today's news and the week's top stories right here on holed up in a moscow airport for three weeks former n.s.a. contractor edward snowden speaks to human rights activists for asylum a still up in the. deposed president. a political crisis in the country's economy. russia reveals evidence that syrian rebels were responsible for the deadly use of chemical weapons inside the conflict zone. claims to the contrary.

the week's top headlines here. live in moscow thank you for joining us on this sunday. this week saw a little change to the plight of snowden and there was a blow remains in the transit zone of moscow's sheremetyevo airport but he did manage to talk to representatives of human rights organizations and replayed his bid for refuge in russia i mean well guardian journalist glenn greenwald who's been breaking the news about the whole n.s.a. snooping he claims snowden holds information which could be america's worst nightmare let's bring in its user nicholas go on the story right here joining us live on this sunday morning hello to you every so ultimately let's let's backtrack just for a moment here he was hired by the n.s.a. respectable job was to be in certainly a good salary what is it that changed him well he has actually explained it with a human rights activist of course you have to understand that a thirty year old man first living in hawaii and then suddenly finds himself on the

run from none other than u.s. authorities you have to have pretty good reasons for that and apparently snowden does this is what he told during the meeting with human rights activists in moscow on friday. a little over one month ago a. family home in paradise and i lived in great comfort. i also had the capability without any warrant of law to search for c.s. and read your communications anyone's communications at any time there is the power to change people's speeds it is also a serious violation of the war. so basically the former n.s.a. and cia contractor has now is now looking for and for a place to stay after exposing the breadth and the scope of. this a. surveillance and obviously he's you know he has he's got he's got plenty

of documents which he has in which he had in store but now of course he according to glenn greenwald he doesn't have any any more documents that left that he could possibly reveal but the reason for the initial revelation was also presented by edward snowden in his interview to going to greenwald prior to during his initial interview in may i increasingly was exposed to true information that had not been propagandized in the media. that we were actually involved in misleading the public and misleading all the public's not just the american public in order to create a certain mindset in the global consciousness and i was actually a victim of that i grew up with the understanding that the world i lived in was one where people enjoyed a sort of freedom to communicate with each other and privacy without it being monitored without it being measured analyzed or or or sort of judged by these three

shadowy figures or systems i think a lot of people of my generation anybody who grew up with the internet that was their understanding. so basically this was the first time that we've heard from edward snowden and no it was three weeks that's how long he's been holed up in the insurance for transfers oh no of course well this was the first blow that we were hoping not least information or. a speech or a presentation of his thoughts from snowden in the days to come so i mean as far as we understand there are three latin american countries who have considered giving him asylum but still though he remains in moscow why is he still here all of that's right you have to understand he makes a human for asylum on a friday night according to russian officials they still haven't received his official request for political asylum you also have to understand that it's the weekend most of the official you have to go to the official way unfortunately you have to do the whole people work to go through with the paperwork route definitely

and it's still the weekend in russia so perhaps we will not hear that they have received that request from him until monday also you have to keep in mind that there is information that snowden has asked for political requests as a temporary means of at least getting some sort of documents at this point he doesn't have anything in his passport was the knowledge he's on the no fly list for the united states so he has to have some sort of identification you may say because they're after receiving temporary asylum status in russia he could go onto those american countries which have expressed their desire to see him as their president all right we're going to go there and so dramatic i think you. will meet all washington has to russia for providing a propaganda platform for the fugitive whistleblower other words fail to explain just what moscow has actually done wrong. we are disappointed that russian officials and agencies facilitated this meeting today by allowing these activists

and representatives into the moscow airports transit zone to meet with mr snowden despite the government's declarations of russian's neutrality with respect to mr snowden sorry you're disappointed that they let someone into their own airport and well it well that they facilitated this event of course why because this gave a forum. that we should have before there's a full use forfeited his right to freedom of speech as well met miss mr snowden as we've talked about let me just say this because i think it's important he's not a whistleblower he's not human rights activists he's wanted on a series of serious criminal charges brought in these certain eastern district of virginia in the united states i'm sorry but i didn't realize people wanted on charges forfeited their right to speak just to free speech. it would snowden's prolonged asylum controversy has become a test for both washington and moscow that's according to professor of russian and slavic studies or new york university steven cohen. this is

a classic case of the testing of leadership both in moscow and washington neither leader neither obama nor putin can be happy about mr snowden sitting in the moscow airport and didn't invite him to russia but he can't toss him for various political reasons obama needs to show he's tough on snowden to change i can't believe that the united states actually wants to put snowden on trial because it was a fair trial or a legal trial all snowden would have the right to subpoena american officials who have knowledge of all this intelligence he's exposed that would not be so i think there's a vested interest both with obama and putin defined a way to solve this problem so that neither is damaged politically so will now study what kind of leaders they are. meanwhile according to a number of whistleblowers including snowden companies from microsoft and google

have been selling off your data to the u.s. government for buying busting with cash and it's the taxpayers of course are stumping up the money and these guy nature can reports. if you are a u.s. taxpayer whether or not you agree with the government's wholesale electronic snooping you are paying for it and you will probably never know how much exactly because for the covert world of its unaccountable spying activities the government has a black budget but some numbers or available they refer to law enforcement requests so according to last year's disclosures america's telecommunications giants bill the government just as they build their clients we have some specifics for each wiretap eighty and t. for example charges an activation fee of three hundred twenty five dollars plus ten dollars a day to maintain it rise then another telecommunications giant takes seven hundred seventy five dollars for for the first month and five hundred dollars each month

after these numbers may not shock you into you learned that the average wiretap cost u.s. taxpayers fifty thousand dollars given the scope of surveillance that could amount to a lot of money but again these figures are based on disclosed data as we learned from a number of whistleblowers and not just edward snowden the u.s. national security agency operates under wraps under secret orders nobody knows how much exactly they spent to tap fiber optic cables or to collect data on americans and the rest of the world but we do know that the n.s.a. storage facility alone cost some one point seven billion dollars that the center in utah is capable of storing every e-mail voice mail and social media communication it can get its hands on the government is certainly very reluctant to discuss its snooping activities with the public they just repeat the mantra it's done to keep america safe but as americans learn more about the price they pay for the presumed safety they are becoming increasingly wary in the latest polls we see

a significant shift in public opinion you see three years ago twenty five percent of americans thought that the government went too far in restricting civil liberties to. three years later we see forty five percent of americans think so we see that with knowledge comes opposition how can you oppose something that you know nothing about right so perhaps not surprisingly the government is doing everything it can so that the public knows as little as possible about these programs in washington i'm going to check out. good to have you with us here on r.t. today still to come in the sunday program the embattled post conflict ballots in mali where the wounds of civil war yet to heal as the country heads towards a crucial presidential election with the security threats of a looming. but for now egypt's interim government has begun investigating the ousted president mohamed morsi for spying ruining the economy and inciting violence

and the military is clamping down on the muslim brotherhood began soon after morsi was toppled at the start of the month with its top members of arrested an islamist t.v. network shut down a huge crowds have been out in cairo all week some demanding morsi is reinstatement other three others are celebrating the fact that he's gone on monday fifty seven people were killed in clashes between the army and the deposed president's supporters what the brotherhood called a massacre by authorities i mean while gulf arab states have offered egypt twelve billion dollars in cash loans and fuel to help the country deal with its economic crisis contributor after it's down to this money is purely a gesture of good will. the u.a.e. and saudi definitely did not like the muslim brotherhood and so the saudi station al-arabiya called it in dubai in the u.a.e. backs the rebels and you go. back to which is backing the most you go which is against a military coup so you have both sides using media using financing using weapons

sales to back them in egypt all the united states we must remember that president obama. is backing mubarak dictator up until the end seemingly not quite knowing what he's going to do and perhaps the saudis are threatening him even john mccain we presidential candidate use the word coup for obama we get nothing and in the mainstream media all we get is mom will baradei another nobel prize winner like obama saying nothing about the house arrest without charge of a democratically elected president let alone the ending of a parliament and the destruction of a free media which continues at the moment in egypt. now egypt's interim government has vowed to get the country back on track planning a new constitution and the parliamentary vote in about half a year but the backbone of the country's economy tourism it shows little prospect of recovery over the deadly street battles across the nation doing little for its

image caro correspondent well true as the story. behind me is the egyptian museum one of the most popular tourist destinations in the whole of the country is the first port of call for many tourists coming off the plane here in downtown cairo however is an empty this is a scene that's been seen across the country in all the most popular tourist destinations following a week of political turmoil after the ouster of mohamed morsi egypt's tourists and history which makes up eleven percent of the country's economy has taken a massive beating since the tiny way to define revolution particularly as terrorists are becoming increasingly scarce in the last week we've seen massive nationwide demonstrations funded by clashes between rival groups and on sunday fifty people were killed in clashes between security forces and supporters of the deposed president leaving many to be the tourists won't come to egypt in the future have been trouble mornings have been issued by embassies including the u.s. embassy who's actually sent most the non emergency stop time after any u.s. citizen was stopped last week in these bloody clashes made to international tour

operators that are becoming can also come so that to speak to my oldest on september fearing the fiscal sham i will continue to do through this this is a free to like but still work this has most kids however local tour operators on souvenir shops and who don't have international backing fail to plug the gaps the poor old woman moans. we need to see the boy be now list them five percent and. if he did that somebody placed those and you feel as if there's each of these you know world if you see the steve thanks very much thank you. so people are fearing ments as those supporters of the previous leader mohamed morsy remain in their city and refuse to go home in various parts of the country never going to see further clashes but those like shoki working in the tourist industry they feed this means tourists are going to continue to be scared

from coming to egypt and actually the future of egypt's tourism is going to be even worse. in a just tourism that's taking a hit in egypt and the political crisis is having a devastating impact on the wider economy and my colleague josh you discussed this with the pope. well right now egypt is stuck in a bit of a vicious cycle because of the risen which accounts for over a tenth of the g.d.p. of the growth of the economy it's already lost two point five billion dollars as a result so terrorism is had a big dent well that sounds like a lot of money and surely a big blow to their industry so work in egypt turned down well so far at the moment there's an i.m.f. loan lays in the balance of four point eight billion dollars one that this was negotiated with with morsi at the time during his war and at the time the i.m.f. they insisted on high taxes and fuel subsidies to be phased out but that was never

really clued and while that was being negotiated cats are was subsidizing the economy but they were connected to the with the the muslim brotherhood and now that that has disbanded the money from council is also lange in the balance as well as all these question marks as to whether going to be getting their money externally from now surely you sounds like a tough situation there and it also sounds like both sources are in danger of drawing up then but what about the united states in this situation where does it well this one point five billion dollars in aid actually being held up by event and that's because the u.s. law forbids loans to countries where the military is involved in an unconstitutional change of government so again money from the u.s. is a real question mark as well as many question marks and also foreign investment we know that investors they hate instability and you've got that in abundance right now in egypt it doesn't help that egypt has been downgraded consistently by credit

rating agencies so at the moment instability uncertainty is helping the economy also well the country does sound like it is in dire straits but although economy is revolving largely around tourism it still remains a large oil exporter it does is a large oil exported. also makes money and lots of other commodities as a result is a mess so cotton textiles chemicals as well and right now by all getting money from other external sources today we've got gulf states providing the u.a.e. saudi arabia kuwait all offering up money some money from eight to twelve million dollars which egypt is certainly not in a situation. right now are just a click away right now at all to dot com other deadly bus crash horror through the lens of a dash cam video right here showing how saturday's horrific accident right here in

moscow could have claimed even more than the eighteen lives it did not for the steering skills of passing drivers. also on you this hour right now our jubilation in southern china as your authorities scratch but i'm sure some nuclear project off the record huge protest they can find out how much of this respect of public opinion will cost the chinese government that dog. for now though here what are. the u.s. and its allies earlier this week for what moscow called producing maximum allegations with minimum credibility this is regarding the use of chemical weapons in syria and western powers it claimed bashar assad's regime used nerve gas on civilians back in march but russia revealed it had conducted its own investigation into the incident and discovered it was the syrian opposition in fact sponsible for the atrocity which killed twenty six of russia's u.n. envoy added that western claims to the contrary appear to be aimed at hampering an

independent investigation into the chemical attack here's how fatah substantiated russia's findings. the results of the analysis clearly indicate that the ordinance used in commerce so was not industrially manufactured and was filled with sudden. the site in technical specifications proved that it was not invested in manufactured either the project al involved is not as standard one forget nickel use therefore there is evident use them to believe that it was the armed opposition fighters who used the chemical weapons in khan. israel carried out an attack on the key syrian port of latakia on friday that's according to statements made by three anonymous u.s. officials the predawn blasts allegedly targeted a russian made anti ship missile battery which syria received about two years ago now let's talk is about eighty kilometers from russia's naval base in syria the rebel free syrian army said they had nothing to do with the time because they don't

have that kind of firepower it's ready government hasn't commented on the issue either but if these u.s. claims do turn out to be true it would mark the fourth israeli air strike in syria in just the past six months and has written extensively about the syrian conflict and believes israel is clearly taking sides. i think the reason they carried it back is because the rebels are losing i mean foreign terrorists the farmers. they're losing in the back of these whales i think giving them a helping hand and. the last attack remember in may was against a military training center in damascus i was very very blunt because the syrians have had to retrain soldiers since the start of this war in order to be able to deal with the non conventional warfare techniques used against them and so again i really tried to change and this is israeli strategy so i think what they're

essentially trying to do is give the rebels a helping hand because at this stage they lost the war and this is talk of you know keeping the keeping the war going and also provoking the. need. u.s. military officials claim the number of hunger striking detainees at guantanamo bay has gone down that's for the first time since the mass protests began back in february this follows claims by prison authorities that most of the hunger strikers have now eaten a meal suggesting the protests could actually be coming to an end but lawyers for the inmates say their clients are determined to keep the strike going until they're released from indefinite detention without charge lawyers also stress the military authorities running the camp and earlier being caught downplaying the scale of the hunger strike forty five detainees are still being force fed a process by a u.s. federal judge as quote painful humiliating and degrading i mean while barack obama

is coming under fresh fire for failing to deliver on his promise to close the facility. to muslims or be in some ways we consider being tortured is not just even physically when muslims are being thrown into jail is being stripped down having. different types of medical devices stuck down your nose and your throat but even the psychological torture and trauma you know in this discussion about force feeding you know this is only a symptom of the bigger disease in which there are over eighty individuals in guantanamo bay who are being cleared of any wrongdoing and they're being helped indefinitely against their will and really want a person gets to the stage we need to be really given up hope that they can get any type of justice and this is really the bigger problem with the bigger issue at hand that we really need to be addressing obama he is the commander in chief and he holds executive power he could have this whole practice at the signing of

a pen but it seems like he doesn't have the moral courage or blue who will do so. this is the weekly on our two molly officials stress the presidential election will proceed at the end of the month despite escalating security concerns in the post conflict country authorities are being criticized for failing to restore order in the north where islamist militants were routed earlier this year thanks to french military intervention as autism or financial reports the peace remains a volatile one. and these people from a small village to the west of mali's capital may be muslim. but they also have their very own traditional beliefs stretching back generations using nuts to help predict the future and influence the weather now looking to be able. it's people like these who helped form africa's unique and diverse cultures but it's exactly

these types who would have been a trieste of an isolation had the militants who took control of mali's north in the name of radical islam also swept aside the authorities here. have a lot bar they say they're not muslims i don't like these people and other spiritual groups they think the same way if they find us they'll kill us. french troops intervened in northern mali in january as the insurgency made a push towards the capital two months later paris proclaimed the north liberated but for some followers of traditional islam that was already too late. twenty three year old silly man from the gal region claims al qaeda linked fighters chopped off his right hand and left food after he and father three and a muslim who prays several times a day refused to join their ranks and in a fit they brought the chair to a squirrel in the center of gower they tied me up they gave me an injection and put

a bandage here brought a knife like this and cut it. however some people from solomon's village claim has a speech which the radicals punish him for wonder cirilo they imposed or do so we're against their opinion that they don't consider the muslim they have their own interests and are aware of what that travelling to was the north we make no one who sympathizes with the insurgents and their rigid religious themes and that even goes for the next generation you want to fight against a why are they bad bad all of them lot of man yes they are bad bad for our country . but when those ringers of shari'a law too cold to the north a significant number of mali ends either join them or help them. some suggest by their wallets militant. have capitalized on widespread poverty while others have been drawn in by those slogans the disc is incomplete now many people who join the

radicals understood they were mistaken and they've joined the side of the mali an army to fight against those people are you guys are afraid that these people will come back. no they were not come back. ok why they will never come back you think. because mommy and france now you. that's fronts is drawing much of its bigotry and the very people paris claims to have driven out still appeared to be very much around the same group said to his nose claimed responsibility for a terror attack on a french strong iranian facility in neighboring new share while the very factors that allowed to their rise in the north over to a feeling of injustice and general frustration just to very much evident. critical period of carrying a bit. back at least not

a legal matter it makes everything a bank wish to. research it i don't. think. one can restart. this down there is the missing link to fate richard otieno from mali. and we are going to offer a moscow i wrote recently on r.t. after the break we're looking at the toll the global economy has taken on the african state of ghana thanks for joining us.

you mean speak your language. programs in documentaries in arabic in school here on. reporting from the world's hot spots fifty ip interviews intriguing story i used to. live in trying. to find out more visit our big t.v. show it's called. hold it. hold it.

real. good speed. if you. wish. me good. and i'm. glad i'm a little.