coming up on our t.v. protest against months and so will soon become global activists have announced plans to host demonstrations in dozens of countries to voice their concerns over months santo's genetically modified food will give you a preview of things to come and u.s. representative eliot engel has introduced a bill that would blacklist all stolen electronic devices from service could this actually happen well look at this in his efforts to secure online data out later in the show. the people of pakistan are experiencing a hectic election season with a series of attacks taking place around their country we'll have a report from the ground on this violence on the election eve.

it's friday may tenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm margaret hell if you're watching our t.v. . we start out today with a movement that is getting everyone from environmentalist to regular consumers to question just what they're consuming now activists against genetically modified organisms are organizing a worldwide protest against the biotech giant month santo later this month now scheduled for may twenty fifth at eleven am pacific time the march against month santa is expected by organizers to head over two hundred fifty cities across six continents but this is coming on the heels of congress passage of what has been questioned by critics to months so protection act a bill that protects companies that produce genetically modified products from litigation now archie contacted months and so but the company did not provide a statement in time for this newscast though in the press release from the event tami monroe canel the seattle organizer said that she got it going because she was

concerned for her two children she says i feel monsanto threatens that their generation's health for telling me and longevity i could sit by idly waiting for someone else to do something well she certainly isn't alone in her sentiment activists across thirty six nations are organizing facebook so make their voices heard now to understand more about what they're protesting against i'm joined by r.t. correspondent megha lopez an r.t.s. ramon glenda in los angeles ramon let's start with you if we could talk about these protests and what's happening what are these people so up in arms about. well activists farmers mothers as you mentioned earlier are going to be hitting the streets on may twenty fifth in countries all over the world to speak out against monsanto and genetically modified foods and you know a big concern here is the possible health effects that genetically modified foods could have on you know on human health. enough research has been done in the eyes

of many people as far as what the long term effects are on human health lot of concern over the environmental impacts that pesticides that are produce and sees produced by monsanto are creating on small farms and on the environment you know some of the b. population have been you know recently linked to monsanto products and really finally the big thing that people are staying up against is a large monopolization of our food supply monsanto one of the largest food suppliers and a lot of people think that some of the political favor that they're able to get really knocks other smaller food producers out of the market such as organic food farmers are struggling to compete with subsidized seeds them on sent to the produce of farms ok so maggie let's let's jump to you here because i want to talk i want to get into this month santa protection act and the way that i understand it it's

providing these bioengineering companies and you know protection from a liability if their products cause any health issues and if you could just talk to me about what that means essentially that relationship between these legislators who are protecting him and them in that company tell me about that relationship ok well let's first start with the monsanto protection act that's what has been done it's part of h.r. ninety three section seven thirty five which actually protects these kind of these type of corporations these biotech firms so basically the house of representatives and also the senate and then eventually president obama signed on the past this agriculture appropriate. bill of twenty thirteen it was only for one year however critics say that they can cause irreparable damage to have even these these genetic modified cvs go for one year why that's because of the winds because the winds could blow the seeds and they could essentially spread to anywhere now and the data in terms of what genetically modified seeds and crops actually do to the human body is still significant lee inconclusive but these biotech firms are making

a lot of money selling them and the problem is that a lot of countries including the u.s. still do not have any type of g.m.o. bans any type of g.m.o. labeling or anything like that so is it porous the revolving door goes for your question there are a lot of people that are part of this revolving door one of them being the they call him the so-called foos are his name is michael taylor he's the former head of public policy at monsanto current deputy commissioner of foods at the food and drug administration so that's one of them the person that actually added this month santa protection act and they say that he actually crafted the legislation for this bill his name is roy blunt he's a republican from missouri and he worked on that legislation now here's the thing about roy blunt he was actually given sixty four thousand two hundred fifty dollars to his campaign committees between two thousand and eight and two thousand and twelve from monsanto from syngenta and from similar biotech firms so to say that there is a very close relationship between congress and between biotech firms like monsanto

isn't that far of a stretch very interesting information about that relationship ramon let's take it to you at the heart of this people just want to know what they're eating you know we saw monsanto they spent millions of dollars to defeat proposition thirty seven in california where you are which is force companies to label any g.m.o. products why it does this not scare month santa or why does it and how do they react to prop thirty seven. right and just to add on to what megan was saying pro g.m.o. lobby has donated more than seven million dollars to current members of congress and you know here in california where it seems so likely that voters were going to approve a g.m.o. labeling initiative which was on the ballot back in november in the last couple of weeks of the campaign monsanto and other groups such as dow chemical and kraft foods they really bankrolled a campaign of negative information about g.m.o. labeling that initiative eventually lost but activists are still fighting to have

other g.m.o. initiatives go through either at the national level or at the state level now a lot of people think that monsanto really fought back against this because if consumers really did know that there were genetically modified foods in here that people simply would not buy it and we have to remember that around the world it seems like people are more educated on this issue of genetically modified foods given the fact that g.m.o. labeling is already required in dozens of countries all over the world ok all right so meghan speaking of bankrolling ramon just mentioned talk to me about monsanto profits because the way i understand it they're up twenty two percent this month after congress passes this bill or has to tell you know what why are we think this trend i think you're seeing this trend simply because the abundance of the product is really becoming more and more abundant more farmers are realizing that they can use it more frequently it's cheaper it's very easy to do business with but let's

talk a little bit further about the countries that are being affected by this in the ones that are actually kicking it out because you cannot look at profit without looking at the countries that are not dealing with these products so right now there are fifty countries that have some type of regulation against it some of them have banned it completely hungry for instance actually just destroyed in march over one thousand acres of monsanto g.m.o. corn crops because of the fact that they didn't know that this feed pollination had been. in the country hungary is one of the many countries that has actually banned it so our around the world is it's hard to say whether or not their profits are going to remain steady or main at that plateau of very big profits but right now in the united states and similar countries that don't have any type of labeling that don't have any type of ban against these products the profits as you are say they are going up and significantly and yes that might be partly because people are buying this product and they don't exactly know what it is or what it's in california as ramon had mentioned tried to strike down that proposition thirty

seven to actually have it labeled it we're just not labeling it was so much information we have to leave it there thank you that was our correspondent. well now in the chevron the company finds itself in court this time trying to reverse an earlier ruling granting billions in damages to ecuadorian villagers now the suit fined chevron liable to the tune of nine hundred billion dollars for their deliberate dumping of toxic waste in ecuador as far back as thirty years ago but chevron has hired almost two thousand lawyers to fight this payment artie's political commentator sam sachs tells us more. the more than a decade long legal battle between chevron corp and tens of thousands of ecuadorian villagers took another turn this week as a federal judge in new york ordered this guy's chevron c.e.o. john watson to testify in the case and defend his company against an eighteen billion dollar legal settlement now here's the story in two thousand and one chevron bought texaco

a company that drilled for oil in ecuador in this area over here and it's alleged that texaco contributed to the environmental contamination of the ecuadorian rain forest and the poisoning of local populations with these oil pits that you see here by buying texaco in two thousand and one chevron was suddenly responsible for all of texaco's liabilities and pending lawsuits and that liability grew a lot more expensive in two thousand and eleven when a judge in ecuador ruled on behalf of the plaintiffs in the case ordering chevron to pay more than nine billion dollars in damages later revised up to eighteen billion dollars the second largest environmental judgment in history second only to b.p.'s gulf oil spill now chevron is the third most profitable corporation in the world in two thousand and twelve intern more than twenty six billion dollars it paid only a nineteen percent tax rate roughly half of what the actual top corporate tax rate is and on top of all of that it receives seven hundred million dollars a year in benefits from the government in other words chevron is flush with cash

and is use that cash to buy influence here in washington d.c. and make sure those ecuadorians never see a dime from that legal settlement in fact chevrons campaign to avoid paying damages began long before the ecuadorian court ruling in two thousand and eleven according to a state department cable released by wiki leaks chevron was asking the u.s. state department to put pressure on ecuador to assume the cost of all the environmental damages the cable reads quote in previous meetings chevron reps of the suggested that the us government pressure the government of ecuador to assume responsibility for the environmental damage in the areas once operated by chevron. also chevron put pressure on the u.s. trade representative to punish ecuador if the government doesn't kill the lawsuit as newsweek reported in two thousand and eight quote chevron is pushing the bush administration to take the extraordinary step of yanking special trade preferences

for ecuador if the country's leftist government doesn't cooperate the case chevrons powerhouse team includes former senate majority leader trent lott former democratic senator john breaux and wayne berman a top fundraiser for the john mccain all with access to washington's top decision makers and this move by chevron prompted a response from twenty five members of congress urging the trade rep to reject chevrons petition one of these members representative linda sanchez said of chevron's behavior quote rather than allowing this case to come to a conclusion embarking on cleanup efforts or even seeking mediation chevron has engaged in a lobbying effort that looks like little more than extortion apparently if it can't get the outcome it wants from the ecuadorian court system chevron will use the u.s. government to did i trade benefits until ecuador cries uncle chevron has since used its corporate cheshire chest to hire an army of lawyers in new york city with the help of more than two thousand lawyers and more than sixty law firms chevron has

jammed up the courts in this year secured a victory when a new york city judge put a temporary injunction on that eighteen billion dollars settlement chevrons thousands of lawyers also launched countersuits to discredit the lead attorney representing the ecuadorian villagers steve dunn sicker and allege that evidence that the oil giant that was collected against the oil giant was phony now it's true this week the dunns are won a small victory forcing chevron c.e.o. to testify but his case on behalf of the ecuadorian villagers is falling apart again chevrons a legal onslaught. and you can't divorce what's happening in this case from the purple and chill treatment big oil has received from congress and the over the top profits that lawmakers hope oil giants like chevron secure urine in euro profits that are then used by go on to crush david in struggles just like this so just like wall street big oil is too big to jail in washington same sex are to well earlier

this week pretrial hearings contended in the case against private bradley manning however not much is known about the latest round of court proceedings in a pro unprecedented move by the u.s. government they decided to hold most of the hearings behind closed doors limiting access to the public and of the press this latest move comes after many in the media have expressed frustration over the lack of transparency and clarity and the government's handling of information surrounding this case as well as the lack of access one organization is trying to change that the freedom of the press foundation and now a new fund raising campaign designed to raise money to hire professionals to not refer to cover the man in trial now the money would go towards hiring a court reporter that could transcribe every event of the manning trial as of right now although there is no officials to nagar for and the only information regarding the trial has come to reporters on the scene over the next three to four months the

group hopes to raise between forty to fifty thousand dollars and the foundation hopes that this project will help a journalist and getting information surrounding this case quickly the trial is slated to start june third. well congress's approval rating has remained below twenty percent since october and a new gallup poll released yesterday places congressional approval rating at sixteen percent in may from cyber security and surveillance legislation to immigration there's a lot on the legislative docket but there's no one issue that combines these topics warrantless the specialist searches of electronics on the border now the department of homeland security says that this practice is within the letter of the law but one congressman is trying to change all that r.t. producer rachel curteous went to the hill yesterday to meet congressman eliot engel of new york to talk about the ongoing concerns over privacy issues like this one. so rachel hi there to summarize hi there describe congressman ingles office for me

here he seems to be legislating a lot of the issues of cell phones and computers did you see any computers lying around yeah it's a good question he certainly is doing a lot of the bills that he's introduced this session the cell phone theft prevention act and the social networking online protection act both of them certainly involve cell phones technology but the office itself his office was pretty old school in that there were a lot of pictures chairs things like that but i didn't see any computers which is kind of funny ok so he also told you that he may be reintroducing you know this securing our borders and data act what is the act and how is it going to impact our civil liberties let's just take it there yes exactly so currently it's a practice of the department of homeland security that on the border it is allowed to search anyone on the boat borders electronics that means that if you say have a pass code on your cell phone you have to type in that pass code and then the d.h.s.s. can look into it so congressman engel along with then congressman ron paul introduced

a bill in two thousand and eight called securing our borders and our data act that would make this illegal so so the department of homeland security said listen we're going to do a civil rights assessment about this we'll get it back to one hundred twenty days so the congressman pulled the bill three years later in february this was the assessment that the civil rights watchdog came up with they said quote i c.e. meaning immigration and customs enforcement and customs and border patrol exercise longstanding constitutional and statutory authority permitting suspicion lists and warrantless searches of merchandise at the border and its functional equivalent so essentially they said nothing to see here there's no problem with the suspicion list searching so i asked congressman engel what do you make of that assessment. ok sarah i think it's an outrage i think that nobody should be forced to give their pin numbers or their passwords or or anything like that. it's private and i don't think it should be given unless there's specialness there's due cause

unless there's probable cause ok rachel so does he think this bill is actually going to pass so he hasn't introduced it yet they're looking for a co-sponsor perhaps someone with the same media friendly in this so of ron paul but i asked him if when it was introduced he thought it would pass and this is what he told me. well i do oh i do and i hope that it will get passed you know sometimes great ideas take a while to pass and when i tell people about about this and i tell them the experience that some people have had with this people are really shocked they never thought about it before so we're gaining some steam and hopefully in the not too distant future will be able to pass that you know ok rachel so the way i understand that warrantless searches are not only going on on our borders they're going on inside this country as well according to the a.c.l.u. you know they said that your mail it's safer going through snail mail than it is

through an e-mail you know talk to me why or why are we so concerned about what's happening on the border and not within our border yeah it's a great question in order to recover a lot of these issues of surveillance from law enforcement using drones or surveillance to more recently the new york times reported that the white house is likely going to sign off on an f.b.i. effort to essentially allow allow themselves a backdoor entrance into all internet companies they said in march that it was a huge priority for the f.b.i. to be able to essentially wiretap any online communication by two thousand and fourteen which is next year ok so a lot of key legislation we see being used that hasn't been updated in a decade we're talking about legislation that they haven't touched for a while why do you think that they're talking about this all of a sudden here it's a great question and a great example of this is an electronic communications privacy act which was last updated in one thousand nine hundred eighty six before congressman engel even came to the hill he came in nine hundred eighty eight so i asked him i said you know why is it taking so long why is it that people aren't talking about technology on the

hill as much as they should be ok. things have changed so we need to change with it to have these old laws and kind of pretend that they provide the protections that they once were intended to provide is silly because we have all this new technology and people are wondering if we change it now what'll happen in another two years we'll have to change it again i think we should worry about what problems we have now and not worry about what problems you may have in the future we'll worry about the future when you're in the future right now in the mirror in the present and we need to stop the laws that may have been ok in the past but are really no longer relevant turnaround dative ok rachel let's take it back to this congressman specifically this one in congress as a whole you know how are they going to negotiate the balance between surveilling people surveilling the bad guys and not by letting everyone civil rights yeah that was a question that the congressman and i and i discussed a lot because essentially he kept going back to the idea we need to have this

balance we need to have this bounce but the question is sure i think most people would agree that there needs to be a balance but the major question is where does that balance lie so so i did ask him about that and this is what he had to say well i think congress has to do its job and congress has to listen to all sides and make a decision as to you know where that balance is what makes the united states of america different than most other countries in the world is that we have these personal freedoms as american citizens that we love and cherish and i think that those freedoms should not be given up just because we're in a new era of cyberspace. so it was very interesting that he was saying just because we now have the ability to surveil people using e-mail for instance i mean people in one nine hundred eighty six were using e-mail to stay in touch the way they are now doesn't mean that just because we have this opportunity that we should necessarily be using it which i thought was really fascinating but when he said listen as congress we were going to figure it out just because we have to figure it

out i i i was trying to kind of press him to figure out you know when you talk to your colleagues do they seem to kind of share your ideas of congress is having such a difficult time as you mentioned earlier if their approval rating is so low do does he really have confidence that he and his colleagues will be able to come to a conclusion that is satisfying to the people concerned about about our privacy and we're advocating for communications to kind of stay out of the realm of government surveillance and i think that's yet to be seen excellent points there rachel just because they can maybe they shouldn't that was artie's producer rachel currency if we're on the eve of the general elections for a new leader in pakistan our team is taking a closer look at what's happening on the ground there a parliament seats along with the highest office in the land are all of her grabs an eighty six million pakistanis are eligible to vote in these elections but the days leading up to the vote have been filled with violence and strife well arty's international correspondent lucy kavanagh is in pakistan now with the latest. week

after week these are the images the world has seen coming out of pakistan victims of a brutal wave of violence bomb blasts rippling across the country this is supposed to be a time of triumph for a country that's gearing up for its first ever democratic transition from one elected government to another but recent bomb and gun attacks by militants against religious minorities and secular politicians have called the country's stability into question and sown fear among pakistani voters. everyone is scared of bombs and nobody feels safe so very few people will go and vote because they're scared to go to you know to will be the women. the pakistani taliban has vowed to target the country secular parties and they've made good on that threat the awami national party or the a and p. has borne the brunt of the attacks forced to campaign in the shadows. get people we can't campaign we can't arrange meetings all parties are doing rallies with millions of people which we can only do is run with two hundred men and even when

we do that terrorists still target tossers but isn't the parties have been targeted to this is the aftermath of an attack against a political party seen as being sympathetic to the taliban but the latter have condemned to democracy as a whole meaning any political party taking part in the elections could be considered fair game by the militant group more than six hundred thousand security personnel including fifty thousand soldiers have been deployed to during the election to guard against attacks but that's not exactly a comforting sight for a country that's been ruled by the military for almost half of life as an independent state the violence isn't just political in a country where the majority faith is islamic religious minorities have accused the mainstream political parties of not doing enough to protect them against attacks that could hurt the willing party in the polls seem to. be.

security. but the issues that may shape the outcome of the vote are more clear cut pakistan's economy has been battered by three years of successive floods which severely damaged agricultural heartlands power cuts are in demick with some rural areas getting only four hours of electricity per day clean water and food education and health care remain out of reach for many pakistanis crime and unemployment are huge issues in the cities all the main parties have vowed to tackle these bread and butter issues but few have outlined exactly how the voters skeptical to start their selections aren't going to make promises. to. get everything they bought nearly five thousand candidates are running for pakistan's lower house of parliament and more than ten thousand hopefuls are angling for seats in pakistan's provincial assemblies when it comes to the job of prime minister polls indicate that it's a showdown between former cricket legend imran khan and former prime minister nawaz

sharif the latter seems to be heading to victory but khan has ridden a wave of popularity among younger voters with its promise to clamp down on corruption it's a tight race that's been overshadowed by violence a landmark election. bloodiest in the country's history the attacks are a stark reminder that politics in pakistan is a dangerous game and that democracy can be deadly is the captain of our team islamabad pakistan we now have an update to a story that we brought to you earlier this week well three peace activist among them and none have been found guilty of breaking into a nuclear plant sixty four year old michael wally and eighty three year old nun meghan rice broken into a secure facility where enrich uranium for nuclear nuclear bombs is being stored now this group cut a fence at the wide twelve national security complex and oak ridge tennessee. back

in july and walked around for hours spray painting slogans and taking a hammer to the facility walls they were trying to prove how easy it is to gain access to a nuclear facility well after the break and federal officials say that they were forced to shut down the facility for fifteen days until a prosecutor's claim damages america's credibility in terms of nuclear deterrence now during the trial the eighty three year old nun said that her only regret was that she had not broken into the facility seventy years earlier but sister rice is no stranger to the side of the law and she's been arrested between forty and fifty times for committing acts of civil disobedience according to the new york times now the trio faces up to twenty years behind bars at sentencing sounds like the government really went nuclear on this one that's going to do it for a nail for more on the stories we've covered go youtube dot com slash r t america check out our website at r.t. dot com slash usa you also follow me on twitter at m underscore j underscore how

will stay tune prime interest is next. technology innovation all the developments around. the future or have heard. the news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. change operations around the day. the civilized world produces more food. trees.

millions of victims every year. where a meal is the most of. what . is flood or droughts to blame. was a bad year without a trained we couldn't anything. with it all there was great hunger. as it did help comes too late and without good intentions. charity diplomacy and business.

good afternoon and welcome the prime interest i'm very i'm boring here and the washington d.c. gets her head blames. uncle sam is growing and it doesn't do that and them taxes to fannie and freddie bailout were payments the u.s. is in the black but only temporary the treasury released of budget figures today for april a reported one hundred twelve point nine billion dollars surplus is ahead of expectations of one hundred seven point five billion dollars for the future might not be so rosy of the treasury is expected to run a deficit again next month we'll talk about the u.s. debt and budget with abby martin the host of breaking the set in just a bit. and what a way to close the week for jamie dimon earlier the fed began investigating j.p. morgan for energy markets in.