version of the square is up to three of the world's top earning corporation who were accused of skirting around billions in taxes. from love triangle to pentagon problem but scandal that brought down cia chief david petraeus now drags in america's commander in afghanistan with washington claiming it knew nothing. and syria's new patchwork opposition fails to get unanimous backing among arab states to make dolls of the foreign form blog console only serve the syrian people's interests since.

it is a pleasure to have you with us here on r.t. today rory sushant live in moscow hard pressed for cash and hurting from austerity in britain is turning on tax ovoid is to help make up its budget shortfall and it's gunning for google amazon and starbucks first on the list the tax man wants to question them earning billions in revenue in britain but only paying peppercorn taxes if any for more on this i spoke to polly boy just a bit earlier in the program. these are three companies that dominate the u.k. economy they have billions of pounds worth of turnover the but it looks like they pay very little corporation tax to show for it and now employees are outraged by the fact that through very legal loopholes these companies that they say are acting in an immoral way are managing to dodge millions and billions of pounds worth of tax every single year and they want to try and put a stop to it now what about i mean the companies we talk about this being called it

moral just how did the companies money used to contribute so little or nothing to the treasury without breaking the law so certainly a big mystery well it's all a case of financial trickery rory it's about getting clever accountants that find countries with more favorable tax rates to base a u.k. headquarters and so for example google base themselves in the republic of ireland that's way that that's where they sell their advertising space from starbucks abased in holland and amazon based in luxembourg so they manage to pay very little taxes through channeling their revenue through these countries or thoughts of public reaction sure surely surely there must be a people the public or even m.p.'s who are outspoken about this unfortunately rory for much of the ordinary public here in the u.k. it's just not funny anymore they say that you know austerity measures are taking hold in the public spending cuts in the public sent are really making life

difficult for people and we spoke to a few people out on the streets and this is what they told us if we're paying taxes and things like. that we have to foot the bill for that i guess we're paying tax on coffee as well why should they not pay the tax that we. support i guess is up to something close to three years that still. you tend to take is that. we think it's fair but you still buy starbucks coffee it's not mine. this is some activists have already suggested a plan to highlight what they're calling this a moral behavior so if you have at least one of the companies what exactly has been suggested so far yes well this. cuts group these campaign is against austerity measures here in the u.k. they say that in december they're going to launch a national day of action against starbucks what they're going to do is they're going to occupy the multitude of starbucks coffee houses that we have here in

london you walk down the street you see them everywhere and they're going to make them into the homeless shelter they're going to make them into refuges into precious because that they say that starbucks have these immoral tactics and they need to give back to society so they're going to be occupying these coffee houses but indeed it's not just the anti cuts campaign is there's a general feeling among the british public that people want to boycott these new large amount multinational companies because of their immoral schemes in the way that they do you just take from the public and very little back into the u.k. economy which as we know is struggling at the moment and really for people here in the u.k. very difficult to make ends meet at the moment so this is a topic that's rousing a lot of anger from the british public. reporting there from london and while britain hunts for tax avoiders to cover its deficit it's still austerity all the way for portugal the german chancellor personally reassured lisbon saying pay cuts

and tax hikes so painful will at the end of the day save it but i agree citizens are not buying her optimism. and trying to turn your top look at the challenges facing the growing economy and whether the new leaders can tackle them. for now as if losing cia director david petraeus over having an affair last week wasn't enough now washington's chief commander enough. don has become embroiled in the same scandal. stood down last friday off to admitting to infidelity but the story does not end there general john allen who commands nato troops in afghanistan is being accused of exchanging quote inappropriate e-mails with jill kelley as the woman who competed for patricia's affections with his biographer what role general allen had in all this remains in question but as aussies guy nature kind of reports that could be more than just

love in the. paula broadwell general petraeus is biographer slosh mistress gave a speech last month and in that speech she revealed details about the bin ghazi attack that were at that time unknown to the public she gave the speech at the end of october fifth now when everybody knows that she had an affair with a general many are guessing whether those details that she revealed in her speech were part of their pillow talk pickle is that i don't know if a lot of you heard this but the cia annex had actually had taken a couple of libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back so that it's still being vetted the challenging thing for general to translate is that in his new position he's not allowed to communicate with the press by the way the cia adamantly denies the allegations that they held prisoners at the consulate in benghazi and nobody at that point heard anything about the cia holding prisoners in benghazi but everybody knew about the access that paula broadwell had to the general because she was his

biographer now it turns out that she had an even greater access to the general when general petraeus was signed he cited his own extremely poor judgment and some are wondering whether their poor judgment was just about the affair or it could also be about having shared more with his mistress than just pleasant moments together there's another twist to this story apparently paula broadwell was not the kind to keep things to herself the f.b.i. were investigating her allegedly caressing the e-mail sent to i know the woman who also happens to know. general petraeus and his officials here are saying that's how they found out about the affair general petraeus was idolized the public had to go through a similar trauma if you will with the other again and then general who was also idolized in many ways general stanley mcchrystal he fell from grace and resigned when the rolling stone magazine quoted him saying unflattering things about me administration the media here of course it's been all over the pretoria scandal when they learned that there was another woman involved it got them spinning all

over again with her discussions about how the level of to stall story and in fact the man's judgment on all kinds of things they savored every detail of this story and one thing that was actually said to watch is that what the agency and i mean the cia is actually doing doesn't get that much coverage things like how they pick the targets for this targeted assassination program things that the public should want to know it's national security and it's secret but when he comes to the director's bedroom all of a sudden everybody wants to know and the media are there to question every detail of the affair as far as let's say collateral damage from cia drone strikes not as interested. he's gone extra kind of courting the meanwhile of the u.s. congress demanding they want to know why they one notified of an inquiry into such a high profile figure michael maloof a former pentagon official who says the timing of the revelations on the initial

secrecy could be politically motivated. at least the attorney general should have been informed he worked after all the f.b.i. works for him they report directly to him and certainly the director of national intelligence should have been informed not on the evening of the election but should have been informed almost immediately when they came across some very incriminating information it's been my experience that when something like this occurs the person who is the target is suspended from clearances is told to take thirty days off and while they investigate further and the bosses are informed immediately the fact that this was did not occur in pretoria is this case and it occurred almost immediately after he became the cia director i think smells of political intrigue and the fact that. this wasn't even reported for months. to the higher levels is in itself a scandal it was probably

a political decision to protect the the president. ten minutes past the hour moscow time this is the china is set to name its new leaders including the man expected to succeed the country's current leader who can tell the national congress of the ruling communist party is in its final days in beijing with much focus on the challenges facing the rapidly growing economy well to discuss a chinese future but i'm joined by professor joseph chang a political analyst from hong kong city university a great pleasure to see you today sir some estimates are saying now that china will become the world's biggest economy by twenty twenty is this the rise of a multi-polar world or perhaps the beginning of asian domination. to some extent yes soon or late we've become the biggest economy in the it may be twenty twenty maybe a bit late into the twenty fifth but one has to bear in mind that even when the

chinese economy posits that the united states china's capita g.d.p. will still be relatively low you will still be one sits. around that kind of proportion of that that united states and china still has to a lot to catch up in terms of bonds technology are such honest i've got a bit of an uphill battle ahead of it when it comes to becoming a global leader in the economy and all but there have been a territorial disputes and china and the south china sea also with the u.s. getting involved how would you see this confrontation developing under the new leadership. this is a serious issue chinese leaders will read when to the united states will accept the rice all of china certainly china hopes that the united states will well come time to rise as a responsible major power of the otherwise conflicts between the two countries

maybe it sets of a you mentioned the territorial this builds and this is a very good indicate. beijing is quite worried. you just reason to notice indeed this feels has create as a reason concern among its neighbors and date and two of the alt a strategy that is strengthening their security military cooperation with the united states has facilitating the united states the obama administration's return to a. strategy. so china will be monitoring the united states' actions closely basically sunni's of peaceful international and rahman to concentrate on this more than nice asian and therefore it hopes to have a good relationship with the united states as you were alluding to the u.s.

has certainly been increasing its presence or certainly in the eastern part of the world are bringing more troops to darwin of all places also helping south korea build a brand new naval base the outgoing leader who jintao is vile that china will never be a western style political system i do think the west could perhaps learn from china's economic success and but hops at the end of the day adopt some of its principles. china has certainly be due been doing very well you can terms of economic role but at the moment is the economic growth model be reached a state of the admonition returns you certainly faces the real challenges ahead in terms of reducing yours the pendens and expose that. infrastructural huge investment in projects and to stimulate. state can some certain china needs to allow the private sector to have

a level playing field to facilitate credit from the state bans to the. more rugged and concentrated wealth favoring the. state owned enterprises the consensus on economic reforms is strong. on what needs to be done but at the same time it is. best interests for example to state the big state owned enterprises a lot of structural you know swim draw a jab say steal one lot of credit from the state owned banks and so on or suddenly it's i will see as the days as as the days progress. he will keep a close watch on on this change of leadership in china professor joseph chang now from hong kong city university thanks for coming on the program today. well the civil conflict in syria that's sending strong ripples across the border after

a short break here on r t we report from lebanon which has turned into a sectarian powder keg because of the bloody civil war ongoing right on its doorstep. you can tell an ordinary russian siberian in the blink of an. anthropologist in those days siberians war different clothes different food. different animals. but what about. my journey began in two men but the big city was all shiny skyscrapers and shopping malls much like any other prosperous russian. so i decided to try. a small town just outside.

dumplings came from here to dominate the russian cuisine but only in siberia. with cabbage and making sure you can have as a starter main dish. although it may draw. most people in siberia see nothing wrong with hunting only if you decide to participate. when you look upon martin. as in the middle of a swamp only accessible by air transport in the summer. and winter. it's inhabited by so bear in a large muslim minority that migrated here before the russians.

and this. is real siberia maybe not the stuff of tourism brochures but the stink there were no to show that after all these years siberia still not quite like anywhere else. thanks for joining us here on r t today i'm rory sushi in moscow and a full international backing for syria's rebels potentially meaning more foreign arms and cash something the newly formed opposition coalition is struggling to achieve the gulf monarchies who pushed for the new set up rushed to proclaim it as the sole syrian people's representative but the wider arab league bloc doesn't quite see it that way a middle east correspondent paula has more on this. six the gulf states have

formally recognized the new syrian coalition as the official representative of the syrian people the foreign minister of qatar has said that this recognition will remove obstacles that will ultimately be able to secure arms for syrian rebels the coalition does look set to set up a so-called government in exile if indeed this happens this will have the backing of western as well as arab states there are fears that this could set up a libya style scenario what we saw in libya was opposition fighters sitting themselves up as an alternative government that got the backing of the international community and ultimately led to nato airstrikes and foreign intervention so there are concerns that that might happen here in syria there was also a number question about just how feasible the spa position group is really we're looking at a patchwork of various organizations here it is made up of the rebel fighters as

well as dissidents and people from all backgrounds and political affiliations it has been marred by bickering over the past few weeks and months indeed this is an organization that does not have internal unity what is important is that the arab league that is notably one of the most important bodies in the arab world has hesitancy welcomed this new coalition it does say that it is a primary to negotiate it but it has not gone as far as to say that it is the legitimate representative of the syrian people of course want to call us clear right political analyst rockwell says syrians would never want an opposition form number gulf and american pressure to grab power. i'm glad to see that this collection of corrupt dictatorships is instructing the syrian people as to who their representatives ought to be how about the representatives of the saudi arabian people of the bahraini and people or people who are charge of the arrest of

these dictatorships so what would an outrage is that they're the course they're just a subsidiary of the pentagon and of the cia this is part of the long term plot by the u.s. by britain by france by turkey by israel and i'm no fan of assad i might say but. the good things are watch words after gadhafi in libya they're going to be much worse if they succeed in overthrowing assad but it's opposition group was trained in turkey at various american air force bases there are many of them are libyan al-qaeda types they're from other countries they're not syrians they're foreign fighters whatever is wrong with assad i think that the people of syria tend not to want outsiders to be telling them what to do they fear these so-called rebels just as much as they fear their own government and my guess is they don't want foreigners occupying and running their country. well the syria's bloody standoff is expose deep political and sectarian cracks in neighboring lebanon with gun battles

springing up daily in the northern part of the state. capital for portsmouth nation to hit by face clashes between ongoing warring groups. they share at a terminations a fight to the death but this isn't syria it's lebanon the conflict has crept across the border leading to death and destruction here in tripoli we're standing here you can see the almost complete destruction of a home and this is literally the front line of the. neighborhood in tripoli right across the street out the window that's the bubbletop in a neighborhood where the largely sunni community has been has been clashing with the largely allawi community that is based here it's actually not very safe for us to stand here we've been told by the owner of this apartment that they're still taking casualties and that the fighting could really flare out but at any moment out of range of the snipers we speak to the homeowner and allawi militia man the misery has only hardened his resolve to fight against neighbors who he says pose a mortal threat. these people have one objective and that is to have an islamic

emirate in the north and militia organizations like hezbollah we won't give up arms as long as thought exists. this is been a flashpoint for years a sunni stronghold next door to an alawite community but strife in syria has unleashed new sectarian tensions leading to the worst fighting since lebanon's civil war but it's all the food is the spokesperson for the arab democratic party which has its own loyal militia here in. the acid regime falls this area will turn into a dangerous product kerrick this is what we're trying to avoid. i asked him whether disarming might be an option to avoid more bloodshed. we're not afraid while we were filming the lebanese army was overseeing a shaky cease fire but the sandbags are still out awaiting the next battle we're in the neighborhood as you can see behind me that is the area where the gunfire was

coming down here people have been killed on both sides of the stones you can see this is one of the fighting positions this street. preacher heads a sunni militia here in tripoli as bubble to ben a slum to help you find with these guns and. showing off his guns he says he's ready to use them again at a moment's notice. we are ready to defend ourselves and to fight for. sheikh mansour he accuses the syrian government of fermenting violence against the sunni's and that's why he says support for the uprising goes far beyond empathy. systems to the free syrian army then would do it within our capabilities if it is possible to give them a gun and some bullets then we're happy. however the syrian war plays out it's clear that the outcome will have repercussions far beyond its borders in tripoli the battle lines have been drawn and neither side seems willing to back down lucy

catherine r.t. tripoli lebanon. and about so retaliate tory fire appeals for nato protection and find out on our t.v. dot com how israel and turkey are coping with syria's cross border fire seeing both states dragged in the conflict next door. a german chancellor received an angry greeting in portugal when she came to support austerity measures gripping the country and raised demonstrated in the streets claiming call for the financial pain they continue to go through as r.t. sarah for ports many question why something that failed in other countries should be heralded to work in portugal. these measures have been killing is due to give us no future it's only the cottage unemployment and misery so many people are becoming desperate but it's almost like a visceral reaction a visceral reaction to these measures people of god getting angrier and angrier angela merkel is is it the political may have been there as

a sign it's the pull but it seemed a need to serve to highlight the. great test this message. loud and clear way testers standing off against the riot police at the sight that's become very familiar protest gatherings in europe but perhaps not so familiar that portugal here and sell recently have been much more tolerant of the state to start the measures that are being imposed on them but as you can see here portugal's patience is really running out with record levels of unemployment now at fifteen percent and the country about to enter this third year of recession is the coming of parents that the country persons had hate could be a southern european success story snell struggling to survive we talk about cuts to jobs we talk about the search measures what does it mean to be living through that right now in portugal it means they don't see any future for my child we are getting angry because the government don't care.

about people put two goals not alone of course these stories of hardship are echoed all across the usa in brussels finance ministers and desperately trying to come up with a way to pull greece back from the brink of bankruptcy with athens having just approved yet another round of cuts this is the cause few of the streets of the capital the greek political class like the rest of the year. in a sense i think christine the ideology. the prisoner of the europe you know if you will change this ideology exerts such a power over people that they are heard to do things which find any rational measure of obviously counterproductive in order to preserve the european project the euro in particular. are determined to do everything to keep the single currency

intact even to destroy their country and with greece inside economic straits people are questioning. just why portugal must follow the same tortured rate the same many economists say is deemed to end in failure. there's been. and for now about stole it from me but we are back in just a few minutes with the latest round of the car support. the world. science technology innovation all the news developments from around russia we've dumped a huge earth covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something

else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm target welcome to the big picture. to least be cool language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks books that will be ip interviews intriguing stories for you here. in troy of the arabic to find out more visit arabic don't all teeth dot com. resistance is not a politics but a culture. it

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