cold war mentality. also the. pentagon continues to. the white house still has not given to shut it down.

welcome to the week with me. talk of a cold war punishment relationship of made this week perhaps the worst for us russia. but both washington different takes on the situation where obama is talking about reassessing relations and the russian side believes it's all getting out of proportion. this week when president obama canceled the bilateral meeting with the russian president in september u.s. russia relations have paid a new low on friday the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov and the russian

defense minister arrived in washington as planned to meet their u.s. counterparts and with her two different messages coming from president obama and foreign minister lavrov that both held a news conference on the same day at the same time in different venues of course with foreign minister lavrov trying very hard to ease the tension to move it away from the cold war with president obama seemingly doing the opposite take a listen remember very rewards who said when we were saying goodbye he said we'll i believe that we can make a difference. let's. as adults. and that's. when president putin who was prime minister when president came back into power i think we saw more rhetoric on the russian side that was anti-american that. played into some of the old stereotypes about the cold war contest between

the united states and russia president obama also said in light of all the disagreements with russia it's time for the u.s. to make a pause and recalibrate the tone of the talks at the state department seemed a bit different there were some very serious issues on the agenda like syria like missile defense in europe where russia and the u.s. obviously don't see eye to eye but it seemed there was an agreement on both sides that they should not let disagreements and scandals completely overshadowed whatever progress the two countries can actually make and one area where the two countries tend make a difference is the crisis in syria both state the same objective that they want to political solution that they want to bring all sides of the syrian conflict together in geneva to try and map out such a political solution and the syrian opposition says they're not going to sit down at the at one table with those who have blood on their hands moscow says in order to stop the bloodshed all hands need to come to the negotiating table and foreign

minister lavrov said john kerry assured him that the syrian opposition is going to be there but making progress on those very important issues concerning global security becomes much harder when glaciers are defined by scandals now going back to president obama's news conference it was not all about president obama's proposal for him and it's president obama said he intends to work our way through one provision of the patriot act known as. the government broader authority to obtain business phone data records he announced the creation of a panel of outsiders intelligence officials civil liberty and privacy advocates and others to assess the program since. it just changes by the end of the year but everybody understand it's all happening because of what snowden's revelations probably that's why the majority of americans say edward snowden is a whistleblower and not a traitor now it's not clear whether the government will actually go through with those forms promising is one thing delivering on those promises is something else

but at the end of the day the american people may actually benefit from what snowden did which can't be said about us russian relations. now it has been revealed that russia or alongside the e.u. iran and china would designated as a high priority for n.s.a. surveillance and the revelations being published in fresh documents previously supplied by edward snowden political analyst william angle the author of myths lies and oil wars he says surveillance goes far beyond terra and in this crisis far beyond edward snowden washington is determined to encircle russia with its missile defense which is an often sit strategy not a defensive one by the way it's a nuclear first strike preparation strategy and 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 pipeline flows in to europe and not iran so among other things so this is there is not a basis of agreement on these fundamental questions lowden 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 capturing the media because of snowden supposedly. or an assertion of gears now to syria where the war's opened another bloody chapter with fierce battles now unfolding in the country's north kurdish fighters are being forced to stand their ground against islamist militants who are pushing them out of the territories thirteen kurds kidnapped on sunday or four hundred fifty civilians slaughtered in another attack earlier this week and we

have a can the region making specific information rather hard to verify and we turn to two kurdish journalist to help us put together a timeline of the conflict for you here on our t.v. now according to him radicals launch their attacks on the nineteenth of july by planting a bomb in a kurdish school and kidnapping civilians and the very next day a chain of explosions targeting houses across the kurdish enclave which leveled one village to the ground while that many more locals were kidnapped and an islamist cleric meantime declaring from a local mosque that those killing members of the ethnic minority will be rewarded in heaven and encourage militants to loot and destroy kurdish homes and the violence spreads into early august seventy kurds murdered and three hundred fifty abducted by al-qaeda linked militants let's hear more details now correspond in the region is artie's ghoulish car. horrifying images of slaughter in mayhem from a region already in throes of conflict this week some reports emerged that hundreds

of kurds had been slaughtered by extremist groups in northeastern syria they're still in very fighting because insurgents keep the media from getting close this is just syrian kurds find themselves in a green gruesome situation. that the militants started shooting everyone who came out onto the streets become should young men and started cussing them with knives the rebel shouted granted them all their money home and our women and then they started losing houses the kurds who are one of the largest nations in the world without a state have tried to stay neutral for as long as possible in the syrian conflict and it's for that they believe islamic fighters from al-qaeda affiliated groups turned up there killing pressure on the kurds. kurds do not want to be part of the war and they have achieved that by not siding with the the saudis they're showing their ability to administrate themselves and that all the some international players such as it has been hoping those facing again. for example there are

several al qaeda affiliated organizations in turkey going in fighting against the kurds in syria kurds however want to have a democratic syria not just for the kurds but for everyone on top of that jihad is themselves have made statements alluding to their hopes of creating an al-qaeda state right here on what they hope to be vestiges of syria but their fight a deadline came and went the situation is getting worse and the number of people who have been kidnapped and killed and beheaded is rising every day are they know what's going on there especially into a lot it's a loss a free army as they are united against these two very just as they are killing people on i didn't take they call their people you can kill them kidnap them capture their woman and it's all how long that means it's or allowed for you once you fight for for god's. russian foreign minister sergei lavrov was among the first to sound the alarm over reports from syria urging the security council to step in

we believe that in this action we were shocked by the reports of around four hundred fifty kurds massacred in the north of syria including children just because the men were fighting against and it's not the first such report of the un security council to condemn all these terrorist attacks we've seen some of its members refusing to condemn terrorist attacks in syria justifying it with the fact that the people behind them are fighting against the outdated regime and this stance is totally unacceptable terrorism should be treated without double standards kurt seem to be facing a double threats on this side of the syrian state border they're up against extremists on the other lies terry it's been a very long running battle with the kurdish workers party and only recently seem to be making amends at the same time on karrar backs the syrian opposition which is known to include al qaeda sympathizers and allows for arms shipments into syria which the kurds say ends up in the hands of extremists but when it comes to helping

kurds western powers who wasted no time in trying to force out president assad seem to do little encouraging extremists an approach that looks ominous to familiar through the overthrow gadhafi in libya to syria we've been supporting al qaeda the very people who attacked united states of america we knew prior is a card that spreads from north africa all the way to the gulf that could bring us to a new world war if we don't stop obama and the british policy but for now syrian kurds plea for international help to seems to have been met with indifference but in the go to school r.t. istanbul. and the kurds say what's actually happening in syria is nothing short of genocide and they're asking foreign powers to throw them a lifeline for the peace in kurdistan the activists want the united nations as well . the u.s. and e.u. to act now to halt the ethnic cleansing there demanding that western powers stop

sending weapons to groups in syria which then use them to attack civilians and commit war crimes the statement also calls for a probe into turkey's role in fueling the conflict in those kurdish areas the democratic union party has sent a letter to be used with an appeal to step in and do something about the growing isn't the most danger of the group is a syrian affiliate of the kurdistan workers party and a bit earlier in the program i spoke to its head mohammed. like i meant to step in but at least they moved to cut their support to this kind of i mean cell of his. organization was because i mean this is. two people in our move the head work cut i mean obviously two people there were. a few ji members or p.g. members and there was lots of i mean just. just like man it was no use for

them thousands of people now they're homeless they left their homes and hundreds of them there were. some of them nobody knows where they are now. this week has also seen unusual assessment of america's strategy towards the syrian war from one of the top defense figures in america or the cia's second in command has warned that the spread of extremism in the country is posing an ever greater threat to u.s. national security deputy director michael morrell says if indeed the assad government collapses with its massive chemical arsenal the country could become a haven for al qaeda terrorists is also claim that given the constant inflow of weapons or syria could then turn into the next libya with the potential for conflict to spill over into jordan lebanon and iraq where the u.s. is an outspoken supporter of the rebels in syria and is currently mulling over the

option of sending supplies to the opposition ranks a middle east and the u.n. issues expert phyllis bennis she says that this clearly shows deep divisions within the obama administration well i think that his statement is very much tied to the debate that's underway within the administration on whether or not to send weapons to some factions within the rebel armies in syria there are many people people like myself and others who have no access to any of the classified information that michael morrell presumably has access to but where it's been clear that sending more weapons on both sides or on either side is going to make the situation worse and not better so i think there's been rumors that mirelle actually is that to the emerging position of the administration which seems to be leaning more towards sending some kind of weapons and this probably was it was designed deliberately to undercut that position within the administration and shore up those who are saying

no sending weapons is a really bad idea. still to come here on r.t. third time lucky so goes the saying about could be the case for greece as another bailout is looming athens germany warning the city though that it will need another financial rescue. greeks take to guerrilla tactics in an attempt to literally like not these desperate times this the rest of the week's top headlines after the break . the. economic down in the final. days. and the rest. will be every week.

thank you for joining us here on our. show hundreds of gay rights activists across

europe and the u.s. supreme calling for a boycott of the winter olympics or to have the moved from sochi all in protest against what they see as russia's new anti-gay law that's despite assurances from moscow that the bill only bans the promotion of homosexuality to minors and does not harm human rights the u.k.'s prime minister rejected demands to stay away from the games but that didn't stop the protests meantime renowned actor and activist stephen fry right here he joined a rally in london accusing the limit committee of not trying to fight what he dubbed as russia's barbaric laws even went as far as to compare president putin's attitude towards minorities to that of hitler now the olympic committee responded saying the sports should be available to all and the new law will not affect those attending the games and british journalist neil clark he believes that gay rights are actually a disguise for other political agendas. in nazi germany homosexuals really were discriminated against they were putting to 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 saying we go to russia all together and i'm not saying i support but 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 helping twenty twenty two go to prison for five years if you're homosexuals it's political i think there's as i said there's eighty countries who have worse records on gay rights than russia stephen fry's talking about that so i think it shows double standards here and it shows this could have russia phobia i think among the western elite that they look down at russia they patronize them and they get this idea that in russia people who are homophobic they're racist it's nonsense it's not true. and as the western activists rise up against the new russian law autism is so now i want to find out what it's like to be a part of the gay community here in moscow she discovered that it's thriving.

there is. no store 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 are 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 messi of 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 protest against their suppression of l.g.b. community in russia supporters of the law argue it represents the russian majority . something if there is a large number of people who believe the lawyers to solve thirty years ago there was criminal punishment for being there to take examples from some states in the u.s. the relationship is much improved and stricter propaganda law from north this is where. it's important to remember this law is about gay propaganda to minors and it will be enforced with fines not criminal punishments russia is still a very traditional conservative country and 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 its owner has asked us not to film on the inside to

protect the privacy of its clients but reassure us business is booming there is a happy arriving excitable you know wonderful gay community which is 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 look at some french cities 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 fused with this to this with exciting western lifestyle i was insulted last week filming there's a gay community there there's a great gay scene but the west has a b. and its on it regarding russia it's a great. state repression it got together and he's now a r.t.

moscow. now from a fast back to a hunger strike now the muslim holy month of ramadan has come to an end and the inmates of the notorious guantanamo bay prison have continued to refuse food this means their protest against indefinite detention and inhumane treatment has now entered its seventh month terry holbrooke's a former security guard at the camp he claims their instructions to begin with were harsh. we were told not to interact with them not to look at them as humans not to talk with them not to speak but had nothing to do with them unless it was absolutely necessary important to work we were told to be very aggressive in searching growing. i don't think any of us as guards felt comfortable doing that as a result of such we didn't do that there were certain rules that we were given that many of us just did all of we didn't see them as being the political logical or ethical in some circumstances and as a result such we didn't implement them and over a hundred sixty six remaining we've had

a living year to find any shred of evidence to charge try and convict them and we've not been able to do that nor we've been able to falsify the evidence and the white house has reiterated that it is standing by obama's pledge to close the detention camp but it seems the flow of money to the prison certainly is not drying up in fact of the total cost of running the facility will reportedly it's going to exceed five billion bucks by two thousand and fourteen and this year alone the pentagon plans to spend almost half a billion just for maintenance and this means every day the u.s. government pays out a million dollars of taxpayers' money on to the controversial camp and let's see how we can break down the costs for you here on r.t. basically the major chunk of it now is spent on security while legal issues and court issues come second then only fourteen million dollars they're being actually allocated to the fund prisoner review boards breaking it down for you right now how it's get my financed. of the means i'm on the program the numbers are in for

greece and they're looking pretty bad for the country is going to need a third bailout within months this according to germany's central bank and even then though the risk of default is considered to be unusually high and the performance of the greek government has hardly been satisfactory if that matters aren't any better on the home front with impoverished greeks now are themselves giving up on unfulfilled promises of recovery going off reports. for millions of europeans it's impossible to imagine a life without things like refrigerators ac's television computers and electricity in general but no matter how difficult it may be the reality is every month more of those living in the cradle of the european civilisation are being forced into the dark. for two years now christina hasn't been able to pay her electricity bills she can't find work and nor can her brother two daughters or their husbands. as the

bills begin piling up i had to make my priorities and this is where the food comes first i want to pay the bills and i want to be a case of the state but the state hasn't been ok with us with one in four greeks currently unemployed christine is far from the only person who's electricity has been caught off and that's where these guys come in and young radical and very determined activists from the i don't see movement illegally reconnect power to as many as two hundred homes per month for free. the vast majority of the society is to be. sunk into poverty only a few of them few families across the world to have the ninety nine percent of the . well that's not something that. we want to bear. the reconnect the two homes or disconnect power from me it's making them feel for motorists or sometimes the target the underground today the i don't pay movement

has over ten thousand members across greece and is gaining supporters despite being targeted by more than one hundred on going more seats no respect to do when you know we say that thousands of people with no militated it will cool could no electricity feel water so this winter we will warn them because it's a very big people that greece's government continues to promise you. comic miracles despite the country's status have been recently downgraded to emerging market. but the greeks are time to empty promises and now more and more are taking matters into their own hands even if that means breaking the law you want to spin off athens greece. has been a pleasure having you with us here on r.t. today just a moment on k.t. pilbeam and venture capital.

the u.s. government project arrow marty has been in place for twenty years this project was designed to break the media monopoly of cuban television by putting u.s. government propaganda up to t.v. screens this injection of american t.v. works with a blimp and a c one thirty military plane working in tandem you know this would actually be a major achievement in the history of technology if it actually worked this program which over the years has built up a billion taxpayer dollars simply does not work but continues to exist despite the cuban government completely blocking the transmission the official logic of continuing the program is that it would send a bad message to the cuban government if they stopped brilliance and action but the big question is who gives the u.s. government the right to propagandize cubans just because they have

a different lifestyle doesn't mean it is wrong and the u.s. government does has the right to destroy it and even if cubans on mass actually do hate their system then it is their job to change cuba not the military industrial complex and its cronies in washington but that's just my opinion. follow that welcomes event to capitol with me katie prove this week we're going to be talking about bankers salaries are they still too high we've got exclusive interview coming up on that one also the world's highest paid female athlete finding out who they are thanks forty with kate partridge artie's schools presenter coming in to talk to me about football and business as well as that we got corporate news and checking in at the markets desk with our in-house trader here

i'll see that's all to come but let's get started with us. because the official figure of sixteen trillion dollars seemed warningly high according to a study by the university of california america's debt is actually four times higher at seventy trillion dollars so how much does that sum of quite serious compare it to the world's most valuable company apple say we go there now as you can see this official figure equates to forty apple empire's bar professor how much and studies found that the u.s. has over seventy trillion dollars of unaccounted for debts which would make up a total of one hundred sixty five apples but it turns out that even seventy trillion may be an understatement a former economic adviser for president ronald reagan professor courtney called says it could be as much as two hundred and eleven trillion or five hundred times the world's most valuable company i asked author of street smarts to.