coming up on r t the government seized a manhattan skyscraper they say was secretly owned and controlled by the iranian government the seizure comes as the u.s. and iran toned down rhetoric about a possible war we'll look at what this means ahead. congress is debating the twenty fourteen budget and it could mean some americans could go hungry a proposed bill would cut millions of people from receiving food stamps a look at this issue coming up. and on the net the scope of free speech just got bigger our court of appeals has declared that a facebook like is protected under the first amendment we'll tell you more about this change in today's tech report.

it's thursday september nineteenth five pm in washington d.c. . and you are watching r t well in syria an extremist group linked to al qaeda has seized control of a strategic town in the country's northern border with turkey the group is known as the islamic state in iraq and battled the western backed rebels before taking over assad's turkey which has played an interim role in moving arms of fighters and supplies to the rebels has now closed its border as a result meanwhile syrian president bashar all oss odd sat down for an interview with fox news to reaffirm his commitment to destroying his chemical weapons arsenal take a look experts say it will be so difficult to get rid of these chemical weapons especially in a war situation like this this is a buy you a lot of time here but if you don't have border to difficult even if you have all the requirement. afforded by every party it takes time to conceive of so

you're saying it's going take years as the thing we don't have experience with and that's a call but some say take one you know i didn't say you. could take about one year maybe to connect with these people meanwhile u.s. secretary of state john kerry spoke at the state department today urging the u.n. general assembly to move quickly on a deal to eliminate syria's chemical weapons he also pushed a u.n. report confirming the use of those chemical weapons in the country the u.n. report confirms unequivocally that chemical weapons including the nerve agent sarin were used in syria they returned with several crucial details that confirm that the assad regime is guilty of carrying out that attack even though that was not the mandate of the u.n.

report well for the latest on the negotiations in reading syria of its chemical weapons let's turn now to our tease maria from notional in damascus. russia's deputy foreign minister has spent two days here in damascus to discuss the country's chemical disarmament plan according to which syria has to destroy or remove its chemical weapons by two thousand and fourteen but first to provide a full list of its chemical weapons and stockpiles by the end of this week that's according to the deal that moscow and washington and greed or over the weekend in geneva a big deal that became sort of a political and diplomatic turn a trip to end mitchell response to the use of the chemical weapons here in syria all these just days after the u.n. investigators released their report over the use of chemical weapons here in syria they've been working here for several some time and they released a report an exclusive interview to see russia's deputy foreign minister said to get

if called criticised this report because according to russia's deputy foreign minister the report didn't appear to take into consideration all the evidence the syrian authorities have conducted their own. sampling and investigation and the alice's in terms of possible evidence of revolutions being responsible for a project that is over and over on august thirty first but beyond that also over twenty second third and fourth this material was discreetly hand it over to. the head of u.n. mission here mission of expertise which he and investigated the incident so strong was asked to look into the and eventually factor these new evidence to the final report never happened in fact russia will also carry out its own

examination of all the evidence provided by the syrian government and will also transfer these information to the un security council that was archies maria for notional reporting. well you've heard of homes being seized by the government before but hope out of a sky scraper a federal judge authorized to the u.s. to do just that after authorities discovered that it is secretly owned and controlled by the iranian government and that is a direct violation of federal money laundering laws and sanctions against iran are to correspondent marina porton tells us how this thirty six story giant somehow snuck under the radar for over thirty years. the great empire and its favorite nemesis for decades relations between the u.s. and iran have been ice cold but in recent months out of two it's have been thawing as tehran and washington have taken steps to overcoming years of hostility to begin

with president hassan rouhani is appointment of foreign minister mohammad zarif was received positively by western officials this summer zarif a western educated former iranian ambassador to the u.n. has been called a worthy negotiating partner the appointment has been seen by some as an olive branch to the white house another optimistic development came in july when one hundred thirty one members of the u.s. house of representatives wrote a letter to u.s. president barack obama encouraging him to use the opportunity offered by president rouhani for the improvement of bilateral relations speaking of letters iran confirmed this week that president rouhani and president obama exchanged written correspondence where contact between the leaders of two nations that cut off diplomatic ties in one nine hundred eighty in his letter mr obama indicated that the u.s. is ready to resolve the nuclear issue in

a way that allows the ron to demonstrate that its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes and on wednesday iranian officials released prominent iranian lawyer so today from prison after being jailed for three years for her human rights work in the past the u.s. actively force it to days release in addition iranian media reports that thirteen other political prisoners rounded up for involvement in the two thousand and nine anti-government protests had been released this comes as you launched a new moderate leader who has promised more freedoms at home and constructive engagement with the world travels to new york for the united nations general assembly debate however on. heels of mr rouhani arrival the u.s. government is preparing to seize a thirty six storey many one skyscraper that prosecutors say is secretly owned and controlled by the iranian government a u.s.

judge has ruled that the owners of this fifth avenue building known as the alvey foundation and asset corp transferred rental income and other funds to an iranian state owned bank a violation of u.s. sanctions this seizure could not come at a worse time considering that the leaders of the u.s. and iran could possibly meet face to face next week reporting from new york or in a fortnight r.t. . and that's not the only news coming from iran on the eve of newly elected president hassan rowhani his visit to the united states iranian authorities unexpectedly freed eleven of the country's most prominent political prisoners from jail the list of freed people includes journalist author of activists and attorneys most notably so today a human rights lawyer who represented several activists who protested against the iranian government also out this week in an interview with n.b.c.

news president rouhani pledged to tear down barriers that prevented orion's from surfing the internet really he said he believes that all people should have the right to access the free flow of information and have a platform for dialogue so a lot of changes but is this change that we can believe in i was trying to earlier by jamal obviously he's the policy director of the national iranian american council and i asked him what we should make of all of these changes. these are all extremely positive signs this could all be leading to a historic meeting between president obama and president rouhani at the u.n. general assembly next week rouhani since taking office six weeks ago has he said a lot of positive things a lot of people in washington were saying well that's all well and good but we don't know if he's actually going to be able to deliver prime minister of israel netanyahu said he smiling while he's building a bomb he's a wolf in sheep's clothing and yet what we found is that rouhani over the past six

weeks has managed to convert these positive words into positive actions he's demonstrating that he can deliver he has a little bit of space right now he's not going to have an infinite infinite amount of time to do so because there are hardliners in iran who don't want any sort of approach model with the u.s. but there is time right now the question is is obama going to be able to do the same thing and hold off hardliners here in washington from sabotaging potential talks so he gave us examples of some of those physical things that he has actually changed or not the things that he's necessarily just talked about well you know one of the main campaign promises that he made was in regard to the human rights situation the securitized environment inside of iran and yesterday we saw this sort of landmark announcement that nasa and so today i was released from prison along with ten other political prisoners this is a case that was raised by human rights organizations by president obama himself she was a major face of the crackdown against human rights defenders democracy defenders in

iran in two thousand and nine she's now released rouhani made good on this promise he also said he was going to try to get the leaders of the green movement released as well and there file has now been transferred to the national security council which can now make the decision actually release them very promising signs on the nuclear issue you know nothing is going to come outside of negotiations but already iran is converting some of its its hire and rich uranium to fuel purposes that can't be. use for virtually can't be used for a nuclear weapon and they've they've taken other steps to signal willingness to put further caps on the nuclear program and i'm glad you brought that up jamal actually we have a clip from president rouhani speaking with n.b.c. news about this is this nuclear program mr president these are israeli prime minister netanyahu is words not mine he has said about you his strategy is to be a wolf in sheep's clothing smile and build can you say now categorically then

that iran will not build a nuclear weapon under any circumstances whatsoever. firstly an occupier government that does injustice to the people and has brought instability to the region that's warmongering policies shouldn't allow itself to give speeches about a democratically elected government we have clearly stated that we are not nuclear weapons and we're not. so do we have reason to to trust him what can we do to trust him in the future well i think that you know this is a positive sign we can't you know nobody should operate on the assumption that we you know once i can trust the other side is about verifiable agreements but i think that there is reason for hope with rouhani because for one he actually has the backing of the supreme leader this is this is a pretty stunning development the supreme leader has had said look we need to be

more flexible at the negotiating table iran needs to be prepared for compromise he's laying the groundwork for compromise the supreme leader has also allowed rouhani to basically take over authority of the nuclear negotiations something that previously was overseen by the supreme leader and bodies like the i or g c now it's in the president's domain and rouhani has been instrumental in pushing for a compromise on the nuclear program and has said pursuing a nuclear weapon is not in the strategic interest of iran and i think that's something that he clearly. he believes and we just have about a minute left but obviously the u.n. is coming up next week how are american politicians responding are they willing to listen well president obama deserves a lot of credit actually he initiated a series of letter exchanges with rouhani rouhani said that these were positive exchanges he was happy to see these letters and it looks like there was some positive communication between the two sides now congress is a different story there are some in congress who want there to be

a diplomatic off ramp they saw how the syria debate played out and saw that americans don't want war in the middle east on the other hand you have folks like senator lindsey lindsey graham who is saying he actually is going to meet all of this positively by iran with a resolution to authorize war against iran to basically threaten the country because he says they've been emboldened somehow so i don't think that lindsey graham and other folks are necessarily updating their talking points they're sort of acting as if you're on hasn't changed when the reality is there are all these positive signals and hopefully hopefully the white house is going to be able to take advantage of them hopefully the white house and also the iranian people jamal abdi policy director at the national iranian american council thank you so much for with joining me and lang and my pleasure. well if you are one of the forty seven million people currently using the federal supplemental nutrition assistance program to put food on your family's played each night you're going to want to listen to this as you probably know right now congress is in the process of debating the twenty fourteen budget and all of the attention is focusing on

republican plans to permanently to fund obamacare but republicans in the house of representatives are also in the process of passing a bill that would cut the federal food stamp program by nearly forty billion dollars over the next ten years the nutrition reform and work opportunity act would cut nearly twice as much as was originally proposed by the house farm bill if passed the congressional budget office says three point eight million people would be cut from the program by next year and numerous others would have their benefits reduced and all of this is in addition to significant cuts that will begin november i was joined earlier by because palm director of policy and advocacy as well as research at the federation of protestant welfare agencies and i asked her how the arguments played out in the house. you know the fact is we do have forty seven million in american who are hungry and in need they've lost their jobs during

the great recession they have had their hours reduce they've many years had to declare bankruptcy as in then you of course you have the elderly who are impoverished have a very fixed income so really all these debates in the house about cutting such a lifeline in our country needs to be based upon the facts of who are the hungry and what the need the extensive need is out there and one of the major part of that republican lawmakers say is that there is rampant fraud and abuse for the snap programs first of all is there any proof of this major abuse and if so would cutting spending help solve that problem. now that is a complete myth it's untrue the federal government data has consistently shown that food stamps are the supplemental nutrition assistance program has very

very low fraud so it's a very high quality control measures and so that is not at all a fact to go on we have a situation where we the government data that just came out the census data shows about forty six point five million americans who are impoverished now that's roughly the same number of forty seven million americans who rely on the food stamp program so the fact is is that the people who are in poverty who are in need based upon government data are the same ones that are receiving the supplemental nutrition assistance program and so there is anybody who's talking about frog is just looking at the facts we you know we have a situation where not only do we want to make sure that this vital lifeline to hungry americans is maintained we also have the fact that food stamps help the

economy there basically it's money going to people who are going to spend it in mediately to put food on the table for their children and themselves so it helps to keep the slow recovery continuing if we cut forty billion dollars from this program you're going to have stores grocery stores. in these very struggling communities have the economic engine a source of in economic engine be be stopped immediately and that's just something that an sense of fair time however fox news interviewed a surfer who was using snap benefits to buy lobster and fu she and that story got many many people riled up do you think that that is representative of how the food assistance program is being you. you know you always see conservatives bring out that one oddball case that one very rare case that usually gets caught

by the various food and welfare agencies immediately they have very stringent rules and reporting requirements so i myself as a child was on food stamps with my family when we were immigrants or refugees from the war coming to this country and we had nothing but basically the clothes are back so we are much more representative of again the forty seven million people by the federal poverty data showing that these are people in need and and we can't be diverted from the immense need out there by one. case that is just not representative of the rest of the country and finally do you expect this bill to pass. well we're very concerned because so many cuts have already happened at the federal level as well as the city and state level and so these are very very serious threats and it seems that some of the policymakers in washington d.c. are not seeing their neighbors and even within their extended family perhaps the

hardships that they're going through so when you have that kind of policymaker who's out of touch with the real lives of people then it's a real threat thank you so much for joining us in for weighing in because palm she is the director of policy an advocacy and research at the federation of protestant welfare agencies. while browsing through the aisles of your local supermarket as americans we trust that when a certain meat is stamped with a u.s. a d.n.a. inspection seal we can eat it and not have to worry about safety or health but what if i told you that half of the u.s.d.a. inspectors and industrial meat processing plants will soon be replaced by people who work for the meat companies themselves essentially privatizing inspection would you still trust it then that's exactly what the u.s. department of agriculture is planning to do in the not too distant future are to correspondent a mirror david reports. it's the latest u.s.d.a.

plan set to roll out across the country and meet inspection program allowing pork producers to cut the number of u.s.d.a. safety inspectors at plants in half replacing them with private inspectors hired by meat companies themselves this according to a new in-depth washington post report that lays out how the government is neglecting to stop contaminated meat the pilot program was implemented fifteen years ago in five different pork plants nationwide but the results of the experimental program were staggering according to a report put out by the u.s.d.a. inspector general in may three of the five court plants were on a top ten list of worst plants dealing with health and safety violations many of which included the outright failure to remove visible fecal matter it's a problem food safety advocates like alexis baden meyer say points to a serious lapse in regulation we're letting the companies do the job of and

specters and even control the u.s.d.a. inspectors control where they found on the line and control what access they have to the plant and how much authority they have a very dangerous situation when we already know we have food safety problems food safety problems indeed according to the center for disease control there are approximately seventy six million cases of food borne illness each year in the united states three. a hundred twenty five thousand of them result in hospitalizations and five thousand of them in death. however those statistics haven't seemed to slow down the u.s.d.a. which is eager to implement this in over six hundred hog plants nationwide all despite the fact that the department has yet to study whether the program is even working tony corbo of watchdog organization food and water watch calls this lack of review disturbing it's obvious. that in the last fifteen years whether it's the the that the pilots that they've been running and chicken the turkey plants or in the

hog plants that there has not been a thorough analysis and their data does not support the theory that this is going to improve food safety but it's not only food safety advocates that are concerned over this program it's a sentiment echoed by local butchers like brian malone who worry that the plant bottom line will negatively impact him and his customers be able to leery about it . you know that because a lot of companies out is this what about the bottom dollar. that i worry about the customers you know they're never worried about what they're feeding anybody so the u.s.d.a. being there this is a big big help for all of us because you know they make sure every way does a correctly and official from the u.s.d.a. argue that the increase in fecal matter findings is actually a sign that the program is working he said we do many more checks for fecal matter in pilot plants than we do in traditional plants so it is not surprising that we are finding more because that is what our inspection personnel are focusing on this site their insistence that the program is working the department has finally said

it will conduct a review by march of next year with food safety advocates handing on that last hope of bringing this program to a halt in washington amir and david r.t. all you facebook users out there get your computer mouse ready chances are that you're going to like this next story the fourth u.s. circuit court of appeals ruled unanimously. on wednesday that the like button is just like sticking up political sign in your front yard and therefore is protected by the first amendment as substantive speech comes from a two thousand and nine case involving a virginia sheriff who ran for reelection only to have a number of his employees like the facebook of his opponent when he won he dismissed a number of them from duty and that is how this whole facebook like button debacle came about so will this pave the way for retreats and you tube like sand other things to be considered protected speech well let's get to today's tech report

earlier i was joined by matt been the producer of the majority report and he explained the court case in more detail. sure magen basically the fourth circuit court overruled lower court's decision that facebook likes did not constitute protection under the first amendment simply because i guess they felt clicking the like button is just in consequential or just not significant enough to fall under the protections of free speech but the fourth circuit court ruled that it is indeed an expression and like you said we've previously said that putting up a campaign sign also there has been you know political armbands statements burning a flag even these are all things protected under the first amendment and i see no reason why the first. facebook like shouldn't be put on the first amendment so who

exactly does this ruling of that kind people from a private company like who negative posts about their bosses without a fear of. i mean with a private company it's always it's always i mean there's protections but there's always i mean there is still i guess you can say you know freedom of speech but not freedom from the consequences in this particular case though it was a deputy sheriff so it was a public service so i mean was that was that is this something to fire someone over i mean it seems like something petty between the the sheriff and the deputy sheriff and on top of that the like is so it's so vague the facebook like especially your liking a page or even twitter when you're following someone i mean i follow donald trump on twitter i'm not a fan of donald trump i basically follow him to to make sure i can see what he says so i can heckle him and hate him every now and then for his political views i mean he has over two million followers two million people do not like donald trump please now it's basically you know you have to look at it as it is is it is it

is the first amendment protects all forms of the speech is it doesn't or does it make the does it make a difference between. how significant the speech is and it doesn't there's doesn't the first women say you know it has to be sincere there must be sincerity behind that there must be some sort of significance if it's political speech you're protected by it i'm glad that you brought up twitter although i'm not sure our founding fathers would have had it but do you think this paves the way for. even if you're a company or the government doesn't agree with what you're really tweeting or how about you tube likes. i mean i definitely think that all these forms of social media interactions should definitely be covered by the first amendment because there are forms of expression i mean we're living in an era we're living in a narrow citizens united where money is speech i mean people who use the internet they get these or anywhere they go to the library you don't need to have money to

use the internet so this is a form of speech that maybe the affluent to the politically connected or have access to that others do too that others don't i mean i'm batting millions and billions of dollars of money with millions like. i mean if you can spread the word through activism on the internet and that transforms into on the street activism or political activism that changes laws creates laws i don't see a problem with that whatsoever that was not bender producer for the majority report . well it's not the first venue he was ever kicked out of and it likely won't be the last but actor russell brand is making headlines this week after he was booted from the g.q. man of the year awards but whatever did he do you ask while the event was sponsored by the german fashion firm google bots something you might not know about that fashion company it manufactured nazi uniforms back in the day and bos'n south was

in fact a member of the nazi party not only that but the company also used forced labor as provided by the nazis to make the uniforms it's part of the history of the company that it is trying to put behind it and has apologized for it numerous times and is trying to forget but inter russell brand and if you know you'll be about history and special you know that you got the smite beautiful or the notes east and the nurses do that. you know they did look into this race it was. on the basis of their religion and six you alex. brad was partially correct the company did in fact manufacture the uniforms but it did not design them nonetheless neither g.q. nor hugo boss took kindly to that joke even if people laughed at it and they kindly asked him to leave well have to see if he's invited back next year and that's going to do it for now from now on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t

america check out our web site r c dot com slash usa. more news today violence is once again split up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing corporations are all. welcome to the kaiser report.