as israel continues. to. protest against. the country's powerhouse economy.

well. this is. a welcome to the program israel is continuing its strikes on gaza with at this point at least three palestinians reportedly killed by this follows wednesday's rocket attacks which left. the military leader of hamas. a ground operation could be on the table. when he reports from. overnight the bombardment continued from the air israeli air strikes killed three militants belonging to the same militant group in gaza as athame jobbery the head of hamas his military wing who was killed in a targeted airstrike yesterday afternoon there's also reports confirmed by the

israeli military of continued shelling via the israeli navy gunboats off the coast and fixed land based artillery pieces from southern israel from hamas rockets were fired into southern israel israeli anti missile defense is trying to shoot those down some of them land landing in southern israel as well this immediate escalation came about yesterday afternoon loud explosions rocking the only the built up areas there about ten people reported killed including civilians the great fear now that a ground invasion is imminent israeli sources have said that they're fully prepared to start again of asian if they deem it necessary and they have called up reservists possibly the last time that we've seen any operation of this intensity was over the new year of two thousand and eight to nine when israel launched operation cast lead pretty much following the same pattern as we've seen so far but

with a ground operation following the same stated objectives as israel says now to destroy the terrorist infrastructure on the ground in gaza meeting heavy fighting there was a lot of civilian casualties and damage as a result. bottom reporting right there well the violence in the region is now spiraling with hamas having responded to the israeli assault with a rocket fire killing at least three israelis now let's speak to a spokesperson for the israeli foreign ministry in tel aviv welcome to the program today sir thank you for coming on indeed the latest reports we have suggesting that israeli i.d.f. forces are getting armored vehicles together they're making their way towards the gaza strip area troops are also being brought in i understand according to the times of israel the i.d.f. is calling up reserves ahead of a possible ground offensive is that if that's what's next to be expected here when i believe that you presented it correctly i don't know that it will develop into a ground offensive over the next coming hours now the strikes are being carried out

there are said to be targeting militants but in fact we are seeing a lot of civilians being killed and injured at this point including children do you think this kind of heavy handed response can be justified. when you know it's interesting you say heavy handed response you mentioned better and better odds and bombards that the truth of them there is i think and i think you would agree with me this is been so far one of the most surgical pinpoint military operations in modern military history i think again you will see that the civilian to militant casualty ratio will show up in israel to have unfortunately killed civilians but far fewer then than any other comparable militants are some of them sort of attention but you've got you have a pinpoint operation you call this one of the most precise and exact pinpoint military operations that israel's unknown in recent history and that can allow for

what you might consider collateral damage the killing of children. well you know of course i mean when you when you presented and you talk about civilians it's always said as all the civilian these ready civilians being killed just today the three israelis who were killed but of the eleven palestinians who were killed seven are confirmed militants two to use a light word. so i suppose one question i should ask you is when are you are you worried possibly you're just giving rise to anti israeli attitudes among palestinians let's let's have a listen to this quickly as the hamas leader that we spoke to just a bit earlier placed on by. the assassination of this great leader. clearly confirms that we are still in the heart of resistance with the israeli enemy the zionist enemy knows nothing but the language of killing and blood our battle with the enemy is an open bottle god willing this battle will end with palestine and jerusalem liberated you should wait for action not words. as to how soon as we heard. your government is possibly just pushing them towards more

violence is it is it some sort of provocation that justifies an end to the main. i think the provocation is the over eight hundred missiles that have been fired indiscriminately into israeli civilian areas during the course of this year over two hundred of which in the last ten days when the previous speaker said we should wait for their actions or not they would say we've seen their actions a situation which most often anywhere in the world could accept what would you do were just one missile to land in central moscow where you talk about missiles and let's the scarify here we're talking about mortar rockets that are being attracted over some might say that a mortar or rocket from the palestinian militants compared to your. health and sidewinder missiles from your super high tech fighter jets and well that's quite a big difference between fireworks and bombs. well i mean that is like you're saying that we have to play brazil that soccer and lose twelve nil and then we

complain that they use their best players i mean that's a little bit of a focus but the truth of the matter is that we have a situation where just today three israeli civilians were killed call the mortars call the missiles those or did civilians we have a situation where in the recent past some thirty percent of these re the children in southern israel diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder tell me one country which can accept a situation like that tell you one country that can accept a situation of a child suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder thirty percent of the children in southern israel so i think as a result i think it really is and i think we look at certain western military campaigns all over the middle east region i think you'll be finding there's an awful lot large percentage of children with post-traumatic stress or stress disorder let's not focus right now on america's campaign in your region but let's discuss this quickly if i may i understand you are a p.r. man and you have a job to do you have certain things to say but what are you really hoping to

achieve with this offensive that's ongoing how is it going to differ from the two thousand and eight conflict for which israel was heavily criticized by the world community. israel was heavily criticized by a part of the world community i agree with you there i remind you and i point out that that was four years ago the lowest civilian to militant casualty rates in history twenty nine percent of those killed were civilians and i'm not belittling the death of any civilians but followers than any other military campaign in the last century i think that we will see something similar to start you ask me what are we hoping to achieve we're hoping to achieve a number of things first and foremost significantly degrade the command and control and operational abilities of hamas a terror organization recognized as a terror organization but only by us by the european union by the americans by others around the world. vial organization which is a civil war with its own people having thrown out their only elected leadership in

the palestinian authority and in addition we're hoping to bring in planning to bring quiet to the civilians the israeli civilians living in southern israel what about what about i suppose let's let's take a step back and look at the regional implications and the fact of isolation you have lebanon the north syria syria and the west and now egypt as well he's trying to mediate all this in fact of the egyptian foreign minister was on the phone to our u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton earlier today calling for quote unquote immediate u.s. intervention to put down israel's aggression is that a bit of a turning of the tide there to see such a statement from going to washington in reference to what's going on on the gaza strip. no i don't think that's a great surprise look we have a relationship with egypt we speak to them and they they say trust directly similar things and to be expected nobody wants this to degenerate to the point that it's

got to today nobody wanted this we've been saying and we continue to say for the last four years to the palestinians to the palestinian authority come back to the negotiating table all of the issues on the table every single one will resolve this it will be difficult but will resolve this and will do so because it's in our mutual interest are to have pulled on a spokesman for the israeli foreign minister in tel aviv i wish about we have more time for this we don't have a thank you very much indeed for coming on the r.t. program today thank you want to get a live update on the situation in gaza you can always log on to our website on dot com we'll be closely following the story on stay with us if you can. far to ten minutes past the hour moscow time the e.u. is feeling the off the shock of violent anti austerity protests as demonstrators in more than twenty countries joined forces coming up we'll take a look at how the twenty four hour strike over spending cuts and skyrocketing

unemployment plunged europe into chaos. solves all change at the top china names the new leader who will rule the country for the next decade we get analysis of what it means for the emerging superpower and its role in the world after a short break. things are just getting too expensive in london many families just can't afford to live in the city anymore so because of upcoming welfare cuts the government is buying or rented property to relocate people outside of the city the maximum housing allowance for welfare will go down to four hundred pounds a month which is peanuts compared to the one thousand two hundred fifty pounds need to pay for the average three room apartment expelling the poor from london seems

a bit fishy to me so instead of say regulating prices or cock forbid using the money from the welfare cuts to create jobs so people can earn a living for themselves rather than rely on handouts london has decided to make itself some official get to. what is to call a place where everyone from a certain economic classes forcibly shove to although this may sound like some sort of help from the government it seems to me like a means to get rid of the poor rather than trying to make the poor less poor but that's just my opinion. we speak your language i mean some of the will inevitably and. will use. programs and documentaries in spanish as to you breaking news a little tentative angles kidneys stories.

that the spanish find out more visit. sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok. i'm tom hartman welcome to the big picture.

of the. slaves technology innovation hall the list of melons from around russia we've. covered. the for. from moscow this is on the with me rule research showing the european union is reeling from the twenty four hour make a strike that saw millions of workers across the bloc take to the streets another

day of action against austerity saw massive shutdowns travel chaos and a heavy handed police response as well to the protests of some of the most disturbing scenes occurred in spain's two main cities when frustration with deepening recession spilled into violence imagery barcelona riot police fired rubber bullets and clashed with demonstrators over one hundred were arrested at least seventy five injured and that was at the forefront of the strike sara furth now reports from the spanish capital. staying. greece. italy. and portugal. europe's most debt ridden country is joining together with many others for the continent's first cross border mega strike from the beginning it was clear that emotions were running high in many places madrid saw violence and after a brief calm the storm broke and the anger of those protesting was evident for

various things played out between the protesters and the riot places past the right almost three the military it's not hard really get more symbolic candy for the feast of by the people say there are right now all across there are the train their governments and between the people themselves who have the austerity but. where the bullets are violent confrontations with the authorities are becoming an auntie familiar sights of the continent's leaders stand firm that austerity is a necessary evil to cut the sky high deficit only event but the fourteenth the people of europe seem to have formed a county union to fight back against the prevailing title sterrett city ahead of next week's budget meeting for us those would have been watching closely as the scenes of police and protesters battling one another played out across the nobel peace prize winning. in madrid the clean up operation is already under way

only it was so easy the year is going to clean up the mess it finds itself in. r.t. with dread. all in all the wave of deepening spending cuts and soaring unemployment has swept through more than twenty year opinion countries in portugal where the government plans to further intensify austerity measures next year protesters threw rocks and bottles at riot police guarding the parliament in the capital lisbon and in italy demonstrations turned violent as well as tens of thousands of students and workers collapsed with police are countries like france belgium who have been less affected by the financial crisis also saw huge marches video in the best pictures of the cross border make a strike go to our website r t. china's

vice president xi jinping has taken over as the communist party leader and will become the next president in march the announcement came as the government undergoes its once in a decade political transformation with the central committee meeting to elect new leaders a financial expert francis loon who is based in hong kong believes that with china's economic and military rise it's the us that will suffer at the end of the day. new leadership showed china very you believe key and continue it. so. what this means they continue to grow economically in what china would do is to continue to strengthen its military to be serene to reach. china ken can achieve parity with america and eve that is their case i don't think america can for all its weight around the world.

poland did this now you can't you really can do anything it wants but if china becomes. immediately a power on the parity with the u.s. then things change and so just twenty twenty minutes past the hour here in moscow now a lavish lifestyle is something that britain's royal family perhaps takes for granted palaces castles sprawling country of states all of their disposable you might think their pay the people that look after them a generous wage but a recent job adverts suggests otherwise it turns out you might be better off working for a burger king than for the english queen let's find out more about this palace penny pinching multi-source with now joining us from london a bit of a bizarre story laura i'm sorry to wake you up and bring you into the studio for this but why so much fuss about a simple job announcement. well i think worry that this is really unfortunate timing this week in the u.k. it's living wage week. politicians opposition opposition politicians and campaign

is working towards giving encouraging employers to pay what they're calling a living wage higher than the minimum wage and higher in london than is eight pounds fifty five in london seven pounds forty five outside lunches pays the minimum wage which is six pounds nineteen now i think that in any other week this job ads would have gone pretty much unnoticed but some eagle eyed journalists bosses it is an advert for a part time cleaner at windsor castle which is paying below the living wage of love laura miller i mean was it worth it to work in clean bucking him cos i mean that would be that would be a prestigious job to have surely that would be a job that would pay a bit more than ten years over the minimum wage. you think so you think so but what you should be stressed that this is not illegal because he is paying about the bin wage but it's a little bit stingy it's not generous and it's not what we would somebody if somebody is worse i mean they say we're sort in trouble according to forbes in the

past year or so the queen is worth at least three hundred million pounds can she cough up a couple more quid. it's a tricky one really i mean i speak to people outside buckingham palace some people who came to work some people who had a kind of early but and opinions of really kind of divided about this because of course we want the queen to be generous and we expect actually we expect people like the queen to sesame sample to employers but we also want her to be frugal because all of this stuff all of this money that she's paying out is coming from taxpayers ultimately but do we want her to be frugal at the expense of low pay well at a time at a time when i know it is i mean i suppose or at a time also when in the past twenty four hours we've had what is said to be the biggest protests and demonstrations across a struggling eurozone of course not england but the eurozone a massive massive protests let's say let's talk about the recent trends in salary growth floor the quite disturbing i will kind of example the other employees in the situation we've got some stats to show that you can discuss further. we have i

can't see this graphic so you have to bear with me but i know that we're talking about salaries since two thousand and six they've risen by about eleven percent across the board which doesn't sound too bad none of this sounds too bad so some example social workers they've got seventeen percent more in their wage packet teaches eleven percent jobs accountants have done less well it just one percent management consultants are down by around six percent but the most important thing to remember is that none of these things represent real terms rise in wages in order to beat inflation in your wage packet you've had to have had to have seen it go up by nineteen percent so this is a job that does not pay well or lower very quickly i've got no time here but perhaps it's a better job to work through that with the royal family walking the queen's corgis or cleaning the royal loo it's impossible to know it's impossible to know when you're looking whether you take this job it's going to be important to know whether it's going to be financially worth your while are you going to lose benefits if

you've got a family this is the kind of job that's on the cusp of of poverty really the some of the reports that i've been doing recently about working poverty child poverty this is the kind of job we're looking at particularly with austerity cuts in benefits child benefit tax credits looking after your children that kind of thing is live in london thank you. let's take a look at some other global news for you in brief here on r.t. syrian rebels say they've taken control of a key military checkpoint near the country's northeastern border with turkey at least eighteen government troops and three opposition fighters died in the battle near the town of. which the rebels did seize on friday i mean while u.k. officials are due to discuss the growing violence including the option of a no fly zone as france became the first western power to officially recognize the opposition coalition in syria. there was a bomb attacks in iraq claiming the lives of twenty six and injuring more than one hundred cook was

a scene of deadly blasts three car bombs nine dead dozens injured another car bomb in baghdad targeting a convoy a police station patrol also with. other deadly assaults happening on the eve of the new year. now she's an international business guru and a mother of eight to find out how the business mom managers at all in our special report after a short break. british stock.

market. find out what's really happening to the global economy. for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines. is a report on. the mission in free accreditation free transport charges free arrangement free. three. types free. download free broadcast quality video for your media project a free media. tom you. gave

its. feet.

in the market is a consulting company. before

making millions of dollars at the very bottom of the ladder. speaks four languages. at first glance. careerist with no children but. she has to give. as she leaves the maternity ward for the eighth time mother and child are greeted by her husband and seven children. number eight. he's too young to be aware of the fact that his mother has begun yet another new project the family is moving to live in a foreign country. is reminiscent of a successful business. but it's all a question of time. between children and

a demanding business. partner . prefers to hire women out of maternity leave. more than half of twenty five female employees have not reported for work today. women here on the job until the last moment and then they realize oh i giving birth i need to go to the hospital they go. lives that are pregnant employee becomes more efficient in the job after giving birth there was old will be even stronger because they know that they work will benefit their children you and i will be busy negotiating for an hour or so don't put anyone through to me ok.