wealthy british soil it's time to split. markets why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to conjure reports .

greece is shaken with massive protests over the government's agreement to raise taxes and cut jobs to pull the country out of its debt hole. similar problems for the u.k. where around three quarters of a million teachers and civil servants are staging a strike to prevent their pensions from being slashed. trying u.s. secretary of defense robert gates leaves three wars to deal with for his successor but many question whether the incoming cia chief will turn the pentagon's course on route. and business russia's gas giant gazprom announces it will increase dividends and made those investments to record levels join me for more on this in our business bulletin in about twenty minutes time.

it's three pm in moscow and this is r t coming to you live now with our top story this hour greek m.p.'s are set for another vote on the already approved tough new cops in order to decide. they are going to be implemented the parliament gave the green light to the austerity measures to secure a further financial lifeline from the e.u. this sent thousands of angry protesters onto the streets financial journalists to witness the unrest in athens you can still. smell the chemicals that were sprayed when i walked at the hotel my eyes started to tear up again and they haven't dropped anything since last night so it's really just residue and things that are coming out. and in fact one of the things that is circulating here today is a video that shows police not just police brutality yesterday where there's a lot of that but also police working with provocateurs agent provocateurs with the escorted into a safe location that they were communicating with and relaying information from so i guess what you're getting a lot right now is people are taking

a break they're assessing the environment they're assessing the situation there's a report that the head of the pharmaceutical national pharmaceutical station here in greece is going to be filing a lawsuit along with other people against the government for use of illegal substances because these weren't just it was just tear gas there were other chemicals and including us fixating agents and that's why you see a lot of people here i saw them myself yesterday and a lot of people other people saw them passing out not being able to breathe people inside the metro station not being able to breathe a lot of the hospital for that reason there was no low really in the violence yesterday there was no real break normally you get a kind of a break as a sun begins to set and people begin to collect themselves for a kind of renewed. amount of protesting at night but you didn't see that yesterday i think that people here pretty much given up on the three hundred members of parliament that reside in the in the heart of the building across the street from the constitution square i think the only real option for them right now for the protesters and for the greek people is if some sort of political option or a movement develops out of the society out of the ranks of ordinary people who are

intelligent or capable who come from universities who have some idea of what the country needs these this latest proposal is about rolling over debt but it's really about rolling it over. so that they can be basil three compliant in case of capital . liquidity or capital issues the banks are not really working to solve the problem in a meaningful way that can can can provide a lasting solution. you can share your view on what's awaiting the greeks now that part of the mint has agreed to new cots most of you so far believe they should not give up their fight and push for early elections over many of those who got in touch with us think worst austerity is yet to common bankruptcy is still on the cards some even believe greeks should abandon ship and emigrate you still have a chance to tell us what you think will happen in greece just go to archie com. well it's not only greece that's seeing mass civil unrest in the u.k. around three quarters of a million public sector workers are protesting against government plans to change

their pensions half of the country's state schools are closed and transport is disrupted as workers embark on a one day strike. listen to the voices of frustration. down tools up with industrial action and ultimate discontent starts here as the u.k. braces for a wave of strikes not seen for decades this time it's three quarters of a million public sector workers walking out on happy with the planned reform of their pensions which they say will see them paying a lot more and getting a lot less we don't think that should be rights to the boats functions we think if one deserves to have security retirement people talk about withdrawing from the pensions game because they can't afford to pay the mortgage at the same time as paying for the conventions and people are really angry that time and bankers are making buying the c.c.i. getting away being asked to take a pension you know conditions to pay more from which reality is we've got to for

the rest which is. these people do a huge variety of key work from teaches and lecturers to air traffic controllers and coast guards unisons the u.k.'s. biggest public sector trade union deputy chief paul babel a says his one point three million members already for a prolonged industrial action and we're almost a war footing we've got thirty million pain set aside and we've got a strategy work but i must strangers that's not what we want to do we want to talk to the government and negotiate a sensible package nor the ridiculous package of their proposal at the moment that package involves raising the retirement age from sixty to sixty six raising pension contributions by workers and having payouts based on average career earnings rather than final fowler a the unions admit public support is fundamental to having a successful strike action the government's very unlikely to change its mind about

reforms if the public at large doesn't back the unions but that's by no means a short public sector workers do already get very generous pensions and the cost of those pensions is very much of a cop it turns the burden falls on to the next generation a great is absolutely essential that public sector pensions are reformed and even after they are reformed public sector workers will get far better pensions and less private sector workers the unions want to apply enough pressure to force the government to change its mind and it's no stranger to you turns it was hell bent on reforming the health service too until it decided to take longer to think about it causing friction in the coalition the government's doing this to reduce a current fifty billion dollar pension bill but it may be cutting off its nose to spite its face at the white face here according to the union u.k. pension fund fugitive it is a part of me public sector work if no don't think that helps it worthwhile it made

me stop to be sick to that if there was a widespread with pension funds would collapse and that would leave u.k. p.l.l. the very. that investment's just what it means that more than ever begins will be threatening now but is the government listening you know rabbit hearts we loved it . let's talk more about these strikes in the u.k. with political activist professor chris knight now joins us live from london professor knight the government insists the plans are fair to taxpayers insisting the pensions will still be among the very best why are people so angry surely they need to accept something has to be done. well their argument of course is that. as a country we're bankrupt. just like they're saying that greece is bankrupt but we all know that it's the bankers the banks are bankrupt they've got a huge debts they've they've the beginning of this year they asked the government

which none of us voted for for seven billion pounds worth of bonuses and the government said feel free to talk in so i mean it is such an absolute disgrace as it happens i'm a retired lecturer you see you remember and i've got my pension but i would be absolutely incandescent to discover that after all those years when i have been working hard and paying my dues the government and nobody elected in order to pay for a crisis caused by the very greedy bankers and completely unaccountable corporations is raiding my pension so i would be absolutely incredible because we are going to just never last the government claims such measures are necessary to reduce the current fifty billion dollars pension bill what do you think is the way out. well let me just speak in a personal capacity here in my view the way out has already been shown by what's been happening across the arab world today. to the extent in greece and we really

need to realise that that we do not live under a democracy we live under a dictatorship rather subtle one but in this country we do not have a labor party we have this outfit called new laid. which is just one of the flavors of the property party and the way out is to break in my view to break the dictatorship. and we need to it's what's happening with the what the bankers are doing to greece everyone nearly all the economists hundred scientists by forcing people out of work and by cutting people's jobs and reducing their wages what they're doing is actually making it harder for example greece to pay anything back now do they want to go down that road i'm suggesting no let's link up across europe and let's let's take back our continent if you like for the people and let's organize an economy in a rational way instead of this completely insane way and just let me stress once again i mean what's what's happening here is that a crisis caused by bankers and. politicians in their pocket is that

there's those politicians are making us as if hardworking teachers hard working civil servants hardworking lecturers and others are responsible for this crisis we all know that's not true so let's deal with the let's deal with the with the problem at its roots let's crack down on what i regard as actually electoral fraud and criminal activity that's crept down and it right across europe and take inspiration from what's been happening in the arab world do you think the demonstrators are actually expecting their voices to be heard i mean strike tend to only work with the opposite in fact most often turning the public against them if people are inconvenienced by these protests and strikes well as i was i heard and i heard in the in the previous part of this program we have already seen that discovered is actually very weak i mean nobody voted for it that's the to start with and it has already made a couple u. turn so we definitely think we can force a u. turn on this one and what's going to happen of course is that it's not going to be just white collar workers we're building tools it looks as if the government doesn't back down to something it was something an absolutely enormous we're

building towards something we haven't seen in this country since ninety six a general strike and that's going to be very powerful and the government will will will will fall if it comes to that we're very confident about i'm very confident about. right political activist professor chris night live from london thank you for that. but if you miss anything we're covering air you can always find it online at r.t. dot com more news and eye catching videos are there for you as well here's a taste in the u.s. more and more states are relinquishing their duties of running prisons and as private detention is thriving critics say it's because of the millions of dollars these institutions are making also. music source to new heights as a not so astronaut joins legendary jethro tull's front man in an out of this world duet for more details logon to our team dot com. russia has criticized what it called the double standard is being applied to the situations

unfolding in syria and yemen foreign minister sergei lavrov said the unrest in the two countries are being treated in completely different ways. it's really good news many have been criticizing russia and china's position on the un security council's resolution on syria for the fact that we consider such a resolution in appropriate i'll give you a simple example the situation in yemen is no easier than in syria there's a difficult civil war going on there but nobody's going to the u.n. security council to try and stop it so russia has long been opposed to adopting the u.n. resolution condemning crackdowns on protesters in syria moscow argues such a resolution could only escalate violence in the country russia special envoy to africa has been calling for a peaceful resolution to the syrian crisis saying that russia doesn't want to see the situation go down the same military power as libya protest against president bashar asad rules have been rocking the country for months. but the african union

has condemned frowns for supplying weapons to libyan rebels its chief said the move threatens to put the entire region at risk on wednesday france became the first nato country to openly admit to arming tribal fighters who are striving to topple colonel gadhafi rebels have recently been making gains and hope to advance on tripoli john laughlin from the institute of democracy and cooperation in paris says french of action reveals the true colors of nato as efforts in libya. the admission that france is arming the rebels is very obviously an admission that what's going on in libya is a fight between the government and armed rebels and armed rebels are not civilians so any attack by the government on armed rebels in libya is therefore not necessarily a war crime in other words this news is not only incompatible with the case that's being made for war in libya it completely contradict it there is no doubt that the three countries britain france and america who are waging this war under the

disguise of nato of course wish to see the rebels seize power by force and overthrow gadhafi we must be careful about using the word nato this war is being fought by britain france and america they use nato as the figley but nato itself is of course much bigger and there is not unanimity in nato only a few days ago the italian foreign minister said that there should be a ceasefire in order to allow humanitarian aid through so i think that this latest news from france will possibly increase tensions within the coalition although i repeat that the war is being waged by three countries using nato as a disguise. well for almost five years he's been the man at the helm of the u.s. military and responsible for the billions of dollars that have flowed into the pentagon for us from washington now secretary of defense robert gates is retiring leaving behind three wars and an ever growing defense budget but with the director of the cia stepping into his shoes critics doubt there will be much change in the

pentagon's course can reports. whoever's in the white house in the pentagon it's business as usual robert gates was secretary of defense to two different presidents obama was elected on a promise to end the wars of his predecessor george w. bush but america's worse continued and one more was even added to the plate of the inconclusive campaign to leave yet when administrations change or change between parties there really isn't a great deal of change in the pentagon under robert gates is watching america's annual defense spending approach that really in dollars rising at the pace of about five percent a year but statements from his office were often contradictory fence spending that nearly doubled the base budget over the last decade the gusher has been turned off and will stay off the u.s. is supposed to leave iraq by the end of the year but it seems that there's line is

not final he gives all kinds of contradictory statements for instance not long ago he said that anyone who would vices support us a land army in the middle of it and asian conflict should have his head examined yet at the same time. he's done everything you can he's flown over several times to baghdad to leave with the nouri al maliki government to that please please could us soldiers day after the deadline at the end of this year the pentagon says they expect the iraqi government will ask them to stay beyond their scheduled december thirty first departure date but with the announced troop withdrawals from iraq and afghanistan the u.s. started actively waging a different kind of warfare what they call an intelligent war one that's waged with drones without sacrificing the lives of their soldiers in countries like pakistan

yemen and libya and. he say that's the major shift that happened in military operations under robert gates a shift that some say can only lead to more destruction of. the united states has increased the intensity of the focus on student terms of drone strikes that is remotely piloted vehicles while targeting terrorists the us has been criticized for killing mostly civilians it's also making us less secure from a policy standpoint we can intervene all over the world it just fuels insurgencies and fuels and i am americanism and always say the deaths of thousands of civilians in afghanistan are part of the reason why the u.s. has failed at curbing insurgency there now the u.s. is preparing to pull out a third of its troops by the end of next year many afghans fear that less troops doesn't mean less bombs dropped on their homes as the u.s.

steps up aerial strikes in the region the possibility of waging a war without having to justify the deaths so the american troops has become more palatable for the pentagon the cia has been at the forefront of america's undeclared wars and with a new secretary of defense leon panetta who was the head of the cia the trend is on likely to change i'm going to check our reporting from washington our team. the ukrainian court has seized the property of the country's former prime minister yulia tymoshenko the expert mir is accused of an abuse of power for stealing highly unprofitable deals for the country on russian gas back in two thousand and nine investors claim she wasn't authorized to sign such contracts losing ukraine about four hundred million dollars last week in a pre-hearing to mush and to court as a farce orchestrated by her political rival president viktor again a call that if convicted she faces up to ten years in jail. egypt's fragile in

term of leadership is facing the strain. with renewed violence on the street officials have ordered a probe into clashes in cairo which have left more than a thousand people injured during two days of protest riot police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators who pelted officers with stones and firebombs arrest began over the slow pace of prosecution of senior officials and police officers accused of brutality during a mass uprising in february activists are also calling for the speedy implementation of reforms demanded during the revolt that toppled president mubarak analyst pepe escobar says many are frustrated by the lack of change. the regime is doing place and the political parties and the political forces who are sticky lady for the next elections they don't care about this they are just want to get a nice thing to grab political power later on and do it young generation the connected deal employed young intellectuals of egypt now they're back in the

streets again because they see that essentially nothing has changed these people who committed these atrocities in fact the guest civilians especially in february. are still at large. i would say it's a fair bet that they won't be going to trial for the next few months because most of the people who are actually protecting them there is still there at the ministry of interior the problem is these new forces in egypt. intellectuals the unemployed the contractor the facebook generation into your generation they still don't have the political participation organized as well the fact is that the muslim brotherhood is already very well organized even do a progressive streak of the muslim brotherhood is splintering in the form of their own political party because dizzee younger muslim brotherhood people they see that the old generation is too conservative and that's absolutely true. well again. now

at some world news in brief for you this hour two french journalists who were being held hostage by the taliban in afghanistan have been freed they've flown back home after spending five hundred forty seven days in captivity the two men are said to be in good health in good spirits the t.v. reporter and his camera man were captured with afghan colleagues in late two thousand and nine filming in a mountainous area of the country. but as well i have to lade next week's major summit of latin american and caribbean leaders as will go chavez is still recovering from surgery in cuba it comes after state television showed that fifty six year old talking to fidel castro in appearance which failed to qualify and over as how chavez will also miss mass celebrations marking the two hundred year anniversary of venezuela's independence from spain on the fifth of july the president was rushed into emergency surgery earlier this month suffering from a pelvic absence. the first tropical storm of the atlantic

hurricane season has brought the threat of floods and mudslides to mexico's central gulf coast the state oil company is monitoring the situation ready to order the evacuation of oil platforms if necessary heavy rains have already been falling and forecasters say many parts of the country could be swamped the region is still recovering from major flooding last year. kareen is here next with the business stay with archie. oh look i'm sure our business bulletin this all thanks for joining me russia's gas giant gazprom is holding its annual general meeting the company has announced it will increase dividends and they boost investments to a record level for more let's cross over to marina kosar who is the gas headquarters marina his do you. know well one thing is for sure and that is the gas

boom is trying to increase it sure is. the markets there explore new opportunities in europe and germany in particular exports increased twenty six percent in the first half of twenty eleven and that was due to higher demand amid decline in production in europe now gas rumors also focus in on asian markets it's trying to strike a deal with south korea india and china and this could increase its exports by fifty percent and their overseas earnings could reach record highs now twenty seven results were positive sellers revenues reached one hundred eighteen billion rubles and shareholders will be receiving just under four roubles per share which is the biggest amount of money ever given by the company in the history now this year gas room will be increasing its spending and it will also planning to increase its investment program to a record forty four billion dollars back to you kareena ok marina cos we're reporting from gas problems headquarters in moscow on the annual meeting of this

company thanks for thanks very much for that. russia is about to realise its biggest investment dream the country's newly created ten billion dollars fund will come up with the first project in september the head of the fog has outlined its investment priorities. agricultural prices are increasing dramatically so our group business is very important health care. health care can be much more efficient and can be improved dramatically with proper investments i was proper know how energy efficiency we all know that we are so much dependent on their prices under all sorts of new energy efficient technologies that produce very significant cost savings so it's not venture projects it's not very early stage projects so the projects where we can see sort of predictable cash flow and such as energy efficiency will produce good results but also good for the country. and taking a look at the markets now all prices are lower after rallying earlier this week the increase of all the u.s.

inventories report that showed a sharp decline that surpassed expectations light sweet is trading at ninety four dollars a barrel this hour and brand is that one hundred and eleven dollars a barrel european stock markets are higher as greek lawmakers approved additional sturdy measures this will help the country get more aid and avoid a default put c. is up with lloyds banking group surging overnight a half percent on a well received cost cutting plan other bank other banks the world bank of the world bank of scotland and barclays also added five and two percent respectively energy sectors active as well shares of all major b.p. jumped over want to have percent while will that show rose point eight percent now russian stock some mixed this hour the hour test is higher and the minus six has slid into the red energy majors have lost ground which was likely lower now let's have a look at some individual shamrocks on them isaac's truck make it come oz's gaining almost a percent supported by news it could create a joint venture with it's been

a rough ride of loss by the end of the year where bank is also on the rise held by reports its a.d.r.'s have been approved for trading in london and frankfurt telecom is up over one half percent after it announced a six percent increase in net profit for the first quarter. and russian equities are struggling for direction but gay so that all of the banks says blue chip names are still the pick of the crop for future games. there is general mistrust for second ts and investors don't invest and second to do three of the community reasons. that are not moot there are many have great ideas in blue chips as we are probably the most favored. by the market but there are some concerns that the risk that they in the september will be sold to the market on the to the market with some discount and the solution. why is interest from. the new some

type of sermon on taxes so also once a bit that the sentiment on the stocks but most blue chips cheap on multiples basis and i think is a for general optimism my wife's in the market people will buy most affordable chips. that's all the business is for this hour but don't forget you can always log on to our website r t dot com slash business and find more business stories that thanks for watching. if. six. six.

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