e.u. decision makers struggle to plug a trillion euro tax hold while fraud thrives at the highest levels of europe's political elite. u.s. government is once again caught spying on a reporter sending shock waves to the journalist community the fear is that press freedom is under threat. the u.s. senate panel backs a push for an arms bill to give the syrian opposition the full eight making it the first such move by lawmakers since the beginning of the crisis. on air and online twenty four hours a day you're watching r.t.

. or you leaders are facing tough talks on tax fraud in brussels and over one trillion euros slipping through their fingers every year but this at a time when they're struggling to justify painful austerity measures being forced upon crisis hit member states i stress our city 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 is 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 cattle says about one point two million dollars we're talking about here now over in germany the boss of one of the world's biggest football clubs byron munich he's also want to investigation for fraud of about millions of dollars they're now here in belgium. 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 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 looks both of which are keen to protect their own banking secrecy laws and 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 the e.u. summit comes as a new poll shows fewer young europeans believe the crisis management efforts will be effective and i can see there's a huge percent of those who don't believe the future will be bright the picture is even gloomier if we look at opinions concerning employment in italy for example a staggering it comes look ninety two percent of people there are pessimistic about job security and europeans are also becoming increasingly worried about having

a secure pension with only a tiny minority saying they're confident about their future and amid this doom and gloom it's young people in particular who seem to have lost faith because all of the reports now 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 you have to make or an 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 as we did for marshall. he's even found a good use for some of his old textbooks yeah as the breeding ground for a potential new mushroom that'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. to 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 is 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 even. reeled or in the silliest unemployment is it a record high in portugal 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 the ignoring their situation people in the north should look more closely 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 joel is somewhat more philosophical says be patient and things will come at the time that's. it's the best lesson i've learned with much from peter all over r.t.

portugal. with high level tax fraud a record unemployment and growing despair among europeans we're asking where you think the e.u. is heading in cast your vote at r.t. dot com and here are your options and the results so far is that a financial collapse ahead or an end to the debt crisis will the poorest states be forced out will germany become increasingly dominant can log on to r.t. dot com and have your say. the scandal around the u.s. government spying on journalists appears to be spreading the latest twist has been revealed that personal phone records and e-mails of

a fox news reporter was seized as part of a leak investigation with latest incident comes hot on the heels of an associated press wire tapping scandal from members of staff had their calls and e-mails monitored by washington correspondent going to church account looks at the implications of these cases might have 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 this informant 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 of united states. to the best mileage 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 view of these went to her and said please give us the information give us your phone records she said no and she went to jail rather than giving up their sources so now instead of asking the reporters asking the news agencies they're simply

going in with all the power. over the spy agency the american. people i think this is a violation of something that i personally found extremely alarming it was a new york times article from the road a year ago about drone strikes and innocent people dying in the east. and they cited no name to a 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 i've always been governments and people in governments who use the excuse that you know you're either with us 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 story this was the argument that was made about people who are trying to win and johnson because 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 then this can be accused of all kinds of things i guess a responsible thing 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 sad day for our profession in washington i'm kind of checking. let's discuss this further we're joining the studio now by r.t. news editor i have a currency i thought what response is all this getting from american journalists well the case itself provoked an enormous reaction across social media at least over the weekend and into the into the week but conspicuously headlines concerning this case are are well conspicuous by their absence on the major american mastheads today but. it's put the commentators are saying is that they're now identifying a trend in the prosecution of was

a whistleblower is now moving into the area of journalism there's a huge level of concern about. how a national security reporter for example who by virtue of their job definition asks state employees for information could now be accused of spying on. the. espionage act of nine hundred seventeen you say it is a trend so are journalists now going to be counted as whistleblowers then well we we should first remember that whistle blowing itself is not illegal. blowing was venerated under under law and a lot of states have gone out of their way to protect whistleblowers under law people who bill who are released information or leak information that they are privy to in the public interest so we shouldn't we should remember that whistle blowing itself has a venerated position in law so to treat journalists as whistleblowers yes journalists are somewhat like whistleblowers they would release information and so this information and releases that they believe to be in the public interest if you

look for example the case of julian assange and wiki leaks being perhaps the most notorious whistle blowing case of recent times. what we can see is that. was the publisher of information. allegedly came from bradley manning bradley manning is the whistleblower in this case is the is the media platform the publisher of this information now what the f.b.i. are trying to do with the science and what they're trying trying to do in the case of mr rosen the fox news correspondent is to attribute to that journalist and attempt to solicit that information and this would make them a coconspirator. in spying and espionage would just quote the question extraordinary accusation to make to somebody who goes about their daily job and of course a scientist one hundred in the ecuadorian embassy at americans need this guy said that he's been sitting there for six i mean the media has always shielded its sources but only now saying that the media itself the journalists themselves are going to have to shield themselves from trouble yes so i think that's that's what

we're seeing right now i mean if if this is a matter of policy and it's widely noted that the obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers than every other president previous american presidential administration combined so what what. for example the new yorker has suggested that we're no longer talking about an obama administration war on whistleblowers but an obama administration war on journalism to that extent the new yorker interesting lee has introduced a platform called strongbox which which is an encrypted digital area in which information can be passed to the new yorker anonymously this guarantees the anonymity of whistleblowers or people who people who would leak information it was developed by amongst others by the late hour and schwartz the. first amendment activists who committed suicide while being prosecuted for dumping what were

previously private files that belonged i believe to the massachusetts institute of technology was what's behind this but one of the knock on effects of perhaps one of the unintended knock on effects of strong box is that it may serve to protect journalists from the kind of accusations that are being leveled at rosen and the kind of invasive government practices that we saw in the a.p. ok disturbing times when you said it out of across he thanks for joining us thank you carol. well still ahead for u.s. support for syria from within israel ought to look so it's a small border community ready to do it takes to defend president assad. and as the pentagon asks for more money to maintain guantanamo prison. we talked to a former gods who explains what's been driving inmates that just don't themselves for months.

some of these traditional chili lines they've been bred and developed and passed down from generation to. this is a told destruction of the culture of mexico by telling them i mean this this is not going to impact asylum in mexico whatever happens here throughout the whole world now we're eating antibiotics in the in the open in all boarding and so are. genetically engineered crops why do you think this country is full of obese and sick people because we have a crappy food system. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images those world has

been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day. talk about more world issues for you now the pentagon is asking for almost half a billion dollars to maintain an upgrade the guantanamo bay prison and into doubt there's any generating ten from the u.s. authorities to close the facility on the one hundred detainees have been on hunger strike for three and a half months now in protest over their indefinite detention without charge or to talk to a former guard at the camp who explained why most prisoners prefer suicide through starvation to being kept there. some of the some of the tactics that i saw practice in guantanamo i just never really want to wish to relive again omar kotter and

a number of other detainees said they were privileged to something we called the frequent flyer program or even essentially move them every two hours whether removing them from camp delta the camp echo or moving them from bravo block to charlie block be it a little move or a big move the idea was that every two hours they would be moved and they wouldn't be able to sleep this was essentially thought to wear down their psyche and make them more. probable to give up information during interrogation i think it speaks volumes about the conditions at guantanamo above the sink to him if suicide through starvation is prefer able to. staying alive and then going through the monotony of guantanamo distance the only reason the detainees are being force fed is that the 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 us look bad in the global global perspective if the pentagon wants

four hundred fifty million dollars more to maintain and restructured one ton of i think that's basically just preparations for the next batch of people are going to fill it. as it stands right now they have weeks to so many millions of dollars taxpayer money and one ton of. it's just ridiculous and absurd to think about but if we just devoted another four hundred fifty million i think that's just perfect evidence right there there's no intention to close that one where the. that full interview with terry holbrooke's is available few on our website dot com any time also that medical mismanagement is a fortune is thrown away it's been revealed that supplies of a bird flu with a seventy million pounds been discovered in the u.k. to faulty storage procedures. self-made space food all possible as nasa designs three d. printers that could at last you know to create something fresh and

a stimulus you know a bit more details on that on our website. the u.s. senate committee has voted for a bill to arm the syrian rebels who are trying to topple president assad's regime is the first time in two years of the ongoing civil war that america's lawmakers have agreed to give the backing opposition the full support of the bill still has a long way to go before it could come into force author and historian gerald horne believes washington has learned nothing from its past mistakes 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 learned the lessons of history for example we recall better

not going to stand in the one nine hundred eighty s. 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 temporary love in two thousand and twelve those extremists killed the u.s. ambassador chris stevens in been ghazi 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. a syrian and israeli army's have exchanged fire in the disputed golan heights on the next vitality front line attacks have become more frequent in recent months with israel launching airstrikes near damascus was artie's for us there explains there's at least one community in israel that's ready to defend president that. we're 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 there is really droogs a minority islamic offshoot we need to go help to find 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 jews 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 israel but see themselves as syrian then loyal to the alawite regime who they see as a minority like him selves 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 court 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 drawn in sami allegiances here randy and when a relativist killed the tet for tatter 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 he spoke to the south african president jacob zuma about ways of resolving the syrian crisis making its leader a part of the solution for the interview is coming up later today but here's a quick look. i don't know what is it that makes people think he should leave is a syria has been a problem that has developed in syria is part of it he must participate in the. what's he going to do is to find a solution is solution that must be accepted by everybody in the clued in 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 sea tried to cause 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 when 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 interests. well look at some other international news in brief for you this is our stock comb

has seen a third night of riots in the largely immigrant who's meat district the unrest in a swedish capital is believed to be triggered when police fatally shot an elderly man last week several arrests have been made while many say the violence as a result of police brutality and racism. students who really have hurled homemade bombs and clashed with police during protests over education cuts police responded with water cannon tear gas thousands of marched through the city of the mountain free education the conflict began two years ago and has been gaining momentum with the government still refusing to meet the students demands. rescuers are continuing their search for survivors in the oklahoma city suburb of moore it was struck by a devastating tornado the number of reported dead has been revised down to twenty four including nine children more than two hundred people were injured in neighborhoods destroyed. but next starting looks at the world of genetically

modified food just ahead stay with us. download the official. language stream quality and

enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television just. now with your mobile device you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. to know the crops to drink poison. eighty five percent of all the g.m. crops are sold the herbicide that it's designed. so ready soy is designed not to die from. genetic engineering is on the tail of conventional and. that is characterized by the proliferation of chemicals fertilizers pesticides herbicides fungicides all of these chemicals.

costs in on energy production they have cost in environmental cleanup this is self-propagating genetic pollution we have no technology today to fully clean up the damage gene pool maybe we will in the future. but we're not feeding the products of good food science to the entire population and releasing me to the environment where they can never be recall. any scientists who tells you they know that g m o's are safe and not to worry about it is either ignorant of the history of science or is deliberately lying nobody knows what the long term effects will be geneticists dr david suzuki genetically engineered foods go through a rigorous review before they're approved the review includes analysis of the transgenic plant versus its parent and there's a standard that you have to meet called substantial equivalence they have to be equivalent in terms of.