the week's top stories right here on our t.v. moscow urges washington. president obama. moving north. there. also. claims the u.s. . call for a boycott of. the new russian laws. from

our studios in moscow recapping week's top stories this is with our weekly program to have you with us now you have suffered a major freeze this week that's what washington is claiming barack obama has accused moscow of a cold war mentality and even called for a pause in their relations russia on its part is demanding america like adults believes there are no signs of hostility. this week when president obama canceled the bilateral meeting with the russian president in september u.s.

russia relations have hit 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 we've heard two different messages coming from president obama and foreign minister lavrov 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 they 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 were the 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. it's time for the u.s. to take a pause and recalibrate the tone of the office of 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 disagreements and scandals completely overshadow whatever progress the two countries can actually make and one area where the two countries can make a difference is the crisis in syria both the same objectives 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 galatians are defined by scandals not going back to president obama's news conference he was not all about president obama's proposal for me and. 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 the creation of a panel of outsiders intelligence officials civil liberty and privacy advocates and others to assess the program since. 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 u.s. marshal relations. russia was apparently one of the countries designated as a high priority for the n.s.a. surveillance this is according to a recently published a document which was leaked by fugitive whistleblower edward snowden geo political analyst william and doll author of myths lies and oil wars says america's snooping goes far beyond security reasons and its confrontation with russia far beyond the snowden issue washington is determined to circle 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 to iran so among other things so this is there is not a basis of agreement on these fundamental questions noton 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. radical islamists have turned to syria's north into a battleground as they attempt to push kurds out of their territories al-qaeda linked groups are carrying out ethnic cleansing what they call it and cleansing of the local population in order to declare an islamist state there four hundred fifty civilians many of whom were women and children were allegedly slaughtered in one

attack alone with havoc in the region making it difficult to verify specific information for this we turn to kurdish journalist barzani so to help us put together a timeline of the conflict let's hear what he had to say according to him the attacks began on july nineteenth when extremists planted a bomb in a kurdish school and abducted civilians there the next day a number of houses across the kurdish region enclaves were blown up with one village obliterated while many more locals were kidnapped in islam a square has declared from a local mosque but those killing members of the ethnic minority would be rewarded in heaven and he encouraged militants to loot and destroy kurdish homes the violence has spilled over into early august with seventy kurds murdered and three hundred fifty kidnapped by al-qaeda linked fighters for more on this let's get details from our correspondent in the region or to use it in english co. horrifying images of slow turn 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 homes and their women then they started looting 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 their 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 decided they're showing their ability to administrate themselves and that all the some international players such as it has been hoping those facing against the kurds 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 qaida 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 director and also as they are united together i gave this through video just as they are killing people on i didn't they call their people you can kill them kidnap them capture their woman and it's all how laws that mean 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. because. 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 will 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 fighting against the outdated regime 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 bit or a 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 the twentieth comes to helping kurds

western powers who wasted no time in trying to force out president assad seem to do little in curbing extremists an approach that looks ominously 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 syria is a cause 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 it in the go to school r.t. istanbul. the kurds claim what's happening in syria is nothing short of genocide and they're asking for foreign powers to throw them a lifeline the peace in kurdistan activists want the united nations as well as the us. yes and e.u. to act immediately to halt what they call ethnic cleansing they are demanding that

western powers stop providing groups in syria with weapons since they fall into the wrong hands and are used to attack civilians the statement also calls for a probe into turkey's wall in fueling the conflict in kurdish areas syria's democratic union party has sent a letter to the european union appealing for to step in and to do something about the growing islam is to danger investigative journalist many walks writer believes both turkey and of us have links to the radical groups fighting in syria we don't like i mean to step in but at this they mean to cut their support to this kind of i'm in the center of his. organizations because i mean this is. two people in head look cut i mean it's obvious to people there were a. few g.

members. p.g. members and there was loads of i mean just. just like man it was those flow them thousands of people. homeless they left their homes and hundreds of them there were. some of them rose nobody knows where they are now. has also seen an unusual assessment of america's strategy towards the syrian war from one of the top defense for years in the u.s. 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 the assad government collapses with its massive chemical arsenal the country could become a haven for al qaeda terrorists he also claimed given the constant inflow of weapons in syria could turn into the next libya with the potential for conflict to spillover into jordan lebanon and iraq however the u.s.

is an outspoken supporter of the rebels in syria and is currently mulling of the option of sending arms supplies to opposition ranks middle east expert phyllis bennis says this clearly shows 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 morale 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. well third time's a charm still to come in the program as the saying goes it may be the case for greece is another bailout looms in germany it warns that athens will need yet another financial rescue while impoverished greeks take it to guerrilla tactics in an attempt to literally lighten up these desperate times. u.k. universities are becoming increasingly out of reach for many brits we report on now how sore intuition fees are causing some talented students to skip higher education to avoid a hefty debt burden. hundreds have taken to the streets across europe and the u.s. to vent their anger at russia's new law banning homosexual propaganda amongst minors the protesters have been calling for a boycott of the winter olympics or for russia to be stripped of hosting them over

what they say is a crackdown on gays the u.k.'s prime minister rejected the games a boycott and of course this did not calm down the protests the most a furious rhetoric came from renowned actor and gay activist stephen fry who condemned the olympic committee of not trying to fight what he dug as russia's barbaric laws you want to as far as drawing parallels between moscow's actions and those of nazi germany against jews committee reiterated that sports should be available to all and that the new law will not affect those attending the games british journalist neil clark believes that the west is attempting to use the law to demonize russia. in nazi germany homosexuals really were discriminated against they were put into 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 and i'm not saying i support but i oppose all anti-gay laws were 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 that's because i said there's eighty countries who have worse records on gay rights the russia stephen fry's are 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 are more homophobic they're racist it's nonsense it's not true. as western activists rise up against the new russian law or to the news or now we went to find out what's it like for the gay community and moscow where she discovered it's far from being suppressed. there's. no stoli 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 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 that 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

. but if there is a large number of people who believe the law is too soft thirty years ago there was criminal punishment for being if you take examples from some states in the u.s. the relationship is much crudely and strict and these propaganda law. this is a 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 it wants to called on to that. this is one of moscow's many gay clubs yes it's in a discreet location but it holds three thousand people is. on the weekends and is full of foreigners it's own has asked us not to film on the inside to protect the privacy of its clients but reassure us business is booming there's a happy arriving excitable you know wonderful gay community which is happy 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 friends of these 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 west lifestyle i was in such a last week filming as a gay community there is a great day scene then saatchi but the west has a b. and its on it regarding russia and it's a great. state right now to go and he's now a r t moscow. from a fast back to a hunger strike the muslim holy month of ramadan has come to an end and the inmates at the notorious guantanamo bay prison have continued to refuse few food or protest against indefinite detention and inhumane treatment has now entered its seventh

month terry holbrooke's a former security guard at the camp claims that the instructions he was given were harsh. we were taught 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 the best result as such we didn't do that there were certain rules that we were given that many of us just didn't all of we didn't see them as as being a political logical or ethical in some circumstances and as a result such we didn't implement them and over a hundred sixty six for meaning we've had to live in 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. the white house has reiterated that it is

standing by president obama's pledge to close the detention camp there but it seems that the flow of money to the prison is into drying up anytime soon the total cost of keeping the facility running will reportedly exceed five billion dollars by the end of two thousand and fourteen and this year alone the pentagon plans to spend almost five hundred million to maintain the site this means that every day the us government spy she's out one million dollars of taxpayers' money on the controversial camp and right here you can see how this all breaks down the major chunk is spent on security while legal and court issues come in a second only fourteen million dollars are allocated to fund prisoner review boards . the numbers are in for greece and they are back at the country is going to need a third bailout within months according to germany's central bank even then the risk of default is considered to be unusually high and the performance of the greek government has hardly been satisfactory matters aren't any better on the home front

with impoverished greeks themselves now giving up on unfulfilled promises of recovery here's artie's you've got a piece going off. 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. forward 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 called 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. they reconnect ilja city to homes or disconnect power from luke so it's making them see for motorists or sometimes we target the underground today the i don't pay movement has over ten thousand members of course reese and his gaming supporters despite being targeted by more than one hundred unborn morsi. no respected when you know we say that thousands of people with no relief they said it will

no electricity to seal water so this woman to leave will warn them because it's a very big. greece's government continues process to. economic miracles despite the country's status having been recently downgraded to emerging market. but the greeks are time to empty promises and now more and more digging matters into their own hands even if that means breaking. athens greece. let's now take a look at some other stories making headlines around the world for you this hour a train consumer goods in the u.s. state of oklahoma around thirty cars turned upside down spilling beer and soda cans on the rails near the city of. an emergency crew has arrived on the scene but no injuries have been reported so far the train is owned by the. railway company.

israel has given the green light for another twelve hundred settlements to be built on palestinian land the palestinian people lashed out at the move saying it will hamper a two state solution from being reached during peace talks set to resume in jerusalem on wednesday despite settlements being considered illegal under international law israel refuses to halt construction the decision comes after the german foreign minister claimed during her visit to the jewish state that the international community should not create new obstacles for the negotiations. british students are feeling the pinch as tuitions fees skyrocket with huge loans scaring off an increasing number of people from going to university and it's mainly those from poor families who are missing out as are teased as are still explains. london twenty ten young people furious at the government's plans to triple the tuition fees kept of nine thousand pounds a year for the new batch of incoming students the impact could be even more

palpable but because the numbers of students from the backgrounds coming to university are increasing slowly. sort of the government sort of denies that this is a problem it's pretty dire situation in the u.k. and particularly around the issue of choice and. you can choose to take contact or you choose to be an employee but really there isn't there isn't really a positive solution either way for james walkley the choice was to drop out he'd been in university for a year but decided to stop and try to find work instead of folks honestly working for a living for a change them rather than just getting by day to day i'm one of the students at money's whatever what is available to students because i do come from what i would consider a deprived background i also feel that it's doesn't take a genius to work out just by looking at the phrase that the universe as it is now is roger going to try for most james dreams were put on hold and display is by no means unique we quarters of colleges and universities in england it could be

charging at the top level of nine thousand pounds a year for at least one course in twenty fourteen and around twenty seven percent could be charging at that level for all that's courses and all this despite claims by ministers in the past that the levels will only be seen for exceptional circumstances where the fees and now so that could very well be the norm. students you know big forces take on this huge debt that the government says doesn't affect sort of the rest of their income but that's not true if you're trying to say for a mortgage things. it will have an effect on what happen effect on mary's and the government keeps threatening to change the terms and conditions of those loans in response to r.t.c. the government said there will be no change to the terms of interest rates charged to graduates with existing student loans taken before two thousand and twelve which is called comfort for someone like mail me with twenty five thousand pounds of debt hanging over her head says it is like

a full time job that's when i started coming out of my. monthly salary my fees for three thousand two hundred and pay here and now face this kind of up to nine thousand spencer melman if i'm not going to uni says all this financial insecurity is making young people more open to considering other options than going to university printed fields is a really valuable way forward you're learning a sector you're getting high you're getting a qualification and hopefully a full time job at the end of it we're not going to uni it so it's just about understanding the options that are available and having a real choice is really all the james is asking for feel a lot of negativity toward the government for fact that education is being massively stricter for people who are far less financially well off backgrounds duster sylvia r.t. london. and coming up we report on drugs gangs and the police raids in the mexican city of tijuana.