damascus using washington of lies over its claims the syrian government used chemical weapons in its civil war while some critics say it's domestic issues in the u.s. that are behind the sieber rattling from the white house. turkish authorities they're under a vote medical licenses of doctors for treating hurt and injured protesters after prime minister aired on issues yet another final warning. a moderate cleric looks likely to succeed mahmoud ahmadinejad as iran counts as votes in a high turnout presidential race.

two pm in moscow i matras a good to have you with us here on r t our top story syria's government vehemently denied u.s. claims its army resorted to chemical weapons describing u.s. accusations as quote a caravan of lies washington weighing in a no fly zone over syria and gearing up for arming anti assad militias there after it claimed it had evidence of the use of illegal agents by damascus more from artie's guy named jackie a new washington. the white house says it's the session to arm syrian rebels is based on intelligence that the assad government has used chemical weapons to mask denies the allegations washington cites its own intelligence community as well as french and british intelligence a u.s. official who declined to be identified told the media here that according to a cia report. fired blood urine and hair samples from two syrian rebels one dead and one wounded and according to the cia report those two rebels were exposed to nerve agent sarin brian becker he is here with me today to talk

about thank you what the administration tries to present as definitive evidence that the assad government has used chemical weapons we don't know much about the evidence that they have but this report about two rebels do you think that could be enough for the cia to come up with definitive conclusions well no the evidence is dubious it's very scant in fact but it's really not about the evidence it's not even about weapons of mass destruction it's not about sara nerve gas there's been an acknowledgement in washington that if you want to take this country to war either by bombing another country or intervening or occupying raise the specter. and that's the ticket in order to get massive media coverage justifying an escalation and that's what's going on there's been a decision taken by the white house to escalate this is just a red herring not a red line the phrase that we often hear in washington these days is we need to tip

the balance seen the other direction meaning in the direction of the rebels but behind that technical sounding phrase tipping the balance is a lot of killing that would have to be done to achieve that goal right to what lengths do you think the u.s. is ready to go to achieve a desired outcome in syria tipping the balance is just a euphemism and in fact bizarre and ridiculous the fact of the matter is this civil war which has taken ninety three thousand lives according to the united nations was fueled by outside forces got their turkey saudi arabia who are they they're the proxies or allies of the united states and britain and france nato powers they've been funneling arms into syria creating the conditions for civil war in fact promoting civil war i would say they have a lot of blood on their hands senator mccain is a very active supporter of the of an aggressive u.s. intervention in syria and he's everywhere now on all news channels applauding the administration's decision to arm the rebels in one of the interviews he suggested that he'd talk all the way to extremists taking over syria because they would not

be allied with iran and it's not just him who constantly mentions iran in the context of these discussions how much of this is about iran in your opinion well john mccain's comments are very interesting but but not unusual if you look back at the last thirty years the united states has made the my enemy's enemy is my friend the theme of its foreign policy it armed osama bin ladin the mujahideen against the afghan government because it was a socialist government and aligned with the soviet union mccain is a cheerleader for war but what is the real goal yes iran is the target iran ultimately because of its alliance with syria its alliance with hezbollah in lebanon ultimately the u.s. wants to destroy assad the. we can has and finally destroy the islamic republic of iran not because it wants a more democratic iran but because it wants a puppet government or proxy like they use they have when they have the shah the fear is that the message that the rebels will receive with the weapons is not go sit down and talk the message will be go fight and kill which kind of kills the

chances of a political solution doesn't it brian becker anti-war activist in washington i'm going to check on well the u.s. and its allies claim they have chemical clues against president assad news and reports on the ground suggest the opposite artie's poll scott has more on why some think it's actually the rebels who have been spring illegal agents on the battlefield so what exactly do we know about the use of chemical weapons in syria while the country is believed to have one of the largest stockpiles in the world with some estimates putting it at one thousand tons in september two thousand and twelve the country's then foreign ministry spokesman said government forces would never use the weapons against the syrian people but the recent u.n. report confirming chemical weapons have been used raises more questions than answers as to who's the guilty party and all finger pointing and allegations continue there's increasing evidence that the rebels do have access to a chemical arsenal only last month turkish media reported twelve members of syria's

al qaeda linked al nusra front had been arrested in turkey with unknown chemicals found during the raids meanwhile the free syrian army leader recently confirmed that a number of army generals defecting to the opposition had dropped because they were being asked on to stay and infiltrate the government forces to help secure the chemical weapons stockpile all of this of course comes hot on the heels of government advances the northern town of qusayr recently once again coming under government control that poses the question why president assad would choose now to antagonize the u.s. by crossing that so-called red line when conventional warfare appears to be swinging the war once again in his favor. moscow has been critical of the u.s. chemical weapons claim saying it's failed to present verified evidence that president assad deployed a toxic arsenal foreign minister sergey lavrov also stated that he thought there'd be no point whatsoever for the syrian army to resort to such tactics for more details i'm joined by our teams alexei or ski here for us in moscow give us more on

russia's reaction to the chemical weapons claims coming out of d.c. . well first of all the russian foreign minister revealed that it was very regrettable that when the allegations of rebel syrian rebels using chemical weapons at the town of aleppo were made public by the syrian government it's time to ask the u.n. commission to investigate nothing was eventually done but only when the allegations of the syrian government using the chemical weapons weapons appeared to them experts thought it was conduct a certain investigation on this and that also revealed that for some time his partners in the west and israel have been saying all along that the syrian government would only use chemical weapons if it's backed against the wall that's why using the chemical weapons by the government right now makes no sense whatsoever from the military point of view. the syrian regime hasn't been pushed into the corner the regime according to the rebels is advancing on the

ground what's the point of the regime using chemical weapons and in such small amounts. with the chemical weapons usage by the syrian government the alleged chemical weapons usage now being hotly debated across the atlantic as well as the calls to on the syrian rebels lover off said that he didn't believe that the red line the so-called red line was actually crossed first of all because what the united states believes to be the proof of assad using chemical weapons is not a substantial proof at all mainly because the prove gathering process itself was not made in accordance with international regulations just. there are certain rules of the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons which suggest that samples of blood urine and clothes and so can be classed as evidence only if these samples were collected by the organizations experts and if these experts controlled

the samples and rude to the born tories u.s. colleagues failed to assurance that these procedures were and he had to do. so all this according to law hardly contributes to a peace process on syria especially after the agreement was reached to hold an international conference have the both members of the syrian opposition and the syrian government at the same table and the calls to arm the syrian rebels happening at the same time with a course for a peace conference lavrov compared it to the wag the dog situation. all right he's like sarah shows you live for us in moscow thanks very much for that update. you know honorary research fellow at university of roehampton thinks the u.s. leadership's using the war in syria to divert attention from problems at home. it helps obama and it helps president. prime minister here in britain all three of us have c.d.'s domestic

problems economic problems social unrest etc etc when he is facing serious domestic problems than you do already. is this. threats to national security. and try to unite the population with these massive. domestic opposition activists in the u.k. argue it's banks that are actually in debt to them and not the other way around coming up a protest held ahead of the g eight summit in northern ireland saying the crisis only made the rich richer and worsened the social. and deadly chemistry in louisiana as twin blasts of chemical plants raise speculation the state is neglecting safety one expert's opinion still to come. but first turkish authorities are demanding all the names of the doctors who treated protesters injured in

clashes with police as part of a health ministry probe prime minister aired on the government claims medics acted illegally giving aid to demonstrators in istanbul's taksim square doctors though say it's a crackdown and a vote not to cooperate or reading to lose go has more. medical professionals have been out on taksim square and guess the park since day one helping out those who have been injured in clashes with police and just those who have needed medical attention while camping out here in guess the park for almost two weeks at this point but the problem is now they're under fire from the turkish government and that is largely the reason why we're standing here and not inside the medical tent and self because the people who are working there all of the medical professionals all of them working in other hospitals and clinics all over istanbul and practically all over turkey at this point they are doing so they're working here rather illegally they're doing so without the permit from the ministry of health and just recently information has come to the surface which says the minister of health care has issued several letters of warning so to speak to the doctors who

are working here they have numerous questions to the medical professionals as to how many people where the helping who are those people what kind of injuries have been occurring basically a lot of questions all of which need to be documented and forwarded to the ministry of health if this isn't done so the ministry of health says it will suspend the doctors are medical professionals licenses so this is why the people inside these tents and inside gezi park do not want their faces on camera their representative has agreed to talk to us and told us exactly what is happening in the gezi park. recently we were inspected by the ministry of how he said that what we are doing here is wrong that there could be no punishment for those who are helping people there is no such religion or all the can discriminate against us he made a big mistake by dispersing the crowds and now they should think twice before making any decisions doctors are not the only ones who have come under fire from the turkish government in recent weeks just the beginning of this week more than

fifty lawyers have been arrested in their connection with the protests rather they were arrested for protesting outside of taksim square not too far away from here expressing their opposition to the fact that the mass beatings and brutal force was used by. stumbled police in dispersing the protesters again on tuesday and just to give you an idea more than eleven hundred people just from the gives the park alone have turned for medical attention in the gezi park after tuesday's clashes with police the lawyers were expressing their discontent with the situation the country and with the brutal force used by police now sound the people that we have spoken to are saying that the turkish government has already cracked down on journalists essentially stifling freedom of speech and of media in the country they have also put their thumb down on the lawyers and now it looks like they're after a medical professionals so there's sort of a joke going around the gezi park because they're trying to figure out which profession will come under fire from prime minister erdogan after this in istanbul

going to go sco r.t. . iranian elections and g. eight protests just some of what's still to come here on r t stay with us. i think the first impulse and the honor was pretty much the same as the first impulse of assad that is to step back to the sounds of the wars that was a dictate to act like a dictator mr the one who has been elected to and he's acting in the wrong way but the don't come with comparison with syria it doesn't fly.

we speak your language or not at the end of. the news programs and documentaries and spanish what matters to you breaking news a little tune into the angles stories. so you hear. the spanish find out more visit. tito it's. sixteen minutes past the hour a new blast has rocked another chemical plant in louisiana killing at least one and injuring eight a similar explosion thursday at one of the hundreds of facilities in the state

claimed to lives in wooded around one hundred caleb moppin from the workers world party and international action center think safety has been neglected for profit. louisiana is what's called a right to work state in the united states right to work being you know euphemism for being that workers are not allowed to form a closed shop contracts and so there's a hostile anti-union legislation that makes it very difficult for workers to organize and to form unions so as a result of that it's much more likely that that the working conditions in such factories where that are non-unionized in states where there's a culture of anti-union politics it's much more likely that they would they would have these kinds of accidents that really you know industries organize to make profits for a small group of people and the needs of the workers are last in the lives of the workers and their safety is last in the financial calculation the infrastructure of the united states is largely it's largely lacking and it's falling apart in many places london activists and so since time the traditional relations between banks

and the public changes they are new institutions are deep in debt to them now ahead of next week's g eight summit in northern ireland protests staged the rally against financial inequality artie's polly boyko has more. and here austerity campaign isn't environmentalist have gathered here in what they call the penthouse suite of global capitalism otherwise known as canary wharf london's business district home to a number of banks such as j.p. morgan and barclays now it's an event called they owe us and a day in the title is aimed squarely at g. eight leaders who are set to meet for the start of the g eight summit hosted by britain in northern ireland on monday protesters gathered here come from a number of different organizations but they all say that they're concerned with one thing and that's the concentration of wealth and power that the g eight summit represents so next week at the g eight david cameron is going to be saying that he said he's come out with all these great policies that make things better for you

know that it's just not true he's making decisions and all those needs in fact making decisions that are in the interests of the fine i'm seem to haitians of these large corporations in the interest of normal people the banks out so. quoted to me if we go to max out i mean is there a debt to us you know we're going to say this simple stuff earlier this week anti capitalist protesters clashed with riot police in central london and around sixty arrests were made one was on the lips of many of the protesters are expected to today's inequality while this business district is home to a number of investment banks separate the god and territory norm one of london's poorest areas where four out of ten children live in poverty so with further government spending cuts on the way protests disappointing and the finger of blame at the banks and the politicians reporting from canary wharf in london i'm portly boy. washington surveillance web exposed to have a taste for the oriental coming up on a new report on new leaks indicating

a massive and concentrated u.s. surveillance network game to potentially cow was chinese businesses and civilians and. young israeli man was willing to go to jail for his beliefs finally. released after spending nearly six months behind bars for refusing to serve in an army that he calls an occupying force still to come. first iran has voted for a new president with early results giving a strong lead to the most moderate of candidates cleric hasan rouhani polling stations closed five hours later than scheduled with the sheer number of voters turning out about eighty percent according to election officials security was high during the poll to avoid a repeat of street protests in two thousand and nine when the opposition accuse the government of rigging the vote the election and brings an end to mahmoud ahmadinejad second and final term his term as president was marked by a tightening of u.s. sanctions imposed over the country's nuclear program my colleague john thomas spoke with flynt and hillary mann leverett former national security council and state department officials and they think neither side in the dispute will give in.

there's a constraint in washington not not in terror on that at this point many of the saying sions have been written into u.s. law and president obama even if iran did everything the u.s. wants it to do on the nuclear issue he's not able to lift many of the sanctions now and last he also was able to certify that congress that iran is cut off all ties to groups that the u.s. government insists on calling terrorist organizations and is basically become a secular liberal state obama and the united states are now him then on sanctions and so even if iran offered up some concessions which is hillary said i don't think it's going to do it's not really clear iran would get much in return a new round of u.s. sanctions are coming into order on july first how do you see the next leader handling this long standing issue each of the candidates that have been put before

the iranian public each of them has expressed concern about the sanctions each of them has expressed real concern about the economy and as such has come up with various plans to address the economic points on on iran's agenda. whoever is the next president is going to put the economy very close to the top of their list and to addressing the sanctions but it would be a mistake to believe that the next president even if it's someone that would be more to washington's liking that that next president is going to make any substantially different concessions on the nuclear issue. appears washington to ease the sanctions the cyber standoff between the u.s. and china's got a new twist amid revelations of potentially wholesale industrial espionage by washington the same system that spies on millions of americans alleged to be stealing communications of countless chinese meanwhile outrage is building outside capitol hill but even protesting the surveillance is proving a challenge. lieutenant michael battle of the united states don't believe correctly you are demonstrating without

a permit. not only because you love the cool but this movie that is what we are entitled to move to was you right there with you to debate it to chill groups so that we're not more than twenty people in either group because apparently more than twenty people in the country are angry you can't have a demonstration without a permit so we're going to hamil over into the park maybe we'll just have themselves a moving press conference we're supposed to have the ability to congregate to address grievances to our government this is the one of the biggest scandals ever and we're not allowed to do that what does that say protestors here voiced their support for edward snowden the man who admitted to being the source of leaking classified documents to the guardian he exposed widespread government surveillance being conducted by the n.s.a. amid these revelations protesters here voiced their concern about unchecked government powers i think these discussions about snowden are really a distraction what we need to be focusing on isn't whether or not what he did was lawful it's whether or not what the agency did was lawful what we do or don't do as

a society about this massive accumulation of power through the control room for mais information about people's personal lives as well as there simply was information gathered and every did it good and what chronic gadget with american it took us while protesters here celebrate snowden's actions calling him a whistleblower some calling him a hero government officials have condemned his actions including some members of congress snowden is believed to be in hong kong right now here at the capital is wall. military service compulsory in israel but the occupation of the west bank is forcing many young citizens to question whether they should refuse to serve with some choosing to go to prison instead of tahn blanca is one of those conscientious objectors he was released earlier this month after serving almost half a year in jail for refusing to pick up a gun and join the army or his policy reports. there should be some way out not

like this just going to prison david plan son spent a hundred and seventy eight days behind bars he broke his radio record for the number of times he was rearrested and tried by little every israeli citizen woman and man has to serve in the i.d.f. this is the place where once you receive your point patzer come to register ready to serve out your two to three year draft. a ton blank came here ten times but only to tell him he's not willing to join. were supposed to be inducted into the army in november and since. you went there and refused to serve and you were sentenced to ten days i think at the time and since then he is released from prison who. goes back and again refuses to serve blanks crime refusing to be part of what he calls an occupying army the army does not acknowledge this kind of objection not even as a conscientious one and so if every croup comes to the army and

says i refuse to serve they will be tried and then when they go out of prison if based on recruiting they will be tried again and again in theory the number of times an objective can be tried is endless asked moyal rothmann after spending a little less than a month in prison for fusing to serve he spoke to an army psychologist and was declared mentally unfit for service as a way to prevent further time i felt like my statement had been made and i had said what i needed to say and wanted to move on whereas not i think really really wants to continue going through this until at some point the military recognizes his right to refuse and i have so much respect for him the idea of trying to be interviewed by our t. but same to us this written statement it says exceptions to military draft are gone to due to health related issues religious we. place of residence and more civilians

who do not receive exemption from the i.d.f. but will feign from funding the law face the consequences of their actions this holds true in the case of nathan blank as well as a matter of conscience everyone has to make this isn't like this for himself. so i can't judge what he feels i think the general question of the occupation is is a serious concern for many people in this country and he is just taking it to its logical. the idea of trying to use blank as a warning to others considering filing in his footsteps but his refusal to put the army in italy could position by now releasing him they risk setting a precedent but keeping him under lock and key was also threatening to turn his private protest into a public relations tobacco policy on t.v. tell a fifth after the break we meet the first one in orbit volunteer tarrasque over her inspirational story still to come.

six and eagle residents were thrown off of an airplane not for what they said but how they said it because they said it in another language russian in fact a paranoid and cowardly steward on the plane told them that they had to clear out just for speaking another language to be here yes of some group of people were to commit a terrorist act then speaking in a foreign language would be a good tactic i can't deny that and for the code to america better get on the ball and learn to speak english adequately but there is a problem about fifty million tourists visit america every year according to the u.s. department of commerce and trust me not all of them are canadians if the usa is going to have millions of tourists arriving in traveling by air then don't be surprised

when they speak their own languages if you're going to throw foreigners off of airplanes just for speaking their date of languages then you're going to have to basically throw people off of half of the planes flying over the united states but that's just my opinion. thank you. she might never have made it she wasn't at the top of the candidate's shortlist but eventually she did blast off shouting triumphantly. as the flights began she was unable to switch to manual control but after three days the

world greeted the first woman cosmonaut. six years later as a motorcade passed through the kremlin gates a man opened fire and nine bullets she was untouched. valentyn a biography read a little like a fairy tale a soviet cinderella. a gold from a poor family in a remote province rocketed to such heights that only the stars were above. the first woman. was the vostok six spacecraft which she first tried on in june nine hundred sixty three it immediately elevated her to the soviet elite. her official cold sign was sego.