it is unfortunately a repetition of what happened in libya or the united nations but both or both their playbook worked in libya they were trying to save lives or to what those who work at war there is no desire. the west. negotiated settlement the oldest purpose of this exercise is to make sure that there is no competition in the middle east for life well such as syria you wrote it other places all these other things are excuses to claim that they care one bit about humanitarian concerns as it is a gross. and also we can link says planning to plunge into the syrian debate with gillette asylum promising millions of related emails all of it published in a range to view the whistleblower gave to latin american t.v. now he also pointed to a clear and manipulation of the media over the syrian conflict also defenders that we can make sex abuse he's saying that's a unlike us actions in afghanistan and iraq no one was hurt as

a result of their websites publications he said he has never bored all sold information and insisted everything his website ever revealed it was the truth also touched upon surveillance via the internet suggesting the u.s. maintains its plane at what three google the whistleblower of me says he may have to spend from six months to hear holed up in ecuador's london embassy until there's a diplomatic solution also we didn't drop the case against him. and still ahead for you this hour germany brings out the old guns some doing marks still in the piggy bank to cover some of the german economy's a shortfall. and in the business bulletin later this hour china suggests boosting biological trade with russia by incorporating deals in the national currencies this story and more in less than ten minutes.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom hartman welcome to the big picture. wealthy british style. writer with. a. 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 tune into cars

a report on our.

this is r.c. welcome back to the u.s. now where the republican candidate for the presidency me troll me has been laying out his case for office he has some strong views which could war is some nations but he's now got such a reputation for changing his stance on issues it's hard to know exactly where he stands on anything as r.t. has gained extra counties here to tell us more. mitt romney is now officially broke obama's opponent for the white house and he's talking tough you know throwing rocks verbal rocks not only at the president but also of nations at the republican convention where he accepted his nomination mr romney told did not fail to once again highlight his animosity towards russia he criticized the president for not being hard enough in his view on russia when it comes to missile defense he referred to president obama's hot mike moment when the president told me that amid

a bit of that he would be more flexible to discuss the issue after the election mitt romney says under his administration quote mr putin will see less flexibility and more backbone and of quote and of course that adds up to his earlier statements that russia is america's number one geo political enemy that they need to reset the reset that's actually what he says on the website as part of mitt romney's foreign policy agenda so yes a lot of tough talk i heard experts say that's how mitt romney comes makes up for lack of charisma what's interesting about the backbone comment is that mitt romney himself is often characterized as lacking the backbone as he has flip flopped on so many issues like abortion he was for abortion before he was against it or illegal immigration when he was for giving them legal status then he was for deporting them mitt romney is full of clubs have been widely discussed in endless source of

inspiration to comedians and well this one is from the tonight show with jay leno he says mitt romney and hurricane isaac have something in common they can both change directions that any moment there are tons of jokes about mitt romney and his backbone issues apparently one way of showing some backbone for him is this kind of tough talk you know full of threats we'll see how far it will take him in this november election. have been keen to mention american supremacy and its responsibilities in the world and that campaigns but is the country still the greatest power in the world or is that just election or a trick that's the topic of heated discussion in today's crosstalk coming up later this hour. take a look at a very well known clip from h.b.o.'s program newsroom. just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day there's some things you should know and one of them is there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country

in the world we're seventeen literacy twenty seventh in math twenty second in science forty ninth in life expectancy one hundred seventy eight and infant mortality thirty eight median household income number four and labor force the number four in our exports we lead the world in only three categories number of incarcerated citizens per capita number of adults who believe angels are real and defense spending a lot of the facts mentioned there are correct ok they're easy to find and didn't have been known for a long time now is america's number one there's a there's a gradual decline john quincy adams said when he was secretary of state an eight hundred twenty one before was president that we could be dictators of the world what our policy would then shift from a policy of liberty and freedom to a policy of domination and control and now we are a country that's lost its way and it's not because we may not be number one in the amount of arms we sell you know we felt about three quarters of all the arms abroad or have the greatest military power but because we lost our moral stature and values of who we are as

a people. i. i . i. with the you are seeking a sign that shall save you europe's biggest hater. the german chancellor is in china clutching billions in contracts to be signed in they train pounds could not aid from the european council on foreign relations believes china is a country worth spending some time with to make friends. the big hope in europe is that the chinese would invest in some of the new vehicles that have been crazy like the european stability mechanism. the chinese. offering lots of words of support today and yesterday but not much in the way of concrete promises to buy bonds in

any case the chinese don't tend to make their bond purchases public so we don't know for example how much the chinese invested in european bones in the last two years since the euro crisis began and anyway we probably won't know so there's a lot of there's a lot of uncertainty about in the case of a bus and we see this is a european company and so it will benefit not just germany but also france and other countries in europe the loss of the deals that have been signed. off for german companies rolled into european companies and so in that sense there is a competition going on between germany and other european countries germany seems to be winning that competition. one other way germany differs from their rest of the union and its old currency be. not only credible but still in. the details of berlin's old school savings. here in germany the don't try are still very much alive and kicking in fact in

a store in central berlin the good old they market is still accepted as legal tender when it comes to purchases with an exchange rate of around two dogs marks to the euro the store's manager says that there's still enough of the old currency around to warrant them taking it went on to name the reason we accept which marks is there are still plenty of people with the old currency we get quite a few people wanting to spend them in our store for us from first it's not just in shops that they're accepted if you find a few demarche coins down the back of the sofa germany's public telephones will happily take them off your hands in germany they surely dropped the old money for the euro over ten years ago in two thousand and eleven alone though over eight million marks were brought to the bundesbank to be changed into crisp new currency but where is that cash coming from. he had that is not any one of my other leave

relatives gave me the school and it's a gift so i decided to send them into something it could spend on television. we've had them lying around the house for ages we only just got around to getting democrats changed or there are those though who say they won't part with their deutsche marks as a minister yeah i've got some i keep them as a souvenir i'm not going to change them into euro any according to the blunders bank there's still more than thirteen billion dollars each marks in circulation they say they get returns from as far away as brazil and new zealand so unlike some euro zone members the bank won't place a time limit on accepting old money. so we will continue to take them as long as people can bring them it's something of a tradition here that currency from years and years ago will always be exchanged for legal tender there are conspiracy. theorists though who say that in the banks bolts are trillions of marks being stockpiled should the euro crisis deepen only

only rumors so if the cash that's returned isn't being kept for a rainy day what happens to it and once the exchange is complete those deutsche marks the shredded ending their days as very expensive confidential feature all of a r.t. . and of course you can find plenty more stories on our website it's up to you dot com and here's a taste of all the gold that every. bloody ms direction not of pride has twined out why the russian punk band thing to really double. and also can find that sports results a cake recipe or maybe the latest updates on the u.s. military drone attacks all available with a new i i phone

. and there are some other stories making headlines around the world this hour two hundred seventy south african miners have been charged with the murder of thirty four of their colleagues despite the fact that it was the police that charged the national prosecutors say officers only opened fire because they were under turned by armed protesters more than one hundred fifty of the miners being held claiming to have been beaten up in custody the killings at a strike earlier this month became the bloodiest isn't since the fall of the apartheid regime. the bones are going to threaten legal action over a book describing the details of the seal raid that killed osama bin laden in may last year the department of defense says the also is a former u.s. navy officer has violated agreements not to divulge military secrets the book published next week apparently contradicts the official account award.

cabin staff for drawing an ally. began a strike at the country's busiest airport in frankfurt our industrial action has already caused the cancellation of more than one hundred fifty flights staff want to improve pay and working conditions and guarantees jobs won't be outsourced. time now cross over to the business desk natasha tzschirner is insisting on switching to national currencies in my letter trade right absolutely it is suggesting that and to the russian authorities and long have long been calling for trading in the national currencies as well the details of the story in just a couple of minutes but first let's go straight to the european markets and see what's going on there and what we're seeing is a pretty upbeat picture following oh no getting pulled the line higher metal prices really helps the miners on the footsie and in germany the banking sector is

outperforming the dax this hour traders actually anticipate a speech by the fed reserve chairman ben bernanke you later in the day the markets for the most part i'm not really expecting bernanke get to announce any stimulus measures but they're looking for some clarity one of european union's a few growth stories poland is feeling the squeeze of the downturn the country's second quarter gross eased to two point four percent the lowest in about three years and significantly below the forecast poland's g.d.p. kept expanding over the past few years while much of the e.u. showed negative growth but a series of gloomy economic indicators show that the so-called economic miracle is coming to an end. and day here in the last poll demarc kids are remaining in the positive territory read gaining some ground they lost on thursday when

stocks fell to the lowest in more than a week the r.t.s. is up more than half a percent of the sour the movers among the blue chips include off to was shares of pretty upbeat it will start assembling the new version of the popular reno logan next year flagship air carrier air flight to is down its passenger traffic grows by a quarter in the first seven months and. a year vodka judging by the way the stock is trading dot's not really a pressing investors and no most bank is regaining is gaining around sixteen percent and reports that a financial corporation. is thinking of buying out of the bank pretty have to get their whole were proved hurt the equities on thursday dropping to it to week kolo after worries about hurricane isaac subsided bull now seeing a pretty upbeat picture crude is demonstrating pretty hefty gains this hour on the

currency markets the euro dollar pairs trading pretty much watch the sour the russian ruble is. gaining to the currency basket this hour and the privatization of russia's state assets could soon go online the state has agreed the terms of selling its properties through electronic auctions analysts say this would make the privatization process easier and more transparent but online sales don't exclude privatizing state assets through war traditional means and say with high tech sector russia the largest free e-mail service mail dot ru has bought out its ukrainian namesake mail dot you say the companies didn't disclose the financial details of the deal but analysts say it's probably around a half a billion dollars the move should boost mail daughter use position in ukraine a country where it's already pretty popular. and china wants

to boost its cross border trade with its partners in you want its national currency beijing already uses it one trading with hong kong which has the hong kong dollars and also singapore but it hopes what in america and the middle east could be next russia has long been advocating moving away from the dollar and trading in the national currencies hong kong's financial secretary john tsang explains how all of this could work out. what is happening now is a great deal of trace. in the national currency so in terms of for example between russia and china they would be doing a lot of settlement in un. this way you can weigh reduce the currency risk that may incur and that it's already happening i think we should expect to see a lot more of that as these two currencies become at some stage of currency for for

the rest of the world. reducing the currency risk there's always a good idea. hungry actually thanks for that update let us know when our top stories in just a couple of. this

was the plant that was responsible for causing the world's worst industrial disaster and now it had been abandoned in a condition where it had become a source of pollution or the most recent study that was done shows that this water pollution and spreading. will continue to be in the more than hundred thousand people in. groups welcome the fact that children see the children to be ten times more likely to be born with birth defects in children in the rest of the country. in the sea as little as five hundred dollars but lifelong into these. unpunished.

cultures that so much excitement can which of course he's right on its problems will be honored if he is the u.s. still number one in the world opinions differ sharply both there can be no doubt american supremacy has been challenged by a number of. and. so. some. of the going down of the sun and good morning we will remember them we will lose

their.

this is aussie coming to life when most popular travel that had. a london court will give its verdict in the multi-billion dollar legal battle between two russian oligarchs through the thing in britain where is very small scale and romana promote it will learn to suborn and the case full of accusations dirty dealings and threats . also turkey pushes for the you want security council to intervene in syria militarily to protect civilians but as britain refuses to allow taking action beyond the organizations and most powerful body. in syria is one of the ten topics in july not saunters latest interview with the whistle blow call this is more we can expect relations around claims the media's been manipulated over what

is happening as for his own predicament the song said he might have to spend six months to a gay in the ecuadorian embassy in london. and rome is a rumble with big words for public and a candidate promises to show russia a move by bud if he wins the election but faces criticism himself for flip flopping on the issues. and right now a collision of interests and discussion with post about on his guests crosstalk is up next here on alt.

hello and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle is the u.s. still number one in the world opinions differ sharply though there can be no doubt american supremacy is being challenged by a number of international players however if indeed the u.s. is in decline aren't all americans to blame. to cross out whether america is still number one i'm joined by bruce fein in washington senior policy adviser to ron paul two thousand and twelve presidential campaign and the founder of the link field group and american freedom agenda also in washington we have michael hughes he's a journalist and foreign policy analyst and in harrisburg we cross to jeffrey lord he is a former reagan white house political director and author all right gentlemen cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but before we start our discussion here let's take a look at a very well known clip from h.b.o.'s program newsroom let's have

a look. just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day there's some things you should know and one of them is there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world we're seventy literacy twenty seventh in math twenty second in science forty ninth in life expectancy one hundred seventy eight and infant mortality third in median household income number four in labor force and number four in exports we lead the world in only three categories number of incarcerated citizens per capita number of adults who believe angels are real and defense spending where we spend more than the next twenty six countries combined twenty five of whom are allies none of this is the fault of a twenty year old college student but you nonetheless are without a doubt a member of the worst period generation period ever period so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world i don't know what the fuck you're talking about somebody.

sure used to be we stood up for what was right. we fought for moral reasons we passed laws struck down laws for moral reasons we waged war zone poverty not poor people. we sacrificed we cared about our neighbors we put our money where amal's were and we never beat our chests we built great big things made on godly technological advances explored the universe cure disease and we cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. we reached for the stars. acted like men we aspired to intelligence we didn't belittle it it didn't make us feel inferior. but in identify ourselves by we voted for in the last election and we didn't scare so easy. we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were

informed. by great men men who were revered. first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. america is not the greatest country in the world anymore. enough ok michael very powerful acting extremely powerful words how do you react to that i mean because a lot of the facts mentioned there are correct ok they're easy to find and they've been known for a long time now is america still number one. and maybe but it there's a there's a gradual decline and it has to do with a lot of what he said there's. a lot of it is political cred lack because of special interest groups. you know we have a sixteen or fifteen dollar outstanding public. and seven hundred billion dollar

defense budget. and for some reason we need to be projected worldwide we have this global footprint that does not match up to the actual threats ok it's very uncertain bruce if i can go to you i mean ok go ahead jump in. i just say i think the the diagnosis is correct but i think the reasons are wrong ok one or the really shouldn't be a country and the reasons are that we have lost our way from what we were in vision desert country from the founding we shouldn't be going abroad in search of monsters to destroy what would make a country number one is complying with the rule of law on during the liberty over big government making sure you have a level playing field so everyone has the opportunity to develop their endowments and faculties and achieve what their ambition and industry will achieve it's not having government favor one side or the other side and say honoring respect for international law and not invading.