as the c.e.o. for your media project see the video down to our teeth dot com. coming up on our t.v. the u.n. general assembly continues with some major diplomatic developments a draft resolution has been agreed upon by the permanent members of the u.n. security council to deal with syria's chemical weapons but what happens next the latest on that and other global issues at the u.n. of ahead. and the u.s. federal government edges closer to a possible government shutdown leaving many americans wondering if a deal will be reached and if not what could be the consequences more on that coming up. and on capitol hill attempts to unmask n.s.a. surveillance continue at a senate intelligence hearing the nation's top spy were grilled over surveillance overreach of americans data the sights and sounds of that hearing later in the show .

it's friday september twenty seventh five pm in washington d.c. i'm sam sachs and you are watching r.t. and we start with a historic conversation between president obama and iranian president rouhani in just the last hour actually this afternoon the white house confirmed that the two men spoke with each other over the phone about a nuclear deal and this marks the first time a u.s. president and iranian leader i've spoke to spoken in more than thirty years here was the president addressing the significance of this call. the very fact that this was the first communication between an american and iranian president since one thousand nine hundred seventy nine underscores the deep mistrust between our countries but it also indicates the prospect of moving beyond that difficult history meanwhile at the united nations in new york city it's been a busy week for the general assembly but as we reach friday the diplomats labors

are starting to bear fruit thursday evening we learned that the five permanent members of the u.n. security council had agreed to a draft resolution put forward by the united states and russia that compel syria to give up its chemical weapons stockpiles in official vote in the security council may come as soon as this evening and now throughout these negotiations the main point of contention centered on chapter seven measures which allow for military and nonmilitary actions three of the five members of the security council the u.s. france and the u.k. wanted a resolution to contain chapter seven measures as punishment if syria fails to hand over its chemical weapons but the two other permanent members russia and china opposed any chapter seven measures the agreed upon draft resolution does not contain any chapter seven measures meaning that if syria doesn't comply the u.n. will have to pass a second measure to approve any military or nonmilitary actions like strikes or

sanctions so where do things go from here joining me now is our teas on a stasia turkana who's been in new york city covering the u.n. general assembly all week as i. the syrian resolution that took place yesterday we're now expecting to be voted on shortly what led to it what's the timeline and what happens next sam of this resolution is really seen as a diplomatic breakthrough because for weeks if not days if not months really the u.s. and russia were at a deadlock in terms of how to proceed when it comes to syria because of the opposing positions because of the u.s. insistence that the use of force should be included in the security council resolution whereas russia was completely against this idea and with this latest breakthrough that happened on thursday we now are expecting the security council to vote on this text later today this evening and it will not like you said include the clause of use of force something that is seen as a as

a major development in the story of course because this was something that the u.s. was pushing really strongly for where we stand now is after this resolution is voted on by the security council we will be looking forward to a geneva conference where all parties involved in keeping go shooters will try to proceed with a political transition taking place in syria in a peaceful diplomatic manner hoping that all sides will be able to negotiate this process calmly and politically in terms of the timeline how much it's going to take to to solve the syrian crisis is certainly a huge question mark that remains but we're just going to have to wait and see but this is definitely a big big development because countries have been butting heads over this for a very long time. exclusive we with the syrian foreign minister today syria planning to carry out what they've signed up to in terms of the chemical weapons being put under international control well sam all of this is certainly being done

under a tight watch of experts from the united nations and the international community being the key negotiators that came up with this agreement namely russia and the u.s. we do know that. speaking with the syrian foreign minister today he did tell us that the syrian government is happy to do this but they are concerned that terrorist groups being. supplied support from the outside from neighboring countries namely would get in the way of this to try to hinder this operation take a listen to what he told us under the existing circumstances of war on the ground ongoing how much in control is the syrian government of the chemical arsenal. we control of the can we come to nothing but. the think who also has chemical weapons and they want to use it. to show the west. is not committed to its commitments. we

also discussed sam with the syrian foreign minister whether or not those threats from the west that were coming earlier war something that i had a what kind of impact this had on syria's decision to hand over these chemical weapons listen to our conversation about that. when syria does hand over its chemical weapons do you think there are still a possibility of a threat from the west that would remain or would the threat from the west is that evening. before using this through that. through some book to do good on the group that got us to go. but we think. the only company which is not. to get a medic come bush or yielding to the american where. it is on the other three why do you think it is that there is so much doubt in the west that the syrian

government will comply with what has been agreed with handing over these letters and this is one of the. good a blunder on t.c.m. . even before. the start of things to secure a lot or believe this stuff to put. some you heard there the syrian foreign minister believes that because the basically there is some kind of anti syrian major anti syrian plan and he says that this is something that has been stalling the crisis certainly this is serious kind of more fishel position and he didn't tell us that he believes the timeline and solving the syrian situation really depends on the amount of outside impact and outside support that the opposition has been getting on the ground as you know our she's been covering the town of interior which is going to battle field between nusra front rebel fighters and the assad government did the syrian foreign minister of anything to say about the time right

we did address this issue sound this is a model is a village about forty miles away from damascus where they have a very large christian population and certain religious symbols religious locations and christians living in that area were targeted by the rebels and this has been something that's been a major concern and we did ask the syrian foreign or foreign minister what the situation is today and whether or not this place in particular is being held by the government this is what he told us. to. to find. and me. to sit by the sea of young people through the threatening to close to. doing much like against the sky christine. is defending them. today is the control of the sea if you are. obviously the situation on the ground remains extremely complicated in syria but you know there are hopes of course that

with these diplomatic developments here at the united nations the community should international community should be a step closer to trying to find the political transition in the political solution they're hoping for on the ground also making headlines in new york is the iranian president you know we've seen him almost every day at the general assembly or other speaking to the assembly talking with reporters we now have this phone call between president obama and president rouhani what does all this mean for talks about iran's nuclear enrichment program well sam what this means is that iran seems to be really another issue that has seemed development here at the united nations general assembly session this year a major change of tone we know this breakthrough conversation finally happened between barack obama and the iranian president rouhani over the phone the first dialogue between the two presidents between the presence of these two countries and over three decades and certainly with the new iranian president he has had lots of face time here in new york city he's had plenty of meetings plenty of media

perience is where he has been and even of course his address to the united nations has been saying that look we are ready to bring the tensions down we are ready to communicate with the west in the west and we want to get rid of all concerns about our uranium enrichment program which iran has been saying for the longest time that it has peaceful purposes but with mahmoud ahmadinejad's previous rainy and president's really fiery personality and controversial and difficult relationship with the west this. it has not been proven in any way so now we have the iranian president really making these steps to try to fix diplomacy with the west and the west again and it seems like it's helping and we know that rouhani said that. iran will propose a resolution to the five permanent members of the security council plus germany plus. iran obviously in these new go in these negotiations on the rhenium enrichment program in october in geneva so we might see some breakthroughs there as well. reporting from new york. when was the un general assembly still in full

swing in new york city is playing host to the world's diplomats what exactly does it take to be a representative of america to the rest of the world to get one of those ambassadorships yes or a lot of cash archies amir david reports last week president obama announced his pick for the highly coveted spot of u.s. ambassador to canada his name is bruce heyman and if confirmed he'll be joining the administration not as a career foreign service officer nor as a career politician but rather a career investment banker you see bruce heyman is a goldman sachs executive making his money as a managing director for the company's private wealth management group so what kinds of qualifications does haman have that merits the top diplomatic spot while according to canadian newspapers he's done trades in canada with the country being his regional focus all of goldman sachs however there is one other small

qualification that's important to note mr hammond has been one of obama's top bundle earth or fund raisers for his presidential campaign both bruce heyman and his wife started giving to obama back in two thousand and seven and even hosted a fundraiser in their home that year but during the two thousand and twelve campaign they took it one step further by serving on obama's national finance committee together the haman's collected and contributed a total of one point seven million dollars to the president's reelection effort and as a thank you for that support payment got an ambassadorship according to a bloomberg report released this summer these donor turned embassador appointments are becoming standard practice in washington while obama once pledged that he would not let money rule his administration a review of his ambassadorial appointees five years into his presidency shows that the big donors are landing the top overseas assignments in fact since obama entered

his second term. hosts in italy belgium spain and the u.k. have all gone to top paying supporters and at least twenty six of obama's current and nominated ambassadors were major contributors giving at least thirteen point six million dollars to the president the democratic party and congressional candidate but white house spokesman josh earnest has defended these picks saying obama chose quote some distinguished americans to represent our country in foreign capitals none of them were chosen because they supported the president's campaign and none of them should have been ruled out just because they did however it's not only the donor that seemingly getting the returns favor here it's the president as well not surprisingly these donor ambassadors happen to also be some of the wealthiest ambassadors and according to bloomberg to keep their top spot there continuing to donate the big bucks internal financial documents obtained by the new

york times show that these ambassadors have contributed around twenty one point six million dollars now while the practice of assigning campaign supporters to diplomatic posts is not unique to this presidency obama's quick implementation of this tradition has disappointed state department veterans in a statement the american foreign service association said now is the time to end the spoils system and the defacto three year rental of ambassadorship the appointment of non-career individuals however accomplished in their own field to lead america's most important diplomatic missions abroad should be exceptional and circumscribed not the routine practice it has become over the last three decades. however it doesn't appear that president obama will be heeding met advice anytime soon while the majority of appointees still come from the foreign service big donors are next in line to take those top spot in washington a mere david artie's there are a jew capitol hill where nerves are beginning to fray as

a government shutdown creeps closer on thursday republican senator bob corker took to the senate floor and criticized his republican colleagues and their ted cruz and mike lee for grandstanding in delaying the votes necessary to avert a government shutdown. i was just over at the house and talked to members of the leadership there and they would like to get the piece of legislation from the senate over there as quickly as possible so they could respond but it's my understanding again relative to this vote tonight happening tomorrow instead is that my two colleagues who respect have sent out e-mails around the world and turn this into a show possibly and therefore they want people around the world to watch and they meet them and others on the senate floor and that is taking property over getting legislation back to the house so they can take action before the country's

government shuts down ultimately as senator cruz in a lead lost this battle in this afternoon the senate passed its plan to keep the government funded and unlike the house plan passed last week it keeps obamacare funded as well so now it's up to house republicans to make a choice and they have until monday night to make it they can cave on obamacare accept the senate spending bill and keep the government open although doing so would badly damaged house speaker john boehner is credibility within his party since he would mostly be relying on democratic support not republican support to pass the senate's bill or house republicans can tell the senate no stand firm on obamacare and plunge the government into shutdown unfortunately given the time constraints and vote breakdowns this is the most likely scenario so if you plan to visit a national park next week it's probably best to reconsider those plans but that's not all because no matter what resolution there is to the government shutdown debate there will be a nother huge political fight with enormous economic implications just

a few weeks later that's when the treasury says it will no longer be able to pay all of its bills until the debt limit is raised and here to republicans in congress want concessions to any increase concessions like they want to. a delay to obamacare an automatic approval of the keystone x.l. pipeline and a rolling back of e.p.a. regulations concessions that democrats want agree to and that president obama said today won't happen meaning we could see a repeat of two thousand and eleven is debt limit fight when the u.s. credit was downgraded in markets tumbled only this time many economists fear it could be a lot worse we already know that the government shutdown in one thousand nine hundred five in one thousand nine hundred six cost the government over a billion dollars and so too did the debt limit fight in two thousand and eleven and earlier i spoke with peter schiff the c.e.o. and chief global strategist a euro pacific capital and i first to ask him why deficit hawks are threatening such costly consequences and their efforts to reduce the deficit. well member the

real consequence the real cost is raising the debt limit think of how many times we've raised the debt limit over the years and think of all the additional debt that's been piled onto the u.s. economy that u.s. citizens are now responsible for repaying so that's what i'm concerned about it's the cost of the added debt and i would much rather see a non increase in the debt ceiling even if it means you know we have some temporarily temporary losses associated with some kind of partial semi government shutdown that kind of pain is much greater from the pain that we're all going to have to endure because we're repeatedly raise the debt ceiling but it's estimated that just a half percent point increase in treasury rates which could stem from default could cost about seventy five billion dollars a year that means higher borrowing costs for homeowners car buyers you name it it's so good that we need this sort of chicago boy style shock treatment but use what do

you say to the millions who could be put into financial ruin as a course because of this action interest rates are going to go way up eventually anyway in fact the more debt we pile on now the more we increase the debt ceiling today the higher interest rates are going to go tomorrow you know you have the president framing it for political reasons but he says we need to raise the debt ceiling because america always pays its bills you know we have to raise the debt ceiling because we never pay our bills we can't afford to pay our bills so instead we want to raise the debt ceiling so we can borrow war money instead of paying our bills see the threat is if we don't raise the debt ceiling then the world will realize how broke we are because if we can't borrow more money then we have to default but that day of reckoning is coming eventually anyway and the longer we put it off the worse it's going to be so let's deal with it now doesn't this also come down to austerity though i mean the president we want to reduce you want to reduce the debt the president has and. he took office here has reduced the deficit faster

than at any rate in sixty three years i mean those are the facts of it i've seen was ten point one percent of g.d.p. when he came in it's two thousand and twelve it's seven percent it's a three point one percent decline it hasn't declined the past in sixty three years yet you mean if you want to spin it that way you know you could make lemonade out of a made lemonade out of lemons yes you know if a kid was getting asked all the time on his report card and then he brought home a d. and he could say look there's a huge improvement from where i was yes the deficit is not as horrific as it used to be but wait till you see how bad it's going to get in this neck economic downturn i think that the improvement in the deficit is related to the artificial recovery that's been generated by the q e but eventually we're going back to recession if the fed ever begins to taper but even if they don't we're rolling over and look we just saw today the government having a ballet out now a billion and a half dollars for the f.h.a.

for some of their mortgage losses these are going to add up and eventually they're going to have the means belling out not only the f.h.a. but fannie and freddie again and as the economies turn south and as interest rates inevitably rise the temporary improvement in the budget that's it's going to turn around and we're going to be looking at annual budget deficit as well north of a trillion dollars we could be looking at budget deficits on the order of one and a half to two trillion dollars a year peter you know markets pretty well it's pretty well known that when there are market downturns like there were in two thousand and eleven with the debt limit debate and even in two thousand made a massive market downturn there's an opportunity for investors to make a lot of money whenever that happens you know your years pretty savvy investor do you see any personal gain or any of your other friends who see personal gain in letting the market stumble as a result of a development breakthrough here but they're not going to unfortunately they're going to raise the debt ceiling they do it every time this is all theater this is

political theater. the politicians want to get the american public to believe that the worst thing that can happen is that the government stop borrowing and stop spending they're going to create a phony crisis and then they're going to save us from it's the real crisis is the debt and the borrowing and the and the continuous raising of the debt ceiling you know why don't these politicians just put up a bill to eliminate the debt ceiling what's the purpose of having a debt ceiling if we raise it every time we get to it because nobody wants to vote to eliminate the debt ceiling because they want to pretend that they care about the debt but everybody wants to increase it because they don't want to cut any spending but if you want to look at the markets if the markets are selling off on the false crisis that we might not increase the debt ceiling clearly there's opportunities because we know they're going to increase the debt ceiling but ultimately the biggest crisis not it doesn't come because we fail to raise the debt ceiling but because we do raise it and we repeatedly raise it and that's why the country is broke i think because there actually is some talk about kind of getting rid of the

debt limit i mean even if the president were to use the fourteenth amendment solution as speaker the house nancy pelosi has suggested he should do that would kind of by the fall get rid of the debt limit but one last question here about a month ago a baby panda was born at the national zoo we're in these critical first one hundred days the pen is life entering the name the panda yet a government shutdown will slash the zoo's operations leaving only essential personnel behind which could put the baby panda risk peter schiff i ask you have you no heart for the baby cloned i was well i can tell you is if that we don't raise the debt ceiling if dollars the government doesn't have any money they just have the money that they collect in taxes which is still over two trillion dollars a year i'm sure is somewhere out of that two trillion dollars of revenue they could find enough money to keep this little panda alive what i'd like to see the government do is get rid of all the programs in the spending that are unnecessary and then deal with the entitlements. they can actually cut government spending the

government doesn't have to shut down the cost of operating the government including those who are that panda is is tiny it is a very small part of the budget most of what the government does it takes money from some people and gives it to other people who didn't earn it and to whom it doesn't belong so if they can't keep borrowing money then the redistribution of wealth has to stop and that and those parts of government could be wind wound down but the essential government services that we all appreciate and that we all pay our taxes to get they're not going to have to be interrupted it's just the government to chooses to highlight the few things that government does that we want to try to protect all the things that government does that we don't want and that we don't need so it's all about prioritizing those payments for the baby panda probably ahead of food stamps and stuff bitter shift c.e.o. in chief global strategist at euro pacific capital inc thank you on thursday the

nation's top spy was the director of national intelligence james clapper in the us as chief general keith alexander testified in front of the senate intelligence committee it was there that they were met by one of the harshest critics of the n.s.a.'s activities senator ron wyden who wanted to know if the n.s.a. was tracking americans through their cell phone location data center you don't center heinrich and i along with about two dozen other senators have asked in the past whether the n.s.a. has ever collected or made any plans to collect americans cell site information in both what would be your response to that and let's pause it right there you might remember earlier this year when senator wyden asked a very another very direct question about spying to d.n.i. clapper does the n.s.a. collect any type of gate. and millions or hundreds of millions of americans no sir it does not. not wittingly of course it was later

revealed by edward snowden's leaks that clapper was lying or in kloppers words providing the least untruthful answer and senator wyden knew that so back to thursday and here is wired in again asking another direct question and you can tell the n.s.a. has learned its lesson because here was general alexander being very careful with his answer sen on july twenty fifth director clapper provided an unclassified written response to this question amongst others as well as a classified supplement with additional detail allow me to reaffirm what was stated in that unclassified response under section two fifteen and is a is not receiving cell site location data and has no current plans to do so i think i think we're all familiar with it that's not the question i'm asking respectfully i am asking have the an ass say ever collected or ever made any plans to collect american cell fight information that with the

question that we still respectfully general have not gotten an answer to basically what's happening here is in a public setting the n.s.a. has told senator ron wyden in the rest of us something very specific that they're not currently tracking american cell site location data under section two fifteen but in a classified setting the n.s.a. could have told senator wyden something else about cell site location tracking different and why did may be desperately trying to get the n.s.a. to repeat it now in a public setting but alexander won't take the bait. but i don't want to do senator is put out in an unclassified form and i think that's classified here generally if if you're responding to my question by not answering it because you think that's a classified matter that is certainly your right we will continue to explore that because i believe this is something the american people have a right to know whether the n.s.a.

has ever collected or made plans to collect cell site information of course if you've been paying attention to the way senator wyden has been cryptically talking about the n.s.a. for years then you can reason that senator wyden is warning the american people that the n.s.a. is indeed collecting cell site location tracking we just may have to wait for edward snowden to confirm it meanwhile the n.s.a. is admitting that on twelve occasions since two thousand and three analysts improperly snooped on their girlfriends boyfriends husbands and wives this information was contained in a letter by the n.s.a. inspector general george allard one case documented in two thousand and five the n.s.a. the office of inspector general was notified that on these subjects first day of access to the sig int signature intelligence collection system he queried six email addresses belonging to a former girlfriend the sort of stuff happened so often that the n.s.a. has a name for it love isn't or love intelligence hollywood tells us that dating a spy is cool and i say it tells us not so much and that does it for now for more

of the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america check out our web site r t v dot com slash usa you can follow me on twitter at sam sachs we'll see you back here at eight pm thanks for watching. dramas that can be ignored. stories others a few said no. faces change the world right. to pictures of states. from a practical. joke to. me.

i know c.n.n. the m s m b c news have taken some not slightly but the fact is i admire their commitment to cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate. that was funny but it's close and for the truth and might think. it's because one whole attention and the mainstream media works side by side the joke is actually on here. at our teen years we have a different brain. because the news of the world just is not this funny i'm not laughing dammit i'm not how. you guys talk to the jokes i will hand over the stuff that i've got to.