coming up on r t it's no surprise that the american people have a little confidence in washington and now lawmakers have just changed the requirement that allows them to bury details on who pays for some of their travel more on this change in transparency just ahead. and net providers from around the globe are suing the u.k. government thanks to edward snowden leaks the tech companies are now going after the british spy agency g c h q for snooping more on this 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 eight pm in washington d.c. i'm a military man you're watching r t america. brand new quinnipiac university poll says president obama is the worst president since world war two 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 and surprisingly 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 poll numbers been this 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 press and the average person to verify spending artie's a mirror david brings us more on this development. fall government watchdog groups and some democrats are outraged this week over a quiet alteration of reporting requirements on congressional trips this is specifically in reference to trips funded by outside groups one of our learning is that the house at the committee without any public announcement dropped the

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 office of the clerk tom ross and that the committee spokesman says that this change was not meant to minimize transparency and that he says it was merely an attempt to eliminate a redundant reporting requirement because the travel information lawmakers must file online is even more detailed than the financial disclosure forms however many people are balking at this quietly made change they say it removes the convenient way for reporters and other watchdog organizations to keep tabs on the free travel of members because historically financial disclosure forms are where reporters go to find that information one organization citizens for responsibility and ethics in

washington is already weighed in on this with the executive director saying that this is a blatant attempt to avoid accountability 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 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 disclosures 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 watchdog. patients now say that lobbyists are beginning to find new roof falls after a two thousand and seven ban on funding congress members travel and that has contributed to a growth in privately funded trips according to a congressional oversight group alleges form 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 representative mike ferguson to go to israel and meet with government leaders additionally representative john raymond garamendi received an all expense paid trip to south sudan and tanzania to view u.s. investments in different health projects that trip came in just over forty thousand dollars but the largest sum was doled out for rep mike mcintyre almost fifty thousand dollars for the representative to meet with defense industry officials in australia these were all very expensive trips and all cases the sponsors were not only covering the travel of the congressman but also their wives and it's that kind of information that reporters and government oversight group say will be harder to keep tabs on once this change goes into effect reporting from capitol hill

a mere david ortiz. and the iraqi government is now in session and things are looking bleak just thirty minutes into a meeting to form a new government yesterday sunni and kurdish members of the iraqi parliament failed 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 they would not put forward their nominations until the shiites revealed there's now while the goal seems to be to create an inclusive leader government kurdish. hers are taking the opportunity to push for their own 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 it's the right 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 kurdish independence in the coming months with the parliament at a standstill thought i see this bringing down the necks of baghdad and at least twenty four hundred deaths just in the month of june alone many 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 artie's marina with more all over the arab world america has left behind its military footprint but i believe america is exceptional in part 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 were 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 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 u.s. unfortunately. has destroyed and made a mockery of the made 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 iran to carry out airstrikes against the hottest 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 incorrectly creating a. pre-nup or not are to. the ukraine has tentatively agreed to a second cease fire after a four way talks between germany france russia and the kiev government happened today in berlin more talks are planned for this weekend to hopefully and the crisis

that has dragged on for months artie's peter oliver has more from the meeting in berlin. the german foreign minister said there was a clear understanding that a ceasefire was needed following the recent violence that we've seen. that there had been violations on both sides during the previous ceasefire and he called on any peace that comes from this agreement and he. should be used for meaningful dialogue and dialogue only. if the cease fires were to be used to regroup forces on either side to realize the part of the ukrainian president's plan which we had grave reservations about if for example that the opposition has to be dissolved. would be course of action that i would categorically reject i think it would also be very bad indeed for our neighboring.

the national weather service in mount holly new jersey has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for western camden county in southern new jersey philadelphia county and southeast pennsylvania southeastern delaware county in southeastern pennsylvania gloucester county and southern new jersey central new castle county in northern delaware west central burlington county and southern new jersey salem county in southern new jersey northwestern cumberland county and southern new jersey until nine pm at eight o five pm national weather service doppler radar indicated a line of severe thunderstorms the severe storms extended from germantown to or desa moving east in twenty miles per hour these storms are capable of producing damaging winds in excess of sixty miles per hour severe thunderstorms will be near

gets down in philadelphia international airport around eight fifteen pm gets down and sell philadelphia around eight twenty pm our borough in hancock's bridge around a twenty five pm cagney and cabin around eight thirty pm i was buggin palomino around eight thirty five pm woodbury heights and west village and a forty pm this is a dangerous storm if you are in its path moving towards to a sturdy building and stay away from windows when it is safe to do so report severe weather to local law enforcement or to the national weather service a severe thunderstorm watch remains in effect until nine o'clock wednesday evening for delaware and northeastern maryland and new jersey and southeast pennsylvania repeating a severe thunderstorm warning has been issued until nine pm for the following county new castle delaware in the following counties in new jersey burlington captain cumberland gloucester and settling in the following counties in pennsylvania delaware and philadelphia. did 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 the n.s.a. to spy on now internet companies are fighting back 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 u.s. and germany now it is reportedly the first time that an internet host has gone to court with a ledge government spying now they say that is using malware or malicious software as it's tough in order to break into then 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 all complaints over the misuse of government surveillance now you can imagine that this court's caseload has got someone in the wake of the edward snowden revelations and of course later this month they're 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 as i just said in the wake of the edward snowden affair with the public debate still very much taking place over mass government surveillance these fresh and unprecedented legal moves from the internet service providers are unlikely to

be the last that was artie's poly boyko and nervous new yorkers are all waiting on governor andrew cuomo who must decide whether to uphold the state wide 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 own boundaries but it's up to the governor to decide on giving. that discretion to them now governor cuomo inherited the fracking ban from his predecessor david paterson when taking office back in two thousand and eleven the moratorium bans fracking which is a controversial way of accessing natural gas and shale rock by pumping water sand and other chemicals into 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 now 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 would allow this process this will no doubt be a difficult decision for cuomo as energy industry proponents say that they'll bring jobs many jobs and companies to the state now 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 north energy a petrol and nat gas company i first asked her about governor cuomo stance on fracking. i don't really know how governor cuomo will decide but i certainly hope he will not terminate the environmental review because right now we have no way to meet or to the the with

. the national weather service in mount holly new jersey has issued a flash flood warning for research southern middlesex county in northern new jersey this includes the city of self amboy southern somerset county in northern new jersey southeastern bucks county in southeastern pennsylvania north central burlington county and southern new jersey until twelve thirty am at eight twenty

one pm national weather service doppler radar indicated due to two and a half inches has fallen across portions of the wind area with another inch or two possible which could cause some flash flooding locations in the warning include but are not limited to your town saddle robert salem red bank aldridge north brunswick matter when lynn croft lawrenceville kendall park jamesburg ewing east brunswick east freehold dayton clearbrook park south brunswick skillman princeton bennington morning bill middletown manila pan keansburg well i just found that in bergen washington crossing do not drive your vehicle into areas where the water covers the roadway a lot of depth may be too great to allow your car to cross safely moved to higher ground. sound pretty targeted and that's what's not being discussed in this case everyone is focusing on how screwed up our prison systems are and they are very screwed up but this story goes beyond our prison problems

into the land of eugenics when you've got people being coerced into sterilization by doctors who say they're doing it to save money on welfare that's eugenics regulated breeding and population control we've seen eugenics before states used to have eugenics boards that sterilized people they deemed fit for procreation north carolina is in the process now of compensating victims of their eugenics board which was shuttered in the one nine hundred seventy s. people like to think such social abominations as eugenics are a thing of the past but now here we see evidence of eugenics today and yet if you say the word eugenics people will call you a conspiracy theorist but when people are actually conspiring to sterilize citizens there is nothing theoretical.