think you're going to. see you decision makers struggle 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 our poor sending shock waves through the journalist community but fears of press freedom is under threat. a u.s. senate panel backs and push for an arms bill to give the syrian opposition lethal aid making it the first such move by lawmakers since the beginning of the crisis.

it is three pm in the russian capital you're watching r t with me. the e.u. leaders are facing tough talks on tax fraud in brussels with over one trillion euro slipping through their fingers every year this is a time when they are struggling to justify painful austerity measures being forced upon crisis hit member states s s r so you now reports the efforts in brussels look even less convincing and why out 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 anon e.u. members to establish some sort of a more transparent exchange of relevant to banking data 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 have been speaking quite loudly about this clampdown on

so-called offenders and a number of scandals have arisen in various countries starting with france on the former budget minister there. 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 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 it's 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 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 the. all of this is just talk reporting from brussels tests are cilia the e.u. summit comes as a new poll shows fewer young europeans believe the crisis management efforts will be effective as we can see there is a huge percent of those who don't believe the future will be bright the picture is even gloomier if we look at a piña is concerning employment and italy for example a staggering ninety two percent of people there are pessimistic about their job security 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 oliver 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 and a 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 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 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 the breeding ground for potential new mushroom it's easy to grow by anyone but it's not only in the countryside that new agricultural projects are underway 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. nothing goes to waste here even garden

pests can have their uses if you know how i collect this snails from my crop when cooked great they can be quite testy in fact many think of them as a delicacy either. or in the soup 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 but they nor in this 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's what needs to be done in the near very near future joel is somewhat more philosophical just be patient and things will come at their time that's. it's the best lesson that i learned with mushrooms peter all of the portugal what high

level tax fraud record unemployment and growing despair among europeans were asking were you think that is having a cast your vote at r t dot com now here are your options is it a financial collapse it had for you or or and and to the debt crisis while the poorest states be forced out or will germany become increasingly dominant so log on to our web site r.t. dot com and have your say. the scandal around the u.s. government spying on journalists 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 of the heels of an associated press wiretapping scandal when members of staff and their calls and e-mails monitored a washington correspondent looks at the implications that these cases why it out 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 the 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 them you have 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. reporters i think this is a violation first about something that i personally found extremely alarming it was a new york times article from wrote 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 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 and 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 you know 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 during this 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 websites and in press releases and that would be a said day for our profession in washington i'm going to check it well earlier i also spoke to our teens editor i've across the who explain why there's a fear of u.s. government's war on whistleblowers why go much further. the news that broke over the weekend cause an absolute sensational reaction right across the news media 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 salvage as an outlier is now finding itself suffering the same kind of attacks that have suffered from the american government it's also interesting where you actually draw this line you know because now we're seeing the journalists being called whistleblowers yeah well i guess the most important thing to point out the hear them read 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 . 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 it is about sense bradley manning is the whistleblower because

now they also want to charge sons 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 a 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 as being a. conspiracy to aid and abet espionage but speaking broadly about the media in this particular context i mean we know that the media always defended their sources and shielded sources but now we're seeing it in a very vulnerable position no absolutely but interesting enough coming from the new . walker 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 activists or code developed by r. and schwartz the late aren't 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 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 an environment like that may serve to guarantee anonymity to journalists who are facing an absolutely unprecedented threat in the history of american media. all that i have for you support for syria from within israel are two looks at a small border community ready to do whatever it takes to fan the president and as a path to god asks for more money to maintain one tunnel prison we talk to former guard explains what's been driving inmates they are to starve themselves for months . callings revolutionizing the banking and finance or

a nice political protest movement take your pick there is no doubt this virtual currency is being given a careful look on the back of the global financial crisis and the stranglehold the finance has over the economy having an alternative currency appears to face what is called the new economy. choose your language. of choice we could with no intervention from the. choose good news good consensus you can. choose the opinions that you think great to. choose to stories could impact your life choose b. access to. could you take three times for charges three. major three. three stooges three. golds three blonde

c.e.o.'s for your media projects c.e.o. don carty dot com. welcome back you're watching our team in the pentagon is asking for almost half a billion dollars to maintain and upgrade the guantanamo bay prison adding to downs there's any genuine intent from the u.s. authorities to close the facility more than 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 and the camp who explained why most prisoners would prefer suicide through starvation to being kept there some of the some of the tactics i saw practiced in guantanamo i just never really want to wish to relive again omar kotter and a number of other detainees that they were privileged to something we called the frequent flyer program that essential to 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 idea of a set 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 of obviously sank to him if suicide through starvation is preferrable to. staying alive and then going through the monotony of guantanamo existence the only reason the detainees are being force is the u.s. military or rather the powers that be are scared that these men have enough conviction 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 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 the weeks to so many millions of dollars of taxpayer money and one ton of oh 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. now the full interview with terry holbrooke's and available for you on our website dot com also there today medical mismanagement as a fortune is thrown away and then revealed that supplies of a bird flu drug worth over seventy million pounds have been discarded in the u.k. due to falling storage procedures plus. self-made space food all possible as nasa designs three d. printers that could a while astronauts to create some fresh and tasty meals in orbit all the details on that and much more online at our team dot com.

if you. believe the. u.s. senate committee has a vote. for a 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 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 enough ganesan out of 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 at best a geisha and sadly and tragically it seems that they would like to see history repeat itself and the syrian and israeli army's have exchanged fire in the disputed golan heights long x. by television the front line attacks have become more frequent in recent months

with israel launching airstrikes near damascus but as our policy or explains there's at least one community in israel that's ready to defend president assad. and 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 druze 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 like him selves they live in fear for their families in syria after the rebel assault on the druze village there and where we are 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 village but can we collected one million shekels 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 torn in some many allegiances here randi and when a relative is killed the test for tat vendetta is likely to last for years. 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. spoke to the south african president jacob zuma about ways of resolving the syrian crisis making its leader

a part of the solution for interviews 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 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 sutra to comes we've all been calling for a kind of coming together of the syrian people to solve the problems that they should be helped to use but some countries have been saying you know there was a time coming. you could say that solve the problems find a solution what have you people didn't do so it was it was not satisfying the

interest. i'll take a look at some other stories from around the world stockholm has seen a third night of riots in a largely immigrant house be district the unrest in the swedish capital is believed to have been triggered one 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 url to homemade bombs and clashed with police during protests over education cuts police responded with water cannon and tear gas thousands have marched through the city of wagner i so 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 dad has been revised down to twenty four including nine children more than two hundred people were injured and whole neighborhoods destroyed. coming up shortly it's good all else cross-talk to go away . 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 well it just doesn't matter now with your mobile device you can watch r.t. any time anyway.

hello and welcome to crossfire for all things considered i'm peter lavelle bitcoins revolutionizing banking and finance or a nice political protest movement take your pick however there is no doubt this virtual currency is being given a careful look on the back of the global financial crisis and the stranglehold big finance has over the economy having an alternative currency appears to fit what is called the new economy. to cross talk bitcoins i'm joined by a mere talkie in london he is a bit coin developer and owner of the british bit coin exchange interest sango in atlanta we have daniel castro he is a senior analyst with the information technology and innovation foundation and in dallas we cross to he is the founder of chap would finance dot com and an internationally recognized expert in wealth management or a gentleman crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want i

mean if i can go to you first what is the value of bitcoins in a few sentences. it's a type of currency which can be sent anywhere in the world like instantaneously and you can't have any kind of government or central power mandate that you how you use your money so you can center who have you want whenever you want wherever you want and there's a big problem right now in the financial industry where we have a global financial system where a lot of people are not allowed to participate so it's not it's if you want to do business in the world you need to go and register a corporation need to open a bank account and this option is not open to a lot of people it's the financial system is used as a tool of censorship so political organizations like wiki leaks had their payment option shut down by the department of justice after they put pressure on their buying so and these are a master card and paper to write a story that is used to censor speech and yet at the same time new.