the bench shows i never should also be to be still the day of the by the midst of these the helicopter carrying warships and it's still that withdrawal so certainly some of this pulls through all of the laws and modernization of the armed forces underway as we said prime minister outlining in his article of the necessity of this at this time in the country we will under no conditions give up our strategic deterrent capability on the contrary we will strengthen it russia cannot rely on diplomatic and economic methods alone to remove contradiction and resolve conflicts our armed forces special services and other security agencies should be prepared to provide quick and effective responses to a new challenge and you can get the full text of that translated article on our website c dot com and keeping on topic the prime minister is today visiting the country's far east where he's attending

a meeting to discuss the development of the military industrial complex that will take place over the course of the next ten years and now to some news from around the world south korea has become on fire military drills on islands near its disputed sea border with north korea which had threatened to attack and response so far the north does not appear to have reacted and twenty turned down young responded to ellen military drills from its neighbor with an artillery attack that killed four south koreans. fighting between two warring drug cartels led to the deaths of forty four inmates in what could be mexico's deadliest prison riot the clashes were up to when inmates from one so what they did another cell block beating them with stones and stopping them the entire prison staff on duty at the time has been detained while an investigation looks into how the violence started. egyptian officials have failed to confirm an official date

for the country's first presidential election since former leader hosni mubarak was outs officials say the delay is due to problems organizing voting for those living abroad but insist it will be held sometime in may mubarak was forced from office a year ago after a mass uprising in clashes which saw hundreds killed but protests continue across the country from people calling for the end of military rule. go pastor and former eastern germany human rights activist looks a shoo in to be germany's next president he has the backing of chancellor angela merkel and all political parties as a replacement for question wolf who was forced to quit last week over corruption allegations merkel had opposed to go a bid for the presidency in two thousand and ten in favor of wealth. with nato due to pull out of afghanistan by the end of two thousand and fourteen kabul is trying to mend ties with the taliban president karzai has asked us senior pakistani cleric

known as the father of the taliban to help mediate talks with insurgents but artie's military contributor says those efforts are useless until washington appeases pakistan next door. one of the main challenges for the afghan president during his visit to pakistan was how to pursue a parent you stand in military and civilian leadership to mend their ways and to shew poort the. negotiation process between the united states. government. and the taliban. however despite their best intentions in cobol and washington d.c. their whole form it all of negotiating with taliban was doomed from the beginning to do the right thing the right way the united states has to told directly to

islamabad and only after the successful completion of this negotiation only if them there were a chance to competition any positive development in rick installing peace and security both you have vanished and across the border coming up in an hour's time a retaining the title russia beat portugal to take europe speech soccer crowned right here in moscow all the details in our sport bulletin. that ash is here now with the latest business news. almost twenty three minutes past three pm here in moscow watching business r.t. or oil prices have jumped to the highest level in the months after iran halted

crude exports to the u.k. and france on sunday the move follows the european union's decision to stop buying iranian oil starting in july the west hopes to persuade iran to curb its nuclear program brant is now trading at almost one hundred twenty one dollars a barrel have to gains for the w t i as well which is currently trading at just under one hundred five dollars a barrel experts don't expect prices to climb might higher as they say rest for the most part have already been priced in despite a surge of prices analysts iran's decision is more of a symbolic act neither britain nor france relies on a mean world while tehran is dependent on revenues from selling food to the one. meanwhile iran is turning to barter as it offers gold and oil in return for the food the economic sanctions by the eyes states and europe make it difficult for want to pay for imports and euros and dollars and warning traders are in talks with

russia over using google to the big point over the past two weeks around brought more than one million tons of grain from russia a significant increase on last year. and what's now a check up the markets say europe as pretty upbeat london's footsie is three quarters of a percent of the blind germany's dax is gaining just under one in the house percent and here and russia the markets are also trading in the positive territory this hour the r.t.s. is up more than one percent the my six is gaining three quarters of a percent or so and now on to the biggest movers on the y. six energy majors a gaining momentum thanks to a high of group gazprom is at this point gaining around what seven percent while loop oil is adding point four percent to banking stocks are also on their back to the top of the list over one percent one this hour. and all the currency rates the euro is seeing some gains against the dollar however it's lower to the ruble

supported by stronger crude the dollar's also losing gusts russian currency. since the start of the year emerging markets to seeing record cash inflows more than four hundred fifty million dollars flowed to russia focused funds over the past three weeks mark from moscow based metropol i have see explains the growing risk appetite. some managers there are changing their like asian stores more aggressive mean more equity more emerging markets exposure that's what we mean seeing this of course is on the back of the general. a improvements in expectations of the market economics picture this year and there's i think and i think most of the fund managers pretty much priced in the greek default and greece exiting the euro zone and this is. not happening and that needs to be then taken back to this

all this you know that things which were priced in the their equities and their high risk gasses need to be bid up to take back that discount foreign investors drawing russia's regions that's according to kill dimitri of the head of the country's investment fund speaking at an economic forum in siberia had told business r.t. about the main attractions of foreign money and russia as a risk to civic interest a logistics area that's very important there is quite a bit of interest in the infrastructure and those are very specific projects so for example airport infrastructure is very interesting in the capital now a trip to fly into which is one of the largest investors and airports worldwide we tailor investments and we invest with those investors into areas in industries in the stand well and therefore they can do a good analysis of the project and that value to it going forward. and that's all the latest from the business desk my colleague meantime of the cold rain update in

about fifteen minutes.

leg. lifts.

you. it is.

up past the hour you're watching our team the chinese government uses its main news paper to accuse of the u.s. and its allies of pushing the opposition in syria to fight a prolonged civil war violence is reportedly ask alighting across the country ahead of a controversial referendum on a new constitution in a week's time. israel's i was warned against an attack on iran and urge a diplomatic solution saying military action would have grave consequences all is

tucker on imposes a ban on oil shipments to britain and france in response to international pressure on its nuclear program. and greece insists it's done everything the e.u. asked for to qualify for its next bailout and only minor technical issues remain heroes on ministers in brussels are deciding on whether athens has made enough cots before handing over a one hundred thirty billion euro. next on our peter lavelle and his cross talk guest discuss whether the global financial crisis is slowly swallowing up the middle class. well the earth science technology innovation all the list of elements from around russia we've got this huge earth covered.

you can. blow in welcome to cross talk and people of all the trials and tribulations of the middle class long considered the pillar of the west political and economic order it is now the victim of a long term downward mobility why is this the case our government policy is to blame or is this due to what is called the politics of dependency. and. cross talk to decline of the middle class i'm joined by louis shoval in new york he is a sociologist professor at and invited professor at columbia university in chicago we have david schweikert he is a professor of philosophy at loyola university chicago and in los angeles we go to tony katz he's a tea party organizer and

a radio talk show host all right gentlemen cross talk rules and if i mean you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it tony in los angeles you got up early as for this program so i'm going to go to you first why why has the middle class been suffering so much over the decades is it government policies that have done this to the middle class or is the middle class itself it's changed its values its structure and this is just the way of capitalism it's just a way it works that's there's been a myth about the middle class for a century and it's just something that's changing. first of all it's good to be here and let's not engage a conversation where we're blaming capitalism capitalism is not the problem capitalism is what allows people to thrive and survive and grow and allows for opportunities i'm never going to allow anybody here anywhere else to have an attack on the open markets and free markets that just that's just for hardy nonsense but i think there are interesting conversations as to what are the forces at play and that are making making a living difficult right now how do you change those forces those are conversations

about taxation those are conversations about what it is that a society needs to offer what it is that government is supposed to do for us as opposed to do to us those are the real conversations i don't even think that they're political i don't even think they're right left or or or anything like that they're about what are the constraints of government what are good tax policies government policies that allow people to thrive and survive i think that one should gauge those conversations here but do you mean on the left is an earlier sort of a living nonetheless i think we would all agree on this program in our view my viewers too is the middle class has taken a real clobbering over the last thirty years and particularly since the advent of the financial crisis in two thousand a david if i can go to you the fate of the middle class i mean it just gets worse and worse and worse and i will part company with tony i think it has something to do with capitalism i think it is an important conversation david go ahead in chicago. well i mean i certainly think so too but yes the middle class has really taken a hit as joseph stiglitz nobel laureate in economics remarked

a few months ago we can no longer pretend it isn't true the upper one percent now owns forty percent of all the wealth now it takes home twenty five percent of all the income the average income the median income in the united states household income is fifty thousand dollars right. there four hundred billionaires in the united states if you get a five percent return on your on your billion you know you get fifty million a year doing nothing. you know a million times more thousand has more. but the root cause of this i think really does go back it's not something that's just come about because of the financial crisis it really goes back to the mid seventy's a striking thing when you look at the data is that household incomes have been rising steadily through till about one nine hundred seventy five and they have flat lined since for the middle class this would seem to create

a problem because if people aren't making more money you know yet more and more stuff is being produced how come the economy hasn't been in crisis since then and i think we know the answer the answer is people have been borrowing the money in effect wealthy capitals classes instead of raising wages regularly let's say you can buy our products will loan you the money so you've got this massive debt that finally exploded finally gave us the melt down but even then what i think the root cause goes back to something earlier than that the new technologies that were coming online that made it possible to offshore production to set up factories abroad so that you do get around the globe global wage competition which is. david it's interesting i mean with the things that tony said and what you've just said and i'd like to go to green right now in new york should we even speak in term of terms of the middle class anymore i mean because of the technological

changes and because of the way the economy is evolved and in this the financial ization of the economy is a very good point is the credit. crunch that that was just mentioned here i mean it has the middle we should be keep using this term should we be using a different term because middle these people are not in the middle anymore they're in the single digits at one end. yes the middle is interesting so you didn't really go into your list there had no going to new york first yes yes in fact it's very clear that fifty fifty years ago the western countries where the civilization of middle class middle class nurses technicians engineers and the sky and of of associate proficient all those where's the center also says we does ation of western countries in europe in the in the us to. know is that we have

a shrinking middle class and the kind of explosion of middle class in two parts a well meter closet is sinking and on the middle class of professionals increasing in incomes in impact in political command of society and we are not we are no more able to to to to to to create new dynamics of middle class the problem is not simply technology it's a problem is that investment technology could use investment new businesses and new will be arsed from is more in the market in china in india in buzz euna and inertia are this in less in the western countries and zoo loo where we don't class the western countries are completely since king they are first hated the face put it to cool problems and difficulties and seats we are a problem for they were crises in most ways to go i want to hear what i want to do with it whatever you think of it ends in the second half of the problem david you

look a little perplexed if you want to jump in there yeah well there's two things first of all the middle class is dissolving but it's not that fifty percent are going down and fifty percent are going up no it's about eighty to ninety percent you know are seeing their incomes stagnate or go down in the upper twenty ten and above all the upper one or two percent you know are doing well but the other thing there is this political dimension of the. it's not just technology there was also the polish move to advocate to push for free trade to dismantle any kind of protectionism so that our workers had to compete with workers everywhere else in the world this was a political decision that was unable by the new technologies that now made it profitable for companies here to do all this outsourcing of moving their factories and so on ok tony if i can go to you the most important and greatest export of united states is jobs apparently and that's destroying the middle class whose fault is that ok is

it just technology you know you know snooze you lose or is it on more people with capital saying it's easier will can make easier money in the bric countries for example is it a political decision. again we will not be attacking capitalism or the open market around but if we can being gauge in the side. of your intended ology god god god god forbid we should have the automobile we could just go back to the horse and buggy wouldn't we be all better off it's like dan rather saying that there should be protections in the us house of representatives amongst the federal government i should say for newspapers because newspapers somehow need our protection technology is a good thing advances are a good thing sometimes things fall by the wayside newsstand's you are tony is it is the middle class planning on not just the middle class even if for a moment because rich people benefit from these you know they do but just the middle class the conversation about jobs in america for example isn't so much

a conversation about technology take a look at fracking technology take a look at what we can do to get the natural gas right from underneath our feet but we don't seem to do it it's a conversation about regulation in america that keeps things from growing and thriving and prospering so there's only going to talk about. the benefit of all of us if we don't take it david jump in your hands on the technology go ahead david yeah i mean tony mentioned the automobile now that was an interesting technology but what was peculiar about the automobile technology is that it was a technology that generated far more jobs than it replaced ok yes the horse and buggy industry took a hit but you got automobile factories you got gas stations you got auto parts the new technologies that was an historical accident the new technologies may be wonderful but they do not magically generate anything like the number of jobs that they are every placed and in fact the newest technologies the big ten times the.

hospital dish offshore it's offshore those jobs ok let me and we're going to you know what i command the new yorker i want to go back to new york chance please you know we have to have a fair time here and we do you see do you see. what we call the middle class in the west recovering i mean what's going to take for the west for the middle class to regain what it's lost over the last three or four decades. in trying to he gains indeed status first through question is. of work it's a problem in many countries and in though your bill western europe and countries of two strong welfare states is that so work the basics of work is disappearing but it's not simply that it's also investment in new businesses investment in and here universities and formations the development of a new intermediate professional class such as does it is that has been disappearing over the last thirty years so the problem is that thirty fifty years ago all

associated professionals professionals who are away or kind of the power of the west of western countries the problem now is we are more of them are kind of not could only but to so on contrary is in front of us are economic poor and technological poor and poor of china and of these two on asia our problems is that we are forgotten that is investment and the problem with investment is that it's not simply capitalism or big governments that are able to to to to do everything so polemic over the last thirty years is that both the big governments and both capitalism have forgotten a lot of science and technologies that we need in order to he creates a middle class if it is ation so it is disappearing quite a know all right interesting point gentlemen we're going to go to a short break and after that meet our break we'll continue our discussion and

downward mobility of the middle class stay with r.t. . if you. still. want to. i. think. it's all designed to keep you closed in your own small world as a prison. you know you leave somebody in there for a couple hours like that in a stress positions. you have this fear of the unknown in this stress sort of building and. i've seen interrogations go on ten twelve hours they chose songs i remember from marilyn manson. slayer the two songs would be angel of death

and raining blood to kill the enemy going through war coming up here into iraq coming to the baghdad. johnny pool of the bodies to the floor which is the rock n roll band it was fitting for the job we were doing. which brightened. the song from things to. these food stocks on t.v. dot com. and.

welcome back to crossfire people about to remind you we're talking about the prospects of the middle class. and you. stuart. ok david i'd like to go to you in chicago i mean we mentioned before we went to the break. he didn't say it exactly but he was talking about what people say the politics of dependency and how the state has made the middle class dependent and because of the the rise and maybe we see it we're seeing the fall of the welfare state do you think that's a mitigating factor in the fate of the middle class because no no i mean i think we had to go ahead and think so go ahead that that makes that make it makes no sense in the i don't see how anyone can blame the fact that there's people on welfare that's not what is responsible for the fact that the jobs are the number of jobs

are less and less available more and more people are losing their jobs it has nothing to do with a cultural defense dependency it has everything to do with the fact that the invisible hand of the market given a free rein will not create enough jobs in a very curious way marx is coming back marx remember predicted that when wages go up the capitalist will replace skilled workers by machines this will generate unemployment ok mark so you can reserve army to. push downward pressure i wait times it's not ok i think i use a time it gets worse and worse a few days when i think there are a fuse went off and. sure there. are let's make sure our little fact let's make sure that we're all talking about a couple things karl marx was a first rate hike communism sucks so let's never engage the idea that karl marx is someone we should look up to him.