coming up on our t.v. boycotting the tepee that's what protesters in salt lake city and washington d.c. are saying about the transpacific partnership a trade deal that shrouded in secrecy we'll tell you more about what's in this global tasks ahead and congress is getting bitten by the big point today the senate learned all about this virtual currency and how it could change the landscape of digital finance the lawmakers want to know could this digital cash be used for illegal activities and beaten down in san francisco one man was detained held down and beat by police officers all for illegally riding the bicycle now he's accusing police of using excessive force we'll tell you his story later in the show.

it's tuesday november nineteenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm in the area david and you are watching our team. lead negotiators from twelve countries who are taking part in the transpacific partnership began meeting today in salt lake city utah to refresh your memory the transpacific partnership or t p p is a new trade deal being negotiated that would open up markets between nations along the pacific rim now it's also a trade deal that has by and large remained a secret from the public however the massive pact is expected to affect jobs the environment consumer safety and a whole lot more and the fact we're beginning to learn details about how much is really in jeopardy last week transparency organization wiki leaks released a draft of the intellectual property chapter of the t p p that reveals new proposals for copyright and patent rights that would boost big pharma companies and

it raises questions on how the trade agreement would affect individual rights and free expression of the leaked documents wiki leaks editor in chief julian assange said quote if you read or write publish think listen dance sing or invent if you farm or consume food if you're ill now or might one day be ill the t.p. has you in its crosshairs it's for that reason that a number of demonstrators have come together and washington d.c. to call out one trade rep trying to tell the tepees alleged benefits artie's perry and boring has more. the u.s. trade representative michael froman a spoke about the conservation provisions within the transpacific partnership today at the charlie palmer steak house and washington d.c. the event was sponsored by the world wildlife fund there about fifteen people in attendance including myself other members of the press also u.s. fish and wildlife services was here members from key congressional offices were

here at the state department embassy of nations were here as well as the sierra club are the first person that spoke was carter roberts he is the president and the c.e.o. of the world wildlife fund he said right now is an incredibly important time for conservation and it's time to get a hand on the biggest challenges of environmental destruction these include illegal trade and subsidies as well as overfishing he also said that. is committed to making sure the right environmental provisions are in place and that he. spoke we heard from the trade rep michael froman he said that we are in the closing period of the p.p. they're hoping to wrap up all these negotiations by the end of twenty thirteen he said we're rebalancing at us in a rebalancing act with asia and the t.v. is critical to supporting jobs and the united states he said he wants a trade policy that reflects u.s. values but also looks into new initiatives as well but he does say that it is very

difficult to talk about these provisions in detail because as of now there is no agreement and that conservation has been very difficult to negotiate because every country has their own idea of what conservation should look like he said even some nations are having a hard time wrapping their hands around conservation even if we also spoke with the bill warren he's a friend of the earth before this meeting took place there was a rally protesting against the p.p.s. conservations provisions and here is what mr warren's concerns were the worst is the investor state. dispute resolution process sure this is all very walky illegal list and they hide behind that but what it is in effect is a play of a court for rich investors and big multinational corporations to sue nations skates for money compensation for the cost of complying with public interest environmental regulations mr frohman did address this issue in the meeting as well and he said

look no one is going to get one hundred percent of a one there's twelve nations involved everyone has to compromise somewhere and now we're viewing this process as a living agreement meaning changes can be made in the future and along the way as far as the indes ivester states it can be used to challenge governments and that there are a series of safeguards in place there's exceptions for health environment and there's also procedural safeguards to make sure that this investor provision is used as intended he also said that the t.v. overall will strengthen the ability of governments to regulate and that they're not trying to change u.s. law what he wants to do is incorporate u.s. law where appropriate into that seat in washington d.c. very annoying party. and right now a congressional briefing is taking place on the hill in which congressman are listening to the stories of a special delegation from yemen which includes the families of recent drone victims

they will hear from feisal been alisha barr who has traveled from yemen to tell the story of his brother in law salim an anti al qaeda cleric who was killed by a u.s. drone strike along with his twenty six year old nephew will lead the briefing comes just after the twenty thirteen drone summit took place this past weekend that brought together four hundred people from around the world to discuss strategies to stop the proliferation of drones used for killing and spying and while congress is hearing the testimony of families here in the united states r.t. caught up with some of those families all the way in yemen artie's lucy kavanagh for ports. it says no faith for the one who has no trust but both are now in short supply in this part of yemen for months the class has been without its mouth teacher and this pupil without his father this is the big show about a charity i didn't ask. his name is still on the staff schedule but i leave hasn't

been here since signing out of class on january twenty third the last of the the finality the father of three was killed by a u.s. drone alongside his twenty year old cousin salim a college student who drove them in a borrowed to yoda they picked up two strangers who turned out to be suspected al qaeda militants witnesses reported a whirring sound in the sky and missiles struck their car. the smell of death was everywhere some of the bodies were burned beyond recognition of the rest were ripped to shreds and scattered all around. i found a part of so many men side the car the rest was outside but we only recognised him by a piece of his trousers. you couldn't tell who was who if they were even human it was sickening. one drone change the sleepy farming village for ever less than an hour's drive from yemen's capital lawn is far removed from al qaeda operations but without

warning it was thrust into the war on terror. saleem's mother shows me where her son used to sleep she can't bear to get rid of his things although she knows she'll never return home oh if god help us i don't understand until the next day the ten american drone killed my son why tell me may allah deprive them of their souls like they robbed us of our son he was the only one providing for this family all we have left now is our tears we only target al qaeda and its associated force and even then the use of drones is heavily can strike before any strike is taken there must be near. certainly that no civilians will be killed or injured the highest standard we can set. out. except there was a deadly failure yemen's interior ministry confirms the cousins had no links to

terrorism in a country where tribal ties surmount all the loss was felt far beyond the family the white house has never acknowledged the deaths let alone the strike but mohamed shows me the evidence this is what kills them what's thought to be a fragment of a hellfire missile launched from a drone. the u.s. believes this is its best weapon against al qaeda although not officially out war in yemen the covert drone campaign has been dramatically ramped up here under president obama. yemen's al qaeda threat is real it's a lot of attacks on international airliners and caused hundreds of deaths the cia described it as the most dangerous and active branch of the terrorist network. the defense is that drone strikes have seriously damaged his ability to plan attacks but critics here say it's doing the exact opposite it does not. contain the ghosts of the facts that may have contributed to the growth and expansion of the at some

point when we can slide enough powerful enough to be able to inflict serious damage the u.s. war on terror has no borders often waged remotely with cruise missiles and drones it's an undeclared global battlefield in which yemen is just one of the front lines of fights against groups like al qaida in which ordinary civilians also end up paying a price. i ask obama to bring my dad back to life. all the kids at school have their fathers but we don't. reporting in come on in yemen and. so once the present and future impact of virtual currency that's exactly what two senate committees are exploring today in a joint hearing the virtual currency up for discussion is called bit coin a financial concept new to even senator carper a ranking member of the senate homeland security committee which held the first

hearing on the virtual currency yesterday coins are essentially digital cash for the internet it operates by person to person exchange without a bank or central monetary authority such as the federal reserve to regulate or issue it lawmakers are now bedeviled by this technology who's growing popularity has raised questions about whether or how it should be regulated so to talk a little bit about the fate for this new virtual currency i'm joined by aaron a host of us. thanks for joining me aaron so we saw senator carper there a bit confused about the bitcoin concept do you think lawmakers understand this technology. i would say you know those sentiments by the senator and kind of felt all around the hearing this afternoon i had run out a little early to chat with you guys still going on at the moment but i didn't dare

look the devil by what's going on with decline what it is how it's used you know how can you steal it if it doesn't really exist and these are all valid questions it's new and it's price volatility is kind of off the charts right now we saw it had i believe it was nine hundred yesterday and now it's back in the high six hundred but the point is this is really just a new currency that a lot of senators don't understand and today's hearing was for the sole purpose of kind of not not damage control before there's a crisis why not have a hearing to discuss how they can face what could happen with this currency sure that makes sense you were just at the hearing like you mentioned would you consider the very fact that these hearings are taking place a big step forward for virtual currency in itself i mean absolutely the fact that they're talking about it they're considering you know the question is still there is this a currency or not is this something besides

a currency but the fact that they're taking place really shows that the federal government is taking the time and consideration to not only discuss how to regulate it but to accept it into and to you know beyond just what the federal reserve has today in those options using something like that coin you know peer to peer like you said. turns the sharing network i think that it's an important step for big client and we could definitely see that yesterday and today at the hearing sure and from the discussion that you were able to see did they agree that the coin is an actual currency. you know that's a great question because right now no. you know it's an encrypted virtual currency and is a currency is it not yes it's a currency in the sense that it can buy you things online from certain places however if i go to the store you go to the store and i want to buy a piece of bread from you i can't pay you in bitcoin you wouldn't accept it so

there are some gray areas but it's a currency for all the sense of purposes in the sense that you can purchase things with bitcoin and but today out of today's hearing. and so gray areas whether or not they have considered it a full fledged currency and lawmakers have said you know that it's intriguing and they're learning about it was anything said about whether bitcoin could be taxed. that's a great question and one of the things that it was senator warren he said today that if we lay too much regulatory burden we cannot possibly chase these exchanges overseas which is something they don't want to do basically what they want to do is keep it regulated but not to regulate in the sense that it would deter innovation because return innovation is not something that we want it all particularly with america kind of being at the forefront of the tech innovation sector right now we have all new we just talked about on the show many times uber air b.n. b.

accept or accept or these are all new innovations and if you regulate them too heavily you're going to see them go overseas and they brought that up today so how they're going to tax it still needs to be discussed and by tax season in this upcoming spring what will happen we have to wait and see but now the fact that they're having these hearings ahead of when it's time to really start considering it shows that know what you might be taxed so if you have your big one be sure to put potential money aside for taxes but they don't have anything on the books yet you got it and one potential obstacle to mainstream acceptance of bitcoin decline is the sometimes wild fluctuation and its value. take a look at this there was a massive rally in the price of bitcoin on monday with the value. soaring past nine hundred dollars on some exchanges do you believe that this rally was a sign that the government would not stand in the way of that going development.

you know these virtual currencies there there are benefits are as diverse as they're there cons and these rallies there are so many different variables yes canada could it have had something to do with the fact that we saw such a huge rally in the value in price decline yes it could've but it could also be a variety of other things that you know it's hard to say exactly what what kicked this off and to make it go on such a bull rally but it's it didn't hurt that's for sure the fact that these senate hearings are happening and that good things are coming from in this in the term in the terms of acceptance of this currency as something that the u.s. government might look into and implementing as something of its own share well it will be interesting to see how this new virtual currency is going to be regulated house of boom bust aaron a thank you. and in new york city mayor michael bloomberg just signed a landmark legislation today banning the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of twenty one that makes new york the first large city in the country to

prohibit sales to young adults this is a big win for city health officials who say that raising the legal age from eighteen to twenty one will lead to a big decline in smoking for that age group now research shows that most smokers get addicted to cigarettes before the age of twenty one with many of them encountering huge endeavors if and when they try to quit plus it means high schoolers can't buy cigarettes for their friends however the ban does have limitations under this new law teenagers can still possess tobacco legally that means kids would still be able to steal cigarettes from their parents or get them from friends and if caught there would be no legal recourse tobacco companies and some retailers have opposed the age increase saying the highly restrictive law would just push more teens into the city's thriving black market. and san francisco police have been accused of using excessive force in a bloody incident that escalated after officers allegedly beat

a man for riding his bicycle on the sidewalk the incident began when twenty year old to paris d.j. williams was asked by plain clothed officers to stop riding his bicycle on the sidewalk williams says he was listening to his music and could not hear the officer's command police say when they attempted to stop him he fled to a nearby apartment complex where occupant occupants tried to pull him inside and a struggle between the occupants and the police and suit soon after the cops detained him and forced him to the ground williams sr told a local news station folks one was choking him one pinned all his weight on him leaning on him and the lady over there trying to put the handcuffs on him and he started beating on him for no reason. but san francisco police officer gordon shai told r.t. today quote we believe reasonable force was used by the officers to effect arrest shies says officers were also injured in the confrontation and two were transported

to the hospital for suspects including williams were arrested and three days and after three days in jail williams was discharged pending further investigation shai tells r t that the amateur video only tells half of the story and they will be looking at security footage from the housing complex to complete the investigation to discuss this incident further i was joined earlier by mario ramirez a witness to the attack and a friend of d.j. williams i first asked him how d.j. has been feeling since the attack the villain in the tires is who's going are inches in pain and serious. is. going to do. a few stitches and this is going to burn more into their side is she who police say it was you know justified force you watch the altercation you were actually there

a knew you were seen in some of that video what did you see. i seen the one i saw right one way or tomorrow. or not throw over. from there's no. ice in the opposite for all this new you get. out. of the banks and into the lady. laying in a you know it's like about six. over an hour and then he. needs time everybody can breathe it's. all right this is. about the. watch on the internet me. so you can dream. of it they do it. right here again sorry i couldn't be. right on time to ask.

do you know if d.j. and his family will be taking any legal action perhaps by suing the police department yes we are in the process of law school. so. this will be hard for us to cope with or so i was all over the ground there sure and so a lot of people are did come out of their homes during altercation obviously you were there there were a number of witnesses plus there is this video of the incident do you think all of this will help d.j. you give him you know a pretty strong case. yes of course. because it was you know all right to do that how they really tryna go. out there that's the market was there for sure and as i understand it there is

a rally taking place for d.j. and other victims of police brutality you know are there other victims have experienced the same thing d.j. has can you talk about that a little bit and maybe the outcome of their cases. and i'll. do the three really. really well you know the. rules his face was like a as. he went through a hospital yesterday last night where a word. now is i did want to lastly ask you about what you're expecting for this evening's rally do you expect there a large outpouring from the community yet. for all there. is so we're still we're. in

a. battle. against them on that we really start is what they want. to vote the gas people what they want and. that was mario ramirez a witness from san francisco. and congress is preparing to debate the reauthorization of the higher education act in two thousand and fourteen that's a law that governs how federal student aid is given out but it works like it won't pass without a little resistance student and consumer groups are using this as an opportunity to call on congress to adopt a number of reforms urgently needed to restore fairness to the student loan system this comes at a time when americans now over one trillion dollars in student loan debt which is more than what is owed on credit cards additionally to wish and has increased over five hundred percent since one thousand nine hundred five at public colleges not to

mention that the average family incomes are lower than they were a decade ago making it increasingly difficult for families to pay for college without loans so here to talk about the proposals in place to fix the system i'm joined by natalia abrams co-founder of the group student debt crisis natalia thank you so much for joining me so one of the biggest complaints of the student loan system is that it's very confusing and i know from personal experience of borrowing lots and lots of money that it is a very complex system can you just talk a little bit about how challenging it can be for students to navigate that and just you know doing something as simple as filling out a financial aid application. that you actually need a c.p.a. to fill out your past but you know this is so complicated and i think another problem is we don't know the actual sticker price with interest rates we saw the interest rate hike we see tuition going up when i was at u.c.l.a. right after i graduated they raise tuition forty percent so you don't know when you

start school what you're going to end up graduating with let alone what the interest rates will continue to rise and what you'll be paying twenty years later why can't it be like when you buy a car you buy a car it says for five years this is what you're going to pay for we need to make it this simple one page form not this complicated thing to navigate for students i completely agree. and of course something else that has been appointed. intension are these if arius repayment plans which is the bane of my existence is there enough flexibility as it stands for students in and how they pay specially for students that are dealing with private loans because i know that it's a little bit tricky no i mean the simple answer is of course not there is actually nothing that we know of and we've been working on this for four plus years out there for private student loans we we proposed a bill to congress h.r. thirteen thirty that would allow you to convert your private student loan into a federal student loan so you could take advantage of income based repayment pay as

you earn that's going nowhere because john representative john klein is that the head of the education workforce committee won't even let it out of committee we need to do more for federal and private loans students need to be able to refinance they need to be able to declare the loans in bankruptcy they need to be able to negotiate the way they negotiate for a mortgage especially if they are paying it off there in thirty years like a mortgage i mean a student loan was never meant to be a mortgage payment right now it is exactly you know as i understand it the consumer financial protection bureau has received more than thirty eight hundred complaints just in the last year from borrowers private student loans can you talk about some of the other grievances that students are saying they have with this with the system harassment i mean they're being stalked i know of a student or a borrower that has over a thousand calls they have called his sister in law's friend they will i mean the same type of protections that are out there for credit cards if you go into default they're not there for students and i don't know why we're punishing the people that

are trying to better their lives more than we're punishing other sectors of the society we're trying to pay for this on the backs of students and it's not fair and i don't want to sound like a child thinking out there but it's not fair and it's all you're here for a very specific reason in d.c. are not normally you're advocating on behalf of all of these students so tell us. about who you're meeting with while you're here and what reforms you are advocating for so we are advocating for changing the higher education system part of the higher education reauthorization act is definitely something that we're concerned with i've been meeting with labor organizations nonprofits grassroots policy think tanks we have over forty organizations working on a student campaign to tackle four buckets of work we want to tackle the one point two trillion dollars of the existing borrowers out there we want to investigate the role of wall street with the lending system we wanted to address quality affordable education and we went to work on civic engagement and political engagement

essentially electorial lazing student day we are huge voting block and we need to drive them out to the polls to vote for a pro student reformers in congress and our legislator sure and interesting leave the department of education this is something that sort of making waves on the internet is actually making huge profits off of borrowers a lot of people don't know that in the last fiscal year the department took in forty two point five billion dollars which is the second highest profit ever what do you make of that so i think it's best just to quote senator elizabeth warren on the where she believes that we should invest in our students not make obscene profits off of them it is an abomination it is obscene to be make i do not understand why the department of education is a profit making entity period well said and good move to quote warren natalia abrams co-founder of the group student debt crisis thank you thank you so much. and now to a programming note tonight on our t.v.

a special documentary will be airing exploring the life of one of america's most prolific interviewers who just so happens to be a newer talent here on our t.v. larry king today is his birthday and he is turning eighty just in time for time magazine to call him one of the ten most influential people over eighty eight the documentary presented by artie's megan lopez premieres at six thirty tonight and will also air on. wednesday and thursday of this week so make sure to tune in and that does it for now for more on the stories we covered today go to youtube dot com slash r t america check out our website r t dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at amir a david see you right back here at eight. world

. technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future are covered. i'm. a society that i think corporation kind of can consume can do i'm the bad guy all that all about money and i was actually sick for politicians write the laws and regulations that. there's just too much. of a guy. that. put it under the market like. policies.