more news today. these are the images. from the streets of canada. today. thanks to. the. cash for conflict concerns are raised over whether plans to reduce the u.s. defense budget can go ahead so long as companies continue to make billions from war . and the golden age of losing some of its shine for british

as they struggle to get. rock bottom interest rates. direct from our studios in the heart of moscow. we're glad to have you with us trapped by ice for almost two weeks now a refrigerator vessel stuck in frozen waters off russia's far east is being towed by two ice breakers several other ships have been rescued from the same situation over the last few days that now leaves just one more with over three hundred crew aboard as the last to be freed are following the operation. still. that has been incredibly tough. day the day i think the president of the macro that is to say the pull out of the

remaining t.v.'s those are the refrigerator. and they've managed to get that trying out to get it to the senate ice area but it's been a tough guy they may had to bow to this incredibly thick ice and the plan is to then i will say to the a fool to cave back and get the logic of the ship which is. it's tricky to get out of the i.c. going to really need to combine the efforts of bases the minute the press conference we had the federal fishing agency saying that there really is a lot of complications with this they're trying to come up with different maneuvers to the ice break his team mates effectively break through the size moves they had that they were possibly thinking of dispatching a helicopter had to try and help with the navigation of it in the tough conditions that we see and who visibility that has to be the maven these tough weather conditions we seeing really affecting this whole operation i remember it's been twelve days now that the ships clued in for that rescue we then saw the two

icebreakers and they got in and out who macros dispatched to help the officials are saying that hatefully the one that's being towed at the name of the refrigerate the vessel should get to thinner ice it's a. possibility to maurice at some point some more and then they said it was a day but the largest supply ship i've been we've also heard that that's going to be maybe some problems with refusing to break is so is no certain exactly what's going to happen with that yet of course the crew both the supply ship that eva three hundred thing that we should desperately get out to be worried about i thought that slows a bit as he said the weather conditions that made it make it very hard given i hear it as well as when they'll be freed up for jesus or furth reporting for us there now the u.s. plans to spend a record seven hundred twenty five billion dollars on its military this year ahead of plans to trim the budget over the next five years but there is concern that those cuts will be jeopardized by the interests of big business in search of

lucrative military contracts artie's long list or investigates. when it comes to the afghan war well over half of americans oppose it and after a year of record casualties and having plowed in over three hundred sixty six billion dollars why is the u.s. committed to staying the course they're all trying to blow. for that warry energy motives and profit motives and strategic motives and if you're wondering why some in the u.s. just might not want to see the war and ever hear of three reasons thirty six billion twenty five billion twenty three point five billion those are roughly the dollar amounts the top three american defense companies were handed in government contracts in two thousand and eight a president once warned about this industry we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether so at all runs or by the military industrial complex it was fifty years ago that u.s.

president eisenhower said those now famous words let's look at though were u.s. defense spending has gone since then it's skyrocketed from just around five hundred billion during the vietnam war to more than seven hundred billion dollars now during the post nine eleven wars and some argue that escalation is tied to exactly what eisenhower was warning about but there's a whole range of business that just you know lives off fighting wars and i think it's you know particularly arms companies because they have representation every state and district in the country in many cases they have a congress on their side here to build the weapons or if necessary to use them lawmakers cast the votes that ensure a mill. two hundred sixty dollars for each household a year according to hart on three search making it the single largest recipient of taxpayer dollars meanwhile companies like lockheed dole out millions in political contributions and for lobbying each year and promise to deliver politicians not

just weapons but jobs sometimes they will even say you know if you vote with us we'll put a factory in your district those who agree with part time say the defense dollars are sure to keep coming for contractors as long as the influence continues and as long as the empire continues to expand you're suggesting then a permanent u.s. presence in afghanistan something which you consider we have bases all over the world when you think strategically you may wonder if the u.s. really wants to end the war or ever leave afghanistan again to stand is next to the middle east and it's next to russia and it's next to china it's a wonderful place to have bases and weapons and nuclear weapons it's a place where they very much want to put a natural gas pipeline looking at recent history our combat mission is ending but our commitment to iraq's future is not what does it mean to say a war the united states would like to end the iraq war by keeping the military

bases there keeping fifty thousand troops there keeping a muffed control of the economy so that if the iraqis do anything at all that the united states and its investors don't like we can immediately kill another hundred thousand iraqis and while in afghanistan the u.s. is still spending billions trying to win the hearts and minds of the people it looks to some like resources are going in a different direction you can drive along and for at least a mile and a half there will be a wall and there's some kind of big american construction i mean it's depots and housing happening on the other side of that wall and on the other side of that road you see the people who are displaced are actually living in tents without heaters and. without blankets cold winter afghans left out in the cold while the u.s. government and corporations appear to capitalize on a war that looks here to stay more on mr r. t. new york. twenty two year old man charged with the attempted murder of a u.s.

congresswoman has appeared in a u.s. court jared loftier is accused of going on a shooting rampage outside a supermarket in the state of arizona where democrat gabrielle giffords was shot in the head she remains in critical condition six other people were killed including a nine year old girl and the district judge for more on the implications of the shooting we're joined from or by agents expert t.j. walker now mr walker thank you for joining us at this moment time now you say that this incident will do for public speaking what nine eleven did to airport security what exactly do you mean by that. well that means there's going to be so much more scrutiny for people going to public events the average congressman for years has received death threats these are usually just from kooks and not taken very seriously well now they take on a whole new light and i predict many members of congress are going to be much more

skeptical about public speaking events they are going to want the trappings of a presidential speaking about presidents have the elaborate security mechanisms they have security guards secret service they have metal detectors to detect guns so you know unfortunately it's going to really shut down a lot of the communication voters have with their elected officials because elected officials in america are now running scared now you mentioned that for years public officials have received death threats in fact the. but know of a public official that doesn't receive death threats or at least threats of violence against him how do you exactly protect people in the public eye and is it time for stricter firearms control in the us. well as you viewers no doubt know americans have a passionate love affair and it's basically politically impossible for any

politician to try to propose limiting handguns and just recently rules were rewritten to let people bring guns into schools in arizona so that is an extraordinarily difficult political challenge because the gun lobby basically controls congress in america and the legislatures as well so it is going to be to what i do predict is you're going to see some change in the rhetoric of american politicians sarah palin the vice presidential nominee is known for saying you know . lock and load other prominent republicans have said things like you know let's use our second amendment solutions that's a reference to using guns sarah palin is used the you know these sites like a gun on the district of where this representative lived so there's a lot of very militaristic rhetoric used by politicians and commentators principally on the right when talking about how to defeat their democratic

competitors i think we're going to see that taper down a little because it is seen as so inflammatory now given the past two years especially there has been extraordinary conflict between the two major political parties in the u.s. has the american political system devolved into a state that breeds a sort of homegrown extremism of sorts. well you can make the case with what happened in arizona it is no doubt extremism and there are you know there are many political figures especially on the right who like to quote thomas jefferson who said occasionally you knew you need to bring the blood of you know to in order for more trees to grow you must bring blood and many are endorsing that but it's causing a lot of political figures across the spectrum to really question whether this is the wise thing and some are saying it's time to renounce violence we need to solve

things in the voting booth with guns and bullets but i thank you very much for taking some time with us that was t.j. walker a communications expert speaking with us here on our t.v. . now to the u.k. where pensioners are going bankrupt faster than any other group in the country and insolvency service report indicates that over the past decade the number of elderly with growing debts has reduced income has risen six fold and as artie's lor and it has been finding out that leaves them struggling to afford the basics. retirement depicted as a golden age where older people get more time to enjoy their families and hopis there's a new survey shows a different side of old age in britain worrying picture of a country where more and more elderly people can't afford to retire pensioner lydia portsmouth won't say how much money she gets from the state but she's forced to dip into her limited savings to pay her monthly bills like many others she wasn't able

to push away a lot of money for her retirement and what she does have is now earning so little interest in the bank that she regularly has to spend the capital that money out. if you know on the ng that pi is the bail was in and i live on the bench in the draw a bit o. buy to try and make out the money that's coming out because nothing is done back in the day and it's getting an hour another andy and i would have to sell the elf. lydia is one of the lucky ones she owns her own home and has a small amount of savings but data from the office for national statistics shows more than half of single pensioners in the u.k. live on the equivalent of less than forty five dollars a day with nearly a quarter of a million getting by on hoth that the consumer credit counseling service helps people to repay debt when they get into trouble they're seeing an increasing number

of older people with huge credit card debts and no way to repay them and they say life's only going to get more difficult they're going to get worse and all costs. the. state. quickly. so that's a problem it's a bleak picture for pensioners present and future rock bottom interest rates mean the elderly can no longer live off the interest from their nest eggs if they have any and interest rates may not go up for several years a new pension scheme which will oblige employers to pay into a fund for all their employees isn't due to come online till twenty twelve the result seven out of ten people in the u.k. canton visit a traditional retirement in the future where people stop work and live off their pensions for thirty years and for every year the government raises the pension age

currently sixty for women and sixty five for men it stands to save itself twenty billion dollars it's a freezing winter here in the u.k. so many pensioners will struggle to pay heating bills and it's unlikely to get any easier for older people the government plans to raise the age at which people could receive a state pension to come back to government debts and as a response to higher life expectancy but it's all right for the rich critics say it's the poor who will suffer by being forced to work until they drop. you know and it's. news from around the world in brief. the basque separatist group has declared a permanent cease fire it follows heavy pressure from the spanish government and from its jailed activists to pursue independence via more peaceful means madrid says the announcement is nothing new at a broke a cease fire agreement in two thousand and six when it planted a bomb at an airport it is often violent it has violent campaigns for independence

and it has claimed more than eight hundred lives over the past four decades. trading has been suspended at the main stock exchange in bangladesh after thousands of investors rioted over a market plunge police were deployed to contain the situation but were unable to disperse the crowds the country's stock market has been volatile over the past few weeks with many losing their life savings many of the demonstrators voiced concerns that the market failures were engineers by the government. four people have been killed as flash floods ripped through northeast australia a sudden torrent daily town in queensland washing away cars and trapping people on roofs there are more weather warnings for the stricken state which has taken a pounding from heavy rain and overflowing rivers an estimated four thousand people have been evacuated from their homes. sharing videos and pictures online is all the rage these days but it's never been quite like this russian scientists have

developed a microscope system that lets their colleagues from around the world to zoom in and view the tiniest bacteria over the internet and in real time. this close up view. but imagine a terrible virus sweeping across the planet scientists racing to try and understand it then stop it then imagine a new to enabling all those scientists via the web to see the minute structure of that virus within minutes it's a question that concerns these scientists and engineers in moscow we should know all about particle if you were given all the knowledge about the viral particles it will give both of both. to develop in your way. we sure will defeat. the device is called a scanning probe microscope and they've existed for some time in many countries but

this team has zoomed in on a novel potential this professor from a university in faraway italy isn't just able to talk about the microscope online using special software he can actually control it program with him our program can be connected to any microscope in any part of the world and it's just one click away. the benefits of being able to scan images via the internet are becoming ever clearer doctors can share information about newly discovered viruses or bacteria as they're scanned and it's also helping to instruct students the world over. it takes only one microscope and each student can work a complete is and at the same time as they have all the processes going on in real time a lot of course it's not all seen through rose tinted lens making something this precise requires top quality components and laser accurate engineering coming out today over thirty thousand dollars a piece and the teams efforts to keep the cost of the microscope down and get it sold a regular frustration by russia's bloated bureaucracy. often if difficult. thing

with part. of either. to another country or a theory. still hopes are that once labs can start cooperating in how they see the world of the very small it could bring big changes to the worlds of medicine and science in this and other machines the team hopes to build over three hundred microscopes every year by two thousand and fifteen they want them accurate they want them affordable and they want them into connected by the internet so the team and their customers will be watching this space. r.t. moscow. but up next we'll look at whether the financial troubles of two thousand and ten are going to spillover into two thousand and eleven and what the new year has in store trends of forecaster. talk starting.

my first question for you of course is about that economic crisis for the past two years economists analysts journalists every day people have referred to this as a great recession you for many years have been calling this the greatest depression and you say that in two thousand and eleven in this year every citizen is going to

realize it and is going to agree with you why is that because they're running out of scheme. let's go back to two thousand and the federal reserve of the united states besides the thirteen trillion dollars that they in washington lend spent in guaranteed since two thousand. they shuffled under the table to banks around the world twenty trillion that's with eighty dollars worth of deals the federal reserve gave these no interest or extremely low interest rate loans to corporations. such as general lecture carly davidson so we don't know with schemes they're doing to prop it up but what we're saying that in twenty eleven the game's going to run out how can we can not imagine them coming up with

another scheme with a going to begin able to continue whether it's in the us or the new to print this digital money not worth the paper it's not printed on and you believe that this year according to your trends forecast that as times get tougher the authorities will intensify their efforts to and extract funds needed to meet fiscal obligations what does that mean well that means they're going to try to extract it from the little people and when i say that wake up call look what's going on in europe the people of woken up what they call a sterile measures this is what it was stair he measured. you know that degree you have in worthlessness that you went to college for you can't get a job oh and by the way those services you're getting we're cutting them oh and those pensions and benefits that your parents are getting or other people are

working we're going to cut those two oh and one more thing we're going to raise your taxes you know that education that's not worth anything it's going to cost you three times as much to get one particularly in england that's why they're taking to the streets so that's why we have on one end it's the wake up call and the other one it's screw the people but the people realise what's going on that's the wake up call this is where the revolution is going to happen the youth of the world have and particularly the united states mountains of debt to climb and no way to get to the top and they're seeing the too big to fail is bailed out they're seen the gap between the rich and the poor the widest. the united states of any of the industrialized nations so now they have a cause because it's affecting them so what we saw in the in the again with off with their heads what we saw in italy with the students taking to

the streets you're going to see it in spain you're going to see it you already sore in france figure it out what's going on in this cause. is another major trend journalism two point zero the internet has become the great connector they all know what's going on they're all facebook they're all together they have a system where they're interacting and relating cyber war or cyber wars you say is going to be amped up this year why so every major country know. that cyber war and cyber crime are going to be ongoing trends for which every time they come up with a new way to stop a new way to get around it's going to be born the worst conditions get the more you're going to see cyber crime and the worse economic conditions go

globally the more you're going to see cyber wars it's going to be a new element of warfare it's kind of it's a it's an internet nuclear bomb waiting to go on every major computer connected industry service is a potential target for cyber war do you think there's any chance of there being more government control of the internet as the cyber wars increase government control over the net will increase as well along with journalism two point zero we saw with wiki leaks the citizen journalists now people have their own cameras to take films of things that we only used to have. film crews for now videos instant they want to crack down on the freedom of information they will use cyber war as another element in the war on terror to take freedom away from us and freedom of

net neutrality and by the way the united states is passing a new net neutrality act orwell couldn't have made up a bed and a there's nothing neutral about the net neutrality that they're talking about it gives government virtually complete control to put anybody at a business as homeland security did during the christmas season when they said that companies violated copyright laws you have no recourse you're gone you're out you're over and we saw with wiki leaks the greatest fear that governments have our freedom of speech and exposing the corrupt and this the ineptitude and the double dealing going on that they don't want the public to know about so the more freedom of information that goes out they're going to start using cyber war the war on terror as an excuse to take that freedom of the internet away from the people there is

a mystery i don't know if you'll give it away just give me some hand but what can you tell me about the mystery with there are two great trends one is alternative energy something greater than wind solar geothermal biofuel that's the big game changer because geopolitics changes as well would be americans be in iraq if their major export was broccoli and they weren't sitting on the world's second largest oil reserves the other mystery as we say no the hand that feeds you we're going to see more and more of the organic food movement to buy local movement it's going to be one of the biggest entrepreneurial opportunities and also a whole different way of growing things whether it's for gardens and as we said before people tearing up their lawns with grass that's useless that you can't grow to eat or smoke.