damascus spector's access to the site of an alleged chemical attack the u.s. says it has little government carried it out but russia's warning against forced assumptions. also this week military bradley manning requests a presidential pardon after being sentenced to thirty five years in jail for the biggest leak in america's history plus. he would face the. british government if we didn't hand back the material or destroy the. law the editor of the guardian newspaper reveals how he was pressured to destroy files he received from n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden our top stories 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. authorities middle east correspondent 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 while the damascus says it will do its maximum to ensure safe passage for the investigators the actual territory is held and then so ultimately it will be the rebel forces who determine whether or not the u.n. investigators have the access 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 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

now this comes as the united states 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 used by rebel fighters and they they found evidence of chemical waste there 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 our mr leader in an audi recording that's also been posted online saying that in revenge

they will fire a thousand rockets at the assad regime. poorness live there will be russian foreign ministry's worried about the pressure being put on assad's government despite the u.n. investigation into the alleged use of chemicals having not even started yet or tissue and thomas has more on moscow's reaction. russia is urging caution to the west saying that assigning blame to 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 broke obama has met with his security advisers as well as his military advisers 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 there 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 russian officials said on sunday that we've seen all of this before in fact discussing the situation in iraq back in the bush administration saying the u.s. administration pointed to weapons of mass destruction which were never found in iraq but that led to an occupation and invasion ten years plus of united states involvement in the country so russian officials are urging caution saying that the

world community does not want to see a repeat of this situation in syria and is basically asking the west to hold off until the you an investigation has taken place and they know more about the situation. ulti sean thomas there were despite harsh rhetoric against the syrian government in the us military waiting for a green light to attack it appears americans don't want an intervention now here's what the latest poll has just revealed just nine percent of the u.s. citizens who took part in this survey want their president to act and sixty percent say america should stay well away from the civil war there in syria when also about washington support for the opposition about one tenth said that a bomb should do more for the rebels than just. two percent say they don't want america to help the opposition in any way well the medical charity doctors without borders say 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 but exactly who was behind the attack is still hard to verify this is the rebel group say they've got their largest shipment of weapons in the past three days in conjunction with that u.s. military buildup in the region do you or activist richard becker says it is not a coincidence. this is. connected to each other and as a strategy to try to reverse the course that the war has taken where the government has made very significant gains and to try to actually step up the effort or to bring down. the entire government of syria there's a lot of weapons out there in the world and there are a lot of suppliers for the rebels road groups at this point so i don't think it would be a great obstacle for them to to obtain a weapon so why would they want to do it they in order to win require what they require with the opposition required in libya that it was

a nato intervention the u.s. is doing what it wants to do saying what it wants to say to try to mobilize public notices to justify a potential intervention. 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 an attack usually mean well tell us what you think on our web site it's all t. dot com and looking at the results on the screen so far we can see that half of those of you who voted say that washington wants to divert americans from domestic problems that's a problem with five percent of you there around a third of thinking that the pentagon is ready to strike no matter what a bomber says about being cautious and then thirteen percent think that the u.s. wants political leverage over chemical arms and the u.n. investigation and just eleven percent minority of this are saying that the pentagon is readying for attack just in case you haven't done so already log on to our

online poll on the home page at polity dot com. right to the scene. first rick. and i think you're. going to. instal. to be a. 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 war crimes in iraq and afghanistan the former army private is now hoping for a pardon from the u.s. president or manning addressed a letter to obama insisting he acted out of love for his country seeking to protect the values and ideals of the united states the next soldier also said he would

gladly pay the price for living in a free american society result he's got a report says the debate over manning's personal issues that is now grabbing the headlines. bradley manning sentence of thirty five years behind bars has said unimpressive dennet 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 manage 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 manning's 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 that 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 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 on . you watching weekly here in r.t.

live from moscow after a short break we take a look at the latest allegations against the n.s.a. coming from top secret documents leaked by edward snowden stay with us from our. end of the story. choose your language. make it with know if they still some. choose the consensus. choose the opinions that invigorating to. choose the stories that imply. choose access to.

these continues or not see that's a new leak from whistleblower edward snowden it says that the national security agency has been listening in on the united nations and he's made a point not in new york has 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 happening into the video system america's spy agency had allegedly boosted its number its number of such decrypted communications from twelve to four hundred and fifty eight now for anyone who doesn't already know the spying on the united nations is illegal under international law 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 american security and target only potential terrorists what

we do with it or some mechanisms where we can track a full member or e-mail address that we know is connected to. 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. artie's marina point now there were prior to this the same german media outlet revealed how the n.s.a. has bugged the e.u.

offices and listened into them as dr who is a member of the european parliament representing the swedish pirate party says that despite all this e.u. law makers are reluctant to introduce new data protection legislation. would make a good data protection regulation and we are just as nuclear out of european union however the national security debate surrounded out of protection of nation are now incredibly tough and it seems that european political leaders are not as willing to . teach steps to safeguard the trust and confidence in public works and internet newsgroups that maybe we as citizens would like for them to undertake but so in general what we see in europe this is a mishmash of outrage statements and political inaction the leak that our reporter marina portnoy was talking about a little earlier came from germany but britain's guardian newspaper has published many of edward snowden's previous revelations that lead to the government forcing

them to destroy secret files because they fear data could fall into the wrong hands if the papers service one hacked but the documents weren't even stored on there and that there were other copies. as more. 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 all week 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 too 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 web by former contractor of the national security agency edward snowden but in recent days the editor of the newspaper is also publicized what have 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 and 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 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 were random 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 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 in danger 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 in the 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 as being 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 but some of pointed to be noticeably

lackluster response from the country's newspapers following his revelations especially considering that the 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 the internet this is the language that's being used internally does or celia r.t. london. we've got even more stories and here's what you can. write racist haven. is trying to turn a small town in the us state of north dakota into a white supremacist stronghold. i was going to do that. bargain with bitcoin supporters of the emerging digital currency. a special event on to the website and find out what happened that.

went out to russia where extreme flooding continues to devastate the far east experts say levels have not yet peaked and make a. to new to rise until the second or third of september that another whole week and for a region which is already more than seven meters underwater now this is where it all began the murray river burst its banks after weeks of unrelenting downpours covering an area the size of france and germany it has been a federal emergency for nearly three weeks now with more to rental 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 cupboard of screeching alone three dozen towns of over three thousand inhabitants are already under water as you can see here the regional capital the city of over half a million people live on the moon river where actually meets the sciri river now

there rescuers volunteers and soldiers are fighting to fortify a river bank of over thirty kilometers long and paul scott is bringing us now the latest on those efforts. like this is marina a resident of all sort of ski 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 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 or move here we. have been crying all week we've lost all our property and that's after we've renovated hundred 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 slider. 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 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. 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 i ask concern the defenses could be bridged 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. time now for some other stories making headlines around the world this hour germany's top euro skeptic politician was attacked on stage during a rally in bremen two unknown assailants armed with knives jumped on burned looker as he was making a speech at the anti euro campaign event some two dozen others then sprayed the audience with pepper spray and tear gas his party which wants the euro abolished has been the subject of several attacks in the last two months. and another day of attacks in iraq have claimed the lives of forty eight people in eight separate assaults the most deadly was in the northern city of mosul where eleven died in a car bomb explosion last and five other cities including the capital where three civilians and dozens of others were left injured and now authorities blame insurgents for the bloodshed but have not named any group in particular. this is

all to live here moscow you've been watching the weekly i'll be back with more in just over half an hour with the news team in the meantime to be opening brings you this week's top business news that sin venture capital off to a short break stay with us for that if you can. see good leverage or two mccurry was able to build a new most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give

a dollar amount anything tunes mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans and world this is why you should care only on the dog. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. of what's in venture capital i'm katie pilbeam basically the state television went back on that contact as. to still be weighed down by its finances plus the man at

stake coming to moscow next week will be checking out what can be warring through this guy's in house investor sean thomas he's voiced the business that's ahead as well about what he's not going to be making a little freaked out last week the c.b.s. early close outage that corporate used to libya's oil industry the country's lifeline is in danger of destruction as ports guard strikes continue to disrupt the country's exports with an estimated loss of one point six billion dollars losses at the ports has been caused by competition between members of the nudie placed petroleum facilities gas made up of ex militia members fighting amongst themselves the selling of the country's oil for personal gain of the country is reliant on or like sports accounting for ninety five percent of all output the produces shipments have been cut to their low.