ugly impact upon the less fortunate among us with joel byrd the c.e.o. of hunger for america is business stepping up although as joel was standing by and the media merger madness continues in a twenty nineteen as a hedge fund thinks the bike and that company owner of usa today newspaper professorial lecture at american university marco sussed and a host of the big picture here in r t america holland could joins us to discuss and later can't we all just get along in space we discuss cooperation of space nations with michelle faul our nasa scientists and every haskell the c.e.o. of shuttle dot i owe all that in our sight but first we had to write some headlines let's go to. the international economic intrigue around chinese tech firm wall way leads our global report today as the story continues to develop new angles in the u.s. and abroad starting in the united states federal prosecutors in the u.s.

justice department here in washington are reportedly pursuing a criminal investigation of suspected corporate economic espionage by wall way targeting tech sector rivals including cell phone provider team mobile according to a scoop by the wall street journal investigators are believed to be building upon the foundations of a twenty fourteenth civil lawsuit by t.v. mobile in which to walk away employees were eventually found to have appropriated perhaps stolen technology from t. mobile for use by wall weigh the investigation has been characterized as being in an advanced stage and while way is also being scrutinized from another angle here in washington as members of congress raise questions about why always a role in building solar energy capacity in the united states a bipartisan group of u.s. legislators was warned in a letter to the trop of ministration energy secretary rick perry that while ways growing presence and role in large scale and residential solar markets quote may

pose a threat to our nation's infrastructure there was bi cameral legislative action on the issue raised in the letter with the introduction of two bills on electric grid security in the house and senate. in a statement on the bill prime senate sponsor tom cotton of arkansas called while wade quote an intelligence gathering arm of the chinese communist party. meanwhile germany has become the latest u.s. ally to consider excluding walk away from a role in building next generation five g. internet infrastructure all the way policy has not yet set much less than actual ban the german economy minister said bill today after a recent u.s. diplomatic efforts on the issue that consideration and comparison of security records of contract seekers like while way is highly relevant the current german position is a measured but significant shift after at least one german official previously opined that there was no legal basis for excluding away from contracting. and in

other news on china's rise as a multi net multi-polar world the defense secretary of the philippines has expressed concerns about the role of two chinese companies in the future of the philippines largest shipyard at subic bay the philippine government leases the site as is considering as as it considers bids for tenacity from companies based in the us south korea japan and australia as well as the two chinese companies the defense secretary delfin lorenzana said he has raised the issue directly with president. in a cabinet meeting yesterday mr du territory whose personal temperament bears comparison to u.s. president donald trump has never the less notably steered filipino democracy toward china in recent months. and we now move back stateside to talk about hunger in america and about how the partial government shutdown is having a disproportionate impact upon those who can least afford it the less fortunate among us to do so i'm pleased to be joined by a former colleague at the u.s.

department of agriculture the c.e.o. of hunger free america joel berg joe i can't tell you how great it is to be with you and have you have you with us welcome to the show. thank you so much part so first off you know set the stage for us with regard to hunger in the united states where are we and are we making any progress before the government shutdown there were forty million americans that's about equal to the combined population of texas and west virginia that lived in homes they couldn't afford enough food were still double digits percentage wise higher in us. than they were in the late one nine hundred ninety s. in the height of the clinton era economic boom so even though the stock market has been rising over the last few years and settle down recently even though billionaire wealth has soared in america we still have forty million americans who don't always know where their next meal is coming from that doesn't mean they're starving like they would be in north korea or somalia but that doesn't mean they're

choosing between food and rent so there's no better example of boom versus bust. the incredible rates of hunger and malnutrition america while we have so much billionaire wealth well i guess joel it proves that a rising tide does not lift all boats or people let's talk about this government shutdown a little bit and how that's impacting people you know it's the longest government shutdown in history in the u.s. what's the latest three regard to specific programs that in particular snap supplemental nutrition assistance program which is really the heavy weight of all nutrition programs how is that doing and what are the problems associated with the shutdown jol. through some accounting sleight of hand as the trump an illustration was able to find money to keep the snap program going to what's the actual name for the old food stamp program going through february and don't get me wrong that's a great thing if the program shuts down entirely as it could in march if this

impasse is that into ended thirty eight million americans could lose four point seven billion dollars worth of food so that's continue however the old u.s.d.a. employees are old colleagues or not so old colleagues whose job it is to certify stores to be able to participate in the snap program they're not on the job by and large so so far more than two thousand private sector retail stores in america have actually lost certifications and received snap benefits that's not a crisis level yet because there are two hundred sixty thousand stores in the program but if this continues it will be and just today out of north carolina there was a report that a school district in north carolina is actually serving less food in the school lunch program less food in the school lunch program for goodness sakes because the government shutdown this is so so wrong and so so pointless. you know we did a program last week joel we talked about the atheist inspectors in the packers and

stockyards of the t.s.a. folks were getting paid some of those actually been ordered back by the president although they're not being paid yet of course but maybe the administration will look to find out that you know this really could impact people in their lives if they're hungry and and put some of these folks back at least to uproot some of these applications and let me ask you joe how are businesses involved with hunger and are they stepping up to meet this or what is going to be an increase in need. some businesses are definitely helpful and my organization hunger free america's largest private donor is the wal-mart foundation associated with the wal-mart company and they've been very generous to our is a giving us millions of dollars over the past few years other companies are trying to help as well but make no mistake about it the magnitude of the federal safety net is such that if these programs shut down all the private charity on the planet isn't going to help avoid massive hunger on

a scale we haven't seen since the great depression all the business back charity in america now equals of bout one fifteenth one fifteenth of the federal nutrition assistance a thing that and so we appreciate business support we certainly work with the private sector and we think the most important thing is for them to do is to create jobs that pay a living wage and then give to charities but i hope people on don't get the false impression that somehow magically like a frank capra american happy ending movie that if the federal safety net goes away that our friends and business will be able to save this problem and many of them will be in huge huge difficulty if the programs really go away they will have to probably engage in massive layoffs. a sobering somber story we want to keep telling it because it is so important to people it's important to our country we hope you'll join us again jo'burg how great to see you the c.e.o. of under free america thanks joe thank you.

and there's privacy news today involving two of the biggest names in the tech sector apple c.e.o. tim cook has published an essay calling for action by the u.s. congress and the federal trade commission on privacy issues mr cook specifically called for comprehensive federal privacy legislation to protect for specific rights he says should be guaranteed to consumers mr cooke frame the issues as urgent and pointed to so-called data brokers as the apparent villains in the story writing quote consumers shouldn't have to tolerate another year of companies irresponsibly amassing huge user profiles data breaches that seem out of control and the vanishing ability to control our own digital lives right on mr cook. meanwhile online retail giant amazon is facing more challenges to their plans for commercial deployment of facial recognition technology this time from

a shareholder proposal the self described to describe tri state coalition for responsible investment and alliance of amazon investors basing their objections and catholic teachings on social justice on chills will justice rather tabled a proposal that says quote amazon's facial recognition technology poses risks and risks to civil and human rights and shareholder value the proposal would prohibit sales of the technology until or unless amazon's board is able to rule out those risk this week a separate coalition of privacy and criminal justice reform advocates including the american civil liberties union or a.c.l.u. reiterated their concerns on the facial recognition technology in a letter sent to amazon as well as tech rivals google and microsoft. and we're going to squeeze in a quick pause for the promotional cause here but hang with us because when we return the media merger of madness. chain use as a hedge fund dubbed the destroyer of newspapers sixty five the good net company the

owner of usa today newspaper professorial lecture at american university marvels suskind and host of the big picture of hong cooks joins us and then we'll be joined by michelle faul a nasa scientist and every haskell the c.e.o. of shuttle dot iota talk about space and beyond i'll ask about the case for space cooperation among nations as we go to break here the numbers at the closing bell we'll be back in a flash. you

know world is a big part of new things a lot of things and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smart we need to stop slamming the door on the bad and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks.

welcome back media merger madness continues in twenty nineteen although this time there's a definitive distinction as a hedge fund dubbed by some of some as the destroyer of newspapers seeks to buy get a net the us media holding company which owns the usa today newspaper and many more papers the hedge fund all doing group capital and its subsidiary digital first media is known for cutting in gutting staff and resources and has reportedly offered one point four billion dollars for a good net but that may not be enough to discuss we're joined by margot professorial lecturer at american university and host of the big picture right here in r.t. america holland cook thank you to both of you for being here this is going to be fun i've got the best people on the planet for this particularly with regard to get net you you used to work there give us just

a quick background what's going to how they've done and how they got to where they are now and nineteen ninety one the future was bright how bright they bought a scrappy little tech start up from me and my three techie nerd partners and fifty some million dollars later our product was called usa today sky radio very innovative at that you know you had part in the germination of usa today well i was a new media unit but live via satellite audio to delta united northwest airlines news and top channels years before dot com and they could afford to do this because they had these profitable t.v. stations they had all these newspapers which were still a license to print money at the time and they had the biggest billboard company in north america and there was an expression within can that women e w i m m e will it make money ever fast forward the one nine hundred ninety. for there was a little re decorating move in the furniture around to make usa today profitable

finally for its tenth anniversary and fast forward to present day they've spun off the t.v. stations they spawn off the outdoor hugely profitable and you see what a pickle the newspapers around this well that brings us more go to the circumstance in which we find ourselves the new media landscape that we've talked about before on the program how things are changed i mean can they make it particularly i mean tell us about all that a little bit but you know if they cut and gut usa today along with the other papers i think we may have even have a chart on this some of the other newspapers that they don't need an apple started . going to see it all the sort of thing in arizona i mean can they make it or are we just seeing the death of print journalism at the vultures are circling on this one and the question about whether or not digital first can make it i think we have

to ask ourselves the question about what do you mean by that i think digital first is not at all concerned with quality journalism they own the denver post which you know the staff revolted after all who owns the denver post that's right all done which is the hedge fund that owns digital first so and they're known for guiding newspapers mentioned what they were like downtown denver is something they they took a minute moved him out to the suburbs as some old warehouse or sometimes not just a digital first issue that's a lot of corporate owners are doing that and i think it's funny that we're looking at net as this you know all of a sudden since the news broke over the weekend by the wall street journal that that this digital first hostile bid for good net could happen that all of a sudden we're looking at the net as this you know bastion of first amendment protection and i mean that could net as also closing offering or you know early buyouts so that what is going to obligating is going to be not and you know it now isn't the only one i think with the concern about digital first. it is is that they are really going to just go after the bones and pick them until they're done i

don't think you know being operated by a hedge fund they are only concerned with profit and there isn't any you know good net still had a pulitzer prize winning work with the cincinnati enquirer an opiate addiction in that community the still saw some quality journalism and i know there are still great reporters doing work all over the country i connect papers and even a digital first papers but it's going to get much harder to do that work when profit and only profit is the consideration this is this is bad news for journalism this is bad news for local communities who rely on that coverage where it could agree with you more and speaking of you know subscriptions if you look at like the new york times and the washington post you know they really are national newspapers now but you know u.s.d.a. today is a national newspaper how many subscriptions are people going to buy is there room in the sandbox for usa today digital along with everybody else i won't go back what

maybe ten years every newspaper was watching the new york times model will give you x. number of stories for free before we need y. dollars for you to get more and they've been tweaking that i love the wall street journal model as a subscriber but the newspapers are going through what broadcasters are going through where we are following the consumer to the digital platform and we're swapping analog dollars for digital dimes when it comes to advertising it's a panch and we're pretty much into the death spiral i guess but how great to have you guys to talk with us marco so let's go to holland thank you margot thank you thank you holland. a few days ago we told you about how china had landed on the far side of the moon but there's a heck of a. a lot more going on including china looking to launch their own version of the

international space station within the next few years and companies like space x. most musk is space x. hoping to land people on mars it made us think what will be the scientific and economic endgames as the human race looks to the stars and is that there a case for more space cooperation among nations here to help us as every haskel c.e.o. of shuttle dot io and michelle faul or nasa scientists welcome to you both really great to have you and the show let me start with you china landed that lunar exploration module on the news and it's kind of early but has anything been revealed so far from that well i think a lot of people heard that this was the first plant that actually germinated began to grow on the far side of the moon and this is the amazing thing of course we're not going to call it the dark side every part of the moon gets the same amount of sunlight but this is the far side that faces away from the earth and this is the first landing on that so it's incredibly significant it's one of the most geologically fascinating parts of the moon and we've germinated

a little plant the first thing to grow on the moon cotton seeds right yeah that believe that so unfortunately we think the plant is now dead because it's getting ready for later night that side is now going into the dark side it's actually going to be very cold but at least for a little while and as it was mentioned earlier we're actually going to try to grow things like potatoes on the moon later so china has done something really wonderful in this that i'm very excited and very happy for them well not to be too glib michel but i mean there's nobody to talk to the plants while they're there that always helps us science has proven avery it's so good to have you back we saw you in boston at the forbes under thirty and we're glad to have you we're in the early stages of commercial space flights for the average person but people you offer that sort of thing so people can check it out there but space x. sort of kicked this off ten years ago i mean do you think commercial space exploration exploration at least from a business perspective will become more and more common and is the international. cooperation important you know going faster and further avery. yes i do think

space exploration will become more profitable as time goes on i think today space x. is private and when it's just said they'll be private until they start doing regular manned missions to mars however i think as we start to mine asteroids and find resources and stablish new bases and launch space stations there's much more opportunity for commercialization and i think working internationally provides more opportunities for businesses to launch their payloads and to launch their space stations through different international space organizations such as the japanese space organization or the chinese space organization yeah and michele two things have been the one i mean what's really driven our desire to explore space further and further and to speak on the show all the time we were speaking earlier today about why the way there's concern about huawei stealing technology not just here

but the u.s. but i mean space seems like it should be sort of like a neutral zone right where we are trying to develop things for the human race and climate change out there goodness knows what else is there should we be looking at cooperating more with other nations and are you seeing that when you go to conferences except well absolutely i mean to answer the first one why do we explore i mean curiosity is an evolutionary advantage there's no species that does particularly well by ignoring its larger environment we're learning about the earth as you mentioned learning about the climate how the climate is changing also how the planets formed how the solar system formed what are places in the universe there also are really compelling financial reasons as well i mean think about the apollo program where there was actually this push to make computers and that's what the united states in the position to lead the computer revolution in the one nine hundred seventy s. and eighty's so as far as international collaboration pretty much every major nasa mission is a collaborate. with the japanese space agency with the european space agency the

only way to get to the space station right now is with the russian space agency so everything we do is a collaboration i hope someday we'll be able to collaborate with the chinese right now we're not able to do that but the more we do as an entire species i mean more is more it's better so i mean whatever you know past is prologue right but michele but i mean look we didn't allow the chinese to really be part and parcel to the first space station that's you know our space station that's going to be not just our earth but that's going to be decommissioned and the chinese are going to have a space station what are we good be doing put not our thumb for right after we said no to them when we drove by them before i mean how does this thing work what do you think what will we just decide to all get along the show well i certainly hope all decide to get along but nasa has plans to go farther into space with a permanent human presence the idea is to slowly roll off the international space station as it is into commercial applications we want companies to actually go up there and start to really use the space environment and then nasa in collaboration with our partners wants to establish

a human presence around the moon perhaps an orbiting space station around the moon the europeans are talking about landing on the lunar surface from that so nasa has plans to go beyond low earth orbit and that's the idea leaving lower earth orbit behind in a way for companies to really take advantage of we go farther and avery speaking of that you know i read a report recently about a spaceport in japan and you mentioned japan earlier but this space port might be ready as early as twenty twenty one i mean do you think that astronauts who retire are going to all of a sudden enter sort of the private sector and and be involved in this exploration and will that also help to fuel inject business and commercialization of space. yeah absolutely i think so and i hope that they are able to work with shuttle and other organizations and the overview effect shuttle's nonprofit arm to further the mission of opening space to everyone and to getting more children and youth

involved and becoming astronauts and building the space stations of the future and michelle do you what do you look at poor to at nasa this year after nasa ends up being funded i might add when masses funded what sort of things are on the agenda that are exciting coming up well i mean we're preparing for so many different things right now are working on the mars twenty twenty rover that's something that's going to be landing on mars as the name suggests in two thousand and twenty we're also getting ready to explore the moons of jupiter jupiter europa and missions to asteroids as well so it's going to be a fascinating here as always i mean we just flew by the farthest object that humankind is ever seen nearby this belt object called ultimate tulay so it's got to be an exciting year and avery before we go if people want to go ahead and book and go to space themselves using your website when would they be able to do that. yes we expect to do our first space flights this year in two thousand and nineteen so check us out a shuttle or send me an e-mail at

a very shuttle about io you want to go to space he's the dude to talk with and we certainly had the do do it asked the best people in the world to talk about this segment michel faller and avery we stake you so much for being with us here appreciate it we'll talk to you again sometime soon thank you. thank you so much and that's it for this time thanks for being with us we do have a special broadcast coming up next time from miami at the north american bit coy comforts we hope you'll join us for that and as always you can catch boom bust on direct t.v. channel three twenty one dish network channel two eighty or streaming twenty four seven on pluto t.v. that's a free t.v. at one thirty two or as always you could has that you tube dot com c.

it was you know provision on my back when i wanted to. ask but i. owe. your so you know i lost his boss because. we. had any of those in person but that's honest i don't mean. so i says you know what i was you're not. you're not just i mean what i'm already but i respect me just a lot of the media and the i mean a lot because they don't. give it up as well i must admit that really feels i just don't get off on getting noticed but those were the old they're just beautiful sounds the people are going to respect i'm one of this but i was just this where this part of. my body in which i see equal kind of all my just but that already yes it will be and in the thought of i think of it i think with you you're simply meant to carry out my thought aloud.

when i came back from iraq. marijuana. cocaine methamphetamine see anything that's altering trying to get. that. used in the chemical that would be so. i want to be drinking and drinking. just killing myself but. hollings drink to get drunk alcohol extreme. feel normal. that's why all it's this way dr got you. a shot while still very near. star cool under which these guys are going through to get it just means to. these need to be helped get pushed on by the

v.a.'s ours drugs bill and stuff you need to be built. at the dish to really shouldn't be looked at like numbers they should be looked at like people if they go to a veteran center for health issues be considered as someone who really needs attention . like there's someone else living inside of me like controlling my body. the byproduct of that drug is because like severe depression. because it literally need him into a zombie it's crazy. you know we don't have to do anything it's not our fault you know she was crazy and all that. appears traumatic takes

a long time to get rid of. it . i mean. it. was all over. the city. and american bull in the iranian t.v. anchor is reportedly set to appear in a u.s. court but her charges remain a mystery iran says her arrest is illegal with reports of the past t.v. janice being subjected to violence.