damascus allows u.n. inspectors access to the site of an alleged chemical attack the u.s. is blaming their government but russia warns against jumping to conclusions. also this week military whistleblower bradley manning asks barack obama for a presidential pardon after being sentenced to thirty five years behind bars for the biggest leak of classified data in america's history. faced effectively with an ultimatum from the british government that if we didn't hand back the material or destroy it they would. launch the editor of the u.k.'s guardian newspaper reveals how he was pressured to destroy received from n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden.

this is news review and the very latest. the mask has given us inspectors permission to access the site of an alleged massacre chemical attack this as the u.s. says it's almost certain the assad government carried out the assault and pledged a serious response together with its i the u.k. parties middle east correspondent assesses 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 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 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 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 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 are 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 and al nusra a leader in an audio recording that's also been posted online saying that in revenge they will fire a thousand rockets at the al assad regime and meanwhile the russian a foreign ministry says it's worried about the pressure being put on the assad government despite the u.n. investigation into the alleged use of chemicals having not yet begun. as more and more scarce 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 that you 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. but despite harsh rhetoric against the syrian government and the u.s. military waiting for a green light to attack it appears that most americans don't want an intervention and sort of a recent reuters ipsos poll has revealed as having looked just nine percent of the u.s. citizens who took part in the survey want their president to act what about sixty percent of americans should stay away from the civil war in syria when asked about washington support for the opposition about one tenth of the bomb should do more for the rebels than just send arms to them while most ninety percent don't want the u.s. to help the opposition in time barrie an antiwar activist with the code pink campaign says americans are weary of war as the country has been involved in for the last

twelve years the united states has been fighting. a war of choice in iraq it war of choice in afghanistan that turned out to be longer battle the longer fought war than the then the vietnam war which also was a war of choice the american people are war weary we know that what's going on inside syria americans even the average american know it's a proxy war we know we're not going to get the correct information from our government and we know that our government officials are only interested in continuing what would be a fear tactic of a continuation of war after war after war to keep the american public in check in the american public is no longer going to buy into it. international tensions are running high as the pentagon moves naval forces closer to syria the surprise of president obama appearing cautious open intervention we can tell us what you think

on our web site r.t. dot com well so far almost half of those who voted say washington wants to divert americans from domestic problems around to further think the pentagon is ready to strike no matter what the president says about being cautious and the thirteen percent believe the u.s. is looking for political leverage over chemical arms the u.n. investigation just eleven percent of us so far say the pentagon is readying for an attack just in case alone to r.t. dot com to cast your vote. right to see. her story. and i think you're. the.

former u.s. army private bradley manning was sentenced to thirty five years in prison this week for his unprecedented leak of classified documents to wiki leaks exposures through light on america's alleged war crimes committed in iraq and afghanistan whistleblower is now hoping for a pardon from the u.s. president where in his letter addressed to barack obama he insisted that he acted out of concern for his country striving to protect the values and ideals of the u.s. running also said he would gladly pay the price for living in a free american society there's artie's going to chicken reports it's running as personal issues which are now in the spotlight. bradley manning sentence of thirty five years behind bars has said an unprecedented punishment threshold for whistleblowers bradley manning should be walking the streets and being treated for who is a whistleblower who exposed war crimes in iraq afghanistan secret war in yemen and the other corruption of the governments the us supported bradley manning supporters

gathered outside the white house to call for the president to pardon the whistleblower the supporters of bradley manning say what's at stake here is not just men in the air 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're 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 this she gave it to her in a limo in a very private setting in a one on one chat never expecting this to be public now that it is unfortunately you have to deal with it in a public manner chelsea manning's attorney also said his client never wanted personal issues to become the main story and overshadow the debate that the whistleblower wanted to start through the leaks in washington i'm going to check out. what i say has gone as far as bugging the u.n. after the break a report on new revelations public by whistleblower edward snowden on the un's reaction. thus in russia's far east experts predict floodwaters will rise for another seven days forcing rescuers into around the clock mission to pile sandbags into nine me to high flood walls those stories and more in just a couple. choose

your language call if we can we know if you're going to stay still some. choose the consensus you can. choose the opinions that invigorating to. choose the stories that impact your life choose p.x. and off to.

sleep it's technology innovations all the least of elements from around russia we've got the future covered. book about the threat now a new league from whistle though edward snowden has come to night sharing that the national security agency has been listening in on the united nations right up or not i was in new york with 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 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 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 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. prata this the same german media outlet revealed how the n.s.a. had bugged the e.u. offices and the starter a member of the european parliament representing the swedish pirate party so is that despite all this you know makers are reluctant to introduce new data protection legislation we did make a good data protection regulation and we are just as nuclear got

a protection equation in the european union however the national security debates around it out of protection of the nation are now incredibly tossin it seems that european political leaders are not as willing to. teach steps to safeguard the trust and confidence in public networks and internet newsgroups that maybe we as citizens would like for them to undertake but also in general look we see in europe this is a mishmash of outreach statements and political inaction. leak thora porter maria 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 the data could fall into the wrong hands if a paper servers were hacked or copies of the files had already been made and sent to servers outside the country artist australia has more. you've had your fun now with starting to return to the documents so the unnamed government official to the

newspaper editor it could be the stuff of movies only it isn't we were faced effectively with an ultimatum from the british government that if we didn't hand back the material or destroy it they would be moved to law in recent months the guardian newspaper has come to be known as the paper that's been exposing secret material from a trove of information passed 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 and computers which contained the very information the paper's been exposing a bizarre turn of events salaries major 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 partner of the guardian journalist and glenn greenwald the journalist who had broken the story of snowden's leaks and the same materials around it 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 it fame. 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 endanger 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 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 cilia r.t. london. we have more stories for you online what you can find calm right now. on america's founding fathers for an extremist ideology the authors of a defense department military doctrine belief so you have the full story online. former member of hacktivist group anonymous accuses the u.s. government of course in hikers do their dirty work on targets website details. now to russia where stream 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 last not a whole week for a region which is already at least seven meters under water let's take

a look at the situation now and 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 combined it's been declared a federal emergency for nearly three weeks with water ensure rain feeding the rising floodwaters well these three regions have been the worst affected and up to eighty five thousand homes 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 a city of over half a million lives on the arm earth where it meets the sciri river where rescuers volunteers and soldiers are fighting to fortify a riverbank over thirty kilometers long haul scott brings us the latest on the efforts there. this is marina a resident of culturally also risky island. 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 knowing as best attempts to try and keep many of her treasured possessions out of the water it was simply in vain the entire house is completely submerged and it's clear looking around that's going to take a lot of time money and effort before this place returns to normal. marina is one of hundreds in this region to have been evacuated in recent days by russia's emergency services she can't take everything with her and doesn't know when she'll be able to return for now she'll stay with friends move here they. 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 a policy that's good that aid is going to come there is good they do have their pick you need to stay here they face patel te's greet the treat us like the children although the situation in the how about osprey general mains 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'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 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 ask concern the defenses could be breached by water that at the moment shows no signs of receding i'm with flood levels not expected to eight until mid september the true extent of the damage is yet to reveal itself and it could be some time yet before the full picture emerges postcards. about ask. now some international news in brief for you another day of attacks in iraq have claimed the lives of forty eight people in eight separate assaults most deadly was in the northern city of mosul where eleven died in

a car bomb explosion blast in five other cities including three in the capital killed civilians and dozens injured authorities blame insurgents for the bloodshed but have not named any particular group. rejection courts has adjourned the trial of former president hosni mubarak who is accused of complicity in the killings of protesters during the twenty eleven uprising and barack was sentenced to life behind bars last year but was granted a retrial after he appealed the ruling hearing comes amid a new spike of internal strife triggered by the muslim brotherhood's removal from office on egypt military. and the cargo train known for transporting the central american migrants is de railed in southern mexico killing at least five and leaving scores wounded the crash occurred in a remote area of tabasco state run two hundred fifty migrants were traveling on the infamous best train and do you railed an unknown number of people remain trapped inside. coming up ok to brings you this week's top of

business news that's in venture capital of the show bring. you news you see good lumbered sure to mccurry was able to build a new most sophisticated robot which all unfortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach music creation why it should care

about humans and worry that this is why you should care only on the r g 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 realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm charged welcome to the big picture. of what's in venture capital i'm katie pilbeam basically grace the state television went back on that contact as the still be way down life find out this is tough for the mom and say coming to moscow next week with me taking out what's going to be

boring if they're even gone. in-house investigation on thomas these boys at the business desk and as one of our he's been up to the week nearly lost in the last week receiving really close corporate used to libya's all 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 the lawlessness 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 and the country is reliant on or like sports accounting for ninety five percent of all output the produces shipments have been cut to their lowest level since the civil war twenty eleven with some estimating just three hundred thousand barrels a day are being shipped out of the country.