half a million dollars worth of fraud and embezzlement sues russian anti-corruption blogger alexei navalny gets five years behind bars but an appeal is expected imminently. exploiting the conflict chaos al-qaeda reportedly announces plans to create its own state in syria using land captured by the opposition seizing its money and weapons . and the seems to be money to be made by getting britain out of the e.u. report on how one thing tank plans a road map awarded i had a full head pardon me of a proposed referendum. thanks for joining me this hour i'm lucy cough and when you're watching our team well on

to our top story right now russian anti-corruption blogger alex a not only has been handed five years in jail for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a state prize he was immediately arrested after the verdict and led from the dock and handcuffs let's cross not live now to our correspondent who is outside of the courthouse and pissed off who is a awaiting reaction in central moscow now irina we'll start with you i do assume that feelings must have run pide both inside and outside of the courtroom can you describe what went on. while alex in a minute did get a five year prison sentence which of course left a lot of his supporters that were here extremely unhappy but you have to understand that the maximum penalty for the type of crime that big alex in a violent was convicted on is ten years in prison prosecutor was asking for six now the judge has built his judgment on the testimony of the witnesses and it's in nevada of course he's made a name for himself as. as an opposition blogger and activist but he is the old if

you look at his resume so to speak he's actually a lawyer a lawyer that hasn't won or actually participated in any single criminal cases as a lawyer up until now and he has actually been indicted he's actually this is not the first criminal case that was started against him. was a man who has portrayed himself as a person who is adamantly against corruption in the country he has actually been a blogger who is trying to expose several rather large anti corruption schemes in russia but of course now that he's got that sentence which incriminates him of participating in a corruption scheme. to them. in the amount of roughly up to half a million dollars he will have to know not are maybe perhaps not only to serve a prison sentence but also pay a hefty fine of roughly thirty thousand dollars so right now they say. is

a new one of the preliminary confinement offices here in cuter of his followers of his followers his supporters followed him to. the space there demanding to see lawyers or some sort of authoritative figures at the moment but i haven't reached their goal as of yet right now and either on to you now i had mentioned mr obama's supporters in the city of cairo of i'm curious what's been the reaction from supporters not only in moscow and where you are well news about a number of these verdicts spread very quickly basically exploding the internet lots of people are sharing and reporting the news about the five years' jail sentence for the opposition or blogger and one of the most controversial and well known figures in russian politics right now several groups have been organized even before the verdict was announced calling for the war and his supporters to take part in protests around these in moscow. over twenty other cities across russia now

one himself has called the same on his supporters in his twitter account and while thousands of people have already confirmed in social networks in these groups that they are planning to take to the streets later on thursday both in moscow and in over twenty other cities in the country. it's needed to see that now only gained a lot of supporters even before the wave of protests two years ago through these online anti corruption projects the other part of the controversy around him is that he's open sympathy to the russian nationalists and even though the opposition is still not to do any fide he surely to be considered one of the leaders of the movement if we look at the supporters of his supporters on a nationwide wide scale when it comes to roughly one hundred forty million russian citizens then now in his support there is much less than it comes to the online

community since a recent poor by the center revealed that only only around ten percent of russian citizens even followed the criminal case around him but once again this online community does consist of thousands of people and many are planning to take to the streets tonight so of course we will be monitoring events and we'll be reporting on the latest news and every now back to you where does this sentence said this verdict leave mr nibali not only in terms of his political ambitions. well now vali was going to run for the post of moscow's mayor in fact that he just put his name officially on the ballot yesterday but now we're getting the latest news from lvalues election campaign they are saying that his candidacy has been automatically withdrawn that was the shooting that he made right before the verdict if he is convicted and sentenced to prison term that he's going to withdraw his candidacy to get of course the final word remains with himself and also we have to hear from the

lawyers who have ten ten days to. to make an appeal to court all right both of you thank you so much for keeping us up to date arena in the city of care of and in the center of moscow well social researcher mark sloboda from moscow state university says that what the media usually forgets while hailing of all these anti put in drive is his hardline nationalist past i think that russia are actually paying attention to some of the particulars of the case and they are assume no you're with me of all me is a political figure in quite a different way than he is conceived of in the west and the west of all me is is presented as a poster boy for a liberal opposition. and he's commonly referred to as the most popular leader of the liberal opposition and a potential threat to the president for the facts on the ground really don't lay this out the russians really aren't that interested in in the hype the brand of

politics he's selling them and that's because what is often on presented in the west is holds what could be considered in the west as quite extreme ethnic nationalist racist zina phobic views of what is could be considered extreme rights including gun rights advocacy and the like. well if expand this discussion to bring in our two contributor option rotund zs sir thank you for joining us i'm curious can you describe their reaction to this verdict outside of russia. the b.b.c. that is the state run the british broadcasting corporation calls it russia's mandela and they've been running stories all day just previously you know bill keller the executive editor of the new york times used to this man you know novell me you already outlined his nationalist views here in this country we have laws against incitement to actually semitism incitement to near naziism which of course this man

has flirted with repeatedly but we keeley lucy they say the document not to be declassified till two thousand and eighteen the receipt of elie was actively talking with american diplomatic officials off the record and giving information to them over here someone was running for the mayor of london that would be the big story but certainly the wider international media and the media here in britain resents this man as the greatest russian the greatest leader world leader since nelson mandela and after and i'm curious i mean mr not only has built a name for himself by essentially exposing corruption here within the country in russia now he's effectively sentenced on similar charges themselves how did those two sort of contradictory issues dive together. here he's an expert triangulator he's educated gael it was a quasi fascist cause according to some people creating

a global network of emerging leaders presumably thought alliance of neo nazi ism plus anti corruption plus hardline liberal shock shock economics will somehow get enough people as according to polls what happened was that his name recognition rose because devaney did rise from one percent to around thirty seven percent within russia so did his popularity plummet and with only one percent now according to recent polls of russians wanting him as the next president and then we're hearing conflicting remarks of. whether his campaign headquarters is campaign manager of unit volkov whether indeed the campaign will go on but certainly the anticorruption goes hand in hand with hardline your liberal economics of yours which of course is susceptible to people being corrupt as he according to that most grown. and dudley ones as far as the court is judge and i should say that

probably dispute that description of its effect but i'm curious whether you see there there being politics at play here i mean was he so influential that that he needed to necessarily go to jail was it was there any sort of other recourse in this case. we have cases like this all around the world where the west backs a candidate in another country who has virtually no popularity because in moscow he has popularity among certain elements of the neo liberal intelligentsia if that's the more on it. in terms of what his options are i think if that's what you're asking. you know it is a kind of non-story but it's a huge story in the mainstream media because he was picked out you know when he had very little popularity or even name recognition among russians the new yorker magazine in america one which is highly critical of any type of policy independent of the washington consensus was already putting big profiles of it i remember covering the fall of the soviet union for the guardian newspaper back in the

ninety's and yabloko of was seen as going to be the biggest new party and everything was going to you know work out the way washington wanted it hasn't in russia and these remnants of people aligning themselves with different types of far right groups these are the preferred candidates no i think presumably they'll end up in jail and ironically if they been elected there are. even more hardline privatization policies the ones already being carried out in russia would increase the chance of further corruption but certainly you know that court says five hundred thousand dollars embezzlement and very briefly often i know it's difficult to comment from london but of course russia's protest movement had to has been highly fragmented do you sort of see the arrest of this key figure perhaps either unifying or further fragmenting the protests here. there will undoubtedly be protests and will be part is in moscow in the next few hours and the way they will be covered in the western media will try and turn him into

a great mortar i don't think it will succeed because as i said polling figures don't back up what western media is saying and you know the new york times the paper that backs the afghan surge the judith miller in the iraq the fact that you have the executive editor of the new york times saying the greatest russian leader in existence today is mr right now valmy well i think that speaks volumes already if those protesters those protesters are better realize that they are aligning themselves with all sorts of different movements some of them i don't even realize what some of those movements are i wonder whether the cameras will be focusing on the far right and the semitic neo nazi fascist that mr noel me was so intimate by during his russian marches are very a period of five years right option our tongues the arctic interpreter weighing in with his opinion there thank you. of course we have our he will be bringing you pardon me more opinion and analysis on that of all the case throughout the day

there's also more developments on our website r.t. dot com as well as our twitter feeds to do go ahead and check that. right to see. her street. and i would think that you're. on the record with me. and. i. i. northern syria could be facing the prospect of becoming a terrorist state within a state sources within the free syrian army which is the major opposition group there claim that al qaeda plans to declare islamic rule over territory near the border with turkey until recently the opposition was believed to be cooperating with extremist groups to in its fight against president bashar al assad but there are now signs that this relationship is growing sawer more now from artie's going

to education. you imagine okai hiding in some caves in the remote mountains not anymore they want their own country they found the land it's the part of syria which is under the rebels control we're talking about the northern part of the country that borders turkey according to an influential arabic newspaper off charcol outside which cite the source in the free syrian army a card if you made it militants intend to accidently assert their control over the territory immediately after ramadan ramadan ends around the ninth of august according to the source of the ballot to announce an islamic state. they were in full control over the weapons coming from turkey and the money coming from oil smuggling in syria's eastern province of their own store for example a network of tribes and smugglers has exploited the chaos of war to create an illicit oil trade with the reports that the al qaeda link has reached an understanding with the tribes over the division of spoils the old has of course

used this profits to buy more weapons and pates fighters now apparently they want more they feel powerful enough to want more make some of the rebels nervous of course many rebels ordinator their efforts with the all new threat but those who refuse to do that risk their lives recently the all new threat have killed several members of the free syrian army including one member of the western backed supreme military council the territories controlled by the rebels now have all the signs of becoming the old the land and in this new all the land you have things like checkpoints where the militants check whether people are fasting more or not locals from near aleppo say they check their songs to see if there are fasting and if they are not the militants beat them many syrians are of course deeply saddened by what's becoming of their country. earlier i spoke to free syrian army spokesman is hot all smarmy on the situation now he believes that announcement is part of a foreign backed plot to weaken and separate the country. dividing syria into part

just now being spoken about a lot likely by many sides there's a hezbollah presence in croisset home which is also trying to separate syria as the announcement of the islamic state in the literature to be established after ramadan will only help the syrian regime are going to try and take attention away from the killing of st louis damascus and the other fact is that these islam is terrorists and whatever supported by some regional states and major nations in the world. we are asking one military and financial support that is reaching those extremists and the free syrian army doesn't get the. there's an international will to make syria weak syria's unity is on the front. please try to get the upper hand over protesters in northern ireland the arrests continue as key politicians put their heads together to try to find ways to head off the race season violence next year the details on that story in just

a few minutes also in the most stark against the obama government surveillance congress warns that it may entirely were about the president's power to spy wholesale american citizens a story made up. the answer may be a simple question who is the high number i give you the courtesy of being on your show you should give me the courtesy of answering one simple step the question is whether the deaths of those people are justified hundreds of thousands of. people were killed after war and i don't think the goals that were set before the war were actually achieved during that war and that's the biggest.

three. three. three. three. three. video for your media. free media r t v dot com. welcome back a large cash prize is awaiting anyone who can come up with a winning blueprint for britain's exit from the european union the u.k. think tank behind the offer plans on pitching it to the government should britain hold a referendum picks up the story. picture the scene is the year twenty seventeen and

britons have just voted in favor of exiting the beleaguered european union so the government now needs to implement a road map for how to leave that's what the u.k.'s institute for economic affairs think tank is also economists who imagine in order to come up with the best blueprint for britain's potential exit from the european union it's a competition and the winner who comes up with the best proposal will be awarded one hundred thousand euros well to talk about the challenge i'm joined by dr richard wellings from the institute for economic affairs dr weddings why do you want to the competition now it's four years until the referendum and even so britain's might vote to stay in the european union at that point that's true but i mean it is such an important issue that is important that economists start thinking about the consequences of britain potentially leaving the you given that there's such a large amount of your skepticism that most british public it is quite plausible

that in a few years time britain will be leaving so i mean is absolutely essential that we have some idea of where britain is going to go with the winning strategy be put forward to the government to use in case of a euro exit yes i mean where we're going to publish the winning strategy along with some of the other better entries as well said to be plenty of ideas there for the government and hopefully come out with a very very sound plan now the prize is aimed at looking at the least disruptive way to leave the euro but there are those that say that leaving the euro zone will be detrimental to the economy no matter how you do it obviously i mean there were major upside potentially because the u.k. can then get rid of all this very burdensome e.u. regulation on jobs and climate change and so on all the red tape is suffocating business but obviously key to this is whether we retain very strong free trade links with the rest of europe that's absolutely essential they have great free trade links with europe and the rest of the world will be the key to the u.k. success in the future dr welling's thank you very. thanks for telling us about the

competition now the prize is going to be judged by a panel that includes former chancellor nigel lawson who recently claimed that the british economy would be better off if britain were outside the european union. london for the average european citizen the forecast is more austerity unemployment and belt tightening but it's an entirely different story for the banks at six sixteen pardon me thirty g.m.t. max keiser explains how unlike you or me they get paid to take out loans you know if you borrow money from wanga which is a payday lender shop here in the u.k. they charge annual analyze rates of interest of five thousand percent if you're one of these bankers dealing with the bank of england mark carney's new shop. then the rate of interest is negative another word they pay you to take out a loan if i wanted a bank of england and i was one of these banks and i borrowed a million dollars i borrowed

a million dollars it wouldn't cost me any interest rate of all at all at one go they charge me five thousand percent at the bank of england they pay me two percent they pay me to borrow money that's the difference though then he ask yourself wires are those huge wealth and income gap in the u.k. and around the world well because if you're on the inside you get paid to borrow money if you're on the outside of the interest rate apartheid wall then you get charged five thousand percent to borrow money is it any wonder the entire world is up rising. the u.s. congress has given the intelligence community and ultimatum scale back mass surveillance or lose power entirely but this happened at a house judiciary committee hearing where cross party lawmakers demanded greater accountability but some doubt that they will make good on that threat now among them is cindy cohn she's the legal director for the electronic fund frontier foundation which is one of the organizations that's been challenging the n.s.a.

surveillance program. what they've been able to slow us down with is the argument that it's just all too secret and can't be decided by the courts because of national security and state secrets well not only did they lose in the courts with that argument but now they've admitted the central facts of the program we're talking about so we're hopeful that that will help us move forward with the cases a little more quickly i would point out that trying to change things through the u.s. congress is also a slow process so you know while it's frustrating for those of us who want change neither the courts nor the congress move particularly quickly i think there are many members of congress who are in a situation in which they basically signed off on this and now maybe perhaps feel that they need to defend it rather than taking the steps that i think the american people want which is to stop it authorities in northern ireland are set to rule on whether the loyalists can march through the nationalist area of belfast where riots

first broke out six nights ago the major political players there will now have meets to thrash out how they were current violence can be stemmed in the future of artists are a furthur has more details. well the full moon u.s. government peace envoy to know the island richard haas back in stool and yesterday launching party moves in ireland tools the first minister peter robinson has said that all party group has been set up with the purpose of seeking an alternative to the parades commission the other groups rules they going to be looking to bring forward a set of recommendations by the end of the year on parades and protests flags and symbols a hugely important issue to northern ireland seen blackall within will be seen by many as the only result parts of the peace process now all too often we see days cultural elements really a motivator for the sectarian flare up over the sort that we've seen following on

from last friday's july twelfth parade now after that we saw the trade commission's controversial ruling in full spy police that then led to very serious rioting by the loyalist marches in moved belfast and there's been really a period of sustained well i think i know the orange order had yesterday applied to the parades commission to have another parade on saturday this coming saturday very near to that contested area now that's been seen by many to be quite a provocative me move some people speaking out say to the orange order haven't learned any lessons from the violence we see of recent days already moving seventy police officers injured more than sixty people arrested more than one hundred bombs training everyone paying that which it has being here these party talks now getting underway can bring an end to violence. well they're back in about

a half an hour but up next is our new program worlds apart to stay with us you're watching. you want is something truly baffling the u.s. supreme court has ruled that generic drug makers cannot be sued for bad reactions to their products only the original branded creators of the drugs can the court's decision was five to four overturning a multimillion dollar award for a woman who was horribly wounded by taking a medication which gave her toxic epidermal necrosis which is basically the equivalent of getting third degree burns all over her body and of course after winning the case mutual pharmaceutical company is demanding their millions of dollars back from the woman who they naturally blame for having side effects from the medicine they made themselves remember this is not just

a ruling about one drug but a ruling about all generic drugs which are eighty percent of the u.s. market all of them will not have any accountability i cannot wrap my head around the logic of only punishing the creator of a product and granting immunity to anyone that later reproduces said product i mean would any sane person say that if you shoot a person with a colt forty five pistol that is a crime but if you use a copycat made in mexico to blow your neighbors off well that's ok because it's a generic copy no no sane person would allow generic drug producers to have no liability for their product but that's just my opinion. alone well from two worlds apart the one thing taliban from english has. you

increasingly does virgin meaning and i was trained capacity for learning which is supposed to bring humanity of freedom and empowerment and secret just in for gatherings with ultimate golf to command and control what kind of intelligence will shape our future and how can science unable both digital freedoms and digital tearing well to discuss that i'm now joined by michio kaku a world renowned physicist and popularizer of science mr cox at this is a great honor for me you and many other visionaries have long spoken about the internet becoming the new equalizer connecting the world. bringing equality intellectual equality to humanity and i think many of the afghan really see that happening around around us in our daily lives we can communicate people from other parts of the world they can do business we can get guest

education and then till a couple of weeks ago i think many of us thought that we were protected by our own privacy settings but that this recent intelligence scandal. some have doubts about that i wonder if you would agree that the more knowledge humanity acquires the more intelligence and snooping it produces i think every revolution has winners and losers take a look at the winners take a look at the life of our grandparents in one thousand nine hundred long distance communication in one thousand nine hundred was yelling out the window high speed travel was getting stuck in the mud with your wagon people only lived to be the age of forty nine in the year one thousand nine hundred and who are the losers in this great revolution called the information revolution dictatorships dictatorships fear the internet because with the internet people realize that hey i don't have to live like this anymore i don't have to be poor.