stories that show you the week or nazi edward snowden welcomes guests from prague report on the long awaited arrival of his father and talk to the former u.s. officials who came to moscow to award him for his whistleblowing. hungry for a change from hundreds of cities across the globe see protests against genetically modified food and the companies seen as the face of the industry. and as washington faces up to the looming threat of a national default look at how the government shutdown has become a matter of life and dads for those outside the political arena.

the latest news on the week's top stories here watching see with me your leisure thanks for joining us 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 for a group of fellow american whistleblowers and the video from the ceremony became the first public radio him speaking since july shortly after snowden's father arrived in moscow to see him. 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 coo trainers advice and if the opportunity presents itself i certainly hope that i'll have an opportunity to see my son and i don't negotiate my is the same warner 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 the same adams prize for intelligence and integrity of whistleblower awards. you know to go where we can't exactly. just want to watch. it live to. want it but they'll sell the. first song all. edward snowden arrived in the transit zone of 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 and using 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 won't be going off moscow. therefore u.s. officials turned whistleblowers who met edward snowden in moscow also told by the archies tutor this week and they told my colleague kevin snowden is that just him to his new lines and why are they saying he deserves praise for what hey david. 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 are you looking 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 and 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 because of the person you saw in front of you colin 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 the problem was getting it to him and it is our tradition starting with colin that we physically present this it's sort of like an emmy or a mask or what it is is a candlestick holder for someone who has shown the right 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 the reception we got

was just so for the warming it was a person who now realizes that he has very senior people alumni you know some of the size senior people who speak for a lot of people still within these organizations that are admired greatly. hopefully will summon the courage to follow his example. she also discussed snowden and security in an exclusive interview with the world's most renowned whistleblower drew last sunday the full interview is available on our website dot com. activists across dozens of countries have rallies to call for the permanent boycott of genetically modified food with buyers have giant monsanto the main target of their anger hundreds of cities across the world from australia to europe were involved demonstrators claim crops produced by the company could be harmful to humans even resulting in death some of the biggest

rallies took place in the us where people also accuse the multi-national company of aggressive lobbying and suppressing food safety research and he said now is in washington for our city. 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 shutdown months onto a lobbyist are hard at work here in washington many pouncers by actually came up to activists what we were standing there holding and g.m.o. signs and asked what is the 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 activist going into large grocery stores and retailers trying to ways raise awareness about controversial 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 the 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 held 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 say no way archie. the company itself and since its playing a key role in freezing the world's rapidly growing population monsanto also

maintains that many people already consumed through it with no ill effects but calling knew from and drove the center for food safety says profits are not health to giant corporations like. these marches are raising awareness about the issue and bring awareness not only about monsanto and its influence in agriculture but also other chemical companies that have become major agribusiness influences on capitol hill i think we see an overwhelming influence in governments and that really has to do with money that these are major chemical companies the top i mean fifty three percent over fifty three percent of seeds are owned by just a handful of these major agribusiness chemical companies so they exert tremendous influence in politics and have millions upon millions of dollars to spend to ensure that their products get spread through reviews and also to ensure that consumers

are not informed about what the products they are eating so for instance not labeling genetically engineered foods. this is so i have this hour surviving the government shutdown. not a matter of when or louis i mean it's a please listen to the people and know that it's affecting so many. it's looking after they set up the sick americans who have access to life saving treatments console thanks to political squabbling over the budget and watch and. also after the break we investigate how beijing's investment plans to have affected the bride to want to pry into one of london's most iconic symbols that's after the break. i'm talking obviously about edward snowden and you know that some americans believe he's a hero although they believe he's a criminal why do you stand i believe is

a hero of my belief he's drifted 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 five in the same situation i hope that i have the courage to do the same thing. this is the media leave us so we leave the baby. of the sea motions to the plate your party there's a bill. for shoes that no one is that stood with to get that you deserve answers from. politics. to. technology innovation all the lives developments from around russia we've got this

huge area covered. you're watching the weekly here on r.c. welcome back with less than four days until the u.s. runs out of money senate leaders from rival parties still can't find a way out of the bunch of 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. more in a break now reports politicians are 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 choose 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 in them reporting from new york marina portnoy artsy. and renowned american political commentator charles k. told us he believes u.s. politics is to caracas zero with a budget. subsection in the history of entry democracy it's

interesting to see what's happened. there have been significant economic changes in the past generation where the economy struck going through but one of the sets of the street specifically the neo liberal programs and they're having the same kind of this if there were. the. direct wealth to a very narrow so there's increasing inequality it has an immediate effect on politics in the parliamentary democracy as power begets more concentrated political power at those as well so now elections are almost boy it's so plutocracy. both political parties are to the right the u.s. is still a one party state the business party now trying to drive

a circle the council to protest against president obama who they say is abusing the constitution is now one truck that wants to solve the country's problem. part of our agenda is work out and for his resignation or impeachment. like marcy in egypt and if we raise one hundred million americans across the country we will demand his resignation or pressure of the house and senate to call for his impeachment on trees and frog. the protest is on. obama's policies since he came to power support for al qaida raising of the debt ceiling and the government's notorious spying program or came under fire for campaign received a large amount of support on facebook and twitter. china based investors are using a gross economic uncertainty to their advantage and buying up ailing european friends are not even iconic london tocs is out of reach for cash rich

a businessman from beijing as always he's going to boycott reports this time last year it looked like the iconic london cap would be consigned to the history books after its maker the financially troubled london taxi company went into administration chinese manufacturer g.t. 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 shape of the taxi. meets with the shafi of the taxi over here but it's been marriage between the chinese manufacturer and g.e. and the london taxi company that managed to save a british icon from going out of production g.-d'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 future really previously when we were an independent company with the financial resources to continue to develop

the product as we would like to now that we're part of the finances. and that gives us the ability to develop. new taxi which 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. cable called the chinese buy out 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 jageler motors india and the british airports authority spanish some 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 allegiance between the companies that are owned by foreign entities and their country rather than britain peace has been a cabbie for over forty years and is seen the london taxi company go through several british owners 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 then go into the wall or die lever the companies that are still british they won't be faced with anything seen. i see london. and to some other world news in brief now a stampede of other hindu temple in central india has reported left over sixty

people dead it happened as worshipers try to cross a bridge over the her river near the shrine some reports say the tragedy was caused by rumors that the bridge was about to collapse others claim police raiding to control crowds as they moved to the temple led to the panic. at least seventeen people were killed and over thirty injured when a car blew up in iraq's northern city of samarra attack was on a crowded street has people shopped in preparation for a muslim holiday iraq has been struggling with a record spike in violence that's claimed over six thousand lives since the start of this year. abbas carrying fifty one people has veered off a two hundred meter high cliff in peru killing all on board the passengers including fourteen children and many members of a single family were heading back from a local celebration because of the accident is yet to be determined.

the. is pain and. staged a march to counter groups of far right supporters that took to the streets on the country's national day while in barcelona rally was held against independence for catalonia people chanted slogans for unity and against from the trade despite overwhelming support for separation among the catalan population. be elimination of chemical weapons was recognized by this year's nobel peace prize the international watchdog that's currently monitoring the destruction of syria's stockpiles receive the award o.p.c. w experts are working inside syria as part of a binding un resolution brokered by russia and the us political analyst martin mccauley described the main challenges facing the group. but there was some of the

chemical weapons may be in rebel held territory. how do you access loose rebels who say they don't have it but obviously there's a should would have to verify that that would be very tricky because they have to be with rebels and how many rebel groups are all of the dozens of them so this is a very very difficult decision for them because previously globalization operated if you like. peaceful this is the first time really got involved the middle of a civil war and it's rooted challenge for them they may in fact put one hundred people in the. hopes that they are secure and that they actually get on with the business of eliminating the weapons but it will be first task is to eliminate the wherewithal which makes weapons. get the chemicals take them out of syria and destroy them and this is going to be a long post no one really expects one hundred percent of the weapons to be

eliminated by the middle of next year or even the end of next year. the fracturing of the syrian opposition threatens not only the elimination of chemical weapons but also the prospects for peace talks syria's national council one of the major opposition groups said it will not count the geneva two conference which parts to facilitate and then to the bloody civil conflicts it was hoped talks about russia and the you ass have been striving to make a reality for months now take place at the beginning of november and the syrian government has itself committed to taking part. and of course we've got more news for you on our website including maybe we are not alone on the discovery of the also have the asteroid reenforces scientists believe that there might be more inhabitable world beyond our solar system you could find the full story online plus . some death row prisoners in

a merry go phrase execution by dr aziz to kill animals made a shortage of supplies of the usual form of lethal injection find out what's behind this on r.t. dot com. this week the olympic torch began its long journey from moscow to sochi on the twenty fourth day in the winter games the flame embarked on a four month relay covering more than sixty five thousand kilometers across russia and space it was late last sunday in greece before traveling by plane to russia the flame was made by a group of bikers who were on hand to ask ordered for the kremlin president person looks ahead to the games by hosting this ceremony to start the torch relay after visiting nearly three thousand cities and towns across the country the olympic symbol is expected in sultry on the seventh of february to open up the games and you can enjoy the highlights and see reports from the relay ceremony overhead how

web site r.t. dot com. right after the break. next time nobody could find out. thanks about the n.s.a. scandal. 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 if this is a deal about some drip irrigation system the situation didn't explode onto the

internet due to the fantasies of bloggers the south china morning post reported that one company does have a crop in pig farming plan design utilize ninety percent of ukraine's territory also last year the ban on foreigners buying land ukraine. really 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 agree that status spec 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 to 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 now joined by a co-founder of apple a god like figure in 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 have been worship how does it fail. you know what i am so glad that technology has gone so far as shame to 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 god that would be the extension of human skills human capacity it's very comfortable obviously but on the other hand. isn't there a danger of that lose 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 hey 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 saving us exercise from physical labor saving us from mental labor saving us from thinking hard and i really i really like it i enjoyed. 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 add to 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 now it seems well i don't know if everything was deliberate.