euro in the united states of the country continues to stuff the record for wasting the most amount of food so how can the u.s. fill the gap on poverty and help feed millions of hungry people. and looking for someone like i actually might be able to help by might work for myself college students hurting with skyrocketing student loan debt are relieving the pain with a little bit of sugar we'll show you how a website aims at holding up struggling young professionals with older and financially secure companions. it's friday december twenty third four pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching artsy. well in the middle east suicide bombings are making a deadly comeback today in syria two suicide car bombs blasted damascus killing at

least forty people the bombings came just a day after the arrival of arab league observers tasked with monitoring syria's promise to end its crackdown on protesters protesters there are rising up against president bashar assad's regime but assad is calling the armed gangs terrorists seeking to divide the country meanwhile iraq is picking up the pieces today after a series of suicide bombs tore through neighborhoods in baghdad killing at least sixty nine people it appears the targets were shia sections of the city now amid the suicide bombings in both countries we are seeing a unified theme sectarian violence is ravaging iraq and syria putting both nations on the brink of civil war and as religious and sectarian tensions rise what does this mean for the middle east and how does this play how does the west play into this well to help me look into all of this lawyer and author eva golinger joins us now welcome back eva first want to talk about the timing of the bombings in syria

they happened shortly after the arrival of the arab league observers is it a coincidence or are they aimed at disrupting their efforts. i would say absolutely it's an attempt to sabotage the mission of the arab league and the attempts to try to resolve the conflict in syria in a peaceful way and also you know to try to paint a picture of what's happening in syria as just absolute chaos and instability and of course to terrorize as well those who have now come there on the mission i mean of obviously that would be a scary situation to be in their first day arriving into the country that there would be this level of terrorist attack and and there's no question that it was directed against the government at least based on the information so far that that's come out of the country and again i think that it also supports what the government of syria has been saying from the beginning that these are not

protesters seeking some kind of democratic reform in the country these are violent militants that have been armed in large part from abroad and are looking for a way to disrupt the country turn it into a situation of chaos in which they can provoke regime change and they're outside influences that are egging and feeding this this conflict on in order to achieve that goal precisely well the syrian president is calling the opposition terrorists he's going as far as saying that al qaeda is behind the suicide bombings could this possibly provide an excuse for the west to get involved. the west is already involved the united states has been involved from the beginning when when the whole situation started in the middle east with the arab spring the u.s. began pushing immediately for similar protests and uprisings to happen in the countries precisely where it wants to provoke regime change which are syria and iran and the case of libya and i mean i think we can't ignore what happened in

libya because there's a lot of similarities that we're seeing playing out now in the case of libya they were not in large part protesters that were engaged in a conflict with with the government of cut off the those were armed insurgents that were being art that had been armed in large part from abroad there were similar reports coming out of the case out of libya about al qaida being involved in prising against the government of gadhafi and they were being supported in a covert way by the united states i mean you have to remember that the u.s. has been involved in a lot of dirty operations around the world and particularly in the middle east where it has armed and funded on previous occasions al qaeda insurgents despite the fact that you know they have been the same ones to attack the united states so i think the west is heavily involved and that now you know it's feeding this conflict and yes there are certainly people in syria who are protesting legitimately against the government of bashar al assad and from the beginning as well that those types

of protests started the government of bashar assad and president assad himself was very clear that he wanted to initiate reforms and they've had to be done in a democratic and peaceful way it can't be done in a way where it's being you know where the government is being terrorized and it's a situation where there's an armed conflict that's not how democratic change can come about speaking of a libya where nato intervened could we see a similar situation in syria where. there's going to be this push for nato to intervene and if nato does intervene what would their motivation be. the motivation is to provoke regime change there's really no other motivation beyond that and of course well the the reason they would want to provoke regime change is to put in place a government that would be friendly to us and its allies interests and of course to enable those interests to control strategic resources in syria and throughout the region which is the same case that we saw in libya i mean the whole justification

of protecting the population was really just a front to be able to overthrow and assassinate really a moammar gadhafi and put in place a government that would be friendly to the us libya is a country that has substantial oil reserves as well as being positioned strategically in a way that's incredibly important to control for those who want to dominate that region syria has similar should teach it importance and of course is a government that's not friendly to the united states and its allies and there are certain they certainly would like to see it overthrown at the same time well two things we have to remember that right after the obama administration with drew troops from iraq some of those were relocated to the border of syria from jordan and in preparation of arming this conflict and possibly engaging in it as well and being involved and at the same time countries like russia and china have taken a really strong position saying hey we're not going to allow this kind of situation

to happen against syria that happened against libya and so you know there are tensions around any kind of military aggression towards libya towards syria coming from abroad and of course it wouldn't be as simple to play out but they are trying to prepare the scenario and i think that these terrorist attacks that happened today are part of that or part of maybe a justification to say hey there needs to be a stronger military presence from abroad in order to prevent further military conflict internally in the country that could result in the deaths of so-called innocent civilians now i also want to talk about iraq where suicide bombings also blasted through the neighborhoods of baghdad so we are seeing deadly sick tarion in both countries what comparisons can you draw between the conflicts in the two countries. well there certainly is a religious component there's no question about that at all and then of course there's there is the influence of those who wish for these types of conflicts to

continue in order to justify maybe a larger military presence the an increased presence of foreign contractors or those who want to sabotage also a process of a peaceful process of change or of reform as in the case i think all of those things are happening in both countries i mean i don't think it's a coincidence either days after the u.s. withdraws most of its troops that we see these kinds of attacks take place in iraq although there has been that level of of instability in the country over basically the past nine years since the war against iraq began i mean we've seen these types of internal insurgencies and attacks going on but certainly i mean that i think that the religious component is also being aided from abroad or utilized in a way that could benefit outside interests and so i think we have to be cautious when we're looking at you know is this a religious war is this a war of outside interests against internal interests i think there's

a combination of all of that going on and that it's an incredibly delicate situation in both of those countries and lastly you don't want to have civil war does break out in the middle east what are the greater implications for the region and what would it mean for the west. well syria first of all has a very strong armed forces and of course it's a country where from the beginning those who are protesting actually against the government of bashar al assad were pretty clear that they didn't want outside intervention so i think that the the angle of violence that has now been provoked over the past few months has been a way in order to sort of sabotage those efforts for real change in the country in order to provoke you know some kind of overthrow of the government that would implement a u.s. more u.s. friendly regime and at the same time yes civil war i mean it could spill over i of course the fear here is that iran could become involved and of course the situation

between iran and the united states is already incredibly tense it's on a very very dangerous limit at this moment and the u.s. is looking for ways also to pull you ron into this these types of conflicts that are going on in order to do the same there and provoke regime change i mean i think that's what this is all about in the end of the situation in the middle east where a lot of people regular citizens want changes take place in our country just as is happening in the united states is happening all throughout european nations as well and unfortunately you know there are really powerful interests from the u.s. and its allies that want to be the ones to impose whatever that changes and to to somehow craft it to their own interests that takes place in the middle east and so that's what we're seeing and i think that you know a broader war of course would have huge implications especially if you ron became involved and you know i mean this could be i think in any case we're looking at a situation today in the twenty first century where there is just

a state of permanent war where there's endless wars that don't have any any kind of borders that are defined where the adversary the enemy seems to also be anyone and everyone and you know i think that it would potentially come back to the united states and hit the u.s. in a way that again would be. you know something that most people in the united states would really want to happen eva thank you so much for weighing in on this that was a lawyer and author things. well we are just two days away from celebrating christmas in the u.s. across the country millions of families are filling up their refrigerators and filling out their waistlines during this most innocent of the holidays and with all this anticipation nobody is really thinking about the mess that will be left behind or the amount of food that will be wasted but support into perspective take a look at this this is the rose bowl and over ninety two thousand seven hundred five hundred seventy two c.

football stadium in pasadena california and every single year americans waste enough food to fill that stadium to the brim that's an average of five hundred ninety billion pounds of food and the typical family of four throws out an estimated one thousand three hundred and fifty dollars worth of food annually well all of this way is happening while sixteen percent of americans live in poverty and line up for food stamps so what's with the huge disparity artsy correspondent marina poor in iowa reports. the number of people on food stamps has reached an all time high more and more people are going hungry one in three americans live in or near poverty and suffering hunger in this land of plenty. in this land of plenty roughly two point seven million tons of food is reportedly raised and grown each year the same country that loves so much to consume calories.

also loves to waste that. this isn't like a geo and although is a dumpster diver instead of paying for food he wrote midges through garbage bags on the streets of new york city. here's another truth were tons of edible food is thrown out the each night i never found that's not the size of the pizza here this is a raisin reason bagel the twenty seven year old musician makes his way from the bakery to the deli there's hot food here which probably comes from a hot food bar relying on supermarket trash for his essential vitamins even without opening the bag i can see the orange. parson and some other greens what we and those crowding around g.o.c. is that in a country where more than forty million people struggle daily to get enough food millions of meals are literally being wasted as this as you can see is still

perfectly edible and there's no sense to be wasted and thrown away. otherwise it would end up. on top of the landfill somewhere and as to me the thirty to fifty percent of u.s. food produced for consumption ends up at landfills each year that comes at an annual cost of one billion dollars simultaneously food prices continue to rise leaving millions more on line at soup kitchens and ultimately searching through trash getting me to my baby shower the documentary dive follows filmmaker jeremy seifert and his friends in the back alleys and rubbish piles of los angeles as thousands of dollars worth of edible food is salvaged it's a result of our excess we are a wealthy country and we have excess and so waste is. really necessarily a byproduct of excess and it's

a bad habit of sort of the spoiled rich kid as it were amid a marriage as expanding climate of food waste critics say the country's overall carelessness causes ripple effects around the world it is a global market now and our over consumption directly impacts the hungry and the poor in other countries us taking more than we need and wasting it affects the prices of food affects the availability of food so yeah i guess it was why did they make the film there was a sense of outrage at the injustice of food waste something of a paradox society defined both by wasteful consumption and an ongoing struggle to make ends meet i need to cut my expenses are first thing that can go through so the question is why pay for that which you can get for free marina were naive

r.t. new york. coming up on artsy wanted wealthy older benefactor looking to wine and dine sexy indebted college student price negotiable cash check or credit card except that that story next. at first very much is burning gerard's right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. much stronger than anything you'd be by absolutely thousands of tons and stronger than any kind of debris you ever put you know. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through it's already been made who can you trust no one who is you know view

with a global reach where we had a state controlled capitalism school sessions when nobody dares to ask we do our tea question more. well this year college students were said to have graduated to one of the highest unemployment rates for grabs in the u.s. history a young professional fresh out of college is on average burdened with over twenty five thousand dollars in debt and for many grads it's much more so with a dire job market trying to find ways to pay off college debt can get very tricky while the website is trying to help by matching young grads with college tuition sugardaddy it's artie's on associate explains what the website hoax how the website hooks up what it calls mutually beneficial relationships.

who. is your sugar daddy seeking arrangement dot com is a dating website for wealthy guys whom we term sugar daddies or wealthy women sugar mommies for them to meet beautiful young women and then when we turn sugar babies college debt and dream job prospects are pushing more janitors with ph d.'s into memberships than ever before back in two thousand and six when the website first started there were twenty five percent of the should be nice were college students we have seen that number increased about thirty five forty percent in just in the last eight years alone online searches combined with mingled in parties like these promise more luck with finding that perfect sugar sweet really should ship we have a right to be treated very well whatever the night we see. the people this ivy league college grad is facing tens of thousands of dollars worth of debt with no job and financial aid she wants a sugar daddy prostitution should be legal i'm not looking for fun and looking for

someone like i actually might be able to help provide support for myself the former student believes relationships for money are on their way to becoming a trend giving hikes intuition and the currency of the money more and more people are looking for alternative ways to finance their education there are plenty of young men that are also been paid older women and men like joseph also burdened by college debt he's looking for a rich lady to take care of him and have an equal by themselves in different situations. you never know who's going to bring out like i think that's what it's all about their. organizers say they found the golden ticket whether it be a student whether it be a single parent mother who may have difficulty with their own finances the way the economy is right now i think the people would need to people that have i think it's a nice bridge critics call dating for money prostitution and there are websites

where people can find each other. and he gauged any kind of mutually beneficial sexual relationship they want but wherever money is involved it's a problem sixty eight year old actor johnny russo has ten mothers to his eleven children he says money saves time i know why i am i know i will the human where else can you go and be two hundred women on the monday night in new york city most of the women he has met so far have turned out to be prostitutes however most of these kids if they truly need an education and whatever i'm a person has a lot of extra rooms. and so if i could be helpful be both of us but most of them are just working girls author and journalist melanie burley yet had more luck with the seeking arrangement dating service i needed money i was stuck in a rough spot as i imagine a lot of college age girls are these days you know it is a method of you know tempering financial problems the fact that girls some girls

choose this option is not upsetting to me it's been done for ages tough economic times call for tough measures claiming to be helping thousands to find ideal arrangements could services like this be on their way to creating deathless grads and financially secure jobless in the us with an added bonus of a hawk like this on there are just i see turkey not r.t. new york and for more i'm joined by honest aussie a turk an a in new york welcome on a stasia so you have the opportunity to go in party and mingle with some of the sugar daddy sugar mama sugar babies for the most part who who are the sugar baby is . well you know our lives we definitely weren't there to party for sure we're just looking for people to interview and find out what led them out there because definitely it's very it's not the most colossal place to be on a monday night in new york city so we were talking to people down there finding out

what exactly has led them there and you know the sugar babies the sugar mommies the sugar daddies they all come from all sorts of life definite walks of life there's definitely students to pay off their college debt like we mentioned that's an increasing category of people joining websites like this but there are certainly just women who are out of work looking for men men who are out of work looking for richer women and you know some of the older guys looking to really provide some of their generosity to some of these sugar babies so on as i see it more traditionally it's younger women looking seeking older men but do you think that for the most part sugar babies typically male or female because because you did mention sugar mommas yes well for the most for the most part the sugar babies are definitely female it's younger women looking for older men with a big pocket to provide for them but you know it's been surprising to see that

shockingly an increasing number of the sugar babies are men as well we talked to one such person in that report a guy who was looking for a sugar mommy to help him out financially so that's definitely a category of daters who are really becoming less shy to talk about the fact that you know here i am i'm a guy and i'm looking for a richer woman to take me out and treat you well now one day as the difference between this type of transaction and prostitution are is there a difference. well you know that's a tough question we've definitely been asking all the people in this report and many others that we got in touch with over this story and you know opinions are really split some women say and men say that oh my god this is prostitution i can't believe this is happening but others are really a lot more cynical some of been telling us that they see this form of dating as something similar to marriage even some people have said well look a woman getting married asked for a big rock on her finger so that's a form of prostitution as well i mean i'm sure many would beg to differ but

opinions are really split on what this kind of website and this kind of dating is really all about whether it's ok or not but we definitely do live in an age that's a little more cynical these days and an increasingly smaller number of people are seeing this as something very controversial and prostitution like well you know online dating was once kind of taboo but now it's more widespread so is this kind of symbiotic relationship becoming more socially acceptable. liz you know it really looks like it is becoming more acceptable you're right online dating used to be something you did in the dark in your own room sort of not telling any of your friends and colleagues these days almost everybody is doing it who is single and looking for a relationship so we never know you know maybe in a couple of years dating like this there are other websites that are similar who let people name their prices for dates and not just look to get financed by richer person when they can get for you know one of one date or two dates or three dates

so we don't know maybe in a couple of years from now we'll be looking back at this and thinking why did why were people ever surprised by dating service like this on average what is a what is a sugar baby go for. all you know it's definitely interesting some of some of told us they just go for you know. a lot of them actually start off with the larger amount of money they're trying to really raise the stakes and they can ask for example for ten thousand dollars over you know a week of dating or something but a lot of times when the sugar daddies say wait no that's a little too much the women or the sugar babies and up taking that some to much smaller number we've heard sometimes it goes from ten thousand to a couple of hundred sometimes they just settle for gifts that they could later sell on e bay so it's really it really depends on exactly i guess how dire your financial situation is this is fascinating fascinating stuff certainly maybe a sign of the times. thank you for weighing in on that was our correspondent on the

. well the capital account is up next let's check in with lauren lyster to see what is on the agenda and you sugar daddies on the show today you know no sugar daddies on the show it's going to be hard to top those sugar babies and sugar mama but i think we do have a show to do it because we have max kaiser on who never minces his words and we talked about something that he knows very well he was involved in prediction markets when he founded the hollywood stock exchange so he was just the person to talk to about this new plan by a chicago's derivatives exchange that is trying to get legal vetting in the united states on the u.s. market regulated on the u.s. presidential elections later is this democracy just for the bidding and trading of wall street the same collateralised securitization that is brought us so much fraud well that is coming up next thank you laurin that's going to do it now for the news

for more of the stories we covered go to r.t. dot com slash usa and check out our youtube page it's youtube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter at liz well the capital account lauren lyster is up next. culture is that so much different and there's a huge percentage of the current on the market with the american occupation of iraq officially coming to a close this week it's time to take stock was the war in occupation worth it for the. mother mission and free accreditation free transport charges free coming from and free risk free stereotypes free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and free media and on to our t.v.

dot com you. well going into the future new year's wishes on technology updates next generation playthings made from super strong ultra lightweight building materials to help with the help of nuclear isotopes a cleaner planet thanks to a revolutionary way to get rid of our growing landfills and a long list of militant known russian innovators. please douglas mentioned.

that. it. would. be a. good afternoon and welcome to capital account and happy friday to i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c. and u.s. congress today finally approving the extension of the payroll tax cut for two months putting off a tax increase for millions of workers so after much hard and politicking bickering ok they did it saving face for the moment but could it hurt their stock price headed into two thousand and twelve elections you heard me right stock price we will talk about the political derivatives market a chicago exchange is betting on it and could it be a continuation of.