it's. hurting for cash and bleeding and down the e.u. turns its eye on tax dodgers hoping to plug the trillion euro and you'll drain. the white house and the fourth estate american journalist moved to protect media freedom which they believe is falling victim to government fears that some delicate facts may surface. and as the friends of syria am prepared to discuss peace between president assad and the opposition u.s. lawmakers give first stage approval to a bill that could allow direct weapons shipments to the rebels.

watching r.t. coming to you live from the russian capital i'm marina joshing welcome to the program now the e.u. is looking to cast its tax net wider over the continent today as leaders meet in brussels to plug leaks amounting to a trillion euros a year but it won't be easy top euro kratom monarch's ally have featured in a slew of recent tax avoidance scandals signifying just how widespread the practice has become are just as are silly reports from the summits venue. 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 to 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 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 the 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 buyer in munich he's also want to investigation for fraud of about millions of dollars there now here in belgium macqueen 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 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 the. all of this is just talk reporting from brussels i'm tess are cilia that is the language some outcomes are now the back of another button crisis but this time it's of confidence a new poll shows europeans are becoming increasingly pessimistic and worried in fact for young people's future the picture is even gloomier when you look at people's opinion concerning employment whether block wide pessimism over job security and pensions what's notable here though is that of all the respondents

it's the young that hold the least hope for the future something are just bitter all over witness across 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 still pretty nifty 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 produce we really really need to find new nutrients to

spring to live. every day full natural. he's even found a good use for some of his old textbooks yeah. as the breeding ground for potential new mushroom it's easy to grow by anyone but it's not only in the countryside that new cultural 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 a lot springing up right in the heart of lisbon operating without proper planning commission the authorities turn a blind eye to their development. without everything is just too expensive so i try to get everything i can't afford for 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 the snails from microbes when cooked right they can be quite testy in fact many think of them as a delicacy either grilled or in the soup and their 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 to be patient and things will come right through time that's. the best lesson learned with mushrooms peter all over r.t. portugal now three years into europe's debt crisis with unemployment rampant and

europeans in despair we want to hear what you think may lie ahead for the blog well today on our website archita com we are conducting a poll and here are some of the choice. on artie's website so is a financial collapse it has or will there be an end to the debt crisis well the poorest states be forced out or will german economic in germany guaranteed control of the bloc well you can participate in our online poll let us know what you think by logging on to our dot com and leaving your vote there. you know as journalists are raising a flag that the government's on a witch hunt to prevent any leak of sensitive information into the outside world it's after revelations that a fox news white house reporter is being watched by the justice department which in turn followed the scandal of wiretapping staff from the associated press well here's our washington correspondent. 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 they've missed ration 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 new 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 the united states. to the best of my knowledge they're not prosecuting the journalists but they are investigating the journalists as if they were criminals and it was back during the bush administration when judith miller had that information about w m d's 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 and now instead of asking the reporters asking the news agencies they're simply going in with all the power. of the spy agencies of america and snooping on reporters i think this is a violation of first amendment it was a new york times article from her out a year ago about drone strikes and innocent people dying in the strikes and they cited no name to us. 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 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 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 get. in the wake of what's thought to be washington's paranoia towards investigative journalism countermeasures are springing up the new yorker magazine has launched an online space where according to the publication e-mails and documents can be shared and honestly artie's news editor i've told you more about the u.s. media's methods to dodge government snooping. the news that broke over the weekend caused 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 to her here though maria is that whistle blowing is not illegal in fact whistle blowing is a venerated position under a 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 it is about sense bradley manning is the whistleblower in the case 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 these individuals for

a national security reporter 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 but speaking broadly about the media in this particular context i mean we know that the media always defended their sources shielded sources but now we're seeing it in a very vulnerable position absolutely 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 activists 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 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 anonymity to journalists who are facing an absolutely unprecedented threat in the history of american media . when you torture scandal hits the u.s. a mutilated body is discovered in afghanistan as kabul accuses the american military chief of murdering almost twenty people who mysteriously went missing the details just ahead. also syrian rebels attack a village in israeli occupied territory stirring a local community into action in a few minutes we'll speak to volunteers ready to die fighting the opposition to protect their loved ones. and the pentagon it asks the government to fork out millions of dollars for a long. prison even as president obama says he wants the facility closed. some of these traditional chili lines they've been bred into bill passed down from

generation to. this is a total destruction of the culture of new mexico i told them i mean this is not going to impact asylum in mexico whatever happens here throughout the whole world we're. in the in the you know he's you know. why do you think this country is full of obese and sick people because we have a crappy food so this. morning news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day.

talk about you're watching our team now a body of an afghan man whose feet have been cut off has been discovered near a former american military base not far from the country's capital couples investigators accuse the u.s. forces of murdering and torturing at least seventeen people in the war the province . written widely on america's interrogation techniques thinks the u.s. should take responsibility for the suspects actions regardless even if he no longer works for them i think the question should be raised is what kind of people are they hiring you know if they hired this guy in the first place what kind of checks would go to the sanity of this guy and i don't think that seventeen people are going to go missing because of the work of one person i think that you know

maybe to special forces were involved in those disappearances this took a back room a base where people. take to background tortured and been taken to going to animal brains and people listed in the background and then one hundred over to the pakistanis or anybody else and also for example rape we saw those pictures that were released and showed torture of victims now the pentagon is requesting almost half a billion dollars of funding for going tama base some of it's to upgrade temporary facilities which could take up to ten years to complete calling into question just how serious the obama administration is about closing the prison more than one hundred inmates who are being held without charge are now three and a half months into a hunger strike over their detention one former guard at the prison told us his guantanamo experience has psychologically scarred him. 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 where rubin essentially moved 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 removed 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 of obviously sank to him if suicide through starvation is prefer able to. staying alive and then going through the monotony of guantanamo existence the only reason the detainees are being force fed is that the the us military or rather the powers that be are scared of peace might have enough conviction 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 the weeks to so many millions of dollars of taxpayer money in one ton of no 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 quality may be one of france's three corners sales but tragically not for one rider or renown historian she can sell dad of the. cathedral citing the same sex marriage law as a threat to frances identity we report online. hand science dns and as ever john is rochelle. lashes out over a suspected you were a vision vote blunder r.t. dot com has a story. a friends of syria group of

nations is preparing to meet in jordan to discuss peace talks between damascus and the opposition the joint u.s. and russian proposal although american lawmakers are keen to push a bill to arm the antacid rebels a senate committee has already voted it through but it still has a long way to go before coming into force historian political commentator 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 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 at best a geisha and sadly and tragically it seems that they would like to see history repeat itself. the syria israeli army's have exchanged fire in the disputed golan heights area region along an x. by tel aviv front line attacks have become more frequent in recent months with israel reportedly launching airstrikes towards damascus but i suppose we are now explains there is at least one community in the area that's ready to defend president. 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 druze a minority islamic offshoot ready to go help defend the community in syria and president assad in the north we have relatives there are people are there and they were attacking them in the name of islam. the tipping point came off to rebels targeting the 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 the 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. where. 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 saving his book about a 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 salmaniya region says here run deep and when a relative is killed the tete a tete or 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. on the israel syria border i was syrian crisis a sending shock waves through neighboring lebanon the latest round of the terror and violence in the town of tripoli has killed at least eleven people and wounded over one hundred fighting between elwood supporters of the syrian president and sunni opposers has been ongoing since sunday and local media reported that residents had to take cover from shelling and sniper fire tripoli recently became a refugee destination with thousands coming there to avoid the violence in syria. you know world news the third night of our rioting in stockholm has seen cars and

buildings torched in anger at what riders say is the poor treatment of immigrants police say they have arrested eight people the unrest began on sunday in a largely immigrant suburb in the north of the city violence flared after police shot dead a sixty nine year old man who was allegedly wielding a large knife in the street. i'll going iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad has labeled the decision to bar candidate close to him from standing in next month's election as an act of oppression the guardian council made up of legal and religious experts loyal to ayatollah khomeini is allowing eight candidates to run all considered to be politically conservative former president of barr of sun journeys who has broad support from the opposition for reform movement has also been prevented from running. a massive fire has broken out at a hostel in russia's black sea resort of sochi broke out on the fifth floor and

quickly spread through the whole building more than one hundred residents were evacuated and there are no reports of any casualties so far but i witnessed this claim they heard a loud bang and saw a man falling into the flames helicopters were used to help extinguish the blaze the residents of spect arson as it's the third time this week that the hospital caught fire. well stay with us as frankenfood in the u.s. just put under the microscope focusing on the humble chili pepper.

to least be told language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the we'll talk sports the v.o.i.p. interviews intriguing story for you to. see in trying. to find out more visit our big all teeth dog called. download the official odyssey up location to your cell phones choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites from alzheimer's if you're away from your television or it just doesn't matter how would your mobile device if you could watch on t.v. any time anywhere. controlling

the seeds is not some abstraction whoever provides the world seeds controls the world's food supply are locked in steel vanity fair. for the first time corporations are patenting products that are self replicating uncontrollable and irretrievable. genetically engineered pollen carried by wind insects bacteria viruses and humans has inadvertently traveled the globe. scientists in laboratories and corporate

spokespeople would have americans believe that pollen from flowering plants in the open environment can be controlled farmers hay fever sufferers and anyone who observes the chaotic natural world would disagree tonight a look into the world of genetically modified organisms through the lens of new mexico's iconic chili peppers. at the plant genetic engineering laboratory on the campus of new mexico state university in los crucis scientists are developing a genetically engineered chili pepper. genetically engineering the new mexico chili pepper has stirred controversy because it is a cultural heirloom and defines new mexican cuisine this is what he mexico is known for and this is what makes us unique i mean this is this is threatening this is very threatening to our stars there are. well i mean this is the seeds are sacred some of these.