or. damascus allows u.n. inspectors access to the site of an alleged chemical attack the u.s. says it has little doubt the assad government carried it out but russia's warning against forced assumptions. also this week military will blow bradley manning requests a presidential pardon after being sentenced to thirty five years in jail for the biggest leak in america's history plus. the difficulty with an ultimatum from the british government that if we didn't hand back the material or destroy it they would move to law. the editor of the guardian newspaper appeals hell he was pressured to destroy files he received from n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden our top story this hour.

a look back at the top stories from the last seven days and the latest developments this is the weekly here on. damascus has given us inspectors permission to access the site of an alleged mass chemical attack this is the u.s. says it's almost certain the assad government carried out the assault and pledged a serious response alongside its ally the u.k. all these middle east correspond pull slip is following the growing tensions. well damascus has agreed to allow u.n. investigators access to the scene of the alleged chemical attack but the point needs to be made that damascus says it will do its maximum to ensure safe passage for the investigators the actual territory is result held and then so i hope to maybe it will be the rebel forces who determine whether or not the u.n. investigators have reactors that they require we're just hearing however from the

united states who says that this now comes too late we are however hearing from the u.n. that they will regardless begin their investigation come monday now this comes as the united states says it has very little doubt that damascus was behind this chemical strike the u.s. intelligence basing these claims on the number of reported deaths we're hearing that upwards of one hundred of one hundred people were in fact killed it also is basing these claims on the types of injuries and on eyewitness reports these kind of discussions are emerging from a meeting of the american president barack obama with his security advisers we know that he's been prevented with a review of possible options in terms of american response if indeed there has been the use of chemical weaponry president obama has repeatedly said that if assad uses chemical weapons that would be a green light that would be a red line in terms of which american and foreign intervention would be justified

at the same time the white house is also saying that it believes that damascus did laid the axis to these u.n. investigators because it wanted to give the chemical weapons time to degrade now all of this comes as the you in moves its naval forces in the mediterranean closer to the syrian coast and we are hearing from the united states that it would be prepared to strike if indeed called upon to do so this comes as syrian state television is reporting that syrian soldiers entered a number of tunnels in a damascus suburb that had been you. by rebel fighters and they they found evidence of chemical waste and they were empty shells that had mocked on them made in saudi arabia and saudi arabia of course being a very vocal critic of the syrian president bashar assad there seems to be a lot of reports and evidence that the rebels in fact are responsible for carrying out these chemical attacks but let me make the point that all the footage we're

witnessing and all the reports that are circulating online are as of yet i'm verified the rebels for themselves are vowing revenge we have heard from and call mr leader in an audio recording that's also been posted online saying that in revenge they will fire a thousand rockets at the assad regime this comes as the united states chief of staff as well as the chiefs of staffs of britain france and civil our arab countries sit down in jordan and there they are discussing ways of beefing up security on the borders of countries that surround syria and this is of concern whether or not there is going to be a future chemical attack or any other kind of violence spilling over from syria into neighboring countries. well the russian foreign ministry is concerned about the pressure being put on assad government despite the u.n. investigation into the alleged use of chemicals having not even started let's get more details now from sean thomas who joins me live from central moscow so sean

tell us more about russia's reaction over these building tensions in syria well bill russia is urging caution to the west saying that assigning blame and too soon over the alleged use of chemical weapons in syria would be a tragic mistake in fact in a statement released on sunday the foreign ministry did not mention the u.s. by name but i'm going to read what they said it says we strongly urge those who in trying to impose their opinion on u.n. experts ahead of the results of an investigation announce the possibility of military action against syria to exercise discretion and not make tragic mistakes now again they did not mention the u.s. but this comes as a broad. bertie advisers as well as his military advisors and even spoken to the prime minister of the u.k. cameron and basically saying that they are prepared to use military action making sure they know what is on the table bear but president obama has not made

a decision as of yet now russia has suggested that in these situations it can be tricky to decide who is actually responsible in has said that it might even be the rebels who are responsible for a chemical attack if in fact a chemical attack has actually happened and in a separate less formal statement that was issued shortly after this one on sunday russian officials said we've heard this before we've seen this when it comes to the situation in iraq during the bush administration and if you remember weapons of mass destruction and this led to the tragedy that was of the war in iraq ten plus years there by the united states military occupation and so russia and the rest of the world are not ready for another similar situation in iraq so again russia urging caution. in moscow thanks very much and even up to. what despite harsh rhetoric against the syrian government and the u.s. military waiting for

a green light to attack it appears the americans don't want an intervention here's what the latest poll has revealed just nine percent of the u.s. citizens who took part in this survey say they want their president to act while sixty percent said america stay away from the civil war there in syria when asked about washington support for the opposition about one tenth said the bombers should do more for the rebels than just send them what almost ninety percent don't want america to help the opposition but meanwhile medical charity doctors without borders say that they received more than three thousand patients suffering from intoxication on wednesday when the chemical assault was reported three hundred fifty five of them died exactly who was behind the attack it's still hard to verify it. the u.s. and its allies have assumed a sad is to blame but political analyst patrick henningsen believes it's the opposition that is profiting. if we look at the history of this particular region the region where the attack 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 who benefits from a chemical attack in syria well the opposition benefits it's quite obvious the syrian government does not benefit the opposition benefits because this would be the key to unlock the. airstrikes bombing campaign over syria. libya. 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. international tensions are running high as the pentagon moves naval forces closer to syria despite a bomb the being cautious over an intervention so what do those preparations for

attack usually tell us what you think on our web site don't come so far look at the results on the screen the majority say that. washington wants to divert americans away from domestic problems around thirty percent think that the pentagon is ready to strike no matter what a bomb a says about being cautious thirteen percent saying that the u.s. wants political leverage over chemical arms and the u.n. investigation and the minority so far eleven percent think the pentagon is readying for attack just in case you log on to comment on our home page and give us your vote. right. first strike. and i would think that your. orders would.

be in the. whistleblower bradley manning was sentenced to thirty five years in prison this week he was responsible for the massive leak of classified data that exposed alleged american more crimes in iraq and afghanistan the former army private is now hoping for politan from the u.s. president manning addressed a letter to a bomber insisting he acted out of love for his country seeking to protect the values and ideals of the united states next soldier also said he would gladly pay the price for living in a free american society because he's got a check on reports it's the debate over manning's personal issues that is now grabbing the headlines at least 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 newman 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 manner of speech 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 it allows 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 prove that they

wanted she never really wanted this to be public to begin with 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 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. you're watching the weekly on r.t. and still to come this hour for you it's back to square one dictator hosni mubarak has been let out of jail but many in egypt now questioning whether anything good has come out of the two thousand and eleven revolution that toppled him in the first place. there's a new leak from whistleblower edward snowden today it says that the national

security agency has been listening in on the united nations. in new york as the details on this latest revelation. america's national security agency allegedly cracked the encryption guarding the united nations' internal video conferencing system that's according to german newspaper der spiegel the publication says that the n.s.a. surveillance of the united nations took place last summer and three weeks after hacking into the video system america's spy agency had allegedly boosted its number its number of such decrypted communications from twelve to four hundred fifty eight now for anyone who doesn't already know this spying on the united nations is illegal under international law der spiegel also reports that the u.s. maintains a monitoring program called the special collection service in over eighty embassies and consulates around the world often without the knowledge of the host country now

many may be wondering why is it that the united states would want to spy on the united nations would spy on its allies because as as we've been reporting and as us president barack obama said himself recently the n.s.a. is in place to protect america's security and target only potential terrorists what we do have or some mechanisms where we can track a full member or e-mail address that we know is connected to the terrorist group now it's unclear how spying on the united nations and international partners coincides with america's war on terror if anything what many critics are saying is that what may come out of the n.s.a. is worldwide surveillance is a loss in confidence and reliability in the united states because you have to think about it if you have a friend that you trust to find out is always spying on you is listening to what you're saying is watching what you're doing is reading what you're typing does that

relationship still stay strong and that is a question that is clearly coming to light not only following this report but those questions have been coming to light over past months ever since edward snowden blew the whistle on n.s.a. spying programs. well the leak that marina has been talking about came from germany but britain's guardian newspaper has published many there but snowden's previous revelations led to the government forcing them to destroy secret files because they feared data could fall into the wrong hands if the paper service or hacked the documents weren't even stored on there and there were other copies of these tests are still it has more. you've had your fun now it's time to return of the documents so the unnamed government official to the newspaper editor it could be the stuff of movies all week 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 work 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 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 the journalist who had broken the story of snowden's leaks and the same materials miranda 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 once they can do. 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 the rand is new tension as well as the destruction of computers

in the 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 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 competent full sources is becoming difficult in these documents there is no stated ambition to scoop up everything and store it all to the internet this is the language that's being used internally to search celia r.t.e. london. you're watching the weekly here in r.t.

stay with us because just after this short break we head east where experts predict floodwaters will for another seven days forcing rescuers into a round the clock to pile sandbags into nine metre high flood walls that and other stories after the break. what defines a country's success. faceless figures of economic growth. standard of living.

pleasure to have you with us here on our. weekly continues here on now to russia where extreme flooding continues to devastate the far east experts say levels have not yet peaked and may continue to rise until the second or third of september well that's another whole week. a region which is already more than seven meters underwater so this is where it all

began the river burst its banks after weeks of unrelenting downpours covering an area the size of france and germany it's been a federal emergency for nearly three weeks with more torrential rain feeding the rising flood waters now these three regions have been the worst affected up to eighty five thousand livelihoods are under threat in the region alone three dozen towns of over three thousand inhabitants are already under water as you can see here the regional capital city of over half a million lives only in the itself where it meets the city river now where rescuers volunteers and soldiers are fighting to fortify a riverbank over thirty kilometers long before scott brings us the latest on those efforts. like this is marina a resident of culturing also 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 marina 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 or move here that. have 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 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 it's good that aid is going to come there is good they do have there but he needed to stay here they face patel te's greet the treat us like their own children although the situation in the how about osprey general mains critical further west there's hope the worst is over and 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 a more region four 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 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 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 oscar. just remind you go to more stories for you online and here's what you can find an r.t. dot com right now racist haven a neo nazi man is trying to turn a small town in the u.s. state of north dakota into white supremacist stronghold and find out how he's going about it on article called. also there are

a lot of the moment bargaining with bitcoin supporters of the emerging digital currency brought their cyber wanted to a special event in london log on to the web site and find out what happened. the retrial of egypt's president hosni mubarak has been adjourned until september he appeared in court today facing charges of alleged complicity in the killings of protesters during the uprising which else did him two years ago the former leader was let out of jail earlier this week and placed under house arrest in a military hospital his release is added to tensions in the country with many thing as part of a reversal of gains one join the two thousand and eleven revolution egypt has been enduring an unprecedented wave of deadly protests and the military is now mr president mohammed morsi was the brotherhood leaders have been arrested over the same period their trials are to be held in an independent political analyst and glazebrook believes the barracks release. 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 and discussing cutting off aid and so on certainly very symbolic but what 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 a 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 now or some

other stories making headlines around the world in a world updated to very nearly twenty of the little germany's top euro skeptic politician was attacked on stage during a rally in bremen two on the assailants armed with knives jumped on byrne look at as he was making a speech at the euro campaign event some two dozen others then sprayed the audience with pepper spray and tear gas his party which once the euro balazs has been the subject of several attacks in the last two months. another day of deadly attacks in iraq where at least twenty three people have died and eight separate attacks near mosul five soldiers were shot and burned after being stopped at a fake checkpoint blast and five other cities including the capital killed civilians and left dozens injured authorities blame insurgents for the bloodshed but have not named any group in particular. the problem anti corruption blogger and candidate for the mayor of moscow alexina vali has been arrested after meeting his

supporters in the capital police had also the opposition activist to cancel that event a few hours before it took place according to the only supporters when he still went ahead with the meeting police came in and cut off the power generators on the station of only was speaking from and led him away he has previously had seventy three similar events where he met with his supporters and the mare lections a coming up on september the eight. but to bring it up to date for the moment i'll be back with a news team with morphine just evolving up next the price one african nation is paying for turning a few heads in the international monetary fund after the break.