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 is warning against jumping to conclusions. also this week military whistleblower bradley manning requests a presidential pardon after being sentenced to thirty five years in jail for the biggest leak in america's history plus. 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. 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.

back at the top stories from the last seven days and the latest developments this is the weekly here on r.t. damascus has given u.n. inspectors permission to access the site of an alleged mass chemical attack this is the u.s. says it is almost certain the assad government carried out the assault and pledged a serious response alongside its ally the u.k. middle east. 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 is it will do its maximum to ensure a safe house initially for the investigation the actual territory is rebel 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 of 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 nice thing 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 there would be

a red line in terms of which american and foreign intervention would be justified now of 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 made they found evidence of chemical waste there were empty shells that had marked 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 unverified the rebels for themselves are vowing revenge we have heard from an illness or

leader in an order recording that's also been posted online saying that in revenge they will fire a thousand rockets at the assad regime ortiz port of the world the russian foreign ministry is worried about the pressure being put on assad's government despite the u.n. investigation into the energy use of chemicals having not even started yet thomas has more loss goes 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 u. and investigation has taken place and they know more about the situation. sean thomas there will despite the harsh rhetoric against the syrian government and the u.s. military waiting for a green light to attack it appears that americans don't want an intervention and here's what the latest poll has revealed there from the states just nine percent of u.s. citizens who took part in the survey do want their president to act but about sixty percent say that america should not stay away or i should say should stay away from the civil war there in syria when asked about washington support for the opposition about one tenth said that obama should do more for the rebels than just send them arms while almost eighty percent i should say ninety percent don't want america to help the opposition well meanwhile medical charity doctors without borders say that

they receive 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 it's 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 u.s. military buildup in the region and antiwar activist richard becker a spokesman earlier he says that 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 stamp out the after to bring down the the interim government of syria there's a lot of weapons out there in the world 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 very in order to win and require what they require which the opposition required in libya i doubt 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 opinion you know see this to justify a potential intervention. international tensions are running high as the pentagon moves naval forces closer to syria despite obama being cautious over an intervention so what do those preparations for attack usually mean will tell us what you think on our website at the moment r t dot com that's our online poll so far almost whole for those who voted say that washington wants to divert americans away from the domestic problems around a third think that the pentagon is ready to strike no matter what obama says about being cautious over this and thirteen percent are saying that the u.s. wants political leverage over chemical arms and that u.n.

investigation and the minority this out just eleven percent believe that the pentagon is ready for an attack just in case you can log on to r.t. dot com to cast your vote good to hear from. the right to see. her story. and i think your. instagram. 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 well he 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 and acts older also said he would gladly pay the price for living in a free american society but it's not he's going to check our reports it is the debate over manning's personal issues that is now grabbing the headlines. 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 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 an 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 really no 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 let people have the answer that they wanted she never really wanted this to be public to begin with and when the information came out you need to understand the she gave it to her in a limo in a very private setting in a one on one chat never expecting this to be public now that it is 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. be watching the weekly hit on the 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 that and other stories shortly stay with us. there's a medium leave us so we leave that maybe. by the same motion security play the part of the physical. issues that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from it's all politicking only on our t.v. . planation. cretaceous three. four chargers free to make amends three. three stooges free.

download free blog plug in video for your media projects for free media and don to r.t. dot com. weekly continues head on l.t. there's a new leak from whistleblower edward snowden it says that the national security agency has been listening in on the united nations 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 a cryptic communications from twelve to four hundred and 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 with spy on its allies because as we've been reporting and as u.s.

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 world wide 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 not as a question that is clearly coming to light not only following this report but those questions have been coming to light over the past months ever since edward snowden blew the whistle on n.s.a. spying programs. artie's more important than i will prior to this the same german

media outlet revealed how the n.s.a. has bugged the e.u. offices and listened in to them and daughter who's a member of the european parliament representing the swedish pirate party says that despite all this e.u. lawmakers are reluctant to introduce new data protection legislation. would make a good data protection regulation and we are just absolutely out of the equation in european union however the national security debates among the data protection ignition are now incredibly toss in it seems that european political leaders are not as willing to. teach steps to safeguard the trust and confidence in public works in 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. while the leaks that our reporter marina portnoy talked about earlier came from germany 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 servers are hacked but the documents weren't even stored on there and there were other copies of these tests as more. you've had your fun now it's time to return to the documents said 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 to law in recent months the guardian newspaper has come to be known as the paper that's been exposing secret material from a trove of information passed on to wit by former contractor of the national security agency edward snowden but in recent days the editor of the 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 and computers which

contained the very information the paper has 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 do a 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 parker 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 once they 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 what in danger of the public for the following reasons you've got to have reasons for no such reason. miranda tension as well as the destruction of computers in the 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 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 newspapers following. especially considering that press appears to be at stake the business of reporting securely and having confidential sources is becoming difficult in these documents there is the stated ambition to scoop up everything and store it all to the internet this is the language that's being used internally. r.t. london. with more stories for you and here's what you can find dot com right now. haven. is trying to turn a small town in the us state of north dakota into a white supremacist stronghold you can find out how he's going about it. plus bargaining with bitcoin supporters of the emerging digital currency. to

a special event in. the website and find out what happened it's all online all the time. now to russia where extreme flooding continues to devastate the far east experts say the levels have not yet peaked. and they continue to rise until the second or third of september now that's another whole week for a region which is already more than seven meters under water and 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 combined it's been a federal emergency for nearly three weeks with more to ritual rain feeding the rising floodwaters while these three regions have been the worst affected up to eighty five thousand livelihoods are under threat in the habit of screeching alone three dozen towns of over three thousand inhabitants are already under water now as you can see here the regional capital it's a city of over half

a million people lies only a murder where it meets the assyria river now there rescuers volunteers and soldiers fighting to fortify a riverbank over thirty kilometers long and paul scott brings us now the latest on those efforts. like this is marina a resident of 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 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 it'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 when. the plug has been crying all week we've lost all our property and that's after we've renovated hung new wallpaper a place new carpets. although some hardy souls remain predominantly this village is like a ghost town but despite the chaos there are resilient attempts to carry on as normal with 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 a policy that's good that aid is going to come there is good they do have the opportunity to stay here they face patel te's greet the treat us like the children

all of the situation in the how about ask region remains critical further west there's hope the worst is over in the region attention is now turning to the cleanup operation just as. 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 but now water levels in some parts of this region have already beaten records that have stood for more than one hundred and twenty years that's of six hundred and forty two centimeters and the fear is that as the rains continue that could push the eight meter barrier causing even more devastation and destruction to people's lives and homes the military and emergency services continue to work around the clock to reinforce how about i ask concern the defenses could be breached by water that at the moment shows no signs of receding and 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. time now for some other stories making headlines around the world at this stage of the day germany's top era skeptic politician was attacked on stage during a rally in bremen two unknown assailants armed with knives jumped on byrne look at as he was making a speech at the campaign event some two dozen other than sprayed the audience with pepper spray into a gas his party which once 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 three in the capital killed civilians and that dozens injured authorities blame insurgents for the bloodshed but have not named any group in particular. and now to yemen

where a bomb has killed a number of air force officers in the capital the device exploded ripping through the side of the bus carrying them scattering victims across the street reflecting reports suggest between one and six officers may have died and there are regular attacks on military personnel as the country struggles to control separatists islamist militants with al qaeda links. strikes into the sixth day in colombia farmers again clashed with security forces over recent economic reforms and these are the biggest protests the country's seen in nearly a decade the president said he will not let the unrest destabilize the state and ordered police to continue their crackdown nation is open its economy to foreign trade and new low prices are hurting local producers. and my colleague carrie johnson will be here with the news team in less than just over half an hour from now as the news continues in the meantime after this short break it is technology update this is. live in moscow.

sometimes it seems like in the face of giant corporations people are just sort of helpless i could be pretty pessimistic myself about what a few individuals with no real money or power can really do against the system but you never dull in fact if you remember tour discussion about ammonia doused pink slime being used across america and frozen fast foods well shift jamie oliver has actually managed to shame mcdonald's enough on t.v. to get them to back down and stop using this ultra processed form of quote meat at their establishments also we recently discussed gamer rage at the rather racist portrayal of russians in the game company of heroes two well all the rage actually

worked and thanks to the seventeen thousand signatures on the change dot org petition that game has been pulled from russian shelves by the developer the thing is that massive corporations do a lot of bad things because they have no morals and are obsessed with profit but because they have no morals and are only obsessed with profit the second you even slightly threaten their cash flow they will instantly start cowering at your feet sometimes but that's just my opinion. the so. strong.