ukraine secure price of gas at a fifteen billion dollar injection. but the customs apparently. block the bringing up to speed of the headlines britain for energy over environmental concerns with a plan to potentially open up the british countryside to shale gas fracking despite widespread public opposition. which you've been here how do. you think it is if. we make the texans living in the shadow of drinking water started to further. want the world to know that it really is this bad they don't want it. and the syrian army moves in to clear the

damascus suburb of extremists who according to locals launched a religious massacre beheading out of children and wiping out entire families. it's ten pm here most go very good evening from even with you watching around the world this international. deal day for ukraine after several key agreements was struck between kiev and moscow earlier this evening. as the latest. the three key points that came out of this meeting are first of all russia and ukraine did agree on the price for gas for two thousand and fourteen which went down from four hundred dollars to around two hundred seventy dollars per thousand cubic meters or so far as when or stand this is a temporary measure given to the financial difficulties in ukraine itself with the

second key point is that the country is getting a low interest rate along the from russia worth around fifteen billion euros dollars in the form of moscow buying ukrainian government bonds but the third key point and perhaps one of the main reasons why so much attention was focused at this meeting since there was a lot of speculation that this could be a step towards ukraine joining the customs union with russia which the ukrainian opposition is strongly against they were spreading rumors that president unocal which was secretly brokering out the deal to do so well now both leaders here in moscow said that this wasn't even discussed and neither was ukraine's association agreement with the european union and now the protesters in kiev said that they would watch this meeting closely and their further actions would largely depend on its outcome so now the ball is of really on their side and the other player who's reaction now we're waiting for is the european union which rejected giving finding

financial aid to a ukrainian knowing the current financial difficulties that scanning me is going through it has been sending different signals through up the course of the last few weeks and artie's. took a closer look at the e.u. latest rhetoric. ah ha from the threat of sanctions if he goes to moscow and afterwards is while it's shit then it might be interesting to know that. the bank accounts in general cannot be open to any more for some craziness to open a 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 dance 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 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 others signaled their. 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 more exploitive 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 once which said the proposed compensation for signing the deal was in order no it's a blackmailer of politicians who try to make out of the president.

and of course it's connected so with they are present connected with the interests of those core wants to get some benefits from joining the deep and comprehensive free trade area with thing european union the money is still the main sticking point ukraine needs billions. in millions and both sides refused to budge in their demands amidst this continuing standoff both geopolitically and on the streets of unocal which is going to moscow with a fifteen billion dollars loan from russia. to be the likely result of this trip despite harsh rhetoric coming from europe which has been insisting that ukraine will not step down from the euro association power however they protesting crowd behind the barricades already made it clear that every step of ukraine's president and moscow will be closely watched the russia party. in ukraine.

or ask about details on the deals now struck by ukraine and russia from oxford university historian mark colvin joining us on the line ottomar this a major concession say that ukraine's got from russia to sort of things that may know that any future deals with the e.u. are currently off the table for good. not at all it seems to me that actually the european union strategist must be rather happy with this deal russia has agreed to pay off essential of the western banks who have lent money rather. probably unwisely to ukraine without really thinking through its ability to pay and russia is going to subsidize in effect the provision of gas to people in ukraine which is a good thing for ordinary people in the business but it doesn't actually buy and if you do create income politically not if there's a change of government after all these deals go through after the cash is transferred and still there is a revolution or some kind of change of regime doesn't void the possibility that then careful could still either tilt will be pulled to wards brussels towards the

u.n. or nato but still the word so on the lips of many in europe tonight is going to be all pressure this was from russia you know. well they will they will say there was a say it's not clear water is the pressure side from russia in the sense that there are some technical deals to do with space and summit specific industries but all fresh pressure is offering goodies on the table if you like. whereas if you see what it seems to be very interesting is that russia here is actually in a sense offering goodies to ukrainian society it will help to pay the wages and pensions of people who in ukraine it will help to provide cheaper energy but the europeans and the americans have over the last twenty years decided that the easiest way to influence governments is actually free to offer goodies to politicians not to the whole society it costs as we can see billions to make life better for many people in a society where as you may be able to acquire influence with the rules of a society with

a dominant voices for tens of millions and so it seems to me that if you look at how the west has played geopolitical chest compared with the way the kremlin has i think the kremlin has been more than three pick but not necessarily. the best chess player despite the russian tradition of sport up. course the opposition still crying boo tonight they're not at all happy with. the data but in the sense that you have a covert count when kenny. no no he can't wait of course one of the reasons why the opposition will cry blue is is also the cause the risk the chance of enough ordinary ukrainians will say why is it that it is moscow that offices real economic help real financial assistance of benefits abroad sections of the society why doesn't the e.u. offer after all europeans are supposed to be the rich model of how to run an economy they're supposed to be the people that you want to imitate but it seems to me that brussels is much less generous with money to benefit the society here i mean end of the day of the effect for instance of the class of end of the day mark

we've got a couple of guests earlier on saying that's where the e.u. went wrong they approached this from the wrong side there were more concerned about getting. out of jail on the rights the wrongs of that and actually looking at how your crane was going to pay for this deal. they did and of course right up in the runup to the association agreement at the end of november suddenly the i.m.f. which helped or has a huge american presence in its port suddenly made demands on ukraine which was simply economically as well as politically suicidal for the un a coup of it so one can't help feeling that to a degree this whole crisis was caused not just by a president in a coach's inability to come to a clear decision but by precisely the fact that he was suddenly pushed by the i.m.f. into saying could he really afford the kind of huge changes to everyday life they were demanding a forty percent increase in energy prices to deal with posco today of course does mean in effect that people might well see something like

a forty percent decrease in their gas bills and more details to go into the history books of course oxford university is all remarkable man thank you for your thoughts about it thank you and i'll get you can find more expert opinion and analysis on the situation in ukraine on our website r.t. dot com along with all the facts and figures regarding what brussels and moscow can offer ukraine in case of a closer partnership. reporting next the syrian army's that reportedly liberated key districts in the city of andrew which is it seems witnessed atrocities described as the most barbaric since the war started almost three years ago local residents have told r.t. that adults and children were tortured and beheaded by a battalion of islamic rebels who tried to seize control of the area some estimates indeed put the number of civilians killed at around two hundred a crew from artie's arabic channel is there. the autumn 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 the. other 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 equals heads were chopped off and the bodies thrown all over the road ahead of 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 is i don't know why they were slaughtered they grabbed them by their heads and food and slaughtered them like sheep. in industrial towns 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 on certainly no we've only had leaks about massacres that have been described as the most with gruesome since the start of the syrian crisis civilians told us that the workers are not to break all legs acute and burn during the first hours and they've attacked 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 that the woman in your position for 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 seems necessary by the military whose operation is not expected to be an

easy. the one we. are. coming up in the program snowden strikes again with a new leak now norway's been called conducting covert surveillance with the n.s.a. targeting russia just weeks off to sweeteners from the others as well as just ahead . please it was a. very hard to take a. look again there is a lot that has sex with that earthquake there was. one.

of the people. again this is r t but one of our top stories now familiar to the syrian army is reportedly liberated key districts in the city of adderall which as it seems witnessed atrocities described as the most barbaric since the war started there

almost three years ago local residents told r.t. indeed that adults and children as mentioned earlier on the torch had been beheaded by a battalion of islamic rebels who tried to seize control of the area now some estimates just to remind you put that number of civilians killed around two hundred join me to talk about this is that lebanese journalist allie hashem is a correspondent with al-jazeera television ali thanks for taking the time to be with us you know we're. as well as many of course about the way the media goes about covering these sorts of stories on how to throw your loan was cut off continually question oh dear me we have problems coming to you just now i'll try one more time you live on r.t. if you can still hear me can hear me ok now. i think we've lost the line. everybody will try and get by it's a little bit late such a pity because the say early there was a former correspondent we use it give us a beautiful bit of insight into how the media's been covering what's been happening in syria will try and get back from a bit later again. meantime

a new energy boom may be coming to the british countryside but so far it has had a far from warm welcome a government report as laid the groundwork vast swathes of the u.k. for all exploration including shale gas drilling we were going to show you a map but we can't but the map would have showed you how much land had been potentially for fracking it's in british pristine countryside a lot of people up against it r.t. sarah first made sense of the report for us. the regulatory roadmap on shore oil and gas exploration it's the government setting out their stall for where they see this drilling technique taking the u.k. in the future and there are four reports for england scotland wales and northern ireland so essentially all across the u.k. and it's been described as an important next step for the potential of shale gas in

the u.k. energy mix so it's a bulky document but if you look at the actual wording of it and there are some parts where it seems the government to accept is that they don't fully understand the environmental consequences of this controversial technique known as fracking but nonetheless they are going ahead looking at ways to expand its use in the u.k. now is for you can to the department for energy and climate change this morning and they said they've got more than a dozen applications that are under consultation at the moment so they're being considered and that consultation process usually lasting on average of about twelve weeks so you can expect early next year that we're going to find out where the new licenses are actually going to be granted across chunks of the united kingdom and as he said the government has very much tried to highlight the benefits that will come from there saying that it will sure up energy security in the u.k. talking about job creation but amongst local communities where we've seen test

sites already using this technique we have seen activities from activists and opposition groups just yesterday in fact in manchester near a test site we saw a group of activists laying down the wing of the wind turbine in opposition so certainly the government aren't going to have an easy time i think convincing members of the local community who are concerned if she is about water pollution about earthquakes in areas where test drilling has been carried out so a lot of convincing. that still to be done this is a very bulky report that we see in published today lots of nitty gritty detail quite hard to get a full understanding of it but as he said it's really made very clear that the governments are going to want to push ahead with this technique all across the u.k. . so furthur well you can see energy minister who's parts hailed as reporters the next step in unlocking britain's fracking potential but london campaign officer of the young green has been early on dutchy told us this is the wrong solution he

thinks fracking is an expensive way of not solving the crises that we face fracking to very little to bring down prices will do very little to solve the climate crisis that we face generates a false hope for the issues that we were looking to resolve it won't bring down into prices that the government has admitted this is simply offers the opportunity to hog hoover up wealth from government subsidies and commodity sells up to holders and companies and it's not about everybody's people's wealth and well being thoughts too from the firm refract free sussex in southern england who told us that the gas extraction process simply cannot be made safe it is an inherently evil process say fracking is an oxymoron it is simply not possible it's such a human arrogance to say that we can legislate for the vagaries of subterranean geology what i have learned from the people i now know personally in pennsylvania

and australia has made me very scared as a mother of someone of a child or someone who lives four miles from a fracking well in a country that already has sixty percent plus potentially licensed for this eco cycle nightmare this technology cannot be regulated they're making all kinds of you euphemistic excuses about why it's not to do with the fracking it's to do with poor operations it pollutes drinking water it pollutes air it is widely proven to trigger seismic activity both nearby and far. so the big question the what is down the road for britain if a fracking revolution takes hold well you need to look maybe no further than texas the gas drilling capital of the world has been described as well property prices of tanks near said wells running smells stretch for miles noon earthquakes have been linked to fracking it's not all either and she should count picks it up 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't

get into your house. 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 an 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 lipski is 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 corporation conceit that the rights it seen come in survival from oil and gas production issues should be putting in charge of also regulating the protection of groundwater from ongoing swells and there's any parent. conflict of interest 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 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. phillips kids were advised to vent the gas constantly to keep it from accumulating under their property as their neighboring gas wells continues to frac slide thousand feet deep we're pretty much standing around on 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 we've got the horses to head who cares invest in a few loss of fee for now it seems that the authorities at all levels are so fired up on fracking potential profits that households like steve leaves his family are

left to fight alone to get a healthy environment in their homes going to check on our t.v. parker county texas. and you keep across the lake from the locals and the activist struggle against big energy interests of r.t. dot com a good online report about campaign is in the u.s. born a catastrophe of the coast guard of the rivers to ship toxic fracking waste to r.t. dot com. the latest link from edward snowden has exposed norway's role now in america's global spying operations the nordic countries been sharing intelligence apparently with the u.s. about russia's political elite as well as all of gas companies and ordinary everyday citizens to. director of the center for international and strategic analysis believes this is a very complex set of operations to this is a multi faceted or kinds of operations and also interests that go far beyond the

war on terrorism or on the fight against all code law although some extensive network or all singles intelligence up into laws. which circle the symbols and told them about all kinds of especially military russian looked into which was also dome against the sword you all during the cold war but not actually there also these capacities also seeing or relevant or standing for more political and legal only six tours. twenty four seven dancing to a coma course if you don't need a t.v. after the break here though we're breaking the said with a look into why a sign language scandal at nelson mandela's memorial service made global headlines at the expense of the sea relief. coming up short.

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 would just be banging our heads against the wall out of boredom and i'd probably check my email about seven times obama's place know 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 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. what's happening to folks i'm abby martin and this is a break in the set last week a sixteen year old texas teenager named ethan 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 and so 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 who was suffering from a debilitating illness called out to 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 won at the i.c.c. or new york federal court. look guys this is america where two tiered justice is now served on a silver platter now let's break. it

was. very hard to take. that back with that hurt right there. guys all a lot has been percolating in the news lately but there is one story 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 hits back at his accuser is blaming his bizarre sign language on schizophrenia he says he was seeing angels a local report claims he is pretty used to charges for murder rape faffed and breaking and entering now i know that that's no no no no. wrong is right there i'll wait a bit you say that this guy had faced charges for rape theft and murder he has apparently the fake signer is not only a schizo friend of kristi's angels but also has ties to a group responsible for a series of violent murders the corporate media has been fed enough material about him to keep us distracted well into two thousand and fourteen so why.