the u.n. says it should be the only one to establish whether there has been a chemical attack in syria that's after the us secretary of state john kerry claimed his intelligence agencies have new proof. this is the world holds its breath over a possible intervention in syria as president obama calls for military action but looks for approval from congress. the russian president appeals to the american leader as a nobel peace prize winner over the grave consequences of a campaign against syria. and a warring rise in radiation at the fukushima nuclear plant levels are eight times higher than previously thought which could prove lethal within a. look

back at the top stories from the past seven days and the latest developments this is the weekly on. the u.s. president wants to launch a military strike on syria but he wants to win a domestic political battle for that to happen barack obama is seeking congressional approval for the attack and congress will consider it on september the ninth washington wants to punish damascus for an alleged chemical attack but the evidence so far presented has left much of the world unconvinced more on this from. obama said although he does believe that he has the authority to carry out a military attack without approval from congress he feels that the country would be strengthened by a public debate on the matter now the u.s. leader says that he feels absolutely comfortable carrying out a military attack against syria without the approval of the u.n.

security council according to international law any military strike taken needs approval from the security council and a resolution to be adopted but u.s. officials believe that any security draft resolution allowing for the use of force against syria would be vetoed by russia and or china now obama says washington's planned military strike against the mask is not time sensitive meaning it could happen one week from now or one month from now but ultimately the u.s. president says that the syrian government of bashar al assad will pay consequences for allegedly using chemical weapons after careful deliberation i have decided that the united states should take military action against syrian regime targets. and should not be an open ended intervention we would not put boots on the ground. instead it would be designed to be limited duration and scope the white house released assessment of the use of chemical weapons on august twenty first and

a countless amount of experts were not convinced by the intelligence that's been presented nowhere in the report to the us confirmed that assad that the assad government used chemical weapons instead the four page report used were being such as we assess with high confidence or multiple streams of intelligence indicate that this week also saw america's major ally britain opting out of military intervention in syria and nato also said it would not be participating in a potential military strike in the meantime the u.n. investigation team that recently returned from damascus has announced that adam lies ng the samples from the site of the alleged syria come syrian chemical attack will take up to three weeks and many countries as well as the un secretary-general ban ki-moon have asked that no military action be taken before u.n. experts present their conclusion secular state john kerry said the u.s.

has evidence that the sorra nerve agent has been used in syria that's despite the u.n. team completing its own investigation with world way to you know to suppression of the results u.n. spokesman multan stressed the global body is the only one to establish a credible facts. the united nations mission is uniquely capable of establishing in an impartial and credible manner the facts of any use of chemical weapons based on evidence collected on the ground and that relates to chain of custody this morning as i'm sure you saw and saw secretary kerry said very specifically talked about blood and hair samples are just answered that i understand you said it but it seems like your lab has moved pretty fast are you saying that their lab work is is is less than credible have they shared this evidence with the u.n. as the secretary general requested all i can do is repeat what i already said but the the united nations mission is uniquely capable of establishing in an impartial and credible manner the facts of any use of chemical weapons based directly on

evidence collected from the ground ok and if the u.s. share any of this evidence that is described with the u.n. well as we've said repeatedly serves member states are encouraged to share information information they may have with regards to alleged incidents. we're keeping track of everything that's going on around the world after that u.s. announcement on syria social media reaction expert analysis and fresh updates are waiting for you right now on r.t. dot com. well obama wanted to strike syria without consulting congress at first but change his mind at the last minute and that decision is in line with public opinion one poll showed that eighty percent of americans believe the president should get the stamp of approval before military action but the majority of people in the u.s. still don't want their country attacking syria while twenty percent are actually in favor of military action over half of those who took part in the recent reuters

poll are against it and also we can see that even if assad is implicated in using chemical weapons less than thirty percent want the u.s. to then attack syria france and turkey are the only ones who are backing washington on this and the british parliament said no most of. syria's neighbors declined to provide support let's get more on this now with richard becker he's from the anti war coalition which is bearing in mind that obama was apparently going to go ahead without any consultation with congress. we still don't know what congress is going to say do you think he could actually go it alone well he could go it alone i mean what we've seen is that the opposition around the world and inside the united states and yesterday in the united states there were demonstrations in dozens of cities opposing a new war against syria that opposition is what forced president obama to pull back

and to say that he's going to congress there wasn't a matter of a change of sentiment or. he started to really think things should accept the basis that there was such great opposition and it presents grave dangers if they launch a war it would not only be reckless it would also be lawless and it would also have unforeseeable consequences as all wars do before they begin but of course of congress said yes let's go ahead he will still then have to ignore public opinion that great political risk would he call him back against congress in view of what the public thinks. well i think that they're going to try in the next week they're going to wage a campaign using the media the corporate media in the united states which really functions as the fourth branch of government and times of crisis particularly war crisis there and trying to convince the people in states that there is justification there is no justification first of all it doesn't it defies logic

that the assad government would have used chemical weapons at exactly the moment that they were winning and the u.n. inspectors were there but secondly even if the that had happened the united states does not have the authority it's not the pull the cop of the world to be able to go in and attack any country and syria has not threatened and cannot threaten the united states so the u.s. will work with us is convinced the peace is absolutely convinced that it has the right evidence to go ahead you would think that most people not politicians but those who are concerned about innocent people dying in syria. hugely terrifying ways you would think that somebody would have to act and isn't it right that somebody should be punished that intervention on a humanitarian basis is absolutely necessary in the us is the moral police force to do that. well what the u.s.

is really convinced of is not so much the the accuracy of their information as of their objective their objective has been for a long time to remove the government to overthrow the government in syria the day after the fall of baghdad on april tenth two thousand and three then. a state department official john bolton said syria iran and north korea should learn the lesson of iraq what is that if not a terrorist threat but it also indicates to us what the aim the real aim is and that is to remove all the independent governments in the middle east destroy the popular movements in order to secure its domination of this key strategic an oil rich region it's interesting to talk about iraq that we've just learned today that it's voted against intervention that the arab league is that not ironic bearing in mind of course in effect liberated pull u.s. forces. well you can see the tragedy of iraq the horrible tragedy that every day people are dying there over

a million people were killed five million were made refugees or more than a quarter of the population killed wounded or made refugees by the us intervention and occupation you can certainly understand why the government in iraq and the government in iraq that was loyal to the interest of the iraqi people would want to vote no and another such intervention richard becker great to talk to you thank you very much indeed for tom live from san francisco from the on soko nation thank you . well despite the fact it'll be more than a week until the u.s. congress gets to make a decision on intervention in syria america's military in the region is already waiting for the green light to strike its naval forces in the mediterranean have been boosted to five destroyers and assault ship with hundreds of marines on board is also there officials stress the troops are not part of any military planning but just as a precaution will the destroyers pack some serious for power each of them carries up to ninety tomahawk cruise missiles now they can strike syria from

a safe distance while dealing massive damage to the country well the syrian president bashar assad says that the country is ready to take on any external aggression. is gauging the mood in damascus i followed obama's message from the white house i was that evening with syrians and i had a very good opportunity a chance to see their vivid reaction to their to read their faces and to see all the developments of the emotions and feelings that i have to say that if at the beginning of a bomber speech people were nervous and would tans and of course were frightened obviously what i saw at the end of the massive trauma america was relieved what i saw in people's eyes because the president said that the u.s. should take a military response to chemical weapons use in syria and that could happen tomorrow next week or next month he'll see congress' approval for attacking syria and that.

delay for everybody here and many here legs that strategy they say is unlikely to action against syria so there's a strike they've been waiting for several days and they this pressure had they been leavin. first announced a possible strike again. they can now forget about that at least for some time. and you can follow on twitter she's posted on the latest from damascus and earlier today she was reporting heavy artillery fire around the capital. the u.s. beating its war drums the spot warnings and harsh criticism in moscow president

vladimir putin said washington's assessment the assad government had launched a chemical attack against his own people is utter nonsense thomas has more now on russia's reaction. moscow has been very busy this week urging the west not to intervene in the situation in syria vladimir putin spoke on the situation saying that the idea of the assad regime using chemical weapons that in country is ridiculous saying the situation on the ground just does not allow for it he said that the g twenty summit this week is a good place for the global leaders to discuss the situation in syria he also called on president obama as a nobel laureate not just as a fellow head of state a winner of the nobel peace prize to consider his actions and what it would mean for military intervention and more loss of life in the country the president said of course russia is against the idea of the use of chemical weapons but in this case that the global community needed to wait for the u.n. to do its job and then present evidence to the u.n.

security council and then they would decide how to react in a lawful manner according to international laws and what he had to say about that when it comes to the stance of our american partners friends who are insisting that syrian forces have used w m d's in this case chemical weapons and stating to have proof they should demonstrate that proof to the u.n. inspectors and the security council because lames at the proof exists that cannot be shown to to secrecy studios stand up to criticism it's disrespectful towards america's global partners if there is proof it has to be shown it is not showing it doesn't exist and the president also said that he was pleasantly surprised at the situation in the u.k. as the british parliament debated and then voted down the idea of military intervention in syria right now the global community is waiting to see if the u.s. congress will follow suit and also continue in a spirited debate as obama has sent the idea of military intervention to congress.

thomas there well those who are against a military attack in syria are out in force all over the world these are the protests in cairo the arab league members currently meeting there don't want a strike in syria but the gulf states led by saudi arabia are backing military action only of protesters gathered in front of the white house after obama's announcement and they were also crowds in new york even before the u.s. confirmed its plans for military action more than a thousand were seen in london chanting hands off syria in paris some held up signs saying president on land is a terrorist and then with david cameron and barack obama that sentiment was echoed in turkey as well britain's former first sea lord and security minister has told us that the intervention could have forseen consequences the danger with saying we're going to use a limited surgical strike is all my experience of wars and i've been in them and in the lead up to them and i've been running them and things is to find that you have

a lot of unintended consequences you think you're just going to do one little thing but actually things then happen expands we need to be very clear what is it we actually want to achieve what is the end state we want we need to have in place mechanisms militarily to ensure that things don't go beyond a certain degree but i'm not at all convinced that attack would actually help the condition of the people within within syria we've seen what happened in iraq you know we've seen what's happened in afghanistan i have no doubt that the al qaeda group and there are very large group i'm afraid in the opposition funded by people who haven't thought through what this really means would be delighted if america and britain and france attacked they would be delighted by it but that doesn't mean they like us and they want to actually have they oppose us and would like to do is farm but in a temporary basis that would suit them so we need to be very very careful how we actually act radiation levels at japan's devastated nuclear plant in fukushima have increased by eighteen times we have live expert analysis right after this short

break. in cuba is not a failure of the cuban people it's a failure of sidel castro look. when a sunday show. backed by the officials both hostility and suspicion encouraged by the government these operations against cuba were known to the attorney general of the united states the present united states himself the defendants an intelligence arms had to infiltrate to resist. national agencies freedom fighters terrorists. who is. the real terrorist please stand up on archie.

is the weekly is just twenty minutes past the hour here in the russian capital radiation has risen of japan's devastated nuclear plant in fukushima reading showed levels in one of the storage tanks of contaminated water have shot up by eighteen times and that's enough to kill an exposed man in just four hours this comes just after a massive leak of radioactive water a week ago which may have reached the ocean for kashima plant was damaged by a powerful earthquake and tsunami that hit japan in march two thousand and eleven when the operator tepco announced on friday that it detected new radiation hotspots

in parts of the compound where contaminated. the water is stored well to talk about these latest developments some now joined live by sean bernie he's in the front of so much energy consulting an expert on japan's nuclear industry sean the situation is clearly looking pretty serious but how much are we really being told by the operators tepco and indeed the government that. well i think first of c.s. that this is one of the most complex nuclear sites ever. the challenge for government or industry to deal with the last sixty years it's an eight inch so it is always going to be challenging for those of us where the situation to try me x. years ago we had the new confidence that it was a disaster was going up in the near time you term. in terms of what checked was informing the public about saving techniques based on awareness self the scale of the problems continued she deletes from site just an anecdotal example workers that

were monitoring its ranks and turns out this highly ranked order when they were monitoring need to actually name and cells carry inspections and even so it usually makes me feel me recently even to measure up to. the secret to getting cells to have that chair. as if you care and those workers you were talking about what are the danger are they in now they've been working that without being aware of the high levels of contamination. elite are probably underpaid for the underwear in mediation training thousands of them working there in the last two years the sanctions more working for the coming years but just to put it in perspective chernobyl accident ninety six or worse off a million soviet tanks troops that were brought in to deal with accident in the

months and few years after so again with a very complex three reactor meltdown and spent fuel pools seeing a pool big enough workers on site their workers and don't be getting these they're not being told about the themselves or putting up. and then going forward this is a problem is only going to get worse in what way is this threat localized role could it get worse in terms of potentially affecting people beyond the vicinity might well see she have to deal with a reactor that is going to melt that and using very large mines have the sea water and fresh water that water is going to accumulate. and we have meaning in two three hundred thirty inform but sometimes and make sure as a child can tell me water in tents i mean beach and she's. the problem ase because of the location it's that she meant to get east you have might

reach for the water coming through the graham system nice on the surface that we're on the sides and things that date coming into the site in around four hundred tons eight. into the existing water which are going to need to trenches that water it's to teach just quickly i know it's we don't get too complicated here but of course that water coming in it's got to go out somewhere hasn't it in the oceans not far how will this affect the pacific and bearing in mind the currents there is there a chance that this radioactive water will actually spread far beyond the coastline well it depends what type of radioactivity you're talking about heavier material we tend to treat along the coastline more slowly. spread around weeks months years the problem of aids there is already where you get it into absolute certainty the amount on site to keep it seems is there's three times as much caesium it's very dangerous redirect you get three times as much as was released by the

chernobyl accident is sitting in the trenches in the. sea another earthquake one of these times morgan's tanks were actually. massacre east into the sea so just in a word and finally is always bigger a crisis and we saw at the beginning when the tsunami struck that it seems pretty pretty large and it is an ongoing crisis certainly the reactors nearest the beach and even worse at that point. it's more serious in some needs we have a problem if this is what he wants it years if not decades all right sean thank you very much and a great story from the sean bernie independent nuclear consultant live from washington d.c. . this is the weekly herald i'll take time to update you on other news from around the world in a world update the alstad. gyptian president mohamed morsi is to stand trial with fourteen other muslim brotherhood members in charges of inciting murder taxation to

stem from violence near the presidential palace in cairo last december that left protesters seven protesters dead and that demonstration was triggered by morse's decision to expand his powers the former president is still being held at a secret location as the country remains mired in a political crisis. in credible dash cam footage here for use emerge from taiwan where a potentially deadly double nimitz as the car in front gets hit by a landslide along the coastal road and then just narrowly avoided being crushed by a huge boulder because passengers managed to escape with only minor injuries the country remains on high alert as two pools from tropical storm call re continue to batter the island. two hundred protesters defied fraud has been a rallies against the new law and gay marriage to march in paris the demonstrators calling themselves by the name of nightwatchman close their rally with a vigil in the center of the capital it was back in may that france's parliament

approved same sex marriage amid mass demonstrations and unrest across the country. the max twenty thirty in the air and space show has made the approach drawn to a close one of the world's top aviation events has been held just outside the russian capital showcasing all the latest aerospace technology well heavy rain may have delayed performances but it certainly didn't keep the planes grounded paul scott's was there for us. it's been a good weekend for the crowds unfortunately the weather on the final day has was disrupted the shuttle slightly this big thick gray clouds above us and the rain has predominantly held off it has made visibility quite difficult the highlights on the final day included a display from the russian knights the robotic display wing of the russian half force for the planes came out and thrilled the crowds with that death defying stomach churning stunts we also saw commercial flights as well the airbus a three eighty was spinning around overhead and also they were military on display the

highlights of which was the showing of the t fifty which is the stealth fighter that is going to be parts of russia's force come two thousand and six day now final testing on those planes is still going ahead it's expected to be completed by the end of two thousand and thirteen when the russian air force will take delivery on some of those some of those stealth fighters the rule was deafening the crowds as the plane was derived overhead it really was an impressive sight now unfortunately the weather on the final day put paid to a display from better kuti which is the helicopter display team of the russian air force they were meant to impress the crowds on sunday afternoon but unfortunately that was council however they did participate earlier on in the weekend over friday and saturday when the weather was slightly better organizes will be looking back on a record breaking year for max in terms of business deals struck almost sixteen billion u.s. dollars worth of contracts were signed it was record breaking as well in terms of

number of attendees with representatives from more than one thousand companies worldwide from forty four different countries striking those deals and. what he's got there well after the break it is the true story of cuban spies who paid the price for trying to stem own grown u.s. terrorism that's a special report coming up and then more news we just have a half an hour. many gay bars are starting to refuse to sell russian vodka as a means of protesting the homosexual propaganda laws in russia as i've said before boycotts are a great way to put pressure on people but are they putting pressure on the right people not only is it racist to assume that hurting the vodka flow will deal

a massive blow to the russian economy but it is also racist to think that any vodka with a russian sounding name is itself russian and many videos angry gay bartenders were pouring stolichnaya vodka which should be pronounced by the way onto the ground in a fury but if those bartenders would take a closer look at the labels they would see that exported stoli is produced in bold in latvia by the s.p.i. group not in russia also according to the n.p.t. deep group beverage alcohol report the most popular vodka in america with a russian sounding name is smirnoff which is british owned and produced and bottled in various countries around the globe including the usa itself we do support the american worker people love to panic over the hip and trendy scandal of the month but everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that homosexuality itself is legal in russia and is punishable in many other countries including a death sentence in some of them and yet russia gets all the attention if people really wanted to effectively boycott any country with any laws even

a hint think against homosexuality they would have to hit them where it hurts and stop getting natural resources imported from countries like russia saudi arabia venezuela and. iran and so on and so on that is a vastly more difficult proposition than pouring american made vodka onto the sidewalk but that's just my opinion. going on and on the obama administration's continued insistence that the syrian regime must be punished for alleged use of chemical weapons has convinced few of washington's traditional allies the americans have said they will strike syria on their own if they have to what does this say about america's standing in the middle east in the future of international law. but i was sleeping it was or.