this is r t tonight chuck hagel is officially sworn in as the new u.s. secretary of defense after winning narrow senate approval but his policies have drawn fire from capitol hill with his own fellow republicans among his most vocal critics. sleazy chaos tonight after the parliamentary elections failed to produce a clear winner has european leaders now fear the country's political turmoil could have a strong negative effect on the entire eurozone we pick apart that one this hour. and. how's this for a minor traffic offense well the shocking video posted by russian capital shows their eight year old daughter driving dangerous leads.

alone a very good evening to if you just joined us this is our international just after nine pm here in moscow with me kevin oh in a story chuck hagel is now officially the u.s. defense secretary but only after big naturally approved by the senate he's been under fire from fellow republicans for his past criticism of the iraq war and the israeli lobby with some believe you could also be too soft on iran it's also just two days to pay for billions of dollars in budget cuts and showed you are the hit the military can now in the clash on capitol hill. chuck hagel was confirmed by the senate fifty eight votes for forty one vote against a narrow vote as you can see but he can find a movie ball that apologizing and repenting behind and he had to do a lot of that to get the job has been working very hard to tailor his views so as to please congress as a senator chuck hagel allowed himself to oppose the surge in iraq or to criticize israel's policies to oppose seeing war with iran as an option but as the president's nominee for the defense secretary position he backtracked on much of

what he had said before and did it as as even his supporters noted in a rather clumsy way but in a way that showed how much he wanted the job and the whole confirmation process including the attack campaign against him including the filibuster ten days ago showed how intolerant the u.s. congress is of alternative thought on one policy ten days ago the senators knew quite well that chuck hagel would eventually be confirmed but they chose to block the vote as many say just to make a point president obama certainly knew that chuck hagel confirmation process would not go as smoothly as say john kerry's but he nominated him anyway it looks like president obama too wanted to make a point this is his last term he doesn't have to think about getting reelected and it is a good time for him to make a point by the end of his first term the degree of war mongering in washington has escalated and we should the point where even the president said there's too much war talking going on now mandating chuck hagel could be goes way over wringing it

down a notch the president's also quite aware of the general war fatigue in the country but the u.s. congress doesn't seem to have that same war fatigue because chuck hagel confirmation hearing showed quite to the contrary never too tired for war it seems one more thing it's saying important to point out here chuck hagel as defense secretary will not be in a position to generate policy is there to fulfill the president's policies probably his main job will be managing the budget the biggest military budget in the world and figuring out where to make cuts but most of the questions senators asked during his confirmation hearing were about policies which is really not going to be in his field of work anyway. garnishes you can there so we'll get another new face in american politics make a difference in syria u.s. secretary of state john kerry signaled washington's readiness to support the syrian rebels at the thursday so-called friends of syria meeting in rome let's talk about this to dr tofik schober is political analysts middle east expert from philadelphia university in jordan sir thanks pete where this could secretary kerry's promise of

more meaningful aid as he put it to the syrian opposition become a huge turning. well good evening for you on viewers first there is contradictory reports from the american. foreign policy and american foreign policy affairs kerry is launching a diplomatic. talks with the russians and with their european allies confirming in before just before the meeting in rome that they want to support talks in syria while at the same time. and use from different reporters in different in a couple of u.s. . newspapers confirming that united states had been supporting the intrusions and the bells. for giving them what and

supporting them in military sense and in financial sense and this is a mixed message we don't know exactly what their this mixed message will be continuing in this. in order to. you nor altered the russian the russian request from all parties in syria to sit at the negotiating table while the russian foreign minister has confirmed that with his talk with kerry it was positive and they might be supporting such initiative both talks only on the land with supportive of. giving us another message so doctor what do you think is going to happen of this meetings the rebels say they're going to go now to see what's on offer they're going to come away disappointed yet again will they get your direct. that they want

or will it be disappointed. well i don't think that the european or the americans will go all the way with their bells and. position in syria but i think that they will present them with more work with more weapon and military support. not to the limit that can change the situation on on land the syrian army is taking initiatives these days and they are taking back a lot of ground in syria where the rebels where previously get hold of it saw in this sense we can see that the syrian government is guinea more and more again. but i don't know if if if the support is. let's say if the negotiation between lab rove

and kerry where to be positive then i don't think that the talks in rome when continue and. supporting the supporting of the opposition but you. saw so you can suggest really got thirty seconds kerry says he's going to rogue not for talks but to make hard fast decisions do you really think that will happen at the end of the day you think we'll see the earth moves later this week. well i think if the americans. agreed with the russian initiative well they medicals we're saying last week that they are sure that syrian president will step down but in the end of the process did not say in the beginning of the process while the opposition want to be in the beginning of the process in this sense said that americans continue to hold such it in a position i think there is. a possibility of having. to go shirish in

and having a peace process. or. a peaceful solution in syria in the coming future but at the same time i'm a bit skeptic in the terms of what's happening on on me to the level. of still supporting the bills while they are saying that they don't support terrorist well sure but the most. are going to ization and they are supporting the rebels while ninety percent of the rebels are. critic from the united states' position to be. saying that they want to support the opposition while they are supporting in fact a resume to show off thank you for your thoughts on the program tonight. thank you and thank you for them. at least looking for a way out of it selection limbo after that hung parliaments put europe on

tenterhooks and raise fears of fresh financial turmoil tonight well stock markets mostly rose on wednesday offsetting the jitters they initially suffered no parties won a parliamentary majority the center left group secured a narrow victory in the lower house but failed to win the senate former prime minister silvio berlusconi's center right bloc became the second biggest in the upper chamber the result show than italian voters strongly rejected the austerity policies of mario monti's government now if the rival parties can't find a way out of the deadlock will have to be another election investment visor patrick young told us italian uncertainty could prove fatal for the eurozone. the your crisis that elephant in the room that nobody was talking about so far this year is back and it's back big time because ultimately fifty seven percent of italians don't like the idea of a sturdy and they don't really want to do the sorts of things that the european union wants and posed upon them that's causing us a huge problem because ultimately you've got incredible new parties like betty greeley or surf ice storm movement you've got an incredible wave of support that

came back from mr berlusconi a former prime minister and so billy nations and of course not i it plays in the worst possible political limbo there's no clear ike right winner there's no clear government it's going to weeks on end and ultimately markets despite the idea of uncertainty and what they're looking out at the moment is an awful uncertainty because they simply don't know whether it really is going to be a reliable member of the euro zone and if it really is not going to be able to reliable member of the euro zone then there probably is not going to be a euro zone the european union is affectively trying to support its banking industry which has never recovered from the creative mortgage lending excesses of two thousand and seven two thousand and eight and that leaves us with a very delicate position but ultimately should investors lose money because of bad investment decisions well as an investor an advisor i have to say that's what we call capitalism that's what must happen and it shouldn't just be a case of the poor people innocent people are forced to suffer incredible austerity

a propos of bailing i'd investors and bankers well italy stalemates on the media agenda of course across europe as you'd expect at his paper all of his belief in france and german newspapers and their concerns over how the key players might affect the why that european economy now. the ongoing political turmoil in italy is making headlines not just in that country but around the world here in germany all of the major newspapers just out of carrying the talian election story on their front pages with many saying this well stalemate in italy means concern for the rest of europe the reason for that concern is that well if they can't be any agreement made on how that country should be run and it could be that if it's really sneezes politically then europe gets a severe cold economically and that's the big fear so no i'm going for a more jokey look at it but some of the tabloids are trading the perhaps for front

runners and cartoon form on the front saying neither left nor right nobody knows what they want. the true though that they're getting most of the focus are the former comedian ben law and the former prime minister silvio berlusconi now the discussion between those two is repeated again in some of the more conservative newspapers here in germany those newspapers though also not giving much pity to the italian people they go on to say that it's really cannot remain on governable that it must get back on track and let's get back to austerity it does seem though that as far as the german newspapers are concerned and most of the rest of the german media the italian people find themselves with a clown to the left of them a joke to the right and they're stuck in the middle with very little idea of what they want politically. there's been no sign of progress following nuclear talks

with iran and six world powers to run faces possibly even more sanctions over allegations its building nuclear weapons something it continues to deny and it's the iranian people meantime suffering most from those measures with a lack of medicine and food is artie's more important i am. in an effort to stop tehran's nuclear program western countries have used an arsenal of crippling economic sanctions over the years in the interim america and its allies may have started a widespread medical crisis for the iranian people hundreds of thousands of iranians with serious illnesses such as cancer diabetes and all three of us can't reportedly receive lifesaving medicines because of international sanctions due to banking restrictions imposed by u.s. and european governments companies and hospitals in iran say they are on able to purchase pharmaceuticals from abroad now according to reports an estimated twenty three thousand iranians with hiv or aids have had their life saving medication

restricted and medicine shortages for splits since specific blood disorders have allegedly resulted in many deaths already i spoke with an iranian american who recently visited iran bringing his grandmother meds for her diabetes and off right is alex shams told me that the stock of pain relievers he packed was for a hospital the people who are the most vulnerable the people with the most special kind of cancer or. illnesses they're the ones who right now are feeling the pinch the hospital that i brought medicine back there was a cancer hospital and they're right now it's a beating that they won't have tylenol in a short in a very short period of time but they're asking people to hoard tylenol and bring it back. unfortunately that's how they're doing with tylenol i can't even begin to imagine how their stockpiles of cancer medicine are looking right now the latest round of u.s. and european sanctions have caused iran's currency to plummet and oil revenue to

slash which in turn has pushed up inflation critics say western countries have unleashed catastrophic economic warfare against ordinary iranian citizens so far producing all harm and no good they have weapons of mass destruction. that very very blunt instrument of fuse against nations sanctions the way that they are being propagated by the usa by europe and indeed to a certain degree by the un against iran really very harmful they don't achieve their objectives penalizing the old you know the person and i think it is totally unethical and immoral that we have to be very very care about what happens which is why i think a retooling and readjustment of the sanctions in this medical area is is critical within a very short time because as this begins to spiral so too then does the black or

the cheering many experts warn that if the u.s. continues leaving a path of sanction destruction against iran the circumstance can manifest into a repeat of iraq in the ninety's marina port ny r.t. new york. still to come in the program exits in the vatican pope benedict delivers his final public address before we all see where he's going now what he's going to do and what needs to do next moreover after the break also head to rhode age yet this is an eight year old girl really driving this car. in a video that has gone viral it was posted by police it was posted by a story police toppy i wonder why more.

there are twelve cities in the united states in which half of the people with hiv aids lives within a year of a diagnosis of. over sixty two percent of those species. in this with this is a problem that frankly is substantially preventable it was like the big elephant in the room and nobody wanted to talk about they were really good public health campaigns that people were really focused on this problem you certainly should be able to a lot less a lot less human suffering. hello

get rid of you with kevin and he would out tonight tens of thousands of gathered in the vatican some pieterse. square the watch going pope benedict the sixteenth addresses final general audience the pontiff run as the head of the catholic church and of course friday the first pope to resign in six centuries let's get the thoughts of keith porsches woodies the chief executive director of the national secular society in the u.k. he's good evening thanks for taking the time to be with us tonight and one of the swirling allegations right now is that there's some sort of influential gay network operating within the vatican what do you think about that and is there any if you think there is the behind that is that maybe what the pope's leaving or is there no mileage in that at all while i think it symptomatic of the fact that he's lost control and that whole episode over the. butler showed that very

very strongly but i think this is a several other important factors playing as well i'm certainly aware of two major issues over child abuse that are going to come up and are going to be very very hard for the vatican to swallow because it's not just that there are the child abuse bad though that is issues it's actually that the finger of blame is going to be pointing at the vatican for having obstructed justice and all the secret files which release so that's going to look very bad and i think people are going to get less and less tolerance about that in the in the vatican has shown no real sign of actually coming to terms with this and putting its hands up and really atoning for its past sins and being much more open and and dealing more properly with victims and actually getting the people who perpetrated the leg right question was turned over to the police sorry exit question why not why haven't they done that. the vatican has been for ever

a an organization that is only interested in its own power and preserving its own reputation in its own finances to as always been the us but with the kind of communications we have today. they can't get away with that any longer and the stronger regulatory powers as well and that's also coming up to hit them quite big time on the on money laundering i mean there's been rumors for ages about the way the internal banking of the of the the vatican's works in the fact that they couldn't even get credit cards working in their them in their museums was so humiliating but so symbolic of the complete breakdown of the system they just can't get away with that any longer either and it was very interesting that disgrace that he was right at the end that cardinal o'brien from from the united kingdom said

that he thought that it was about time that priests should be allowed to marry. and which may also be behind some of the child abuse problems and i think the time has come church has got to make up its own mind it's not for me to tell it but i think an awful lot of people are thinking it's about time that they ought to start being much more open to modern thinking over issues like like these and also i mean their obsession with contraception is so damaging in the third world to women to women's health to overpopulation. i mean that's a kind of something that's just so quiet and not so into our circuits he has a strong faith in its implications let's spend thirty seconds looking ahead trying to look at the positives there what does the church need to do now than to change all this that all these negative things that you're talking about what would it need to do and can it happen. well of course what the that the outgoing

pope has packed the college of cardinals with people who are as if not more conservative than he has so it's going to be pretty hard but if they've got any sense they're actually look and see that. don't actually agree with all their positions on on these sensitive social issues and i think they need to actually look at their own congregation and start taking some science from that and be much more sensible over issues like contraception homosexuality abortion all those kind of things and actually be open to. secular justice on matters like child abuse and money laundering before us would think if you thought and i hope that you and thank you pleasure. like so completely different now reaching sixteen in russia is a big moment for most youngsters that's when they can start on the road to getting

their driver's license but not drive yet that only happens at eighteen officially but that a significant head start on the will apparently just take a look at this. go to at least one hundred your mother is filming you. and here all drive in a car my friend asked what have fainted if she started this. posted on social networks. i mean scary parents are what you know you heard it correctly this girl taking this top and german car to one hundred kilometers an hour at the ripe old age of eight appearance a regular on the thing it's clever and in some shockingly bad parental guidance you can hear a father encouraging her to put the pedal to the metal on the country's roads thankfully they're ok after this the girl's mom or dad posted that video online for the world to see much of the same deleted there is social network accounts after the police got involved they were not all happy of course just to make the record straight you cannot drive in russia and less you are eighteen years old you missed

the one right more bad driving this time at the moscow region a bus driver here isn't averse to instigating his own walk kind of what we call it road rage but you could call it that because you see what he does talk about fender bender it means teaching drivers a lesson or two he's got no problem with going to the back of anything in front of him that he doesn't like if he thinks that they've upset if he just puts his foot down almost runs him off the road alexis's name he's willing to lay off the brakes if another car cuts him off his methods have got him involved in nearly a hundred minor road accidents but you know he's never been considered to be a fall by the police no alexy said over his defense is a common misconception that a person who rear ends another cars automatically considered the guilty party he adds that he could cause a more serious accident even lose his license if you are forced to swerve into the other car world more videos of course like that on our website if you want to check them out r t dot com i can add that i drive very sensibly on the roads here and.

britain squeezed middle classes are bearing the brunt of the country struggles to revive the economy a study shows tax hikes are leaving the two hundred eighty pounds a year worse off and more than half of them have no savings to fall back on it means major lifestyle changes for many of them as sarah first reports now. for a large part of her life to lose her god has been tapping away at building a life for herself as a freelance journalist she's been part of britain's middle class seeing credit cards pay their mortgages on time and they thrived during. but then came the bust and with the decline of opportunities that were for so long a middle class perk i didn't get a contract we knew because budgets were being cut and so all those little things you have in place you always live slightly on credit you know you go into interest in anticipation get paid quite soon that got much to low incomes coupled with high living costs stoking fears of a shrinking middle in britain is backed up in

a report by the resolution foundation think tank it looked into what the future holds the ten million adults in the low to middle income households forecast another decade of hardship well unfortunately it's a bit of a grim prospect prices have risen faster than earnings for quite some time now and what that means is that people. simmer about perhaps a little more but they can't buy as much with it a stark example of this is housing a couple of decades ago you've had to save for a couple of years maybe three or four years to get a deposit on a house if you're a low to middle income first time buyer at the moment you're looking at about twenty to say middle class trimmings like foreign holidays meals out and home improvements are on hold for the time being as lives has found out she's having to sell off possessions to pay for centuries like dental treatment. packing up the

quotes. so it's quite emotional at times and you have a rush of memory and then you think of them for ten years and probably if there's something really important i can find online has revolutionised but i also think. these books are. my investment in new ways really inching expiration catalogs that i've bought back if not very much money just just a normal price and then of course they become rare as the years go by so in some ways my stocks and shares been sitting on my shelves which i hadn't known about you see when you look on line and i'm something that was confronted so there is a sense of well at least i can pay for my newspaper below my root canal surgery doing that. you know you have to not be a snob in something you cannot make times it can be hard to keep up the parents says it's life seems like the one run by this store here and is that approving so popular you bring along a design that close.