welcome to al jazeera, i'm del walters, these are your headlines at that hour. reuters news agency is saying the syrian opposition has been told by western powers to expect a military strike in syria within days. international diplomacy is moving fast, but un investigators have delayed their investigation due to concern of safety. the rim field fire in california is now 20% contained according to authorities. firefighters have spent the last 10 days fighting that blaze and it continues to threaten yosemite national park.

students in the midwest are dealing with hot and sweaty conditions inside their classrooms. it's another day of high temperatures in minneapolis, and some schools have no air conditioning. the heat forced some of the schools to close yesterday. teachers are giving the students pop sickles and cups of ice to keep their cool. thanks for watching al jazeera. i'm del walters in new york. much more news coming up. stay tuned right now for "consider this." ♪

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there's more to financial news than the ups and downs of the dow. for instance, can fracking change what you pay for water each month? have you thought about how climate change can affect your grocery bill? can rare minerals in china affect your cell phone bill? or how a hospital in texas could drive up your healthcare premium? i'll make the connections from the news to your money real.

one of the biggest issues facing the u.s. on syria is what to do about the united nations and the already frosty relationship with russia. the russian foreign minister has shot back at the u.s. and its allies for threatening its ally. >> translator: washington, london, and paris, official stated that they have irrefutable proof that it was the syrian's government fault, but they can't prove it yet. >> he said that the intimidation campaign has already begun like the events in iraq ten years

ago, and in libya more recently began the same way. we're back now and joined by richard minster. i want to start with you. you have been saying for a while we have to get russia and iran out of syria for anything to work. but syria is really their only ally, how do we get rid of them. >> is there are more than 60,000 russian soldiers on the ground in various capacities advising the assad regime. this is russia's last significant arab ally. and there's no way they would give up that key toehold. and it's the reason why the gulf arabs and the saudis are having a grow

ing controversy. and of course iran working towards an atomic weapon. if you do not do something about iran's strong influence, and russia's influence in syria, the question really is, is -- does russia and iran maintain its strangle hold in syria, or do the syrias have a chance to govern themselves as messy as that may be. >> president obama canceled a meeting with vladimir putin. how do we move ahead. how diplomatically can there be movement with russia and iran where the relationships seem to be so frouth with problems? >> well, obviously we haven't

found the key to unlock that particular door. we have a deputy secretary of state who is an expert on the arab world and on russia. he has served with distinction in both places. he has dealt with the russians, secretary kerry has reached out to them, but as was pointed out, they have important interests in syria. but it goes beyond that. i think there's a national pride, if you will, and putin's sense of himself and russia's destiny. he felt that yeltsin -- allowed russia to be humiliated in bosnia and kosovo, and he had been snookered in libya, and they are just very dug in. nevertheless i agree with chris hill that we can't just give us and quit trying, and i'm a bit skeptical about that number of

60,000 russians in syria. >> the russians themselves have reported that number. >> chris you were involved in bosnia actively. and their air strikes ended up working against russian wishes, is that a model of what could happen in syria? >> i wish it were. we certainly had large problems with the russians, but i think the russia of putin is different from the russia of yeltsin for some of the reasons that ted outlined. this is a very aggrieved russia, and as richard suggested they are kind of holding on with their fingertips to the arab world. so this is a tall order, and i think it's much more difficult than the '90s, and as ted just said, we have to keep working with the russians on this, and i think trying to put something together in terms of what will

the future of syria look like? a lot of people say the model today is somehow bosnia or kosovo, and in kosovo and bosnia, we worked out various peace agreements so that people would have a sense of what the places were going to look like once the fighting stopped. and right now no one has a clue what syria is going to look like, and for that reason ever is very much doug in. >> a hundred thousand people are said to have died. 1.9 million have fled since march of 2011. the u.s. is pouring money in in humanitarian aide. and the president on friday talked about the problems with the u.s. going forward, and he said if the u.s. goes in and attacks another country would mandate, then there are the

questions in terms of whether international law supports it? again, it gets back down to russia and russia's veto and the security council. but richard i do want to talk to you about your work in syria, in analyzing all of these rebel groups. what will happen if syria does fall apart? you are talk about the kurds, drews, it's a multi-facetted problem. >> it is, and it is a complicated one. and getting into costs just for a second year. the gulf arabs and saudis have been pushing the u.s. on this for more than a year. it's quite possible they could pick up a good measure of the cost. the saudis especially concerned about the iranian influence, they certainly have the ability to come up with some of that money if not all of it. i think the cost thing could be mitigating through working with the gulf cooperation counsel and

the saudis and others. as for the rebel groups, these are a very hetero genius group of people who have very different visions. some of them are terrifying. some of the kurds in the eastern part of syria, would like to break off and join iraqi kurdistan. and begin that long march. this country could break apart. also the russians and the iranians don't want to lose those mediterranean bases in syria north of lebanon, and that would be very difficult to patrol, a no-fly zone over some of those sites, which have been very well protected. >> we have been asking our viewers what they think about the syrian situation, and let's go to our social media producer for that.

>> today we asked this question, do you think the u.s. should intervene in syria, if it's proven that the syria government used whim call weapons. 68% of you said no, and 32% of you said yes. ambassador, the numbers closely reflect the reuters' poll. why do you think americans feel this way? >> as i said earlier and as chris hill said, they are very wary and wary of the involvement in these sectarian ethnic struggles, and which cross -- which transcend boarders. you have iraqi sunnis backing different groups, you have shiites and

alois working with iraq and iran. and the american people rightly understand that we don't have the answers to this. nobody does. >> one question i was asked was why would bash shard assad do this? knowing it would anger the international community and could bring retaliatioretaliation. >> because he feels immune. he did it on the one-year anniversary of president obama drawing a red line about chemical weapons. he feels safe enough to carry out this kind of atrocity. this was done on purpose. it was done to signal that he feels secure in his position, and the u.s. is an insignificant player in the region, and he will continue.

this was a very bold move and message. >> all right. i thank you all for joining us. we will of course keep our eye on the developments there, and see what happens in this terrible humanitarian crisis there. thank you. coming up the man who helped encrypt edward snowden's information says if you know

what happens when social media ç]

what you don't know about email may keep you off of it. there are growing concerns from civil libertarians that if your account isn't encrypted, it's fair game. but consider the cautionary tail of the encrypted email service lava bit, one of its 410,000 users happened to be edward snowden, who's highly classified leaks have given the national security agency fits, when snowden used lava be it to invite people to moscow,

lavabit closed down. they closed shop to prevent having to grant access. the creator of lavabit joins us now from dallas. you wrote an open letter saying in part, i have been forced . . . what did you mean by becoming complicit in crimes against the american people? >> well, i felt personally that if i continued to operate the service, knowing what i knew, that i would be complicit in criminal acts against the american people. make no mistake, what was going on was in fact criminal. the only difference is -- >> in what way? >> the only difference is if it

wasn't being carried out by the federal government, it could have been prosecuted as a crime. >> in what way would it have been a crime? can you say? >> unfortunately i can't talk about the specifics, which is in part the problem. i felt something wrong was taking place. it violated my moral code, and i couldn't tell anybody about it. i couldn't even tell my member of congress how their laws were being applied. >> because there is a clear gag order on what you can talk about. >> unfortunately i can't confirm or deny that. >> you can't even go that far. >> that's part of the problem. >> so can you talk about what they were asking for? were they asking just for the information about edward snowden, or were they asking for more -- >> what i can say is my decision was about protecting the privacy

rights of all of my users. it was a question of whether or not the federal government should have access to everyone's email. whether or not the obama administration has the right to demand a back door into another system. >> by shutting the site down, though, if you were trying to protect all of your users, can't they still access the information? >> i could get into that, and it would probably be a pretty boring conversation, but, yeah, all of the email i had already collected, i still have access to, and it's still on my systems. of course anything that was encrypted with a person's pass word, i wouldn't have that person's pass word, so i wouldn't be able to access those mess ages. >> so it would be up to nsa to crack them, if they had access

to the emails. so is that what is going on here? the nsa is trying to get all of this information. but then it brings up a thought, why shut it down if they can still get it from you if you still have it? >> i'm walking a very fine line here without divulging what exactly transpired, but i was trying to prevent future transgressions. i have always been comfortable turning over to the government whatever information i have about a specific user. >> right. you have been subpoenaed on a few occasions, a couple of dozen subpoenas, and in those cases you didn't feel because there were individual people and there were reasons you granted those and -- and -- and -- you accepted the subpoenas and gave over the information. >> yeah, and going forward

because i still have access to the data, i could be forced to do the same thing with a particular account. like i said before this was a question of access. should our federal government have access to private systems? to conduct surveillance on review? >> what about the argument that encrypted email servers, and there aren't that many out there, and another one shut down also in the wake of the snowden scandal. what about the argument that terrorists, and even child pornographers could use their emails to do their nefarious deeds. >> those still have to go out over the internet. and one of

the limitations of my system, a person had to tie their name and credit -- credit card if they wanted me to store their information security. nsa? >> no. >> but do you feel -- >> i feel like i'm doing my patriotic duty, and i shouldn't be afraid because of it. >> but you said you feel bullied by the nsa? >> oh, certainly. and it may -- i can't confirm whether or not it was the nsa. because it -- there are a number of federal agencies that conduct surveillance both domestically and abroad. but our government certainly has no shortage of lawyers, and isn't afraid to use them. and when they have the right

people pushing the right buttons, it can certainly feel like you are being bullied especially as a small business. >> and this was your main source of income. >> this was my living. this is what i worked on for the last ten years. >> what are you doing now? >> at the moment, i'm doing volunteer work for our federal [ laughter ] >> how -- how are you paying the bills and how are you paying your defense bills? >> well, i have been fortunate when i shut down the service. i put a link on our webpage to a paypal donation page, and i managed to raise over $150,000 from people who agree with my position, so that i can hire the lawyers i need to fight this through the court system. now it's just a question of time -- >> let's talk about the nsa now, and the average american.

not snowden, not your average user who was using encrypted email, really. you're talking about the average american who uses his gmail account who is not encrypted. nsa? >> what they need to understand is that if they are using any of those services, and really any form of electronic communication, whether it be facebook, twitter, their cell phone, text messages, all of that information is being collected and archived for up to five years, and if an analyst wants to search it, they can go back and read those emails and text messages -- >> but that's assuming -- >> we have to ask ourselves as a society if we're comfortable with that. >> that's assuming they are

doing something illegal. because they are not supposed to be accessing domestic records. >> we would think that. but some of it includes hopping messages. just exchanging a message with somebody who is under surveillance can result in you being under surveillance. >> kyle asks with lavabit dead, are there any other options available? >> that's an excellent question, and one that has been asked quite a bit of me lately. and unfortunately i can't vouch for any of the services out there. all of the ones i have looked into in north america and europe, at least in the uk, seem to already be compromised, and basically that's the problem.

now there's an asterisks next to any american company because we have to assume that if they haven't been compromised already, they can be based on the current legal climate. i have heard of a couple of non-encrypted services out of australia, how of switzerland , out of sweden they may not be actively participating in any kind of surveillance program, but i can't speak to their security policies. that's part of the reason i'm not using email right now. is i'm not aware of a service i can trust. >> thank you. i know you are going to keep fighting your battle, and we tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> you're welcome. coming up

arabia for that. ♪

[[voiceover]] every sunday night, al jazeera america presents gripping films from the world's top documentary directors. >>thank god i didn't suffer what he had to go through. next sunday, the premiere of google and the world brain. >>this is the opportunity of our generation. [[voiceover]] it would be the world's greatest library under one digital roof.

but at what cost? >>google could hold the whole world hostage. [[voiceover]] al jazeera america presents google and the world brain. in tonight's data dive, who says soccer can't catch on in america? the seattle sounders of major league soccer, drew 67,385 fans last night for a game against portland. those are nfl numbers. the team even sold standing room tickets. for context, see at's baseball team have drawn an average of 23,000 fans a game this season. why soccer and why seattle?

well, seattle is a little different. it's nfl team practices yoga and dines on free-range chicken, raised specifically for the players, and its resident are the smartest in the country. still last night's game has the second-highest attendance in major league soccer's history. the average 40,000-plus fans per game, nearly double the next-best team in the league, los angeles, which only drew 22,000. it even does well with teams overseas where soccer, or football rains king. seattle would have top ten standing even gurne

gurney -- germany's league as well. arabia for that. ♪ ...

consider this, today's media and popular reaction to former child star's miley cyrus's performance at the mtv video awards would single handedly suggest she is responsible for the downgrade of our nation. take a look at our performance from last night. but be warned, many think the tv-14 rating was not enough for the overt sexuality. ♪ >> make some noise! >> here to discuss miley cyrus, mtv and the corporate sponsorship of sex, and dana

del, the executive director of spark. what we showed so far was tame compared to some of the other things that were on that show. amanda you wrote in slate, you said that's not that big of a deal, we should try not caring. i think she has the right to do whatever she wants, but shouldn't parents care. this was -- a lot of young kids were watching this. >> that's the point of pop music, isn't it? to be raunchy, press buttons, and be sexy fun and clever. >> but there is a lot that isn't that way? >> yeah, but miley cyrus wants a larger more adult audience. she wants the 16 and up crowd, and they want the raunchy stuff. >> but do you have to get as raunchy as this was, now we're

seeing some of the more extreme things, and that was just a part of it. this went on for quite a while. >> i thought the performance wasn't even that sexy, because does. >> it was more vulgar than sexy. >> yeah, she was trying on dance form that she is not even very good at. it's called twerking, and we have to accept that the whole point of this dance muse sick to let lose and have fun. >> i argue whether it was sexy or not, again. dana what do you think? >> i think we absolutely do need to care, and i think it really is a big deal. even the first clip, is milley is a child star.

and she is trying to break free. she is sticking her tongue our provacatively, she is using images of childhood and really sexualizing it. i agree with amanda, it wasn't a particularly great performance, and i wish she -- if she were going to use sexualized dance moves, that she were a little better at them. that's an important question. because again this was airing at times on the west coast -- it aired probably around 5:15 in the afternoon -- actually about 6:15 in the evening, a lot of kids were up. a lot of kids were watching this.

what do you do? >> yeah, the images the kids are seeing if you look at milley and also robin thicke are perpetuating the idea of sex where robin is fully clothed and milley is only naked. this is teaching children this is what sex looks like in the world. and those are really dangerous things to be showing. >> dana has a point. robin thicke hasn't gotten much flak for this. >> i agree that it is women and only women that are sexualized in our culture. there used to be more naked men at the video music awards. i remember when prince rap around with like, you know, his butt hanging out of his pants.

and that was awesome, and we don't see nearly as much of that as we used to see on mtv. but the certain about the children was misplaced. it was tv 14. i think as adults it can be hard for us to look at a 14 year old and realize they are starting to be interested in this stuff. but when we were 14 we thought it was appropriate to do then. >> well, i'm not sure there was that kind of access that you could just switch on the tv at a very popular event that so many kids are watching. we could never have seen guys. >> when i was 14 years old the prince get off video was really popular, and that basically showed like a barely clothed

fine. dana? >> i think the way the sexualization of girls has become rampant in all parts of the culture has shifted wildly since we were growing up. you can look at any -- the ways that pornography is so accessible, and we're in a world where we are surrounded by sexualized images all the time. mtv is desorting to a very debasing view of sexuality. >> shawn collins on twitter asks is the problem with a women was sexualized on tv, or miley cyrus showed a sexual side? >> i think a lot of it was, that it was

milley cyrus, but what is wrong with us that we as a culture can't let somebody who was once a child in our eyes become a women in our eyes -- >> i mean she had a very sexual roll on "two and a half men" earlier this year, and i think if somebody else would have done it, it still would have gotten a pretty substantial response. during commercial breaks, mtv repeatedly showed some very racy condom ads let's take a look. >> nothing feels like the freedom of trojan pure exscatsy. >> not -- very tame to say the least. there were actually some more provacative moments in these commercials. again, the content. this was airing very early.

it might have said tv 14 but you have tweens who wanted to see selena gomez and miley cyrus, and they are going to be watching these ads. >> i do a lot of work in getting people to use condoms more often, and one of the things we come across is in our culture safe sex is often seen as not very sexy. and if trojan's sexy ads can push back on that, i have to applaud that. >> even for little kids who may not even have any idea -- >> it would be great if by the time they are 12 years old, they think condoms are a regular and natural part of having sex. >> mtv must have known what was going on? >> mtv scored. they are the big winners out of all of this. people were definitely tuning

in. but at what cost to girls, young men, to the ways we understand girls bodies and girl's power versus men's power in the world. we definitely need better sex education. we need kids to understand why they need to be using condoms, but also it's about teaching about sexual consent and power dynamics, and the ways that girls are across the board hypersexualized and objectified. and that makes it easier to enact violence against girls. >> that was brought up last week on one of our shows, the oversexuallization of women in the media, and that's something that mtv has been notorious for. there have been a lot shock moments out there their history.

responsibility? >> i suppose it depends on what you consider responsibility. i definitely think it's important to -- to realize and accept that, like talking about sec and using sex as a way to like express ourselves and our idea is always going to be a part of human culture, and it's good for sex health if people are more open about sex. >> well, let's go back to something else with the parents television council, by i should say billy ray cyrus, miley cyrus is on the board,

38% contained sexual content that rose to the level of sexual exploitation. and the scene was highest when the female characters were underage. so it's especially shocking, but you look again at the media across the board, you have shows liked to -- toddlers and tiaras. >> absolutely. we teach girls from a very young age that the most important thing is being pretty, and that translates very, very quickly into being sexy at like five or six years old. >> what do you think? should miley cyrus be a role model? >> are pop stars really role models?

they are in some way. >> but look at selena gomez, taylor swift, they are graduating from being teen stars without having to do this kind of thing. >> and i think part of the solution is even what we're doing here today, to continue to talk about it and raise awareness about the ways that the media are perpetuating a long of images. and the sexualization of girls is leading to eating disorders and have many impacts on people's a lives. >> thank you both for being here. the show may be over, but the conversation continues on our

welcome to al jazeera, i'm del walters. here are your headlines at this hour. >> translator: i believe the pretext of chemical weapons is false. >> as un inspectors postpone their work, the syrian government says it will defend itself if attacked. and firefighters are trying to hold on line on wildfires that are burning in california. and a trip to space could soon be in reach for every day americans. ♪ the united states and