the latest news and of the week's top stories that russia and america agree on a plan to rid syria of its chemical arsenal averting for now a strike by western powers on the assad regime but despite the diplomatic success. hello. hello. fighting continues our reports from the front lines where our team came under fire as the ancient christian town of where the syrian army is engaged in a fierce battle to oust islamist forces. the debate on academic freedom we talked to a professor at a leading u.s. university who says the administration ordered him to retract his criticism of the n.s.a.'s method of decrypting data. and norway

elects a center right coalition government including a party that once had to brave it as a member just two years after he murdered nearly eighty people including many children. and a welcome you're watching r t broadcasting live from moscow recapping the week's top stories it's an absolute pleasure to have you with us now in russia and the u.s. have come up with a roadmap to completely disarm syria of its chemical arsenal by the middle of two thousand and fourteen the plan consists of six key points let's take a closer look at what they are at this moment time now the exact quantity of syria's chemical weapons will be determined and placed under international control but first syria. will have to submit a full list of its stockpiles within

a week after that these arms can be destroyed under the chemical weapons convention international inspectors will get immediate access to weapons storage facilities to begin the destruction process if syria doesn't comply it could lead to a chapter seven un security council resolution which allows for the use of force but as artie's and he said now a reports this deal doesn't necessarily mean that the threat of a u.s. strike is no longer looming over syria signed sealed and if delivered it could see syria hand over its chemical weapons stockpiles russia and the u.s. agreed on a six point plan after a week of talks i think the main factor is the willingness of russia to take responsibility and russia taking the lead russia making some proposal this is really changing the whole figure of the whole the three young army of the are of

the situation the plan is seen as a last diplomatic push to prevent a military intervention into syria there can be no games no room for avoidance or anything less than full compliance by the regime in the event of noncompliance we have committed to impose measures under chapter seven within the u.n. security council all sides including rebel groups will be responsible for the safety of international inspectors and will have to provide free access to the sites. of course this does not mean that every time a violation is reputed actions will be taken with a massive plea will first have to verify and review such reports virally because there are a lot of fabrications along these surrounding this issue and we have to be very careful russia is still wary of u.s. threats of course but more than welcomes the u. turn in war rhetoric from the white house obama seemed more than ready to attack at

all he was forced to back off on a policy that very a week ago he was committed to launch a bombing campaign and i think the russian leadership and the american people have boxed to many but some experts aren't convinced that this step by the ousted regime with u.s. and russian support will be enough he also has some american commentators pointed out leaves the way open to do to assad what the americans did to gadhafi gadhafi after all agreed to give up his chemical weapons his various of the non-conventional weapons and then a few years later he was attacked and the rebels immediate rejection of these latest diplomatic efforts makes it clear their pursuit for foreign intervention is not over damascus now has until next weekend to provide the u.n. with a complete list of its stockpiles if i also continues to cooperate will it be enough to push for peace without the cooperation of the rebels and their supporters and

he's now a r.t. moscow meanwhile washington continues to blame president assad for the deadly attack in august but those with firsthand experience of the conflict to disagree in a belgian writer pierre who was held hostage by the syrian opposition claims he overheard his captors discussing the attack he told my colleague bill dodd about his experience now one and you might find some of the following images disturbing. i don't think bashar al assad in the syrian government are to blame for the chemical attack and. during that time my italian friend and i had been taken hostage by jihadists from the alpha root group in syria we were held at one point in a room facing an office of the free syrian army and the elf jihadist group we have been in the barracks of the pre syrian army and a jihadist group as well and we heard a conversation from this office the conversation was between one general from the

free syrian army we knew him from earlier as he was the one who was in charge of our detention and another officer from the fruit. but. there was also a third person who was speaking perfect english and they were talking to him via skype they were talking about the events of the in the damascus suburb and from the conversation it was clear that the syrian government wasn't behind the attack but it. was it clear to you what the motivation was to use chemical weapons to launch a gas attack on civilians in this way what was the motivation do you think was it mentioned what. their motivation was unclear from the conversation but we figured that it would have been absurd for the syrian government to use chemical weapons the regime had nothing to gain from that massacre on the contrary it played into

the hands of its enemies the u.s. france and the u.k. it gave them a good reason to use force against the assad government either the syrian government lost its mind but i don't believe that or the authors of the attack or the opposition and it is clear that the rebels are the ones who wanted to benefit from the situation. let us remind you that the rebels already tried to simulate a gas attack a year ago and gnomes they made a video showing people on the ground acting as if they had been victims of neurotic gas the. syrian islamist rebels have been forced out of the ancient christian village of after almost two weeks of fierce fighting that has the locals report looting executions and being forced by the jihadists to convert to islam a gunpoint many residents have now joined the syrian army to drive the invading fighters back artie's may have notional sent us this report from the front line of the battle. the job.

but. the mood is cheerful soldiers are smiling and relieved the jihadists have been booted out you know what some of them were killed some of them escaped but the. locals joined the army to defend the native town the soldiers in light colored uniforms of the so-called national defense but the terrain here is very difficult with mountains and caves but we know the area better so we are carrying on with the operation of that but we come across one grocery shop owner who we filmed back in two thousand and twelve then he told us that the armed rebels hasn't come to their village and why would they this time he's armed with a gun and monster and soldiers and he has some question is again the story of

thirty of syria is a land of history and of love they sent terrorists here from all corners of the world to kill syrians and each other why i asked the world why if the european citizen is so much a slapped across the face they'd be a scam going on in syria how many victims how many hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered why will it stop with quickly find out that it won't be today held by the militants for a week it seems that mountain tops of fear hotel still poses a threat that sufi hotel our goal was the liberated them push on the market from on the street that we couldn't do it last night bizarre everywhere. is home to many christian churches and monasteries as well as mosques everywhere we go here we see either crosses on the rx now added to these we see blagged how does flags. it's time to head back. to trial in the car something goes wrong.

we take cover in a place where we find dozens of army soldiers hiding from enemy's bullets. the main road is being targeted and it sees our only way out. we think over our chances when our engineer gets heat. on what you know you. must get if you scratch. but. thankfully it's not serious. but it becomes clear we can to a to minutes more. when i'm stuck here in this corner and we're now trying to get out of here because this was. was of no no no.

sir. but this had been anything they want back then they go clear a lot. more focus off of the bullets did you hear them whizzing by. but now say that we've reached the safe area. they're firing from behind this. and her children this is the syrian army here you know. that's how do you make. sure you get paid. and we leave while governmental forces continue their frenzy for manohla village which despite the

claims remains under siege. see reporting from syria. the battle for a model is not over yet ted you can follow maria for an ocean on her twitter feed for the latest developments over the town. could be in the. meeting american university johns hopkins has ordered one of its academics to take down a blog post criticizing the national security agency professor of cryptography matthew green voiced his concerns over the methods the agency uses to defeat encryption efficiently who ordered the removal of the post later apologized for the incident after receiving a barrage of complaints earlier professor green told us what was behind his message what we learned is that the n.s.a. has a hard time breaking crips and so what they've done is they've actually tried to take

the products that that perform and corruption and make them worse make the weaker so that it's easier for them to break that encryption the n.s.a. is is willing to make us if you're a little bit weaker because remember it's not just you know non u.s. citizens who are using these products it's americans too and they're willing to you know in a sense put our credibility on the line our tire industry on the line in order to access that communications of whoever it is they want to listen to we have a big debate ahead of us how much spying i mean there is there's a range anywhere from zero percent spying to one hundred percent spying and i think we have to figure out what the right balance is i think what we're learning is that the american public is not comfortable with what we're learning about that balance . fresh documents from edward snowden's n.s.a. leaks keep surfacing providing new details of america's far reaching surveillance program people across the world are being shown just how much of their private lives and private data private data are being monitored by intelligence services earlier shop of all of us spoke with kevin mitnick america's most wanted hacker in

the one nine hundred ninety s. he told her that hardly anyone is safe from online surveillance. i think they have access to everything at least in the united states and probably britain great britain and now it's there's been some revelations that they've been pretty resourceful at breaking crypto so now i think they have access to a ton of stuff scott mcnealy said i think about fifteen years ago you have no privacy get over it and talk about edward snowden is he a traitor or hero from your point i think is a whistleblower you know i don't look at him as a true i'm actually glad that he revealed what the national security agency was doing at least against americans by violating our constitutional rights to privacy but i do think you know i have some mixed feelings that he did cross the line when he revealed n.s.a. operations that we have against other countries because as we all know all countries spy on each other where state law is a question is hash tag ask made to make the most popular one is how can citizens

protect that data and communications while still using cool current software the first thing i'd recommend to the average person on the street is use whenever you're out in the public or using public wife values use a v.p.n. service because what that immediately does is it creates it takes your data and it kind of puts it in the encrypted envelope so people can really intercept and spy on that could a boycott of tag on to train like i pod and phones like the rising i go and i said . to the n.s.a. . no no i mean this is like the form of activism were you you have you know a group of individuals whether it's like lulz or anonymous and they break into stuff and they try to get the media to cover the message they want to send but at the end of the day it really doesn't change behavior of a government agency or a company basically they go out and try to prosecute the guys do you regret of being at. i regret any problems i caused companies or consumers you know like i

caused damages because i hacked into their systems and they had to go in and figure . you know what did he do and they had to rebuild their systems so i would consider myself as a what i call a pain in the ass hacker right now the guy that was out i was never the type of guy who would try to wipe out a war or try to profit it is great to have you on the show thank you thank you for thank you for having me. helpless small fry or potential big fish. at the members and we have the spirit of. new german political parties it don't usually have much money but what they do claim to have is grassroots support that can be converted into votes check back with us in a couple of minutes for more on the new force in germany's public affairs.

language as well but i will only react to situations i have read the reports so unlike the players to know i will leave them to the state department to comment on your part of the monthly. security of a car is on the docket. thank you no more weasel words. when you direct question and be prepared for a change when you. get ready for a. freedom of speech. and the freedom to watch. right to see the. first strike. and i think that your. orders.

and welcome back you're watching the weekly here on our t.v. now norway has elected a new parliament with a center right coalition winning a landslide victory over the ruling labor party the conservatives will now form a government along with migration and progress party the populist group once had among its members that the mass murderer anders breivik who massacred seventy seven people in twin terrorist attacks two years ago. now norway is just the latest state to join a european wide lean to the right or he's losing half an off as more force. two years ago norway suffered the worst massacre since world war two a brutal assault unleashed against a summer camp for young people claiming seventy seven lives the perpetrator was

extreme rightist anders breivik who claimed to have political motivation for his atrocities at his trial he said he wanted to punish the ruling labor party for its liberal immigration policies and to start a so-called conservative revolution he was a member of the progress party in his youth before he lost faith in it and in democracy and adopted the radical and time muslim views that underpinned his act of terror the anti immigration progress party saw support crumble in the aftermath of the attack but as norwegians headed to the polls monday for the first parliamentary election since the tragedy the tables appeared to have turned and the progress party is poised to enter government for the first time the party has since softened its radical image and tried to distance itself from braving it it's campaigned for tougher immigration and asylum policies and wants to reduce the number of immigrants from outside the e.u. in the face of economic uncertainty and voters in some european countries have rallied behind a far right nationalist ideas

a few of the parties that have emerged have grown more popular others much less so or not at all well since the financial crisis several e.u. countries including major european economies have seen a substantial rise of populist radical right electoral support let's take a closer look now in one of the biggest economies france after years of electoral decline marine le pen led the country's national front to its best ever results in the election of two thousand and twelve now some have claimed that zena phobia is still one of the country's party's trademarks although she has tried to soften the party's image since the more radical program of the one nine hundred ninety s. well belong to austria the freedom. party of austria has focused on anti immigration anti islam and euro skeptic issues has even called for a withdrawal from the euro zone and moving on to the true finns in finland they may share populist rhetoric with other nordic parties its supporters to are opposed to

the e.u. and to globe globalism now the party leader hundreds sieved the highest number of personal votes for any candidate in the party has one thousand percent of the seats in parliament well the movement for a better hungry entered parliament for the first time three years ago now the group describes itself as a radically patriotic christian party but it's described in a local pressed as neo fascist and in the far right national alliance brings together a coalition of conservatives ethno nationalists and economic liberals with fourteen seats in the legislature it's the country's fourth largest political party now at the same time some of the countries which do have notable far right parties there is a fairly even split between those that have seen an increase in support and those which haven't and as you can see right here support for right wing movements has gone down now in some ways the growth of right wing parties has been cyclical in europe some tend to gain power during economic downturns and favor and periods of growth but with economic stagnation continuing on the continent it remains to be seen what

will happen to these political groups who see r t moscow. well you can recap any of our stories online at our t. dot com here's just some of the stories we have lined up for you right now. india successfully launches a new rocket capable of delivering a nuclear payload and you can head to our website for more on the race for missile dominance in asia plus. madrid versus barcelona off the pitch this time as the spanish government struggles to hold back catalonia from becoming an independent nation can get all of that or. moscow's acting mayor. keeping his seat as the city had after a victory over his opposition rival alexina so be on in one in the first round with over fifty percent of the vote with me came in second getting almost

a third of the ballots however the opposition activist and blogger refused to concede defeat and has filed a lawsuit demanding a recount alleging that vote rigging on monday showed up for a peaceful rally in support of the opposition leader. germany is set to head to the polls for its federal election in around a week from now the obvious front runners are the left wing social democrats and anglo merkel's christian democratic union but they are not alone new parties have emerged in recent months and they are just as keen to win votes often by striking a chord with those who feel ignored by berlin artie's peter oliver has a story. on the campaign trail hoping to strike a chord. and a fish were convinced that we have to get a say and a higher level and we end up having to pay for the big decisions so we want to be part of the process. free voters are

a grassroots political organization they are opposed to the major german parties they claim look out for the interests of big business over those voters we don't have the big money the other parties have for commercials for leaflets etc we mostly paid ourself the candidates pay it because we cannot raise so much funds. also because we don't tolerate lobbyists most of their support comes from rural areas where people feel ignored by the bureaucracy in berlin the party has its eye cast on influencing decisions far beyond the very a though they want to see struggling eurozone countries be able to reissue their own currencies to help tackle inflation as well as end bailouts to home loan this bank is still as bailout by the state we don't want this any longer we don't want banks to be bailed out by the taxpayer small parties like this one are unlikely to

cause too much concern for chancellor angela merkel however three voters are convinced that they can draw support from those who've become disillusioned with the more established political parties. in big parties this is flow from top to bottom but with these guys everyone can bring their ideas to the table each person's opinion counts yeah bring in. i think small parties that are not spoiled yet are very important we need different points of view out there. but these small parties are not playing the game if they can get into a coalition with they can have a real influence. in the two thousand and eight the varian state elections free voters picked up just over ten percent of the vote this time they aiming to go further the others they have a lot of money so we have the members and we have the spirit how much that spirit converts into votes we'll find out on september the twenty second when germans go

to the polls peter all of a r.t. the very well up next oksana boyko takes a closer look at the diplomatic breakthrough on syria worlds apart is after a short break right here on r.t. . we talked before about people getting in trouble throughout the usa just for gardening in fact according to the christian science monitor a couple of florida has been fined five hundred dollars a day until they dig up their vegetable garden which is on their own property immediately people who write these articles draw comparisons to communist russia where people weren't allowed to grow their own food unless the state allowed it yes the river appeared in russia forced agriculture to change rapidly and often against the will of many of those involved and this did lead to starvation revolution isn't fun but what about after that well stalin and khrushchev gave out

a lot of doctors which are private summer houses where people guard and also there were markets in the soviet union where people could bring the food they grew to sell do you see all these pictures behind me these are people in the soviet union selling food they produced privately and legally but there were some moments in soviet history when there were some taxes placed on the sale of your personal goods from your personal labor which according to russian website history of taxes was around ten percent whether you love or hate communism more than anything doesn't matter this half truth about shooting soviet gardeners burns like wildfire on the american side of the internet the real truth is that in fact when the us government for every reason in various forms clamps down on private gardens it isn't the same as communism but it's actually technically worse than communism for the majority of its life span where you could guard it up as you like excluding the brutal revolutionary period but that's just my opinion.

hello and welcome to worlds apart from just been through an extraordinary recall for russian and american diplomacy that started with the threat of war and hundreds with a major diplomatic breakthrough and while it is yet to produce any meaningful results in suppling the conflict in syria has clearly demonstrated how different people russians and americans view this war but can they find

a mutual interest in putin and then to you well to discuss that i'm now and joined by one of the most venerated american diplomats who served as and i'm back there to both the united nations and russia thomas pickering ambassador pickering it's a great honor to have you on the show thank you of well i don't know if you would agree with me but i think these years russian clash over syria comes down not only to a difference of opinions or a difference of a john does but do significant extend a difference of diplomatic styles and the perception here in moscow is that. the united states sees russia as on call put if simply because russia wouldn't submit to that ten american position but diplomacy or negotiations and as i'm sure you would know. is not about take it or leave it it's about give and take so my question to you is rather american diplomacy at this point of time is skilled equipped and old.