the week's top stories on our team.

even going as far as. recapping the week's top stories with. us russia have suffered a major freeze this week and least 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 and 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

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 they're 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 there you remember a very real. saying goodbye you said will i believe that we can make a difference. let's. as adults. and that's what we were trying to do when president putin who was prime minister one of medvedev was 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 he said recalibrate the tone of the office 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 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 state 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 not much part of wind relations are defined by scandals not going back to president obama's news conference it was not all about president obama has announced a proposal through before me and i say it's president obama said he intends to work our way through one provision of the patriot act known ascension. 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. suggest changes by the end of the year but everybody understand it's also happening because of edward 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 forums promising is one thing delivering on those promises to 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 ations. russia was apparently one of the countries designated as a high priority for n.s.a. surveillance this is according to a recently published document which was leaked by fugitive whistle blower edward snowden to a political analyst william 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 encircle russia with its missile defense which is an often strategy 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 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 cats in the meeting because of snowden supposedly. radical islamists have turn to syria is north into a battleground as they attempt to push kurds out of their territories al qaeda linked groups are carrying out what is being called ethnic cleansing of the local population in order to declare in islamist state their 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 very difficult to verify specific information we tune to kurdish journalist advise on ease who helped us put together a timeline of the conflict let's take a look according to him the attacks that began on july nineteenth when extremists planted a bomb in a kurdish school and abducted civilians the next day a number of houses across the kurdish enclaves were blown up with one village a blitter a did while many more locals were kidnapped and islam is a cleric has declared from a local mosque that those killings. members of the ethnic minority would be rewarded in heaven and he encouraged the militants to loot and destroy kurdish homes the violence has now spilled over in too 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. horrifying

images of slaughter and 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 our women 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 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-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 and i didn't say so and they call their people you can kill them kidnap them capture their women and it's all how laws that mean it's or allowed for you once you fight for for god's sake. 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. the first 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 are fighting against the outdated regime and this stance is totally unacceptable terrorism should be treated with out 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

gird 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 in curbing 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 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 but in the other school r t istanbul. the kurds claim what's happening in syria is nothing short of genocide and now they're asking foreign powers to throw them a lifeline the peace in kurdistan activists want the united nations as well as the u. . as and a you to act immediately to halt of the ethnic cleansing they are demanding

that the 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 role in fueling the conflict in kurdish areas syria's democratic union party has sent a letter to the european union appealing for it to step in and to do something about the growing is a limited danger investigative journalist emmanuel oxon 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. i'm in the organization's because i mean recently. two people in our move the head work cut i mean

it's obvious to people there were a. few g. members. p.g. members and there was lots of i mean just. just like man it was how you slow them thousands of people that are homeless they left their homes and hundreds of them there are. some of them rose nobody knows where they are now. this week has also seen an unusual assessment of america's strategy towards the syrian war from one of the top defense figures in the u.s. and the cia second in command was warned that hour has warned rather 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 has also claimed that given the constant inflow of weapons syria could it turn into the next libya with the potential for conflict

to spill over into jordan lebanon and iraq however the u.s. is an outspoken supporter of the rebels in syria and is currently mulling the option of sending arms supplies to opposition ranks middle east expert phyllis bennis says is 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 actually is that you're going to the emerging position of the administration which seems to be leaning more towards sending some kind of

weapons and this probably was and was designed to liberally 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 in the program third time lucky or as the saying goes and that may be the case for greece as another bailout in. germany warns that athens will need yet another financial rescue while impoverished the greeks take to guerrilla tactics in an attempt to literally lighten up these desperate times. plus egyptian security officers threaten to break up the sit ins as the country continues to struggle through an economic crisis induced by the turmoil gripping the nation that's coming up shortly. hundreds have taken to the streets across europe and the u.s. to vent their anger at russia's new law banning homosexual propaganda among minors the protesters have been calling for

a boycott of the winter olympics or russia to be stripped of hosting them over what they say is a crackdown on games the u.k.'s prime minister rejected the games boycott which of course did not calm down the protests the most furious rhetoric came from a renowned actor and gay activist stephen fry who condemned the olympic committee for not trying to fight what he dubbed as russia's barbaric laws he went as far as drawing parallels between moscow's actions and those of nazi germany against the jews the olympic committee reiterated that sport 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 this law to demonize russia. 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 said we go to russia all together now i'm not saying i support what i oppose or anti gay goals whatever that 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 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 that 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 as western activists who rise up against the new russian law are treasonous and now i went to find out what it's like for the gay community in moscow and as she discovered it's far from being suppressed. there is. 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 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 messy of it that 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 war 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 . if there is a large number of people who believe the lawyers to solve thirty years ago there was criminal punishment for being here if you take examples from some states in the us the relationship is much improved and stricter and this propaganda law. is 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 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 we still run a business it's

a group there's 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'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 a soviet mindset he's with us up to this with excising western lifestyle i was in such a last week filming there's a gay community that has a great day semen but the west has a b. and its on it regarding russia and it's a great. state repression got together and he's now a r t moscow. well from a fast back to a hunger strike the muslim holy month of ramadan has come to an end and of the

inmates of the notorious guantanamo bay prison have continued to refuse food their protest against indefinite detention and inhumane treatment has now entered its seventh month old brooks 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 and 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 on those 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 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. the white house has a reiterated that it is standing by president obama's pledge to close the detention camp but it seems that the flow of money to the prison isn't drying up any time soon let's take a look 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 long the pentagon plans to spend almost five hundred million to maintain the site this means that every day in the us government spices out one million dollars of taxpayers' money on the controversial camp and right here you can see how this is all broken down the major chunk is spent on security while legal and court issues come in second only fourteen million dollars are allocated to fund prisoner review boards. the numbers are in for greece and they are bad the country is going to need a third bailout within months according to germany's central bank and 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 a.c.'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 european civilization are being forced into the dark. forward two years now christina hasn't been able to pay her tricity 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 to us 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 with 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 losing it's making them feel for motorists or sometimes the talk of the underground today the i don't pay movement has over ten thousand members across greece and it's 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 belief that it

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

another twelve hundred settlements to be built on palestinian land the palestinians chief negotiator lashed out at the move saying it will hamper a two state solution from being reached during peace talks to resume in jerusalem on wednesday despite settlements being considered illegal under international law israel refuses to halt construction decision comes after the german foreign minister during her visit to the jewish state claimed that the international community should not create a new obstacles for the negotiations. we're looking at live pictures right now from egypt in cairo where security forces are preparing to break up probe morsy protest camps in the capital reportedly the decision to take action came after a meeting between the interior minister and his aides the pro morsi camps have been the main flashpoint in the confrontation between the army which. have

a quail lector the president and his supporters who are demanding his reinstatement and amid the civil unrest the country is facing its worst economic crisis since the one nine hundred thirty artie's bell truth has more on the situation. at a cairo hospital food bank volunteers offloaded 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 you'll get this week i earn about fifty dollars per month and we are six people so the maximum i can do is buy beans to for a few cents 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 won't eat 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 money amount of thought. 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 in some places will go to utterly destroyed every time we visit it gets worse even provide livestock so that they can feed themselves were 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 analysts say the situation will only get worse as egypt is unable to imports much needed wheat for the brat millions depend on government subsidized bread that sells for about one cents a loaf 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 that are bailing it to the mainstream populations with very high calorie intake very slow nutrition and very close to nineteen percent of the poorest people are not getting any use of the subsidy and we know that twenty percent of the subsidy goes to the richest strata of the society and again it is a non productive says 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 that there are high prices everywhere to meet his 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 tree for our kyra coming up after the break it's worlds apart with oksana boyko right here on our three.