smoke on the water landowners in the u.s. blame corporate greed for contaminating deer soil and water as fracking expands worldwide promising big money for big business. the slaughter everywhere the rule children i saw them with my own eyes as horrifying reports of war crimes keep coming from rebel occupied syrian town of draw our t.v. heroes from survivors of the massacre carried out by the islamists and. ukraine at a crossroads the country's president is in russia seeking the financial help the west is unwilling to give that's amid month long protests back at home that oppose any deal with moscow.

ten am in the russian capital you're watching r t international with me marie and josh welcome to the program because the countryside get away from the city housel an idea ruined for some americans by the negative effects of a fracking boom in places like texas the ground drilling technology has become a proven way to boost corporate profits but as you got it you can find out it's the landowners who pay the price. the local government in texas tells steve lipski that the water from his well water that he can set on fire is safe to drink and to use in his home. you can hear it in here. thank you but steve has the assessment of other experts who say he's well is it ticking bomb in his backyard loaded with methane and other contaminants why the starkly different

assessments steve claims that a fracking operation nearby contaminated his well and that texas energy authorities are shielding the gas company. they don't want the world to know that it really is this bad they don't want it in official documents it could be that the fracking allowed gas from lower formations into the aquifer and subsequently into steve lipski as well the gas company denies the claim the lips sued the range resources corp but the firm counter sued and won in cause and effect evidence a ground water is incredibly difficult to prove my use of us are is an engineer who worked with the federal environmental protection agency is not surprised that the state oil and gas regulator sided with the gas corp conceit that the rights it seen come in survival from oil and gas

production issues should be put him in charge of also regulating the protection of groundwater from going down swells and there's any parent conflict of interest in that determined to fight for his home father of three steve has been shipping fresh water from the city on trucks at a cost of five hundred dollars a month but the family now faces another blow from the fracking corporation of four point two million dollars lawsuit for defamation. steve lipski dream house and it's a beautiful property has become his nightmare several of his neighbors apparently have the same problem but they're reluctant to speak out after they saw how the gas company went after mr lipski they shouldn't expect much help from washington either why do you sell us are says the environmental protection agency has not put nearly

enough resources into studying the effects that fracking has on groundwater but that didn't stop the p.a. from coming up with a reporting favor of the practice. believes his word vice to vent the gas constantly to keep it from accumulating under their property as their neighboring gas well continues to frack these guys thousand peter you pretty much standing around in top of the one hundred years from now when somebody dies because there's some timing on the border and they're able to trace it to this fracking and everybody else instead who cares invest in a philosophy for now it seems that the authorities at all levels are so fired up on fracking potential profits that households like steve leave his family are left to fight alone to get a healthy environment in their homes. down our t. parker county texas. now the conversation industry is already experiencing some

unwelcome festive attention across the ocean in the u.k. protesters dressed as santa has blocked the and drilling side with a wind turbine blade but this won't be enough to stop the government from further shale gas exploration as it is laura smith now explains what started in bold could sussex where locals and campaign is barricaded to test drilling sites but two months that's continued in soul food with demonstrators blocking roads to stop drilling equipment big philip it but it's full steam ahead for ministers are preparing to identify sauza as its square miles for exploration across the country but the announcements likely to add more fuel to the fire of the protest movement there's an enormous amount of water involved and sort of what you do is you blast the rocks with water and chemicals people are concerned about the waste they're concerned about the noise here in the u.k.

the government so keen to get locals on board that it's offering up front payments of one hundred thousand pounds per well even if no gas is produced but campaigners look unlikely to sell their countryside even at that price and the local campaign leader for friends of the earth hopes the u.k. government well half what it takes to stand up for its people. we've only had a handful of exploratory drilling sites across the u.k. but already we've seen huge local opposition whether it's been in the southeast or a little over the northwest where we're seeing it now and i think with the government's new licensing round which is going to open up another two thirds of the country to potentially to fracking we're going to see even more position and i think the government is going to have to put a moratorium in place like i have done previously it and actually listen to the concerns of communities because there's a very loud and clear message. check our website for the latest on the activist

struggle against corporations there now campaigners in the u.s. are raising the alarm after the coast guard offered to ship fracking ways down the rivers saying the method is a potential solution. now people put in alvin's entire families kidnapped christians and executed these horrifying reports come to r.t. from the town of north of the syrian capital which has been occupied by islamist rebel groups at least eighty people are said to have been massacred by the rebels but as a syrian army continues to liberate the city that number is expected to rise our crew spoke to some of the survivors. when dawn was breaking over address the al nusra front and the army of islam gave a signal for their fighters to attack they came in hundreds making use of bad weather and the element of surprise over government forces you to say yeah after

fierce fighting with the syrian army the rebel factions achieve their objectives with the city soon falling into the hands of those who the residents of the city have dubbed the decapitated hours that. their friend of mine told me that he claimed he was insane in order to save his life and avoid the militants they believe just story and let him go he also said his children have been emotionally scarred from the savage acts they have seen on the road between their house and the places where the fighters gathered people's heads were chopped off and the bodies thrown all over the road. in the slaughter everywhere the eldest was only twenty years old he was slaughtered they were all children i saw them with my own eyes they killed fourteen people with a machete i don't know if these people were alawite says i don't know why they were slaughtered they grabbed them by their heads and slaughtered them like sheep. and industrial town is inhabited by thousands of workers and their families who were all trapped when the fighters surrounded the town the details of what happened

there are still uncertain you know we've only had leaks about massacres that have been described as the most gruesome since the start of the syrian crisis civilians told us that the workers of not to be crude were all legs acute and burned during the first hour or so they tack whole families who were massacred we didn't have an exact estimation of the number because we were unable to get into the town but the number is high at the moment your vision for the syrian army commanders in the region decided to besieged the town and protect civilians by isolating them from areas where fighting is ongoing on a move seen necessary by the military whose operation is not expected to be an easy . see one. of. our teeth. while the events in our drawn are yet again reaction from the mainstream media which has been silent on the issue and we spoke to a political analyst says the world should be aware of the part american officials

played in supporting the islamist militants in recent weeks there's been an important shift in the relationship between the united states government on the one hand and what is now being presented as the new islamic front and we see doll that the united states is in fact negotiating and establishing a dialogue with the leaders of these terrorist organizations i should say that in this particular case the people who have dialogue with the terrorists they have blood on their hands they have provided funding most of the military and logistical financial aid has been china holds to these al-qaeda affiliated organizations and that's what we have to address there can be no peace as long as the west the military alliance supports the terrorists and coming out on r.t.l.

landmark judgment according to. collection program may be unconstitutional after answering invasion of privacy complaints. and germany is in a hurry to phase out nuclear power but the alternatives come at a high price for the environment and consumers. and. mother. lead it was terrible they are looking very hard to take i don't. want to get along here a lot has never had sex with her they're not. going

. to want. to. look a bit. of a biblical. welcome back you're watching our t.v. and our national i'm marina joshie our pro e.u. protesters in ukraine are holding their breath as president out of college heads to

russia seeking lonestar the country's troubled economy desperately needs the opposition fears and a deal with moscow could undermine their ambitions for closer ties with europe all going to cross live joker spawn and the group is going off who is following this meeting for us so igor the leaders of the two neighboring countries are meeting what is the significance of this well despite everything that's been going on in ukraine for the past few weeks stance is still not clear is that leaning towards the e.u. or is it leaning towards russia and there's lots of speculation and fears both within the ukrainian opposition and in the european union as well. as and gas prices and despite his personal reassurance as president. i mean also discussed the customs union and earlier during the mass protests in kiev the street

opposition passed a resolution basically banning him from discussing this issue with russia but the fact of the matter is the economy is in bad shape brussels did give a red light on financially compensating the reforms that it's demanding from here while there is speculation that moscow may be looking at giving multi-million dollar loans and slashed gas prices which clearly isn't being greeted with applause in the west and for more on this here's a report by a colleague. from the threat of sanctions if he goes to most call and afterwards as well. might be interesting to. the brink of clones you general. cannot be open to any more for some creaminess questioning of the great government's credibility this government of ukraine has clearly discredited itself in terms of economic help from the e.u. the reaction of europe's officials to the events of last month in ukraine has

indeed made to reach cocktail they've effectively played pinball with ukraine's expectations some have expressed uncertainty about a future dialogue with. we're lacking a decision by ukraine's leader in a situation when ukraine's president says the offer is not good for his country we need to take a break and think it over while other signals still hold political statements on twitter are not the best way to resolve the matter the best signal we could make is to tell you krane that our doors are still open for it. all this marks quite a change from the sweet talk of many european leaders before the vilnius summit in november where president which had refused to sign the euro so he a shindy of the offer of signing the most ambitious agreement the european union has ever offered to a nonmember state is still on the table we should always respect ukraine's suffering decisions but that all rapidly changed once again because each side in

this proposed compensation for signing the deal was in order no it's a blackmail all for the souls who try to my. president. and of course it's connected so with they are present connect that with the interests of those core wants to get some benefits from joining the deep and comprehensive free trade area we think european union the money is still the main sticking point and grain needs billions prison millions and both sides refuse to budge in their demands amidst this continuing standoff both geopolitically and on the streets of going to cause which is going to forestall the fifteen billion. and the one from russia all reviewed rumored to be the likely result of this trip despite harsh rhetoric coming from here at the un the coverage has been insisting that ukraine will not step down from the euro association however the protesting crowd behind the barricades already made it clear that every step of ukraine's

president and moscow will be closely watched lexy russia see reporting from kiev in ukraine a more expert opinion and analysis are always available on our website r.t. dot com where you can also find all the facts and numbers regarding what brussels and moscow can offer ukraine in case of closer partnership. and judge in america has ruled out the national security agency may have violated the constitution by collecting telephone data the decision follows a lawsuit brought by a conservative activist and the father of an say cryptologist killed in afghanistan in two thousand and eleven the judge ordered a stop to their data being monitored and that all gathered material be destroyed meanwhile the decision can't come into force because the government has a right to appeal chris keates the owner of

a secure online messaging service who moved his company to avoid u.s. intelligence control says everyone would comply with legal searches but not mass secret surveillance it's not a strong argument compared to the right of people to have privacy in their papers from unwarranted searches so what's what's basically happening the argument the government's making is that the medic data that they're collecting which is all the information about the phone calls who called who at what time how long the call was all that information they think that's fair game that they should be able to grab as much of that as possible most people who who look at this you know from a situation like a normal person would say it's just like wiretapping the reality is this they don't need to do a dragnet on everybody if they really care about terrorists i mean most people would say yeah if there is a suspicion or a reason for people to be surveilled like this go to a judge get a warrant we'll cooperate everybody i know in this business would cooperate with

a legal warranted search but when you go on a fishing expedition to catch every fish in the ocean and then throw ninety nine point nine nine nine percent of them back in the water that's that's not good. now the american public deserves a chance to see how the secret services get permission to monitor data and that's how and word snowden has opened the world's eyes to the n.s.a.'s massive spying operation commented on the judge's decision he says it was a main reason behind his actions josh gerstein a senior white house reporter considers that snowden's revelations made the courts take the side of the victims of surveillance on the past these kinds of lawsuits have failed because the courts and ultimately the supreme court concluded that it was too speculative that the individuals who were suing could really show that there was a high likelihood that their communications had been tracked or intercepted that's why the supreme court threw out a case like this

a couple of years ago but in the wake of the snowden disclosures there are now documents public records and declassified information about how this program works that indicate that virtually every american is affected by it. that if they use a telephone at any point to receive a call or make a call it's very likely some information about that call is being retained by the government provide of yours so the judge essentially found that this scene here in the background has basically changed and that individuals who sue over this now do have standing to pursue their suits so while the n.s.a. is appetite for personal data seems far from being satisfied some groups have found quite an unusual way to stand up for digital privacy. you know. you better not sky you better get you back tell you the. truth. now this here is video implores people not to let the n.s.a.

spy on them during this holiday season had to r.t. dot com for the full story. and also online never before released information about the boston bomber show the older turned on brother tamerlan confessing he heard voices in his head before the attack. in the wake of the fukushima disaster germany has been shutting down nuclear reactors the country plans to completely abandon nuclear power by two thousand and twenty two but almost a fifth of germany's an idiot comes from atomic power plants so berlin aims to go green to keep the lights on well let's now take a closer look at the pros and cons ave green and unlike fossil fuels that these

sources of energy are renewable and should be environmentally friendly but the wind turbines and solar panels are expensive to install and take a long time to pay off driving up household bills and also some of the green energy sources are dependent on weather since you don't get wind and sun every day and the only produce relatively small amounts of power compared to conventional energy sources paint all reports on the cost of germany's transition. disagreeing with germany's no to nuclear has become it to boot topic in a country that has set itself up as the world leader in renewable energy of can and for all their lives germans have been told that nuclear energy is bad but that idea has now filled up their brains so that there is no space left for any other thoughts on the race for a new or balls like wind and solar is being financed by rising electricity bills

for consumers in twenty twelve the cost paid by households was three point six euros cents per kilowatt hour now it stands at five point five cents adding about one hundred eighty five year zero to the average yearly bill that seeing the emergence of groups who wants an end to the wind and solar switchover and the return to nuclear this is not really those who have money who are the target audience of this green energy can pay everyone else gets left behind despite the ability of nuclear power stations like this one to generate large amounts of electricity relatively cheaply no matter what the weather conditions the pro nuclear side of the debate in germany have struggled to get their voice heard the experts say part of the problem is that people are worryingly naive about the real issues of generating power. is that electricity comes out of the wall in their house they don't know what it takes to keep a stable power grid to do that you need big power stations nuclear coal or gas the

twenty eleven fukushima disaster prompted germany to ramp up the shutdown of nuclear power stations which is being carried out with a near religious zeal of youth i know this whole movement is like an eco religion you commit a sin creates an evil and as with other religions this leads to the end of the world this attitude to energy makes me angry so as prices rise more fossil fuel power stations are having to be built to take up the slack for when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine leaving germany's green revolution coated in coal dust peter all over r.t. germany. acetic look at some other stories from around the world as suspect a car bomb has exploded near a checkpoint in northern lebanon a man by the militant movement has a blog local media reports the blast caused deaths and injuries but there was no confirmation from security officials has been wise been the target of several

recent attacks believed to be in retaliation for their taking the side of president in the syrian conflict. an explosion at a natural gas pipeline belonging to mexico state owned oil and gas producer panix has injured up to seven people the incident happened near the capital and forced the evacuation of hundreds of local residents according to the company and the blast was caused by the thieves trying to tap into the pipeline officials are now examining the full extent of the damage. thousands of civilians and south sudan a fled to un mission in the capital juba after the country's army repelled an attempt to overthrow the government manning refugees had to be treated by medical staff the coup was staged by soldiers loyal to the country's former vice president and led to pull wadi street battles a dusk till dawn curfew has been imposed by president salva kiir after the rebels

were dispersed. your update here on our team coming up it's abby martin in breaking the set. they're calling obama's happy smiling sophie photo with the danish and british prime ministers at the mandela funeral an international incident but before we rail on obama for doing something stupid a funeral we need to clear one thing up the washington post says that this actually occurred at the memorial service after the funeral was over and trust me after about three hours of serious lectures at a conference or some sort of super long wedding most of us will just be banging our heads against the wall out of boredom and i've probably checked my email about seven times obama's place note i said most of us but the president isn't supposed

to be like most of us because he represents all of us it's one thing when you're fourteen and too stupid to realize that sophie photos at the wake after grandpa's funeral is a. that idea but it's another thing entirely when one of the most photographed and powerful people on the planet takes a selfie at the memorial service of someone he claims to respect although i might sound annoyed this sophie is pretty much irrelevant this is just a big error of etiquette there are plenty of real concrete things with real consequences to be bad at obama over like our big religious wacko rebels in syria or signing into law the n.b.a. i wish with all my heart that we only had to be angry with obama over some minor etiquette errors but sadly they're just a drop in the obama bucket but that's just my opinion. of. what's happening folks i'm abby martin and this

is breaking the set last week a sixteen year old texas teenager named you think couch was sentenced for killing four people and severely injuring two others while driving belligerently drunk so knowing texas is penchant for punishment one can only assume that this kid got at least a couple of years behind bars nope instead the judge gave him ten years probation and a trip to a four hundred fifty thousand dollars rehab facility lindsay you know hand style see the poor kid was suffering from a debilitating illness called out the lines up and it is a rich parents have spoiled him so badly that he's never had the chance to develop something called morals because there's no better punishment for a spoiled brat than to send him to a celebrity rehab center if you don't think this is about class or race for that matter one only has to look at another verdict by the same judge from just last year where a fourteen year old black teen killed someone in a fight was sentenced to ten years behind bars but as ridiculous as this case is

what's most terrifying is the precedent that it sets what's stopping bush administration war criminals and wall street crooks from pleading out who. at the i.c.c. or new york federal court. look i have this is america where two tiered justice is now served on a silver platter now let's break. down the politically . it was a. very hard to take. to get. that back with that hurt right there.

guys a lot has been percolating in the news lately but there is one story is so bizarre that i can't really blame the corporate media for taking the time to report it. controversy over a man who stood next to president obama at the on the podium at mandela's memorial the sign language interpreter some in the deaf community are saying he's a fake who is gestures weren't sign language at all a day off to be exposed as a fake tom suddenly john cheek hits back at his accusers blaming his bizarre sign language on schizophrenia he says he was seeing angels a local report claims he has phrased charges for murder rape fast and breaking and entering now i know guys let's not do that no no.