antigovernment protests well in the ukrainian capital as the opposition hopes to gather a million man march declaring it's the country's leaders last chance to listen. but fanning the flames of foreign politicians with ardent statements supporting the opposition some even coming to kiev despite the anti-government mood. remaining villages beat back chevron's fracking advances with weeks of violent clashes forcing the oil giant and its police back up to suspend operations for a second time. a day of prayer for south africans for their former leader and international symbol of peace nelson mandela we look at how he overcame to derision from countries who are now queuing up to mourn him. and the scanning

scandinavians it emerges that sweden buddied up with america's n.s.a. to listen across russia's leadership a major. and i welcome you watching r.t. international with me. now tens of thousands have gathered in the ukrainian capital for a major anti-government protest the opposition is calling this the last chance and hopes for at least a million people to show up poor scott is their first. billed as the march over the million there's more people in the square behind me that we so i thought any stage on the saturday but from the people that i've been speaking to there's a feeling that the figure of one million could be quite an optimistic target now the atmosphere among the protesters at the moment they're in good spirits and the

atmosphere is quite jovial but there is an air of uncertainty hanging over the ukrainian capital right now there are so far unfounded rumors surfacing on social networks that the ukrainian special forces are heading to kiev to help disperse the crowds later on sunday while another rima during the rounds is that a state of emergency could soon be declared by president viktor yanukovych now the so far unfounded rumors are so far only really hardening the resolve of the protesters who are continuing to defy the weather as you can say on the author as he's as well and another thing pushing the demonstrators is the support that they're continuing to receive from european officials now it's emerge that the u.s. is reportedly set to ask the e.u. to allow ukrainians visa free travel to e.u. countries as a way of forcing closer integration and on saturday a group of emmy page descended on the ukrainian capital to reiterate european support for the opposition movement as my colleague arena commish got reports

before we were in is not the only one neighbor saying anti government anger on that street but for some reason peeves independence square has captured the minds of not politicians from here up and the way we have seen a veritable parade of them here on some running out was with the opposition leaders and even sometimes they can do this the way to speak for the crowds and yet few seem to have made the pass to hear it from both sides from the country's leaders and their supporters. right there from an assistant to the secretary of state we stand with the people of ukraine who see their future in europe and want to bring their country back to economic. elf and unity two former polish president share the supporters of euro integration must remain firm and seize the momentum of the protest this is the only way they can get you know coach to make concessions and current members of the european parliament which are all civil society and

democratic revolution in its claim to have a possibility for the nation to express its will employ which means only election what began as a pro e.u. push descended into an out and out attack on the leadership the usual buzz words of democracy justice and the will of the people were interspersed with not so subtle calls for a president they can quote to admit has been beaten this is clear here it is you mean john if there is a solid hunch and they're not even hiding it anymore so this is something that should be unacceptable as a bombing stand widely seen as a clear breach of diplomatic conduct it also raised questions in moscow thelema but i can imagine how our german partners would have felt if russia's foreign minister decided to attend a rally that was being held against german room i don't think they would consider it a friendly step meeting with opposition members is one thing but taking part in rallies that's interference in domestic affairs is not the mission early in the week the

government survived a no confidence vote in the ukrainian parliament was implemented. defeated by the democratic process opposition m.p.'s went home to block the stage and stalling parliament. outside protest leaders called on people to take over as many civic offices as possible what should have been a public debate in the pros and cons of the e.u. friendship has descended into a foreign fuelled meddling to boost an opposition with a different axe to grind. go r.t. . i feel for some thought on this where it's heading let's talk to political and financial. commentator patrick young mr young thanks very much for speaking to us is let's start with a recent development because it's been reported that the u.s. would like the e.u. to grant ukraine's visa free travel as a measure of integration what are your thoughts on that do you think you would ever agree to it. this is

a fascinating idea and it demonstrates a couple of things first of all completely and utterly out of touch with the politics of the european union that the united states of american is but then on the other hand given that president obama has invariably been looking towards asia we probably shouldn't be surprised second of all i think is the pure practicality there is an incredibly powerful motive to be it's going on within europe at the moment particularly in the u.k. for instance over the issue of migrant labor within the e.u. on january the first next year there is a possibility that many bulgarians and romanians may start to move across to the west because they'll be allowed to to go and work i think that within the european union there would be a bridge an outcry indeed if suddenly the gates were to be opened because obviously millions of ukrainians want a better life and they want a better economy but to simply let them loose on the western european economy when it's already ravaged by inflation by unemployment by all sorts of problems is going

to be a huge political no no well i mean let's talk about the politicians for a moment because we have seen him in kiev as well taking part in the demonstrations people are asking why they taking part in these demonstrations one thing actually talking with the government to see if they can strike some sort of deal. it has to be said that the extra territorial aggressive ambition of western states whether it's the european union or the usa is absolutely crazy also though i would bear in mind another thing which is the simple electoral cycle any piece members of the european parliament are terrified that they're about to be flanked by european forces in elections and four or five months time therefore they're doing anything to try and get a tinge of popularity and of course the way they do that in the socialist european superstate of the e.u. is try and be seen around liberal demonstrators at all times because it kind of

inflates their ok. liberals the truth is they have no cred crew they have no coherent concept of why or what they could do with ukraine and in fact the worst thing that could happen in many senses is that ukraine not signs the second amik deal because if it did ally free movement of labor it would be chaos for europe as usual the european union a super state of humbug and hypocrisy but patrick there must be some benefit surely because this is something that has been considered by ukraine for some time now ok it's societies to go the other way but surely there must be some benefits. absolutely let's look at two things first of all do the people protesting in kiev today however a reasonable understanding and a realistic idea of what they want in their future well in one sense they do they want jobs they want of client they want a fair reasonable organized stay it the difficulty is will they get delivered to

them by simply becoming supplicant to the european union and the problem with that is no because if we look to the east for example of ukraine we arrive at the famous city of donetsk funded by a welshman and it sixty nine a hub of industry it happens to be the political capital also for mr ghana coverts the president but more importantly look at what goes on in places like donetsk there they build fridges they build all sorts of mechanical equipment what do they do with it they export it and they export it to places like russia turkey and actually outside of the e.u. entirely the difficulty is with the free association agreement with this free trade pact that was being proposed suddenly those exports would be entirely on competitive in terms of going to russia or other countries and indeed they wouldn't be competitive with cheaper western imports in that respect the e.u. has tried to make an economic land grab to sensually have

a leveraged buyout of the ukrainian economy and in the long term that is not what anybody really should be looking for now interestingly this debate has gone beyond the borders because america has got involved we've heard from the u.s. state the torino in just this week saying that an e.u. association would bring ukraine back to economic health why we've got this is why do we have this involvement from america do you think. well of course when you've got a situation where you know the mayor of toronto in canada has been fined smoking crack cocaine and he's twice as popular in opinion polls locally as the us president is nationally in the united states of america you have of course the fundamental reason why again in the political cycle the obama government is discredited they cannot implement health care they have managed to have a string of failures in foreign policy not what they've gone to is they've gone back to the old neocon model of regime change one point zero and that's absolutely disgraceful because of course we have a great hope the hopi change

a thing of obama has now become a myth and ultimately the terrible tragedy is the people of ukraine the innocent reasonable people who want to work for a better life have become poles in an extra territorial supra national game being led by the european union and the usa in order to try and make it look to their domestic constituencies as if they're careful of doing something in foreign policy all right we do have. political and financial commentator patrick young thank you well as the anti-government protests in ukrainian capital grow so do the rallies in support of blocking the trade deal with the thousands of pro-government activists descended on the capital in towns across the east of the country to make their voice heard a recent poll suggests ukraine sharply divided on the issue of e.u. integration more than seventy percent of people in the west of the country favor the deal but that figure drops to thirty in the east analysts believe

a revolution is unlikely but if it happened those in the east would take action to support the government. the reason a pro e.u. . orange revolution there would be a pro customs union through russian counter-revolution so it would be the path to the civil war because let's face it in the industrial base in of the east they know that if they join the e.u. package they would of course they will never join the e.u. itself they would lose customs privileges in russia real goods which are still being exported to russia in increasing quantities would suddenly become thirty five percent more expensive which would price them out of the market in the saying i doubt very much that e.u. countries we certainly express an interest in buying. real goods so even if the

reason attempt at the violent overthrow of the government there would be there for nearly a very sizable counterforce ready to come onto the streets it is no longer two thousand and four when no one was willing to risk their skin for for. well beneath all the political problems rupturing ukraine there are even more pressing economic ones later this hour on r.t. venture capital with katie pill being reveals just how close the country is to getting under and the ramifications of its predicament. now it's it's cost them a good beating but protesters have nevertheless managed to again whole work at a fracking site in northeast remain near the shale gas well was being developed by u.s. energy giant chevron with an army of police to ensure security but the locals seem make up some of europe's poorest were horrified at the prospect of thousands of

tons of toxins being pumped into the land which provides their only livelihoods. is there. in a remote part of romania a day of rage and fury. protesters stormed a work site operated by chevron and police responded with full force those who didn't leave willingly were dragged away so you can see. in what country we are living the police forces are behaving like a private. protection company for a so wrong. but what the people here want to know is who will protect them from big business this is one of the poorest corners of the european union but it's believed to sit on top of large reserves of valuable natural gas it's the sort of place that's changed little over the centuries and most of the residents still live off the land land which could soon be pumped full of toxic fluid in order to get the

fuel underneath it's a simple everyday action drawing water out of the well for the villagers here and put in jest this is really what's at the heart of the matter the environment and the water for them it's not so much about fighting chevron as it is about protecting both their lives and livelihoods they do from around the beef all my years i have been working on the land it is the only live the time now. during the day isn't your typical sort of protester a farmer all her life she and her husband were also some of the first villagers to speak out against chevron's plans to drill for natural gas in their community we've heard horror stories of voter supplies being polluted forests no longer being green we don't want to risk everything for this company to make a profit chevron says it's committed to working with the local community to drill without damaging the environment it insists that it is abiding by all safety rules but that's not reassuring for farmers like vassily. of

a camel they could compute you destroy us we just want to protect what's important . and that's what they've done for more than a month now braving the cold villagers set up makeshift tents across from the company's drilling site chevron did temporarily suspend its operations but last week the camp was raided by the police for five for one man and i was punched in the face it was humiliating rumanian but the police treated us like criminals i felt my crew were thrown down. retired ourselves together to form a human chain they were kicking ass and beating us with their bottoms i was tricked here it was another religion who's in hospital now because of how hard they hit him in the stomach. and on saturday more violence would began as a peaceful demonstration was broken up by force another arrest the protests are at an end but demonstrators continue to get taken away in this car in some ways it's

a case of david versus goliath a tiny romanian village fighting to get an energy giant chevron off of its land but despite the arrests despite the protests and despite the clashes the chevron trucks are already here and the work looks set to go on reporting input in jest romania for r.t.e. and lucy catherine. while on top of chemical pollution and water contamination fracking is also being blamed for causing earthquakes sonar to dot com retired texas communities are being rolled by unexplained tremors which locals insist are done to fracking. sunday is a day of prayer and reflection in south africa in memory of former president nelson mandela who died on thursday. reports now on how his life was a long walk from being labeled

a terrorist to becoming the world's most respected freedom fighter. he's the man who did help build a divided land that on the brink of civil war the man who after twenty seven tough years behind bars walked free from prison in his heart was not revenge but i think that his greatest legacy to this country is reconciliation. in the last three decades the world tirelessly polished the image of nelson mandela and image recognized around the world only coca-cola is better known better men who struggle for racial equality again south africa's ruling white minority had a dark side the world has conveniently forgotten about now some and i've been leader of a struggle. a radical. someone. an embrace of violence and as a necessary political instrument at a particular juncture in our history this house was the secret headquarters of the

african national congress it was here in the early sixty's that mandela and his comrades launched the armed struggle it was also here that most of them were wasted put on trial and sentenced to life in prison south african journalist chris bishop believes the one nine hundred sixty four trial that saw mandela and his comrades sentenced to life helped turn the world in their favor during the trial. these gentlemen who were on trial the rivonia trial as they went from being the accused of being people on in the dark as slowly transformed they became the benjamin franklin's of africa they became the freedom fighters they began the man of principle who is standing up merely for the rights of others and it's turned world opinion around from a vile terrorist to one of the greatest freedom fighters to have ever walked the earth the story of nelson mandela is remarkable a man who stood up for the rights of people everywhere but also

a familiar tale of governments putting a garland of flour. one day and devote the next point to. johannesburg south africa. well now. for inspirational and eloquent comments we've put together some of the ones reading seen elsewhere at r.t. dot com you can look at the iconic leaders thoughts on america's influence in the world the invasion of iraq and the israeli palestinian conflict. still ahead. up the pressure on journalists working to expose britain's pivotal role in global surveillance. if. it comes to race. the editor of the newspaper the forefront of spying expose a call to a terrorism hearing facing some seemingly accusations but also right sympathy.

in syria a paon video site being treated well by the rebels but middle east. it's hard to believe that they. are entirely the good guys we've got the details after the break. like. the ocean. years ago. these people are suffering the consequences.

how much more poison. lies on the ground. behind this zone there is what we call the kalid bank on which there is a deposit of plutonium left by a security test which caused the dispersion of radio nuclides despite previous cleaning efforts there remains a deposit of a little less than two kilos of plutonium stuck in the rock around the coral reef about ten meters down you clear tests a never ending legacy. welcome back now a group of syrian nuns who went missing after rebels captured the christian village of maloof have made contact with the world saying they were not kidnapped but were in fact rescued from a shelling attack their video statement has raised questions though with many suspecting the women were speaking under duress. manuel oxon writer

a journalist who's been to syria several times and there's met with christians there doesn't buy claims of the rebels good intentions. we have to see that. doesn't have a military strategic well you but it has a symbolic well you would it's a very old it's an ancient christian. with a very modest three song and when we see nolde it where the nun start filming when this one man is telling that they are treated well and all like this we shouldn't forget that the shelling that check on the monastery wasn't turned off by the syrian army it was turned on by the so-called rebels who are in reality nothing else then terrorists that's that's the fact so and we saw in the past the couple of really all sort of kidnapped christians of course they are saying we are treated well we get good food we should look on the facts on the verified facts what we see

is that. was the text right now for the second time within several weeks. gyptian is our feeling the impact of a new regulation restricting public rallies two leading revolutionaries a standing trial charged with taking part in illegal gatherings we report from cairo later this hour. now some urged to this week that sweden's in on the n.s.a. spying game what's more it's a key peeking through the kremlin's keyhole swedish t.v. reported fresh leaks from edward snowden that stockholm had fed intelligence from russia's leadership and energy giants to the united states here's what the chief editor of the news program that broke this story told r.t. yearly about the findings. we have revealed that. the very close relationship between the swedish defense radio authority f.r.a.

and the american counterpart n.s.a. and according to the documents. f.r.a. have spied spying on the russian leadership and they are passing this information on to n.s.a. we got access to these documents thanks to edward snowden so for we have don't have any details more than the documents are mentioning. that they're talking about unique intelligence by talking about classic intelligence and they also mentioning cables the spokesman of f.r.a. didn't give any comments but. when axed asked about being. seen as a leading partner that's the way they spell it in these documents for a is a leading partner to n.s.a. then he says. that's flattering he ses so that's the only comment we have received

so far what investigative journalist duncan campbell says sweden has historically helped the u.s. with intelligence betraying previously if their citizens and neighboring states in the process. sweden norway has had a rather covert intelligence relationship where stealing the years of cold war. very being turned secretly. to the club of the big spies in which they are for the gift of their prime minister in return for betraying we presume security of all of their neighbors and many of her own citizens sweden was the largest collaborator in your free internet program run by every five guys group or being in countries. so it does so because of its direct access to

the fall victim to it's no surprise that you see it few hundred or so with one bad as well as everything else you can take from street. and across the north sea the editor of britain's guardian newspaper was grilled at a terra hearing this week for publishing stories exposing the scale of global surveillance which the u.k. is no small part of the government accuses the paper of encouraging terrorism by revealing how they are being spied on journalistically mady believes it's all part of a public flogging campaign it's theatre because it's actually for internal consumption it's really for the united kingdom and david cameron is trying to demonstrate that he's the strong man that he's tough on terrorism that he's not going to let journalists you know tell him what to do and therefore he's coming out with these statements which of the rest of the world thinks pretty crazy because everyone is saying from president obama downwards that we should have this debate about what are the limits of surveillance and what kind of oversight should we have and it's really only david cameron and the u.k.

government that's saying we shouldn't do that. when your image is as battered as the n.s.a. should think it would want to downplay the dragnet but this is how the u.s. intelligence community regards its latest secrets surveillance mission with the logo of an angry all seeing octopus gobbling up the world. also the whistle blows waiting game after clocking up three years in britain under house arrest and an embassy political asylum party dot com looks at why given the signage still hasn't been charged. but all nom of the law has reached the leaders of the revolution that toppled hosni mubarak in egypt three years ago they are now standing trial under a new law banning unauthorized protests true brings the details from cairo. to leading secular activists. will be in court today for the first session of their

trial they're being charged with illegally protesting and for allegedly assaulting police officers in demonstrations last month and two men who were prominent voices in the january two thousand level revolution among the first to be trying to for the offense related to egypt's new controversial protest though it was in force by the government last month and bans all rallies over ten people from gathering the information in the ministry of interior there was mass aprile when the law was promulgated as people here say most protests are against interior ministry and the brutality of their police force and they will give security forces a cop launched the by let me disperse demonstrations this is something we've certainly seen in the last few weeks security forces have used tear gas water cannons and birdshot but it's against protesters attempting to rally without permission of the government backed by the military and defending the legislation saying it's essential to restore law and order and also to help egypt's talk to the economy the trial marks a key turning point in the summer the military in the government had targeted islamist supporters of mohamed morsy.