more news today violence is once again flared up. in these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada from china corporations are on the day. recapping the stories that shape the week moscow georgia's arrest of thirteen alleged russian spies a political farce aimed at scoring political points back home to police these move

was also met with mistrust. president obama's party suffers a defeat in u.s. midterm elections but many say it's ordinary americans who lost out as big business played a big role in deciding the outcome. one of russia's top investigative journalists severely beaten in moscow his professional activity suspected as a motive for the attack. response will cost the smuggler a hundred five dollars in iraq he will sell into iran over four hundred and poverty and despair forced many iraqis to smuggle banned alcohol to neighboring iran at risk of their freedom and even their lives are he follows the dangerous trade route . good to be with you here on r t. it's one am in moscow we're taking

a look at the week that was in a fresh james bond style scandal between russia and georgia this week tbilisi confirmed on friday that it had arrested thirteen people accused of spying for moscow russia says the whole story is a political farce and that georgian authorities are simply grabbing attention ahead of a nato summit. port's many georgians fear the government's anti russian mania could land them in prison for espionage too. for alina this spy scandal was a horrible deja vu her own husband. was thrown into prison for allegedly spying for russia during the two thousand and eight conflict between georgia and south a city or a very unfair they said some three thousand and three hundred pages of data which my husband supposedly sam to russia that's a blatant lie we have presented evidence numerous times that on mation with witchcraft and worked was just his analysis if you look at his case you'll see that

it's easy to say that anyone's a spine ga something. healin as husband was george's envoy to nato he was named in the documentary just shown on one of george's main channels to as one of the russian spies who didn't get away in fact the film was just part of what seemed to be a spy novel unraveling in a small caucasus country over the past week through the news of the arrests that came suddenly and not from the authorities but through western news source then a week of silence after which the georgian interior ministry made the announcement with much pomp and circumstance aspiring for years a work by the georgian counter-intelligence service a mall embedded into russia's chief intelligence directorate so what is this latest spy scandal all about a political farce a desperate plea for attention or simply much ado about nothing moscow says it's a combination of all three and many say it won't do georgia any good mosco reacted

almost immediately the saakashvili regime suffers from some chronic spine area fueled by under russian sentiments in recent years the georgian leadership has resorted to fabricating similar scandals more than once cynically hoping to political dissidents inside the country and abroad some analysts believe the whole affair was an attempt to put pressure on georgia's opposition. the regime of circus really does not feel safe and they use any possible to again even in their struggle against a position which still is not consolidated body is getting in power more and more and in georgia the spy story was met with distrust. everything that concerns any information coming from the georgian authorities is highly don't feel and with a healthy dose of irony. this whole affair seemed to be fashioned on the american

spy scandal. on the chaplain the sick symbol but apparently it's the same time it's an attempt to lead the situation between russia and georgia to have those collation. the twelve tbilisi in mosco exchange verbal blows one woman continues to wait for justice for her and. i'm not a free but i know that if need be georgian authorities can accuse not only me but any georgian citizen inspiron for any contrary they don't need to write now but when they will they will accuse me of the movie it is going to be see georgia a question mark appeared this week over the ratification of the strategic arms reduction treaty between moscow and washington russia's state duma foreign affairs committee where a vote that's approval of the deal following a number of changes made by the u.s. senate also with us midterm elections giving republicans more seats and congress

the trainee could now face more opposition within the u.s. the deal signed by presidents medvedev and obama in april of this year would see the nuclear arsenals of both countries slashed by a third to come into force though it has to be approved by the russian parliament and u.s. congress despite the latest developments president obama expressed hope that the training could still be approved by year's end and how activist and journalist scott horton believes the democrats have made so many changes to the treaty and. in support of republicans it's lost its original purpose. but in order to get the republicans to sign on to the start treaty they basically had to add so many amendments and riders to the thing that it basically allows for the creation of brand new generations of hydrogen bombs dozens and dozens uncounted new facilities for manufacturing hydrogen bombs more submarines more air power and they've changed the accounting methods for the nuclear warheads in such a way that actually united states doesn't really have to reduce their stockpile of

nuclear weapons hardly at all so they've turned what ought to be the most important issue in the world the mutual reduction of american russia's nuclear weapons stockpiles and turned it into a farce mid-term elections in the us dealt a serious blow to president obama's administration republicans wrote a wave of public frustration with the pace of economic recovery to win a majority in the house of representatives but experts say it's not regular voters but big business cash that determined the outcome. this was a special election year in the us for the first time corporations were allowed to funnel as much money as they wanted into political campaigns and they definitely did not miss out on the chance to buy influence on capitol hill we've come to take our government by big businesses pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the pockets of the republican party that's now in charge of the house of representatives so what was at stake what they're hoping to do is bend the laws and regulations or prevent new laws and regulations from being approved they'll cut

their bottom lines the problem is that a lot of these rules and regulations exist for a purpose they're supposed to protect the public interest to watch corporate influence inaction take republican john boehner now a majority leader in the house of representatives wall street invested millions of dollars in his campaign he's also a darling among large health insurers oil firms and drug manufacturers baner is campaigning against all kinds of government regulations and against a tax increase for the rich and other republican congressman spencer baucus is going to be the chair of the house committee on financial services he has reportedly taken over four million dollars from wall street implats to fight against tougher rules for the financial market and it seems there is no way around it the election system in the us is such that it's virtually impossible to run for office without strong financial backing but the bigger the backing the more candidates over to their benefactors many argue the latest supreme court decision

which made it possible for corporations to invest unlimited amounts of money in politics and be able to be credited as anonymous donors has basically legalized corruption one definition of of core option is the privatization of public party two years ago corporations supported obama knowing it was going to bail them out but now that he imposed tougher rules on the financial markets. and wants to increase taxes for the rich dear betting against his party no fear mongering and constant attacks on obama were arguably the perforations the main tools for making things work their way and it wasn't hard with most americans on happy with the way commie works and with the unemployment rate at its worst in almost thirty years people are frustrated they're deeply frustrated with the pace of our economic recovery some corporate darling channels like fox news were

especially good at channeling the distrust gratian. but many americans now fear their interest in being left down because of someone's special interests on the outside this democracy is usually people coming to the polling stations putting a cost before the name of a candidate they like but in these elections with the influence of corporations on meat first it seems that really has the vote in american mail is money down it's shut down on t. washington d.c. . and as the republicans make a comeback in congress one republican former president is also coming back with memoirs and next in the next hour we'll look at how people remember george w. bush two years on. the job after that as well iraq war lot of things i remember about george bush i think will be like harry truman it may take twenty years twenty years later i think you'll be looked upon as maybe a decent president.

a top level police investigations been launched into a vicious attack on a russian investigative journalist oleg caution a correspondent for the commerce newspaper was brutally beaten near his home in moscow friday night he's already undergone two surgeries and doctors say his condition is serious but stable and investigators name cautions professional activity as one likely reason behind the assault c.c.t.v. footage shown to police shows two people attack. the journalist the case is drawing a wide public response with many rallies in support of caution happening in moscow and st petersburg russia's president dmitry medvedev says the attackers must be found and punished and former editor in chief of car assad says caution is bold writing could indeed have provoked anger among some. of course the reason for this attack is conscience professional activity he was a popular blogger and he was. then in the paper that consent has

a suit in more reserved style this beating is very similar to the attack on the journalist. which took place a couple of years ago this mention of his fingers for example so that the person could not write any more there is a horror show element. japan seems ready to mend ties with russia as it so massacre has returned to moscow earlier than expected he was recalled following a spat over president medvedev his visit to the coral islands to which tokyo also lays claim but artie's oksana boyko reports that moscow has not forgotten its remote territory and has big plans for the area. it's a leftover from the second world war old soviet tanks rusting on the shore but their barrels pointed toward japan there are about to be scrapped format when the visit by the russian president put them at the center of another fiery exchange between russia and japan discovered in the seventeenth century the allens changed hands several times to the soviet union lost in the month to expel the japanese

army from the islands in august of ninety eight forty five that prevented the two countries from signing a peace treaty living a door open for japan to claim the arlen sovereignty. sixty five years after their handover the tussle to define the islands national identity still goes on this cross a period here if you years ago when the russian orthodox church opened its parish on the island of secret on after decades of seeing its population window they are and is now in the midst of a baby boom. we have the highest birth rate in the entire region there are many kids here and parents bring them to be baptized and livingston's it's a quite decent nowadays just a few hundred metres from the church at ikeja my motor is teaching japanese ago a local school and here class seven greater sit alongside their parents many of them getting a job and japan is that best shot at lifting their families out of poverty our

classes are very popular and people keep coming here year after year and hippias sometimes it seems like and with my family again. this is precisely why the president came here to tell the locals that russia has not forgotten about them and while the regional officials try to paint a pretty picture of who roads and crumbling infrastructure betrayed the island's chronic financial problems. it's an important part of our land we would definitely invest some money into the region. and the midst of reach fishing grounds the our lands are a prime spot to buy seafood and opportunity that mitchell made that it didn't miss . what is it smelt can i get some. while fish and seafood are affordable here everything else costs almost twice as much as on the mainland the locals complained of unreliable supply but as the president noticed one item was always in stock. apparently you don't have any problems with the supply of alcohol

here. the president's visit was a missed on the japanese side talkies foreign minister said the trip heard japanese public sentiment and temporarily recalled its ambassador from moscow more to do it it is extremely regrettable that president made very do visited the cruel islands even though japan had earlier notified russia that there could be a negative impact on bilateral relations his russian counterpart was unmoved and yet simple says that only japan's reaction is an acceptable it's our land and russian president was visiting russian territory was already explained this to were just a nice porkers to once again an ambiguous new retreat this position however we're not going to take any steps that would hinder relations while the russian officials consider last week's rout over the greenland's unfortunate they stressed that their first priority is to make sure that the people who actually believe on the islands aren't left feeling more wrong according to

a two thousand and nine nationwide poll about ninety percent of russians would strongly object to handing the korea lorenzo over to japan but the overwhelming majority of the respondents have never visited this territory and are very likely to do so in the future the audience may be an integral part of russia on the map but they cannot make clear and logistically they are still very much a foreign land some of the r.c. in russia's far east. still ahead this hour washington seems to have picked a new bad. we'll explore how and why china says it's increasingly being demonized in the u.s. and where that could lead. to russia's prime minister has been thrill seeking again we'll look at vladimir putin's latest extreme hobby. but first to iraq where the war has arrived at the economy with estimates suggesting that a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line many resort to illegal means

to make ends meet smuggling spirits into neighboring iran where drinking is bad r.t. sebastian meyer follows the blues trail. in northern iraq kurdish smugglers load their horses with hundreds of boxes of booze they're taking into a brain. although alcohol is forbidden in islam a public much of tehran's bourgeoisie can't resist a drink and these smugglers provide them with an extraordinary selection we hear in a smuggler storm in a mountainous area of northern iraq that borders around absolute funky teachers here mr chavez risky black and white. back here we have johnny walker black label we have johnny walker red label over here and we even have over four different kinds of smear not. responsive will cost a smuggler one hundred five dollars in iraq he will sell it into iran for over four hundred miles of the profits appear amends to men who actually take the dangerous

journey are paid a mere fifty dollars a night this is not work for those looking to make a fortune he does work for the poor uneducated and desperate elizabeth i do this because i'm illiterate i don't know how to do you know it was so this is the only job i can do. the rain is brutal in it's approach to keep alcohol out a smuggler recently arrested and was sentenced to life by those who have been wounded in police ambushes had been fined up to half a million dollars and then charged the price of the boat. with the mind of a stepped on. the cross the border explosions shootings it's terrible nothing we can do because we owe it. to job dangerous but the living conditions are bleak on the iraqi side of the small river that makes the border. shanty towns full of terror. small shelters for the smugglers as well as for the horses the police is filthy and stinks of course then man it is this isn't

a lion and there's no food or drink during the cold in the when. on the other side hundreds of a reunion border police summon concrete towers. to keep the smugglers out of their country a few days before we arrived they mounted an ambush on one of the smugglers. came from the other side and took three of my mules back across the border and show everyone. the remains left the corpses rotting on the riverbank as a warning to the smugglers nine a phone call comes in is clear the smugglers quickly finish packing their horses and then take off towards the border what awaits them on the iranian side is uncertain what is certain is tomorrow the same dangerous job away to those who are desperate enough to do it sebastian meyer. on the iran iraq border. our website r.t.

dot com is always there to keep you posted on these and every story we cover including this sixty nine years ago russian troops paraded in the red square before marching off to war the nazis had nearly reached moscow take a look at this year's commemoration ceremonies on our website. and some people think it's heavy beautiful as has been proved by an unusual beauty pageant in russia and wash all the pet rodents from across the country strut their stuff. one and a half thousand russian veterans of elite forces and active service men have rallied in moscow to demand the resignation of the country's defense minister they were protesting against and to lease or do you call the radical reforms costing as many as two hundred thousand officers their jobs but authorities tell us or so he

reports the minister says the changes are to streamline the armed forces to counter modern day threats. now here at miter margaret there is a currently a rally going out of protest against the current the russian defense minister i've been told he said you called him over yesterday your commander of russia is there more troops and i'm glad the mission of you did call on the you not to go ahead with the protests and not just this protest not to go ahead with the whole campaign because there is a series of protests planned against it you call for calling for his resignation just to give a bit of a background on the surgical was appointed by then president vladimir putin in two thousand and seven as a defense minister basically to implement corruption measures in the armed forces and to make forces more efficient to two thousand and eight said to cough and now see a number of reforms that he wanted to implement in these reforms that involve cutting a lot of the jobs the officers jobs that if morsi visited make a lot of the members of the armed forces very happy so you call the saying that the

military has to adjust to the current grounds and russian is a basic and he's saying that russia is no longer facing the threat of a full scale war that it once did back in the past and therefore a massive military is not exactly what russia needs what russia needs is an efficient and non-corrupt military and that's was only called wants to do so despite a lot of these oppositions open opposition and calling for his resignation so you cough is going to take a firm stab he says that by twenty sixteen it is still clients down the number of the military to one million people versus five million that we currently have so this is still his plaid and he's going to continue to do with. all authority of a retired major general says the reforms by the first russian civilian defense minister in nineteen years would never have been buried by any military figure. image you do films who are able to start things to the effect that until a surgical fiza civilian the civilian element in our armed forces helps to

implement changes that ahmed officials would never have dared to introduce the saying gays to do with the personal interests of one service men not with the fact that these people do not accept the reforms that are brought on the economists are warning that a new trade war could be looming between two major nations with china's economic clout growing rapidly washington seems to be accusing beijing of every offense from currency manipulation took record export policies. it's on our genes and children story made in china three common words quickly becoming bad words as part of smear campaigns made in the usa to be voted to give china's special trade status the chinese are being set up to be the next bogeyman and the only thing that's interfering with that is that the muslims are in effect of bogeyman for right now but that hasn't stopped china and its alleged us supporters from being the bad guys does your records help foreign companies create chinese jobs to make it with in the

u.s. china's ascent in the world is becoming the popular perceived threat from washington maybe you ought to run for senate trying to holywood going to get it over to go with their remaking the eighty's flick red dawn. but this time around instead of soviet troops invading the west you guessed it it's the chinese it seems for longer the us economy stagnates barely growing at all oh. and the more china celebrates the ten percent plus rise and its economic growth the more we see china vilified it's very important to see more progress by the major emerging economies with policymakers accusing the country of manipulating its currency to boost exports at the expense of the u.s. recovery and demanding they do something to change that every just look at the issue from that perspective you may think china is to blame here but if you i think

china have a very dynamic interconnected relationship and when you look at what the u.s. is doing because a lot less clear who is the bad guy but it takes two to tango there are two sides to that core and the only way to get out of this imbalance is to coordinate a process that is mutually beneficial both. an imbalance that has china the largest creditor nation on the globe. funding the us the largest debtor. nation in the history of the world asking for the dollar to go down twenty percent against the chinese currency chats to you on essentially ass china who holds two point six trillion us dollars in its reserves to just lose a half trillion dollars china doesn't want that and economists say this is anything but mutually beneficial the u.s. has no we want to screw you we want to bankrupt you like we grip to trip him we want to disable you because if we can destroy you're going to have a cli then you can never become

a military threat and outside of this is paranoid psychosis but it doesn't stop the u.s. from parading its military might around china's borders china is also held drills in recent months and both sides are duking it out in what's been dubbed a currency war i happen to think china should open its currency up and be freely convertible on the other hand the united states is running up the gigantic debts and printing money and everybody's making mistakes here and that's where economists say a larger war is impending looks like we have a trade war developing a losing battle for both sides nobody in history has won a trade war but that may not stop anyone from putting up a fight and recent u.s. history as seen here here and here doesn't seem to even be allowing a fair one lorin mr r.t. new york finally on our news roundup russia's prime minister seems to be looking to become the world's fastest politician his need for speed fulfilled in st petersburg

where he took to the track on four wheels. the world was visible space in my old soviet. it may have been a little crap but that didn't keep the premier from doing up to two hundred forty kilometers an hour in this f one racer yellow seems to be putin's color of choice earlier this year he took a spin along a new russian highway and a canary if you lot a lot of your putins clearly likes to be in the driver's seat in the past he's been behind the controls of a fighter jet fighter and even combine harvesters. back shortly with a review of the headlines stay with us here on r.t. .

wealthy british style it's not on. the. market. scandal find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines join in to cause a report on our team. wouldn't dare to swim so deep.