as the first stage of syria's chemical disarmament is declared a success we recap on the diplomatic achievements that prevented a u.s. strike on the war torn country and look at how the civil conflict has transformed during the year. the u.k. government tax lowering drive seems only to be stuffing the wallets of the highest earners leaving no reason for those on basic wage to celebrate lots. julian a certain chunk of the big day recently worlds of online privacy protection and freedom of information and getting ready to give their talks here in humbug to the chaos communications conference.

and welcome you're watching r t international live from moscow where it's five pm. it's been thirty three months of bloody civil conflict in syria and twenty thirteen has brought no relief to the people of the war torn country on the contrary from the conventional standoff between the government and opposition the conflict has grown multidimensional marked by infighting between various rebel groups. this year the opposition has grown more fragmented with many rebel groups increasingly dominated by radicals a study by a defense consultant say shows that out of one hundred thousand opposition fighters in syria more than half are extremists made up of jihad just an islamic hardliners the rest are more moderate but their voices are being increasingly drowned out by the radicals this year in syria was also marked by

a growing number of attacks on christians with a nation town of becoming a front line and our two crew was there right in the midst of the standoff between the government forces and islamist rebels here's what our correspondent marie if a notion of filed at the height of the fighting. oh oh. the mood is cheerful soldiers a smiling and relieved the jihadists has been booted out but when you look at this some of them were killed something escaped from the womb but the policy the locals joined the army to defend the native town the soldiers in light colored uniforms on the so-called national defense but none of the drain he's very difficult with mountains and graves but we know the area better so we are carrying on with the alteration of outside the shop but we come across one grocery shop owner who we

filmed back in two thousand and twelve she then he told us that the armed rebels hasn't come to their village and why would they this time he's armed with a gun and months to run soldiers and he has some questions again through the other thirty if syria is a land of history and of love for their vomit they send terrorists here through the corners of the world to kill syrians and each of their lines what your eye off the wall i mean why if the european citizen is so much just slapped across the street so they'd be a scam going on in. seriously how many victims how many hundreds of thousands have been sources america why will it stop would quickly find out that it won't be today held by the militants for a week it seems that mountain tops of fear hotel still poses a threat that sufi hotel our goal was the liberated them bushong mark tough love honestly we couldn't do it there snipers revery where milo is home to many

christian churches and monasteries as well as mosques everywhere we go here we see either crosses on the rents now added to these we see black jihadists flags. it's time to head back. to trial in the car something goes wrong. oh. we take cover in a place where we find dozens of army soldiers hiding from enemy's bullets. the main road is targeted and it seems our only way out. we think over our chances when our engineer gets heat. is going to go. first you must get if you scratch. but. thankfully it's not serious. but it becomes clear we come to a to minutes more. ok

much of a shock when i'm stuck here in this corner and we're now trying to get out of here because this was. the first no no no no. so. this had been anything done back then hey go clear a lot. more focus also do the boots did you hear them whizzing by thoughtful a bit but now say that we've reached the safe area.

they're firing from behind this huge hundred told that this is the syrian army get to. refugee women who were there is too much so you got to play. and we leave you. governmental forces continue their frenzy form our new. which despite the claims remains under siege. nasty reporting from syria. while the syrian conflict could have taken an even more dramatic turn this august when the u.s. threatened bombing raids on the country it followed a major chemical attack near damascus that killed hundreds washington blame the os of government for the atrocity but failed to produce any evidence the airstrikes were shelved only after moscow intervened helping to negotiate a landmark chemical disarmament deal that led to a un resolution that kickstarted the destruction of syria's chemical weapons and production facilities the first stage of the process has officially been completed

our teaser explains what's next. we can see the first hurdle or rather task at hand which is destroying the facilities where the chemical weapons were stored and produced and then gathering all the chemicals together that has been completed now we are at the stage two and that is the transportation of all chemicals to the port of latakia and now the there is a deadline for that and that was december thirty first but organization for broad vision of chemical weapons is saying that deadline is most likely not to be met because you don't have to transport the chemicals the route they have to go via the route from damascus to latakia which of unfortunately is rife with various armed gangs populating the areas and that could present some danger although russia is helping out in that regard by sending its special heavy duty armored trucks and lorries in order to transport these chemicals now after they reach the port of latakia the chemicals will be boarded on several vessels belonging to denmark

norway and head over to italy where they will be transferred to another vessel this one belonging to the united states there is also of course the issue of the actual destruction of the chemicals and there are two ways that could be done and the details are being figured out today. by all parties participating in this rather difficult and very sophisticated task and according to the russian there presented to the russian ministry of foreign affairs there are some kinks that they need along the way when talking to the representatives of the united states but again russia is remaining very hopeful that the talks today will be very productive and of course they're saying that they're smoothing things out along the way as they go . another major international initiative on syria's course peace talks which are expected to take place at the end of january but of course whether the syrian government and the opposition will finally sit at the negotiating innate negotiating table and whether they will help bring an end to the conflict will have

to wait til twenty fourteen. these are called to be here braving the elements in order to stand up to us oil giants chevron. this comes after a massive hunger strike that returned the world's attention to the place that sometimes up to the gulag of our times. is an undeclared global battlefield in which again and is just one of the front lines. you're watching our international live from moscow clouds have gathered over the premiership of turkish prime minister tayyip ever dawn with thousands of protesters

demanding his government resign their anger was sparked by recent high level corruption scandal that's already forced him to replace ten of his ministers are two star furthur joins us live now from istanbul with more details sara give us an idea of what's happening on the ground. with the political drama continuing to unfold here today in prime minister who are looking increasingly under pressure as he tries to stem the full out role not corruption probe just targeted dozens of his allies now on the back of that we've seen a number of resignations and months which three cabinet ministers one of the called for the prime minister himself to resign now for his part one of his responded defensively cooling the corruption crackdown an international smear campaign that's done little to restore credibility that even a wednesday we saw government protesters clashing with police and again tonight we're expected to speak large scale demonstrations protesters gather to cool for

the prime minister to resign we're going to be following that closely but of course protests not an unfamiliar cyclists stumble streets over the past year but is he protest movement of bold. as the threats to prime minister leadership and what you're seeing right now that so interesting is the threat not just coming from the streets and from these protesters but from within his own government as well arty's tara for live from istanbul thanks for that update. prime minister has been praised by the international community as a man trying to create a country where europe and muslim values were european i should say and muslim values were integrated but some analysts believe he and his party dropped this ambition as soon as they found they didn't need support. during the first year or so if they keep you keep the needed support from the european union. they were

coming from or where your heart core is the most part. claiming that they were changed therefore. was a more liberal party and the people. inside the party the members of the party the members of the parliament for. now and on the house samantha power. used to think so it's still a single t.v. it doesn't need your support even more. strange became more authoritarian. but if you want to know more on the bribery scandal that drove the turkish leadership to the brink of collapse head to r.t. dot com where we have all the details for you. more to come this hour the highly addictive drug crocodile friends just spread its deadly bite across the atlantic bringing fast and painful death.

the. economic downturn the final long day. and the rest because i think it will be a really. good. for the new book coming along the hall of fame i dislike you. pleasure to have you with us here on t.v.

today i roll researcher. international live from moscow the british government is bending over backwards to slash taxes and raise living standards for its people the result rich individuals and big businesses are stuffing their pockets with more cash while the public pays the price but despite criticism from m.p.'s the tax authorities aren't willing to change the status quo as polly boyko finds out. for many of those working here in the city of london two thousand and thirteen has been a year of prosperity thanks to a tax cut that kicked in earlier this spring the u.k.'s highest earners have been able to make even more money that yeah the rate of tax for people earning over one

hundred fifty thousand pounds per year has gone down from fifty pence to forty five so for every hundred pounds they earn over that fifty pounds used to go straight into the treasury but that figure has now been reduced and now they're only paying forty five pounds to the tax man from every hundred now all these saved five as a rounding up in the u.k. is all position labor party has done the math they say that collectively the u.k.'s highest earners have saved almost one hundred million pounds thanks to the tax cuts you have seen the longest fall in living standards on record you've got half a million people using three parents' will you've got i think homelessness is up by around since two thousand and these are serious problems why is the government choosing to cut taxes that fund like this when the government's made such play of the need for services list it's bizarre and there's very little evidence that it

benefits would be the u.k. economy so most of the people. have their tax cut but not investing that money this investment story before bed they're just trying to keep a street london isn't called a millionaire's playground for nothing you have more super rich individuals living in the capital than anywhere else in the world you have the world's most expensive houses here and butlers a back in fashion but away from the glitz and glamour thirty million brits are going to be starting the new year living in poverty u.k. prime minister david cameron has been fighting off claims that his political party only represents the privileged few but this later. tax cuts only benefits the richest one percent. the rich are getting richer in the us as well and they're there they are even bolder with wall street setting aside nearly one hundred billion dollars for new year bonuses and activists fighting

corporate dominance cash will be coming straight out of taxpayers' pockets these big wall street banks pay their employees a very high b salary usually in the range of like one hundred fifty thousand to two hundred fifty thousand but then on top of that they get the sort of performance bonus and the way that they're tallied is there's a number of surveys that they have to us how much money they have set aside for bonuses in two thousand and thirteen and that's how we arrived at the ninety one point four four billion dollars it is crazy right especially when you think about earlier this year there was this bloomberg article about how the government there is like a government subsidy of eighty three billion dollars so it's almost as if all of that government subsidy is just going right back into bonuses but this is just way that wall street has worked for a really long time before so we're going to continue to see these problems and that's why we're saying listen you shouldn't get to take these big dollars that you've gotten in this bill gotten ways and give them to yourselves you should give it back to the people that you've harmed. and on mine the arctic thirty greenpeace activists are just a step away from leaving russia after moscow drops all charges against them for

trying to board an offshore oil rig. and issued exit visas you can get the full story at r t v dot com. and it turns out that ebola titian's hollywood big shots and even vatican officials don't always practice what they preach when it comes to piracy as it emerges they've been downloading huge amounts of illegal content. right to see. her street. and i think that you're. on our reporters were very. instrumental. in the.

your authority international live from moscow julian a songs that we keep leaks founder who's been holed up in the ecuadorian ecuadorian embassy in london for over a year hiding from prosecution glenn greenwald the reporter who broke the n.s.a. scandal and whose partner was held and questioned under terrorism laws and jake about obama the wiki leaks hacker detained a dozen times at the u.s. border today they will be have liners at a major conference in hamburg on surveillance and privacy are just peter all over is there to. well as the thirtieth anniversary of the chaos communications conference here in how member gets drawing more and more supporters people are made aware of just how fragile they online privacy actually is now i'm joined by michael ebeling who is a online privacy campaigner michael thanks very much for speaking to me how the people started to take more of a interest in looking after their online security you know a lot of people do it in a different manner. some start to encrypt the e-mail is something that we would

like to support those people how to do it how to manage p.g.p. for example as iran's reducer communication on the internet whatever this is going to be a big impact for everybody's life and i think we're just looking at the beginning of a big saying to somebody like myself who's barely computer literate is there anything that i can do it to look after my own online security. of course start to encrypt the e-mails start to use office software start to change your system on your computer not microsoft not apple but use linux are you going to and anything like that people away a year ago before these leaks from edward snowden just how at risk we are online. normal most of the people didn't realize that some few people always were talking about it on the events like this once here by accident moment of them having been a big voice in the media now would you like to see edward snowden here perhaps next year as

a speaker i would like to have him today it's as fast as possible and i would like to have the german government to give him a safe place and a secure place here in germany i would prefer it this thank you very much that's michael ebeling who say privacy online privacy activist here talking about the thirtieth chaos communication conference. look now at some other stories making headlines around the world a car has blown up near an international military convoy in afghanistan killing three sold. there's according to nato officials six civilians have been reportedly wounded in the explosion on to say two rockets were fired at the u.s. embassy in kabul followed by another attack that injured three police officers the recent spate of violence comes as president karzai is considering an agreement to allow u.s. troops to stay in the country beyond twenty fourteen. egyptian authorities have arrested twenty three activists from the pro morsi muslim brotherhood on accusations of inciting violence just days after declaring it

a terrorist organization step marks a fresh crackdown on the group after officials accused them of being behind deadly attacks on a police headquarters. one member of the brotherhood was killed in clashes with pro-government residents. in both area thousands of protesters have marched through the capital sofia demanding the resignation of the socialist government involvement in fraud cases rather it was bolstered by crowds of students anti-government demonstrations have become a regular occurrence in bulgaria over the past six months since the government was caught up in corruption and. israel has long said new round of airstrikes on gaza in retaliation for two rocket attacks from the palestinian territory it's like wait three days the previous one left a three year old girl dead elsewhere in gaza the sole power plant there has stopped working through a shortage of fuel after israel closed the supply route palestinian officials blame

it on television crackdown on underground tunnels in the region. a substance that devours you from the inside and is addictive in almost every case in russia the drug known as crocodile has got its teeth into tens of thousands of drug users despite its ingredients being illegal to buy over the counter they are readily available as medina found out. it's two years since drug addict alexina lost his best friend and every december i have visited his grave. under it was a group exact he was into advertising when he was involved in several projects but the thing just killed him he couldn't stop it chased him to that thing was just some more of an extremely addictive opioid to be choosers inject as a better known as crocodile because it gives addicts gangrenous skin as also described as the flash is singsong b. drop it causes severe brain damage or skin eventually falls off and kills addicks

within two years alexy managed to escape the consequences of the drug but his story is more of an exception than the rule in reality those who tried the so-called world's deadliest drug even ones pay dearly for the cheap and all too often they end up here or abroad and you gotta remember boyfriend couldn't work because of the drug he needed to inject again it became an obsession in the end he was only working to afford the crocodile is cheap costing just in terms of the price of regular herring and most worryingly manufactured at home using over the counter chemicals. at the pleasure is that to me it's one of the main factors widespread over to responsible decisions made about could be under the ninety's where the health minister or at least the sales regulations of medicine which contains called the alexy agreed to show us just how easy it is to get the vital ingredient

painkillers. we're on our way to the drugstore i don't have any prescription but i believe i'll get everything i need to it's not a problem. it didn't take him long just five minutes and it was alexy tells us. that crocodile tears may fly from buying chrome to the ordinary household detergents or invent gasoline which i've recently just taken from a god so many different really dangerous toxic ingredients you get what they get in return is a very intense and very short time i the diction has developed so fast faster than heroin this is a drugs poor those who can't afford anything as one of the lockyer addicts who survived after quitting crocodile alexy has a stark warning. on the new deal with you don't do it this thing just turns you into a monster it's you insulate all that it's so painful it's so scary you lose everything

your friends your family everything. i do question our team moscow go are going to be time for the u.s. government to cut a deal with edward snowden hear all sides of the argument next in cross talk. to the. new seasons here yes but there's already been plenty to celebrate this december on this month's show willing how the future tense so lazy set in stone how to make movies with an instant messenger and their revolutionary exoskeleton makes life work of every lift take. you

a day here on. the central. u.s. here on this idea that we live in a democratic society if you abuse the instruments of democratic power do you actually you are living in a democratic power anymore. one of the wonderful. pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today.

hello and welcome to crossfire all things considered i'm peter lavelle power sign and the road ahead washington so-called peace process to resolve the israel palestine conflict has produced little if any results in fact the palestinians are experiencing excel aerated illegal land seizures palestine is quickly being wiped off the map is it time to accept a one state solution and or look to global institutions like the un to replace the current negotiating framework.

to cross-talk the palestine israel conflict i'm joined by my guest soraya support ehrlich in irvine she is an independent researcher and writer and in new york we cross to norman finkelstein he is a political analyst and author of cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it i'm norman you've been a great scholar of the so-called peace process of the last twenty years coming to the studio today i noticed that the you. a secretary of state has gone to the middle east to kick start talks well i could have read that headline almost any month of the last twenty years so norman isn't it time to start a new format because it can't go in nowhere i don't quite agree with peter we have to be careful about what's happening now because i do think it is going somewhere but not the place where justice would more of us to go right now secretary of state kerry president obama and.