as turkish coup plotters face hefty prison sentences exchanged blows with police say the trial is nothing more than a witch hunt. iran's new president says he wants to build bridges with the west but is the feeling mutual snubs his inauguration as america pushes for tougher sanctions. and american an activist call for a boycott of the twenty fourteen winter olympics in sochi over a new gay propaganda law in russia we examined the legislation. from our studio center in moscow this is r.t. with twenty four hours

a day clashes have erupted in turkey during the long anticipated reading of the verdict for almost three hundred people accused of plotting to overthrow the government ranking senior army officers lawyers i could and journalists have been among those in the dark they've been awaiting the ruling for five years the court acquitted only twenty one of the defendants will major military figures were handed severe sentences activists and media have criticized the trial calling it a witch hunt. has the details from istanbul if heard the verdict for main suspects in the case for example the retired former chief of staff has received a life in prison as well as you can say that the majority of the top four of the former top military brass which are on trial and the organic on case all of them have received either life sentences or sentences up to hundreds of years and also the head of the workers' party is also looking at one hundred seventeen years in prison as well just to give you a comparison and one of the people who was on trial was. you know when

a mafia lord who has received ten years in prison where is a known journalist who happens to be an opposition activist as well has received twenty nine years in prison already people in turkey are calling this a story trial but they're saying that this it's important says that it does look like at this point all talk of democratic ideals in the country can be buried pretty much with these sentences and of course because of its importance around four thousand people have taken their time to go to the court which is outside of the main city of istanbul they got there by buses and they were dispersed at this point it looks like they were disbursed at least twice with water cannons and tear gas as well as we've have. some information that rubber bullets were flying as well turkish authorities have employed unprecedented security measures they have memory and thousands of police in the place when we tried to get there it was impossible for us to pass because right only even the sentencing of the verdict the

authorities have said that only journalists with turkish media passes will be allowed in there by essentially ruling out the presence of any foreign media if you look at the people who are on trial these are mostly people who are known for their staunch opposition to the prime minister and the ruling party they are the ones who are saying that the along with the people already are constrained turkey off the path that was forced by ataturk almost a century ago and they're going towards the democratic ideals and kind of going along the western way they're taking the country in the complete opposite direction swaying it towards islam islam is the country is not becoming a secular and to see any more you have to understand this is also happening against a backdrop of protests which have happened started in turkey months ago and they're essentially still continuing there's almost a set of flashes between the protesters and the police the protesters are. saying

that again airline along with his policies is basically defeating democracy in the country and they do not want to see that happening and yet there is a very brutal dispersal of them taking place on an almost weekly basis that water cannons tear gas rubber bullets all of that is happening and this trial a lot of people are saying is that the proverbial straw that may just break the camel's back and bring turkey towards the brink if not a civil war the entire thing of protests which the country could find itself develop. professor mark allman he's a modern historian at bill kent university thinks an internet campaign by the head of the country's forces is a strange way to stage a coup general bust bush who himself originally that is of course chief of the general staff if you want to do organize a coup he was in a much better position to do it in charge of the armed forces than with this rather rector group of journalists who are on the world figures and retired army officers so that's always be one of the problems with the possibility and even the prime

minister who and originally said that he couldn't really believe that general bush would be. the central plot he may not change his mind but i think more the problem for the government is that they feel under pressure from the street protests in istanbul all over the park they also feel a pressure internationally because of the fall of president morsi of egypt who they saw very much as the process areas of new. version of their own justice and development party in turkey they see the pressure introduced here. coming up later this surveillance scandal deepens in germany first revelations suggest the country's intelligence is feeding massive amounts of data to the n.s.a. sparking outrage from the public and embarrassing politicians that's ahead for you . injured hundreds triggering panic and now scientists say the asteroid that blazed its way into russia's urals maybe part of.

that could be flowing towards earth. the era of tough sanctions on iran should be buried in the past that's the message from the country's new president hassan rouhani was elected on a platform promising dialogue with the west in an attempt to end the country's isolation over its nuclear energy program but it transpires not everyone is enthusiastic about the reconciliation drive. as this report. iran's new president hassan rouhani is widely seen as a moderate politician particularly significant detail where western leaders are concerned after years of strained diplomatic tensions now in what is seen as an attempt by terror want to ease of that isolation the government had sent out invitations to e.u. countries including britain would tend to be a swearing in ceremony rouhani albeit excluding the u.s.

and israel now the position was that only diplomats would attend but the u.k. had not sent anyone at all the reasoning given by the british foreign office is that the u.k. does not have an embassy in tehran but this has been criticized by members of the opposition labor party here particularly of the shadow foreign minister douglas alexander let's call this judgment as well as a missed opportunity adding about diplomacy involved. we disagree now in light of the steps up forward that tehran appears to be taking it moving this invitation to european leaders as well as appointing a foreign minister with positive relations with washington as some are reading it as a to run really wanting to rebuild those relations with the u.s. and europe well we spoke with labor m.p. barry gardner for more on this the u.k. foreign minister william hague he had said that we will respond in good faith to positive action by iran and improve relations on

a step by step basis without remark shouldn't this invitation to attend the president's inauguration in iran have been accepted i think it would have been a very good opportunity to say look son rouhani starts with almost a clean sheet as far as we're concerned we want to take him as we find him and it would have been a good opportunity therefore to go to have informal discussions are around the inauguration and to do some sounding out to how he was going to behave in office so i think it's an opportunity missed i hope that there are back channel conversations going on that are beginning to try and work out a new relationship with what is after all a new president at the end of the day in this very careful dance between tehran and western leaders every action and non-action will certainly play a part in that equation on where relations are really headed reporting from london

i'm test ourselves. the number one priority for rouhani now is to loosen the grip sanctions have on the country well let's see what effect they've had so far the economy has been dealt a severe blow with swathes of punitive measures from the u.s. and the e.u. targeting iran's all exports trade and banking sector in twenty twelve alone iran has sort of lost at least fifty billion dollars in oil revenues now these financial burdens have seen the price of a set. such as bread milk and meat skyrocket the country's medical institutions are also sounding the alarm saying the measures prevent millions of people from accessing vital drugs it's been reported that last year six million iranians suffering from multiple sclerosis hemophilia and cancer couldn't get proper medicine well local journalist he says that it is too optimistic to expect much change from the new leadership immediately we have seen a very high rates of inflation something like forty percent based on official fee

yours according to the consumer price index or to c.p.i. the figure is far more than dads and one of the economic advisers of president was has said that to rein in should not blame brawny if the prices are job. in october and november then we have the unemployment rate of twenty eight point three percent which is another problem the administration is facing you know that year was national current c. has fallen over fifty percent since last year so all together i should say that the expectations are very high from president rouhani but she could not revive the economy as fast as many iranians expanding. or the white house says it will become a willing partner should iran choose to engage on the nuclear issue quite the opposite signals are coming from american lawmakers just days before rouhani is

inauguration they passed a bill which would see iran's on exports slashed by another one million barrels per day. the from the national iranian american council says that america is not interested in cooperation. the fact that they would vote for new sanctions before the new iranian president who has been saying positive things and who is going to himself face so many obstacles for the house of representatives to go forward with this vote demonstrates that this is a chamber dominated by politics instead of pragmatism and is dominated by ideology instead of. an actual desire to resolve the problems that. lay before the united states now the reason that they went forward with this vote was because of immense political pressure from pro sanctions groups and neo conservative and hawkish organizations that are more interested in seeing

a war with iran than seeing a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear standoff iran has a well documented rocky relationship with the west but also doesn't see eye to eye with some influential states in its own region tensions with saudi arabia came into focus off to an incident involving the sudanese president's plane which was heading for tehran for ronnie's inauguration but was barred from entering the gulf kingdom's space political analyst and a seminar she explains we had stance towards iran. the saudis are less concerned about the wrong nations in the west and more concerned about how our on the west back saudi arabia on the economic front less in iranian oil and gas on the international market more money saudi arabia things but to. the strategic relationship between iran and the united states work to improve then this would not be needed by the united. mine that they are very concerned that america

and be on the wrong cut saudi arabia out and leave the saudi arabia but. when i discuss iran's new chapter under the new president with. mahmoud ahmadinejad's that's in an interview program surfing code so if you have not also touched upon tehran's controversial nuclear program and recent allegations by the israeli prime minister that iran is pursuing an arsenal of around two hundred nuclear warheads here's what he said. look this with iran it's going to have two hundred warheads that's what he says yes. this is this is something that i've said many times before to you it is not of any use to us to have nukes to. use it i mean nuclear weapons is that this is the looseness of the contents so twentieth century.

and the full program will be coming your way later this year or not he'll be back with more news after this break stay with us. well. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. the interview.

live.

live live. live . he continues here in r.t. famous russian vodka could soon be hard to find in new york and not because of production troubles activists and some bar owners in the u.s. and europe of called for a boycott outraged by

a new law banning gay propaganda to minors the legislation is being criticized as profound discrimination but supporters of the laws say it up holds the views of the majority of russians they cite the latest survey by an independent research organization levada center almost a half of those who took part in the vote think that homosexuality is a bad habit or a perversion while some even believe it could be a result of a mental trauma or an illness and only twelve percent believe that homosexuality is just a normal sexual or in ten or in taishan while some people remain undecided well the figures of the same survey conducted in one thousand nine hundred ninety eight are almost identical suggesting that the new law hasn't led to an increase in anti-gay sentiment here in russia aunties and he said investigates. there is. no still only no sochi. dumping russian vodka and calls to boycott the olympic

games the l g b t community in the west is furious with the passing of a new russian law banning gay propaganda to minors a detail almost never mentioned lot of here putin signed a law and some very strict anti-gay measures these laws absolutely obscure they're not clear in what they mean of course it will not have a wide ranging gretzky's of being applied everywhere and to everyone and members of the gay community have been attacked and arrested you cannot say that there is massive suppression or massive attacks against gay people in the streets and that wherever you say that you're gay you will be killed or beaten russian gay activists are taking their case to the european court of human rights and say the law is meant to target specific individuals but see the picture of gay life in russia from abroad is warped these pictures being shown and being portrayed just because this little became a symbol of

a protest against the suppression of l.g.b. community in russia supporters of the law argue it represents the russian majority . if there is a large number of people who believe the law is too soft thirty years ago there was criminal punishment for being killed if you take examples from some states in the u.s. the relationship is much crudely and strict and this propaganda law was this one. it's important to remember this law is about gay propaganda to minors and it will be enforced with fines not criminal punishment russia is still a very traditional conservative country that it wants to hold on to that. this is one of moscow's many day and night clubs yes it's in a discreet location but it holds three thousand people is. packed on the weekends and is full of foreigners and its owners asked us not to film on the inside to protect the privacy of its clients but we assure our business it's a group there's

a happy arriving excitable you know wonderful gay community which is how great martin andrews is british openly gay and living in russia for eight years he opposes the law but won't be dumping his russia is dominated by the church in general far more than the u.k. i think if you compare america for example you can't look at some friend los angeles and new york and then look at the middle part of texas and that's what russia is especially moscow you've got the old meets the new and you've got soviet mindset he's with this capitalist boom with excising the west lifestyle homosexuality is illegal in over seventy countries across the globe so martin asked why russia why do the western media why do people in and the west never mention cats are the world cup is coming up they're going crazy about saatchi in the olympics i was in such a last week filming there's a gay community there there's

a great day seem in such a but the west has a be and it's on it regarding russia politically. state repression not to give anything away r.t. moscow. have a look at the facts and myths about the gay propaganda law here in russia statement number one being gay is a crime in the country well that's false a crime is promoting known traditional sexual relations to children nontraditional is defined as ones that can't produce children a second can you be arrested and this new law well yes you can if police suspect you of gay propaganda to children you can get a prison sentence for that and this is not true individuals can be made to pay a fine of up to fifteen hundred dollars or organizations thirty thousand dollars now if you're a foreigner you could be deported or detained for up. fifteen days now what you can me read more about this on our website are called and there at the moment also a shoulder to cry on is the first robot heading into space and scientists think he

could help lonely astronauts through trying times of isolation go online for more videos of the little guy. also there are a lot of the most played by twits the social media company twitter has introduced a new path that allows users to report online abuse as soon as it happens the details on r.t. dot com. six months of strike. on tom. still. special coverage on artsy august six german intelligence sharing large swathes of telecommunications data with the us according to latest revelations published in their spiegel magazine documents provided by whistleblower edward snowden show that the degree of surveillance cooperation between byrne and washington is higher than officials would like to admit brings us a story from the german capital. what the these internal communications that have

been leaked by edward snowden show is a rather cozy relationship between the national security agency the german foreign intelligence agency the b. n. d. now a lot of these documents in the latest article in. deal with a monitoring station that was based in the various what we've seen that's come out from these documents of just how much data was being collected and then passed on to their american allies american partners in this system it's quite outstanding really in december of last year alone there were five hundred million pieces of metal data collected from this from this monitoring station there does seem quite evident from the set these cables that have come out these internal memos in the fact of just how much data was being collated and. distributed between the two agencies that there certainly was a very close relationship you couple out with one of these leaked documents from

a couple of weeks ago where which referred to the head of the b n d as both showing an eagerness and desire to help the n.s.a. and it certainly seems that the two agencies were working incredibly closely indeed now in response to this we've seen demonstrations on the streets of berlin as well as many other cities around. the country people saying well just they need it coming up people coming out in support of edward snowden in support of bradley manning basically saying that the this must stop and if germany was involved if it turns out that the b. and b. were involved in spying on its own people that they they must be brought to book for that now we have seen something of an attempt at face saving from the german government so we have an election coming up here in the end of september and of course this is all absolute golden information to the opposition leaders if you hear them campaigning they're saying well. you really want to trust those guys that

they help the americans it seems look into your into your private details but in terms of the german people well there is shock and outrage at times of just how much they were spied on and how much their country seems to have helped that spying take place when i go over government surveillance was also felt across the pond thousands of people have marched across the u.s. against the n.s.a. surveillance operations as part of a nine hundred eighty four day dozens of us also doubled up in support for whistleblowers edward snowden and bradley manning the rallies were organized by a grassroots roots movement called restore the fourth and calls for an end of warrantless communications spying fourth amendment of the us constitution to protect citizens from unlawful search and seizure. radioactive waters are leaking into the pacific ocean from the fukushima nuclear reactor in japan the leak began a month ago but the contamination is only now flowed to be on a protective barrier is the product of tons of water dumped into the reactor to

cool it plans nuclear regulatory authority has warned that it's facing an emergency if the leak is not contained. powerful car bomb has killed at least six people and wounded more than thirty in the southern philippines city of kut a barter device went off during rush hour and leaving victims blood it in causing damage to nearby buildings is thought a local official may have been the target of the attack religious tension is on the increase in the mixed muslim catholic city with previous bombings having been carried out by a local militant muslim group. the mayhem sparked by a massive meteor that smashed into russia was urals earlier this year it could well happen again remember this. this place will potentially devastating as it was

a little towards of unnoticed now scientists say it may not have been flowing so it was for school but was part of a group of astroids that still pose a threat to the fronts explains it may be hard to believe that an eleven thousand ton eighteen meter across meteor made its way to earth undetected but that's exactly what happened which is why scientists are leaving no stone unturned even in space now to figure out how the chelyabinsk a meteorite made it to earth scientists ran billions of orbital simulations and came up with the apollo asteroid family that may sound a bit intimidating because it is it's a two hundred metre wide cluster of rocks that according to scientists broke up around forty thousand years ago now it's still at large it's our it's orbiting around the sun now to find out if it is actually the parent cluster of the chelyabinsk meteorite scientists would need to then to send a tool to the asteroid and take

a core sample that's not going to happen any time soon the cost is extreme although if this cluster of meteorites any one of those fragments does show itself to be on a collision course with earth you can bet that action of some sort will be taken until then this cluster of asteroids is still under observation to make sure that something like chelyabinsk does not happen any time soon. more news with me in a team in just over half an hour from now in the meantime so if you have an upset talks with it runs a full of president mahmoud in addition. while revolutions in the middle east sure get a great deal of coverage what you don't mix

a lot of sense revolutions or exciting t.v. peaceful protests or nice but footage of moloch tough cocktails flying and crazed crowds of local middle easterners really grab attention so there's a logical natural reason why some protest movements get a lot of coverage in the mainstream media well others kind of adult please forgive me for being conspiratorial but there is one revolution going down which does have all the exciting visuals of the arab spring but just doesn't get any of the mainstream coverage in fact unarmed people in this country recently stormed the parliament trapping ministers and lawmakers with that they held them down for eight hours demanding the government resign until police with shields smash their way through creating a narrow corridor through which the officials could escape now that sounds like exciting and visual news but why did you hear about it all over the mainstream press that's because it didn't happen in libya or egypt or any other exotic country but in good old boag area right in the e.u. where u.s. and e.u. interests are best served by the status quo being maintained there is no need to hype up an intervention cannot or.