britta knobs for energy over environmental concerns with a plan to potentially open up the pristine british countryside the shale gas fracking despite widespread public opposition. which you can't get into your house. if you think it as if fracking led to earthquakes weren't bad enough we make the texans living in the shadow of a shell well as drinking water started to hurt and. they don't want the world to know that it really is bad they don't want it in official documents. also had learned this morning ukraine secures cut price gas and a fifteen billion dollar injection during talks here in moscow but the customs union apparently wasn't raised despite pro e.u. protesters suspicions of a secretly european bloc plot. and the syrian army moves in to clear the damascus

suburb of address from extremists who according to locals launched a religious massacre beheading adults and children and wiping out entire families. if you just joined us it's kevin i would r.t. h.q. live really just after midnight now in moscow our top story a new energy boom may be coming to the british countryside but so far it's far from warm welcome a government report has laid the groundwork now to open up vast swathes of the u.k. for oil exploration including the shale gas drilling that's one of the crucial bits knows a lot of it it's all here in the light blue on this map you can see just how much lands been earmarked for potential fracking much of it as well pristine british countryside first made sense of this weighty report for us. well this is

a regulatory roadmap on shore oil and gas exploration and 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 now 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 is accepted 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 in 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 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 we sure up energy security in the u.k. talking about job creation but the months local communities will be 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's about water pollution about earthquakes in areas where test drilling has been carried out so

a lot of kids. and seeing 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. sort of energy bills to various parts hailed this report as the next step in unlocking britain's fracking potential but london campaign officer for the young greens banal dutchy told us he thinks this is the wrong solution king is that 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 resolve the crime a 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 simply offers the opportunity to hold 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 forced to from the founder of free sussex in southern england who believes 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 as 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 what'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 what does lie down the road for

britain if a fracking revolution to exalt well apparently we need look no further than texas that's the shale gas drilling capital of the world were probably prices a tanking near those wells running smells stretch for kilometers even earthquakes ability to fracking and that's not all either is going to change you can explain this 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 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 is 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 but 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 derives its income in survival from oil and gas production issues fully putting in charge of also regulating the protection of groundwater from our going down 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 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 kids were advised to vent the gas constantly to keep it from accumulating under their property as their

neighboring gas wells continues to frack and 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 frack him everybody else instead 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 leaves his family are left to fight alone to get a healthy environment in their homes. again a check on our team parker county texas. you keep of course the latest on the locals in the activist struggle against big energy interests at r.t. dot com a site we've online report on the campaign is in the u.s. to warn of catastrophe after the coast guard offered to use rivers to ship toxic fracking waste. another big story tonight it's been

a big deal day for ukraine after several key agreements were struck between kiev and moscow earlier article piskun off brings us up to speed. 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 send 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 at the third key point is perhaps one of the main reasons why so much attention was focused at this meeting 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 a 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 really on their side and the other player who's reaction now what we're waiting for is the european union which rejected giving final financial aid to ukraine and knowing the current financial difficulties it's gonna mean is going through it has been sending different signals throughout the course of the last few weeks and artie's. took a closer look at the e.u. leaders rhetoric. the threat of sanctions if he goes to moscow and afterwards is why i see it. might be interesting to know that . the bank accounts in general cannot be open anymore for some previous

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 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 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 crave 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 is the author 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's all rapidly changed. in this proposed compensation for saying the deal was in order no it's a blackmail all. out of the 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 comprehensive free trade area we think. the money is still the main sticking point and grain needs billy. offers millions and science refused to budge in their demands to mix this continuing standoff geopolitically and the streets of the unocal which is going to more school with a fifteen billion dollar loan from russia already rumored 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 so see asian powers however they protesting crowd behind the barricades already made it clear that every step of ukraine's president and moscow will be closely watched lexy russia r.t. reporting from kiev in ukraine. let's get some perspective. of the bruise group think tank joining us on the line evening she robert because the opposition here they're worried that the deals and the goodies if you like that were negotiated today are going to come with strings attached are the worries founded as you see it . i think though really unfair around it and driven by political motives really the offer from the european union will cause enormous economic calm and russia clearly being a friend to ukraine in the money they're giving to buying ukrainian bonds and of course cutting the put bias or gas that is absolutely bury her for the ukrainian

economy where as the european union movement would have actually been causing economic harm so you can hasn't been forced into an agreement with russia well mitt has many other sources of gas and can exploit is developing its own opportunities for gas and it's just taken a good deal when russia's clearly being more of a friend to the ukraine than the u. or indeed the i.m.f. which is between refusing to give ukrainian country alone so really this is a good deal for you brainless should be very happy yeah we when you look at the price of gas you just look at those figures alone working out the average consumption it's going to save almost three billion dollars this winter alone for ukraine it be very difficult often to turn down wouldn't it what happens though if somehow someone on the line in the next few weeks or months that the problems intensify their yannick which is ousted those deals still stand. well then that

would all be brought into question because there's a political goal in terms of the the opposition to yannick overage they want to be part of the european union they want to have those that have opposed to his pragmatic decision to look towards agreement with russia potentially or that hasn't been actually discussed but actually to refuse to sign the agreement with the european union was very foresighted in terms of the saves ukrainian economy from a lot of damage which e.u. regulations would have actually caused so it would actually cause a lot of problems if you kind of it was overthrown and. didn't have any choice end of the day for all the skeptics the saying this is a bad thing to my all the people that want to go towards the you didn't have any other choice of his country was on the verge of bankruptcy you know a lifeline was being offered for russia a similar lifeline as we've been saying of any problem anywhere near that scale was not an offer from the e.u. and that they if you haven't got any money and someone offering it to you you have

to go with the person who's offering i guess absolutely in the european union was of course they're the ones that have been bullying in this whole episode years now the european union has been putting quotas on ukrainian exports to the e.u. that's been an attempt to force them into an agreement where they adopt aspects of e.u. regulations and go into the european union sphere of albeit that would not be comically helpful so we need to remember that the european union has been the bullying partner here and of course russia has actually been very helpful as of late robert thanks she thought troubled children the group think tank thank you. and you can find more expert opinion more analysis on the situation in ukraine on our website of course most of those old facts and figures regarding what brussels moscow can offer ukraine individually if there is a case of a close partnership either way now coming up in the program to snowden strikes

again with a new leak now norway's been caught conducting surveillance with the n.s.a. targeting russia just weeks off to sweden was found to be others as well we report on that after the break. syria can collapse western backed rebels have either been routed or on the run saudi supported. territories civilian population steroids meanwhile assad remains in power with this military what's next for syria. please please. please.

please please. again the syrian army is reportedly liberated key districts in. city of address which has 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 indeed some

estimates put the number of civilians killed at around two hundred there a crew from artie's arabic channel reports. when dawn was breaking over the al nusra front and the army of islam gave a signal for their fighters to attack them 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 acts 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 a slaughter everywhere the eldest was only twenty years old he was slaughtered in

this 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 i don't know why they were slaughtered you know what they grab them by their heads and food and slotted them like sheep on the drug and industrial town is inhabited by thousands of workers and their families who are all trapped with fighters surrounded the town with a few details of what happened there are still on certainly no we've only had leaks about massacres that have been described as the most mcgrew some since the start of the syrian crisis sealants told us that the workers are not to break through all legs acute and burn during the first hours of the attack or whole families were massacred we do not 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 through the syrian army commanders in the region decided to besiege the town and protect civilians by isolating them from areas where fighting is ongoing moves necessary by

the military whose operation is not expected to be in. the one with the much. higher r.t. . the cold blooded the sold rose reportedly carried out by the al qaeda link the loser fronts also suspected that some members of the newly formed islamic front group were also involved to their radical organization it's apparently now forging ties with the united states indeed a meeting between them could even take place later this week foreign affairs analyst a split there over whether the u.s. should actually negotiate with this group. important that both sides now recognize that there should be a political settlement and that means talking to the people with guns as long as they have some agenda of the rather could be common ground if they're just jihadi fundamentalists who want to slaughter everybody who is not to the sunni or who agrees with the interpretation of islam then obviously it's impossible but that is not did majority view i think the majority view among the sunnis of syria is that

there should be a negotiated settlement they don't many of them like this al-qaeda infiltration that's happened in the last year or two i don't negotiate with terrorists but i should say that in this particular case the people who have dialogue with the terrorists they have blood on their hands because they have they have facilitated the training of these mercenaries in saudi arabia qatar they have provided funding they have not provided a significant level of funding to the so-called moderate opposition forces of opposition brigades and those moderate opposition brigades in fact is a myth 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 could be no peace as long as the west military alliance supports terrorists. the

latest leak from edward snowden has exposed norway's role in america's splode will spoil peroration is now the nordic countries apparently been sharing intelligence with the us about russia's political elite as well as oil and gas companies and ordinary civilians how glorious is director of the center for international and strategic analysis and believes this is very complex set of operations to. this is a multi faceted or kind of operations and also interest to go far beyond the war on terror or on the fight against or code. some extensive network of all symbols intelligence up into north. ridge. symbols and told them about all kinds of especially military russian looked into which was also go against assad and do all during the cold war with russia would they also these capacities also seeing or relevant or standing for more political and legal only

six tours. and another blow for the n.s.a. on its home territory a federal judge in america has made it clear he thinks its secret gathering of personal data was unconstitutional the government can now either repeal or delete all the data gathered on the five plaintiffs who filed the case chris kit so to secure online messaging service a move his company to avoid the prying eyes of u.s. intelligence he told us he thinks there's absolutely no reason for such blanket 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. news twenty four seven if you know by a t.v. a coma but with the next news bulletin he just had and i was time to know in that story the homeless man who's found his feet by using his fists so after the break international. what defines a country's success. faceless figures of economic growth. for

a factual standard of living. margins consumer of p.c.'s and i see it with me in the country is the federal government simply say's property of the united states government. is the united states' privilege and it was done the public has to realize you can't just buy. your own just throw it away. for instance belongs to the united states environmental protection agency i found this on a dump site here this year it's not a waste of the money it produces of these lives when i should be able to collect

these i believe that vision responsible for their products from cradle to grave. fatal to mexico comment of mental health property will sell to murder and corporate it also belongs to the washington metro area transit authority properties of a dentist aids page trend and trademark office. when i was a child i dreamed of becoming an actor. not a sailor. and. people knew me as. a fellow before. sadly i've

got no other family. i'm still looking for my calling in life. so my place in the world. sometimes fighting helps me get close to that goal. i'm looking up i'm able tell me i'm a legend. yet again but. i'm just an ordinary man i'm.

sleep. but as shelter from the cold and to the night before the underground. minus twenty or even just zero outside. it's freezing. cold.