u.s. government is once again caught spying on a reporter sending shock waves through the journalist community fears that press freedom is under threat. you decision makers struggle to plug a truly new rotax home rule thrives at the highest levels of europe's let's go to the. u.s. senate panel backs the push for an arms bill to give the syrian opposition lethal aid making it the first such moved by this is the beginning of the crisis.

here with around the top news live from moscow now the scandal surrounding the u.s. government spying on journalists appears to be spreading the latest twist has been revealed that personal phone records and e-mails the fox news reporter were seized as part of a leak investigation this latest incident comes on the heels of an associated press wiretapping scandal when members of staff had their calls and e-mails monitored washington correspondent going to church account looks at the implications of these cases might have for journalism in america. journalists here especially those covering national security matters first saw their sources drying out because of the administration's unprecedented hunt for leakers and whistleblowers as if that wasn't enough of a blow to investigative journalism downturn they see that they themselves could be targeted as criminals for soliciting information from government officials the story of the fox news reporting investigated by the f.b.i. for having sought information from a state department official sent truck waves throughout the journalistic community

the secret blanket surveillance of over one hundred a.p. reporters that was another shock all of this led to the question about whether the administration mistakes journalism for espionage to talk about this i'm joined by tom hartman the host of the big picture here on r.t. . tom there's a department official who apparently leaked classified information to the fox news reporter he was charged under the espionage act a fox news reporter is being investigated as his accomplice the alleged crime the obama administration has used the espionage act this world war one iraq law to prosecute other whistleblowers if these people are being prosecuted as spies who is the enemy that they are spying for well if they were going to prosecute the reporters themselves then obviously the enemy that they're spying for is we the people people united states. to the best my knowledge they're not prosecuting the journalists but they are investigating the journalists as if they were criminals

back during the bush administration when judith miller had that information about the humanities and went to her and said please give us the information give us your phone records tell you she said no and she went to jail rather than giving up their sources so now instead of asking reporters asking news agencies they're simply going in with all the power. over of the spy agencies of america and you know what this is a violation of personal something that i personally found extremely alarming it was a new york times article from her out a year ago about drone strikes and innocent people dying in. strikes and they cited no name to u.s. official who said that those reports on civilians dying in drone strikes they help terrorists so if that's how they see those journalists maybe it's not surprising that they go after them like this there is there i've always been governments and people in governments who use the excuse that you know you're either with us or you're with the enemy. you know they don't understand that there's also there's you

know what's in the interest of the country and it may not be the best interest of the administration this was the argument that was made about people who are trying to win and johnson the gulf of tonkin and obviously we've over and over and over again we've heard this argument and it just doesn't doesn't fly thank you thank you very much so spice terrorist helpers journalists can be accused of all kinds of things i guess a responsible journalist in the eye of the administration would be the one who diligently copy paste only what the government decides to put out there on its website and in press releases and that would be a said day for our profession in washington i'm going to check in mark karr then from the website truthout says the latest surveillance case means the very nature of investigative reporting is that risk. the obama administration has really taken the executive branch powers of intimidating the free press one of the key issues

here and i think this is very important is that the case of fox news producer was actually a coconspirator in this this has never been asserted before as far as we know in the united states wiki leaks osan she and bradley manning were outliers that there is a limit to disclosing government information but the reality is that the government often leaks information and if it leaks classified information and of course it doesn't prosecuted itself this is the nature of investigative reporting that the obama administration is going after obama ran in two thousand and eight and to a certain degree in two thousand and twelve on him playing at form that he would make government more transparent but instead he is making government more opaque i mean while those the u.s. government's apparent war on whistleblowers gathers pace for me to outlets and

taking steps to shield the sources and new york has now left the system that allows people to anonymous piece of the documents and messages to the magazine i think we're in a not happy to have. one of america's oldest and most prestigious news publications is pulling up page from wiki leaks and creating a platform for whistleblowers and sources to anonymously leak information the new yorker magazine has launched a strongbox and open source dropbox that allows people to send messages and leak information without their identities ever being revealed now the forebear reportedly uses multiple laptop thumb drives the rich and poor the feds and that the new yorker ever finding out where they're to come from this way if anyone in the justice department wants to know the source of the information new yorker officials can tell them now strongbox is being billed as

a secure digital route for sources to use the underlying code for strongbox is called dead drop it was preceded who created by wired editor kevin paulson and the late erin swartz the r.s.s. inventor and open source not to miss swartz committed suicide in january at the age of twenty six while being sick of the federal trial and thirty five years in prison u.s. prosecutors were targeting the writing founder for downloading millions of online opera democrat articles and publishing them online for free today the obama administration's target has changed now journalists from the associated press and fox news are being investigated and persecuted for their reports on national security issues a climate that has caused the new yorker to combine the first amendment practices of julian assange and aaron swartz in order to protect the bradley manning's of the world reporting from new york or in

a fortnight or to. well eva leaders are facing tough talks on tax fraud in brussels with over one trillion euros slipping through their fingers every year it's not a time when they're struggling to justify painful austerity measures being forced upon crisis hit member states there's also in our reports the efforts in brussels look even less convincing in light of tax scandals involving some of the e.u.'s top politicians. tax evasion no that's a hot topic right now here in the e.u. especially as e.u. leaders have decided to go ahead and talk with the likes of switzerland so-called tax havens but are non e.u. members to establish some sort of a more transparent exchange of relevant of banking data and this also comes at a sensitive time for citizens there those who are asking at a time when they are having to pay higher taxes and deal with job losses those belong to the top one percent of the very wealthy of the countries get away with tax evasion and tax fraud nowi leaders of his speaking quite loudly about this

clampdown on so-called offenders and a number of scandals have arisen in various countries starting with friends of a former budget minister there had to step down from his post he's been accused of having a secret swiss bank account we're talking about an amount of six hundred eighty five thousand euros there and also another politician over in greece a former minister of finance there has been accused of being involved with one of the country's largest tax scandals us about one point two million dollars we're talking about here now over in germany the boss of one of the world's biggest a football clubs by in munich he's also want to investigation for fraud of about millions of dollars there now here in belgium queen fabulous' has been accused of trying to hide her wealth from tax authorities so that her heirs don't have to pay a seventy percent tax and another royalty over in spain princess christina she's been indicted on charges of complicity in tax fraud that's amounted to about seven point eight million dollars but putting all these together it's just a fraction of the want to trillion euros of the european commission says is lost to

tax evasion and tax fraud each year the e.u. commissioner for taxation anti-fraud has expressed disappointment at the lack of progress made by the bloc there's still a level of opposition coming from a couple of countries namely austria and look some work both of which are keen to protect their own banking secrecy laws now this commissioner also pointed out the rather than relying on third party countries or non e.u. member countries like switzerland are more nicko the bloc should take bigger steps in imposing a tougher tax avoidance laws now today the summit is going to show whether leaders are willing to take that step or if all of this is just talk reporting from brussels. well some it comes as a new poll shows few europeans believe the crisis management efforts will be effective well as we can see there's a huge percent of those who don't believe the future would bright for young europeans in particular the picture is even gloomy if we look at a piece concerning employment in italy ninety two percent of people there are

pessimistic about job security europeans are also becoming increasingly pessimistic about having a secure pension with only a tiny minority saying they're confident about their future. well as we've been seeing there's growing pessimism even in the e.u. as powerhouses like france and germany in most crisis hit states they're educated you thought taking the future into their own hands having lost faith of politicians is all of the reports from portugal. with unemployment on the rise the portuguese of facing a new set of challenges if you don't want to be a statistic if you don't want to be a number you have to. be committed with their own responsibility of making your own job joe has done just that turning his back on an education and social the job in advertising he moved out of the city and now teaches people how to grow

mushrooms you are used to a model in which the opportunity is given to you now the new model is you have to make your own opportunity. drawn towards fungal farming juta the mushrooms recycling abilities he says portugal's politicians could learn a thing or two from his projects we really really need to find new nutrients to spring to life. every day for mushroom. he even found a good use for some of his old textbooks yeah as the breeding ground for a potential new mushroom it's easy to grow by anyone but it's not only in the countryside that new agricultural projects are under way with the portuguese facing rising prices and ever decreasing wages and farms like this one becoming a very important way to make sure families can put food on the table small allotments are springing up right in the heart of lisbon operating without proper

planning permission dorothy's turn a blind eye to their development. everything is just too expensive so i try to get everything i can't afford from my little garden sometimes there's a good crop so i can sell it for extra cash and nothing goes to waste here even garden pests can have their uses if you know how i collect the snail from my crop when cooked right they can be quite tasty in fact many think of them as a delicacy. grilled or in the silliest unemployment is at a record high in portugal with pessimists suggesting it's only a matter of time before it passes the twenty percent mark economists in the country are accusing portugal's european partners they ignore in their situation people in the north should look more close to the direct human consequences of these policies and if they have a better knowledge of what's happening in those fields they will change their mind

about what needs to be done in the near very near future janno is somewhat more philosophical just be patient and things will come at their time that's. the best lesson that i learned with mushrooms peter all of the portugal. well we've hired level tax fraud to record unemployment and growing pessimism among europeans we're asking you what you think the well where you think he was heading cast your vote at r.t. dot com well opinions on the table the options you have let me go is it a financial collapse ahead on the contrary and the end of the debt crisis now forty nine percent think financial collapse and dissolution maybe the e.u. is heading for reshuffle kicking out poor states or is there a chance of a german crazy empire on the continent where you can log onto r.t. dot com and say what you think is the future of europe.

the pentagon is asking for almost half a billion dollars to maintain an upgrade the guantanamo bay prison out into doubts there's any genuine intent from the u.s. authorities to close the facility over one hundred detainees have been on hunger strike for three and a half months now in protest over the indefinite detention without charge. to form a guard at the camp to holbrooke's explained why most prisoners would prefer suicide through starvation to be kept that some of the tactics i saw practice in guantanamo i just never really want to wish to relive again and then a great deal of bret takes place and then. i did make the most productive use of

some years after guantanamo i tried to drown away some of those memories and that's just something that can be done to more potter and a number of other detainees i remember hearing just a few moments ago should care amir they were privileged to something we called the pre-book flyer program we're going to centrally move them every two hours be it a little move or a big move heidi it was every two hours they would be moved and they wouldn't be able to sleep this was essentially thought wear down their psyche and make them more probable to give a bit information during interrogation but what has question to me ever since when i first saw what was the but it seemed to me early all of these men were innocent that has the numbers are starting to show we've sent over six hundred of them home so they must have been innocent if we knew that we were purchasing men that were innocent why are we trying to twenty eight in the segment we're hoping to get from the u.s. military or rather the powers that be are scared that these men have enough conviction

to to literally starve to death and they know that if these men do starve to death it will make the u.s. look bad in the global global perspective. but l.t.r. dot com a few right now millions of pounds down the drain and surveil supplies of a new drug let them. discover the u.k. to storage procedures. thus self-made space food all possible as nasa is designing everything printers that hospitals to create something fresh and thanks to meals you know that details on that on our website. u.s. senate committee has voted for a bill to the syrian rebels trying to topple present us as regime is the first time in two years of the ongoing civil war that america's known makers have agreed to

give the backing opposition lethal support however the bill still has a long way to go before it can come into force author and historian joan horne but these washington has done nothing from its possible stakes the pressure has really been ratcheted up in washington with regard to these rebels the israeli lobby in particular has been quite energetic and quite active with regard to lobbying for aid to the rebels which is quite curious since if these rebels come to power i dare say that israel will have many sleepless nights the implications are quite ominous obviously the u.s. authorities have not learnt the lessons of history for example we recall that in afghanistan in the one nine hundred eighty s. the united states supported extremists and then on september eleventh two thousand and one those extremism those allied with them attacked new york city and washington we recall that the u.s. authorities backed extremists and libya and then also to bring eleven two thousand and twelve those extremists killed the u.s.

ambassador chris stevens in benghazi and it's plunged the obama administration into the ground the investigations sadly and tragically it seems that they would like to see history repeat itself. well the syrian the israeli army's have exchanged far in the disputed golan heights the next via television the frontline attacks have become more frequent in recent months this rael launching airstrikes near damascus as artie's paula slaying explains there's at least one place in israel ready to the fan to present that. we are ready to die defending our people strong words from a chef preparing young men to go and fight in syria except his recruits are not rebel fighters or soldiers in damascus they're israeli druze a minority islamic offshoot we need to go help defend the community in syria and president assad. we have relatives there are people are there and they were attacking them in the name of islam. the tipping point came afterwards targeted use

village of near the israeli syrian border and killed seven people by the hundreds israeli druze volunteers started signing up short of i would be honored to be the first man who crosses the border to defend the druze community simon why do you works in an israeli factory but feels it's only a matter of time before he'll be asked to cross the border into syria. i hope that they won't need us but you can't know what will happen now the situation in the druze villages is stable but if this changes we will go for it we are waiting for the orders from our shakes and we are totally ready israeli jews who live in communities in the gulf and the golan heights after the forty eight and sixty seven war they found themselves cut off from their families in syria after israel occupied the heights those who live here on the israeli syrian border are wizards of his role but see themselves as syrian they're loyal to the alawite regime who

they see as a minority like him solves they live in fear for their families in syria after the rebel assault on the druze village of their adware. we're under attack we're under foreign attack they're using foreign soldiers to fight inside syria and some syrians are helping them. some have other ways to fight back this man goes door to door selling his book about a respected share all the proceeds go across the border. the druze community in israel collected one million dollars and center to the syrian druze from my abilities because we collected one million shackles people paid what they could in order to help their relatives in syria the call to fight has not yet been made but as the conflict in syria starts to spread beyond its borders more and more communities are being torn in some many allegiances here randi and when a relative is killed the test for tat vendetta is likely to last for years but we

are just waiting for an opportunity to help and we are ready to give our lives policy r.t. on the israel syria border but spoke to the south african president jacob zuma about ways of resolving the syrian crisis and challenges the country's leader faces when interview is coming up later today but here's a question what is it that makes people think he should live is a syria has been a problem that has developed in syria is part of it he must participate in dissolving it what syrian people should do is to find a solution a solution that must be accepted by everybody in the queue doing what happens to those who have been. on either side of the syrian situation has been allowed in the main by the members of the security comes well all been calling for a kind of coming together of the syrian people to solve their problems that they

should be helped to do so but some countries have been saying you know there was a time we could have come in. we could have said solve the problems find a solution whatever views people didn't do so because it was not satisfying the interest. now look at some other international news in brief for you now students in chile have hurled homemade bombs and clashed with police during protests over education cuts police responded with water cannon and tear gas thousands of marched through the city of el paraiso demanding free education the conflict began two years ago has been gaining momentum the government still refusing to meet student demands.

rescuers are now searching daughter door for survivors in oklahoma city suburb of more of it was struck by a devastating tornado number of reported dead it's been reduced to twenty four including nine children after nearly a much higher because more than two hundred people were injured in a home neighborhoods destroyed. china's premier has completed his visit to india even with deals worth one point five billion dollars including exports of oil to china during the visit he also pledged during the bilateral ties and helped to boost a political solution for a longstanding dispute of the himalayan border artie's andrew farmer takes a look at what's up for grabs between the asian giants. along with russia india and china are leading members of the brics economies amberley greater cooperation could be hugely beneficial to them both not just in terms of increasing their financial

clout worldwide but also their political muscle too and here's why the sheer size of their combined population means they have a huge consumer market a staggering two point seven billion people live in these two countries that is a third of the world's population what's more there's plenty of room for future economic growth this is a pivotal possibility for the future of israel as a region if you look at the overall trade that's been going on it's a very interesting story you know one nine hundred ninety one they start liberalizing the indian economy all of their all of their perspective looked west for business with china came along and liberalized somewhat later they changed the rules of the game they know i can look around that neighborhood and also look east in order to develop a greater amount of business and therefore the truth is we're going to see a very strong axis being built by these two nations because at the moment trid is

not considerable between them. and statistics underline the point over the last decade and a half bilateral trade between them has jumped from three billion dollars a year to seventy four billion by twenty fifteen china and india hope the figure could top one hundred billion at the moment they largely sell resource based products to each other china for example exports iron and steel while emirates in india trade copper and cotton but there are new areas developing the growth of india's i.t. and software industry is rapid as is china's manufacturing and textile sectors and both provide a market for each other's goods analysts say could be a match made in heaven delhi has the high tech know how well beijing provides the manufacturing might the only obstacle to growth it seems a political one to both countries still involved in border disputes although their leaders say they intend to work towards a settlement and that could unlock

a vast economic boom in this part of the world. when xmas shine a light on the news you won't hear anywhere else breaking a sit here and. download the official application to yourself choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites from alzheimer's if you're away from your television just doesn't matter now with your mobile device you can watch ati anytime anywhere.

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interviews intriguing stories for you to. see then try. to find out more visit. you live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food. you know how fabulous. i mean. i know i've seen a really not so. very small mostly. the second. worst super bowl.