today's news on the week's top stories here on. the u.s. and u.k. threatening the assad government over allegations of a chemical attack in syria meantime damascus warns western intervention could simply inflame the entire region. britain's guardian newspaper reveals it was pressured by london into destroying data on the notorious n.s.a. eavesdropping obtained of course by edward snowden. bradley manning appeals for a presidential pardon on is thirty five year sentence for revealing u.s. war crimes the mainstream media is in a frenzy over the whistle but i was gender identity. and egypt freeze its former president hosni mubarak from prison amid fears the military's grip on power is intensifying in a nation already on a knife edge. was

good timing for the weekly here on r.t. . live in moscow as we highlight the top stories of the week and off today barack obama and david cameron have threatened syria's government with a serious response if indeed it's confirmed the north already is in damascus did gas hundreds of people on wednesday meanwhile assad's administration has warned against a u.s. led intervention saying the move would set the middle east a blaze earlier in the program i got the latest from artie's polis. in state television is reporting that syrian soldiers entered a number of tunnels that had been used by rebel fighters in damascus and they found . remnants of chemical agents what we. i do know is that the shells had marked 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 maybe is just waiting for the green light what we've heard from a bomber is that he is mulling over the situation he says that it needs to be fought over seriously he needs to be aware remiss 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 the

bomber all the latest facts on the ground you investigators are inside syria they've been there now for a week they arrived last sunday they're investigating at least a dozen other reports of chemical usage a damascus government has pledged to give full support to the u.n. investigators in trying to reach the area where this latest alleged chemical attack took place but it took place in rebel held areas so really it's not really up to the damascus regime to ensure maximum cooperation but they have said that they will do their best to ensure that there is a safe passage for the investigators we're seeing quite a lot of a chip come into place here paul you talk about the military posturing on the part of washington with that with the fourth warships heading to the region as well the warning of serious consequences of serious retaliation to syria when it comes to this alleged chemical attack but that's just it that was in 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 allegation. are essentially

speculation we have real names 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 to the damascus regime is increasingly being accused of carrying out chemical weaponry and there is no evidence no evidence whatsoever to suggest this 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. meeting the french did threaten to use force if indeed these allegations against the damascus regime were proven to be true the 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 viz a viz an international response inside syria and while the u.n. inspectors are yet to determine whether chemicals are being used and who used them there's been no clarity over the number of casualties either however there's a question over who would benefit from the alleged attack though that's what we've been hearing from geo political analyst patrick and ngs. of course if we look at the history of this particular region to go to a region where the attack it's said to take place is very active with the front and

they've also been implicated in using makeshift chlorine bombs in aleppo back in march so there is a track record there the evidence unfortunately does not stack up with these present claims of the syrian government perpetrating these attacks or who benefits from a chemical attack in syria will the opposition benefits it's quite obvious the syrian government does not benefit the opposition benefits because this will be the key to unlock the. airstrikes and bombing campaign over syria. libya is a little the opposition would like a libyan style coalition with nato in order to force the regime out of power in damascus so they clearly benefit from any reports of a chemical attack in syria. and we've been following this latest escalation of the syrian crisis online and dot com you can get the latest updates and extensive analysis. well thanks for joining us here on r t this week the british newspaper which spilled the beans on the n.s.a.

and was in turn forced to destroy materials provided by edward snowden it came clean on why it had to give in to government pressure the guardian and if they said 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. has this report. you've had your fun now it's time to return to the documents so the unnamed government official to the newspaper editor it could be the stuff of movies only it isn't we were faced effectively with an 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 onto web 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's 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. not from london the 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 parker of the guardian journalist and glenn greenwald the journalist who had broken the story of snowden's leaks and the same materials miranda was detained under the new case 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 once they condoning defame. 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 randerson attention as well as the destruction of computers and the guardian's basement have 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 but some of pointed to be noticeably lackluster response from the country's other newspapers following his revelations especially considering that press freedom appears to be at stake the business of reporting securely and having competent full sources is becoming difficult in these documents there is the stated ambition to scoop up everything and store it all and to master the internet this is the language that's being used internally this is celia r t london. and across the united states independent online resources are also coming under with new pressure to hand over user data to the n.s.a. . spoke with the founder of an encrypted private messaging service who wants to move his website offshore to try and protect privacy what's happened is the spies

have turned the companies like apple and google into spies themselves i think the whole n.s.a. spying has had seriously. negative impact on the trust and faith people have in the political and legal system in the united states at this point i think that people are looking at moving themselves their assets and their information offshore . one of your previous interviews you had said that you feel the u.s. could turn into electronic prison can you elaborate on a little bit well if everybody is watching everything that you do and you don't know where that information is going there's no recourse in terms of what happens with the information there's no recourse in terms of. how you can remedy things you know for example the no. no you're on and so you go to the airport and they say you can't fly and there's no way to get yourself off of it and you don't know what got you want in the first place so you know that's just for flying now we start talking about the electronic surveillance it's becoming a serious problem for

a lot of people a lot of people are now starting to realize that the terrorists aren't the people they're after it's the people who are just ordinary people paying taxes and doing their jobs president obama has said some privacy could be breached in order to provide security where do you think privacy rights are headed in the u.s. where they're headed in the u.s. i don't think they exist anymore in the u.s. that's what i'm hearing from our customers they are you know they understand that there's been it's not just a privacy breach it's like the whole dike has to spin completely excavating the oceans been pouring in and staying with the united states convicted was a blow a bradley manning who passed proof of american war crimes to wiki leaks is now seeking a pardon from the white house when he was sentenced to thirty five years in jail this week for the biggest leak of military day here in history and a letter addressed to barack obama it was a bit of a stretch that 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 and the guy nature can now report its. bradley manning sentence of thirty five years behind bars has said an unprecedented punishment threshold for whistleblowers bradley manning should be walking the streets and being treated for who is a whistleblower 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 manning the trip 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 a 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 an allowance 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 you know 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 when the information came out you need to understand that 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 unfortunately 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 check out. where the lighting of the week's top world headlines are on our rover sushi coming up in just a moment. entire house is completely submerged and it's clear looking around this

could. take a lot of time money and effort before this place returns to normal. just how bad things have become for those living in the far eastern city of. crews remain on high alert warnings that the worst of the record flooding has yet to come. into selling their own homes details just ahead. what defines a country's success. faceless figures of economic growth. or a factual standard of living.

pleasure to have you with us.

from moscow with more. welcome to the weekly here on the. disastrous flooding in russia's far east has now affected the livelihoods of more than eighty five thousand people as the water levels just keep on rising emergency crews are working around the clock to try and fortify the city of that's the worst hit area right now on these ports scott he's been there for nearly two weeks this is the latest reporting filed. this is marina a resident of bolshoi risky island and they say 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 marina as best attempts to try and 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 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 it hung new wallpaper up 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 slow. many of those evacuated from their homes and up in temporary accommodation centers in schools and sports holes for 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 they do have their pick you need to stay here they face patel te's greet the treat us like the children although the situation in the how about oscar region remains critical for the west as hope the worst is over in the region attention is now turning to the cleanup operation just as. the situation is changing and we're going to regroup our forces people now come from the neighboring a more region for planes arrive here every day but now water levels in some parts of a three g. and 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 i 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 ask. on air and online twenty four seven here are some of the stories we're covering are online that r.t. dot com for you right now for example bitcoin friendly supporters of the controversial cyber currency gather in berlin you can find out how it all went down from the web site. thousands take to the streets in bahrain demanding democratic reforms and we've got the footage plus the timeline of the ongoing protests all just a click away right now. but for the meantime here on the program egypt's former president hosni mubarak released from prison this thursday after an appeal against

his detention it's seen by many in the nation as a rollback on the changes that flowed from the arab spring mubarak is though still facing a retrial on charges of complicity in the killing of almost nine hundred protesters during the twenty eleven uprising. gyptian politicians say his release could even escalate tensions further their opinion nonstop protests and bloodshed in the country since july the army toppled the country's first democratically elected president mohammed morsi independent political analyst a dying glazebrook he believes release although symbolic may not help the military solve some of the nation's most pressing issues. is the release of mubarak intended to reassure the west i'm not going to be diverting from the mubarak era policies of collaboration with israel or in fact is it is even intended this not to the west because the west has been very unhappy with what's happened recently with morsi or

at least in public has been unhappy with it talks about britain and france taking egypt to the u.n. security council europe in discussing cutting off aid and so on certainly very symbolic. but exactly what the message is trying to send it is not entirely clear i think what needs to be done is to overcome this false division between islam isn't secularism and to look at the real heart of the issue which is the country going to continue on a pro imperialist kind of policy or is it going to do something different and independent and reassert its power as an independent regional player. or at world update time here on r t let's start with the yemeni capital now where a powerful blast has ripped through a bus carrying air force personnel some reports say at least twelve of being killed and still the explosion was caused by a bomb planted inside the vehicle the authorities in the our regions of poor state are battling tribal militias who do end up targeting the nation's military. thousands of people have rallied in the capital of tunisia calling for the

resignation of the islamist led government a coalition of opposition parties staged in mass protests demanding new elections be staged demonstrators say they're tired by the inability of both or agrees to maintain security and to restart the economy the ongoing unrest which erupted in july it was stalled by the assassination of a left wing opposition politician. a state of emergency has to be declared in the american state of california after a raging wildfire swept into yosemite national park the blaze doubled in size overnight and forced the city of san francisco to shut down some power lines and the wildfires have also led to the evacuation of hundreds of people from a nearby town officials report that only five percent of the blaze so far has been contained. and to colombia it's reported at least one person has been killed in antigovernment protests earlier this week the country's truckers and farmers held

rallies against presidential reforms they say are harming their incomes and police used tear gas to disperse the crowds with rioting demonstrators throwing rocks and explosives it all comes as colombia's largest guerrilla group the far rebels walked away from peace talks with the government. or that was the antiwar dot that for now though more than half a million brits could be losing their homes over a debt as small as a thousand pounds new regulation applies to people's unsecured loans as police explains. frankie's ran up several thousand pounds worth of credit card bills that he can't pay off and because of new laws he could lose his home as a result new regulations state that an individual needs to own just a thousand pounds on their credit card or personal loans for a lender to force them to sell their home through court nobody asked me or twisted mile for somebody to take out the credit write that small are doing until i like

but the word unsecured was attached to it unsecured borrowing is borrowing that it isn't attached to anything initially you're not at risk of losing anything if you don't rebuy but after government you tan all that changed a charging order is a way for a lender to secure a debt from a credit card or a personal loan against an individual's house back in two thousand and ten the coalition government promised to make the threshold for charging orders over twenty five thousand pounds but they changed their minds which means that frankie is now being pursued by the by and can face is losing his house over a debt of six thousand pounds we want to about threshold set at twenty five thousand pounds if he wants it back extra layer of consumer protection the government has made it easier for lenders to get charging orders frank he says he feels angry about the coalition's change of heart the situation should never of come to me unsecured means unsecured. but it's not like they'll secure the property when i didn't sign for

a secured loan he's not alone persons office of fair trading has already warned major banks over threatening to force debtors to sell their homes over debts of just over a thousand pounds but the justice ministry says that by introducing the threshold they're actually helping protect debt as people having to sell their house to pay off debts should always be a last resort we want it to stay that way which is why we've introduced a minimum threshold on charging orders that provides appropriate protection to creditors and debt is one ensuring that even fewer people have to sell their homes but house prices in the u.k. are on the rise and debt charities are predicting a surge in charging orders it's very disappointing that they produce that threshold because one thousand pounds is an incredibly low sum of money to i want to own a credit card or personal life and we don't think it should ever be the case anyone is it is a danger of losing their home over such a small sum frank he says he can't afford to pay back his debts how does that make

you feel the thought of losing your. how do you think it makes me feel i mean i feel for really sick and more war through was a really sick over it it's something in the good times we took pride in being and the bad songs we've struggled very very holds this extra pressure financial pressure is causing a rift between. our relationships were strong and. loss not good and with his court date penciled in for september it's beginning to hit home for frankie he could lose the house he's lived in for over twenty years. r.t. london thank you for joining us here on our today i'm over sushi up next though the price that one african nation is a well paying for turning just a few heads the international monetary fund.

they say geo politics is a lot like a schoolyard and while obama snubbing a meeting with the president of russia to in theory punish him for the stone incident sounds kind of amateur that is the kind of stuff the girl you did when you're sixteen would do cancel a date just to show you how much your feelings are hurt let's not mistake the cancelled meeting with cutting off diplomatic relations which is a total rejection of any form of discussion with another country which really isn't a bold and possibly dangerous political message but obama did was more like a minor annoyance he knows that he will talk to putin again in the near future i mean how are they not going to talk in the next g. eight summit what is he just going to have to hide behind merkel the whole time and hope it works out or duck behind the shrimp cocktail whatever here's a russian act.