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

what you argued or national coming to live from moscow with me marina joshing a cozy contrie side get away from the city house 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 good as you can find out it's the landowners who paid a price. the local government in texas tells steve lipski that the water from his well what of that he can set on fire is safe to drink and to use in his home. you can't 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 lives 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 d.s.l. 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 derives its income in survival from oil and gas production issues really putting 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 is 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 so why do you sell us our 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 report in 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 wells continues to frack is alive thousand feet deep or if it were pretty much standing around on top of 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 frack him and we've got the office ted who cares invest in a few loss of feed 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. going to check out our tea party county texas the controversial industry is already experiencing some unwelcome festive attention across the ocean in the u.k. protesters dressed as santa as have blocked the entrance to a drilling side with

a wind turbine boyd but this won't be enough to stop the government from further shale gas exploration as artist or smith now explains what started in bold combs sussex where locals that campaign is barricaded to test drilling sites but to months it's continued in sold goods with demonstrators blocking roads to stop drilling equipment big deliberate but it's full steam ahead for ministers are preparing to identify sauza as its square miles right 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 in sort of what you do if you plastics 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 country even at that price. on the long haul campaign leader for franz of the earth hopes the u.k. government will have what it takes to stand up for its people. we've only had one hundred full of exploratory drilling sites across the u.k. but already we've seen huge local opposition whether it's been in the southeast of ireland or 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 it had done previously it and actually listen to the concerns of communities because there's a very loud and clear message. so check out our website for the latest on the activist struggle against corporations now there are campaigners in the u.s. raising the alarm after the coast guard offered to ship fracking weighs down rivers

saying the method is a potential pollution hazard. people put an entire family was kidnapped christians and executed these horrifying reports come to our t.v. from the town of north of the syrian capital which has been occupied by islam is rebel groups at least one hundred people are said to have been massacred by the rebels but as the syrian army continues to liberate the city that number is expected to rise our crews spoke to some of the survivors. the heart when dawn was breaking over our drug the l. ners were 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 it was a year 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. how the 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 act they have seen on the road between their house and the places where the choir is gathered people's heads were chopped off and the bodies thrown all over the road. 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 and 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 the not to be crude were all legs acute and burned during the first hours so they tack whole families 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 that the woman vicious and the syrian army commanders in the region decided to besiege the town and protect civilians by isolating them from areas where fighting is ongoing and a move seemed necessary by the military whose operation is not expected to be an easy one. r.t. . but the violent scenes and haven't interfered with america's support for the rebellion washington officials are planning to meet commanders of the islamic front this week ironical union has recently overshadowed the moderate free syrian army we spoke to a geopolitical analyst who told us the world should be aware of the part he says american officials play in supporting extremist violence in recent weeks there's

been a point in shifts 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 no go see. 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 the in china holds to these al qaeda affiliated organizations and that's what we have to address there could be no peace as long as the west the military alliance supports the terrorists. and coming out on a lamb or a judgment according to america rules the n.s.a.

data collection program may be unconstitutional after answering an evasion of privacy complaint. germany's in a hurry to phase out nuclear power by the alternatives come at a high price for the environment and consumers. number of. people know me as. i'm labor forty. sadly i've got no family no. i'm still looking for my cold

a good life with. my place in the world. i literally have no place to live. will. you sit chewing on the bread that you bought with the last money you were able to beg and all i can say is get out of here. there are only two possible outcomes to the situation you know you go to miami and it's all about fancy cars and all chicks the other option is you die in the ring breathe deep breathe deeply. welcome back to starting international pro e.u. protesters in ukraine are holding their breath as present chance to russia seeking loans to have a. entries troubled economy desperately needs the opposition fear is any deal with

moscow could undermine their ambitions for closer ties with europe i just got this kind of reports despite everything that's been happening in ukraine for the past few weeks here still has been trying to sit on two chairs at the same time either leaning more towards the e.u. who are leaning more towards russia but to the protesters are stored there and they're closely watching in fact they said that there are further actions will largely depend on the outcome of this meeting in moscow. while despite these promises not to do so it is feared that within the opposition and in the european union that president you know. is discussing the loans and gas prices will also discuss the customs union it's interesting is that the street protesters have actually passed the so-called resolution banning him from doing so which is which has been greeted with a mixed reaction since it is a ban not a demand in itself but on the other ahead carney is in bad shape brussels did you

read the rights to financially compensating the reforms that it demands from the king of well there is speculation that moscow may be looking at giving crean multi-billion dollar awards and slashing gas prices which clearly isn't it with applause in the west my colleague. took a closer look at the e.u. leaders rhetoric. from the threat of sanctions if he goes to moscow and afterwards as well. might be interesting to. the brink of clones and cannot be open to any more for some creatures to open the question of the great government's credibility this government has clearly discredited itself in terms of economic help from the e.u. the reaction of europe's officiously dance of last month hasn't. each cocktail they've effectively played with ukraine's expectations some have expressed

uncertainty about aiming future dialogue with. we 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. 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 deal 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 the tone rapidly changed. in those proposed compensation for saying the deal was in order no it's

a blackmail all. out of 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 you have the money is still the main sticking point and grain needs billions. millions and science refused to budge in their demands this continuing standoff both geopolitically and on the streets of. which is going to forestall the fifteen billion dollar loan. to be the likely result of this trip despite harsh rhetoric coming from europe has been insisting that ukraine will not step down from the euro association however they protesting crowd behind the barricades already made it clear that every step of the. president in moscow will be closely watched let's see russia. reporting from kiev in ukraine

while there is another party involved in trying to sway ukraine towards the e.u. integration with an iranian american politicians visiting cave lately to support the protesters at a national affairs commentator rick ross of explains washington's heightened interest by his desire to ultimately were ukraine into nato. what's important to realize is that the west it's crafted a program for integrating ukraine into the west which means not only the european union european union is the economic component of the arrangement the north atlantic treaty organization is the real you know. goal of western policy piece of ukraine so the intent is to use the lure of economic benefits trade benefits. you know pieces to soften the ukrainian or ukrainian populace ultimately for absorption into the north atlantic treaty organisation. while nato has long been striving to lure ukraine into its ranks but it's the current craning president who

actually shelled membership plans there three years ago and that signified a hold in alliance as expansion to the east towards the russian border which peaked in late one nine hundred ninety early two thousand as you can see on this map ukraine together with bellerose remains the only blank spot standing between nato and russia more expert opinion and analysis on the situation in ukraine hours ozil available on our website r.t. dot com where you can also find all the facts and numbers regarding what proselyte moscow can offer ukraine in case of closer partnership. and judge america has ruled out a national security agency may have violated the constitution by collecting telephone data the decision follows a lawsuit over violations of privacy and that's the first time such

a judgement has been made in open court the judge ordered to stop collecting the plaintiffs data and for information already gathered to be destroyed however decision can come into force because the government has at least six months to appeal chris kit's the owner of a secure online messaging service to move 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 that's how edward snowden who opened the world's eyes to the n.s.a. is massive spying operation commented on the judge's decision he says it was the main reason behind his actions josh their son 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 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 viewers so the judge essentially found that the scene here 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 advertised for personal data seems far from being satisfied some groups have found quite an unusual way to stand for digital privacy. you know.

you better not sky. get you back and tell you the. truth. now this year versus video implores people to not allow the n.s.a. spy on them during this holiday season. for the full story. and also their never before released information about the boston bomber showing albertan i brother tom are long confessing your heard voices in his have 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 twenty twenty two

but almost a fifth of germany's energy comes from atomic power plants so berlin aims to go green to keep the lights on well let's not take a closer look at the pros and cons of the green energy unlike fossil fuels these sources of energy are renewable and should be environmentally friendly but its wind turbines and solar panels are expensive to install and take time to pay off driving up household energy bills also some of the green energy sources are dependent on the 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 feed all over a poor it's on the cost of germany's transition. disagreeing with germany's no to nuclear has become it to be 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 euro 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 want 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.

was the 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 neo religious zeal that. 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 prices rise more fossil fuel power stations are having to be built to to. up the slack for when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine leaving germany's green revolution coaches in coal dust peter all of a germany. has taken over some of the stores around the world and a car bomb has exploded the stronghold of the militant movement has been in

a string lebanon local media reports the blast caused deaths and injuries but there is no confirmation from security officials as well as been the target of several recent attacks believed to be entirely ation for taking the side of president in the syrian conflict. fresh fighting has erupted in the capital of south sudan job gunfire has been heard near a military had quarters located in the city center and this comes just a day after the country's army repelled an attempted coup by soldiers a loyal to the country's former vice president thousands of civilians have meanwhile fled to the u.n. mission. coming up our special report about the twists and turns and a life of boxer fighting for his dignity.

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 action 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 know i said most of us but the person. it 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 selfie photos at the wake after grampa's funeral is a bad 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 being 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. at the time when i was a child i dreamed of becoming an actor. but a sailor. people

know me as i leave you with. a mobile forty. thanks to the i've got no family no. i'm still looking for my calling. so my place in the world. sometimes. close to let go. a million people tell me i'm a legend. yet again but really. i'm just an ordinary man.

yeah but as shelter from the cold and. minus twenty or even just zero outside. it's freezing. cold.