that the great lakes alliance estimates that tens of billions of gallons of untreated sewage flows into the great lakes every year it's certainly no surprise that we're now seeing these mass algae blooms cover large swathes of lake erie but not to worry just today the mayor of toledo michael

collins declared that the water is safe to drink. very thirsty right. here it's only going to get a great job. but the spy columns welling this to drink the water this is a problem that won't be going away anytime soon considering that it's only been getting a belge bloom season so unless we start heavily invested in the sewage treatment infrastructure and drastically restructure the operating procedures of factory farms then we're likely to see this discussed in toxic problem bloom up again and again and it's great that. the plea. deal they believe very hard to take. lightly you better act with the target they're looking.

to cut. well it's clear that no one is immune from spine these days whether you're joe the plumber or a resident of the bahamas or if you're on your way to becoming president of the united states in fact the spine is getting so i handed out government institutions are actually spying on each other just to stave off bad press see while the senate was busy drafting a report on the cia's involvement in torture and rendition under the bush administration.