stories that shape the week an r.t. edward snowden is seen by the wider public for the very first time since getting asylum in russia there's a video emerges of him receiving an award from fellow us government whistleblowers . hungry for change hundreds of cities across the globe see protests against genetically modified food and the companies seen as the face of the industry. and in washington faces up to the looming threat of a national to fold we look at how the government shutdown has become a matter of life and death for those outside the political arena.

i welcome watching r.t. this morning with me andrey farmer. edward snowden has broken months of radio silence after being granted temporary asylum in russia the n.s.a. leaker received an award for integrity in intelligence from a group of fellow american whistleblowers in the video from the ceremony became the first public view of him speaking since july shortly after snowden's father arrived in moscow to see him artes you met him at the airport. i cannot speak for my son and really the legal issues i'm a father and i don't want to really share my opinions at this point in time i'm shipley thankful that my son is safe and free i'm going to follow mr trainers advice and if the opportunity presents itself i certainly hope that i'll have an opportunity to see my son another negotiator is the same lawyer who's been consulting and representing edward snowden in russia he promised the two would meet

the next day and so they did at an undisclosed location one of the precautions many journalists have already gotten used to throughout the story but it wasn't only his father that the former n.s.a. contractor got to meet with this week a group of other former u.s. security service officials turned whistle blowers also flew into moscow to award him with a semi adams prize for intelligence and integrity the enemy of will blow or awards its latest forty you know relationship to god where we have an executive for just this one last. night. live to ours and they want it but they'll sell the. first song all the. edward snowden arrived in the transit zone or should i mean it's about airport in moscow in june after leading thousands of documents with details of how u.s. security services spy on officials and ordinary people all across the world

washington has been calling for his extradition accusing him of espionage but russia granted snowden temporary asylum and that of course means snowden's dad may not be the only family member heading over to visit particularly because it's unclear whether edward will ever be able to return to the u.s. again you want this going off moscow well the four u.s. officials ten whistleblowers who met edward snowden in moscow also dropped by the studio this week they told my colleague kevin i mean high snowden is adjusting to his new life and why they think he deserves praise for what he did. i think he's doing remarkably well under the circumstances in which he came here and we've we've obviously came to find out personally i was the you know what you look at these days. i thought he looked great he seemed very centered and and. brilliant smart funny very engaged. i thought he looked very well considering the

amount of pressure. to think that's taking any toll at all on the psychological toll i think it would in ordinary circumstances but this is an extraordinary person he's made his peace with what he did he's convinced that he put he did was right he has no regrets and he's willing to face whatever the future holds for him is that the person you saw in front of you kohli yes actually we discuss this intel integrity and intelligence issue quite extensively and we talked about prior examples of great people in history that had themselves been under this type of pressure and he's remarkably centered i found that continuing pattern the more secret the us became and the more we grew into a surveillance state the more people who were willing to just do their job and tell the truth and obey ethics rules were getting in trouble so while i suffered i was under criminal investigation and put on the no fly list things like that i

thought were very draconian i could never have imagined in a million years that president obama would begin indicting and prosecuting people like thomas drake and edward snowden and bradley manning and john kiriakou and a number of other people under the espionage act which is the most serious charge you could level against an american what was the reaction from snowden last night when you told him that he had won this civil war he already knew because we awarded to two months ago that the problem was getting it to him and it is our tradition starting with colin that we physically present this is sort of like it and me or what it is is a candlestick holder for someone who has shone bright light into the dark corners. so he knew he was he didn't know about the candlestick holder he knew that he had received the award and he knew we were coming you know and the reception we got was just so for the warming it was

a person who now realizes that he has very senior people you know and some of the size senior people who speak for a lot of people still within these organizations that are admired greatly where they would snowed. in hopefully will summon the courage to follow his example. i'll tell you also discussed snowden and security in exclusive interview with the world's most renowned whistleblower juicing the sounds of the full interview is available on our website at our dot com. now activists across dozens of countries held rallies to call for the permanent boycott of genetically modified food with biotech giant monsanto the main target of their anger hundreds of cities across the world for mistrial it's you are involved demonstrators claim crops produced by the company could be harmful to humans even resulting in death and some of the biggest rallies took place in the u.s.

where people also accuse the multi-national company of aggressive lobbying and suppressing food safety research. is in washington. many cities across the u.s. took part in this second organize march against the agricultural giant monsanto protesters rallying against the company's use of genetically modified organisms and trying to raise awareness about its corporate practices some protesters told us that even though the government is shut down monsanto lobbyists are hard at work here in washington many pouncers by actually came up to activists what we were standing there holding anti g.m.o. signs and asked what is a g.m.o. so awareness is very low in terms of what exactly genetically modified foods are let alone the dangers they cause in the capital the protests began with activists going into large grocery stores and retailers trying to ways raise awareness about controversal insecticides which affect the nervous system and have been repeatedly

linked to deaths well the demonstration then made its way to the white house all sorts of activists students even young children our gannett farmers caterers chefs so real wide range of people there are a lot of veterans actually showed up to talk about the dangers of g.m.o. just outside the white house they then began to march made their way to the i.m.f. world bank and eventually to monsanto offices here in washington d.c. now other cities across the u.s. los angeles portland denver orlando just to name a few how similar demonstrations also up in canada and vancouver british columbia there was quite a large turnout for their march against monsanto organizers say this is just the beginning that momentum is going to pick up and they will continue their fight against the g.m.o. giant monsanto reporting from washington and you so now we are. well the company itself insists it is playing a key role in feeding the world's rapidly growing population son so also maintains

that many people already consumed g.m. food with no will say but jeffrey smith has written extensively about the dangers of g.m. foods begs to differ. when you look at the animal feeding studies on genetically engineered foods the american academy of environmental medicine they said there's gastrointestinal problems immune system problems think celebrated aging organ damage reproductive disorders there's massive infant mortality multiple massive tumors early death there are so many things that are going wrong with the animals that are being fed g m o's and now we're seeing those things rising in the u.s. population since g m o's were introduced the current generation of g m o's has nothing to offer feeding the hungry world or about a cave in poverty so this is just been a public relations spin and they spent two hundred fifty million dollars over five years trying to convince americans that they needed to accept because it would feed

the world i ask farmers all the time what do you think about santa even those farmers that use monsanto seeds often hate monsanto or fear my exam. so that's why monsanto has been continuously voted as the most evil company on the planet year after year with stiff competition. still ahead this hour surviving the government shutdown. on a matter when or lou is they mean it please listen to the people and know that it's affecting so many. of the sick americans who have had access to lifesaving treatment thanks to political squabbling over the budget in washington. after the break we investigate how beijing's investment plans have affected the pride of one of london's most iconic symbol.

i'm talking obviously about edward snowden and you know that some americans believe he's a hero all they believe he is a criminal what he's done i believe he's a hero and i believe he's coming directly from his heart that he feels some goodness that he wants to be truthful to the american people that he believes in and loves his country america so strongly and i wish that somebody in the same situation i hope that i have the courage to do the same thing. of the gaza strip should not be a launching side for rocket attacks on israeli women children and civilians to a palestinian leadership is responsible for this this is why israel is not willing to repeat this experiment in judea and samaria so israel is not willing to be the sucker of the middle east and to make long term concessions sacrificing the

security of its own citizens only to find out in the end of the conflict isn't over or that is going on as before except that israel is now in a much worse position. welcome back with less than four days until the u.s. runs out of mud. senate leaders from rival parties still can't find a way out of the budget deadlock most of the government has been shut down for two weeks with the world bank chief warning the crisis could become a disaster if not resolved decisively and as artie's marina portnoy in their reports politicians are also accused of ignoring the effect on every day americans . u.s. president barack obama's signature health care legislation is supposed to provide millions of americans with the medical coverage they desperately need but the political debate over obamacare has also ironically created

a life or death situation for hundreds of citizens for each week the shutdown continues roughly two hundred patients cannot be accepted for clinical treatment at the national institutes of health that's nearly four hundred sick americans desperately in need of medical treatment and the and i says among the patients being turned away includes roughly thirty people with cancer and many of them being children about seventy five percent of and i was employees thousands of people have reportedly been furloughed because of washington's self-inflicted shutdown as a result michelle langbehn who is battling sir coma a rare form of cancer was supposed to begin receiving medical treatments at the beginning of this month until the october first shutdown forced and i to temporarily turn her away langbehn a new mothers started an online petition to put pressure on congress to reopen the government the movement has garnered more than one hundred thousand signatures in

an interview with r.t. langbehn says she's been able to restart her treatments after receiving financial donations but says hundreds of other people in her position have been denied a chance to live because of washington's political partisanship it's a matter of life or death it's not a matter of inconvenience or just an air taishan for us i have heard a couple of instances where they find that this is just the game between them and it's a matter of winning and i'd like to say that it's not a matter of when or lose i mean it's a please listen to the people and know that it's affecting so many us leaders who have the power to change this situation have so far failed to agree on a budget a political deadlock leaving the lives of cancer stricken. adults and children and women reporting from new york green up for tonight are to. well we're not and american political commentator one chomsky tells us he believes u.s. politics is too inherently corrupt to deal with the budget deficit successful in

the history of parliamentary democracy and it's interesting to see what's happened . there have been significant economic changes in the past generation the way the economy struck time to go into it but one of the effects of these changes specifically the new liberal programs and they're having the same kind of effect. as the. direct wealth to the very narrow sectors the increasing inequality it has an immediate effect on politics in a parliamentary democracy as a parent gets more concentrated political power does as well so by now elections are almost it's simply talk of democracy both political parties are listed to do right the u.s.

is still a one party state the business party. meanwhile beijing based investors are using the global economic uncertainty to their advantage chinese money is pouring into the sometimes rescuing iconic european businesses scene is severely undervalued due to the tough financial climate so here's a look at some of china's most lucrative investments the european car market is increasingly attractive to beijing's enterprises and in twenty ten they snapped up sweden's troubled manufacturer volvo last january china also helped one of germany's top makers of concrete poems in that same month the tally a new york builder ferretti moved into chinese hands and even a top french fashion brand has moved under the control of a hong kong based firm the u.k. is one of china's preferred shopping stops where it's bought shares in heathrow airport and invested billions of pounds in the clear industries not even the iconic

london cab is out of reach as artie's reports. this time last year it looked like the iconic london cab would be consigned to the history books after its maker the financially troubled london taxi company went into administration chinese manufacturer gili which already owns volvo stepped in and bought the company for eleven million pounds the factory is now back in business this part of the assembly process is called the marriage of the carriage where the shell of the taxi a van that meets with the shafi of the taxi over here it is the marriage between the chinese manufacturer and heli and the london taxi company that managed to save a british icon from going out of production g.'s pledged to invest in getting fifty million pounds into the coventry based business over the next five years promising to create jobs and develop new engines to the future of the previously when we were an independent company like the financial resources to continue to develop the

product as we would like to know that we're part of the foreign. ideally and that gives us the ability to develop. a new taxi i wish we could have only dreamed of financial analysts have called it a win win situation the london cab comes back from the brink of extinction while a major chinese manufacturer gets to invest in an exciting new project but what does it say about the state of british industry business secretary vince cable called the chinese buyout a clear demonstration of the strength of the british car industry but the london cap is just the latest in a raft of u.k. businesses being sold off to foreign companies cadres chocolate is now american jagger made his indian and the british airports authority spanish to some it represents a hollowing out of corporate britain thing i'm happy that it's not going under but it shows government policy for a long time now as encourage foreign companies to take over our british companies

and what that means is that our british companies are not competitive across the globe so we're not putting in the right tax policies we're not dealing with regulation that hinders these companies welcome to have new investment it always is in the long term this takes away economic productivity from this country it means that staff and jobs are more liable to go because there's an allegiance between the companies that are owned by foreign entities and their country rather than britain piece has been a cabbie for over forty years in a scene the london taxi company goes through several british onus i hopped in for a ride and asked him how he feels about turning chinese this is a shame that it's not owned by a british company but. it's better than going to the wall i dial m. at the companies that are still british they won't be faced with any c. r c london. international news in brief at least fourteen people were killed and over thirty injured when

a car blew up in iraq's northern city of simyra the attack was on a crowded street is people shop in preparation for a muslim holiday iraq has been struggling with a record spike in violence that has claimed over six thousand lives since the start of this year. a bus carrying fifty one people is the door for two hundred metre high cliff in peru killing all on board the passengers including children and many members of a single family were on their way to a local celebration because of the accident is yet to be determined the high altitude roads improve a notorious for bus disasters with over four thousand people dying in similar accidents last year. to spain now where thousands held a rally in barcelona against independence for catalonia time to coincide with the country's national day marches chanted slogans figure nitty and again separation from madrid despite overwhelming support for separation among the cattle and population of the demonstrations by far right parties were challenged by left wing

opponents. powerful cycling phailin battering eastern india has now claimed seven lives hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee their homes winds in excess of one hundred twenty miles per hour triggered severe landslides disrupting communications forcing road and rail closures rescue workers say the full extent of the damage is still not clear. iran will sit down with american negotiators and five other world powers for a fresh round of nuclear talks on choose day a made a recent thaw in relations a move could lead to a process of lifting the economic restraints on taran despite israel demanding even more are put in place sanctions have hit iran's all sector particularly hard but there's one industry that's been performing very well despite the restrictions for one point six million cars are produced in iran every year place in the country is the world's thirteenth largest automobile manufacturer the industry accounts for

ten percent of the country's g.d.p. despite a ban on shipping parts some of the most popular persian running models are still made in iran and the country produces its own cars based. dumb french designs despite official business not being allowed between the u.s. and iran until sanctions are lifted american companies such as general motors are already said to be moving in to secure their positions and journalist georges malbrunot believes the u.s. is just waiting for the right time i think already there of been. secret contacts between us for and iranian counterparts in order to to prepare or to anticipate a political deal between iran and the united states mainly these contacts of kurds in the automobile sector and fortunately for us in france we are the brother the

last one in europe to try to to to go to iran because for the last the last years france was extremely active in the in the fighting against iran from those exerting a lot of pressures you know for the last twenty years the u.s. where outside from iran and the the french businessmen i do quite good position in iran to. know the automobile sector and now they're afraid that these all these years of the force will be cleaned by the new deal which will happen between us and iran for sure that the european companies will be more probably losers in this kind of agreement. now when you get a minute to check out our website there are plenty more stories there at the moment including maybe we're not alone through all the discovery of a porter heavy asteroid reinforces scientists believe there might be more inhabitable world beyond our solar system and you can find the story online plus.

death in this in america face execution by drugs used to kill animals amid a hulot he just supplies a big usual form of the lethal injection you can find out what what is behind this at r.t. dot com. this week the olympic torch began its long journey from moscow to sochi on the twenty fourteen winter games the flame and barked in a four month covering more than sixty five thousand kilometers across russia and space well it will slip last sunday in greece before traveling by plane to russia. the flame was met by a group of bikers who were on hand to escorted to the kremlin president putin looked ahead to the games by hosting the ceremony to start the torch relay and after visiting nearly three thousand cities and towns across the country the lympics symbol is expected in sochi on the seventh of february to open up the games

and you can enjoy the highlights and see the reports from the relate ceremony over at our website at r.t. dot com. next on a boy speaks to the co-founder of apple. i recently read headlines all over the russian internet screaming in full paranoia mode that china has just bought five percent of ukraine now they're writing that china will lease five percent of ukraine over ukrainian officials themselves claim that china won't be getting either and that this is

a deal about some drip irrigation system the situation didn't explode onto the internet to the fantasies of bloggers the south china morning post reported that one company does have a crop and pig farming plan design utilized nine percent of ukraine's territory also last year the ban on foreigners buying land ukraine coincidently been lifted although i am the distrustful pro sovereignty type getting a rich foreign country to pay to develop your nation's agriculture might not be too bad of a deal it would definitely take a lot of money to restore ukraine's farming to its former glory they see that ukraine used to be the bread basket of europe i think that status back could really help the country but selling off or even just leasing nine percent of the nation's territory is absolutely unacceptable doing a large project with the chinese that is mutually beneficial is one thing but selling or leasing off your country is another and by another i mean treason but that's just my opinion.

hello and welcome to the party it came the promise of liberation from hard labor but soon turned into yet and not their addiction is technology getting more than it's taking from it won't to discuss that i'm knowledge joined by a co-founder of apple a god like figure in the eye to steve wozniak he said was nick thank you very much for being on the show i know that you describe yourself as an agnostic or an atheist but it seems wherever you go you worship doesn't fail. you know what i am so glad that technology has gone so far as change our life so much that people actually feel a kind of a love and a club and they look for a symbol to worship and i'm an accidental symbol i was just you know a lucky great engineer at one time well you know i don't think it's so accidental

and speaking about apple and worshipping i think apple was one of the first companies to really put man and human experience in the center of the design of the company and really try to create a context that would be the extension human skills human capacity it's very comfortable obviously but on the other hand. isn't there a danger of. losing our ability to innovate because you know it's been sad many times the necessity and maybe even the frustration is the mother of invention i think if i get that right it's like everything is being done for us so well that oh my god i think i'm becoming more lazy and yes becoming laser we don't have to think we don't have to innovate. i disagree because all of the factors that are making it possible for our products to do these things it feels like wow i used to have to work and i used to think hard those still lead they need thinking to get developed so he at least become one of the developers. you know apple's always had this

mission to make things that are easier for the human put the human first and that means save us exercise from physical labor saving us from mental labor saving us from thinking hard. and i really i really like it i enjoy it i think i'm getting a lot more use out of my products when i just sort of speak naturally to them and get done what i want to do will we get to will it get worse than it is today are we on a trend towards devices doing so much for us it's like we only make a few little important decisions in our life you know then we fill up the rest of the time with communication i don't know that's a question but we can't stop it so why worry about it well but if you look at the our own lives and their history of it they are one an apple two i know that you said on several occasions that one of the reasons you have been able to come up with this very attractive product is because of the shortage of money you have to innovate you have to think about how to create it on a shoestring budget. and.