day's news in the week's top stories on our t international the e.u. calls on turkey for more openness amid a massive corruption probe that's triggered an arrest in a major government shakeup. continuing our look back at two thousand and thirteen this time the story of the computer worker who blew open the u.s. extensive global surveillance network. russia's foreign minister talks with r.t. about the years of breakthroughs and challenges from syria to the missile defense spat with nato. is eleven am in moscow i matras a good to have you with us as we give you today's top stories in a look back at the week's news beginning in turkey where the country needs to

handle its deepening corruption scandal with more transparency according to concerned european officials the probe that forced the arrest of twenty four people including the sons of two ministers and a massive government reshuffle seen as prime minister air to one's biggest challenge since assuming power more than a decade ago meanwhile some four thousand people gathered again and demanding the pm step down or he's sorry for of has the latest from istanbul. it's not uncommon sights on a stumble streets in a year that's been marked by widespread protests this time the rallies taking place in the wake of a corruption crackdown that's rocked the government the threats to prime minister now comes not just from the streets but from within his own party the turnout for the demonstration was significantly smaller than the seen this summer none the less ugly clashes broke out between police and protesters added i've been in power for

such a long time it has maintained control a lot of people said and a lot of good things heard the country right now of the unfortunately it has become very very. strong. in this and there is like an awful regime that was not the first. big enough to stop this speaking publicly after the protests the prime minister remains defiant and continued to blame the corruption probe all of foreign conspiracy a second wave of detentions may still be possible they for the time being at deadlock for mainz with the police prosecutor publicly accused the law enforcement being in the government's pocket by refusing a court decision to carry out more raids on government officials and the families as that political drama continues to unfold arguably the biggest test now facing the embattled prime minister still lies ahead of him match. test for

mr i am. going to stand strongly crush. bad. rabbit and assume. that the future of. the other people think may be very difficult and. at. and it could well be that when these like the elections take place that the full impact of the corruption scandal. so. it's the. journalist and blogger are as you gabler was in istanbul taksim square and she says turkish society is becoming increasingly split it's not just the crash and scandal it's just one of the recent explosives that that kind of came upon our go on and its leadership you have a big reference people all who are against a ruling party and against terror no i'm wishing him but then there are still

a considerable amount of people they still concern him a very charismatic leader and they still believe in everything that he says so whenever he goes on and on camera as in my nice hour everywhere else that he's been in the past week ever since the corruption case i represent and he's been saying that you know this is a conspiracy theory that this is the work of israel or the us or are going to move them in itself people do believe them from inmate to crusader former oil tycoon throwing his weight behind getting jailed colleagues out once russia's richest man mikhail khodorkovsky calls his ex associates political prisoners vows to fight for their rights we take a look coming up about how they ended up behind bars in the first place. for us with just a few days left or twenty thirteen we're looking back at the events that shaped the . one person arguably generating more global headlines any other this year was a previously unknown i

t worker from the states while on a job at the cia he didn't like what he saw so edward snowden went public telling the world just how far and wide the u.s. electronic surveillance network really went but the truth had consequences for him . reports on how the n.s.a. whistleblower joined a long list of those persecuted for exposing government secrets. edward snowden says george orwell's fictitious big brother is no match for the u.s. national security agency the types of collection the book microphones and video cameras t.v.'s that watches are nothing compared to what we have today snowden revealed that a secret court rubber stamps warrants for telecommunication companies to hand out the data of millions of their customers he also leave to the programs that the government uses to track virtually anything anybody does on the internet and also store that information and he showed how the u.s. government had lie about mass surveillance does the n.s.a.

collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans. no sir while most americans think to edward snowden the u.s. government tectum as a spy and a traitor the united states government classified its evidence of its own criminal misconduct its its violations of the bill of rights what we're doing is said to catering to tele tarion procedures which is gathering information about all the individuals in the world. the former intelligence contractor is now in exile knowing for certain that he'd go to jail should he return to the u.s. like bradley and now chelsea manning who was sentenced to thirty five years in jail this august through weekly leaks manning released many thousands of diplomatic cables and video proof of u.s. involvement in wartime just another man who found himself in jail this year was john key the first u.s.

official to confirm the government's use of waterboarding to interrogate carries suspects i caught up with him shortly before he went to serve his two and a half year sentence i have never believed that my case was about a leak i have always believed that my case is about torture in the hunt for whistleblowers journalists have been targeted as well u.s. authorities secretly tapped the phones of dozens of associated press journalists the partner of glenn greenwald who broke the story about n.s.a. surveillance was detained in london while carrying materials from edward snowden to british authorities so closely cooperate with washington now accuse him of quote terrorism. aaron swartz was neither a whistleblower nor a journalist but he was a champion of the free internet fighting against censorship ills and advocating the online police have as much information as possible on the government on january

eleventh the twenty six year old committed suicide. prosecutors wanted to put him in jail for up to thirty five years for downloading academic articles from a subscription based research website at his university with the intent to make them available to the public this was somebody who was pushed to the edge by what i think of as a kind of bullying by our government a government for treated him as if he were nine eleven terrorists edward snowden's revelations showed with the kind of surveillance that governments are doing by missy's out the window but this year will also learn what happens to those who embrace this new age of openness and accessibility of information they showed that while governments in the u.s. government first and foremost won their populations to be open and transparent they themselves become increasingly secretive in washington i'm going to shut down our team. it all started on june sixth one of britain's guardian newspaper published a court ruling demanding american phone companies horizon to hand over its customer

phone records then came the exposure of the government's prism program collecting user data from from such as google and facebook it was later revealed that the n.s.a. had been spying on global leaders followed by claims that a number of countries were also in on the eavesdropping former cia officer ray mcgovern says those behind the surveillance should be brought to justice. i am delighted to hear that ed snowden on his desk in honolulu had a copy of the constitution of the united states all dog eared because he used it to argue with his has come patriots there it is say as to whether what they were doing was legal whether it was constitutional whether it was a crime for them to be corrupt to be cooperated in using their technical expertise to violate america's privacy right and left the question should be why those who are aided and abetted this whether they should be in the spose impeached in their

case and brought to trial for these of gross violations of their solemn oath to to support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies and throughout the day on our team were showing media stana program about a group of wiki leaks activists who travel across central asia searching for media outlets willing to publish leaked u.s. diplomatic cables also host an extensive discussion later on sunday on the world whistleblowers and the challenges and arrests they face as all here on r.t. international. st augustine. strategic. undercover team of journalists trying to release wiki leaks documents. united states is trying. here. pressure.

country blocks the way to information freedom. media stuff. russia's top diplomat saying the u.s. and its allies are moving closer toward moscow stance on syria but some key issues with nato still need hammering out sergey lavrov spoke exclusively with r.t. about the years foreign policy achievements in europe risk and i was among those who interviewed the foreign minister. what. was on the list the labral things were finding the time to meet with us we have three channels here are spanish arty arabic and english. with a whole year to cover there were lots of things to discuss it brought russia several diplomatic victories including the chemical arms deal with syria geneva two is the next step and according to mr elaborate of preconditions from the syrian opposition remain among the key obstacles including the one for president assad to step down something that the west is now moving away from. the threat of jihad this

coming to power in sitting at killie feet and the realization is doing that region change is not the way to resolve this problem our western partners are becoming increasingly clear about this. there are also changes in russia's relations with the west and apparently there are signals for more transparent and trustworthy ties on both sides but a called warming is still something that moscow has to deal with. some leader members have a through be against russia which is really said this leads to similar european partners still wanting to keep dividing lines within europe and even move these lines eastward countries should they be with them or against them the commons for last november's nato drills near russia's western borders the largest in ten years six thousand troops from all member states as well as finland sweden and ukraine practiced defending the baltics from an identified threat from the east while president putin's question of what was the point of still planning to build an anti missile defense system in europe without a threat from iran still hasn't been properly answered by washington there aren't

any firm guarantees the system want to be aimed at russia either you're going to skim off r.t. moscow. interview with russia's foreign minister and the entire lot our you tube channel or on r.t. dot com all stay with us here on our news just in though israel saying two rockets have struck into territory from neighboring lebanon but caused no injuries or damage israel's military apparently respond. with tank fire with more than twenty shells striking the lebanese border the frontier between the two countries has largely been peaceful since all month long war back in two thousand and six but tension had heated up earlier this month after a lebanese army sniper has opened fire across the border and killed an israeli trooper will bring you more on the story as we get it. coming up though the u.s. central bank marking its hundredth birthday but critics say the fed's now seeking to capitalize on the recessions ruins. put humpty dumpty back together again in

terms of wall street and resists resuscitate a system that i think is a working less and less for for the person on the street we take a look at why some say the federal reserve is standing strong amid a rising debt and inequality in the u.s. . the street interest. strategic leadership. an undercover team of journalists trying to release wiki leaks documents how the united states is trying. me. more pro-american they encounter fear ignorance and pressure. country blocks the way to information freedom. they don't want to tell us all the honor of accept the fact this is our planet and

that we have the right to run it but they're very very concerned that they don't think we're good stewards of our planet we're not we're cutting clear cutting our forests were looting our rivers and lakes and we're dumping sewage in the oceans we're doing all sorts of things which are not what good stewards of the old should be doing and they don't like this and they've made it very clear this amount of this have given us a warning. for more oil mogul my childhood a color scheme may still be deciding exactly what to do next but one thing he knows for sure is that he says he wants to get former associates out of prison one of them serving a life sentence for organizing several murders but hothouse he claims he was put behind bars unjustly artie's peter all the reports. after ten years in jail.

has now decided to do it as his need found freedom and some of his plans have caused a few raised eyebrows. some of my comrades remain in jail they are my fellow sufferers for example my friend platon lebedev alexei protrusion there are still other political prisoners in russia not only those related to the u. cos case i am free now and i'm asking you to think of it as something which symbolizes that the efforts of civil society can lead to the release of some people who no one thought would be able to walk free to chew good was the head of security for his daughter called these oil company you cos he's currently serving a life sentence for counts of murder. in two thousand and seven a court convicted ordering the shooting of blood in me a pet you call the mayor of a town in siberia that you call four hundred clashed with you cos over his insistence that the oil giant paid taxes due to his tone the court found no link

between the murders and the head of you cos however you cause widow believes this was a crime that went to the top. you're welcome by the us was registered there when it came to tax revenues that it was answering to the mayor and if you got it would they depended on him and that was the only reason why he even managed to only time will solve the mystery surrounding my husband and i don't know but i just like how do you have to keep your consensus and clear. while on trial for the murder of pair of your children was already serving twenty years in prison for the attempted murder of former holocaust ski advisor. after quitting her post with you cos she went on to work is the head of p.r. for the mayor of moscow it was then that a bomb was placed in her moscow apartment fortunately it detonated while no one was home. sees the holocaust these comments about political prisoners as self-serving.

how to craft a hostage of his own part subtle he can act differently now if he ever. recognizes what his security forces were doing and he will automatically become responsible to what end i think now he fears that. you may start talking and what the third ucas case could potentially be is a further investigation into those murders and assaults which the company security forces carried out a lot of course he has no other choice he will continue to insist people from the security department up political prisoners that are and he will pretend to be pushing for release the delay should being heaped upon mr holocaust skiis left some of those watching feeling that only half the story is being told he is still a lot of oil not physically by means of fiscal many police. every kind of businessman in the best who had done the same waterfall thought

that in prison this story is told in the west peter all of a r t the in click on r.t. dot com to learn about mass resignations in the world's most populous country as many as five hundred chinese municipal lawmakers are now jobless after gaming the system read about what exactly made them take flight bus is tangle of poles and wires may not look like all that much but it's actually a cutting edge space rover and that's exactly what nasa is planning to send to one of saturn's largest moons in search of new discoveries. u.s. federal reserve celebrated one hundred years this week although more than twenty million unemployed americans were unlikely to join the party the u.s. national debt continues to climb with a central bank accused of failing to prevent recessions and allowing inequality to rise artie's marine important i reports from new york. secretive powerful wealthy and now it's got a birthday america's central bank wields enormous and almost unchecked power over

the world's largest economy for your. time tonight you should basically put. it in the. other agency of government which can overrule the actions that we take the country has seen as many as eighteen recessions since the fed was created leading many to argue it has singularly failed to end the boom and bust economics that it was designed to prevent it's been a failure it's been a dismal failure in promoting prosperity. sustainable prolonged prosperity and raising the living standards of americans. the past thirty years have produced the biggest growth of income inequality wages for the low and middle class have remained stagnant while the fed has allowed banks to double in size accounting for forty percent of the u.s.

economy the fed has twelve regional banks and this one in new york is not only the largest it's also the closest to wall street as salaries profits and bonuses have all grown over the past century one thing has shrunk the value of the u.s. dollar has declined a reported ninety five percent since i'm there because central bank was created following the two thousand and eight financial crisis millions of jobs in homes were lost. to wall street went on to make a record breaking profits courtesy of the fed's quantitative easing program done is it's basically taking a lot of the credit that was on wall street's balance sheets and it's onto its own balance sheets and so it's playing this huge support function and the calling me andrew star who spearheaded the first quarter of q.e. has apologized to americans for what he calls a backdoor bailout for the. banks most americans can't really get credit after the financial crisis still to this day even though wall street's been stabilized and so

we have this long term decline in the economic prospects of the average american and yet a lot of our leadership both in washington and within the fed specifically are really focused on trying to put humpty dumpty back together again in terms of wall street and resists resuscitate a system that i think is working less and less for for the person on the street for one hundred years america's currency and economy has been run by unelected and virtually unaccountable central planners and while that has helped the rich get richer the gap between the top one percent and the rest. is the largest it's been since the great depression marina r.t. new york now to some other stories making global headlines this hour later on sunday a rescue ship should reach a track russian research vessel that's been stuck in antarctic ice since tuesday it's hoped the australian ice breaker will reach the stranded academic chicago

after failed attempts by french and chinese ships despite being stuck in the ice since christmas scientists aboard the ship are said to be in good spirits and continuing their work. activists in syria say a government airstrike on a crowded food market in aleppo killed at least twenty five people the barrel bombing campaign comes ahead of a key peace conference planned for next month with main opposition alliance threatening to pull out of talks if the raids can continue also international inspectors say they'll likely miss the december thirty first deadline to get rid of syria's most dangerous chemical arsenal leaving bad weather and shifting battle fronts. britain said to greet the new year with a growing economy but there is worry that it's being fueled by borrowed money and with the post christmas sales in full swing scores of brits are likely to start twenty fourteen nursing a credit card hangover as artie's laura smith reports. people are in the grips of a buying frenzy last minute shopping last minute spending and last minute going

into debts british families are more likely to start the new year buried under a mountain of credit card debts than almost any of the europeans only remain ians and tucks small plastic britons are also taking on more christmas debt in two thousand and thirteen than the year before which is granted fears about the wider economy the bank of england says a recovery has taken hold but these debt fake is raise the possibility that the recoveries at sea being fueled by money other nations do have all the forms of debt says i n. g.'s senior economist credit cards have particular pitfalls critics can be expensive the interest rate on it furthermore critical tends to get mixed up on various and she'd like you to take credit for doing that and you also pay for more precise things such as a present which you are going to pay back over

a number of months for example critic it can be particularly useful for a number of people but we must be aware of the pitfalls if you don't keep yourself under control but now they're the most to hear on regent street spend today and deal with the consequences later you know in fact only one in four britons said they had any intention of paying the money back but the high interest rates on credit cards mean debt can easily spiral out of control and tough economic times potentially spell a less than happy two thousand and fourteen for the indebted. next story of getting classified documents into the public domain proving more tricky than getting them in the first place stay with us for that.

although i have gone duck hunting a few times i've never seen the duck dynasty t.v. show but gosh i heard about the scandal involving one of the stars of the show phil robertson who got suspended for making what many consider anti homo sexual comments in an interview this celebrity scandal is creating a lot of arguments about freedom of speech on social networks many people who believe that robertson deserved to be booted from the show for what he said argue that freedom of speech means that robertson can't be arrested by the government for what he said but the any t.v. channel has the right to fire whom they like the thing is that if this situation were reversed and robertson was fired for making pro l.g. p.t. statements then people who are currently defending any right to hire and fire as they please would all be bashing the t.v. channel for violating the stars freedom of speech think cry that firing him would violate his rights and i'm sure some websites would make him into a hero or demand

a boycott a closing of the forever very few people actually believe in freedom of speech for all they just believe in freedom of speech for people who agree with them but that's just my opinion. but with economic ups and downs in the final months they. sang i and the rest because i think the eight will be everything.

does use it pump this coke a thumb just to quote i think i would have to define from a. movement movement view to see if the goal is to fool. people to try to topple some stuff. good luck you could want a moment and. it is not a one of more than with what you looked. at when it didn't appear to be churn it was not me trying to close the deal a city needed it but it's pretty good with the compass card. becomes

a possibility it. would be to disagree with this if it's anything but that there was a bit of our reasons for her to be able. to provide information on the phone that we could provide information on but these residing in the. oval leg of the hundred twenty t.v. and some of the news that. proceeded to pick it could have been. the person that does it. to provide information on a market of stocks and it's doubled like you only did it better. than it looks then and it would it still losing. what makes it in the input at the minute she's the third most abusive one. i'm going but who could go rushing judge you didn't when you found your poor with. no smell or no knowing if. you had not.