hello there this is r.t. live from russia this sunday evening today's news in the week's top stories now a key battle in syria as the rebels in the regime fight for the country's second city the syrian army since thousands more troops not while the u.n. looks for a new peace envoy after kofi annan stepped down from. the trial of antiproton punk band pussy riot divides russia three women could get seven years behind bars for hooliganism after performing an antiproton stunt to the country's main cathedral back in february. and protesters in bahrain and saudi arabia are set for mass

rallies people in both nations are united in a call against the ruling elites which are escalating their crackdown. the u.s. is considered by many to be a place of high living standards but the critics claim the notion of general wealth and well being is just an illusion a leading us health economist and renowned american statistician now explains in the social and financial ills of his country in the next fifteen minutes. in the promised land of stars and stripes us presidents have always reminded citizens how lucky they are and where people of every background can work hard and realize your dreams the old fashioned american dream thank you yes with the justice i call an america is an exceptional nation of freedom and opportunity and i hope the story of america reads much differently when facts are taken into account

the measure of a nation is a new book comparing america against thirteen other wealthy nations to see where in fact the u.s. stance author dr howard stephen friedman sat down with our t.v. news initiated by a conversation with my cousin when they were discussing the patient care and affordable care act patient patient protection and affordable care act and he had been defending the current system in america saying that it's the best in the world and i asked him how do you know that and his response was well i have no idea interestingly just a couple days afterwards i was doing some of my work at the united nations and i was looking at the human development report and it dawned on me that the data to compare the united states to other wealthy countries is readily available you can look at it you can see how we're doing and from there you can identify if we're doing better or worse and in the areas we're not doing as well one of the lessons we can learn from other countries so when you do the comparison what you find is

overall the united states doesn't do that well on health safety democracy and equality we have some of the lowest rankings for education roughly in the middle but one of the disappointing factors is we used to be one of the best in most of those categories in the case of social mobility you found that america is not the land of opportunity it promises to be as a matter of fact you say countries such as canada and germany. rank better than america what exactly did you find out this is what i found to be one of the most surprising results of the book i grew up believing in the american dream work as hard as you can and you can go anywhere and it's true some people really do move up from work classes to the wealthiest but the chances of moving are much lower than in other wealthy countries someone who was born in the poorest part of the united states not just geographically but the segment of the population chances of them

moving just even out of that group are almost fifty percent that is almost fifty percent of those people are going to stay there and the rags to riches story going from the poorest to the richest group is lower in the united states than the other wealthy countries for which there is data that shocked me so what happens to the so called american exceptionalism the country prides itself on where you know american exceptionalism is really a tough concept because at some level there's almost it's almost a faith it's a denial of facts and just looking at this ideals from a religious point of view and i find american exceptionalism as an argument to look at what i call competitive intelligence for america as a problem because people they would say well the united states is exceptional you can't compare us and i view that as just a self-defense mechanism or just a way of someone trying to maintain blissful ignorance on the other hand a frightening reality according to your facts is how america's level of inequality

compares to europe and other wealthy nations so when you talk about income inequality there's really two measures there's what's called the pre adjustment and the post adjustment period just meant is just that roi income you earned post adjustment is after you paid taxes and after the government has provided supports welfare social security as it turns out the us has the highest level of income inequality both pre and post adjustment y. that. it's true is an interesting question this level of inequality has gone much larger over time as we've seen changes in the pay structure the weakening of the unions degradation of the minimum wage in the united states as compared to other countries so a lot of factors are affecting that pre tax income inequality but for the post tax income inequality it's all about many of the changes that happened in our tax laws there was a time where we really had a very progressive tax system now with capital gains taxes being taxed much lower

than regular income with hedge fund managers earning millions and sometimes billions and paying fifteen percent look for example at mitt romney a man is are in many many millions last year you paid a tax rate that was probably half of what you caved in case our viewers are interested in you found japan spain korea and italy to be among those nations to have the best levels of wealth inequality switching gears how does america's democracy compare to other wealthy nations that's another one that's problematic there was a time where i think it was fair to say the u.s. was a leader we came up with that constitution the declaration of independence the whole idea of a modern representative government but now we've slowed down if you look at our turnout for voters it's one of the lowest of any wealthy country at the same time our two party system with a winner take all single seat election is unusual most countries don't do that and

the reason why is that type of election ends up alienating a lot of voters most countries use proportional representation where the representatives in congress actually reflect the voting they also use other systems such as preferential voting where you rank order your votes so that if i have a candidate i like but maybe they're not from the largest party i could still vote for that candidate and not have to worry about my vote being discarded the. any other wealthy nation allow private money to find and fuel presidential elections the way the united states does i didn't specifically look at that but i can't underestimate the impact of money on the american political system and in fact there's some interesting analysis done by political scientists that showed that people from the top third of the economic class have a very strong voice and government people in the middle third have a weak voice in government and it showed that people in the bottom third of the

economic group the united states have no measurable influence and that's hype of information is powerful and if you look at the politics of many other countries around the world it's shocking to think that there would ever be true the voice of people who are in the poorest third of their nation still have a powerful voice and i think that's a real challenge in american democracy is to make sure that we really are in a world of one person one vote instead of dollar equals vote are you hopeful that the candidates currently running for president could make any reforms or changes that would elevate america to better global position right now i'm not terribly optimistic in the reason why is there hindered by a few things and the factors that i think are preventing the united states to from really moving forward or one most americans just aren't aware of how we're doing they're just not aware of our situation they think we're doing much better than we are the second is complacency. we're relatively comfortable in our world situation

so people aren't dying in the streets so there's not a as much of a passion to see change the third one which is very important our democratic process really resists change if you look at our structure of government it's basically designed to not move much and it unfortunately suppress the voice of a lot of the americans who really could benefit from change so we have those factors that are all playing in the last factor is there are groups in america who've benefited greatly from some of the issues that we have that are preventing us from being great in health or from excelling in education or safety or democracy or equality and those groups that have benefited well they're going to do their best to protect their profits that's the free market. it's not just corporations though for instance the two party system in america right that's not a system that enables lots of americans to have their voice heard but at the same time those two parties will defend

a two party system so corporations are certainly one aspect but even the groups that are benefiting from our political system will defend the current political system and i give you a great example. for the presidential debates there's a committee that was brought in that said you have to have at least fifteen percent polling before certain dates to participate the only reason why that rule was put in place at that high level was to prevent third parties from being on that stage with the candidates of romney and obama the american government has always position to itself as a global leader of human rights and justice however you say that the u.s. is the least peaceful wealthy nation what exactly do you mean by that what we looked at was crime rates we looked at incarceration rates those are internal measures of safety at the same time i also took a look at external that is our military spending our tendency to have extra wars

so internally looking at measures of violence and crime and extremely the type of safety the war interactions and as you look at it what you see is our incarceration rate is multiples higher than any other wealthy country at the same time our murder rate is much higher one of the things that most americans don't realize is our gun policy is completely different from any other wealthy country at least the ones i included but when we talk about external military interaction we need to reflect on the fact that the united states plays a very different role than other countries the other countries that i compare in my book many from western europe canada for your pain and south korea they receive somewhat of the protection of the united states so that's the one example in the book where the actions the united states takes really do impact the actions of other countries by the united states spending far more on military and being at

least viewing itself as more of armed to protect many of these countries it ends up letting those other countries spend less and that's exactly what you see in the dynamics. in what areas does the u.s. find itself in a leading position among other wealthy nations there are a few areas where we excel we have some of the best colleges in the world so that tertiary education our graduate schools are outstanding some of the strongest in the world our hospitals our technology overall is world class and overall those types of advantages i would draw as the best talent in the world here students come here in order to learn and hopefully we can keep the opportunities for them not only to arrive here but for them to stay our technology that allows us to innovate and create some great companies that still exist and are entrepreneurship the government rules that allow us to create new companies and to patent things really

as outstanding u.s. universities and hospitals may be excellent but if the student debt bubble is above one trillion dollars and roughly fifty million citizens are living without health care how are americans benefiting from their nation's excellence they're all emblematic of one of the things that's true about the united states which is we have the extremes of excellence and a public system that seems to drift behind if you take education our undergraduate school or some of the best in the world and they're expensive that's a challenge so it's only accessible to a certain percentage of the population but for those who can access it they're excellent are graduate schools same thing our medical system for those who can afford it we really do have a great health system our public health system is way behind that's all the time we have dr friedman thank you very much for sitting down to speak with our team my

pleasure thank you very much. wealthy british style sun. that's not on. the. market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines join into kaiser report on our. minds in russia would be soon which brightened if you knew all about song from

feinstein's pression movies so. please friends don't talk t.v. dot com. the day's news in the week's top stories from r.t. a key battle in syria as the rebels in the regime fight for the country's second city the syrian army says thousands more troops and artillery while the u.n. looks for a new peace envoy kofi annan steps down. the trial of antiproton punk band pussy riot provides russia with three women could get seven years behind bars for the commitment of performing an anti putin stunt to the country's main cathedral in february. and protesters in bahrain and saudi arabia are set for mass rallies people of both nations united in the cold against the ruling elite switcher escalating a crackdown. twenty forty five moscow time sunday night sport that is paul.

thank you very much kevin welcome along to the world of sports here is what we've got for you i lympics a of a john d. mari wins gold for great britain i think beats roger federer in straight sets to avenge last month's defeat in the wimbledon final. the russian roulette still shankar wows irish audiences with a thrilling routine of the latest stage of the cliff diving world series. but first britain's andy murray has won a limpid gold roger federer in straight sets six two six one six four to win the men's singles title at wimbledon it was a rematch of the wimbledon final just full weeks ago that day federer won in four sets to lift his seventeenth grand slam the trophy however on sunday it was

a different story as marie inspired by the home crowd dominated from start to finish six two six one six four the dominant school line against the world number one who despite his extensive list of titles has yet to win an olympic singles gold . meanwhile in the bronze medal match argentine kwan martin del potro novak djokovic in straight sets seven five six four potro showing noel effect of his a record breaking marathon semifinal defeat to federer. meanwhile serena williams won her second gold in as many days this after becoming a singles champion or a day after becoming a singles champion williams along with her sister venus won the women's doubles the americans saw off a check of under a cloud cover and lucy in straight sets six four six for. the russian. olenka a reduction in the bronze medal match as we speak they face

a tough test against american journey so they may be nice or huber the americans took the first set six pool over the russians bounced back as you can see that taking the second. was a surprise bronze elsewhere for russia in the women's marathon tatiana patrolled the alcove around the rates of life to come in third in a time of two hours twenty three minutes and twenty nine seconds as a new a possible best the gold went to tiki gallon of ethiopia who also said he would limp it record for silver when the kenyans place carjacked two. dollars a day for russia in the gymnastics tennis are blazin has won bronze in the men's food. or event has retained scored enough from the judges to finish on the podium china's car who won the gold with japan's koha claiming silver not to be outdone maria also finished on the podium and claimed a bronze medal in the women's vote. in russia as

a female boss people tame of secure place in green bay on a place in the quarter finals this despite a sixty five fifty four defeat to france in the last group stage picture. of the seaside starting world playing the first course of fifteen ten for the french then took control to seal the winner. while in power in the pool the result was a bit better for russia's women as they drew twenty five all with montenegro it was also the final group fixture for russia who will progress to the knockout stages by the second or third including a however there was some disappointing news for russia's teams in team sports on sunday the female water polo taking out to get past hungry in the quarter finals alexander clement of team were trailing throughout most of the game we moved to within just one goal with a minute to go however their final touch failed to produce produce an equaliser eleven ten to hungry it sends them into the standings. while elsewhere in london

russia came up short of a golden triumph on saturday where they were at least a few silver linings for the country which has more on the ups and downs starting on the tennis court. but maria sharapova was looking to complete what would have been a golden saints by adding a little bit gold to the four different grand slams when she's won so far in her career though she was blown away in straight sense poise serina williams six six one the school has been american to victory in just over an hour sharapova had to settle for the silver medal while there was some unexpected success for russia in the badminton women's doubles. i mean of these managed to win a bronze medal for russia have really had much success in this sport in the past and in fact this was our first ever badminton medal that they had managed to win to be olympics because of. the bronze medal match was nerve wracking but we managed to get our emotions under control we didn't want to finish fourth as we knew we would

leave london without a medal however we played well and were the superior team of the day against our canadian opponents and i'm really happy that we managed to get a medal for our country to do it that. salvaged a medal in the women's heptathlon following a good last eight hundred meters but was still a long way behind the eventual winner i was just ready for it said. the shine the cover of a silver medal for russia in the discus of a leaderboard shouldn't he was a major hope for russia but the two thousand and eight olympic champion fainted just two kilometers from home in the men's twenty kilometer war we had been taken to hospital and we kept there overnight but his condition is small serious but better news for russia's men's basketball team who continue their fine tournament so far as may be the reigning european champions spain seventy seven seventy four the rush of an eye for an oh and according to lithuania sleaziness clear russia has certainly going to be one of the many many contenders for

a medal i'm most proud. you know coach they go to. produce a pretty good system that's a lot of players. i don't think. of course it's a whole different thing but the system is foods it's a lot of go it was an hour or so of russia in the weight lifting how does one even more finishing second in mind for kilogram category but not for the first time of these olympics gold went kazakstan. in richard fleet r.t. london. now the so-called face of the twenty twelve games jessica ennis has been speaking after being crowned heptathlon champion the british athlete plain gold on saturday to the delight of the home crowd but admits there have been times in the buildup where the pressure has begun to tell. her if you may have played my fiance

were you know wondering if it is all going to go by the way i wanted it or whether it would happen and fall apart is a huge amount of pressure but again just such a unique position i was in iowa to make the most of that. and just make sure that i trained to live it on those two days and thanks but i can sit here and say i did now one positive fourteen russia so far has been success on the judo match three gold one silver and one bronze medal put them on top of the sports medal table on the returning stars arrive back in the russian capital hoping their success can act as a springboard for other russian athletes for some very specific historical achievement for russian juden there is no doubt about it we are very proud to be the first afterwards to win this medals at the olympics and hopefully it may help our country mates do better in other sports writers don't know what we personally the success of i would see means a lot especially in terms of bringing this to the masses or i really really hope

that after these olympic games many kids in russia will start practicing the judo thank you stuart. now away from the olympics into the russian premier league ranji mask alarm car park in the final few minutes of their premier league match the hosts had just taken the lead ga ga beauty of scored seventy two minutes into the match meanwhile earlier in the day really a sort of left it late in their come from behind victory over cuban krasnodar. but the visitors ahead on twenty two minutes only for a quarter length kota level of the half hour mark before steve geraghty after the net a scored the winner four minutes from time to moscow darby between the number and spot are kicking off in around five minutes. now over on the greens jim furyk has a one shot lead heading into the final round of the bridgestone invitational the forty two year old finishing with an even par seventy on the day to remain on course for his first p.g.a. victory in almost two years the twenty ten p.g.a.

player of the year watching his old birdie on the second hole negated by a bogey on the twelfth with the american break even the rest of the way around twenty twelve masters runner up louis west hasan is one shot back one of his three birdies coming here on the twelfth the twenty nine year old south african us on track to his victory of the year keegan bradley hasn't lifted a triathlete since the two thousand and eleven p.g.a. championship the american now finds himself in range four strokes behind the leader . and finally jumping off a perilous rock faces for a living is something that might not appeal to many but for athletes competing in the cliff diving world series it is all part of the day job this is in a small a small island off the west coast of ireland the stunning area played host to stage five of the red bull world series on saturday nine time competition champion orlando duque a show just why he has dominated the sport for so long but even that wasn't enough

to earn the colombian top spot instead he had to play second fiddle to arch i'm still jenga the russian flaming but about wins in the competition for the first time with an electrifying new dive back on. stand with a blind entry and tens across the board that was old means things that start in the standings will do co space top most now to the azores for the promotion stage. all from the world of sports now but i'll have plenty more in just under two hours time here and i'll say join me at. the. technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered.

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