holy war room. turkish riot police break up crowds of protesters and with tear gas. going to over there was an end to the protests within twenty four hours. unplugged but undefeated. and rallies are held in greece against the shutdown of the state broadcaster to cut costs and other journalists to the side they continue their programming online. the u.s. eases restrictions on exports from opposition controlled areas in syria looking to help oil sales flowing to the rebels. as iranians are preparing to head to the polls on friday we look at how the presidential race in the islamic republic is rather different from the rest of the world.

a very good morning to you from all of us here in moscow now at ten am here in the russian capital this is the with me. so two weeks on and police continue their violent crackdown on demonstrators and once again deploying tear gas this comes as the country's prime minister has called for an end to the protests within twenty four hours and the ruling party saying it may hold a referendum on the controversial redevelopment plans for gezi park and that's in istanbul's taksim square where all the trouble started a couple of weeks ago let's get more now from. who is standing by for us live in reno good to see you so istanbul and ankara the scene of a fortnight of protests regarding the any movement in ankara over night.

absolutely younker i actually have seen the largest number of crackdowns than any other city in turkey for the past few weeks whereas the goal was rather relative the peaceful and carl has been suffering quite severely from the police crackdowns you have to understand that people there have been coming out on the streets every single night police kept dispersing them and of course the wednesday was kind of the repetition of what happened before when several people have diverged from a group. and weird off towards the u.s. embassy where police have used tear gas and rubber bullets against them to kind of squash the momentum of the protests that has been happening in and obviously this is the capital that's where the seat of the government is so does look like this is the main cause for the police brutality that we're seeing there that has been happening where is the regard in regards to other places well of course there have been numerous protests and they were accompanied by arrest you have to do that within the last forty eight hours people from all walks of life having to have been

arrested or somehow receive representation for their participation in the protests which everyone said will have to be over within twenty four hours at this point the protesters have roughly twelve hours to pack up their tents and abandon gezi park they were offered to carry out a referendum but of course the people out on the street said that is a joke that was kind of a friend i'm going to possibly talk about when we have already made it clear that we want the park to stay and they want to go. to one said during the meeting with representatives of the protest movement although even within the people out in the park or there is an increasing feeling that the people who are actually meeting with their no one don't really represent the people haven't really been camping out there for weeks as they have nevertheless still there seem to be some sort of dialogue which obviously seems to have led nowhere several lawyers have been arrested for protesting the police crackdown on tuesday which have been in istanbul of course their colleagues and gourds are now also going to the streets. protesting

those arrests as well saying that this is no kind of democracy where people can be arrested just for supporting a cause and to go even further than that we have to remember that there are several channels in turkey which have been fined for showing the brutal police crackdown on taksim square on tuesday so this again goes on with one of the major grievances the protesters have with everyone and that is his suppression of free speech and. down on various media outlets in the country but it doesn't seem like it's going to end anytime soon the protesters that we have spoken to insist that they will stay here until their demands are met and everyone obviously doesn't seem like he's going to budge down so this is a really tense situation in turkey that we're looking at right now and it's quite interesting to see exactly how it's developing because the protesters really don't

have that much to my blood before they can leave with no repercussions. of course when they're really going to go thank you. well after a crackdown on demonstrators in istanbul's taksim many have retreated back to the square as gezi park a protest to autozone says that the brutal action of the police on the government's demands she doesn't see any sign of the rallies ending anytime soon i don't see it and all of a sudden the twenty four hours just because prime minister was willing so he has been actually talking about this for the past two weeks and none of the protesters none of the original purpose of from gaza park has left the park i think it's all asked to do with the police for the past few weeks once the police were to get from jackson square there was no violence it was very peaceful it was very cheerful and in fact the park itself almost like a sick feeling to it but as soon as the police was back and violence came back to the part came back to the area around the park i don't think the government is taking it seriously and psych that i know is blaming everything that's been happening in turkey on the artists type of economy is getting affected by the fact

that for some sectors getting back to the fact that a truck is getting a bad effect by the protesters and he is just the worst possible figure for all of this. as you can see in the pictures there the talk is police have been heavily using tear gas though often mixed with pepper spray on the protesters over the past decade the country has increased its imports of the chemicals fifty fold human rights groups of raise the point indeed to the excessive use of force by their security services on these poor boy looks at the possible long term effects of the ongoing crackdown and all too familiar sight for many europeans and the austerity protests in greece spain. and germany. gay marriage demonstrations in france and now antigovernment protests in turkey whatever the occasion for these european governments tear gas is the tear gas was

invented in part to shut people up in. thinking about you know this is where where communication meets politics we're talking about a technology a weapon that actually inhibits people from being able to speak that enters into the throat that enters into the lungs that forces people to kind of disperse so it is actually a technology that is the complete opposite of what freedom of assembly and freedom of speech look like vision of a convention perhaps it's the use of tear gas in international war and yet it's perfectly legal to use against civilian populations the problem with all of these agents is there toxicity and the long term effects are worked out primarily on sort of if you like prime age adult males and we know very well that the d.c.s. of those other gases affects differentially people or old people who are pregnant

people who are sick and children the past eighty years have seen reports of lost eyes cranial damage and even death as a result of tear gas canisters it's still somehow legal somehow ok for companies manufacturing tear gas to call themselves non-lethal meanwhile the canisters come with labels on them that say this is deadly this could be deadly and that how is that even ok you see the tear gas being used increasingly being extensively particularly because of the intense civil unrest which is developing across europe as a result of the economic crises and you see it in greece you see it in spain and italy it's not just what we've seen in turkey the. weapons which are inevitably the weapons of a regime which is attempting to suppress the. protests of people behind these gates is where it all began at the porton down military

research base in england's rural wilt said c.s. gas was developed and tested is secretly in the. nineteen fifties since then it's become a profitable industry sold to police forces the world over in the form of tear gas and pepper spray in the past four years britain has sold almost as much tear gas to europe as it has to the middle east so it's a weapon system it's manufactured barring a number of companies around for those companies it's obviously extremely profitable to be to be selling the more civil unrest the more shoes the more the selling of metals the more money that make what we would size arms to use that profit must never ever ever come before human rights and what we really need is governments to ensure that when the last thing the stuff by all stopping walks and says that any two gas supplies of any tickets where there is a clear risk as in the case coming in in turkey that goes to that to be used in the suppression of a few minutes westminster is currently reviewing the export licenses to turkey in

light of the istanbul disturbance says that for those worried about it seen creasing use c.s. gas is merely a symptom of more fundamental issues surrounding democracy in europe why are there so many people dissenting right now why is it that we've had such a breakdown in supposedly democratic countries that we can no longer have any kind of mediation or dialogue with their population what kinds of failures of representative government are we seen that that where we go is should we poison them with tear gas or should we what take out machine guns and tanks against them what happened to all the other range of things that exist you know between having a conversation and poisoning a population party boy. london. so

from talking to groups where protests are mounting on. after the government pulls state t.v. and radio off air in its latest cost cutting move labor unions launched a twenty four hour strike at midnight all journalists across all greek media have pledged to walk out of their jobs indefinitely start for the abrupt to be closed broadcast they were trying to continue programming on the internet defying the government's decision thousands of green rallying outside the company's headquarters in athens in support of its more than twenty six hundred employees who have now lost their jobs and more rallies are being called on later on thursday the dramatic unplugging of tea has triggered a revolt in the ruling coalition and some members condemning the move and georgia cattle galasso a professor of constitutional law he believes the or storage he said clearly losing control. the majority of the. decision of going to be made soon as

a blow to democracy of course to the independent source. for our society in my opinion it's actually an act of very very soon the government is facing. by this attempt to do to distract the political appearance on towards another goal as you know we are leaving now we know very dire economic situation so it's a good government really for its inability to control the situation. to act like about you know decisions that even its allies that we have to other part of this. political coalition are disapproving. it's good to have you with us here on r.t. today still to come for you in the program got a deep cover on the internet examine how americans are protecting themselves from sweeping government surveillance and the reaction those security revelations are

causing around the world. speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's

all here. from the will talks of the interviews intriguing story for you to. visit. details on the iranian election shortly for now though and washington is east restrictions to opposition held areas in syria a u.s. official say it will help facilitate oil sales from the rebels giving them some much needed funding and washington says the decision has no effect on the provision of the rebels the u.s. is divided over whether to send weapons it's off to the e.u. lifted its two weeks ago and dealing a big blow to the prospects of peace talks meanwhile reports claimed rebels have

behind the killing of more than sixty muslims in a syrian village sparking fears of more extremist. joining forces political analyst who believes that at the end of the day the opposition's just not interested in a piece for. those people who have the power to stifle or kill any political process to their ability should be reduced it could be for the political representatives of the opposition to have any meaningful say you know negotiation table and actually being able to keep their words afterwards but as long as there are promises of weaponry and support towards those rebels in the. they won't go to the table of the more in fact with the ideology behind what they have been doing since the very beginning is fishley. affiliated groups they are not interested in negotiating with the regime anymore. as an infidel

regime that must be toppled no matter what. this is r.t. and would snowden's revelations of world wide surveillance by the us now has many americans taking previously protection into their own hands. turn to encrypted online communications to prevent the n.s.a.'s prism program from tracking them or tens of thousands of also signed an online petition calling on congress to reveal the full extent of domestic spying programs. as details on this story. america's national security elektra next surveillance program known as prison has no doubt ignited global outrage however the pervasive top secret spying system. by the obama administration also appears to be motivating journalists and average internet users to immigrate over to the deep web where the national security

agency's all mighty virtual reach purports to be power less web users can break. out of prison by opting out of apple safari and skype and switching over to alternative for pyar terry software that's anonymous not indexed and leaves no cyber footprint some of those online companies include tor browser bundle duck duck go crypto cat and a bit message given president obama's indefinite war on whistleblowers and the justice department's recent a.p. and fox news scandals experts say that now is the time for journalists most importantly to learn how to scramble their phones and dive into the n.s.a. free deep web and then from there you can go to the regular and. where you're coming from you're just in the room. and everything you're doing or you. reading. the road is being encrypted. should be thinking this way now is who goes to the

realization how we can go first and foremost and. joins us. now according to the guardian journalist glenn greenwald and n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden set up a secure encrypted communication system back in february which snowden would later used to send the top secret documents belonging to the n.s.a.'s prism program the electronic frontier foundation has published an online guide indicating a significant amount of ways in which people can opt out of prison the f.f.a. is also one of eighty six organizations that are demanding for legislators to move to curtail the n.s.a.'s programs now civil rights advocates are encouraging individuals to join a call by signing up at stop watching dot us as of wednesday evening

that website had garnered sixty four thousand signatures reporting from new york marino. r.t. . so the n.s.a.'s boundless informant program which tracks information collected from around the world it's certainly causing outrage across parts of europe and the color coded map which showed that germany was among the most spied on nations with chancellor angela merkel expected to discuss these revelations with president obama in berlin that will be taking place next week but a german member of the european parliament has said this surveillance system reminds him of the infamous stars the secret police in east germany its colleague from neighboring austria was appalled by these revelations saying that washington is basically doing whatever it wants to do and italy's privacy chief also expressed concern over those actions which he said would be illegal in his country gyptian freedom activist or was shocked at how much as country was targeted for information

british political activist jim kilo he says that many in europe are angry with the u.s. for infringing on the previously of their citizens bryza lot of criticism out in society at large i think what is a bit disturbing about the the attitude of our government to the moment is that they are. really there resting on the laurels of the americans they think well this is great we've got a close relationship with the americans who are benefiting from the intelligence we get from them so let's not rattle the cage too much i think that doesn't apply for instance to the german government in the same way or many of the european governments who have a more respectful relationship with their own laws and expect to respect the privacy rights of their citizens and have been really quite shocked by what the americans are doing in germany in particular they've had such experience of what surveillance really means for them to see that they do their absolute best to stop it from happening so when they find that the americans are spying on them pretty

much more than any of the european countries then of course they're going to be very shocked and angry. plenty more stories that we're covering for you on our website our to dot com this hour including a threat to the skies al qaeda linked mali rebels could possess missiles that are left over from the war in libya allegedly capable of taking down large aircraft. also on the web site right now a lot of fun in the devastated texas town of west won't get much of the federal money it needs to deal with the damage caused by a massive fertilizer plant blast two months ago butyl is on the web site right now . for the meantime iranians are preparing for a changing of the guard the country will be welcoming a new president for the first time in eight weeks six candidates are vying for that position in the islamic republic over the first round of voting due to begin on friday but election campaigning in the process itself some noticeable differences

from most other nations as artie's maria explains. hours away from presidential elections stick around looks like it's usually just busy busy people have a traffic it's barely noticeable but iran is a special moment of history you will not see many benner as a posters in iran ahead of the country's eleventh presidential vote but that's not because the a forbidden the way people vote in the run is significantly different from what western people used to experience. if people see a campaign poster they will start thinking they spend lots of money on that where does it all come from and they will draw the conclusion that someone a bank or an organization funds the candidate that means when a candidate takes power he will have to give back the money he will owe them and with such strings attached he'll be never free people will never vote for a politician like that. but the reason we for candidates to run low cost grassroots spaced campaigns with people handing out flyers advertising different political

program sad that. some voices to complain they face obstacles in reaching a larger public intellectual peoples who have the right access to internal. things more than two hundred million people law using the internet so. it is much easier to communicate with them but the people in more rural areas we need more more trying to get through them this is the. weak point. this year for the first time ever iran had live t.v. debates between candidates for months two faced some internal and external criticism but the disappearance maintained that despite being new for iran it's still better to give it a try rather than have no debate at all. started presidential legs

above from thirty years ago three decades so you know we had you know. so it's all new so we are learning and trying to. make better and better every year iran is one of the people islamic states in the world following a muslim dominated traditional guidelines is also essential to winning hearts and minds of the voters. a candidate cannot go against their religious or cultural traditions you cannot change the way women where he jobs and asked for taboos on foreign policy issues you cannot come out and say iran will become a friend of the us or israel mohammad says these restrictions are aimed at protecting the national character of the elections and have to deal with considerable pressure from outside the country you cannot go against values even democratic countries can do that but perhaps if we weren't under so much pressure from foreign countries that only want to change the government of iran our campaign

could be different but not all agree. by their heart of five the politicians become more and more distanced from people the gap is wider and wider and who elections look more and more like an apartment this is why i will not be. the protests that followed to do thousand and nine elections are still fresh in the memory of many iranians during the unrest between thirty and seventy people were killed hundreds others injured thousands arrested after people staged rallies calling into question to me just a victory with a majority of sixty percent many think less people will go to the polls this year as they fear violence but the number of those who is to consider the election a positive development is just as significant and again it's the army nationally known as la mixtape not saudi arabia nor could they would ever have elections like we have in those countries it's more like someone has appointed them to a post. for the outsider the elections in iran may seem unusual

a different medical it from what's come to be the norm in the west but if you look closely you can see a picture that is familiar to many countries the public divided in who they want to vote for and forced to make the tough decision. made for national t.v. tehran iran. now the pros and cons of the iranian election that's taking center stage in our world apart program with artichokes on a boycott of the latest episode of that debate show that's airing at nine thirty g.m.t. . compared to obviously ronnie and system is not the best but it's not the worst either well why don't you give that confrontation to the run people the best team you can lose their true voice which we cannot under the current regime. back in about a half an hour's time with more of the world's top headlines though up next in just a moment abby martin in the sat.

secret lover a tour to mccurry was able to build a most sophisticated robot which all unfortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans and end with. this is why you should care only on the dog.

he. says. you live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous i had lunch i got so many i mean ham and eggs and i believe that i'm seeing the same thing really messed up. in the old story so personally. it's. the worst you're going to live through the white house or the. radio guy for a minute. i want. to give you never seen anything like this i'm still.

going to break in a set i'm abby martin well antinuclear energy activist in california are celebrate the closure of the senate over a nuclear plant but many people are heading this is a victory as new questions are rising new concerns have surfaced like who will front the bill of the estimated three billion dollars it will take to close the plant and of course there's the question over what to do with the estimated three million pounds of radioactive fuel stored at the site feel that so radioactive in fact that containment center for this type of material doesn't even exist of course and begging the question of why it was being used in the first place so that leaves the beautiful southern california coast with probably no choice but to host this highly radioactive material for decades to come.