the u.s. charges a whistleblower edward snowden with espionage after he revealed the n.s.a. prism program that's been spying on millions of people around the world. it turns out the british intelligence agencies trump even washington with snooping as it's revealed a u.k. surveillance reportedly extends even further than the u.s. one. u.n. experts say they're not convinced the syrian government used chemical weapons putting a damper on washington's plans to arm rebel forces. thirty

pm in moscow i match reza good to have you with us here on r t our top story the u.s. has filed criminal charges against edward snowden the man who exposed the world to the extent of the secret global surveillance network run by the n.s.a. reports say washington will now try to extradite the thirty year old from hong kong where the former cia employee turned whistleblower has been sheltering ever since exposing the agency's. our he's guy and he has more. edward snowden has been charged with espionage theft and conversion of government property now the u.s. justice department has also reportedly asked hong kong to arrest edward snowden the united states has an extradition treaty with hong kong and snowden could fight extradition if he's arrested there but the treaty has an exception for political offenses so snowden's defense team in hong kong may potentially invoke that part of the extradition treaty edward snowden's revelations as we all know have shed unprecedented light on the u.s.

government's massive spying program he revealed that even if you're not doing anything wrong you're being watched and recorded and the obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers under the espionage act than all previous administrations combined but edward snowden. says it's not government persecution that he fears he said the greatest fear that i have regarding these revelations is that nothing will change. political commentator sam sachs thing snowden has the upper hand in the scandal because he managed to win over public support before having to face the government for his actions. this is what snowden was expecting i mean he went to hong kong he's been very vocal that is he's fully expecting the government to come down hard on him like they've come down on all whistleblowers over the last few years but snowden has a leg up on a lot of these whistleblowers and that's the fact that he released these documents he made himself public he went out he made his case for why he released these documents so this is going to be played out in the public eye on like say what

happened to bradley manning who was picked up never had a chance to defend himself in the public eye and has just been sitting in prison that's going to probably complicate the government's case against note is that we knew why he did this and there's a lot of support behind him doing this this is the time that better whistleblower has been charge by the obama administration under the espionage act the government so far has been unable whether it's thomas drake john kiriakou or right now with the bradley manning trial show how any of these leaks have resulted in espionage or have hurt americans the national security of of the united states. snowden appears to have some escape routes lined up one includes being whisked away from hong kong aboard a private jet read the full story on that r.t. dot com and remember we have the latest updates a timeline of events and expert analysis on the story waiting for you a click away on our web site. all this comes after edward snowden also revealed

british intelligence has its own spying operation reportedly even more advanced than the u.s. one of these tests are cilia reports from london. certainly a new twists and it reveals a vast and compassing program operation in place by the few here in the u.k. it shows that they have been a collecting and storing vast quantities of information ranging from facebook posts to phone calls as well as internet even internet histories basically they have had access to fiber optic cables that carry the world's phone calls if you remember you can the n.s.a. said that they did not record phone calls but according to these latest revelations by edward snowden that up to six hundred million quote unquote telephone events last year were recorded a day by you can imagine the vast amount of data that they are now able to tap into to store and to analyze and share with us as a national security agency or the n.s.a.

if you look at the documents at snowden have provided the titles of some of the main components were mastering the internet or global telecom exploitation clearly there's no doubt as to what the objectives of these programs were having put them in the place and also the fact that the technology exists right now and that there have been in place for the last eighteen months is really a terrifying thought for private citizens because this kind of vast and compassing kind of technology does not distinguish between innocent private citizens and targeted suspects and that has brought up a concern of course of security versus infringement of privacy and also there's another point to be made here that the guardian believes that reported that about the people who have access to the. database were about eight hundred fifty thousand and it's a employees and private contractors with a top security clearance that's a lot of people with access to private information of u.k. citizens and beyond and also according to edward snowden the g c h q have been even

worse than the u.s. in their spying efforts here dr katherine albrecht a spokesperson for the alternative search engine start page says government's obsession with surveillance may bring about an end to privacy as we know it. i think if we start going down this road of saying that it anyplace people are where there is privacy they need to be watched by the government then we get to the point where we will not have private hotel rooms we will not even have private bedrooms or private showers in our own homes and eventually you know we're going to have nostril cams looking up our noses so i think it's some point we've got to say just like the founding fathers of the united states said in the in the bill of rights no you can't go rifling through a law abiding citizens privacy just because on the off chance someone might commit a crime down the road truly what if if law enforcement wants to find people who are doing bad things it's not looking for the people who are going online looking things up it's really to people who are doing bad actions and i think that mindset that everyone needs to be watched is how we've gotten into the trouble that we're

in right now with the n.s.a. creating back doors so that they can watch three hundred million americans and literally hundreds of millions or billions of people around the world to see what they're searching for when they go onto the search engines even an impeccable human rights record can become useless when someone needs to know what you're up to that's what china is famous dissident chen guangcheng learned after some of his aapl gadget gifts were found to contain devices allegedly used for spying all the details on that still to go. but first washington's claims that assad's government used chemical weapons have been undermined by the u.n. which says it isn't convinced details from artie's middle east correspondent paula sleep. united nations experts say that they do not confirm the claims put forward by the united states britain and france that the damascus regime used chemical weapons against the syrian rebels they said that despite the fact that these three countries collected evidence on the ground such as blood tissue and soil samples it is inconclusive and that they will have to send their own investigators to conduct

a personal investigation inside syria this is what the u.n. had to say they were. worried that we cannot see what the agent you know about weapons we can use them and we can be rebuilt look are we going to be in concrete so you are casting serious ground to work the west coast of florida do you want to . be us the british the french supply would be a very is. they have they haven't but it's important to note that based on these unsubstantiated claims by the united states britain and france that assad used chemical weapons last week the american president barack obama ordered the cia to stop supplying weapons to the syrian rebels he said to quote him that the damascus regime have crossed a red line sit by washington today saturday will be a high level meeting of the core group of eleven foreign ministers who make up the

so-called friends of soviet in doha it comes a week after the country's met in ankara and at that meeting the free syrian army appealed for more military aid calling for heavy weapons what will come out of today's meeting at least mantissa paid is a reassessment of the situation on the ground and a discussion on what kind of weapons to supply of the syrian rebels and when she do so now the russian president vladimir putin has reiterated that any supply of weapons to the syrian rebels is in violation of international law and he has warned that it will only for a bit destabilize the situation on the ground. i can barely understand. why one would supply arms to the rebel groups in syria when we don't even know who those groups consist of if washington acknowledges one of the keyboard keys of the opposition forces refer and as a terrorist organization officially and admits its links to al qaida how can they then debate that same opposition where would those weapons and it up with.

the point that the russian president make that we do not know who composes the opposition and waving his weapons well and that is a point that is raising concern in the international community for twenty seven months this conflict has been going on and at this stage it seems to be showing no signs of letting up policy are teen on the israeli syrian border. as the world's most over providing weapons to syria's opposition political analyst omar what coffee thinks they should think twice before making any decisions i think the west is not really learning about the consequences of arming people this is by no means an attempt to end a bloody struggle in syria in fact it's going to do quite this has been going all along you know since the early. because the objectives of arming do sweepings have got nothing to do with it was to get rid of a government that doesn't obey what the west or the united states says. and still

to come shortly quelling the rage as nationwide protests keep up the results government promises to hastily usher a new reform is an attempt to quell the tension all the details still to come stay with us. told you my language as well but i will only react to situations as i have read the reports so let me put the no i will leave them to the state department to comment on your latter point of the month to say to mr kerry a caller is on the docket no. thank you no more weasel words. when you need a direct question be prepared for a change when you punch be ready for a. pretty well off speech. down to fit into question.

thanks for staying with us here on our team here with me matt it's twelve minutes past the hour now brazil's president dilma rousseff has a valid new reforms to calm public anger that's been raging across the country for days and brought more than a million people on to the streets at least two activists have died in what's the

largest public unrest the country's seen for two decades artie's ignazio reports from brazil. reports of a second day in massive protests all over brasil are the more anger and violence to their ongoing rallies the first victim an eighteen years old demonstrator died in the state of south follow after a car crashed through a barricade and the driver the flames at least sixty people have been injured brazil is witnessing historic rallies taking place across the country and some estimates say from one to two million people flooded the streets of more than one hundred cities what started as a rally over transport first fast turned into a violent mass demonstrations and police crackdown police used tear gas pepper spray and rubber bullets some of the protesters threw stones torched cars and pulled down love and pose in real crowds marched against corruption police

brutality poor public services and excessive spending on the world cup their banners called for change saying like stop corruption and government failure to understand education will lead to revolution crowds could gather in the capital brasilia try to torch the building of the foreign ministry where also met with a harsh police response brazilian authorities agreed to make a step forward and draw up they are moved over but first increase but protesters claim it's too little too late with protests fevers breathing fast across the nation demonstrators promised in the next days there will be more protests turn alyson blogger marie says sad very says the inability of the government to deal with the enormous social inequality is fueling the protests. i would compare for much of the situation in chile a few years ago in chile as we're protesting against the high prices for education that chile has a massive middle class which brazil has just gotten after fifty years of successful

achievements of big achievements for resilin draggy forty million people out of poverty and all the things i would say that this is the first revolt of the middle class of a classic middle class in a certain way for decades and people are wondering if they could get better services and if they could get better education better and better health it is not exactly above the economy because brazil's pretty much living through full employment and it's not terribly compared to comparing to european countries i would say the protests in brazil they cook for a very long but then when they happen lots of issues and this is the biggest one in all of time in a long long time so most of the issues brought about now are basically discontent with how government works. channels caught in focus somebody images of brazil's protests you can head there right now when you see the video from the cities in the grip of the rest.

of. the f.b.i. has reportedly been asked to investigate whether china's famous civil rights activist was spied on in the u.s. this after some personal items given to chen guancheng were found to be bugged with tracking devices. as more. just a few weeks following revelations about america's prism spying program on another surveillance story is on folding this one surrounding chinese activist chen guangcheng the blind decided to move to the u.s. last may with his family after reportedly escaping

a dramatic house arrest in china treated as a hero and symbol of democracy chen received a fellowship at n.y.u. new york university he also received an apartment in the greenwich village and many tech gadgets that were donated by his supporters right now while corning to reuters a smartphone an i pod that chen received upon arriving to new york was loaded with it in spine software allegedly used to spy on the self-taught lawyer and why you technicians inspected the electronics reportedly finding software that allowed a third party to secretly connect to a g.p.s. that was able to track him according to reports also there's been published reports indicating that there was a hit in password protected software that backed up all the contents on his i pad and or i phone and that allowed the contents to be remotely access to buy

a server according to reports at least three other electronic devices given to china also included suspicious software but it is not clear who is responsible for the allegedly spying software however what chen supporters say is clear is that a man who gained international recognition for standing up for human rights in china comes to america where he allegedly finds himself living under a veil of surveillance reporting from new york. r.t. . turning now to some other stories making global headlines erakat has been hit by another terror attack three civilians and one police officer killed in the north of the country after a suicide bomber rammed into a rammed a vehicle into a police patrol the blast also left six wounded al qaeda and other militant groups have stepped up their strength in the region where similar attacks have been on the rise in recent months. turkey's capital has seen another night of anti-government unarrest with police using water cannons and tear gas to disperse crowds the

popular uprising has been going on for more than three weeks now it has already claimed five lives and the thousands more injured people are angry at what they call the authoritarian policies of prime minister air to one who slammed the protesters as thugs saying he will be manipulated. canada's oil capital calgary troops have been deployed to cope with the worst flooding the city seen in decades at least three people dead as many as one hundred thousand evacuated after a year's worth of rain fell in the city thirty six hours rivers why did the city's roads and bridges causing traffic gridlock areas oil fields and pipelines so far unaffected. in cairo supporters of president mohamed morsi took to the streets on mosques to mock the opposition calling for his removal this set of planned rallies against the leader which will mark the first anniversary of his inauguration morsi d.b.u. year in office has been blighted by political instability and economic woes his

government's policies have often provoked protests some of which have turned deadly . terror attacks drone strikes in vicious sectarian strife pakistan's newly elected government facing a lot of challenges but amid the outbreaks of violence many other issues such as an immense lack of energy left to the sidelines but even when the government starts looking for answers to the shortfall it stumbles on a whole host of hurdles or reports. business is far from booming at this textile mill in pakistan several times each day the machines come to a halt there's simply not enough power to keep them running forcing them to sit idle for up to fourteen hours a day the mill has resorted to burning wood to keep up production but for a factory employing four thousand people it's an unsustainable solution this is to be affecting the number of people you can employ you must provide jobs and job creation can you have than if you have energy and energy is personally what pakistan lacks the country of almost one hundred eighty million people has been

plagued by power cuts that have grown longer and more frequent in recent years about two thirds of pakistan's energy comes from oil and gas but there's not enough fuel to go around most cars here are run a natural gas but widespread shortages often leave drivers queuing up at the pump for hours the power crisis has also played a major role in helping industrial take to. defeat the ruling party in the recent election. it's a tragedy that a country with atomic weapons is deprived of electricity and has no electricity for even twenty dollars a day how can a country develop in such a situation so called load shedding means people and businesses can't function those who can afford it turn to a battery run electricity by using a device called u.p.s. it's enough to keep a few lights and ceiling fans on but just barely across pakistan countless people are struggling to get by because of the energy crisis businesses large and small are desperate for an increase in energy supply in hard hit areas like this one the

geopolitics of where pakistan turns to in order to get those supplies is hardly a top concern q iran the islamic republic has plenty of natural gas reserves which pakistan is eager to consume and after nearly twenty years the two countries inaugurated a gas pipeline that would let pakistan do just that the project aims to bring a million cubic feet of gas to pakistan each day from iran's offshore south park's field in the persian gulf this is the same. best thing which has happened to box on the last sixty five six systems it will be a major step towards providing cost effective solution and a solution which will allow pakistan to be actually connected to the global energy guest recess but there are serious doubts about how pakistan could finance the one point five billion dollars needed to build its portion of the pipeline and there's another hurdle washington has threatened to slap islam abroad with sanctions over the project if this deal is finalize for a proposed iran pakistan pipeline it would raise serious concerns under our around

sanctions act we've made that absolutely clear to our pakistani counterparts the americans are pushing for a rival plan for u.s. backed pipeline from turkmenistan instead but u.s. opposition isn't the only hurdle realistically i don't think that's ever going to happen because if you look at the geopolitical you look at the forces that are close to it it's not just the united states it's opposed to it it's also saudi arabia it's also the it's also got that also that new prime minister is you know why he pulls out the at least historically has been i don't see the it on pakistan pipeline going through it remains to be seen whether the pipeline will be sidelined by geopolitics but for the people here there's little choice but to put up with the inconvenience and wait in line to see caffein of pakistan.

the global business elite of gathered in st petersburg for the city's annual international economic forum the meeting has already seen some groundbreaking deals being made including president putin signing off on an oil contract with china worth billions of dollars artie's katie pilbeam has more. the two hundred seventy really in dollar deal has been a struggle really supposed all expectations here in st petersburg between roughnecks and china and that equates to three hundred thousand barrels a day that's on top of the three hundred thousand that is already delivered to china about three hundred sixteen tons a huge deal and it's a huge deal for a number of reasons we know that the eurozone at the moment is dealing with a sovereign debt crisis the demand has gone down from there and europe has made no secret of the fact that they want to diversify. their demand as to where they get that oil from so this has to play into this as well but as far as china is concerned it is a popular move i've been turning to the business elite here and they say it's all about russia moving east from now on you've only got to look at

a map to see that it makes sense for these two countries to be dealing with each other to be striking out these multi billion dollar deals also for rough stuff that as a company it looks great on their balance sheet we know that they acquired team kate the pay was a costly. and they are still paying the bills for that but i've got to tell you it's not all about china ross nafta been drumming up her plenty of deals here today they've been speaking to any exxon and also that oil as well so it will set in the head of the company has been a busy man. i want to talk about shale gas because putin approach this topic in his hand when he was a bit defiant towards the fact that many people are saying that russia slept through the. resolution revolution i should say he said the main reasons why it's not in the energy world is simply because it's costly it's more costly to produce a natural gas and as well as that is also environmental concerns as well to do with

the fracking process that is needed to get the shale gas and the fact that it can contaminate the water so far as producing was the sun to was defiant towards the so-called gas boom. next artie's abby martin and breaking the set stay with us here on r.t. . i know they tracked approval ratings of the presidents of various countries by did though they still research the approval ratings of former presidents twice like gallup poll that says that george w. bush has been slowly growing in his approval numbers since leaving office in fact his numbers have increased by seventeen percent amongst independents and even his in three rival democratic voters have given him fourteen percentage points of

popularity i think this may be due to the fact that obama's magic has worn off and people are getting fed up with things along for the bush days is insane if you are one of the people who has recently decided that bush is awesome then please tell me how he differs from obama true obama can pronounce ninety nine percent of the words on a teleprompter in front of him but both presidents have let expensive wars with questionable objectives bush gave us the patriot act and obama continued it with the n.d.a. both of them seem to like their drones and massive government spending and expansion i don't know i don't think that just because obama's rules flawed that somehow makes bush's brain into some sort of triumph but that's just my opinion. to live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous. i mean.

that i've. really messed up. very so closely the. worst year for the. white house of a. radio guy in four minutes from a click. away quote to give yourself the. you know everything like i'm still. the guy is welcome to bring that all the fat cat bankers have made headlines again for all the wrong reasons again see five former bank of american ploys recently came forward in federal court to say that they were instructed to mislead customers who were on the verge of foreclosure they said that they were ordered to give bad advice and to stall applications for loan modifications of course b. of a is the nih that claim up and down but forgive me if i have trouble believing them after all bank of america is the worst of the worst when it comes to helping

people keep a roof over their heads. robo signers controversy where b. of a employees sign a false affidavit is to speed up the foreclosure process yes one former employee to receptor loans even admitted that workers were encouraged to deceive borrowers about their loans statuses she told c.n.n. b c quote a collector who placed an order your account at a foreclosure in a given month received a five hundred dollar bonus if you have a also gave employees gift cards to retail stores as a reward for placing accounts in the foreclosure b. of a collectors and other employees who did not meet their quotas or subjective term a nation let me repeat that bank workers were fired if they didn't push enough families out into the streets that bank of america's true nature and the fat cats are getting away with it scot free because nobody here in washington gives a damn this day not a single banker involved in the foreclosure crisis have been put behind bars until they are i'll be right here.