it's all exports which are vital to the west again a report from you about that developing story tonight. hello live from moscow you're watching r.t. i'm kevin now in our top story the eight pm the french finance minister insists it's not a catastrophe but the markets are indicating otherwise a slew of credit rating downgrade has rocked europe depriving france and austria of their prized aaa grades and slashing the scores of seven other nations to the latest hit back at standard and poor's the agency behind the move calling the decision incomprehensible. has more on the wider implications. this comes at a time when optimism was just about going up when it comes to the euro zone with some positive data coming out first week of two thousand and twelve well clearly a new such as this would again dampen investor confidence and stall that process

now this downgrade of france was not entirely unexpected i mean s. and p. had given it warnings the last year and even a lot of the analysts we've been talking to had said that a french downgrade was imminent so now that it has actually happened still the markets reacted negatively to all of this is happening because of france's role in the bailouts is one of the reasons in the role in the bailouts of greece of italy through the european central bank as well as of portugal so it has left the financial system the banking system of france in a very vulnerable position now what it comes to italy this is one of the countries that has been considered too big to fail and it comes just days after the premier mario monti had met in berlin with german chancellor angela merkel and french president nicolas sarkozy where they stressed the growth prospects when it comes to credit ratings agencies there's a lot of indignation coming from e.u. leaders there saying that all of this is happening at a time when the eurozone is trying to get out of the crisis and they've put out bad

news like this and in the past they have attempted to limit the influence of credit ratings agencies in the financial markets and if you remember we go back to the question the credibility of these agencies going back to two thousand and eight financial crisis the role that they played in that crisis where they had backed assets as well as financial instruments that were essentially junk still the investor confidence one of the most important aspects of all of this which is more often than not psychological than rational and if this is affected we can see a chain of events unfolding and unfortunately it might more most likely be negative . europe correspondent there will reactions been pouring in from europe today with some expressing disbelief while others including german chancellor angela merkel warned of the long road ahead get some suspected on the future and what it may hold for you we head into the me of and talk to john laughlin director of studies at the institute for democracy and cooperation is joining us on the line from paris

tonight are there john limping along now as we've been reporting so fully for a year and if anything the last few weeks saw a bit of a high point of the struggle against that still very bad picture overall though why did start of them pause pick to strike now with this news. well i don't think that's in a sense the right question i think that they've got their own timetables and they report on you know what they see the fact is there's been a lull as you say in the crisis but that was really to do with the christmas and new year holidays they have assessed the situation and they have come to the conclusion as have many other people that the situation in the eurozone is untenable and i think when the euro finally collapses as it will do surely within i would think probably the next year that we will see this day at this announcement the downgrading of france and as having been one of the decisive moments because it really is a sign that the markets are losing confidence in obviously the eurozone and the

euro project as a whole and in the core countries of europe obviously france exactly but the bigger picture there let's focus in on france and domestically what what this is going to mean is going to affect i guess president sarkozy in is an election chance if your three month ends of course it's going to be a big source of national pride isn't a big dent a national pride that they have lost this now there's no doubt that it will strike a terrible blow for sarkozy is only real chance of winning the election was to show himself as a safe pair of hands as the devil you know in a crisis now it's clear that france has both a crisis and the devil that they know so in internal french politics it's a very serious event indeed but i repeat it's not just a political matter it is the assessment by a rating agency of the ability of france and other countries to repay its debt and it's an assessment therefore that the debt situation in europe has not been tackled

and that in fact it is getting worse we've had a eurozone crisis now for two years and it's been particularly intense for the last six months and a standard falls in their press statement announcing the credit card say that they think that the european leaders have not responded to the crisis adequately. and that's why they're downgrading the countries so it's an assessment of the root of the situation on the ground which is that european countries are struggling to contain their debt obviously reaction as well from germany angle of merkel today saying that these downgrades are there to see to the struggled to keep the euro alive he's talking now of a long road ahead he's not talking though yet about a brick wall at the end of the road but you see differently well i do and one of the reasons one of the many reasons i mean apart from the inherent contradictions of the euro itself this this debt issue is not or it's not something that the euro has failed to control it has actually been caused by the euro the reason why we have a debt problem in the eurozone is that the countries particularly in southern europe

who have run up enormous debts have been able to do so without feeling the consequences in terms of exchange rates in a normal situation if they had had national currencies their currencies would have lost value it's precisely because they have a shared currency that they have the impression that they could have a sort of free lunch for so long and that's what's got us into the situation we're in but the key point the key political point to new and this is and this is in response to your question about merkel is that the downgrading of france but not of germany obviously means that the franco german axis is no longer a tenable proposition what we see in the euro zone is that there's only one country calling the shots not two and that's germany and of course it's worth remembering isn't it that a lot of these downgrade is not particularly because france can serve as a debt is because of its exposure to the problems that greece and italy has absolutely france is of course very exposed to those countries and that is indeed

why the downgrading has taken place one of the reasons there is this in other words is an example of contagion but i repeat what it really also shows let's not forget that of course french ministers only a few weeks ago were denying that this downgrade would take place but they were also arguing for the existence of europe. in other words they were arguing that the strongest countries in europe should guarantee the debts of the weakest well this downgrading shows that those strongest countries are not as strong as we thought they were even austria has been downgraded so this idea that a call europe can somehow save the periphery even that is not tenable and john i wonder how we'll be reporting the six months hence but i will tell john locklear director of studies at the institute to democracy and cooperation in paris thanks ever so much thank you. well italy the economy too big to fail is also being dropped two notches by our some pay many there are adjusting to the reality of a stereotype among them the country's notorious mafia got more learn the cards report next hour. here now italy's number one bank as crisis

by its first primary on monday. running italy here a leg breaker with ties to goldman sachs goes back years already so he's a capital capital you know he's of course he's asking the gone more or in the course of nostra from the south to come out up north baby we've got a lot of people here you can find actually rape with your predatory loads mario monti says the three card monte you know is the global aspiration to be a gangster on a wall street make predatory loans extort money. thousands of taking to the streets of the country's capital exactly a year now since the popular uprising brought an end to president ben ali's rule they were calling for freedom of the media and more democratic values while chanting revolutionary slogans many believe little changed since ben-ali was ousted

you're still plagued by unemployment and crippling economic problems the country seen a wave of suicide protester terms before people said of yourselves in light of the space of just a week i was out is going to report smokes but he said the only real change since the revolution has been a surge in radical religious ideas. it may have looked like a successful revolution getting rid of authoritarian regime while retaining its westernized facade but in parliamentary elections that followed tunisians voted for a new idea and islamist party which now firmly holds the majority of seats in the new parliament. political culture here in tunisia. the first experience. making the choice between political programs it was hard especially political campaign. that pushed people to choose either with muslims and then muslims. if you. don't believe in

god but western tourists need to have nothing to fear the party's leaders see beer and bikini's irregular steeples of tunisia's holidays hot spots are here just yet recent events at the maneuver university one of the largest in the country show the tunisian ways are indeed changing their protests erupted right here at the amman they were going to verse thirty several female students came in wearing and what is that in this in the islamic headdress which covers most of the face the windows the eyes open they're going to burst the authorities have prohibited from being born on campus so the students went on strike saying their freedom was being oppressed by the majority of students were against the strike but they were threatened by those in the minority. we held out on principle we are against girls wearing head dress in lecture halls and during the exams it's a question of security and of trust and professor believe he acknowledged the student's right to wear whatever they please after all she says this is the essence

of freedom but in the case with niqab she felt a different from the simple issue of dress code since usually head dress serves to protect the woman from possible unwanted advances and activists for women's rights in the country believe the underlying political tendencies are thinly veiled by the strikes at the new beginning versity. whether a woman wears any cop or whatever else this thing's an important i'm not afraid of women's desire to wear head dress i'm afraid that this issue may be used to provoke other problems the parliamentary opposition meanwhile fears this may mean bad news for the newly born tunisian democracy because. we're worried that we may slump down to a new head to many a rule by one of the representative parties and not to receive forty percent of the seats in the assembly the post of prime minister is also there's every tunisian is afraid that confrontations and riots may occur. in other leaders have numerous

assurances that they're not going to turn to media interest to sharia law states but maybe in the country are already saying that the worrying signs are here in. tunisia. middle east expert told r.t. the new islamist leaders are indulging in emotional populism instead of real solutions to the country's woes. way in which the young meats been operating that we in which there is exclusively on intelligent presumed market will see has been operating and the way in which the new justice minister than the slow minister of going social and moral creature to decide what can go on and what can even go on and what shouldn't go on television is already in the real problems of photogrammetry which are social and economic problems are looking ahead and needs to be implemented to help the goal of the people who outreach aapl to do just go back to be so-called moderate islamists are basically concentrating on

moral censorship and what people should do in general is a sign of we want to complete bankruptcy it's because they are not of the people anything else so they are receding along these lights. still coming up field military optimism our way sober intelligence the pentagon for vishal says the u.s. is doing well in afghanistan and the taliban's moving ground but a cia report says the campaign is mired in a stalemate. also we look at the what america says his brood nutritious food for children find out how he is classified as a vegetable in american schools where one child in three dangerously overweight. powerful unions in nigeria plan to resume talks with the government after five consecutive days of nationwide protests against skyrocketing fuel and food prices the move comes after the unions threaten to stop all crude and natural gas

production this sunday on the war in from the sahara reporters dot com says financial decisions made by the government drove people to the war. what is clear is that this is not some kind of mass action or strikes juden by the unions only well you know this is the nigerian people rising up against years of dictatorship corruption and mismanagement of their resources and it was driving the fight against the government now it just happened to be that you remove the subsidy on gasoline it was the spark for this march movement i used so you can because if revolution the jury has the best we can country of black people we were about to lose their leader and the nigerian people are calling this an agent hamad turn as opposed to the arab spring. the first total shutdown of all exports from nigeria could deal a major blow to the world's already wobbly economy the editor of the pan-african newswire told us at r.t.

that the west has every reason to be concerned we have to keep in mind that right now as far as the united states is concerned some twenty five percent of the all that's being imported right now dancing in our states is coming from the african continent nigeria is the number one on our exports to the united states and poland is number two in fact. all of that is. from africa i think united states now seen with a man who obviously that is an exporter of from the entire weekend so he was very much concerned about maintaining stability in nigeria for example fact that it is heavily reliant upon the organs being imported from nigeria into the united states . the tensions in the middle eastern oil fields dominating the world stage you've noticed people dressed to the latest developments on our website r t v dot com money stories we've got there for you tonight departing good live trees off of course for you too with

a leave office very nice but if you remember that's exactly what russia's former envoy to nato wants to do with the alliance headquarters too but he failed to mention the trees he had in mind share their name with russia's nuclear missile connectors reaction to our web site also the i phone craze turned ugly in china discreditable crowds pelted one of the pulls flagship stores vegs prompted the tech giant now to shut down its operation very vague but not happy all that and more of the dot com. us to phone secretary leon panetta says the american campaign in afghanistan is suppressing taliban activity and heading in the right direction but that's into wrecked contradiction to a leaked cia report presented to the white house earlier which cast doubt on the

optimistic rhetoric suggesting that the us operation is indeed sunk at a stalemate several top commanders have signed a letter of dissent in response to the paper saying it doesn't show an understanding of taliban tactics and is based on flawed evidence report concludes that troop reinforcements have been ineffective because of corruption incompetent governance and attacks by taliban fighters who are dying out in neighboring pakistan this may result in an even longer stay by american troops beyond the planned withdrawal of twenty fourteen according to cali millry of the new world strategies coalition. it has been ten years that has not unified the country i said should have been it looks like there's no chance for the americans to see a government standing on its feet however this could prolong americans be on a stand for a quite a number of years i would say and the years are unknown at this time but it looks

like it's going to be a long time because there's a corrupt government cannot function in the way that it is right now the fact is that there's a friction in the white house right now that some more say no basically the pentagon going to a treaty is the one that's calling up that same to you know we should not really rush in fast as we can well just ahead with popular disapproval of us for drawing a broad americans will soon have a chance to vote for. changing that match i just don't think it's realistic at all we don't move that quickly it's not the way our system works and the presidential election if you like this year we'll see what policies americans are looking for whether they think they'll get. a piece of cheese long but a major problem for many children across america while many look for solutions the government stands accused of turning a blind eye to a trend that's now causing diabetes and heart disease but spells profit for food giant corporations. tasted what some of the new u.s.

public schools. it's a super sized crisis impossible for america to disguise an insatiable love for food and big portions has served up a nationwide majority of overweight children none of us want this future for our kids as first lady michelle obama attempts to tackle the epidemic by advocating more exercise healthy eating and penning a book about the white house garden u.s. lawmakers are getting kudo's for stirring the health problem. in a single woman tension fear will go nowhere given the allure of the. recent decision by the congress to send pizza was a vegetable you heard correctly the greasy cheesy cheap meal known as pizza is served as a lunch vegetable to thirty two million public school children how because u.s. department of agriculture guidelines qualify to tablespoons of tomato paste as an

official veggie serving in november u.s. congress rejected a request from the department that would have changed requirements and ultimately removed pizza from school menus congress has really shown who controls them and that's the big corporations and the big food corporations companies like con agra and swans these are the makers of the frozen pizza and they have huge financial interests in that obviously according to published reports food companies spend five point six billion dollars this year lobbying specifically to keep pizza friendly u.s.d.a. guidelines in place the social consequence of overweight kids has millions currently battling diabetes and millions more vulnerable to heart disease and shortened life expectancy granted issues such as corporate control and obesity are not new problems for america but over the years the hunger for profits has

compromise. as the health of an entire generation the u.s. department of defense says twenty five percent of young americans are too overweight to join the military and the damage some experts say threats to national security for. our short but quite tally unscientific poll found americans picking logic all over the world of their lawmakers like pizza. it doesn't look good to me. to see the service that's. what it's like it's much beer and all that from. that's what solution on our human. whatever it is i don't think whatever they're

feeding in public schools is terrible knowing that u.s. leaders have a hand in cooking up the ingredients can also leave a bad taste in many mouths porton i r r t new york. i would bring up those news stories in brief the emir of qatar had been covering he has become the first arab leaders of openly support the idea of foreign military intervention into syria speaking to c.b.s. news in chief he said that arab states should send in military forces to end ten months of bloodshed in the country this comes as a top opposition leader and syria's claim that the country's deputy army fled to turkey two weeks ago because the highest ranking officer to defect so far. at least three people of the confirmed dead now off for a cruise ship carrying over four thousand passengers run aground off at least northwest coast sixty nine are still unaccounted for tonight most of those on board the costa could doria were evacuated on lifeboats or this one was sure the vessel had a sound. friday. before we head of the un's nuclear watchdog has called

off his. presidential bid in egypt elections mohamed el baradei said his decision was a protest against the way the biliteral government's been running the country since hosni mubarak was ousted as leader the election set to take place in june this year it had been seen by many as one of the front running liberal candidates. it was a broad more action on pressing issues in the home these appeared to be the most popular demands from americans for their presidential candidates these days they're a half mistakes to the streets of new york then asking whether it's change that they can believe it. this year the us has the opportunity to elect a new president are they ready for radical change this week let's talk about that changing that much i just don't think is realistic at all we don't move that quickly it's not the way our system works and it will move in different directions

over time but i don't think it's going to happen do you think that's a detriment to us that everything takes so long. maybe but it's the way the system works and i think that those checks and balances in the way that it moves slowly actually is good in the long run well they thought they were ready four years ago for radical change do you think they had radical change so far i feel like they had a radical change in the wrong direction so what direction do you think it should go in the way of the people which is what which is when the government actually works for us not for themselves the change i would like to see would be probably they would be complimentary because there are some libertarian ideas that are great but you just can't pull the social fabric out from the folks that need it you can't do it i'm a really hard time with the fed and i think we should be out of all countries you know we should be occupying anything but we need to take care of our own i think you need somebody who is prepared to stick his head out and do big changes like to

say do you think that the u.s. people would get behind a leader that did that if they get desperate enough because of the split that's happening with people who are employed not employed to have money and no money they desperately nuffield get it whether or not the u.s. needs radical change the bottom line is it remains to be seen whether or not they'll vote for it. next week. he's got news that the former coach of the russian national football teams turns. top job a big spending sure he's got his reasons also brings us his latest addition of moscow to that so the next half hour look see on r.t. i'm kevin before all that i'll update the headlines for you just a minute or two. now

it's not about spilling blood before me and mr war of the barricades from one side and first blockade from the other. the. invisible border has cut people from the land for twelve year.

the conflict that divided serbia into two hostile parts is still not over. from a. fish and if. he

is easy to feed it's. easy. to eat. six. the official. from the.

video. feed with the palm of your. comb. for some from oscar watching our top stories this saturday night to find the downgrade from says it's not panicking in the wake of losing its top credit rating stay focused on the poor things that you're reserving crease in rio to deal with the debt crisis. a year since tuesday as president ben ali was ousted he was a mystery to some accused of ignoring the real issues of poverty and unemployment in favor of spreading the radical religious agenda. riots in nigeria bring this.