today's news on the week's top stories right here. the u.s. and u.k. . allegations of a chemical attack in syria damascus warns that western intervention would simply inflame the entire region. britain's guardian newspaper reveals it was pressured by london. the notorious. bradley manning appeals for a presidential thirty five year revealing u.s. war crimes however for the meantime the mainstream media is in a frenzy over the whistleblower gender identity.

with a top headlines of the week and today the weekly with me will receive. barack obama and david cameron who threaten syria's government with a serious response if indeed it's kind of. hundreds of people on wednesday meanwhile assad's administration has warned against a u.s. led intervention saying the move would just set the middle east ablaze. told me the latest reports coming from the country. over the allegations against the syrian regime. and 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 thousand 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 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 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 the bomber all the latest facts on the ground you 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 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 play paul you talk about the military posturing on the part of washington with it with a fourth warship heading to the region as well the warning. serious consequence of serious retaliation to syria when it comes to the 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 allegations are essentially speculation and we have real news 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 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 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 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 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 moving in that direction. and a while the u.n. inspectors have yet to determine whether chemicals have been used and who used them or the medical charity have met their claims that more than three thousand patients with neurotoxic symptoms have been treated in capital city area hospitals of which three hundred and fifty five of them have died. the professor of international law or georgetown university says that the results of the u.n. probe could leave the obama administration rather red faced if it is going to turn out to be the rebels who are using the weapon loose poisonous material the u.s. would be embarrassed because it could be the allies of the u.s. opposition to the u.s. . quoting claiming that these are people who are seeking democracy and rule of

law and fighting corruption or whatever in syria and this is the purpose of the regime change 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 very few cation i think if we would take all the what the u.s. president has said does not indicate that military action is imminent. now we've been following this latest escalation in the syrian crisis online if you log on to r.t. dot com you can get her the latest updates and extensive analysis as well. this week the british newspaper which spilled the beans on the n.s.a. and was in turn forced to destroy the materials provided by edward snowden came clean on why it gave into government pressure the guardian editor 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 artie's testor us earlier 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 only 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 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 work by former contractor of the national security agency edward snowden but in recent days the editor of the newspapers 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 salaries moochers 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 in glenn greenwald vigilance to have broken the story of snowden's leaks and the same materials were random was obtained under the u. 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 what's their condoning if they were. 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 the 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 and to master the internet this is the language that's being used internally to search cellular r.t. london and of course in the united states independent online resources are now coming under renewed pressure to hand over user data to the n.s.a. my colleague my treasure spoke with the founder of one encrypted private messaging service and i want to move his website offshore to try and protect some sort of 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 a 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 fly list there's no way you don't even know 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 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 just been completely excavated the oceans been pouring in. with the united states convicted whistleblower bradley manning who past proof of american war crimes to wiki leaks is now seeking a pardon from the white house and manning was sentenced to thirty five years in jail this week for the biggest leak of military data in history and a letter though addressed to barack obama it was about i was stressed he's a patriot who acted to protect the very liberties that americans hold dear however the mainstream media has just launched a fresh smear campaign against him he is guy nature can reports bradley manning

sentence of thirty five years behind bars has said on the president it punishment threshold for whistleblowers bradley manning should be walking the streets and being treated for who use 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 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 we 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 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 when the information came out you need to understand this she gave it to her in a limo in a very private setting and a one on one chat never expecting this to be public now that it is unfortunately 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. all right thanks for joining us here on out he said just a short break after coping with disaster to try and survive the entire house is completely submerged and it's clear looking around is going to take a lot of time money and effort before this place returns to normal. for

those living in the far eastern city of. crews remain on high alert amid warnings now that the worst of the flooding is just around the corner. that can now for some. homes the details are just ahead. what defines a country's success. faceless figures of economic growth. or a standard of living.

we're running down the top headlines of the week and today with the weekly here on r t 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 how bad off go now the worst hit area artie's appall scott has been there for two weeks now he filed this as his latest report. like this is marina a resident of bolshoi also risky island and this is a marine his 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 is 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. who've been crying all week we've lost all our property and that's after we've renovated hundred wallpaper 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 the 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 t's greet they 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 that the situation is changing and we are going to regroup our forces people now come from the neighboring a more region four planes arrive here every day. now water levels in some parts of this region have already beaten records that have stood for more than one hundred and twenty years lots 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 ease 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's what we're covering at r.t. dot com for you this hour point friendly supporters of the controversial cyber currency gather in berlin you can find out how it all went down there. also thousands take to the streets of bahrain demanding democratic reforms we've got the footage plus the timeline of the ongoing protests just a click away for you right now. to egypt now here on the program the former president hosni mubarak he's being flown to a courthouse to face a retrial on charges of complicity in the killing that is of almost nine hundred protesters and twenty eleven he was released from prison this thursday being put under house arrest after an appeal against his detention and this was seen by many

in the nation as a rollback on the changes that flowed from the arab spring summer gyptian politicians even say it could escalate tension even further there have been nonstop protests and bloodshed in the country since july the army toppled the country's first democratically elected president mohammed morsy a defense consultant believes the nation's military will turn any civilian politician into its own. lot even if they bring a civilian in the suit remember mubarak wore a suit before he wore a suit but the. military men. who are in power and even if a civilian government came into power they have to do as the military says or once and as long as the pro-west are no u.s. government will be allowed to remain in power as soon as they start speaking out or trying to exert their own ideas. mostly so no military. power for decades and martial law has been called for

decades so the military don't see any change in circumstances. world update time here on r t let's go straight to the yemeni capital for a powerful blast through a bus carrying air force personnel at least six people have been killed and twenty six others wounded in this attack thought the explosion was caused by a bomb planted inside the vehicle and it went off as the bus was transporting workers to the base. in the arab regions. tribal militias who do often target 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 protests demanding new elections be held demonstrators say they are tired by the inability of the authorities to maintain security and restart the economy of the ongoing unrest which erupted in july was

sparked by the assassination of a left wing opposition politician. a state of emergency has been declared in california after a raging wildfire swept through your seventy national park and the blaze doubled in size overnight and forced san francisco to shut down some of its power lines and the wildfires have also led to the evacuation of hundreds of people from a nearby town officials now we're told that only five percent of the blaze has so far been contained. now more than half a million brits could be losing their homes this over a debt of small is a thousand pounds and the new regulation applies to people's unsecured loans has more. 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 right that small are doing and so 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 repay 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 frank who 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 of twenty five thousand pounds if we want 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 why didn't someone for a secured loan he's not alone britain's office for fair trading has already warned major banks over threatening to force debtors to sell their homes and the debts of just over a thousand pounds but the justice ministry says that by introducing the threshold they're actually helping protect debtors 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 that one thousand pounds is an incredibly low sum of money to i want to own a credit card or a 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 franky says he can't afford to pay back his debts how does that make you feel for losing your. how do you think it makes me feel let me know if the thought really sick more war through was a really sick over it it's something in the good times we took. and the bad so on we've struggled very very holds this extra pressure financial pressure is causing a rift between my wife annoyed our relationships were destroyed and. lost not good and when his court date penciled in for september it's beginning to hit home to frankie kitties the house he's lived in twenty years. i mean about half an hour's time here and i. will be here for the meantime though

at the price that one african nation is paying for just turning a few heads of the i.m.f. that documentary coming away in just a moment for now live from moscow and see with me role research. they see geopolitics is a lot like a schoolyard and what obama snubbing a meeting with the president of russia to in theory punish him for the stoughton 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 this cancelled meeting with cutting off diplomatic relations which is the total rejection of any form of discussion with of a country which really sent a bold and possibly dangerous but a 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 of 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 ducked behind the shrimp cocktail whatever here's a russian accent one could argue that to appease republicans he had to do something to look strong after the student body but this grants. nothing just comes across as silly passing something like a new jackson fit a commandment yeah that is how you could chose people that you're really mad even if your anger is irrational because stone pretty much did the right thing but that's just my opinion. going to. the judge so that i could money to buy seeds. the money the money.