from welcomed to once it is a food call. on the day one we are trying to negotiate with us a deal under fire and fighting for his life good duffy's son speaks to the city.

thousands of demonstrators remain outside the greek parliament as the government gives its final approval to hard hitting spending cuts and tax hikes. this is growing it's getting bigger and bigger and if there is going to be a political solution if it's going to be a political movement is going to come from i don't over in there it's not going to come from inside the parliament and the people know that and that's why that crowd is drawing in size. anger at budget cuts has also flared in the u.k. as a one day public sector strike closes twelve thousand schools in england and wales . and the teachers civil servants and border control officers are staying at the plant want to work for the reduced pensions as the first industrial protest against the government's austerity measures is taking over london. an even handed and diplomatic approach russia calls on the un to carefully consider its handling of syria. foreign minister sergei lavrov says the u.n.

security council shouldn't be contemplating taking action against syria while stake ignoring what he calls a civil war taking place in yemen more or not so that later on. and broadcasting live direct from the heart of moscow this is our team certainly glad to have you with us let's take a look at your top stories greece has voted on a second bill in the final step towards implementing the next wave of austerity measures it's the last hurdle that athens has to jump to qualify for a new stack of european bailout funds the plan has met heavy public resistance with two days of rioting that's left more than three hundred people injured financial journalist dimitri kovtun us right in the middle of the action in seeing tod must square. we saw chemicals used that were not just here gas we saw illegal chemical

use like a fixed fixating agents and things of that nature you had massive amounts of police brutality and the films all over the all of the internet stand as evidence for that you had people beaten well away from from the square where tourists were people screaming what they can do is they can go in into custody and square them out the political resistance that's their only option that's the only constructive option because fighting this thing with sticks and rocks is not going to provide a constructive solution it may topple this government it may send a country to anarchy but that's not what we want this particular thing that you see right here is very constructive because it's a pull and this is where political movements come from they come from within a society and leaders emerge from the society and the way this this is set up you've got one mike one microphone and you have people that can express the optimism or the rage or whatever it is of the side and they can stand up and they can speak and that's where leaders come from and greeks in particular need very strong leadership we've seen that in the past in our history the people that are able to leave lead this nation of people of exceptional character and this is

a marketplace a marketplace of ideas and a marketplace of politics it's a free market of political ideas and that's what you're seeing here and it's where a possible leadership movement can emerge that can not just topple this government but provide a real answer a real solution and a real model for ireland and portugal and spain and other countries that are tired of their political elite and want something that's real and true and to the ground and response to what people want and the people's hopes and and ambitions and not to their fears jerrold cilento of the trends that research institute says that greeks are being cheated out of their money by big big by big business. these are not democracies they call them representative democracies the politicians only represent the people that give them the most amount of money so that people know that so that it's going to continue to be it's a go of war and the greek people know that if you don't stand up they're going to mow you down when you get really hungry you're going to see the riots continue to

escalate because what are these so-called the sterett he measures what do they really bring oh they bring a lot more poverty oh they bring a worse g.d.p. although they bring more unemployment so the politicians are doing nothing more than the bidding for those that pay them off when people lose everything and have nothing left to lose they lose it and that's what it is the people know the score you could you could sum up what's killed capitalism in four simple words too big to fail and that's what's going on the banks of failing and they want the people to bail them out because they after all they don't like to take a hit these big guys so they call it austerity measures. and on to the u.k. now we're a strike by public sector workers close to almost twelve thousand schools in

england and wales on thursday industrial action over pay and pensions also hit job centers and passport offices artie's has been following the developments. teachers the team members apologies. all expenses up to express their condemnation of the recent mention the trip planned by the government as far as we know it's not just the college students and people saying teachers that are in strike out but we do have to say that about ninety percent of london police. say also they're expected to belong to the airports because customs and immigration officials are also striking as well all these people are demanding that the cuts would not be tells us that the government does not goes along with the cuts they do say that they do want to change it to continue to not want to work longer hours get the blood back i'd say it will probably. come up some of

the teachers will be back to the sixty eight so it will take sixty votes in the wrong direction so they're not to be made to see if it is the sponsor of the current financial crisis. those most responsible for our current predicament. largely untouched by government seems to me to be right in the terms of some agreements halfway through without due consultation to the people most of. the changes that i may consider pensions will find it necessary to his way to address so i think we do need to make cutbacks in things i think. trying to pry the teacher pensions by so much as it is too hot we're not expecting any significant disturbances other than the laws that possible traffic disturbance this could take place at the same time there are organisations such as the education initiatives network the told people to turn thursday into days of old rage against

the foreign land called the since and they may be the ones to get a little bit rowdy the same time we also must not be. to that end i think my goal to take to the streets and make some damage. but other than that people are expected to protest peacefully again and one of the million people that are going to be marching from the bench and london to walk to the parliament to make their voices into public tell the pension party jobs plan by the government. reporting there from london now activist daniel garvin says that the government is penalizing the wrong people with its tough spending cuts government's line is that you know any any changes to the pensions or any other public said to cut sort of entirely necessary because we have such a large debt we need to remember where this came from this came from eight hundred fifty billion pounds that was pumped into the banking sector a couple of years ago and still continues to this day so you know we have

a debt and now we've got to ask ourselves how do we deal with that and instead of going after the cause the financial crisis and some of the wealthiest people in our society who are avoiding some twenty five billion tax pounds in tax every single year the government plans through that to basically go after ordinary working people and today if you've been struggling over pensions is just one of many public sector cuts to come over the next cult following is basically. a huge amount of anger in this country because it's incredibly unfair that ordinary working people have nothing to do with the financial crisis are being asked to pay for a crisis that was caused by by the. still to come in the program amid a wave of violence in egypt we look at what it means for the region. loss of tension brews between islam a body and washington over the killing of osama bin laden we follow up on pakistan's demand the u.s.

shot a drone base. the russian foreign minister has highlighted double standards at the u.n. over the organization's approach to the arab world sergey lavrov says the crisis is in syria and yemen are provoking a vastly different and unjustified approaches that peter all over reports from moscow. mr lavrov was addressing a meeting of the foreign affairs committee of the duma just behind me you know he highlighted and says south really where russia stands concerning the ongoing situations in the arab world now he gets outside what he sees as a western desire for regime change in the middle east saying that this was unacceptable and the russians would not support it and the any circumstances he also went on to highlight the fact that this was actually against international law bellman russia feels a little disappointed to say the least about the way. the the situation in libya

has progressed russia of course abstaining from the vote on the u.n. resolution that allowed international intervention there a very disappointed at the way they see that mission has gone beyond the parameters laid out in that u.n. resolution and came to avoid a similar fate a similar situation occurring in syria or yemen now said gill of rolf pulling no punches he hit out at those that have have criticised russia's stance on the un security council and also had a few words to say himself about what he sees as a lack of consistency by the u.n. body. many have been criticizing russia and china's position on the u.n. security council's resolution on syria for the fact that we consider such a resolution inappropriate 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. they're reiterating in someways words he has

said before that russia wants to see a peace brought around brought about in the arab world through discussion and diplomacy and not international intervention something that they will not support. peter all over reporting for us there now sergey lavrov has also announced that moscow is waiting for confirmation from libyan rebels that they have received weapons from friends if proven true the russian foreign minister says it would be a serious violation of the u.n. arms embargo french officials earlier admitted their military has airlifted arms into the country is the first time a nato member has owned up to supplying weapons to libya since the bombing began over three months ago the alliance is pressing paris to explain why it acted unilaterally without consulting brussels the un mandate on libya does allow military intervention to protect civilians but falls short of authorizing ground invasion and arms supplies but paris based political analyst john laughlin says

three countries have hijacked the mandate. 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 is their 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. later in the program the situation in libya is up for debate and cross talk here's a little for what's coming your way. then let's talk a little more of the mississippi that being the massacres imprimis off the top of the us of course although this wasn't publicized by take his word for it some people were shocked in tripoli in february some people were short on that basis nato the mighty the sole power block in the world can then proceed to launch a war of eleven thousand missions including for now thousand strike missions first of all jim i'm sorry to tell you that you have absolutely no credibility in your argument whatsoever other.

than to. pakistan has urged the u.s. to shut down and leave an air base in the country southwest the facility has served as a launching pad for washington's drone attacks against militants on the volatile afghan border pakistani political analyst made it great she thinks the only way to stop the violence is to end the war on terror. one of the main reasons for the for the continuation of violent activity on the pakistan of gonna stand border is the mess that the us military has created inside of coniston over the past decade the mass there the way they have alienated a large portion segment of the afghan population in terms of the push to try to the way they have conducted the war on terror there the way they have alienated a large pockets really of the country is a big reason for why we have

a continuation of violence in afghanistan and how that violence is spilling over into pakistan and most pakistani commentators believe now that one of the ways short short cuts really to controlling violence and extremism on the pakistan afghanistan border is really to end the war on terror the way the u.s. military and the way the cia has been conducting this war over the past ten years one step forward is of course what president obama has declared but you still words where you get to see really actions on the ground and we have yet to see whether important agencies within the u.s. government like the central intelligence agency the cia would really cooperate robert gates has just retired as u.s. secretary of defense after almost five years on the job and with america firmly engaged in three military campaigns abroad his replacement former cia director leon panetta isn't expected to make dramatic changes to pentagon policies iraq war

veteran michael prysner says none of the u.s. led battles are in the interest of america or the countries they are in. robert gates' legacy is one of just another millionaire who came from the board rooms of big oil of the defense industry of wall street and who has sent now over two million young people husbands wives families to fight wars that benefit only wall street and big oil robert gates legacy is one of thousands of dead u.s. soldiers tens of thousands of amputees an epidemic record suicides record military spending and of course complete destruction for iraq and afghanistan and really the six total countries that are being bombed by the united states by the pentagon the reality is the war in afghanistan it's not about the war in iraq it's not about national defense or freeing the iraqi people these are wars for empire but they're not our empire it's not our empire it's the empire of big business the empire of

wall street the empire of big oil yet they send us people who couldn't afford to go to college people who need health care for our families people who don't have jobs they send us to do the fighting for them the reality is the majority of people in the united states are opposed to the wars in iraq and afghanistan inside the military as well with this government is going to continue sending us to fight and die in these wars that are not in our interest and really it's up to us to stop that. and there's much more available for you right now on our web page at r.t. dot com. we have the latest from the wimbledon as it rushes of maria sharapova recovers from a bad start to clinch a victory and a place in the finals. was the trial of ukraine's former prime minister yulia timoshenko and of the latest judicial moves against ukraine's iron lady. egyptian officials have ordered a probe into fresh clashes between police and protesters in cairo hundreds of people have been injured as more riots sweep the country activists are angry with

the interim government saying there have been no improvements since hosni mubarak was toppled in february while pharez from the national defense university in washington says egypt may just be swapping one tougher jeem for another. youth movements a woman's movement the minorities in egypt labor you when students are not very happy with what they see right now they thought that they would get rid of the authoritarian regime and that the those in charge of the military council would help them and be neutral on political affairs and would open the path for fair and you know really elections what they are seeing now is that all the promises are not happening is then that egypt is moving towards a new type of authoritarian mandate so that's why they are trying to tell the world with their demonstrations that democracy is not yet in egypt the international community must have support not just for the government but basically for the

political forces the new political forces who will be ready to go for elections and the problem is that the legislative elections are going to happen too soon. too soon then forming new political forces so the revolution would have produced a new regime for all political forces not for the new political forces. let's take a look at some other stories making headlines for you this hour. as many as twenty people were killed in southwest afghanistan when a landmine exploded under a passenger bus the bus was traveling from kandahar to name rows a route also used by afghan police military and u.s. led coalition forces officials say women and children are among the victims the incident took place in the same area where two buses hit roadside bombs last year killing thirty people. a u.n. backed tribe you know has issued arrest warrants in the connection with of the

murder of two thousand and five of lebanon's former prime minister rafik hariri officials say the war and name for senior members of hezbollah members of the ground group denounced the tribunals and have vowed action against it rafik hariri was killed along with twenty two others in february twenty thousand and five in central beirut when a bomb exploded as his car passed by. tens of thousands of students and teachers took to the streets of go to demand improvements to the country's education system the demonstrators carrying signs and banners were soon dispersed by water cannons and tear gas the rally comes after a government pledge to inject some seventy five million dollars in into universities something the protesters called insufficient for tackling the educational crisis two weeks ago a similar margin at least seventy thousand people. venezuelan president hugo chavez says he's on his way to full recovery after an operation to

remove a cancerous tumor his announcement on state t.v. comes after the government delayed next summit of latin america and caribbean leaders early reports showed a fifty six year old chatting with cuba's fidel castro in about. and up next we talked to british union leader marcus or waka who says public sector workers won't stop until they achieve their goals.

today i'm talking to mark hughes one of the brains behind the thirtieth of june nationwide strikes in the u.k. he's head of the public and commercial services union he's three hundred thousand members are walking out of a proposed reforms to the pension scheme thanks for talking to r.t. today now this is possible to cut public spending in this country just how drastic are these cuts going to be give us an impression of what they might mean for the cuts of the big. projected to mean half a million jobs lost in the public sector six hundred thousand jobs in the private sector as a direct result. of. cuts in funding of education for young people and also a tax on people's pensions in addition to many of the communities up and down the country. cuts in social services everything that people have taken for granted

as. you seem to see these cuts in terms of rights and wrongs almost a moral position but isn't there has to be respected for example they didn't see and it looks like they might be able to afford teachers or nurses. this is the fifth largest economy in the world and if you look at historically the british economy for fifty consecutive years from one thousand nine hundred on words our debt as a proportion of our g.d.p. or what. then we build millions of houses schools hospitals welfare recognizing actually economically these cuts will make it worse far better to cut the deficit by employing people who pay tax and insurance rather than throw them onto welfare where actually they depress the economy and we think make friends with us you've said that the government cuts just attack working people but how do you think the strikes. affects the. ruling class is what having three quarters of

a million people from four different unions on strike is something that hasn't happened in this country for decades it's the start not the finish to the government is if they try to ignore will come back in the autumn when we may well see millions of people on strike so the idea is to build pressure so the government realize that working people the length and breadth of the u.k. are not just going to let them get away with what they're doing and we believe that pressure forced them to change direction the government's bill for pensions at the moment is around thirty billion pounds which does seem excessive a lot of money how do you suggest that they would you say. i don't think they should reduce i'm quite clear that the retirement of dignity and old age where you don't have to struggle to make ends meet should be what we aspire for in the first richest country in the world so my view is public sector pensions and all pension provision is important and instead of a risk to the bottom where we see the worst pension provision in the private sector

becoming the model i'd like to see a raw using the pension provision i'm saying it's a priority for people to have a decent retirement and that could be done in many ways cutting the renewal of trident for example would save us enough money to pay for those pensions for three or four years. where the richest people in britain avoid paying over one hundred billion a year would actually mean these pensions look fairly cheap in comparison and you mentioned the private sector and private. say that she the public sector has a very good deal when it comes to pensions a lot better than a lot of private sector provision do you think there's really public support for what you're doing or the opinion polls seem to tell us already a majority of people actually believe the public sector pensions are important and arriving at the right level should even be higher that's incredible when you think of the propaganda we've had over the last two years from politicians in the media telling everybody the public sector pensions are the cause of people's problem my master's to private sector workers because they're being exploited by their shareholders and by the company chiefs not by public sector workers pensions and we

should have a campaign that seeks to drive all pension levels up not down to the worst. what would you accept in terms of pension reform what i personally believe that it is not acceptable to make anyone to pay a penny more for their pension when the valuation of public sector pension schemes say they're costing less because that's not about pensions it's about raising taxes to solve the deficit i don't believe people should be forced to work longer and i don't believe people should have the levers of their pension slashed so where we are in the talks at the moment and that's the government fundamentally except they have to talk about those things and i believe the industrial action is going to take place you have said in fact that the government doesn't look like it's prepared to negotiate so what's the point of striking. when the point is to change their mind and saying you won't negotiate just when they're having a chat with a few people in the room is one thing saying you won't negotiate when there could be millions of people taking strike action is entirely another we actually believe

that the six million trade unionists plus the thousands and thousands or hundreds of thousands of pensioners and students all becoming a joint campaign is going to be proleptic lee very powerful we've already seen in britain a march of one hundred five hundred thousand people three months ago transformed the political mood in this country from march can do. strikes actually how exactly do you think that change the political me. it's transformed in that it was on the front page of the newspapers it was on every t.v. station and it gave people a confidence that however small the community and i have a small they seem for example people. they understood they were part of a much much wider problem and i think that's given us confidence to move from amman . to now for unions balloting members are members voting overwhelmingly for a strike so it's clearly transforming not just people's confidence but the opinion polls clearly are shifting whereas

a majority before said they oppose strikes now in the most recent polls a majority says they are sympathetic to them not so welcome thank you very much thank you.