r.t. international correspondent hala slayer.well as i remember the latest efforts by the government to deal with the threat of cyber security as we've been telling you recent efforts by congress to pass cyber security legislation have failed and president obama has taken the matter into his own hands reportedly signing presidential policy directive number twenty according to the washington post this is a classified document which lays out what federal agencies can and cannot do to respond to cyber threats and attacks so because this document is classified well that means one of us can see what's in it even those in congress will not be able to oversee this though it could very well impact many americans so if your attorneys with the electronic privacy information center epic have filed a freedom of information request demanding that the president release this secret directive put simply they want to make sure there's accountability in the foyer request it says transparency in cybersecurity is crucial to the public's ability to m

r.t. correspondent tom barton in tel aviv and please are stay safe out there thanks for your reporting. well once again as cyber security legislation is having a tough time in congress yesterday the cyber security act of two thousand and twelve was rejected by the u.s. senate by a vote of fifty one to forty seven any hope of moving this forward now lies in the hands of president obama his administration had already drafted an executive order and now according to a leak made to the washington post is in the form of a directive presidential policy directive number twenty again there's very little that we know about this directive but it may well be key to understanding the future of cyber security and raises a whole lot of additional questions first what about the promise president obama made nearly four years ago the way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable and the way to make government accountable is make it transparent so the american people can know exactly what decisions are being made how they're being made and whether their interests are being well served the o

r.t. international correspondent hala slayer. well the u.s. senate had planned to take a vote on the national defense authorization act before returning home for the thanksgiving holiday and but it appears that might be a little more difficult than they anticipated senator rand paul is holding up the vote in tell an amendment he's proposed is voted on the amendment has to do with affirming the sixth amendment to the constitution and the indefinite detention of u.s. citizens it states a citizen of the united states who is captured or arrested in the united states and detained by the armed forces of the united states pursuant to the authorization for use of military force shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed which district shall have previously been ascertained by law and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation to be confronted with the witnesses against him to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor and

r.t. correspondent. well the forty eight hour general strike is well and truly underway here in greece and he seems thousands of people coming out onto the streets of athens to voice their anger against the latest round of austerity measures that's being put forward by prime ministers some maurice now that will be voted on a in parliament on whedon's day it's around syria seem point five billion euros worth of savings those savings taking the form of of budget cuts also of tax rises also we expect to see the the age of retirement rice and pensions cuts all of these things angering the people of greece and seeing them out on the streets to demonstrate against it now it's more than likely that that latest round of austerity measures will be passed one of the reasons why it will be passed is because if greece doesn't pass it then they're not going to get the next round of bailout money that they need so very much now that's just over thirty one billion euros worth of faile out money and they've been told by

r.t. correspondent ramon glinda just a little earlier today. the purpose of the settlement was to help homeowners avoid foreclosure and to help keep banks accountable so that they wouldn't repeat the practices that led to this mortgage crisis but what we're seeing here in the trans is that as you mentioned a majority of the credit that's being taken from the banks for doling out benefits is really just short sales which ends up putting people out on the street now the problem with this and it's actually beneficial to the homeowner somewhat because it's not as bad as a foreclosure you don't take that huge hit on your credit but at the end of day you lose your house and a lot of critics of the settlement and a lot of critics of this report say that it really isn't any sort of punishment to the banks because when it comes to short sales the banks had already picked up their short sales even before the settlement was signed so there's a lot of fear that what the trends that we're seeing right now aren't really going to help to punish the banks in a

r.t. correspondent stasia charkha pretty people who have heard this story it's really hard to get over how ridiculous it sounds because when we think of confetti the first thing that pops into mind are these little round colorful pieces of paper right but as we just saw in that report the ones in question here are long and pretty wide strips of paper that you don't even need to you know put together to be able to read the information that they contain and it's incredible how much information was held in the so-called confetti i mean like you say undercover police information no less the presidential candidates motorcade you know and it was just like a ok let's throw around this fun pieces of paper it's really people are saying what's next are they going to start selling puzzles as you know christmas gift so you can put them together and see some sort of secrets a state secret information it's really ridiculous and some people who are actually concerned are saying what else is out there i mean if it's that easy to have somebody throw around secret information from the state what's what else

r.t. correspondent in the middle east tom barton now has details on this there is increasing attention focusing around this opposition coalition still quite a nebulous group at the moment and france has gone the furthest recognizing this group as the so representative of the syrian people and perhaps expressing their hope than a reality at the moment when they added that they really were throwing their weight behind the idea of this as a government in exile just waiting to come in and take power the u.s. didn't go that far i did say that it recognized this group as a representative of the syrian people but they wanted to wait until this group better represented people actually inside syria the e.u. members as well they hailed the process of the formation of this group but they didn't go any further than that it was the france that made a similar declaration throwing its weight behind libya's national transition council shortly after that the nato bombing of gadhafi forces in libya began france has supplied already communications and non-lethal equipment to anti asaad rebels in syria and rems a

r.t. correspond are among. well one of the most glaring displays of evidence that people have seen over the last year is just the very intense crackdown on occupy wall street i can tell you that here in los angeles thousands of police officers with helmets but tons in what they call non-lethal weapons were really really brought out and intimidated the crowds and we saw this throughout the country we saw it in d.c. and new york so definitely as far as visually people got a firsthand account of the increasingly militaristic tactics that police use during the occupy wall street protests but if we want to look at the numbers we can use that in california as a really good example here in los angeles the los angeles police department the number of certain volved shootings increased by fifty percent last year and you know a lot of police departments they say that gang members or whoever it is that they're shooting at are becoming increasingly violent but more and more of these washed groups are saying that that just r

r.t. correspondent honest churkin i welcome ladies to the both of you see i'm going to start with you this is jubilee as it's call it's getting a lot of attention a lot of positive feedback but there are some six skeptics what are some of the concerns people have with this rolling jubilee idea well it's absolutely as we know as a network that has covered the occupy wall street movement since its inception and one thing it has never locked is haters and critics and this rolling jubilee the strike exacts project is certainly no exception it's and you know the criticism is really ranging from things like oh we think this is a really good idea but occupy wall street is still wrong and it's really a terrible movement two things that are a little more legitimate some social moral as well as legal concerns and one of the kind of top concerns that is circulating out there is the fact that some people some critics are seeing this really as something that's just a band-aid on something that needs a much stronger solution they're seeing it as really a drop in the bucket and because the problem is so

r.t. arabic correspondent if you so much for joining us. and that's going to do it for now i'll see you right back here at five pm with more news and in-depth interviews . culture is that so much going to be a huge music history of the current financial crisis and the mark once again from gaza you're under military assault would you be israeli soldier which even this time around four years ago an invasion killed over a thousand palestinian. missions . critique ations three sons four charges three arrangements three. three stooges high priests. john moseley braun counseling video for your mediocre on jan sixth street medio don the r t dot com. the following. morning news today volunteers once again fled the film these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada.

r.t. correspondent laurie harshness has been following the story closely and has more from our studios in new york so laurie a what's in the water and why is it so bad yet christine if you look at the documents from the e.p.a. this huge list of all of these chemicals with crazy games i'm pronounceable words and warnings about them that sounds really really scary and you know there are some people that are say oh it's not that that bad and then there's others that are you know just dumbfounded by it so i actually spoke to robert jackson who is a professor of environmental science over at duke university to ask him just what exactly the contaminants are in the water there there are there were more carcinogens in the water compounds which has been seen. benzene there were hazardous to your pollutants you mention hydrochloric acid. and she really just walks of things and you don't want the water in to be quite honest you don't want cattle drinking that water in the cattle are then going to be shoulders just as meat. and that's exactly the point is that this water is the drinking water for cat

r.t. correspondent liz wahl has more. well here at r.a.t we pay close attention to what's happening on capitol hill regarding cyber security legislation but the effects reach far beyond washington here are ten things in your daily life that are affected by cyber security first off your personal correspondence or e-mails are saved and can be accessed by the government and the private companies they contract and under current laws phone calls can already be listened to number nine your health the establishment of electronic medical records is a major part of health care reform but those records can be accessed by doctors and other health care providers some of whom aren't your personal doctor and also friends up these private records to vulnerabilities from hackers and at number eight your money using online banking apps makes banking information passwords and account numbers easily open to scanning via smart phone and bank servers can store it in a fine features of the devices used to access the information number seven yo

r.t. correspondent liz wahl breaks down some of the politicians the biggest candy companies are sweet on. as millions of americans today splurge on sugary treats not only is it making kids happy and hyper it's also a treat for big candies we're talking about the candy lobby and they're dishing out the dough for candidates they want on the menu and it looks like big candy has a sweet tooth for republican candidates the top candy lobby is nestle a company that makes kickout bars and butter fingers in addition to hot pockets in haagen does the prepared food giant spent over eighteen thousand dollars on mitt romney's campaign less than half of that went toward president obama next up jelly belly jelly bean company known for flavors like chili mango and buttered popcorn their favorite political flavor rick perry followed by rick santorum but despite jelly bellies efforts americans couldn't stomach either candidates as they were defeated in the primaries and the maker of the great american chocolate bar hershey's favorite libertarian leaning republican presidential candidate ron paul donating o

a correspondent paula slimmer than she'll be keeping updated on air and online as well simply follow her twenty stream for the latest at r.t. arabic correspondents so eki had been working in the media office in gaza just before israeli rockets hit and this is what he told us earlier now i have. no one expected this during the strikes power supplies often get cut off and then it becomes really difficult for us to find fuel for the generator that at that moment we decided to take a break in our work and go look for gas so that we can continue working early in the morning we left at around one am and added to it all happened some of our friends are now in hospital just a little while ago there was a press conference where it was said that such an attack must be completely ruled out as a journalist can become targets for strikes a correspondent should share what he or she sees with the world even israeli journalists report from gaza it's unacceptable that media workers get attacked in such a way in situations like this we usually don't go to our homes just like we did maturing that has still at ease of two thousand and eight i

r.t. arabic correspondent reba. dia thank you so much for coming on thank you for having me so what do you think about this recent banning of protests in bahrain and why are we hearing about this well i would say that this is not the on the sorry that's not making its way to the mainstream headlines in this country a lot of stories are not making their way to the headlines and a lot of it has to do with policymakers maybe thinking that this is not important enough for the american people to know this is not important enough or to make it to the american public and this just shows you all how the whole bite is the media is here and how they view it that one practice is more important than another practice one killing in one country is more important or less important than another killing in a different country it just shows you that the bae is and the ignorance a lot of people would say that the media when it comes to handling issues in the middle east yeah absolutely i mean and that's why i respect our t. so much fo

r.t. international correspondent paula slayer i first asked her if talk of talks about a cease fire has been any comfort for the people there well it's it means comfort because it is a sign on the horizon that what we've witnessed for the past seven days is coming to an end but it certainly doesn't mean that it's a long term solution we are hearing conflicting reports on the one hand hamas is saying that a cease fire has been agreed to and goes into effect from midnight local time tuesday but we're not hearing the same kind of statements being made by the israeli government they are calling for some kind of twenty four hour. delayed period where they are calling for some kind of twenty four hour period by which the situation can be assessed and they can determine whether or not a mass is in fact serious about implementing this kind of truce the egyptian president mohamed morsi has stated that he does expect the israelis to stop their operation by the end of tuesday so the signs of there the words are being said a cease fire is about to be implemented if indeed it has not already been and we

r.t. arabic correspondent. she began by saying that there are a lot of questions surrounding how this could shift foreign policy in the middle east. i don't think anyone has the answers a lot of people are basically speculating as to how the u.s. policies will change in the middle east toward the middle east after they become energy independent that is if they do become energy independent and a lot of people see that the us will simply just leave the middle east and just leave it to other powers do other powers who are interested in the oil there for the years to come and other people say basically no this is simply not going to happen because of other interests in the region that the u.s. has the trade israel and other interests that simply is you know the united states cannot simply just leave the region and you know just give up on this now i for a long time now since we're speaking about. israel's involvement here for a long time now people have said that the u.s. goal is in the middle east for to reason th

r.t. white house correspondent christine. well the latest that the bill has passed out of the senate judiciary committee as of this morning this is in the eyes of a whole lot of people here the first major hurdle of course the bill has yet to face the full senate and the house but as of now what this says is that as you mention police and other federal agencies must obtain a warrant and able to in order to have access to any individual's electronic communications we're talking about stuff that's stored in your g. mail google docs and facebook and twitter before the law is much different and it's really crazy to think that we have gone this long that the last version of this bill was as you said back in one nine hundred eighty six it's twenty twelve now and they have finally done this and something important that i should mention is that as of just a few days ago there was some different language in the bill that made it so that twenty two agencies federal agencies like the federal communications commission the securities and

r.t. white house correspondent christine for that and abby martin the host of breaking the sat here to welcome ladies and i see you here good to be with you little we have a lot to talk about. i guess first of all talk about marijuana it's legal in two states now. that is the thing that it's legal but a lot of people are saying don't run out and get your rocky mountain high right away because the federal government has said the federal laws are still in place and so as much as you know especially those who say states should decide these things for themselves the federal government the da is still saying what will your slogan be breaking federal law even if you go out and light up in the streets to be interesting to see how this plays out in terms of the legal ramifications i mean during obama's lead up on the campaign trail for the ends of days with he admitted to smoking weed recreationally when he was younger so i was surprised to read through oakland to see how much the da government crackdown to read the cannabis clubs there for medicinal purposes so i can only imagine what's going to happ

a lot prettier christine is our is our white house and congressional correspondent here at r.t. and there's a reason she's here but first let me let me get to this aspect of the fiscal cliff because we can't stop hearing about it and already we've gotten sick of it and so on friday we asked you to rename it and more than two hundred twenty five of you submitted answers on our facebook they just ordered rolling and you love this so much that we couldn't wait til friday to pick our top ten and we couldn't pick just one so we had to pick our top ten so here they are let's bring up the top ten let's get connery a physically transmitted disease bastin fiduciary can kicking count down burning farts money and helicopter clip and i've got to give a shout out to chris gibson charlie charlie grant christian panuco and who weighs ok have a steen for those five let's move on to the. next five we had this room revenue bridge of fiscal dance steps just falls because a plan flushed down the black swan dive the mayan cliff they predicted it thousands of years ago ok and shout outs there to char

r.t. bashar assad says he's not a western poppet and vowed to live and die in syria our correspondent in the region policy has the details. in this exclusive interview with r.t. the syrian president bashar assad stressed the point that he will remain in syria he said it was only for the syrian people to decide his fate he said that he was not a puppet of the west and you have the situation where the waste creates enemies that essentially unveiled motivated by the self interest wasn't told that there wasn't a problem you know that with all it's created and it was because we knew that. for different reasons they want to create a new enemy because of the problem with the president so. that's what you have to focus on the real problem with listening to this but he did warn that these self interests of the ways that lead to foreign intervention which ultimately has a domino effect he also. made the point that at the moment there is no civil war in syria he said the situation was such that you had these factions fighting they were being funded by the west he called them terrorist and he said that

computers crashing for more of the problems voters ran into at the polls are the correspondent on the a caricature and r.t. producer manny rapala joins us now welcome to the both of you many i'm going to start with you because you just returned from covering the elections and. miami where things got pretty chaotic these were going a little crazy there at the end of the night in miami i remember at seven o'clock when the polls were closing in florida there were still people waiting in line and i was hearing that the lines were still an hour two hours away then around midnight i'm hearing people are still waiting on the lines and then when this went on well into the in into the wee hours of the morning people waiting in lines will be on the time that the election was actually called and a lot of this is due to to a number of problems part of it was these provisional ballots we're talking about ballots that were anywhere from eight to twelve pages long eleven constitutional amendments to the to the florida constitution in these ballots and not only that but these are this was happening in some of the most hi

correspondent in the region. one pm in moscow you're watching r.t. after the most expensive election campaign in u.s. history barack obama was reelected this week as u.s. president beating his republican rival mitt romney and though many picked obama over romney because of his softer talk on foreign policy he doesn't quite walk the walk as art he's got to count now reports. in the wake of president obama's reelection there was no sense of euphoria as in two thousand and eight but his victory did come as a relief to most americans his challenger mitt romney was widely seen as more aggressive especially his foreign policy rhetoric also a seemingly out of touch with middle class america we are an american family and we rise or fall together as one nation on a. fiscal cliff we're doing for him right after reelection is the so-called fiscal cliff a combination of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts all we need is action from the house. and i've got the pen ready to sign the bill right away. but averting the fiscal cliff is probably not the first issue addressed by the president. he also writes the drone

r.t. producer adrienne it was that oh and in new york r.j. correspondent ana stasi a char going to thanks guys. we want to get out of the escalating violence between israel and hamas the violence has gotten much worse and has reached levels not reach for at least four years there have been deaths on both sides and heart wrenching images like this one that have given the fight a face this is a photo of a b.b.c. arabic employee carrying the body of his eleven month old son killed by shrapnel during one of israel's air raids in gaza the israeli defense force says it's been warning people to take cover and posted this video earlier today in which they said they've been dropping leaflets which say in arabic quote important announcement for the residents of the gaza strip for your own safety take responsibility for yourselves and avoid being present in the vicinity of hamas operatives and facilities and those of other terror organizations that pose a risk to your safety hamas is once again dragging the region to violence and bloodshed the i.d.f. is determined to

culminating in the clashes and we'll be joining our correspondent who's in the thick of the action in a few minutes from now here on r.t. . barack obama vows to fulfill his promise of change in a victory speech to jubilant supporters that's after securing a second term as president of the united states. what was predicted to be a close finish if a lot of time turned into an end lector old college landslide barack obama swept a victory in almost every battleground state to win a second term as president his republican challenger mitt romney has since conceded defeat saying he hoped the bomber could deliver this now cross to marina in new york she has more on the election aftermath. while president barack obama achieved an electoral sweep there is a much narrow margin when it comes to the popular vote of the twenty twelve election believe it or not u.s. ballots are still being counted as of wednesday morning it appears that fifty percent of americans voted for obama and forty eight and a half percent voted for mitt romney what this shows is that despite obama's victory america remains a nation that is deeply divided and

r.t. that there will be a new sensation explosion next year and he promises will send shock waves around the world correspondent laura smith spoke to wiki leaks supreme. as any journalist working in london now is i'm pretty familiar with standing outside the ecuadorian embassy waiting for julian assange is to come out and talk from the balcony just to my right here but this evening i've been inside to get chris or an embassy to talk to judith he's recently written a book called cypherpunks freedom and the future of the internet and that's what he really wants to talk about at the moment and we did talk about that we talked about how he sees this increase in state surveillance is hugely damaging for the entire fabric of society how companies and governments can minute the internet for data that is placed there willingly but unwittingly boy citizens all over the world let's just listen into a little bit of what he said about that we all think are. some kind of poetic realm where we can throw ideas and communication with writers and books and exist somewhere out there and actually there exists. who are physically

r.t. bashar assad also vowed to live and die in syria for in this we're going to talk to our middle east correspondent. hello to you paula now how does the syrian president view his future. well in this exclusive interview with our t.v. syrian president bashar assad stressed the point that he will remain in syria he said it was only for the syrian people to decide his fate he said that he was not a puppet of the west and you have the situation where the west creates enemies that essentially they are motivated by the self interests he is not the target but he did warn that these self interests of the waste lead to foreign intervention which ultimately has a domino effect he also made the point that at the moment there is no civil war in syria he said the situation was such that you had these factions fighting they were being funded by the west he called them terrorists and he said that these terrorists coming from abroad are the biggest problem facing syria today. well how does bush wasn't a problem really when you know the way fall is created anyway it was communism really became. it became for promis

r.t. will be airing a long form interview an exclusive interview with syrian president bashar al assad r g correspondent so fish of our not say so down with him in damascus earlier this week and we want to play part of that interview for you now do you think that at this point they could be talks or diplomacy or we've reached a stage where only the army can do nothing i always believe in diplomacy i always believe and i will be i always believe in battle even with people who doesn't understand who doesn't believe in you have to keep trying whether you succeeded almost think of the old with of. success you have to look for this portrait success before you put before you to the complete success but you have to be realistic you don't think that only they can make it into something because those people who called me we've got to talk to guys one of them doesn't believe in speaking with an extremist. and you had all to have been convicted by the court years ago for the cross the crisis and their natural enemy the government because they're going to be detained if you had a normal situation it is the other pa

r.t. dot com. i like that welcome to businesses sound altering the last few days the russian ruble has sent the biggest growth so the cars get into months our correspondent marina calls her via explains what's behind this. we're seeing an interest in russia from foreign investors and that's because we're expecting to see the liberalization of the dead market on the local markets here in russia and basically so far only russian banks were working on the federal loans a ball in the markets but that's about to change very soon in the form depositories will get direct access to the russian market so basically what has happened was seen international funds and foreign investors selling their dollars in buying up rubles when this access will be granted now also if you take a look i government bond yields especially when it comes to ten year notes and compare russia to other countries like germany the u.s. and the u.k. the picture becomes clearer you see even though it's safe for if you will to invest in countries like the u.s. you will be get in the last strike on the floor to invest in countries like greece but then again greece has the risk of a default so i