with the. technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. the stories of the shape this week on artsy western nations are inching closer to military interference in the syrian conflict with plans to set up a no fly zone and threats to authorize a strike on the country. norwegian mass killer anders breivik declared sane and gets twenty one years in jail while his anti islam agenda serves as an inspiration for even more radical groups. a scandal that united muslims and jews and go after german a rabbi was charged for performing a circumcision despite a recent controversial court ban on the protests. and britain withdraws its threat to go into the ecuadorian embassy and arrest of julian assange by force all of this after

a block of south and north american nations side with quito in the diplomatic row. it is good to have you with us here on our to today as we highlight the stories that made headlines this week i'm wrong. and a foreign powers engaging in syria's internal conflict came a step closer this week as the u.s. and its allies dished out fresh threats france suggested that western nations could consider setting up a no fly zone over the stricken country without a u.n. security council mandate just a little earlier president obama for the first time said he could authorize military action on the syrian territory. has details now from new york. as the violence in syria continues increasing western countries may be inching closer and closer towards military intervention this past week the u.s.

britain and france all separately signaled when or why they would take direct action u.s. president barack obama said that washington would intervene if the syrian government deployed chemical or biological weapons against civilians britain echoed america's sentiments while france called for the consideration of a partial no fly zone to be imposed over syria's airspace and that is a suggestion that u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton previously made now the syrian deputy prime minister who was visiting moscow this week for talks has accused western countries are reaching for any reason that would lead to direct intervention he also said that president obama's threats are linked directly to the u.s. elections damascus also drew parallels between western focus on

syria's chemical weapons and the invasion of iraq where the existence of suspected chemical weapons were never confirmed now this up tape uptick in talk and threats over military intervention into syria comes as the u.n. security council is scheduled to have a ministerial meeting on syria on aug thirtieth that meeting was called for and will be chaired by france reporting from new york. r.t. . in the meantime a war correspondent on the call of mr eric margolis believes it's the internal politics and why the interests of the u.s. in the region that drives washington's warmongering on syria. united states has no strategic interests in syria what this is all about is you ron and the fact that the us is in a very sensitive election year where there's pressure on the obama administration to do something the republicans are screaming do something and so let's hope that

these threats and verbal i'm still hoping that there will be a diplomatic solution but chances are receding as political pressure grows in the united states and behind us let's remember the fuse really is a person pushing very hard to gain something of. overthrowing the government and even support some fronts syria may be breaking up into little cantons fighting one another along the ethnic and tribal lines that are just as a living on was in the one nine hundred seventy s. this is a very frightening prospect and we have to work hard to make sure it does not happen. twelve thousand christians are trapped in a syrian village very close to the lebanese border besieged by rebels at the two week blockaders caused shortages of food medicine and other crucial supplies but people can't leave the area due to the ongoing threat posed by rebel snipers

meanwhile across the border in lebanon the situation remains fragile following a spike in syria related sectarian violence at least fifteen were killed and more than one hundred injured in clashes between pro and anti assad government troops were deployed to stop the trouble be replaced political analyst and lawyer dr franklin lamb says there's an overwhelming sense of dread among those in lebanon. the concierge of my building who is syrian sometimes hides in my apartment they've been rounded up the syrian national council here in beirut in south beirut even going to great deal of fear people are saying not since the civil war how things is so unlikely to ignite or the people are feeling so insecure as you know there are two neighborhoods in tripoli the job almo third for the the. alleyways and the bab al to bomb is section right down the middle ironically is the

name of a big street called syria street and that really tells the tale out there but we have seen in beirut and other parts of the country a similar division things are very much on the edge. you're watching r.t. it's good to have your company today and still ahead for you that have a libya marking a one year since the fall of tripoli but a celebration is anything but a joyous continue tribal violence threatens to send the country into further chaos . plus resentment on the rise in pakistan as the u.s. continues to blow legal lines when it comes to its deadly drone strikes. this week the case of in the we joined a mass murderer anders breivik reached its conclusion brevik who admitted killing seventy seven people was declared sane by judges he's been jailed for a maximum of twenty one years for his bombing and gun rampage and also. last year.

smoke when he heard the verdict which he says he will not appeal during his final statement he apologized for not killing even more people he's always insisted on a sanity in the killings were part of his fight against the islamification of norway you countries who are suffering a rise in far right activities before the tragedy but is. reports brevik site is a fueling even more hatred towards immigrants and islam. there is no doubt about his guilt for right militant unders brave the massacre of seventy seven people in norway thirteen months ago to show his rejection of government policies and immigrants and is long over this case once again highlighted europe's deepening divide over immigration had integration and the subsequent radicalization of ideas . last week a twenty nine year old suspected great big sympathiser was charged in the czech republic officers found weapons and police uniforms it is flat and they believe he

was planning a brave extol slaughter. while in norway police are investigating a threatening email sent to newspapers and politicians from a person who claims to be brave and in command i with my soldiers to give all due respect to our people our culture and our ethnicity and warn all advocates of multiculturalism they gave this war we are now so deeply in physical violence is. a line that we draw very clearly now multiculturalism in the sense that everybody could keep this culture well this idea which has been the official idea for over for the last twenty years this idea is over there is a leading culture of the european values and european culture such far right fire has gained traction in europe but it's also angered racism groups and proponents of the left there are some resorting to very public displays of opposition.

while there's an increasingly vocal wash of ideologies and a rise in political extremes one step up the fringes countries are increasingly criticized for failing to properly engage people on what's needed to sort the problem out and so my social tensions are testing the limits of tolerance cross europe yet despite the obvious threat of a deepening standoff between europeans and immigrants others say europe's tendency to walk on eggshells in the name of political correctness makes any real and honest debate all but impossible when you have a riot in. we think occasion of. if we want to try to find some excuse. but condition of life and if we don't send a clear message to everyone far right.

muslim. it's become impossible to understand the police others brave extra we may have reached a clue. usually but europe still nowhere near to ending at all to whether the cycle of fear and he threw it. does or is still the r t brussels. well the growing talk of a crisis of intolerance in europe another scandal flares up in germany this after a rabbi was charged for performing a circumcision and so after a regional court in cologne banned religious circumcisions under a new law it caused outrage among jews and muslims worldwide accusing author of use of infringing on religious freedom but rabbi josh c. of the ronald s. a lot of foundation now joins us live here in our city to give us more details on this so good to see you today so as i'm sure you're listening to the reporter after decades of showing contrition for the holocaust this controversial court ruling in germany certainly outraged plenty of jews and what do you what do you think the

decision will mean for relations between germany and the jewish community. well i think you pose the question correctly and the concern is not actually for the performance of ritual circumcision the likelihood that there will be a legislative or judicial remedy to allow ritual circumcision is high the question is what impact will this debate have on relations between the jewish and muslim communities and the german political body and what kind of long term effect this will have going forward on this kind of discussion is sure this is not going in a good direction. that you say it's not going in a good direction i mean ultimately in the wake of the ruling angela merkel said quote we want to have jewish and muslim religious life in germany how do you think her words sit with the ban. well that's an excellent question i think that she responded after a number of weeks of international pressure and there is a clear will on the part of the german government to rectify the situation which is

embarrassing to them and so you have the own usual situation of the chancellor who is the head of the legislative body the head of government in germany commenting on a court decision that's rather unusual but it indicates the degree to which there's a concern on the part of the german government the legislative body however as the discussion is shaping up on a more grassroots level in the media on a lower level in the ethics commission of the german government which in a glass of the there are serious concerns on the part of many what actually germany means when it speaks of tolerance of minorities and freedom of religion what was certainly that's that's one point to come to but you know what is happening in terms of intolerance in europe we have a far right activity is growing that france added to it with the anti muslim and with it with its world with its buck about and i should say now the circumcision bad in germany it does seem here we have a these outspoken voices calling for tolerance and and all these kinds of benefits of a norm so normal society and yet here we have possibly an increase in intolerance absolutely

i mean. there's no question that this issue the question of circumcision in germany and by the way further afield as the ramifications of the germany decision felt in scandinavian austrian switzerland but there's no question that this issue is of a piece with the minarets right through and in switzerland with the burka question in france with the ritual slaughter question in holland the thing that is particularly striking about this issue is that from the perspective of those who do not actually want or are uncomfortable with visible minorities in their presence this is a fabulous issue because one cloaks the criticisms and the undermining of religious freedoms in protecting the rights of infants and so this is a noble position which is a much harder position to say out when one speaks about workers or minarets of ritual slaughter and so this really to a great extent i believe is the issue that those people in western societies who are going to try and push back against genuine tolerance are going to news it's

a very convenient issue for them and also unites almost all jews and almost all muslims so it's killing a number of birds with one stone and a very pretty stone at that so i doubt what some of the aspects when it comes to the book about and français i've spoken to police officers who say well it's a matter of safety if a woman is behind the wheel of a car she's wearing a burka visibility is not as good as it should be there's a danger there and when it comes to circumcisions i mean nowadays circumcisions really necessary i understand that it was part of a part of a religious ideology back in the day also an issue of hygiene but also really necessary nowadays well that is it's not we don't argue that they're necessary for the medical perspective the world health organization argues that they are advantageous in certain areas in africa to prevent the spread of aids but that's not our point our point is that from our perspective we've never claimed that they're medically necessary we claim that they are part of our religious practice an established part of our religious practice we've been doing this for thousands

of years there is no objective. body of evidence on which this issue has been this and some of the discussion as it shifts in germany from one of fruit as freedom to the public health becomes absurd because this is not based on an objective concern about should it be done in a hospital or not and how it should be done or not it's a fundamental question do here it's who belong to a specific feature community have the right to do this to their child or must the child be protected from those parents that's the core issue all right a rabbi just spent a c.e.o. of the ronald s. a larger foundation thanks for coming on r t today but you. live from moscow this is r t the diplomatic spat between britain and ecuador over julian assigns asylum has eased as london now retracted its threat to storm the south american countries embassy in order to arrest there was a blow up over the withdrawal comes just a day after a thirty four member bloc of american nations sided with ecuador in the royal

stressing the sanctity of diplomatic premises it means that julian assange still holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for more than two months is safe well that is unless and until at least he steps out of the building the president of ecuador serves the two countries are ready to return to dialogue over the wiki leaks as future parties at loris with now brings us the details of the meeting that prompted a break in the standoff it was a meeting that lasted five hours but eventually got what it wanted out of the meeting essentially they the foreign minister made a speech in which he condemned britain for what he called an inner thoughts on. and eventually what happened was that these thirty four countries signed this resolution which rejects any attempts to put at risk the inviolability of diplomatic premises anywhere in the world and and expressed solidarity and support for ecuador in their offering of asylum to julian assange but also to continue

talks between ecuador and pressed him to try and sort out their diplomatic problem . the usa and canada are members of this organization and they were very much against this meeting from the very beginning and they all say their expressed reservations about the resolution that was passed in the end but it goes to show that particularly in its own region ecuador is not acting alone and it's now got huge international backing across the americas but we've seen no movement in britain stance so far they still remain committed to arresting julian assange as adults to fulfilling this court order which says that he must be extradited to sweden whatever happens and in fact we've seen further proof in recent days that britain is not going to abandon its plans to arrest him we had a policeman photographed outside the ecuadorian embassy one of the many policeman who was guarding the embassy twenty four seven holding this piece of paper a piece of restricted information it says that do not sign should be arrested essentially at all costs whatever it takes even if he emerges in some way in

a diplomatic car even if as some have posited here merges in some kind of diplomatic create or that is not going to put the british police off arresting him that they're really very intent on arresting him and fulfilling this court order so that it's a position that hasn't changed in the last few days and i see no reason that it will change as a as a direct result of this but as i say the international pressure is growing meanwhile of course still in the ecuadorian embassy in london still very unclear how he will get out. i know all the twists and turns in julian assange has long running saga as well as an expert opinion and analysis always available on our website do bear in mind if you missed our exclusive interview with the ecuadorian president rafael correa it's also there at the dot com. now as our faces growing pressure from the west regarding its nuclear program there's also a significant display of solidarity towards the islamic state of delegates from

over one hundred nations which don't consider themselves allied to any power block convened in tehran for a high profile summit this sunday research director of the national iranian american council in washington says the gathering shows iran is not as isolated as the u.s. wants the rest of the world to believe there are one hundred ninety three members of the united nations general assembly and about one hundred twenty of them are going to be in teheran with some kind of diplomatic representation. because that's how many members there are of the nonaligned movement so you know it's a great talking point to say that iran's international isolation will continue but if you look at the totality of the world a large degree of countries maybe don't agree entirely with what the united states led sanctions are doing and what they're seeing to accomplish. now the summit takes place just a few days after the u.n. atomic watchdog declared that recent talks with iran had failed israel claim that iran is speeding up its work on

a nuclear bomb the islamic state insists it's only pursuing peaceful energy now some experts believe the west's rejection of iran's right to atomic energy could ultimately backfire. well there's no doubt that iran has quite a bit of support among the nonaligned movement you know among those countries that are the big nuclear have nots if you will they they do in fact have a lot of support for the point of view which they spouse which is that they have a right to enrich uranium and that the western powers are essentially taking trying to take that away from them for political purposes essentially using a double standard or even worse. but i do remember you can always find the latest stories comments on videos on our web site r t v dot com let's check out some of our other issues are standing by there right now clothes don't make them. do they find out what attire to avoid when trying to board

a passenger plane in america. still thinking where to spend a weekend with your cruel friend pick your brain more get your pulse racing by walking the trail of dead. in this big bulging eyes and the little face of captured the hearts of locals where this baby seal is now taken up by one of russian. you can head online for more pictures of this very cute car bartie dot com. you're watching the weekly with me rory sushi here on r.t. on the threshold of the first anniversary of the fall of tripoli libya seems to be marking the event with violence and chaos and the latest in

a series of recent attacks on sufi shrines salafi islamists are blamed for blowing up and bulldozing a fifteenth century sanctuary now sectarian tensions in libya have reached new levels after two soofi religious sites were destroyed by salah fits government security forces this against the background of severe ethnic clashes which have spiraled since colonel gadhafi was forced out most recently at least twelve people were killed and dozens injured after the fighting and parties used heavy weaponry including anti aircraft guns political analyst and consultant peter things libya will only descend further into chaos that libya is following the same trend as all the other countries where there was a war through. we have the same scenario in iraq we have the same situation in afghanistan we've got the situation in libya which was again a force regime and as you would expect there will be breakaway groups because at the end of the day although gadhafi was a fraudster in many ways brought that country from the goldrush into great

prosperity and the wrong government got in and so the military is still trying to pull that the stream and of course that's failing very fast and i think we will see a natural rebellion if it occurs like it's ongoing in iraq like is ongoing you syria and egypt. as you're watching the weekly here on r.t. let's take a moment our dive headfirst into the world update at least thirty six a side after a fuel tanker and a bus full of passengers collided in northern china before catching fire i three people in the coach survived but having taken to hospital with severe injuries the latest wreck follows a series of are on the road accidents in the country and the death toll of more than seventy thousand last year alone. venezuela's president hugo chavez has declared three days of mourning after at least thirty nine people were killed forward following an explosion at the country's biggest oil refinery the government

run plan was rocked by a blast caused by a gas leak nearby buildings also damaged by the explosive impact of the accident is the worst to have ever hit the south american nations oil industry. the first man to walk on the moon and one of the greatest heroes of america neil armstrong has passed away at the age of eighty two his condition deteriorated after complications caused by recent heart surgery nearly half a billion people had their eyes fixed to the tally as the firmware apollo eleven mission commander stepped out on to the lunar surface in july of one nine hundred sixty nine. now pakistan is investigating a u.s. drone strike that reportedly killed carney a leader of the carney terror group and the taliban it claims though he still alive u.s. led attacks have long been a source of contention among pakistanis as artie's guy nature can explain episodes

just like this that ultimately fuel the insurgency. the u.s. prides itself on the rule of law but on a number of issues the line between what's legal and what's not kind of blurred in the last decade or so is wiretapping legal no but in the name of national security yes there are attempts right now in congress to legalize big brother on the web by making it legal for providers to funnel all private correspondence to national security agencies the law in the u.s. protects free speech but never before has there been such a hunt for whistleblowers that's in america but as far as u.s. actions abroad the issue of what's legal and what's not even murkier washington has expanded its target assassinations program in different countries essentially putting itself above the law now i'm joined by john feffer author and co-director of the institute for policy studies he has an interesting theory of u.s. foreign policy he compares it to dexter the t.v. show dexter is a fictional character who is a good citizen by day and

a serial killer by night but he only kills bad guys mystified for what's so wrong about being dexter i mean everyone loves dexter was a very popular t.v. show here in the united states and all across the world but this is difficult moral questions because of course dexter is judge jury and executioner and sometimes he makes mistakes and the united states too is in a similar position united states often says only kills bad guys. in other figures that have been attacked by drones over the last few years but the united states also makes mistakes that have been and the number of civilian casualties associated with these drone strikes so in some sense they're in a similar moral quandary dexter and the u.s. government as you said you know this administration has expanded its drone program dramatically and the strikes in pakistan yemen and other places they end up killing

many civilians we're talking about extra judicial killings and. here's a question that pops up. you know when when someone does something outside the law they're usually afraid of getting caught but in the case of the us calls the police to catch them and there is no police is there well there isn't any police of course there are international laws and there have been a number of reports on the implications of international law on the drone attacks and the un for instance rup or tour has condemned drone attacks as being illegal but i think the chief concern here for the united states in terms of getting caught is being caught by blowback in other words by the consequences of these drone attacks and those i think are significant because of course we've seen people here in the united states who have cited these drone attacks as the reasons for their terrorist activities for instance so i think it's blowback which really represents the casualty or shall we say the consequences that are most direct of the drone

program. you are watching at the weekly here on our heels we'll be back with other of the week's top headlines in just a moment so you see. watches you every saying. and waiting for you to

stumble. i signed them with a video camera so i moved. and he phoned me. you know we realized they were following everyone from early in the morning. the only chance to get rid of him. is to reveal him. me devil operation on archie. more news today violence is once again flared up if these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada.