to try. to. look. coming up on our t.v. it's no surprise that the american people have little confidence in washington and now lawmakers have just changed a requirement that allows them to bury details on who pays for some of their travel more on this change and transparency just ahead and net providers from around the globe are suing the u.k. government thanks to the edward snowden leaks the tech companies are now going after the british spy agency g c h q for snooping more on the case coming up. and a major victory for anti fracking activists in new york the state court agreed that cities and towns can ban hydraulic fracturing within their boundaries more on this

legal battle later in the show. it's wednesday july second four pm in washington d.c. i'm an electron you're watching r t america ukraine has tentatively agreed to a second ceasefire after four way talks between germany france russia and the kiev government happened today in berlin more talks are planned for this weekend to hopefully end the crisis that has dragged on for months artie's peter all over has more from the meeting in berlin. the german foreign minister said that there was a clear understanding that a ceasefire was needed following the recent violence that we've seen bush's surrogate love for those said that their inability that there had been violations on both sides during the previous ceasefire he called on any peace that comes from this agreement and he knew ceasefire should be used to meaningful dialogue and

dialogue only you that there will still be there it is alludes if the cease fires were to be used to regroup forces on either side to realize the part of the ukrainian president's plans which we had grievers the regions about for example that the opposition has to be dissolved armed or not i laid it all chance of you but in this would be course of action that i would categorically reject i think it would also be very bad indeed for a neighboring country for old was also asked if russia had any influence over those faces in the east of the country he said there was possibilities for russia to influence them but stress that these people were fighting to defend their land and defend their families in the cold on the ukrainian officials from kiev to respect the new cease fire exit saying that this was incredibly important that there was no fighting no violations of the cease fire so that meaningful dialogue could take place that was our teens peter oliver and the air rak

a government is now in session and things are looking bleak thirty minutes into a meeting to form a new government yesterday sunni and kurdish members of the iraqi parliament bailed they refused to return because the shiites failed to nominate a new candidate for prime minister or endorsed the current prime minister nouri al maliki for a third term the sunni and kurdish blocs have stated that they would not put forward their nomination until the shiite revealed there now while the goal seems to be to create an inclusive government kurdish leaders are taking the opportunity to push for their own. an independent state masoud barzani the leader of the kurdish regional government told the b.b.c. quote everything that's happened recently shows that it's the right of the curtis of kurdistan to achieve independence from now on we won't hide that that's our goal it's not me who will decide on independence it's the people barzani says he will

hold a referendum on kurd kurdish independence within a few months with the parliament at a standstill isis breathing down the necks of baghdad and at least twenty four hundred deaths just in the month of june alone many in both inside and outside of iraq are worried that the country may be on the brink of collapse a collapse that many say has its roots in the u.s. military's involvement in the region here's our tears marina partner with more all over the arab world america has left behind its military footprint but i believe america is exceptional talent because we have shown a willingness through the sacrifice of blood and treasure to stand up not only for our own narrow self-interest but for the interests of all america's exceptional armed forces have invaded afghanistan and iraq dropped bombs on libya pakistan and

yemen and reportedly trained rebels fighting to overthrow the government in syria. directly leading to the insurgency in iraq where extremists have now declared their own caliphate not enough to just say that we are exceptional one way or the other the reason we can point to american exceptionalism is because we've done exceptional food and we do exceptional food. we have to live up to that standard but time and time again washington's eagerness to involve itself in foreign conflicts has fueled six tarion divisions creating an exceptionally dangerous circumstance the us unfortunately lately has destroyed and made a mockery of the many you know what they have done in libya what they have done and continue to do it was done in iraq. and. it is something that. doesn't jive with claiming any kind of exceptionalism and yet in each case

washington has washed its hands of any responsibility the united states of america is not responsible for what happened in libya nor is it responsible for what is happening in iraq today in the absence of u.s. military action in iraq is warning that it could ask the wrong to carry out air strikes against the hardest group isis that could throw a wrench into the works of american foreign policy potentially having to rely on an adversary to defeat a threat that washington itself is blamed for indirectly creating. green up or not you are to. now the international community continues to cry foul over u.s. spying on foreigners but today the u.s. government independent privacy watchdog reports it's not so bad that the program is legal the privacy and civil liberties oversight board released its long awaited

report on the constitutionality of the provision that allows the n.s.a. to read the content of e-mails and other communications of foreigners and under the condemnation of civil rights civil liberties advocates it states the program has been valuable and effective in protecting the nation's security and producing useful foreign intelligence but. calling it constitutional doesn't protect the government from international judgment look who was caught in the latest blow back arizona senator john mccain his visit to india today was overshadowed by reports that the u.s. was authorised to spy on india's new prime minister nuri and our modi's political party back in two thousand and ten mccain canceled a news conference outside of india's foreign ministry today after a senior u.s. diplomat was summoned by india to discuss a report published this week by the washington post it says national security

agency leaks from edward snowden show the n.s.a. was given approval to intercept information on six political organizations including the parotid genitive party which came into power when modi was elected prime minister back in may and according to the report india was also one of the hundred ninety three countries that the u.s. surveillance court approved for the n.s.a. to spy on and internet companies are fighting back as well not only going after the n.s.a. itself but also its partners artie's polly boyko brings us more on how i s.p.'s are facing off with the u.k.'s intelligence agency. the u.k. government is effectively being sued by a group of internet service providers they come from a number of different countries including the u.k. the us and germany now it is reportedly the first time that an internet host has gone to court over alleged government spying now they say that g.c. h.q.

is using malware or malicious software as it's tough in order to break into their networks and spy on their customers communications online now legal action is going through a very special london court it's called the investigatory powers tribe you know and it's their job to look into claims or complaints over the misuse of government surveillance now you can imagine that this court's caseload has got somewhat larger in the wake of the edward snowden revelations and of course later this month they going to be looking into complaints from human rights organizations the way that social media sites like facebook and twitter have been targeted by g c h q now two m.p.'s have also sued the u.k. government through this court over claims that their communications were monitored as well so as i've just said in the wake of the edward snowden affair with the

public debate still very much taking place over massive government surveillance these fresh and unprecedented legal moves from the internet service providers are unlikely to be the last that was artie's polyploid. and a brand new quinnipiac university poll shows that president obama is the worst president since world war two that according to quinnipiac thirty three percent of respondents thought obama has been the worst president in modern times followed by a close twenty eight percent naming president george w. bush. prizing we only thirteen percent of respondents said that richard nixon was the worst but this next poll comes as no surprise congress's approval ratings are continually low at present there at the lowest they've ever been on record take a look at these poll numbers year over year since two thousand and twelve congress

has continued to lose three percentage points in their approval numbers twenty twelve thirteen percent twenty thirteen ten percent twenty fourteen seven percent now we've mentioned this before but not since the advent of these congressional ratings in the early one nine hundred seventy s. when gallup began tracking congress have these poll numbers been so low and no wonder as congress continues to disappoint the american people the house ethics committee has discreetly altered its disclosure requirements for congressional members making it that much harder for both the press and the average person to verify spending artie's a mirror david brings us more on this development. well government watchdog groups and some democrats are outraged this week over all quiet alteration of reporting requirements on congressional trips this is especially in reference to trips funded by outside groups now what we're learning is that the house ethics committee

without any public announcement whatsoever dropped a requirement that lawmakers must include information of any privately sponsored trips in their annual financial disclosure forms now to be clear lawmakers would still have to seek ethics committee approval for these trips and disclose them publicly through the website of the house's office of the clerk tom ruskin ethics committee spokesman has said that this change was not meant to minimize transparency he says the travel information lawmakers must file online is even more detailed than the financial disclosure forms that this was merely an attempt to and a limb in a redundant reporting requirement however many people are blocking at this quietly made change they say it removes a convenient way for reporters and other watchdog organizations to keep tabs on the free travel of members because historically by mantle disclosure forms are where people go to find out that information one organization the citizens for

responsibility and ethics in washington has already weighed in on this with the executive director saying that this is quote a blatant attempt to avoid accountability she went on to say that the only americans who would possibly be in favor of this change are members of congress the idea that this is a change for efficiency's sake is ludicrous at the same time house minority leader nancy pelosi vowed to take action she said while the committee's aim was to simplify the disclosure process congress must always move in the direction of more disclosure not less if the ethics committee does not act and we will call upon the speaker to allow a vote on legislation to reverse this decision. now this change comes at a time when we're seeing more of these privately funded trips take place according to a congressional oversight group called ledgers storm last year members of congress took about nineteen hundred privately paid trips with a total price tag of six million dollars here's

a breakdown of some of the most expensive trips made last year the american israel education foundation paid about thirty two thousand dollars for rep mike ferguson to go to israel and meet with government leaders additionally rep john raymond garamendi received an all expense paid trip to south sudan in terms of media to view u.s. investments in health projects that trip came in at just around forty thousand dollars but the largest sum was doled out for rep mike mcintyre almost fifty thousand dollars for a representative to meet with defense industry fishel in australia these were all very expensive trips in this case the congressman traveled a company meaning with their wives and it's that kind of information that reporters and government oversight groups say will be harder to keep tabs on once this change goes into effect in washington david r.t. . still ahead here on our t.v.

a legal shift in new york on fracking a state court agrees that towns and cities can ban hydraulic fracturing within their own boundaries more on that court decision after the break. on marinating in the financial world. that's coming up. to. me like there are are there. thank you. right now nervous new yorkers are all waiting on governor andrew cuomo

who must decide whether to uphold the statewide moratorium on hydro fracking earlier this week new york's highest court ruled that local townships and cities have the right to prohibit drilling within their boundaries but it's up to the governor to decide on giving that discretion to them new york governor andrew cuomo inherited a fracking ban from his predecessor david paterson when taking office in two thousand and eleven the moratorium bans fracking which is a controversial way of accessing natural gas in shale rock by pumping water sand and other chemicals into the wells at very high pressures there's been some pushback over the environmental effects of fracking including recent reports connecting the procedure to earthquakes in oklahoma and opponents to fracking in new york state fear that if cuomo lifts the state wide ban the decision to frack

would fall to local municipalities creating a potential patchwork of towns that allow this process this will no doubt be a difficult decision for cuomo as energy industry proponents say they will bring with them many jobs and companies to the state i was joined earlier by deborah goldberg an attorney at earth justice dot org she successfully argued on behalf of the new york town of dryden when they were sued by nourse energy of petro and natural gas company i first asked her about governor cuomo stance on fracking. i don't really know what governor cuomo will decide but i certainly hope he will not terminate the environmental review process right now we are nowhere near it to the point where we understand fully what the health impacts of this industry are going to be and one would certainly hope that he would we until the evidence is in on

that front which is just beginning to come in studies before you make any decision with respect to oil and gas development in new york state and now obviously you prevailed in your case defending the dryden right in opposition to fracking against norse what was your argument how did you how did you get the win but there is a long standing tradition in new york of local control of resigning it's been recognised in our constitution it's been recognised by the courts and all the terms we're trying to do is to use their power to define how we're going to be used within their borders they have never allowed any kind of heavy industry and the oil and gas industry was trying to tell them that they were entitled to a special treatment special exemption plan that the court didn't buy the court so state law which does regulate the technical operations does not reach to the

windows authority and the town still have that man standing power to regulate land use now as you as you just mentioned the research behind the effects of fracking still remain pretty limited how hard was it to argue that fracking is bad for health and bad for the environment against very some sometimes very obvious economic data that says that it will bring in money to the economy. well there isn't really an issue for the case the case is now decided policy grounds it's really a very strict legal question about whether state law trumps local law and what the court found was that the two different legal regimes couldn't work together harmoniously the state could regulate the technical operations and activities and processes of the industry and the localities could regulate the the land use and therefore they had the power to protect themselves from what those impacts might be

by keeping the oil and gas wells outside their borders and now if all of these smaller communities have fracking bans but the state wide moratorium is dropped by the governor what would fracking look like across new york and does earth justice still look at this as a small when well we think this is a big where. we think it's huge that the communities will have the right to use theirs only powers to keep heavy industry out of their borders these are turns that have sustainable business as like wineries or tourism industries agriculture and they do not why huge industrialization in there and there are you know area. it's you know it's possible that the industry will trial moved into towns that have not adopted these provisions. but you know as information

comes in from other states from colorado from pennsylvania from wyoming where there is very intensive gas development everything we hear just gets worse and worse and so now other towns know they have this option there might be some additional activity there they know they do know they no longer have a threat of litigation because the court of appeals has given them the right to go who are refused local measures so what if these cities and towns can prohibit drilling within their own boundaries how will this play out in these local communities could say one farmer saying yes to the drilling and the other farmer his neighbor says no well not if they're in the same tone i mean the tower will decide what to do you just mean what their land is regulation is for the whole term it's possible that there could be one town that excludes heavy industry from within its borders and another town doesn't and in that case there could be wells in the

town that doesn't exclude the industry and there could be impacts to go over the borders after all air missions pollution doesn't respect municipal bond areas and there are there could be recourse by people who are affected by the adverse impacts caused across borders but they would not be land use controls those would be different sorts of legal protections so just so we're clear if if say one town did allow for fracking to come into their town and say what you know as far as private ownership goes one one neighbor against the next if in that town they're allowed to drill what it boiled down to neighbor versus neighbor could it be something like that. well that's how it is in many parts of the country right now there are places where it's permitted and people dot want to lease their land and

it does put against neighbor pits family you know members of families against each other people have different values some people really care about the long term sustainable use of their land and some people want to make a quick buck and get out and. differ you know different people have different choices to make but it's definitely tearing many communities apart because people care about different things what it was about the power that these industries have within the state and within the u.s. as a whole do they do they have a lot of a lot of weight to throw around in new york city or new york rather well they have a huge amount of power and enormous wealth and they've managed to essentially by example from every major federal environmental law that otherwise would govern heavy industrial activity they also are extremely active within state legislatures and in many states their state representatives simply will not step up to the plate

because they're very much in the pocket of the industry that's why these local measures are so important there's this huge gap vacuum for protecting local communities and local people don't step up there's often very little protection from the higher levels of government create thank you so much for your insight that was deborah goldberg attorney at earth justice dot org thank you so much my pleasure. and fifty years ago today president lyndon b. johnson signed the one nine hundred sixty four civil rights act into law the law made it illegal for employers to hire fire or pay you based upon your sex race religion color or national origin the bill was originally the brainchild of president kennedy's but after his assassination a year earlier president johnson made it his priority to pass the legislation civil

rights protests and sit ins for comment at this point in history as discrimination and segregation divided the country in terms of race and the restructuring of america after the civil war now the nine hundred sixty four house of representatives passed the civil rights bill by a vote of two hundred eighty nine to one twenty six following the bill's passage president johnson signed the bill into law this is what he had to say back then that time its purpose is not to bad but to the end of his. regimes which is lasted too long. its purpose is national not reach. the civil rights is a challenge to all of us to go to work in our communities in our states in our hands and in our hearts. to eliminate the last vestiges of

injustice. and since its signature the civil rights act has also encompassed protections against age discrimination pregnancy discrimination and gender discrimination in terms of educational and disability programs but most recently president obama has added to the civil rights act by making executive orders to protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace and it seems that abstaining from sex won't help you win the world cup after all for the four teams which sex was completely banned that would be russia bosnia herzegovina chil a and mexico well they ended up being eliminated and teams with specific rules for sex like brazil which prohibits acrobatic sex kosta rico which forbids sex in only the first round france where all night long sex is banned and belgium where sex during the first three weeks as perhaps it all remains contenders in the world

cup and nigeria where players were allowed to sleep with their wives but not their girlfriends while they packed their bags a few days ago after losing in their match against france perhaps this will encourage coaches to implement less sex restrictions next time and explore new tactics instead boom bust is coming up next right here on r t an era eight is joining us for a quick preview harris thanks now i bet you're sure we'll. know coming up on bloomberg goldman sachs and tinder are having to answer to their questionable behavior after discrimination lawsuits were filed against both companies this past week we tell you all about it coming right up and in honor of the upcoming a wimbledon finals if you're going to edward harrison and i are discussing money in tennis in today's big deal it's all coming up so stay tuned. all right thanks aaron and that does it for now i'm going to stay tuned boom bust is coming up next.

the try to. pull it out of. your life or if you're preaching everybody. the money. the law oh well. a lot like that. let's say. this case is going to lead to. something for nothing the lead this season and it's. still just a few months to week you'll be shocked if you see the stage eight will be.

teaching you all the same. length. on marriage in the financial world. take two series to moments cannot stop it is a terrible only take you know to the credit not going to get it in life there are. put it on your. face.