very. kurdish activists sent out a plea to world powers urging them to prevent ethnic cleansing in syria we talk to an eyewitness of the brutal attacks by al qaeda linked groups. russian and u.s. foreign policy in a fan's hands meet amid a deepening political round which sees each side pointing the finger of blame and. a fountain of hope that's run dry later we look out the roots of the arab spring that flourished on the promise of democracy but which is failing to bring the stability and prosperity many die for.

this is r.t. live from moscow with me marina joshie kurds who tried to report attacks by radical islamists in syria are in danger of being abducted or tailed and that's what an eyewitness to an assault has told r.t. the kurdish minority in northeastern syria has reportedly been enjoying horrific attacks by al-qaeda linked groups for around three weeks now a correspondent in the region arena who brings you what's come to light so far. our ticket is getting new details horrifying details from the eyewitnesses who happened to be in the area those details are extremely hard to come by because of the essential information and physical blockade which has been put up against the rest of the world by the extremists who are permeating the kurdish areas and towns in the northeastern syrian provinces now we do get to manage to speak to some of the eyewitnesses for what is happening in this region we hear truly horrendous reports . of the scape there shot militias raided their houses blew up some of them and

robbed others till now they have more than two hundred civilian hostages we are in contact with some of those who managed to escape they are in a shock and fear for their lives the conditions are very bad people are in fear and terrorized. out of control they're raiding the streets there's no media coverage and anyone who tries to reach out is being kidnapped by the militants united nations investigators are on the ground right now trying to piece together whether earlier reports of some four hundred people being killed in cold blood are indeed true the u.n. has said that if indeed those reports have any basis in reality that this amounts to a war crime nevertheless this issue doesn't seem to get any better even though it does get more coverage at this point the problem is like i said it's the lack of communication it's the lack of opportunity for people who are inside the kurdish towns and villages to reach out to the world because they are essentially fearful to come out on the street where extremist groups are roaming the cities and towns

and of course the reporters or any other journalists type people who are trying to get into the areas again they cannot get through because of the extremely dangerous situation so of course the situation doesn't seem to get any better and it is something that said the international community is definitely becoming more and more alarmed about. and the reading of those calls reports that those kurdish civilians who are unable to flee and remain holed up in their homes in fear of extremists so follow her twitter feed for all the latest developments in the ongoing crisis. the world must quote to fan the kurds from massacre and ethnic cleansing and that's the plea from kurdish campaigners who are seeking urgent protection from the international community peace and kurdistan activists are asking the united nations as well as the u.s. and the e.u. to act now to stop what they call brutal massacre they are also demanding that western powers stop sending weapons to groups in syria that use them to attack

civilians and commit war crimes now the statement also calls for a probe into turkey's role in fueling the conflict in the kurdish areas of syria kurdish politician has on the honda odyssey things the support the syrian rebels are receiving from abroad is a main cause of his people's plight. all of this is happening because the rebels have known from abroad by countries that do not want democracy and peace in syria turkey and the gulf monarchies are arming these terrorists meanwhile western countries are turning a blind eye to all those who are ignoring the atrocities being committed against the kurds were calling on the west to stop supporting the rebels and to assist us otherwise these extremist forces could eventually turn against their backers. and while washington still wavering over whether to provide lethal aid to the rebel forces in syria the director of the institute for policy studies phyllis bennis says it's clear where these weapons would eventually end up. despite all of the

assurances of the various representatives of the free syrian army or the national syrian council who say well we'll make sure they don't get in their hands because we'll keep receipts i'm sorry but receipts aren't going to make it when one force has the capacity militarily to overcome the other force they can't make that kind of a guarantee that they won't fall into those hands it's been true for quite a while that the most powerful militarily of the opposition forces have been the islamist forces allied consciously of their own choice with al-qaeda certainly there will be challenges for the west if there is another permanent stronghold of al qaida someplace like syria and the danger of. other unaccountable forces who have no commitment to international law getting control of weapons of mass destruction that may exist inside inside syria such as chemical weapons that would be disastrous. and so that on here on our t.

olympic hijack gay rights come to the forefront of sochi two thousand and fourteen as western media and politicians jump on the boycott bandwagon ignoring the games ideals. following the fallout over moscow granting asylum to edward snowden russian and american defense chiefs and diplomats are sitting down for talks the meeting also comes amid tensions sparked by barack obama calling off a summit with wine reporting as washington cited a lack of progress in relations but moscow has blamed the americans for being unwilling to negotiate on equal food or just vanished account has more. u.s. russia relations with it and you low over snowden president obama has just scrapped the bilateral meeting with president putin it's in this frosty setting that secretary of state john kerry and secretary of the paygo are meeting their russian counterparts to get a lot more often sergey try and find common ground on

a whole range of issues snowden of course will be part of the discussion it is a. hart but it is a not a large part of what the agenda will be on friday the obama administration keeps saying they scrapped the meeting with the russian president not just because of snowden but because of a lack of progress on other issues naming missile defense and human rights in russia but in the u.s. have helped talk some disagreement over missile defense committee years with regard to human rights imagine if meeting with the u.s. president one possible so is pretty much clear to everyone that at this point it is about snowden and the question many ask ahead of the friday meeting is whether this scandal based tension will affect cooperation between the u.s. and russia in other spheres on syria for instance where cooperation is already under a lot of strain to say the least both moscow and washington agree to mediate a summit in geneva where they would bring all sides of the syrian conflict together to map out a political solution but are they any closer the opposition has been clear they

will not sit down with people who have blood on their hands these are all part of the discussion and all issues we continue to work through the idea of the summit was about bringing all hands to the negotiating table in order to finally stop the bloodshed and save syria from becoming an all but one thing that both the u.s. and russia agree on is that the terrorist threat is growing in syria russia is sure to raise the issue of u.s. plans to arm the rebels when it's clear that the weapons can easily migrated into the terrorists' hands that happened in libya so similar concerns on both sides but very strong disagreements on what to do and how to do it nobody expects that before official john kerry and sergey lavrov chuck hagel and sergey will walk out of that meeting on friday with a big smile on their face but the hope is that they will look nice not to let disagreements and scandals completely overshadow whatever progress the two countries tend actually make. the u.s.

is unwilling to back down to make any concessions to moscow on key international issues and that's according to geo political analyst william. washington is determined to encircle russia with its missile defense which is an often have strategies not a defensive one by the way it's a nuclear first strike preparation strategy add that's something that russia understandably is not exactly overjoyed about the issue of syria is non-negotiable in terms of what the us is trying to put into power in syria similar to what they tried in egypt and failed that is a muslim brotherhood controlled regime that would allow qatar to control the pipeline flows into europe and not to iran so among other things so this is there is not a basis of agreement on these fundamental questions snowden is as i say is not the issue the issue is this fundamental disagreement and washington is not prepared to change its agenda and openly and honestly negotiate to resolve these differences

therefore obama is using this childish. maneuver of capsule in the meeting because of snowden supposedly just to have here in r.t. we investigate the legacy of the arab spring as the nations that were once hooked on the idea slide into chaos. interview. over.

the. economic downturn in the final months days that the deal sank i and the rest because i was going to be taking it will be every week they. would. welcome back this is our team now it's been two and a half years since the arab spring erupted but the optimism that swept the region back and then has been brutally crushed the street riots are raging in egypt and militias are slaying civilians in libya and most recently a country that had fared the best tunisia seems to be descending back into an

anti-government turmoil but while where people hoping for artie's an isa now we investigate. the arab spring captivated the world just over two swords years ago changed democracy and new elected governments were promised in the three countries that began this wave of revolution but what prevailed is nothing short of chaos almost full circles in tunisia and egypt and in neighboring libya a situation some described as much worse than before regime change we don't hear anything about libya in the western press or western television channels what we know is different groups vying for supremacy people are desperate to try and put a cover all of what has been created by the libyan disaster in the fall of gadhafi trends have formed take tunisia we all remember mohamed bouazizi the fruit vendor who set himself on fire in december twenty ten his death sparked mass protests

followed by the president fleeing in mid january twentieth eleven now again the death of an opposition leader sparked protests in july twenty third teen they haven't let down still this week tens of thousands are on the street demanding the resignation of the government in egypt similar to two thousand and eleven and mass protest mubarak he's out twenty third seen mass protests morsy is also out and violence reigns with the help of the military the fact that morsy violated human rights does not justify overthrowing him and especially if together with the overthrow we get more violations of human rights rather unless you're an investigator on torture one man does there he told r g the most worried he is it's about countries like libya where the organization is denied access but

are aware of atrocities far worse than under gadhafi very troublesome because we hear about clandestine did. detention centers that are run by militias that are not accountable to anybody so many experts including mendez expects positive change in the arab world it's not clear at what cost and how long it could take its military backed government is facing an uphill struggle to contain for testers and restore stability but there is another problem looming with a post ramadan and feast now over food as a short supply all across the most populous arab nation whose economy is at its weakest in eighty years or has the story. at a cairo hospital food bank volunteers offload banks of provisions to prepare a traditional ramadan dinner to many like most of our words a hospital worker tonight's donated meal is the largest one he'll get this week i earn about fifty dollars

a month and we are six people so the maximum i can do is buy beans two for a few sounds so i can eat we want justice i work a whole day and make practically nothing when i'm leaving but if i don't and this tiny salary my family will meet the poorest are suffering in egypt as policymakers and the media are distracted by the deepening political crisis food banks like this one who tried to cover the whole country are stretched to their limits explains coordinator at. the poverty line is so high food is the most important think we care about will provide hundreds of food baskets full of fries and basic food stuff so that they can feed families for a month some places will go to utterly destroyed every time we visit it gets worse even provide livestock so that they can feed themselves for a while with the country in turmoil food distribution centers like these a plug in the gaps amid an escalating crisis food insecurity has risen significantly in the last few years according to the world food program resulting in a rise in stunting anemia amongst children due to malnutrition over

a quarter of the population is under the poverty line and they're the ones being hardest hit with the continued civil unrest and dwindling foreign exchange reserves and they say the situation will only get worse as egypt is unable to import much needed wheat for the brat millions depend on government subsidized bread that sells for about one sense and most however critics say egypt's food subsidies are wasteful and don't filter down to those who truly need it it's basically subsidizing items at a very cheap prices and bailing it to the mainstream populations where they're very . very slow nutritionally very close to ninety nine percent of the poorest people are not getting any of the subsidies and we know that twenty percent of the subs. and he goes to the richest strata of the society and i guess it is another product of sesame subsidy egypt is facing its worst economic crisis since the one nine hundred thirty s. and food prices have doubled since two thousand and twelve making nutritious food

inaccessible to many in the world that there are high prices everywhere tomatoes vegetables are too expensive for me with few functioning state institutions and a new interim government focused on developing political events these issues will continue to go unresolved and for the moment the most fundamental will be left starving bell tree for r.t. cairo. and now we can take you live to the news conference that's taking place in washington d.c. as the russian and u.s. foreign policy and the fans had a meeting there let's now take a look and i know that this is the first it's what we started to do since we started discussions of the new start treaty we always say about missile defense and we know dissatisfaction that the april letter to president wouldn't president obama recognize the need for a budget is the persons to choose to return to business which you do for take into account all factors that impact strategic stability when about reduction

in our two presidents we discussed stabs that were proposed by our series about from spreading into so the increased transparency will be the. difference. of the two countries and you're just given instructions in that respect to over and least we used. to go through with word of the table our proposals to the two presidents and which. ones were meeting takes place in the words of as regards crisis settlement syria indeed. agenda how do you know. who you would listen to words and would you just the same to the youngster who started the political process we need. to go over the stage geneva two conference and in my view the most important task to. be. listening to the hearing on are you

really made went off all the state was most leaders made. when they called upon both government and opposition groups joined efforts to fight terrorist cells is your third and fourth in a way from here and i'm convinced that in the current day reality especially in light of the fact and the sassaman it's been hearing lately this is indeed our top priority of course we've got. the iranian nuclear program is. going to school but most of the. snowden issued in your thoughts and many other topics will be discussed today we are united by shared responsibility must prevent or you get this you would reduce human you dismiss the destabilisation of the global situation must prevent proliferation of weapons and maximum destruction we need to ensure peaceful settlement with all crisis's by a global community and avoid attempts to em both for solutions you'll never see areas that give up the situation with finn examples in the past and we say that

they're not working it's just like us and we want to see the situation with neutral get back to normal in egypt we want to see the national reconciliation process or begin we appreciate greatly after it's made by colleagues and john kerry personally especially when i'm referring to his afterwards resumption of israeli ballast dialogue so there's very intense we are of course we have disagreements will continue discussing matters on which we disagree and candidly i recall when i first met john in his capacity as president capacity and we're having this initial conversation if i may put it that way he told me so that our countries have a solution with special responsibility which needs to go before visible so we need to work as a grown ups and this is what we do and we hope that this will be reciprocal thank you. sir good thank you very much but first with us if you sort through

and just been. meeting from washington d.c. you were the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov was addressing the meeting between. the u.s. and russian foreign policy and the fans cheese talking about highlighting the issues of importance between the two countries and how they can address them well this meeting comes amid tensions sparked by barack obama calling off a summit with a lot of important as washington sided a lack of progress in relations well we'll have more on the this next hour why from our correspondent in washington d.c. so stay with us for that if you can. right. now calls to boycott sochi two thousand and fourteen are growing louder and causing quite a stir in the global media they were prompted by russian lawmakers decision to ban the promotion of homosexuality to children and british actor stephen fry has gone as far branding far as branding the law fascism and during an allergy to nazi germany here's

a boy who had to separate the fact from fiction and then the media frenzy. stephen fry's open letter said that russia is making scapegoats out of gay people just as hitler did the jews which is why he's called for a boycott of the upcoming winter olympics set to take place in the russian town of sochi next february not a boycott sort she idea is gathering at lightning pace with clemente says on both sides of the story weighing in some of the service of pointed out that the legislation passed in russia isn't unprecedented in fact the u.k. itself had a similar lower in place until very recently the united kingdom had something called section twenty eight in place until two thousand and three which was almost exactly the same is the recent law passed in russia which said that homosexuality should not be promoted in schools or to minors so much for keeping sports and politics separate which is exactly the message that the international olympic committee gave to r.t.

boycotting shot to twenty four team would only serve to deprive the country's athletes from fulfilling their dreams of competing at an olympic games something they've dedicated a great portion of their lives to accomplish history has shown that boycotts do not solve anything but simply punish olympic athletes those campaigning for gay rights also doubting whether stephen fry's proposed boycott is the right path to go down the only people who will suffer because of this because it is the sportsman who are participating in these in these competitions that's why i'm against the best solution and in this case is to go and protest during the olympic games concerns surrounding the new gay propaganda war in russia has even led to worries that gay athletes could be arrested when they arrive in sochi for the games to which russian authorities to fire a five that the new law doesn't outlaw homosexuality and that those attending and participating in the games will be safe despite the assurances in this former olympic host city the talk of boycott shows no sign of abating. artsy

london british world affairs journalist neil clark things the gay rights issue is being deliberately overhyped in the media. in nazi germany homosexuals really were discriminated against they were put into the concentration camps and killed in large numbers and of course this is not happening in russia today if it was i'd be the first person said we go to russia all together it's not happening what's happened in russia is we got a new law which bans promotion of homosexuality to under eighteen's now i'm not saying i support that law i oppose all anti-gay laws wherever they're passed in the world but why stephen fry focusing on russia there are about eighty countries in the world where homosexuality is actually illegal one of them is a country called qatar where the world cup is going to be held in twenty twenty two you go to prison for five years if you're homosexuals it's political i think that's because i said there's eighty countries who have worse record on gay rights than russia so i think it shows double standards here it shows this kind of russia phobia i think among the western elite that they looked out at russia they

patronize that the this idea that russia people who are homophobic they're racist it's nonsense it's not true. and some other stories now from around the world in pakistan the arrest of city of a camp to and least nine people have died in a shootout gunman opened fire on a crowd of worshipers that were leaving a mosque the attack marks a bloody start to the festival which culminates the holy fasting month of ramadan am on thursday thirty eight people were killed in the same city in a suicide bomb blast ural the region's plea by violence mostly targeting pakistan's shia minority. an indefinite curfew has been imposed in a town and india administered kashmir the restriction comes after a muslims and hindus clash there during celebrations police had to respond with tear gas and warning shots to disperse the crowds and another incident police confronted thousands of and to india protesters in the city of srinagar dozens of

people have been injured on both sides kashmir is divided between india and pakistan with both states vying for control. in the u.k. sending three warships to the british overseas territory of gibraltar and it worsening diplomatic route with spain london says it's a routine visit it comes after gibraltar is chief minister asked for the deployment to stop spanish incursions into the rocks territorial waters madrid has reacted by saying it will take all necessary measures to protect its interest in gibraltar centuries old conflict reignited in late july when british boats created a makeshift reef of concrete blocks in the sea spain responded with long delays at the border. and japan is marking the sixty eighth anniversary of an atomic bomb dropped on nagasaki together with hiroshima the attacks by america killed though were two hundred thousand people and prompted japan to surrender in the second

world war during a ceremony nagasaki is mayor criticize the country's authorities for what he called a lack of effort in nuclear disarmament opposition to atomic power also heightened after the fukushima disaster in two thousand and eleven. but next year an arty so if you're not a me to former n.s.a. and cia chief michael hayden and so fickle. everyone respects a promise written in stone promises written on the internet well they're a bit more flexible and a lot easier to erase obama made a lot of promises as a candidate on his site change dot gov including some about protecting whistleblowers and obama said that we need to empower federal employees as

watchdogs and that he would strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers works both waste fraud and abuse of authority and government but strangely and possibly coincidentally two days after the first revelation of government spying by stoughton these promises of the change dot gov site were taken down if this is not just some odd coincidence and they consciously chose to hide obama's campaign promises that this is political cowardice at its worst and what is even worse is that they didn't think that this would get exposed almost immediately if you try to conduct some sort of medieval book burning to distort information on the internet then you are only going to get burnt yourself but that's just my opinion. i wonder if you still think that the arab spring is how come when it comes to the palestinian cause now preoccupied with our own problems so far it's had

a negative impact on the palestinian cause definitely because first of all people are really taken up with their own issues and the whole thing is iraq i think it's time for palestinians to consider percent. what you just said the arabs would not be able to help them out of. most of these boys is the couple to last for violence or thirst. but we drove the window climbed in and tried started. we pushed it a little way and here we were drunk. and concerned when you're an alcoholic or nearly all of them are homeless orphans with no money or relatives. are you really going to tell me. for a moment but verify like i was back when those street hooligans are going to beat me up at any moment of the.