on the week's top stories. when. they had the ability. to e-mail.

over the. top stories of the week and today welcome to the program barack obama and david cameron have syria's government with a serious response. hundreds of people on wednesday. administration has warned against a u.s. led intervention saying the move would set the middle east. let's. bring us the latest on this story here paula good morning can you bring us up to speed what's the latest. well syrian state television is reporting that syrian soldiers entered a number of tunnels that had been used by rebel fighters in damascus and they they

found in t. shells the remnants of chemical agents what we do know is that the shells had mocked on them made in saudi arabia and of course saudi arabia has long been a critic of the syrian president bashar assad the soldiers started coughing they started suffocating and immediately ambulances had to be same to the scene to actually assist these soldiers now this comes as the united states starts moving its naval ships in the mediterranean closer to the syrian coast the indications on the ground are that the first wave of preparations for any kind of military intervention inside syria are underway and that the u.s. and in particular the navy is just waiting for the green light this comes as the american president barack obama and the british prime minister david cameron warned of a serious attack if indeed reports of the damascus regime having used chemical weaponry

are confirmed what we've heard from obama is that he is mulling over the situation he says that it needs to be fought over seriously there needs to be a wary miss in terms of making this decision but that any kind of military attack inside syria would be both costly and deadly the word he used was difficult the defense department has been tasked with giving obama all the latest facts on the ground so certainly there was a lot of movement in terms of question marks over whether or not there will be any kind of international intervention inside syria this follows reports earlier this week of a fresh chemical attack inside syria the numbers we have suggests that anywhere between dozens and one thousand three hundred people were killed at the same time you and investigators are inside syria they've been there now for week they. arrived last sunday they're investigating at least a dozen other reports of chemical usage and now they are waiting permission to go

to the scene of the way this latest incident happened damascus has indicated that it is giving them maximum support and indeed russia two has urged the syrian government to assist these investigators as much as they can so we see we're seeing quite a lot of chips come into place here paula you talk about the military posturing on the part of washington with that with the fourth warship heading to the region cameron as well and obama warning of a serious consequence or says retaliation to syria when it comes to this alleged chemical attack but that's just it though isn't it i mean it's allegations and it's speculation at this point. well this is a very important point all the indications and all the allegations are essentially speculation and we have realms of video and still photographs that have been posted to you tube all of them purport to show chemical attacks carried out in syria but none of this footage can be verified you see photographs of people foaming at the mouth. reports that these attacks happened in the same areas where earlier attacks

happened but we have no independent verification in terms of who took this footage where it was taken and indeed when it was posted an important point it also needs to be made is that the damascus regime is increasingly being accused of carrying out chemical weaponry and there is no evidence no evidence whatsoever to suggest that the russian foreign ministry made the point and the point that they said was that a lot of the allegations that pointed to the fact that the damascus regime that carried out these attacks were allegations that were posted online hours before this latest so-called attack by chemical weaponry was carried out the foreign ministry saying that they are getting new evidence that all of these allegations are of a provocative nature so you have a lot of unverified facts circulating on the internet the pressure on the syrian government of course is increasing and here we've heard from the french foreign minister he has said that all evidence points to damascus earlier there was

a united nations security council meeting and following that meeting the french did threaten to use force if indeed these allegations against the damascus regime were proven to be true these syrian government however has warned against foreign intervention and there is a lot of concern and pressure on those in the international community who might be living in that direction so a lot happening on the ground a lot of concern in terms of what is going to happen these are v.m.e. international response inside syria and certainly polar we were hearing from a lot of international analysts are many of them saying that assad would have to be a fool. to stage a chemical attack all right at a time when u.n. inspectors are there looking for proof of any type of chemical attack and also the syrian government already placing two were to give the u.n. weapons inspectors a safe passage throughout their inspections there so we'll just have to see how it all plays out again at this point there were a lot of allegation and speculation ongoing artie's paula thank you.

right now while the u.n. inspectors have yet to determine whether chemicals happened he'd been used and who might have even used them and there's been no clarity over the number of casualties either in fact. a professor here a professor of international law at georgetown university says that the results of the u.n. probe could leave the obama administration perhaps a bit red faced if it is going to turn out to be the rebels who are using be. poisonous material the u.s. would be embarrassed because it could be alive or do you any. good do you agree with. claiming that these are people who are seeking democracy and rule of law and fighting corruption or whatever. this is the purpose will do if. the u.s. would like to. approve or would like and some of its allies that it is

the regime who has done this but this has not been independently proven very fired and without any dependent verification i think if we would take all the what the u.s. president has said does not indicate that military action. of course we've been following the latest escalation of the syrian conflict on air and online you can get of the latest updates and extensive analysis right now at r.t. dog. now this week the british newspaper which spilled the beans on the n.s.a. was in turn forced to destroy materials provided by edward snowden certainly now though it came clean on why it gave in to government pressure and the guardian editor saying that london threatened legal action to stop the paper from reporting the sensitive leaks all together so they agreed to destroy the original data which had nevertheless already been copied on these tests for australia reports. you've

had your fun now it's time to return to the documents said the unnamed government official today newspaper editor it could be the stuff of movies it isn't we were faced effectively with ultimatum from the british government that if we didn't hand back the material or destroy it they would be moved to law in recent months the guardian newspaper has come to be known as the paper that's been exposing secret material from a trove of information passed on to wit by former contractor of the national security agency edward snowden but in recent days the editor of the newspaper is also publicized what had gone on a behind closed doors here how security officials had ended up in the basement of their offices overseeing the destruction of hard drives of computers which contained the very information the paper has been exposing a bizarre turn of events salary richards says that came all the way up from the prime minister's office once it was obvious that they would be going to law. i

would rather destroy the copy than hand it back to them or allow the courts to freeze our reporting and i was happy to destroy it because it was not going to inhibit our reporting we would simply problem erica not from london a twenty first century possibility in a highly digital and connected world the revelation by rusbridger came just a day after the detention of david miranda partner of the guardian journalist and glenn greenwald the journalist who had broken the story of snowden's leaks and the same materials around it was detained under the u.k.'s terrorism act and was held in question for nine hours at heathrow airport it caused an outcry among politicians and journalists and even david anderson the independent reviewer of terrorism laws who demanded an explanation prompting the u.k. home office to go on the offensive the government and the police have a duty to protect the public and our national security those who oppose this sort of action need to think about what's their condoning if they. want to protect the

public to tell the public what it is they're protecting them from a generalized statement about terrorism in general doesn't really do the trick you've got to be able to say well the information he's got would endangered the public for the following reasons you've got to have reasons for it no such reasons have been advanced miranda's detention as well as the destruction of computers and the guardian's basement has one of britain's most respected newspapers in the spotlight the story teller has become this story this is a very damaging moment actually for britain's reputation for free speech being laid bare the way that the british state is very prepared to use terrorism legislation to use accusations of terrorism in order to shut down what looks to be journalistic practice good healthy investigative journalism with some of pointed to be noticeably lackluster response from the country's other newspapers following his revelations especially considering that press appears to be at stake the business

of reporting securely and having confidential sources is becoming difficult in these documents there is the stated ambition to scoop up everything and store it all to master the internet this is the language that's being used internally this is celia r.t. london. now it's not only journalists that are getting their colors felt after edward snowden if they did the clutches of the american author after it was revealed the n.s.a. leaker had used the secure email service law a bit its owner was forced to shut down his company and. he had to do it or else be forced by the u.s. government to spy on his own customers love us and also explain to my colleague. that he didn't want to perpetrate what he called a crime against the american people. if i had continued to operate i felt like it would have put me in a ethically compromising position. in other words the service

no longer would have been what i intended it to be which was a secure and private method of communication for americans so you posted a message on line saying that you were in an impossible situation that either you would quote do you hear become complicit in crimes against the american people or walk away from a decade of your hard work what do you think you would have faced if you didn't shut down the service when you say no to the government. they have the ability to take everything they have the ability to take your business take your money and take your freedom and the really isn't all that much you can do about it. so i was looking at the very real possibility of an impossible debt and possibly being put in jail and still not being able to tell people why i was even in jail you wrote on the line that without congressional action or strong judicial precedent that you would advise people users against trusting

a company that has physical ties to the us why is that all of the major providers here in the us. have provided. our government with real time access to the private information of their users and they don't really have a choice about it and they don't really have the ability to tell anybody about. it so the fact is if you trust your data to a company even if they they haven't already been approached. and been required to provide access. the simple fact is they could be in the future under starting with the us convicted whistleblower bradley manning who past proof of american war crimes to wiki leaks is now seeking a pardon from the white house manning was sentenced to thirty five years in jail

this week for the biggest leak of military data in history in a letter addressed to barack obama there was a blogger stressed he's a patriot who acted to protect the very liberties that americans hold dear but the mainstream media has launched a fresh smear campaign against him as artie's guy nature can reports bradley manning sentence of thirty five years behind bars has said a number president it punishment threshold for whistleblowers bradley manning should be walking the streets and being treated for who is a whistle blower who exposed war crimes in iraq afghanistan secret war in yemen and the other corruption of the governments the us supported bradley manning supporters gathered outside the white house to call for the president to pardon the whistleblower the supporters of bradley manning say what's at stake here is not just men but also the future of journalism and the public's right to be informed on the actions that their government is taking on their behalf manning's defense team has submitted a request for a pardon but there seems to be little chance that it will be granted that the

government's ongoing crackdown on whistleblowers under the current administration and unauthorized leak to the media of classified information is viewed as being tantamount to aiding the enemy. the government wide crackdown on whistleblowers and the extension of this crackdown to journalists threatens to stifle the flow of information that is vital to our public but the media in the us has largely failed to stand up for bradley manning government officials and t.v. pundits all but convicted the whistleblower even before any trial took place who cares whether the army killed some innocent people or not over in iraq you know we don't want to we don't want to be. part of that we it's very uncomfortable so if it's a complex issue and it's uncomfortable americans generally will pull back from a lot of the media to fill that gap and portray bradley manning as a traitor manning's own personality has grabbed more headlines than the shoes that

he uncovered and the day after sentencing many six became the main story who is healthy this week bradley manning announced that he wants to spend the rest of his life as a female and asked to be referred to as chelsea manning one of the defense psychiatry at trial testified that manning has narcissistic tendencies and i wonder if there's anything to that in the sense that she's announcing this in this very big public way no i think this is really trying to let people have the answer that they wanted she never really wanted this to be public to begin with and when the information came out you need to understand the she gave it to her in a limo in a very private setting in a one on one chat never expecting this to be public now that it is unfortunate you have to deal with it in a public manner chelsea manning's attorney also said his client never wanted personal issues to become the main story and overshadow the debate that the whistleblower wanted to start through the leaks in washington i'm going to. so good

to have you with us on this sunday here and still to come your way after a very short break. the entire house is completely submerged and it's clear looking around this going to take a lot of time money and effort before this place returns to normal we assess just how bad things have become for those living in the far eastern city of those emergency crews who remain on high alert all amid the warnings the worst of the record flooding is yet to come. what do you think would be enough prize for americans and the west in general to realize that noting with mines is actually extremely counterproductive to our own national interests when. there are laws in. the middle east and come to be created all the create. it is

a feed steve this is the best place for the organization to establish bases. dramas to be ignored. stories others who refuse to notice. the faces changing the world. through pictures of today's news. from around the globe. live from moscow it's r.t. and disastrous flooding in russia's far east has affected the livelihoods of more

than eighty five thousand people and the water levels keep on rising emotions and crews are working around the clock to fortify the city of the worst hit area right now for scott he's been there for nearly two weeks filed this report. like this is marina a resident of culturally risky island and this is marina's house water waist high the entire ground floor resembling a cesspit rather than a home now it's only when you enter the properties that you see the extent of the damage that these floodwaters have caused now despite marinas best attempts to try to keep many of her treasured possessions out of the water it was simply in vain the entire house is completely submerged and it's clear looking around that's going to take a lot of time money and effort before this place returns to normal. marina is one of hundreds in this region to have been evacuated in recent days by russia's

emergency services she can't take everything with her and doesn't know when she'll be able to return for now she'll stay with friends the move here that. we've been crying all week we've lost all our property and that's after we've renovated hung new wallpaper a place new carpets. although some hardy souls remain predominantly this village is like a ghost town. but despite the chaos there are resilient attempts to carry on as normal the shop remains open although when we visited business was sly. many of those evacuated from their homes and up in temporary accommodation centers in schools and sports holes or thirty's and volunteers providing supplies such as food drinking water and medicine that some rest bite for those who have lost everything just get a policy that's good that aid is going to come there is good that we have there but

he needed to. tell t's greet the treat us like the children all of the situation in the how about osprey general mains critical further west there's hope the worst is over in the region attention is now turning to the cleanup operation just that the situation is changing and we're going to regroup our forces people now come from the neighboring more region for planes arrive here every day but now water levels in some parts of this region have already beaten records that have stood for more than one hundred and twenty years that's of six hundred and forty two centimeters and the fear is that as the rains continue that could push the eight meter barrier causing even more devastation and destruction to people's lives and homes the military and emergency services continue to work around the clock to reinforce how about ask concern the defenses could be breached by water that at the moment shows no signs of receding i'm with flood levels not expected to eight until

mid september the true extent of the damage is yet to reveal itself and it could be some time yet before the full picture emerges postcards. about oscar. of course on air and online twenty four seven let's check out some of the stories we're covering right now from the web site for example the coin friendly supporters of the controversial cyber currency gather and you can find out how it all went down from our. website. thousands take to the streets in bahrain demanding democratic reforms we've got the footage plus the timeline of the ongoing protests just a click away. from here on the program made layoffs on welfare cuts a growing number of britons are being left in financial limbo by their employers more and more for adopting the controversial topic of zero hours contracts leaving their staff with the possibility of ending basically ending up penniless despite spending every waking hour at the job reports you have

a job but you don't know when you'll if you'll be paid that's the reality for a million brits employed on zero hours contracts donald says admitted that it employs ninety percent of its u.k. workforce in this way stuff are expected to be ready for work in the mornings in case the summoned by their boss says they also have the right to refuse crucially though there's no guaranteed minimum set of working hours per week hence the zero in the title of this man in his twenty's is almost zero hours contract with a well known restaurant chain every morning he waits for the call telling him whether or not he'll have work you know really in charge of your own destiny as it were while you're while you're working there to be able to one week say well we're not going to make that much profit this week so actually we're going to try and do it as minimum stuff as we can you guys can all be cut and we'll just do it on three stuff this week is completely and for the government has promised to investigate

the controversial employment and it's. the number of brits in financial limbo with few rights low pay and no stability or stock in this job no guarantee of other jobs or to making enough money to pay the rent is falling behind on bills the number of zero hours contracts is short top during the recession some economists forecasts that employers will return to hiring workers on better terms when the economy recovers the trade unions are buying it in recent months and years we have start to see a growth of say roust contracts particular months public sector workers no longer are these small groups of workers who are employed on temporary employment now in some states is this type of abusive employed ship is becoming the norm macdonald sports direct dominoes and even buckingham palace zero hours employers they've been accused of exploiting people desperate for any kind of work is part of the race to the bottom to drive down the terms and conditions the pay of all working people

fortunately big business is using the istari measures in the government economic crisis as an excuse to use these contracts but business representatives say that the financial crisis is forcing companies to use zero hours contracts there's people that criticize your contract to recognize the impact that that would have on unemployment levels it's actually the flexibility that. wasn't available to employers i don't think it would be acting as the kind of employment stabilizer we're seeing it work out the terms of these contracts may see the bosses but many of the young people on them say that while they're on the zero hours they've got zero chance of any financial stability. no i think they should so i think they should shouldn't be less extreme than they are because it was it doesn't happen that you don't have. can sort of expect that at some point you made. arty london are just

a moment here on our. part. you know people in moscow say they're like whole websites and facebook groups about the childfree lifestyle which i didn't believe until i saw the cover for the aug twelfth copy of time magazine yes child free is no real thing sadly basically these are people who have started a cool trend of not having children and using their time and resources completely for themselves you know if you don't want to have kids that is your business and i really couldn't change your mind even if i wanted to but there are people all over the internet who are just swimming in their own self-satisfaction like pigs in slop

because they are part of the no kids trend the sickening part about this trend or should i say it mentality is that these people glow in adore themselves for being too selfish to give their time and money to a child oh i'm the center of the universe and i'm proud of it. this is an extremely antisocial and destructive mentality to adore yourself for contributing nothing to anyone else nothing to society and nothing to the future but wait let me put it this way if your life is shopping wearing ironic t. shirts starbucks and texting on your i phone about your stupid feelings that maybe is for the greater good the church childfree but that's just my opinion.

hello and welcome to worlds apart this here in the united states marks the second a new birth to be reading the world of a summer bin laden so far the main fairly rare victory in america's declared war on terror but after more than a decade of fighting and trillions of dollars stand is the united states and the woman in town are all safer than they used to be to discuss that i'm now joined by abdel bari atwan the editor in chief of the pan arab newspaper. mr avlon thank you very much for your time now just recently u.s. president barack obama gave a speech on america's war on terror and what i think went unnoticed by mainstream media is a bomb was efforts to redefine the nature of that war let's listen what he had to say as most of our effort not as a boneless global war on terror but rather as a.