and imperial trying to tell us that. you can a little socialist you see don't need to go and. read this in the kennel was a joke as a treat. russia countdown as football's governing body gets ready to decide who will host the twenty eighteen and twenty twenty two world cup game. russia's prime minister goes head to head with a talk show host larry king in an interview shedding light on everything from wiki leaks european missile defense. league concern over european debt rocks the eurozone with a list of nations facing hardship continuing to grow. up next the alona show where they take a look at whether the u.s. may have to embrace european style austerity measures in the wake of recommendations from the debt reduction commission stay with us here on r.t. . for the full story we've gone to.

the biggest issues get a human voice ceased to face with the news makers. welcome the lower show will get the real headlines with none of the mercy me live out of washington d.c. now today the debt reduction commission has released their report called the moment of truth so we're going to tell you what the commission's proposed in its list of cuts. thompson if lawmakers are actually going to go for it then thousands of jobless americans actually millions are about to get another slap in the face as their unemployment benefits expire today artie's lauren lyster will give us some insight into how unemployed families are struggling to survive and how losing these benefits could hurt them next we'll see how giuliana songes latest string of leaks are going to affect the u.s. relationship with the u.n.

remember how hillary clinton signed orders to spy on u.n. diplomats while at the u.s. taking over the revolving presidency of the u.n. security council these leaks could make for some very straight relations so we're going get some insight from mark leon goldberg managing editor for the blog un dispatch and an art exhibit at the smithsonian has some conservatives so up in arms at the exhibit had to be removed really what happened to art being thought provoking encouraging people to think in new ways well we're going to get to the bottom of this or we're going to host a debate asking if this exhibit could have gone too far then we're going to shed light on another dark chapter in the cia's history experimentation involving implanting chips and soldiers brains it sounds bizarre but one doctor has proof and we'll get more information about of that the images show but now it's move on the today's top story. today the obama administration or the obama administration ordered that debt reduction commission released their final recommendation report

very dramatically titled the moment of truth the only problem is apparently the eighteen panel members were really ready for that truth as the vote on the report had to be postponed until friday but here are a few basics of the plan four trillion dollars are to be cut from the debt by two thousand and twenty the retirement age will gradually made. it's way up to sixty nine by the year two thousand and seventy five tax revenue will be capped at twenty one percent of payroll tax holiday is proposed for all of two thousand and eleven spending social security payroll taxes for both employers and employees and when it comes to discretionary spending on hundred billion dollars has to come from defense and non-defense each now the commission warn that without the sacrifices the report calls for a fiscal reckoning will be sure and the devastation will be severe so basically be really really scare but even if we are scared does that mean the lawmakers are going to go for it on joining me to discuss it as derrick thomas an associate

editor at the atlantic derek thanks so much for being here and now the moment of truth is what they call this report i understand this is a big deal but i mean could they have been more dramatic with the title here it sounds a bit dramatic it's also it's difficult to get people excited about deficits and debt to the extent that this debt commission has a thesis i think it's essentially that if everybody takes a small cut the no one has to feel the brunt of the pain essentially it's a strategy to spread the pain but like you mentioned politically a strategy of spreading the pain is is just sort of a euphemism for saying there's a lot of pain that s.p. spread and we live in a time right now where washington you know what has trouble passing a twenty billion dollars unemployment benefits extension the idea that we're going to come together hold hands and pass something that's costing the entire country four trillion dollars or saving the country more chilling dollars over the next decade it's pretty hard to imagine why is that why you think they postpone the vote until friday or is it do they really need more time to read over this report or are they really just struggling to find those fourteen members that they think might

give it a thumbs up right i mean the internal politics of the debt commission are going to be difficult because you have six. politicians picked by the republicans and six politicians picked by the democrats these are people that they're looking for two elections in two four six years they don't want to do anything that's going to jeopardize their chance to come back to washington so it's the reason of this. taking this long in that they're trying to postpone this long as possible if you give them every last second to say look we know this isn't a popular bill there are a thousand reasons to vote no on this but there are more important reasons to vote yes and that's this country well we'll see if anyone actually does that but let's get into the details of it here right there is one hundred billion dollars from defense and non-defense discretionary spending but in the previous proposal they at least had outlined some details especially when it comes to defense spending and now they kind of took all those details out and said well we're not sure how you have to do it but you just have to wrap it would say what's difficult about about discretionary spending defense and non-defense is that it's different from social security where you can just change the retirement age and suddenly save you know

hundreds of billions of dollars over seventy years you have to take a look at this mosaic of programs you non-scented pick and choose and you have a list of those into this is going to suffer so it would be doing it is sort of clever there's three theories to basically saying when you give you an overall cap and then you have ideas for little things that you can cut but we don't feel like it's our responsibility to go into the agencies and tell them this fat print more double sided we're just going to say look here are a multitude of ways in which you can cut spending and although you can play pentagon probably like that right because they're thinking where the experts here let us say what we want to know betting on the problem and they're never going to get it i mean anyway but let's get into social security here too as far as i understand benefits are going to be getting bumped up for the poor by a tiny bit of ventura but then for the top echelons they're going to be cut by twenty percent i mean that seems incredibly drastic you think people are ever going to go for that that the rich don't. don't deserve social security like everyone else i mean they will still get their social security sensually one so again what

the definition is trying to do is to spread the pain they don't want to do something that's just payroll tax increases and they are raising more revenue out there is reading the pain to middle class upper middle class and wealthy families of syria here is that the upper middle class and wealthy families can bear the brunt of that pain more you know they save more for. and they have more investment income they have more overall as well they pay more taxes and they do pay more taxes that's actually right but they also get more from from the government and from the economy and so the theory here is essentially if you're going to cut benefits you can't cut them for the people that need it the most those to rely on it for eighty percent of their post retirement income you have to cut it for people who rely on social security for a much smaller portion of their regardless people like you and myself our generation i mean never just can be screwed by the time we get around to this they're already saying it's going to be up to sixty nine the retirement age by two thousand and seventy five who knows that you know how many more years they get bombs that will in two thousand seventy five you know i'll be ninety years old so i'm not particularly worried about that seventy five i am though i have i plan to

live a very long life. it is concerning that if we do nothing and right now one environment we're doing something is very difficult if we do nothing we do have serious problems not only at the end of this decade but especially the twenty twenties and the twenty's thirty's when you know the trust fund for social security doesn't run out but stops being able to pay these full benefits so doing something starting now and phasing in these marginal changes to the system will help us avoid bigger pain later i mean it sounds so logical right but what we have is we have this deadlock in congress right now there's absolutely no bipartisanship at all to be seen and so it just feels impossible to get any of this passed even though we have people making statements like devastation that will be severe now there's another plan out there that some people are saying it's better it's a bipartisan task for a very quickly thirty seconds tell us about that one of the about the bipartisan task force is that not only faces in these plans over the long term over the long haul it also fronts some stimulus and i think that right now you know in the next

six months not the next sixty years right now the problem that we have is unemployment it's a lot of demand and actually the best thing we can do i think for a medium term deficit is to stimulate the economy with another payroll tax holiday or a payroll tax holiday another stimulus something that gets people spending again so the economy gets better. normal growth and then we can start to phase in the slow changes to the system and i think everybody likes the sound of a payroll tax holiday right who wasn't there and thanks so much for being here thanks. well it's officially december and for most people that means holiday shopping but just last night two million americans found out that their jobless benefits will not be extended while politicians in washington continue to bicker over what to do the millions of americans impacted by their decisions are left waiting to see if they can survive artie's lauren lyster reports. suburban survival sometimes it all comes down to chance. landing

a property and we saved and we saved and we say when we got it it wasn't two months after we bought the house i lost my job and then my christmas present was my pink slip and. so i haven't worked since zero eight what does a family do when faced with losing it all. i'm in negotiations with the bank to keep the house i am literally talking to the bank now right now as we speak you are punched this and. it which when all your reserves have dried up. my retirement. savings you only have community chest that is unemployment benefits we can't hold on much longer and we need these benefits and as us congress has shown in the last few weeks those benefits can be quickly suspended stepping back and reflecting that

reality sinks in oh man. i don't think about. and fear takes over. this family lives in this very typical suburban neighborhood feels very far removed from washington d.c. but the decisions being made in the u.s. capital can literally make the difference in whether a family like this can get by or not i use that money to to you know course put food on table through your benefits is you know. you could be losing it feels like a losing your whole world that's a heavy subject because in this recession even when some people try their hardest to move forward. sometimes they can't pass go. that literally means ever undergoing in trying to look for work where you've got

a thousand guys on the bench and the biggest thing that goes through my head as my son was some things you simply can't afford to roll the dice. you know. we. shield. our children from. devastating situation. like we're going through it's a shield that allows some dreams to stay alive and remain unscathed in this home but i want to be the first officer. so. that's what we do sir while the grown ups are no longer counting on their american dream facing the financial nightmare it has become they now turn to the heavens if you will for all you want to forget this very day constant struggle constant war i'm joined live now from our

studio in new york by our to correspondent lauren lyster to give us more about this latest round of unemployment benefits that are expiring now lauren give us the details by christmas two million americans are supposed to lose their unemployment benefits. that really is the case alone lawmakers in washington failed to come to a decision failed to reach an agreement to pass an extension of unemployment benefits so for the two million people that rely on this extension by the federal government now these are the long term unemployed they will expire this month and last congress just something about it does something to change that and that could take weeks and now i do want to point out these are the people that are the long term unemployed they've been unemployed for more than six months they have relied on the federal government's extensions to make ends meet while they've been looking for jobs that many say just do not exist and these are people after six months you know your savings have run out that's something that people i've talked to always

say that are in this situation and that economists also point to so this is really what they are relying upon now last night some people were gathering on the streets there in new york and i know you spoke to them to see how this is really affecting individuals what do they say. get these are protesters who came out to the christmas tree lighting at rockefeller center in new york which is kind of an annual tradition here in new york but they came out not to celebrate the lighting but with chris with santa hats rather saying and signs that said merry christmas you're fired these were people many of whom are facing their unemployment insurance benefits running out this month as we've been talking about and they were protesting the government not extending those benefits and also the use of resources of the federal government very critical that money continues to be spent whenever necessary on defense but not on on these benefits that people need here is a listen to what one of those protesters had to say. people are good really good

their unemployment benefits that the u.s. would rather see a massive amounts of money where you wore them provided for people to be. so there are very critical that you know with this latest tensions reported north and south korea that the united states is deploying resources there without question to south korea but that they have failed to extend unemployment benefits for people that need them here at home they believe that the money should be spent on the citizens of the united states that face destitution and not on defense it's just you know one of the criticisms that we've heard whether it's a wall street or defense spending where people at home who face these these tough decisions are really critical of where the government spends its resources and of course the governor i now can't seem to make up its mind this is become such a such a political issue you know really dividing republicans and democrats and under scott brown is the one really that at the end of the day last night blocked this

vote and a lot of people are angry about that because remember this is the guy that campaigned with you know his pickup truck trying to tell everybody that he's just like every other american but well i guess that couldn't be more true than it is true that it is now lauren thanks so much. don't go anywhere there's still a lot more to come on tonight's show today the u.s. assumes rotating presidency at the u.n. at the security council but in light of all the wiki leaks documents revealing hillary clinton wanted to keep tabs on diplomats this damage u.s. relationship with other u.n. nations we're going to hash out the managing editor of the u.n. and global affairs blog healing dispatch.

renewability there's something. that you have heard. lawmakers pundits writers you name it many americans have it out for julian a sondre are calling for blood right now but it sounds like he's got bigger problems worldwide a red alert has been issued by interpol for alleged sex crimes committed in sweet it now the red notice is not an international arrest warrant it's simply a notice that a valid arrest warrant exists in a participating interpol country now while it does not compel a nation to hold a songe or even to extradite him to sweden chemicals travel around the world very difficult but you know we've heard the controversy over rape allegations brought

against a songe for months now so why would interpol issue this arrest learned arrest alert right now we just can't help but feel like it's not really about that case i think that we all know what it's really about considering that every single government in the world wants a songes head and wiki leaks done after they've just released the largest leak of diplomatic cables and we touched upon the media responses yesterday but critics have become even more bloodthirsty overnight former george w. bush speechwriter marc thiessen has taken the debate to an entirely new level the center is an advocate of torture but now he's actually talking about invading another country to arrest a son and that country happens to be a u.s. ally take a listen to him on fox news cannot unilaterally we can we can go and get him without without another country's permission we did it with general noriega the results already in the office of legal counsel that we can go in and take somebody anywhere in the world. we should go and get him with or without his host countries

permission i wonder how sweden feels about that you know they're very close u.s. ally so i'm not really sure a military invasion to arrest julian assigns would go over too well now isn't it also travels to iceland switzerland australia germany and the u.k. so which one of those countries is the sin ok with us invading they all happen to be allies with the us now ask for these and mentioning the us invasion of panama nine hundred eighty nine to get general manual noriega yes president bush ordered the arrest of noriega and he sent me five thousand troops to panama numerous international laws in doing so so according to these and this is how things should be done all the time he almost seems to refer to the rest of noriega as the glory days those things can really suggesting that the us send twenty five thousand troops to another country right now just to arrest julius on this just shows you how washington really thinks and interpol is into songes only problem today with

the leaks appears to have lost or left its main web host amazon dot com the main website and sub site devoted to the diplomatic documents were unavailable from the us and europe this afternoon as amazon servers refused to acknowledge requests for data so i guess the signage is finally starting to feel the full weight of the u.s. government and pretty. now earlier this week we first told you about a document in the wiki leaks scandal that sheds light on secretary of state hillary clinton clinton signing off on requests for personal information on diplomats at the u.n. and it couldn't have come at a worse time considering that today the u.s. takes over the revolving presidency of the u.n. security council correspond to has more on the story. a global partner in peace or paranoid superpower hungry for secrets our diplomats are doing what diplomats do around the world every day which is filled relationships

negotiate advance our interests and work to find common solutions to complex problems that's what they do but according to documents released by wiki leaks in two thousand and nine u.s. diplomats around the world were in fact directed to gather side five type details including facial images fingerprints iris scans and even d.n.a. from u.n. officials among the targeted and basters from russia china france and britain even secretary-general ban ki moon many people didn't understand what that meant or that mean that diplomats do spying on the side of the order of operation allegedly came from u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton words and as the u.s. assumes the presidency of the security council today after these revelations will probably be seen as an undesirable distraction but little more it seems only belgium openly criticized washington for mixing diplomatic work and outright espionage the united nations is not in

a position to comment on the authenticity of the document purporting to request information gathering activities official reaction from the u.n. itself only went as far as reminding member states that international treaties per hit spying at the u.n. their response has been so weak to being spied on by the u.s. in large part because the u.s. is just you know it's the behemoth of the u.n. they pay a lot of the bills but they also have the ability to veto a second term for ban ki-moon the u.s. is the un's fattest financier said to contribute more than two and a half billion dollars in two thousand and eleven and this is not the first time the u.s. has been caught spying. back in two thousand and three in the lead up to the invasion of iraq the national security agency was reportedly conducting a secret surveillance operation. providing intelligence on the voting intentions of u.n. members this time around diplomats were asked to provide information on computer upgrade security measures passwords and personal encrypted and keys of their human

colleagues the exhausting level of the details allegedly demanded about top u.s. officials has not only left the u.s. red faced but it's also caused some to question whether washington was ultimately laying the groundwork for surveillance or hocking operations here at the world body had quarters for governments that are constantly talking about democracy transparent see him poor newnham blah blah blah in the world and say that they're invading all sorts of countries in order to promote the new democratic spirit and then they behave this way i'm sorry but i think it's time for some outrage while washington repeatedly claims to be rebuilding and repairing relations around the world the image of the u.s. as big brother watching at the u.n. may be irrepairable what is the u.s. policy is this u.s. policy going forward and you know it was in the past will it be going forward and

if so you know people better hold on to their wallets around here while the u.s. appears to be left holding the smoking gun. r.t. new york. so after all that what is this next month of presidency over the u.n. security council going to look like for the u.s. well here to discuss it with me is marc leon goldberg managing editor of the u.n. and global affairs blog which mark thanks so much for being here and thanks for having me that we just heard. say in this story our diplomats are just that they're diplomats and that's all they do so is this what diplomats really do they all spy on each other and take biometric scans and look into credit card accounts well you know i don't think it's altogether surprising that the united states or frankly any country would be conducting and some sort of intelligence gathering operation at the u.n. it's happened in the past in two thousand and three the observer reported that the national security agency was trying to keep tabs on the debate on the run up to the iraq war to try to influence the debate towards the bush administration's favor other countries have certainly spied at the u.n.

in the past so it's not altogether surprising that it's not right either way though i guess you could say but is that why i mean because if we look at the u.n. i feel like the response so far has been very muted i was out of belgium really was the only country that spoke out here and i you know had some harsh words so why is nobody talking about what the spokesman for the secretary general did make the point that you know there are several international treaties to which the united states has ratified that prohibit this kind of activity at the u.n. at the same time as i said it's not that surprising that this would happen but can there be some kind of. you know referee questions if they broke those treaties since they actually broke the law probably not to be to be fair because it's america because they have so much power at the u.n. well because there is no one that could really do the punishing it's not like the u.n. would kick the united states you know the u.s. and use the u.n. the u.n. needs the united states frankly what's most interesting about these cables is what it says about american priorities at the u.n. you know top on the list was for was frankly the secretary of state for asking

american diplomats to figure out how to make the peacekeeping mission into or for more effective asking which countries might have military. yes that's what they could lend to their mission in darfur i mean that was number one on the list if you look at what the u.s. is spying or collecting intelligence on frankly other towards relatively laudable goals another one is taking a look at trying to prevent zimbabwe the zimbabwean government robert mugabe from achieving any sort of position of influence at the u.n. so frankly the goals of the intentions are by and large correct not all but i mean yeah you could say that in trying to monitor people and how they're going to vote on sanctions on iran that's not necessarily a lot of oh well i mean i guess that's true but you know there definitely is room for debate there but still do they have to do this by taking biometric scans getting you know d.n.a. fingerprints iris scans that seems a little bit over the top it's bizarre and if you look at the people for whom there's authorize this sort of intelligence collecting apparatus

a lot of them include frankly americans american service plenty of americans served at top ranks at the u.n. and u.n. agency is you know the former national security adviser to bill clinton is the head of unicef a former top ranking state department officials the head of the world food program lots of american officials. top ranks at the united nations so the optics of this are certainly kind of bizarre so do you think of this is going to affect now that the u.s. has taken you know this revolving control of presidency at the u.n. security council is it going to be addressed at all is not a hard time i really don't think so you know the american priorities at the u.n. are not going to change because of these leaks you know there's still going to be this upcoming vote in south sudan that's going to be top of the list north korea is going to occupy some time at the security council this month those top priorities are going to change because of this this leaked but do you think by perhaps not really being so critical of it that more people are going to become critical of the u.n. again we have the discussion of you know a does the u.n. even do anything or do they just let the u.s. walk all over them well you know it's sort of

a symbiotic relationship between the united states and the united nations you know what you can see clearly from this document is that the united states look to the looks to the. un to add that ted value to its own foreign policy priorities like darfur like sudan like you know sri lanka. but you know that the u.n. also relies on the u.s. for its diplomatic and political support and also financial support so it's not i think one or the other really. really good out of probably not everybody out there would respond that way but let's look at the last time right you mentioned this isn't the first time with the u.s. has been caught spying this is true as there was the reaction so muted last time as well well they're more shock well again you know it's not like the u.n. could have done anything you know the security council those that voted as it did in the run up to the iraq war there was sort of shock that the u.s. might be spying on kofi but it was in short of that i think unexpected and all that unexpected we could do something while he's speaking of giving a speech about it right that's what they do that by taking so much from you i so

much thank you are coming up next one tea partiers says that if you don't land russian be allowed crazy comments on him tonight full time award i have more on that in a moment and an art exhibit at the smithsonian got some conservatives so upset that was home. but what happened to art from an expression and individual interpretation or did this piece really go too far or how do you mean she was since we come back. hungry for the feast we've got. the biggest issues get a human voice ceased to face with the news makers.