[000:00:00;00] the the . today's news and the week's top stories on our team and the palestinians to get the backing of the world at a historically u.n. vote as israel announces plans to build new settlements in the west bank and east jerusalem. egypt is heading in deeper into chaos after the country's top court halted all work in protest over being blocked from ruling on the new constitution this comes amid a public outrage triggered by president morsi his self-imposed powers. wiki leaks will release a draft a raft of the new and shocking revelations in the next year according to julian assange speaking to r.t. the whistleblower says the new material is said to rival even the publication of the u.s.

diplomatic cables. in live from our studios in central moscow this is r.t. glad to have you with us the palestinians that moved a step closer to being fully recognized as independent the u.n. voted to top grade the administration's diplomatic status to a nonmember observer state our middle east correspondent hosley are reports now on how the move may signal a change in the way the world sees israeli actions. it might have been a foregone conclusion but that didn't dampen the jubilation on the streets of palestine. overwhelming support for upgraded palestinian state has to a nonmember observer state in the un one hundred fifty eight voting in favor nine against look at me forty one abstentions it's an important political and legal victory to hold israel accountable in

a practical way on its violations the national law and its violations of the rights of the palestinian people especially on the expansion of illegal settlements palestinians. now apply to join the international criminal court and other global organizations giving them better bargaining chips in dealing with israel but it came at a price within hours tel aviv announced it was building three thousand more homes in the west bank a sure sign that the situation on the ground won't change overnight or the birds does it's not a step forward it's a step aside or even you know a step. berkut it's really a pity the international community gives hand to this violation the us was also quick to cost a cloud over the palestinian party mood the unfortunate and counterproductive resolution at the united nations general assembly that just passed today's grand

pronouncements will soon fade and the palestinian people will wake up tomorrow and find that little about their lives has changed but washington's unflinching support for tel aviv has separated from some of its longtime allies in the un more and more countries are turning their back on decades of negotiations that have led nowhere what has changed has been the continual failure of the us controlled so-called peace process to lead to any kind of end to occupation and what i think was the catalyst here is that political pressure on other matters in on the palestinian authority from their own population from their own people who were saying you know what we've had twenty one years of failed diplomacy we're not looking for twenty two we want something different and that's something means a real shift in policy first and foremost the consensus on the international stage

is that israel needs to stop building settlements deemed illegal by the un certain to be international community you know is a horse this way to start a provocation which heroes of course go to so-called. it was a little more than a year ago that palestinian president mahmoud abbas came to the un in a bid for statehood since then tel aviv and washington's approach to the middle east conflict has gained them an ever shrinking minority of supporters the irony is that the bid was passed on the watches of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and his rightwing foreign minister avigdor lieberman it was last year that lieberman boasted in the united nations that the moral majority of western states was with israel it now turns out he was wrong and whether israel wants it or not it's increasingly clear that something needs to give pause here r.t. tel aviv. earlier israeli academic miri eisin a told my colleague kevin owen

a very general assembly's decision puts the whole peace process under threat. the majority of israelis including the sky over move by the way have stated clearly that they'd like to see palestine independent and both of us understand that there's a difference between saying palestine independent and doing it on your own with the united nations without israel as a partner as if saying that the impediment is just the state that's here let's do this hand in hand without negotiations without us as a partner to do a one sided to impose it on israel and they feel the strong need to give a response as an israeli i can say that has to do with domestic politics personally i don't necessarily adhere to that stuff i think you've heard a lot of criticism here in israel in linking it in such a way but that is also about politics but of course israel maybe not helping the other could be said on top of the and i was for the settlements israel is also announced is not going to hold over a hundred million dollars of aid to the palestinians to pay back debts to israeli

companies is really an option one of course you go to will's blood just refugee populations on your doorstep well that refugee population is something that needs to be taken care of in any case but i'm looking at these as part of the last four years the decision that was made on thursday from my point of view as an israeli who was anti israel not just pro palestinian i want to see something which is a win win situation one that's both pro palestinian that goes towards an end and an state not just in rhetoric no not just in declarations but in actuality and to do so those same palestinians kevin how to come back to the negotiation table for the last four years they have refused to do so they've refused time and again and we're all aware of that it was one of the main reasons that the forty states who did abstain from the vote on thursday did so because of that rejection of israel it isn't just about being pro palestine it's also about accepting israel here and that's where we need to go divisions between the president and of the judiciary have dealt

a stunning blow. hopes of stability in egypt the country's top judges have come out on strike against morsi sweeping new powers and the rushed approval of the new constitution the document will be put to a vote in under two weeks as protesters numbering in the tens of thousands remain on the streets but from cairo artist tom barton has more. thank you have good unrest returns to the streets after the revolution that toppled hosni mubarak after the election that brought in mohamed morsi egypt is in turmoil once again these round the clock protests have been going on for a week now it resembles early two thousand and eleven when hosni mubarak was removed from power but that was nearly two years ago shouldn't the revolution have amended by now the mood on top risk where became defiant again after last week's to creba president morsi meaning his decisions would face no legal challenge we had the revolution to get rid of

a tyrant the dictator and and we in in order to do that we have made elections and we made that evolution and we made it actions to choose someone to the present us and turned out that this guy is also a tyrant himself however morsi claims his new powers are only temporary you know any of the duke de bakey two in the world here close to you will tell you it is a temporary thing if his full emergency dental does the same still the same saying city usable on the president obama and we stayed under emergency rule for seventy years that opponents say egypt's new constitution is too islamist and could set the country on the road to religious dictatorship for some sections of society a king to show their support for morsi and this storm for judges who would block the constitution and i'm here to support the president morsi films open by the feet for them is open for them to the constitutional court yeah most of us knows that

since it is the morsi is that he got elected by the people when it was at the fight for his failure the rifts in society are undeniable and perhaps more even the north or tarion ism the favor is that chaos will tear apart any gains made by the revolution this is something new in egypt that's why it's it's more city thing in a way where you find. people are facing each other in the seats in the stations. facing the type of violence from islamic groups egypt's president its government its courts its very constitution and now matters of heated debate one of the few things moved to gyptian do seem to agree on after the long night of mubarak a new date is proving elusive tom watson. julian assange promises some shock and all as a raft of new wiki leaks is set to be released next year speaking to our t.v. editor of the whistle blowing web site claims that social media is turning the us into a totalitarian state you can see the full interview on our website at r.t.

dot com but here is a taste of what's there. the problem is that all the time everyone nearly everything they do on the internet is permanently recorded every web search do you know what you were thinking one year two days three months ago now you don't know but google knows it remembers the national security agency intercepts the requests that the u.s. border it knows. we need. a national security agency whistleblower who was the research head of the national security agency's signals intelligence division describes this as turning a key totalitarianism that all the infrastructure has been built for absolute totalitarianism it's just a matter of turning the key and actually the case has already been turned a little bit and it is now affecting people who are targeted for us drone strikes organizations like wiki leaks. national security reporters who are having their

sources investigated is already partly turned and the question is would we would go all the way. election turnout has tumbled in kuwait it seems that the opposition boycott has paid off in a few minutes we'll tell you why changing the rules has in. lage to the voters. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you

don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. offers an air show and an issue. was a matter you. left the residue never profited from the performances you'll see him coming our signature when you look up and there's one check in on you he's the alpha beta gamma he was always the final. out there know what's going on so you can pinpoint. the dirt right now. shells become income mortal danger and

a piece of art. exemption basis just. making

symptom free. and. our team. do we speak your language i mean some of the worn out of the. news programs and documentaries and spanish what matters to you breaking news a little turn it into angles kidneys stories. for you here. then surely i'll teach spanish to find out more visit i to allahabad. then from our studios in central moscow this is archie glad to have you back in kuwait pro-government candidates have won the lion's share of seats in parliament after saturday's election but the islam is led opposition which boycotted the vote

claims that the turnout it was as low as twenty six percent dismissing the lawmaking body as illegitimate the opposition has a valid to continue their protests until the u.s. backed monarchy dissolved parliament. reports from the gulf state. the voting in kuwait's highly controversial elections may be over but the battle over the country's political future has only just begun lots of new faces in the newly elected parliament which is deemed to be far more government friendly than the previous assembly but that is because the opposition didn't want any candidate saying no boycott of the vote the protest was deemed to be a success with official estimates placing voter turnout at roughly thirty nine percent in stark contrast to sixty percent voter turnout that we've seen in the last three elections in this country the opposition claims the turnout was in fact much lower and it's obvious the new body is illegitimate in fact they told the new assembly on constitutional according to the popular committee for boycotting the

election vote the new body doesn't represent the majority of the great people and has lost off the air and political legitimacy the question is of course whether the opposition is now going to take its battle to the streets and whether the monarchy will respond with a heavy hand now what happens here in kuwait has implications far beyond the country's borders as an opec member any sort of on a rest is bound to have an effect on world oil prices the country also serves as a hub for the pentagon's ground forces with thousands of american combat troops stationed here as a military council wait to get on to the gulf monarchies as a whole have been struggling to stave off the effects of the arab spring with varying degrees of success kuwait is largely seen as the most tolerant of all the trees but the worry is that the trend could be reversed over the past few months the country has seen increasingly violent escalating protests between the opposition and security forces with the latter using tear gas stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse crowds political parties are banned as are political

gatherings of more than twenty people and activists are claiming of a clampdown against dissent here in this country authorities that did allow thousands of the opposition demonstrators to gather in a largely peaceful rally on. friday of course the coming weeks are bound to test the limits of the government's tolerance as well as the self control of the opposition what happens here in kuwait could very well write the next chapter of the arab spring is the captain of our team to wait at least fifteen people have been killed and more than thirty injured in the syrian city of homs i witness is saying there were two separate car bomb attacks near a mosque and a stadium many of the injured are still in critical condition and the death toll is likely to rise this comes amid reports syrian warplanes have hit rebel targets in the suburbs of damascus fighting between alicia's and regime troops has been raging in the area for around a month now. this week also saw some gruesome video emerging apparently showing the

execution of ten on prisoners by syrian rebels one of the gunmen is heard the referencing al qaeda linked group behind several terrorist attacks in the country in the meantime syria has experienced a two day nationwide communications blackout the opposition accuse the assad government of staging an information blockade but news analyst patrick hannifin says that primarily benefit those backing the rebel militias we have a massive problem again with syria and we've had this problem from the beginning which is the skewing of information coming out of the country the syrian observatory for human rights was responsible for a lot of the usual bogus claims or allowed the west to sort of justify the fact of the free syrian army terrorist group leaders of the western countries particularly nato countries or encouraging the syrian terrorist rebels guerrillas whatever you want to call them to really accelerate the blood in that country because in the

eyes of washington and london the bigger the blood the quicker they can have reaching just a report just came out this week with a supplying satellite units to rebels rebel groups terrorist groups essentially in syria so they can. well the internet is down to the country it was in which initially sold in the media in places like the war closed a move by the assad government possibly to shut down rebel communications but actually you know one further investigation it looks like it's actually the combination of the united states offer to the syrian rebels could actually be behind the bringing down the internet and the reason is is because if the blood escalates in that country the last thing that the west wants is any reports coming out on the internet of actual rebel terrorist atrocities in that country. that we've seen quite a bit of recently. on our website we have more on what is happening in syria

including how france could be about to start funding militant groups some of which are associated with al qaeda. as hatred of the tabloids it goes further than simply phone hacking britain is revising its attitude towards press freedom lord leveson report published on thursday calls for tougher regulations in the u.k. artie's polly boyko reports on the inquiry that expose the see the relationship between the paper's police and politicians revelations that the british press and gauged in phone hacking sparked a wave of public revulsion and one of the biggest media scandals the u.k. has seen the yes at times it for. not just fleet street. but downing street as well as the allegations went all the way to the hot the british government to douse the flames number ten ordered the creation of the leveson inquiry in order to investigate the claims and now two years in the making after

a chorus line of celebrity witness says and millions in taxpayers' money the leveson report damning about the press and heavily critical of both the police and the government thought it says was that. the relationship with the media cameron has been shown with jeremy hunt to have been actually batting for the murdoch empire as part of all of this so you know i think there needs to be a bit more of a focus on the failures of the police to actually do anything about these criminal acts lord leveson his recommendation is behind the standards of self-regulation by the press enforced by legislation and that's what critics fear could stifle the already declining newspaper industry and deal a huge blow to the freedom of the press in the u.k. is there any way in which you can be a little bit censored or a little bit monitored and most people say no with britain now in the midst of a post leveson going over is the country's two top politicians who are likely to be

the most embarrassed david cameron might be suffering from some uncomfortable flashbacks back in october the prime minister promised to support the leveson recommendations as long as they went bonkers and cut to last week i have some serious concerns and misgivings on this recommendation they break down into issues of principle practicality and but david cameron's change of heart regarding the inquiries findings would be causing him half the headache that nick clegg might be nursing at the moment the liberal democrat deputy prime minister used to talk about liberal democracy a labor previous essence will be will be remembered as the government who took your freedoms away we want to be remembered as the ones who gave them but not anymore here he is after leveson published their report i have always said that i would support lord justice leveson reforms providing they are proportionate and workable

and i will come on to why i believe that is the case as far as the reports corporate core proposal is concerned namely a tougher system of so for glacial supported by new independent checks. recognised in law recent polls suggest that over two thirds of britons have little or no faith in the newspaper industry anymore which revelations about the strong links between the police the politicians and the media its military trust in fleet street that when doing things going to be the word you know obviously we've not been very worried about murdoch and his press sometimes i think it's always going on between should keep an eye on me to be aware of it. with opinions raging for and against new legislation it's turning into a no win situation for those in power by questioning the results of the inquiry david cameron looked to his critics like he abandoned the victims of media

intrusion for some good press which is what got the government in trouble in the first place. see london now let's take a look at some other stories making headlines across the globe for you this hour a radical islamist sect is being blamed for a series of deadly attacks on churches and buildings in northeastern nigeria there are conflicting reports about casualties but at least ten people are thought to have died gunmen in cars and on motorbikes rampage through two villages in borno state targeting christian worshipers and government buildings in what are understood to be attacks by the boko haram a group. disabled people in spain staged a mass protest against government cuts in health care due to austerity measures more than ten thousand people turned out for the demonstration mainly in wheelchairs or with the guide dogs spanish government is struggling to deal with of the country's debt crisis which has left one in four people unemployed. now after the break our two traces the emergence of the occupy movement as it spread across

the us with the intention of giving a voice to the ninety nine percent. the legacy no one should be proud. of scrap metal littering pristine arctic landscape building stilton over their foundation. black smoke over the snow covered peaks the traces of the. bergen archipelago don't make a pretty picture the guiding principle here is the worse the better locals like to tell the story that back in soviet times where no regions were visiting barons were they don't want to. and how prosperous this was well times have. changed by this so it lags say still attracting tourists or barons work

i would then cons watch native cash that's why while. our goal is common as was uncovered here a few days ago instead of throwing it away the local administration. where that can do nine hundred eighty. was a burgeoning mining community. was determined to maintain its own costs. are located halfway between north america and western europe bergen archipelago is part of norway with a special status that allows other countries to set up industrial bases here in the middle of the cold war it served as the western most outpost now it's one of the last preserved relics. if it was. curious. could be even more appealing for russia. to keep its presence on spitsbergen russian. coal mine here

but in terms of profit is far behind local. bill it is a big hit. are incurred and still helps keep the money flowing. it's the russians in your show but you can't play rubbles only for all us no sticker on your local administration is increasing and a pressure to bring the infrastructure up to more than standards if these modernization efforts and not very popular with tourists if you come into a very authentic place like bond spoke i think it should stay the way it is that would be my wish i mean that's the part of the let you know authentic tradition he up and. i should not i would not like to have it in a shiny condition to be on as this time to change even for the better is not always good for business something that even a local band has become attuned to when they try to add morning russian songs to

die repertoire the audience called the wanted to hear it was a song comfortably familiar and. that's something. i work. my father is seat of the way and an assistant to the man i'm speaking with here vice president of seed anyway district one chris shelton one of the group c.w.a. represents the rising workers and as of june two thousand and twelve the horizon workers he represents have been working without a contract for over a year except this round of contracts is different the rising is trying to break the union everything my father worked for his whole career could be gone within his life so many diverse people who are many walks of life that recognize that we are

the not percent of the time of record profits of rights it is us to the very same people that are made to look at it and in a rich corporation they do not want to do with benefits to acceptable for mark want to feel. arised it should be the poster child for corporate greed because of all the money they make and what they're trying to do to us and everybody else said the body say it's about saving a million dollars next year what do you think that this car negotiations is really about this kyra negotiation is about destroying our standard of living this is cooperation is trying to get what they want that they've been trying to get for the last twenty five years and we cannot let them and that's right occupy wall street smashes and i message are exactly the same corporate greed is destroying this country and we cannot let it so we have built very close ties with the communication workers before september seventeenth we were already supporting the fall markers and they responded by supporting us when their last rally at headquarters they marched back in the car with us and some of them slept their