as billions in corporate donations make the u.s. presidential campaign the most expensive ever some americans believe whoever they elect wall street will be the winner. russia's foreign minister hits out of international powers for refusing to negotiate with all sides in the syrian conflict saying talking to sad is the only way to stop the bloodshed. not in my backyard the plans to build among them mega mosque protesters worried that the islamic group developing it is aiming to radicalize local muslims.

international news and current live from moscow this is r.t. with you twenty four hours a day how concerned he has caused chaos to the u.s. presidential election with rallies canceled an early voting disrupted but it's the economic storm over the last few years which is more an electorate. looks a criticism thrown at the two major candidates over the links to the rich were still hogging the wealth of the nation. as are those the us election coverage continues this week we turn our attention to domestic issues concerning voters now us presidents have historically referred to america as an exceptional nation a land of opportunity where one can work hard and over time climb the proverbial economic ladder but one year ago that myth was busted when occupy wall street activists camped out here in the park igniting the nationwide grassroots movement protesting corporate greed wealth inequality and middle class today

the fact is the us gap between rich and poor has never been wider and unprecedented amount. americans are sliding down the proverbial ladder while the top one percent earning an average annual income of twenty four million dollars not to bet on both horses running in the nation's biggest political race. it's the most expensive political playoff in u.s. history a competition for the country's most powerful position one of the things i suspect governor romney and i probably agree on is let's come back to something the president i agree on no matter who wins the two thousand and twelve election. america's ninety nine percent movement will be left with a one percent president regardless of who we vote for wall street wins i mean that's really one of the main messages is that when we're casting about we see that

we have these corporations giving so much money to candidates and they can't be objective when it comes to the interests of the vast majority of the bonus loving industry that ignited america's economic crisis real estate collapse job hemorrhage and foreclosure epidemic. is also on track to break campaign donation records for the two thousand and twelve presidential election each election cycle each four years that cost significantly more they did four years ago so running for president is now a half a billion dollar undertaking a half a billion dollars to credibly run for the president of united states and you're going to raise that from large corporations and wealthy individuals in the case of mitt romney wealth attracts wealth the republican candidate has a reported net worth of two hundred million dollars and according to the center for responsive politics the top eight financial contributors to romney's campaign are wall street banks with employees from goldman sachs bank of america and morgan stanley rounding out the top three. this is the buy the home are just come to

america. in two thousand and eight barack obama became the largest beneficiary of waltz. great backing in u.s. election history. receiving more than forty two million dollars from the finance insurance and real estate sectors it's hard to believe that smart rational guys and big companies with huge research departments and a real understanding of the society are going to give that much money and expect nothing in return so their donation is probably not a charity since becoming president obama's justice department hasn't prosecuted one person in connection to the two thousand and eight financial collapse on the other hand top executives from j.p. morgan chase citigroup and general electric were recruited to work in the white house what we have cemented into place is a system of legalized bribery public elected officials are now since corporate employees you know the flagrant sort of corruption the ability of this small

rapacious class of corporate oligarchy to write the laws write the legislation create a two tiered system this ultimately is going to implode according to a two thousand and twelve harris poll the majority of americans see wall street executives as dishonest and over paid with an overwhelming amount of citizens in support of tougher regulation. and overhaul the occupy wall street movement began championing last year as millions of americans flooded the streets by. thousands facing brutal arrests. to protest wall street greed economic inequality and corporate influence over u.s. politics. as election day draws near occupy activists say both candidates have pander to their financial donors and successfully ignored the biggest american grassroots movement to be seen in decades we see little difference between the two

parties they're both basically imperialist parties and i think that one thing that i can really do is expose how the. exist i'm as we have it right now it's basically a sham the political system is so broken in so many ways that the reason that we continue to come out in the streets and raise you know ring the alarm bells around economic injustice and economic situation in our country is because you know people aren't doing their job millions of americans will soon be heading to the polls lacking support for either major candidate but voting against the one they like least however with wall street successfully cementing strong ties to both presidential runners some may wonder if the winner of this election has already been declared hurry up or not i r t v our. coverage of the u.s. presidential campaign will continue on air and online all the way up to the vote plus don't miss the final round of the third party candidates debates to hear about

their take on the issues largely ignored by the front runners now that debate is coming to you live exclusively here on r.t. in a week. we both agree we agree we ought to bring the tax rates down i felt the same as the president did. you agree let's come back to something the president agree on and there to be you agree that the voters have a choice perhaps you wonder who to vote for when romney and obama agree on so many things remember you do have other options come november sixth tune in to see the second round of debates between the major third party candidates right here on r.g.p. . russia's foreign minister says international powers should put more pressure on the warring sides in syria after the latest truce was wrecked after meeting the international envoy to syria here in moscow. urged the western states and regional players to engage with president the scent of you going to has been following the talks in the russian capital. even though it

was supposed to last just four days the ceasefire in syria didn't work and now the question on everybody's lips is what happens next and both russia's foreign minister lavrov and special envoy brahimi are placing their bets on this an even communique which was signed by wall powerset in a blur i just both sides of the conflict in syria to simultaneously put their weapons down and also for equal pressure to be applied on both of them from the outside but according to russia's foreign minister far from all countries which signed this agreement back in geneva are playing by the rules that i see in the in the relates to russia is probably the only country along those that took part in the geneva talks on the thirtieth of june which negotiates regularly with all sides in the syrian conflict the government and all opposition groups with no exceptions we expect our western partners and partners in the region to do the same they should get used to the idea that without dialogue with the syrian government

virtually nothing can be achieved and this is currently a major problem in moving towards a political process in syria internal special envoy brahimi said he is sorry that the ceasefire plan didn't work it was negotiated to take place during the course of the feast of sacrifice was supposed to end today but was in fact broken right on the first day with a deadly blast in damascus then violence continued in different parts of the country throughout the weekend and was told by another deadly explosion in damascus on monday and russia's foreign minister lavrov says that with these provocations taking place the syrian government is also making disproportionate responses so mr brahimi is facing a very tough task finding some sort of a diplomatic solution and more importantly making it work he himself says that you know a level of distrust between the two sides of the conflict in syria is so high right now it won't even when they begin discussing some sort of obligations each one expects automatically the other one to break its promises. there have been more

cases of violence in syria on the last day of the ceasefire another car bombs ripped through southern damascus while government warplanes have carried out a heavy bombardment of the capital suburbs well earlier i spoke to dr ali mohamed from the media blog the syria tribune he believes western powers should ignore president sad when talking about peace in the country. first of all present as of the present a lot of syrians and he's obviously a powerful person and he enjoys a lot of support from the people most importantly from the economy which is an important player in the struggle of all the players should not dictate the outcome of the struggle before even the negotiations start and so it only makes sense that they should talk to people on the ground and one of the most important ones is first. about the issue of extremist groups now playing a role in what's happening in syria the international envoy locked up lucky me knowledge today that there are extremist groups there and seemingly not controlled

by anybody is peace in syria told achievable when you've got a situation like that we need to look at this in the light of who is sending money and weapons to these extremist groups if turkey manages to cross the borders are really and if the countries that are really funny and say we're going to extremist groups are doing bad we can see this in syria but as long as there are extremists who are full of hungry people sending them money and weapons then we should expect to be far far. still ahead for you this hour here in r.t. there's more pain ahead for hard up greece and that in struggles to pass reforms that need to get another cash injection its creditors of planning to request even more sacrifices. crossed the street seventy years ago to tell new york braces for the full force of hurricane sandy more now and other international news after a short break.

it sounds like a dragon crashing through the forest but it is in fact technology versus trees and would you believe it this machine can fall and strip hundreds of them each day when building this facility we wanted to use advanced technology that would increase efficiency and lows not to use manual. also this provides for better quality goods as a result we rebel to conquer western markets the demand for corrina birchwood is high since our production line is quite efficient where i will to work for hard wages to our employees the trunks end up here where they turned into planks which branch off for all manner of uses wood exports and large but not all of it goes of gold. here in the museum island of traditional methods they used to build and maintain churches and dwellings dating back hundreds of years in this whole what career is used to want riches possible highest complexity these punks are about to become

part of something which exemplifies the combination of tradition and technology. here at the valley on old viking boat makers what is fashioned into their souls new and old they range from small private boats to replicas used in the historical t.v. series hornblower are going to wear my boots are all special they're like children to me we have to design and build them from scratch it's always sad when we have to part ways every time we sail away while we remain at the dark and pavel gets much of his timber from karelia saying customers pine for its high quality wood. which brings us to the first six million cubic metres of wood is cut down in careers forests every year it goes to make everything from farmhouses to firewood and with growing as proximity to europe and the baltic it's big forests big business.

management asset that the phone watches show every saying. and waiting for you. to stumble. i saw a man with a video camera so i moved over and he phoned me and. you know we realized there were following everyone from early in the morning with. the only chance to get rid of him. is to reveal him. the devil operation on our t.v. . or.

here in moscow welcome back greece will have to introduce another one hundred fifty financial reforms to please its international creditors that's according to a leaked report from its lenders meanwhile other debt ridden e.u. states spain and italy have dismissed claims they need the same financial support keeping greece afloat one of the scouts will not join but that young is a writer an executive director of investment consultancy firm dva advisors joining me from london patrick do you as confident as the leaders of spain and italy no bailout needed oh it has to be said i mean today has been a wonderful day in the shape dilution of the european union i mean we've got the italian and spanish leaders who obviously don't read their own newspapers i mean

just to give an example last week the spanish said they would launch an eighteen billion euro found to be like the region's by today can top three of the ninth region have claimed their little share of the pile and they've already therefore got commitments for seventeen point six billion and that's only nine regions of space and there are lots of other regions that are. bankrupt to go speed in italy well certainly sabean desperately need to be a lot italy will be lucky to escape with one and then we come to greece but just quickly if spain gets a bailout can therefore one for italy no of course not i mean that's the end of the euro it's as simple as that ultimately mr rajoy will go down history as the man who ultimately sank the euro through an unbelievable pig headed obstinacy when he simply refused to appreciate the fact that he had let his country slip backwards and ultimately the spanish economy at the moment is going towards where it was about nine hundred seventy two when franco was still alive and well patrick talk about greece then one hundred fifty reforms financial reforms needed yes absolutely

i mean alice in wonderland that fabulous children's book alice famously saying that sometimes she imagines six impossible things before breakfast well not really got the troika of lenders that there are emerging one hundred fifty eight impossible cuts before breakfast for the greek economy the greeks are in this mess because ultimately they spend huge amounts of money we have terrible sympathy with the ordinary greeks on the street they are being left in a situation where they don't even have primary medical care in many cases but are we going to be able to see them manage to cut the economy or cut back in many different ways of course not they'll be lucky to manage to get twenty of these cuts to stick let alone one hundred fifty it's alarmed alice in wonderland economics and in italy though which the people of italy want to tell the government about but they don't seem to be listening and day over the weekend thousands protesting even prime minister the former prime minister silvio berlusconi threatening to topple mary monti despite his problems facing a jail sentence he's still got

a lot of influence hasn't he but it's coney could we see a major political crisis now in italy. i think it really just is a major political crisis looking for somewhere to happen really i mean you're absolutely right silvio berlusconi despite all of his recent issues has travails the fact that he's on trial that one court was convicted in another court for tax fraud at the same time he still has remarkable support italians are in many ways that shell shocked they don't want to live for the fact that the government is not going to be able to keep spending in a quiz i socialist fashion as it's done for fifty years and ultimately mr monti is in a very hard place he can't reform fast enough at the same time there are some possible ways like for italy because ultimately their debt is huge but actually their current to kind of what they're borrowing at the moment is very very modest nevertheless it's going to be a very very tricky part of the prosperity because they've got this incredible overhanging debt from fifty years of what was supposedly sent to right ruled by the christian democrats but was really old fashioned left wing spend it also sure as

a young live in london thank you for your thoughts as always. fun to check out what else is happening around the world in our world update to vote counting is underway after ukraine's parliamentary election with over seventy five percent of the ballots counted the ruling party leads but opposition parties have more votes in total it could pose problems for president. your position promises to impeach him for constitutional violations if they gain enough influence in parliament elections were criticized by european observers who said they lacked transparency or balance media coverage. the physical super storm sandy is now hurtling towards the u.s. east coast at one hundred fifty kilometers an hour battering new jersey with seventy two waves he predicted part of the hurricane is also said to include twenty six nuclear plants in new york thousands of flights have been canceled in the subway network was shut down following mass evacuations chemicals for all the latest developments on this on our website as well as on twitter.

no thanks that's the reaction of residents in east london to europe's largest mosque being planned for their backyard next to the olympic site result he's probably boyko find out it's not only the sheer size but the islamic group developing it that they're worried about. four times bigger than some paul's cathedral a mega mosque that will fit ten thousand people and it could be coming to london's east end if it gets the go ahead it's built the river in center will be the same size as london. but as a power station it would also be the biggest place of worship in the u.k. of any religion but critics have slammed the proposal saying that it would create a muslim pastor in the forces that are still working to bring the largest mosque the u.k. has ever seen into reality revered architects planning consultants and glitzy p.r. teams all paid for by the organization behind the idea to matt

a group that's causing significant concern this is a return beat him out of all the islamic groups has created ghettos over in toronto you know and kind of right there around the world is a huge group and wherever they go they create barriers they create hostility they create division they create separatism whether it's unassuming name the riverine centers website claims there's a demand for a new muslim place of worship in culturally diverse east london not that they're happy to talk about it it's representatives refused to speak to us when we approach the proposed site home to their current mosque it does not want to integrate the grounds on which search trying to set up here in britain and a big way and to the british they are and to western but actually they're also anti worldly they're other worldly but this is not just going to be a mosque this is going to be a center of training in which to reach out to islam is muslims

to harden up and maybe evil lies the islam of ordinary muslims in this country and i mean so many muslims don't want that the problem here is that. muslim films are opposing this more on the grounds that they don't want to worship god but on the ground women are allowed the local population of muslim population has no on the side in how the mosque itself is governed all the local authority would say to us is. planning. this is currently being. poor at this stage in many ways if this went ahead if you like a tipping point. would be no stopping fundamentalist islam if this one goes up we all need to leave the country the last one out please turn the lights off while the council ponders campaigners hair of all religions say they hope the decision

makers choose carefully just today let's set up shop in the british capital. t. east london. time for a final business review of the day it's been a very lackluster performance on the markets this monday so tell us more about that well basically of this time of the day are they even here in moscow where we're monitoring the u.s. markets and today there are close and that's as a safety precaution because of hurricane sandy as we've been reporting throughout the day here now this is the first time that the new york stock exchange and as i can in fact many other stock exchanges in the u.s. have suspended trading since the september eleventh terrorist attacks workers that sandbags in manhattan to try to limit the damages that are expect then and it's not just traders that are saying clear we're just days now before the presidential elections barack obama and mitt romney have been forced to cancel costly campaign events in the city and this is been a factor was why markets as well for take

a look at the european markets now will see that it's a sea of red trading there is close right now but they have reacted and masters of our course ahead of making any big moves because they're scared of what might happen similarly here in russia a sea of red the r t i said almost a half a percent there and also. gas from now on has gone a little bit better than the most companies say that's because it allows its shell oil projects that it will be developing in the country and also we know that after the markets close already the company and outside it will develop five natural gas production lines. as far east by two thousand and eighteen and this is all we have any business right now a quick wind up as i said but up ahead we have a divided union and peter lavelle and his gas will be discussing the grand separatism movements in europe and around the world they're stationed here on r.t. .

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a report. is easy to. get to. see. 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 knew you don't know. welcome to the big picture.

and if. you want to. follow him welcome to cross talk on people about how much of a union is a growing separatist movements in europe challenge many conventional wisdoms about go. zation the nature of state sovereignty and self-determination are we entering a new age of nationalism in europe and around the world and has the great recession created or merely revealed separatist aspirations. to cross-talk european separatist aspirations i'm joined by david torrance in london he is a writer journalist and broadcaster also in london we have robert oulds he is the director of the bruges group and in strasbourg we cross to your god charities and a car keith he is a liberal member of the european parliament and head of the german helen make a business association in germany all right gentlemen crossed out rules in effect

that means you can jump in any time one day but if i go to you first. the nobel prize peace prize went to the european union but at the same time we have. citizens of spain citizens of the u.k. citizens of italy citizens of belgium want to leave their mother state if we want to put it that way separatism i mean i thought this was all in the past it's the union now how do you explain the difference in new trends well well in in a sense there is no difference i mean separatist movements of exists in all these countries to some extent for a very long time in scotland in the u.k.'s case and scotland way back to the late nineteenth century and it's important to emphasize that although the european union and the eurozone crisis is a factor nationalism existed in the u.k. before the u.k. was a member of the european union and it exists now you the interesting point is that support for scottish independence is no higher no higher no than it was in the late one nine hundred sixty s. ok you're going to go to you.