a secret partnership reportedly been working closely with the u.s. intelligence despite its public show of indignation over america's surveillance of . german chancellor angela merkel faces stiff questions over just how involved germany was in the n.s.a. prism spying program. but toxic legacy of war the us invasion of iraq is accused of causing an epidemic of birth defects thanks to the use of uranium to weaponry. we found out the problem could be much worse than originally thought. elections not tanks the son of egypt's ousted president tells r.t. that's the only way to change the country insisting his father's rule was truly democratic .

a very warm welcome to you on this monday morning this is r.t. live from moscow with me rory sushi now it just moments after ten am here in the russian capital. germany has been working hand in glove with the u.s. spy agency who sweeping global surveillance was revealed of course to the world by edward snowden according to news magazine both germany's foreign and domestic intelligence have been spying and using n.s.a. spy programs but that hasn't stopped from demanding that washington explain its snooping activities in europe as a tease peter all of us now reports. german chancellor angela merkel had to rigidly said that she only found out of the extent of the united states's spying programs

through the media and it now comes out thanks to n.s.a. internal documents that have been reported by news magazine that well they were far more involved than she let on that indeed in fact they quote in the dish people article the internal memos that say that there was a willingness to take risks and pursue new opportunities for cooperation with the us that was shown by the german authorities they also were talking about the head of the b n d germany's foreign security service that he showed an eagerness and a desire to cooperate turns out that germany actually operated one of the main parts of the the expansive spying program it was called x. keyscore program that basically anybody who they were looking into they could find out exactly what was being searched online by that particular person and it's estimated around five hundred million. connections were being monitored every month

by the spying program here in germany alone so it was quite an extensive program this news comes out is quite embarrassing time for german chancellor angela merkel is an election coming up in september the involvement of germany in the n.s.a. spying program is being used extensively by the opposition and what this essentially means is that what mrs merkel was saying before she either. well she didn't know what her own security services were doing or that perhaps she has misled the german people in what she said by saying that well germany wasn't involved so it's come out of quite an embarrassing time for her with the election coming up it set certainly to be a major issue in the build up to the vote that takes place on the twenty second of september but germany it seems far more involved in the n.s.a. spying program. perhaps they will let on before artie course one of peter all of a in the meantime angler merkel says that america needs time for examination before

it offers an explanation for spying in and on europe and that's perhaps being seen as an attempt to calm the initial outrage triggered by reports that either use citizens were being monitored here in r t let's recall some quotes here on the program see what we're looking at for example a bugging is not what friends do that was said by merkel slamming u.s. actions are ultimately cold war tactics and one german m.-e. peak even comparing this to the infamous secret police of east germany and the justice minister said the reports are just too alarming to be ignored former m i five agent annie marshawn she says the inconsistency between germany's official anti surveillance stance and its own operations will only trigger more anger and an awful lot more questions. we have a situation in germany because of their historic experiences with the stop in world war two in the study in east germany they put in place a very strong cast on constitution to protect people from invasion with their pretty pink spied on and this is what the germans have for decades taken for

granted they have certain legal protections and we've seen this time and again when other european like north of tried to impose on germany where you know things like facial recognition date or a little face to face that have been found in germany and yet the n.t. and even to intelligence agents in germany have been doing this sort of fine so i think the hypocrisy is is quite astounding it's a great deal of anger and questions rightly to how much the german government you know that what was going on. and how illegal phone tapping led to the resignation of luxembourg's prime minister learn more about the revelations of spying across europe our website for this hour right now it's up to you dot com. the n.s.a. surveillance using private fiber optic cables which actually serve around ninety nine percent of the world's internet and phone traffic the details the analysis of reaction on the web site right now.

right from the scene. first for you and i think that you're. on our reporters with. instagram i. am a little bit on. and so good to have you with us or not so you today now more than a decade after u.s. led forces invaded iraq there is a legacy of horrific birth defects scientists blame the weapons being used by the u.s. military for example and for lucia the number of affected is fourteen times higher than in hiroshima after atomic bomb was dropped in the second world war i doubt if there's a calf and i found out there are many other cities suffering just as bad. one

hundred sixty kilometers south of baghdad the sacred shiite city is known for its holy shrines and is surrounded by one of the largest cemeteries in the world some of the heaviest fighting of the iraq war took place amid these graves its legacy still haunts the residents it was born with severe birth defects he's only eight months old but the doctors don't expect him to live past his first birthday. i felt dizzy you were not hurt the noose around mount the doctor's office in the taxi. but for his mother layla there's no escaping the reality her son has a nervous system disorder and his muscles are slowly wasting away. it's a recurring nightmare for leila and her husband three of their children were also born with congenital deformity as none of them survived and while they don't have

proof they believe the radioactive ammunition used by american forces during the war is to blame the rule isn't over yet if the americans are gone but with suffering from the consequences of spiraling numbers of birth defects and high miscarriage rates have also been reported in fallujah and basra where american and british forces used heavy munitions at the start of the war but our visit to knowledge off revealed that the phenomenon may be far more widespread in iraq than previously known dr sundin's and as one of the few scientists who's been documenting cancer and birth defects here and she says as in the midst of a growing health catastrophe. after the iraq war rates of cancer leukemia and birth defects rose dramatically none joffe the areas affected by fighting so the biggest increases we believe it's because of weapons like depleted uranium and hospitals here cancer is more common than the flu. depleted uranium or d

u cuts through armor like a hot knife through butter more than four hundred tons of it is estimated to have been used in the two iraq wars the vast majority by u.s. forces the pentagon did not respond to our request for comment but the military generally denies any link between exposure and cancer or birth defects it also says deal weapons are only used to penetrate anomie tanks but a new report funded by the norwegian government found that was used against civilian targets in populated areas including not jobs in two thousand and three it notes a lack of transparency by coalition forces over the use of depleted uranium but describes one incident in najaf where a bradley armored fighting vehicle fired three hundred five d.-u. rounds in a single engagement. the heavy fighting may be over but in nearly every street we visited in this neighborhood multiple cases of cancer and children with deformities no one knows what's making people here sick the families want answers and they want

help. of is old enough for school but have to be cared for as if he's a toddler he can't walk he can't speak he can't even go to the bathroom on his own use of brother is healthy but the family has two other children one severely deformed the other with a hole in her spine like many of the couples in this city are simply too afraid to have another baby and they're left feeling totally abandoned no one cares about what's happening to all of the other families in this area even our own government doesn't do anything to help what can we do because our fate is a fate that many and suffer in silence. help with their lives in the decade. since the u.s. led invasion all across the country their memories are honored in cemeteries like this one the dead may be the most visible reminder of the human cost of the war but if the living victims of that war's talks look like it's worth paying the price. of our team not just iraq. so it was also

a fear that depleted uranium weapons of course the spread of diseases not previously seen in iraq and iraqi government starts showed that cancer rates to have been steadily rising ever since the first gulf war back in one nine hundred ninety one about lucy come from also told my colleague my trouser that it's still difficult to gauge the full extent of these problems. we've heard about the depleted uranium the birth defect story coming out of fallujah for example because there's been several t.v. pieces and print reports talking about and showing in fact we here in r.t.f. showed the birth defects in the city of fallujah when we were completely stunned by is the fact that this is happening in many more cities that have been previously reported including knowledge of where we visited when we showed up our filming her and i on the ground in the city literally every single residential street that we visited in several neighborhoods we found multiple cases of families who had children who were ill families who had lost children had to burry children families

who had many relatives who were suffering from cancer and while these people can't necessarily prove that it was depleted uranium or are the causes of these diseases this is something that they say has risen dramatically in the years since the invasion how widespread is it i mean how far across the country the problem is that nobody knows exactly and that's because there haven't been large scale studies done we haven't seen a big teams of international doctors for example going in and sort of looking at different cities comparing the number of birth defect cases between the different cities there really simply are no reliable statistics for birth defects in iraq and so nobody. really say exactly how big this problem is and the big problem with the iraqi government as well one of the surprising things that we found in speaking to the doctors on the ground is they say that they reportedly have been discouraged or discouraged by the government from talking out openly about this to the press in

fact the biologist that we had spoken to in knowledge of who is researching the issue in the city had to give us the interview in the privacy of her home on the roof there instead of in her laboratory she said that there is an active sort of push by the government perhaps not to embarrass the coalition forces not to really talk about this issue which we were really quite surprised by we tried to visit the hospital in knowledge of that was dealing with some of the victims some of the deformed birth defect children they didn't let us come in they didn't let us film in fact they didn't even let us do interviews with the governor with the families or the doctors working there at all the iraqi officials certainly have not put in the resources that they could be we spoke to families in our jeff who said they've gone to local officials you know they've asked for help they have a centrally told to sit by you know it's a really sad story and we've spoken to dr chris busby who was a research the effects of depleted uranium extensively he told us what he learned off the visiting fallujah to see how civilians that have been affected. we went to

flu and we found the levels of concern about formation and cancer and we looked at the parents of the children with congenital malformation and we did analysis of their head to see what was inside their head that might be geno toxic might be the sort of thing that can cause congenital malformation and the only thing that we found was you raney and we found your brain even the hair of the mothers of the children that congenital malformation is now that we know that you are a new ms you know toxic that it causes these these levels of genetic damage and and because of that it also causes cancer so you can work slowly back from that towards your brain you know the only source of uranium was the use by the american forces the american led forces of uranium weapons not only depleted uranium weapons as we later found slightly enriched uranium weapons which we believe they were using in order to cover their tracks so i think we have more or less proved that these facts . are as a result of the use during the two wars of uranium and the particles that the

uranium weapons produced. so i have for you here on out see back tracking on syria we look at how britain's leader has changed his rhetoric on the conflict now admitting there's too much extremism among the opposition. also ahead of you here on out from a golden sands resort to the depths of poverty we travel to j. which is residents say they've been forgotten and left to rot by the british government all in a time of austerity just around the corner for you hope you can stay with us here on out so. many americans still have the almost cult like believe that america is the greatest nation on earth for the past thirty years the us has been in decline relative to other countries during this time washington continues to fight wars abroad and you're using nation building is america becoming a third world country. download the

official. language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television just. now with your mobile device you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems. you think you understand it and then something else you hear sees some other part of it and realize. i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

thanks for joining us here on r.t. will get to the world update shortly for egypt stability remains elusive and it remains locked in a state of political turmoil and violence six people killed in several militant attacks in the sinai peninsula and egypt's border with israel and gaza dozens injured in clashes also in the town of suez just north of the capital cairo and there was street battles between islamist supporters and opponents of the ousted president morsi a both sides using molotov cocktails rocks. despite political divisions egypt has started to amend this constitution which is needed before elections next year but islamists though have rejected the cabinet with his supporters vowing to continue mass protests. spoke to the son of the deposed president morsi to find out exactly what went wrong when his father was in power and what ultimately are the chances for peace in egypt. mohamed morsi his rule was . democratic going to democracy you have both the ruling regime and an opposition

but the case of forces taking on a certain political stones is something unprecedented this is sort of it a sure sign of a military takeover with all due respect there is no doubt morsi has a lot of supporters but in a very short period of time an overwhelming majority turns against him it's not about the military it's the people in a democracy such political differences and confrontations are normal to settle it through elections rather than tanks is there any true democracy where no army commander discounts the will of the people and illegally deposes the president was the coup is actually a crime committed by the egyptian military. it's a great discussion and so if you can watch it in full with of course the son of the deposed egyptian leader that will be it had nine thirty g.m.t.

of course right here on. the meantime on the program britain's prime minister is changing his tune on syria david cameron says he still fully supports the opposition but now admits there's too much extremism among the rebels that's quite a change from november two thousand and eleven about half a year after the syrian conflict erupted about then he called for more engagement with the rebels of the following year he called for more international aid to put the syrian government under pressure fast forward a year he was still vehemently anti assad but not so sure that arms shipments were perhaps the way forward syria's top rebel commander has already accused the british prime minister of betrayal after he abandoned plans to arm his fighters now the government was strongly considering it and lobbied the e.u. to end an arms embargo and this brings us to the present the syrian government advancing on rebel militias the official opposition failing to unite and cameron describing the situation as a stalemate

a political analyst. explain what could be behind the u.k. leaders are suddenly shifting position. i told him he will have difficulty getting. approval because there is a lot of. after iraq this coalition partners the liberal democrats are remarks. do we have a comic opinion is not. wrong you just being realized in the west that no matter. how much there are sure instance from western governments that. only the good guys will get help in terms of our lives but that's not the case on the ground and saudi arabia is very worried about the rise of slum fundamentalism in syria because jordan and some of the white cloaks the minute the united states

britain indirectly. are helping the syrian rebels that has not stopped or i to china we go to open up the r.t. world update and we're getting reports here at r.t. that say almost fifty people now confirmed dead after a five point nine magnitude earthquake in western china nearly three hundred currently injured though the local media fearing that number will rise because currently the search is under way for survivors and several villages and i'll cut off the quake was considered shallow striking about twenty kilometers below the surface c.c.t.v. footage shows tremors shaking a street and residents described shattered windows and swinging lights at the guards the province though is one of the least populated in the entire country. but there's one hundred people injured in bahrain during the regime's crackdown on protests over the past three days of violence took place in several villages across

the country amid growing unrest in the kingdom just a few days ago the opposition leader vowed to continue protests in the face of the government's iron fist policies he said that recent reports about an attack on a shia mosque had been fabricated in order to tarnish the protestors image of the oil rich state has been struggling to quell unrest since two thousand and eleven the protest movement has not been put off by the imprisonment of hundreds of its members and the deaths of more than eighty. three you four ministers are meet later to decide whether to blacklist as ball or as a terrorist group britain accused of being behind last year's attack on a bus carrying israelis in bulgaria up to now brussels has resisted pressure from washington and israel to put the shia muslim groups military wing on the terrorism list and you concerned about stoking tension in lebanon where hezbollah is an official part of the government but today's meeting of e.u. states is being held partly because hezbollah has become involved in the syrian

conflict with militants fighting now on the side of president us. or before we get across talker for now once a much loved holiday resort just a short drive from london j. wick is now one of europe's most deprived areas it's home to junkies dealers and generations of families with no hope of employment. visited the forgotten seaside town. golden sands beach front property and just a stone's throw from the london wish you were here we have been really completely forgotten a lot of people are enough to enjoy you because that's the last place to go there's no work for everybody and i think this is going to continue for at least twenty years what could fix the problems of today with money has been ranked at the bottom of the government's poverty index for england and wales for three years running a national embarrassment and. doing something about it we're trying to get into.

the country where you think in the end i don't think it's the third party polls in the whole of you it. was once a proud holiday location for london's burgeoning middle class says the time was thought up as a holiday resort for city dwellers back in the one nine hundred twenty s. these are all meant to be summer houses but because rents was so cheap people started living here all year round it's in a flood risk zone which resulted in the government never investing any money into the area some parts of the town lacked tarmac roads street lighting or even pavements some of the locals say the cheap rent and precarious location has attracted vulnerable families and social problems for free we got drunk which we really don't want. it junkie up to surprise because throat and then it all gets blown out. forty percent of residents are either disabled or have a health condition that makes it impossible to work which might be just as well

seeing as there are no jobs going in the town the last few shops that were hit have been boarded up unemployment is rife in the town in fact sixty two percent of the people that live heads append on welfare payments the reason the work you say. if they've been used to just get enough of. sitting around. doing according to one local counsellor it's. westminster's i don't mess that's brought on jay wicks to my knees whatever problems we've got down there i think it's politically all of them to blame for whatever party there is something this they let happen is a dumping ground at the end of the day we've been emotionally upright they are now for three years not one penny of we've got to come in and help it with the government counting pennies in austerity bryson many here say that financial the chances of the town's redevelopment of washing away with the time eight playboy k t

j rick sounds ethics are so what's the current condition of the u.s. economy that comes into focus with cross talk and people of l. just a moment. of talk with your many times about the absurd things going on all around us like kids being thrown out of school because they had a gun that shoots bubbles or various people getting punished for their tweets and facebook posts it's all really abstract it's hard to truly get angry over until you see the results or playing a stupid video game just in carter sarcastically said to someone to call them crazy oh yeah i really messed up in the head i'm going to go shoot a bunch of kids at school l.o.l. j.k.

and for this bit of sarcasm he spent quite some time awaiting trial in a texas prison not only that according to his father he was being attacked brutally on many occasions leading to both paul concussions and black eyes and in the end he had to be thrown into solitary confinement for his own good you see this is the ugly reality of those who follow the bad side of political correctness you know i don't talk about these stories just for fun the main thing i'd like to say is that it wasn't. for some anonymous coward in canada turning him into the authorities for doing absolutely nothing this young man would not have to live with the memory and possible injuries from numerous assaults to the anonymous canadian who turned him in i sarcastically wish you a horrible fate but you probably get me arrested for it so just say that it's people like you who allow tyranny to exist but that's just my opinion.

oh and welcome to crossfire all things are considered on peter lavelle many americans still have the almost cult like believe that america is the greatest nation on earth but objective facts belies this exaggerated patriotism for the past thirty years the us has been in decline relative to other countries during this time washington continues to fight wars abroad and engages in nation building is america becoming a third world country. to cross-talk america in decline i'm joined by george samuel in new york he is a fellow of the global policy institute of london metropolitan university and in wa .