e.u. decision maker struggled to plug a truly in your attacks hole while fraud thrives at the highest levels of europe's political elite. the us government is once again caught spying on a reporter sending shock waves through the journalist community with fears of press freedom is under threat. and u.s. senate pal baxi push for an arms bill to give the syrian opposition legal aid making it the first such move by lawmakers since the beginning of the crisis. which you are taking to live from the russian capital i'm marina joshing and

welcome to the program e.u. leaders are facing tough talks on tax fraud in brussels with over one trillion euros slipping through their fingers every year this at a time when they are struggling to justify painful austerity measures being forced upon crisis hit member states as our ceiling our reports the efforts in brussels look even less convincing and a lot of tax scows involving some of the 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 cattles 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 byron munich he's also want to investigation for fraud of about millions of dollars there now here in belgium by queen fabiola she's 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 of 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 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. now the e.u. summit comes as a new poll shows a fewer young europeans believe the crisis management efforts will be effective but just looking at this chart here there is a huge percent of those who don't believe the future will be bright the picture is even gloomy if we look at opinions concerning employment in italy staggering ninety two percent of people there are pessimistic about job security europeans are also becoming increasingly worried about having a secure pension with only

a tiny minority saying that they are confident about their future and amid this doom and gloom it's young people in particular who seem to have lost faith people all over 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 in sociology 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 produce we really really need to find new nutrients to spring to. everyday full natural. 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 urban 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. 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 these snails from my crop when cooked right they can be quite tasty in fact many think of them as a delicacy. grilled or in the soup just 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 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 their time that's. the best lesson that i learned with mushrooms peter all of the portugal now with high level

tax fraud record unemployment and growing despair among europeans were asking you today were you saying that e.u. is heading to cast your vote on our website r t v dot com well so far here are your opinions is a financial collapse i had or an end to the debt crisis well the poorest state to be forced out or will germany become increasingly dominant so you can let us know what you think of the issue by logging on to our website r t a common participating in our site vote today. right. now the scandal around the u.s. government spying on a journalist appears to be spreading in the latest twist it's been revealed that

personal phone records and e-mails of a fox news reporter were seized as part of a leak investigation this latest incident comes hot on the heels of an associated press wire tapping scandal when members of staff had their calls and e-mails monitor our washington correspondent and she looks at the implications that 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 best gated 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 in the alleged crime the obama administration has used the espionage act this world war one era 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 knowledge they are 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 of the spy agencies of america and. i think 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 the strike. and they cited a known 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 you know there is there i've always been governments and people in government so 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 and this was the argument that was made about people who are trying to win and johnson with 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 it. now to discuss this further we're joined in the studio by. our thanks very much indeed for joining us to discuss this obviously this is not going down very well with american journalist. yes sure the news that broke over the weekend caused an absolute sensational reaction right across the news media what is normally a very point bipartisan area to work in or unified response of range from particularly strong come out of the new york media and washington the fox news

to defend. the accusations against being made against mr rumsfeld because well obviously the first amendment is on his side as well so that caught attention of american congress sure sure it's interesting to see how that will develop you know that line of defense and investigation there yeah absolutely i think what surprised a lot of people that was was i think the extent to which the story has dropped from the major mastheads today and. everybody identified over the weekend and what commentators. right across the american spectrum have said are now identifying a trend where what people see starting with wiki leaks a couple of years ago with the prosecution of mr manning bradley manning but also the prosecution and the attack on wiki leaks is now seeping through people are calling the main stream media and the media that previously would have regarded manning as an out or. as an outlier is now finding itself suffering the same kind of attacks that have suffered from the american government yet it's also

interesting where you actually draw this line you know because journalists a primary job is to collect information right and to disclose that information when it doesn't really infringe on security but in this particular case i mean we've got the first amendment the states that protects information. freedom of speech information but now we're seeing that journalists are being called whistleblowers yeah well i guess the most important thing to point out to her here though maria is that whistle blowing is not illegal in fact whistle blowing is a venerated position under law. whereby a person privy to information will release that information in the public interest . be the most notorious whistle blowing case of recent years is the wiki leaks case and julian assange is seen as a whistleblower whereas in fact i think for the purpose the purpose of this is question we should probably regard him as a publisher of information. as a journalist yeah. bradley manning is the whistleblower because now also worked with other newspapers in the american context he worked very closely with the new

york times which was very quick to distance itself from when he came on to the attack now the times is probably looking over its shoulder asking itself if that was such a good idea maybe they should have taken a stronger stand with us when he saw for the attack now they also want to charge. with the same charge that they are trying to put on mr rosen at the moment which is that a a reporter in going about their job fulfilling their job description going about their daily beast solicits information from individuals. to individuals for national security reporter i happen to be working for the state and that this approach to these individuals is being regarded under these nine hundred seventeen espionage act as coconspirators see to aid and abet espionage well of course we will be looking at what will become coming out of this case and you know where will it lead to because we have again the attention of congress and president obama and the first amendment here and how will you know where will it all and out but

speaking broadly about the media in this particular context i mean we know that the media always defended their sources shield it sources but now we're seeing it in a very vulnerable position oh absolutely absolutely the phrase that was used previously when speaking about wiki leaks was that the obama administration was waging war on whistleblowers the phrase that emerged over the weekend and i for if i'm not mistaken it was a new yorker journalist who tweeted this was we're now speaking about an obama administration war on journalism as such now interestingly enough the obama admin. well it's on the record that the obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all other presidential administrations combined but interesting enough coming from the new yorker is that they've introduced a digitally encrypted environment they're taking steps to protect their sources it's called strong box. the code itself was developed by digital first amendment activist or code developed by r. and schwartz the late hour and schwartz he killed himself while under prosecution for releasing files from dumping files in public domain that were previously owned

by the mit if i'm not mistaken schwartz worked with others to create this digitally encrypted environment in which. to which information could be enormously inserted yeah i think it will be the most important factor there yeah i guess the idea here was that they would guarantee anonymity to whistleblowers into sources but. the other side of that now is that this is an environment like that may serve to guarantee an immunity to journalists who are facing an absolutely unprecedented threat in the history of american media so certainly we're keeping our eyes on the situation but for now ira thanks very much for bringing sort of like giving us a broader condit context of what autocratic editor thanks now so i have free you support for syria from within israel r t looks at a small border community ready to do whatever it takes to fan president. and the panic gone asks for more money to maintain one tunnel prison we talked to former

guard explains what's being driving and they are to starve themselves for months here in our team. we speak your language anybody will not advance. news programs and documentaries and spanish more matters to you breaking news a little turn to angola's kids stories. are you here. to try to alter the spanish find out more visit.

more news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images cold world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are old today . well the mag you're watching r t the pentagon is asking for almost half a billion dollars to maintain and grade the going time of a prison adding to downstairs any genuine intent from the u.s. authorities to close the facility more than one hundred detainees have been on a 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 would 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 camp echo or moving them from bravo block to charlie block be it a little move or a big move the idea of a set every two hours they would be moved and they wouldn't be able to sleep this was essentially fought 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 bob you see saying to him if suicide through starvation is prefer a bull to. staying alive and then going through the monotony of guantanamo distance the only reason the detainees are being force fed is that 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 if the pentagon wants four hundred fifty million dollars more to maintain and restructure one ton m a i think that's basically just preparations for the next batch of people are going to fill it. as it stands right now the weeks to so many millions of dollars taxpayer money in one hundred. 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 up one where the. now the full interview was teri holbrooke's is available for you on our website also there today medical mismanagement as a fortune thrown away very revealed that supplies of a bird flu drug worth over seventy million pounds been discarded in the u.k.

due to faulty storage procedures. self-made space food all possible as nasa designs three d. printers that could allow astronauts to create some fresh and tasty meals in orbit all the details on that on our website our team. a u.s. senate committee has voted for bill to arm the syrian rebels who are trying to topple president assad's regime it's the first time in two years of the ongoing civil war that america's lawmakers have agreed to give the battling opposition lethal support however 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 these rebels come to power i daresay 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 that in afghanistan in the 1980'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 tempered 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. the syrian israeli army's have exchanged fire in this field of golan heights along and acts by tel aviv the front line attacks have become more frequent in recent months with israel launching airstrikes near damascus but as are his policy or explains there's at least one community in israel

that's ready to defend president asad. 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 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 after rebels targeted the cruise 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 y d 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 residents of israel but see themselves as syrian they're loyal to the alawite regime who they see as a minority lock themselves 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 to respect to share all the proceeds go across the border. the druze community in israel collected one million dollars and sent it to

the syrian druze from my village but can we collected one million shekels 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 so many allegiances here and when a relative is killed the tete a tetes friend is likely to last for years. we are just waiting for an opportunity to help and we are ready to give our lives. on the israel syria border a look now at some other stories from around the world stockholm has seen a third night of riots in the largely immigrant husband district the unrest in the swedish capital is believed to have been triggered when police fatally shot an elderly man last week several arrests have been made while many say the violence is

a result of police brutality and racism. students in chile have hurled homemade bombs and clashed with police during protests over education cuts only responded with water cannon and tear gas thousands have marched through the city. demanding 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 after 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 and whole neighborhoods destroyed. coming your way here in our team our show primed interest rates over the non-mainstream financial news on the way.

wealthy british style it's time to rise. to the. markets. find out what's really happening to the global economy for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines to cause a report on our team hold it. hold it. until. the speech. she gave. her.

mom is so good. at her. mind of a really. good afternoon to welcome the prime enjoy as time parian boring aborting and washington d c here's the story that i've been looking at today. jamie is safe americas bareheaded leader of j.p. morgan chase has retained his role as chairman of the board is rumored some of the other board members the board members will soon be departing but for now the too

big to fail heads are breathing a sigh of relief as this proxy war was seen by some as a proxy on the entire industry keep your fingers crossed the other hand. if you feel bad that was the us hitting the debt ceiling over the weekend this is no longer a front page or even page six news event is under a markable event went largely unnoticed but not by the treasury which now uses its arsenal of tools to rob peter to pay paul reminds us of. he's so fond of talking about you know the one that's going to help of reign in price inflation in fifteen minutes later in the so going to talk about the debt ceiling and monetary madness with authors michael penned and mark in the land. and the senate tried to take a bite out of tim cook this morning but the apple c.e.o. didn't fly into after getting police with accusations of tax dodging he said there's no tax thing going on.