thanks for joining our team with me karen turner top story clashes flare across syria with violence on the rise between government troops and the rebels after a deadly attack on several of the regimes top brass the free syrian army has claimed responsibility with a former inner circle bodyguard called. israel points the finger of blame at iran for an attack on its citizens after at least eight tourists are killed in a blast in the bulgarian city. and a test of the transformer goals of florida the german parliament just such

a vote on whether to funnel cash to spain's beleaguered banks. next we hear from an economics professor william hankel explains why he thinks that is driving europe into a financial abyss. here is skepticism is in fashion these days but are today's guest was against europe's common currency before it even came into being professor a prominent german economist is joining us now on r.t. thank you very much for your time sir you were among those who launched a legal action against the euro all those years ago you must feel vindicated now by seeing the economist like me it's like a doctor or a social a doctor he feeds will sponsor for the head sources to. and this is the reason why i want like a good father is wanting his child. the child has to look to the traffic on the

street and my job is to warm. the consequences of see you or not the same as governments are sinking so very very. complicated because your point is not a nation like united states and all the a nation can have a national currency but as long as you will be is not a nation and vince that will never be a nation it cannot have a common currency economic disparities notwithstanding do you think the euro was a good idea at least in a theoretical sense not currency behind the idea of so your is the wrong idea namely said we can form united states of you or your. with a currency if we want to hear if united states of you or if we need

a political union we need to come in constitution we need to come in there for the end of su people we need but we do not have in your op a comment coming people come in there most united states is a nation but you will be is not a nation your visit diversity of nations and diversity of states and any state is responsible for the valve of its own citizens of its own people and therefore it cannot be bought together a common currency. and responsibility of the states for their own people you make a point that this territory program said damaging not only for europe's financial health but also for its democratic institutions could you elaborate on that look democracy begins at all begins in russia begins in germany begins in italy

and spain we have a national parliament and this is the highest servitude. and if there's a common currency is taking. decisions in terms of money in terms of budget it's a violation of democracy. it was. historical mission to bring democracy in the world and now and i am very certain about now. is destroying democracy now how big of a role does culture play in fiscal affairs was it an important factor in the euro being not asked successful as initially in visit my personal view from the very beginning and is in order to have a common currency in interact economic terms you need an optimal currency area but europe is not an optimal currency. and since the introduction of the euro or behave

no unified interest rates a unified foreign exchange rate among you will be in economies but. greek you are it's not equal to a job and your common interest rate for spain let's say and there's a lens or greek is. wrong because it's case of spain's interest rate must be higher in case of there's a lens of germany must be law so it's a complete mismanagement even in monetary financial terms what we have now and you're a mess western europe has long been held as an example of well functioning capitalist system and now we are talking about socializing huge debt how do you square free market principles and bail out proposals this isn't very interesting point to the your idea the common market started as

a very liberal maybe and the neo liberal project of freedom freedom freedom free investments and free twenty eight. and now. this liberal project is becoming a very socialistic. portrait like say former soviet union common currency means there is no competition between currencies. common debts means says no no responsibility for your own debts so this is not a liberal project so you were has changed see whole i just look t. of of you or p. an integration former liberal concept into a socialistic one which is quite interesting so in russia for instance. faded away but in new hope its coming. the auspicious of so your

crisis but i think we will have the same destiny as them soviet union as socialistic concept cannot survive what kind of actions european leaders could take to prevent the sort of collapse if we were to go back for every nation for france for germany as islands it is spain two zero zero zero national currencies so what would have two advantages first of all if you could serve every nation could of its local car as the local means namely this developed nation of currency this on the interest of a to visit on budget of the policies and secondly we could from the european unity not a base of a common common currency but often. the union of. currencies where before foreign exchange rate union before. we had an

european monetary egremont. common. policy in terms of foreign exchange rates but not internally in. terms of interest rates and i think we had to come back to the time before nine hundred ninety nine where we had foreign exchange rate unions instead of money unions you just mentioned they're trying to national currencies and the latest poll i've seen shows that the number of germans who are in favor of reintroducing the door to mark is steadily on the increase the majority of germans are also strongly against the idea of euro bonds but german authorities keep pushing the your agenda and bailout proposals who do you think should have the final say on those issues the people or the power it's article call it. what is the learning capacity of governments i fear learn not as early as students learn at

school but long long monetary story shows the one lesson is no substitute for own currencies or listed for an exchange rates if you have own currencies and realistically change rates then you have a very unpalatable pressure for to any government to make serious policy so the fear of developing nation blinks the government back to the high pass of serious policy and i think this is a lesson we have to learn. i was a long time more than forty years professor of economics so i started if i calculated quietly seventy seventy is ball monetary union and past now we are confronted with seventy one so it's the old piece there's new actors

but this is allusion of the seventy's before was. come back to own currency makes the right value of his currencies are right interest rates zero at foreign exchange rate and you exported things and this would be solution in the beginning of the twentieth century germany had some of the highest inflation rates in many historians agree that it was one of the factors that brought hitler into power if you are indeed collapse s. what kind of social and political implications it could have for europe and the rest of the world love arcee. consequence of a social crisis so we had to avoid any a social crisis in order to to or to to fight against a company because of a dictator like hitler or ourselves now the countries and south of your makes the same experience so they had to avoid

a social crisis and the real problem you see your is see your wall is changing from a monetary crisis into a social crisis and in order to avoid it's a social crisis with all this political implications we had to stop so you'll have to come to a national. democratic terms in economic terms as well as in monetary terms and then we can make combined and united you all as association of independent nations and i fight for says you because this would be open for us non. you nations like switzerland or even like a national in such open. you'll be in society of his own currency of his own democracy is all in the nation's. new false

veldt economy namely assault off alliance of nations or you will be an alliance of nations so this is my hope for the future thank you very much for your time. good old started here. for going global and now pulling my. shoes your legs take your stuff. to. make your statement. to work. the

street. to the. mayor and more mouths to feed but where will the food come from can science provide the answers to the future of under the microscope. we've got the future covered. resistance is not of politics but a culture. is couldn't. on it's own. cultures of resistance on the march.

matias fuller across syria with violence on the rise between government troops and the rubble after a deadly attack on several of the regime's top brass the free syrian army has claimed responsibility with a former inner circle bodyguards named the culprit. points the finger of blame at her wrong over and the top on its citizens after at least eight tourists all killed in a blast in the bulgarian city of border guards. and a test of transamerica authority of the german parliament is set to vote on whether to funnel trash to spain's beleaguered banks. up next it's all the latest sports news with paul.

thank you very much karen welcome along the to this was headlines here's what we've got for you. european the top and jane prepare for their first ever competitive europa league match by the way from darkest on the way for the club the region that too dangerous. on the top of the world england and south africa prepared to begin their rematch test series one of the world's number one ranking is at stake. and on his way to rapid rise to fame jeremy lin leads the new york knicks and science vacation rockets in a deal worth twenty five million dollars. but first to football where rushing to. buy their first ever match in european competition later on thursday they take on hungary inside that in the europa league second qualifying round and see have been banned from hosting european matches in darkest on your way for the client the

regent dangerous so the first leg of the tie is being held in an unused arena in the moscow region the big spending club appealing to europe's governing body in the hope they'll overturn that decision a giant screen is being erected at angie's home ground in the supporters can watch the game in countries having believes the visitors will come into the tie better prepared with two competitive matches under that belt already the season. well elsewhere sweden zlatan abraham evictions signed a three year deal with big spending part of san giovanni reports claim the french club paid a scene around twenty five million dollars for the thirty year old sweden's captain apparently taking home a reported seventeen million dollars a season after the transfer fee taking the league and club spending to some one hundred thirty seven million dollars this summer and abraham of it she is excited about where the club is going. welcome to the dream team and the dream team will be continued to growing and. i mean they will do everything to win and i want to be

part of that this is the future and i want to be part of this future now in cricket the top two test teams in the world begin their three match series later on thursday england host south africa at the oval now in defeat would see the tories leapfrog them into the number one spot in the world rankings a draw however would be good enough to keep andrew strauss his man at top of the pile and he'll be hoping his bowling attack can help inflict south africa's first series defeat on foreign soil in six years the contest pits arguably the world's two best bowling line up against one another the tourists are spearheaded by the world's top run ball and dale steyn while england can call upon the formidable jimmy anderson and south africa's captain graeme smith believes these are the best attacks in international cricket. i think it's a fair assessment the records of what the the two bali attacks have achieved. but you know we move forward and. we're hoping that they can carry on with that lift

off in the past and this new new highs for them to create hopefully you know are not armed certainly very excited about i think it will be a good gauge for us as to where we are actually the rankings say we're number one but we've got to go out there and prove that now now in basketball n.b.a. phenomenon jeremy lin is expected to be unveiled as the houston rockets player later on thursday after the new york knicks failed to match a three year twenty five million dollars offer for the point guard lynn passed a medical in houston head of completing the switch he shot to fame last season despite making only twenty five starts for the knicks after making his debut in december linsanity swept across america and his native taiwan the new york franchise working to keep hold of their star man but ultimately failed to match the rockets off his form and figures were beginning to drop before his season was prematurely ended by an operation on his knee but the knicks fans believe they will be better off with or without the twenty three year old. i can't make that call

because. he came out of nowhere is it somebody coming out of the ivy league didn't get the kind of attention or was he always been evaluated based on his ballplayer i don't really know and so the question is was he going to come back and injury and do the same things again it makes no sense he started to. get over he got his name in new york in order to sign good spain are you treating began traded to the rockies. it's a terrible mistake well we've got a pretty big population here in new york. makes me to pick the state not capitalizing. now to boxing where for my w b a light welterweight champion i'm a card says he's confident he will return to form after suffering his second straight defeat at the weekend the twenty five year old lost his unification world title fight to danny garcia but he's eyeing a quick return to the ring possibly as early as december but his future could be without trying to freddie roach i don't know yet i mean at the moment at the moment

i do want. to let it down my team and we know exactly what's going up and. like that things can change in. well when we sit down with a team and begin to for a few names to me and we're going to make it addition next week or two now to formula one where seven time former world champion michael schumacher is aiming to win his home with german grand prix this weekend the forty three year old has yet to reach the checkered flag first since coming out of retirement two years ago although he secured a place on the podium in the recent european graeme for a miss a days his team meanwhile are looking for their first win on home soil since one manuel fangio one of the nuremberg being in one thousand nine hundred fifty four and schumacher says he and the team are closing in on that elusive victory. this is not true this does i hope soon but it's what drives me on and what of course has given me great pleasure as we have already shown this year we're capable and i hope

we'll be able to win a race hopefully in hockenheim and it will be a great challenge to stand on the podium as one of the best is no two on realistic it would be a great result for us. as we are. now continuing the countdown to the london olympics which begin next friday and our team continues its look at russia's medal hopefuls one sport in which the country has dominated in recent years in synchronized swimming michael kraft shankar now reports on two athletes hoping to continue that success. russia's synchronized swimming team and do it have won all six possible gold medals in the last three olympic games in addition they have also contributed heavily to russia's overall gold medal tally in both the world and european aquatic championships but whether or not the challenges of drop the standards in recent times it's clear the current batch of russian athletes being trained hard. will really work

a lot doesn't cover one of the training facility nails this they're all shocked that we train daily for ten hours holding and polishing the routine is very difficult and to remember it is even harder. although it was removed in favor of the team competition for the nine hundred ninety six games the jewett is now considered to be the most prestigious event of all rushes to see an honest to see a year mark over with a country stop happy last two weeks but a couple of new starlets in the form of natalee and said. have since emerged shining at least in the world and european championships so. it's much tougher physically this time around because in the last olympics i only participated in the team competition and now i will also be performing in the duets completion it's a more individual event and it's of course very prestigious and because of that it's more than double the work the discipline requires great strength in june

flexibility and of course precise timing as well as exceptional birth control when upside down underwater so training is tough and constant and lengthy the girls can train for literally half a day in order to ensure they maintain the proper level of fitness. without a doubt the most difficult aspect is dealing with the physical demands we've got to do at repetitions in the morning and to team repetitions in the evening so it's quite difficult to keep yourself in shape mentally it's also tough yes the olympics are the goal. but you try not to think about that because it just becomes that much harder rushes synchronized with my passion and. of course i have to spend a lot of time in the water but surprisingly spending the amount of the ten hour training sessions here in the gym practicing record graffiti. it's a long and at times lonely task with a rigid regime that leaves little room for anything else let alone the time but

insists there's enough time for friends and family is that if we have one free day a week so we try to get everything done then like go to the movies and read with friends i have a husband at home so i like spending time with him of course but this is part of our work and i just have to get used to it and of course there wouldn't be much of a duet if the two girls couldn't get along with each other. natasha and i get along very well even beyond the training facility but it can be difficult especially when we come back after our day off and have to resume training when all we really want to do is share the latest of each encounter mushy enough feeling big shoes and expectations will be sky high when they dive in the olympic pool in london in august but it seems they're already well prepared to carry the torch in russia's bid to win gold for consecutive time michael genco. moscow.

past eight days and counting now until the lympics begin from the world of sport for you in a little under two hours time here on r.t. but the world weather is next followed by the headlines with carol. well. science technology innovation all the moves developments from around russia we've got the future covered. resistance is not our politics but our culture. is couldn't speak against. its own.

cultures of resistance on marching. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.