the launch of a state of the art space x. rocket carrying a classified u.s. government satellite leads to speculation about whether it made it into space with none of the usual information released. also this hour the b.b.c. finds itself at the center of its own storm after some of its journalists accuse the company of censorship. and violent protests. little attention though the focus remains on anti government demonstrations in iran .

from moscow you're watching r.t. international live. thanks for joining us this hour. space mission already shrouded in secrecy has now grown even more mysterious rumors about the fate of a top secret u.s. government satellite the reusable space x. rocket which launched it has safely returned to earth questions remain over what happened to the payload. of the details of the cryptic launch. well the intriguing or mysterious thing about this is that ahead of the launch and during it and the media there were so many stories about the top secret spy satellite which belongs to the u.s. government being launched by illinois mosques basics company it was called zoom but now almost two days after the launch everyone is pretty much in the dark about its fate sunday night's launch was lifestream to body space six but only until

a certain stage. we have had successful lift off of falcon nine carrying those then the satellites deployment into orbit wasn't shown or reported on at all now if the mission is so secrecy it isn't any fad at some stages all of the live stream a sense that while on the one hand it is true and we know that the usual practice for this kind of limited access to the stream is like that for missions of that secretive nature but then neither space x. nor the manufacture of the satellite confirmed that the launch was successful and this led to the first doubts appearing other any other reasons to think that something posted may have gone wrong then two respected news organizations in the

u.s. wall street journal and bloomberg reported that zuma may have fallen back to earth or burned in the planet's atmosphere and when they get that classified information from anonymous sources within the u.s. government and also the industry what they did is they were qwest that comment from the pentagon from the satellites manufacturer and of course from you and me. six company as well and this is what we've got we have nothing to add to the satellite cadillac at this time we cannot comment on classified missions we do not comment on missions of this nature but as of right now reviews of the data indicate full can nine performed normally so why did these comments or rather no comment replies leave us so let's put all the doubts aside and assume that the satellite delivery mission was a success does that mean that there is so much secrecy behind the payload that no

one is entitled to know even about whether it reached orbit or not why was there no obviate in the u.s. satellite catalog and what kind of spying is it out there for the questions are going to be there to stay on the other hand if it's confirmed that the mission was to fail or it's not going to be a refutation disaster for space six but we know that elon musk's next step was going to be to start sending humans into space and in this case it could prove to be an image problem and we will see whether that's going to affect elon musk's plans to do more space business with the u.s. government well space x. has again commented on the launch they've said the falcon nine rocket did everything as expected however in her statement the company's president refused to give further comments on the fate of a science about being carried citing its classified nature.

oh it's an easier been involved in violent protests with thousands rallying against rising prices unemployment and tax hikes police used tear gas to disperse protesters who had been burning tires and hurling stones at officers then rest up at almost simultaneously with the iranian demonstrations but has gone largely unnoticed on middle east correspondent paula has more details. well these protests intern is here started after the new year and they came in reaction to that a new zealand government introducing a new budget plan for two thousand and eight that included amongst other things a rise in fuel prices and tax hikes the response from the tennessee and street was one of anger and what we've seen is protests taking place in several dozen cities around the country with the result that one person has been killed and several people have been injured now it is for many as you mentioned to protests happening in another country namely iran what you're saying actually have here are two countries with protests taking place on the street by people who are unhappy with

the economic situation. the root of it is just a canard it's the problem of youth unemployment i personally haven't been able to find a job for a long time but if people have a job they don't have any problem with the government about the demands of the following suspend the twenty eighteen famine and slow return to the original prices of goods and high of one member from every poor family these are in short i did not see a. rise in petrol prices this time is huge we have a lot of privilege and have to pay a lot of fines it's only acceptable that we pay for this government's mistakes. but we are protesting here because of high braces and employment we were the growth in these and we have been subjected to violence by security agents now the tunas been prime minister has said that there is no place for violence and the sentiments echo the words that were used by iran's leader what happened yesterday is

a violation of the law since a state of emergency has been declared in tunisia these protests are the result of operations that aim to review social unrest that we are a free nation and according to the constitution and human rights the people are absolutely free to criticize the government and even protest that their protests should be in such a way as to aim to improve the situation. the country we the government will not tolerate some protesters who want to destroy public property will disrupt public discipline and create turmoil in society western leaders for example the french president are crying and the e.u. highway present mahoney were quick to condemn the way new protests even have the american president donald trump calling for regime change in iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the bammer ministration the great iranian people have been repressed for many years they are hungry for food

and for freedom along with human rights the worlds of iran is being looted time for change but when it comes to the current potest that are taking place in tunisia and what here they have kept now it might be that to near zero was the first country back in two thousand and eleven at the start of the arab spring to ask a dictator in a move that was widely approved by the western world as being one of democratic change but since then there have been no less than mine governments in place intern is the all of whom have been unable to get a handle on the economic situation the question of course is whether or not we'll see these cause for change and condemnation and criticism against tunisia like we've seen for example against iran. well joining us now also as you professor dr at the american university of colorado thanks for joining us good to have you on the program today these are very large scale protests incentives there are they we've seen some violence they're not perhaps on the scale of iraq but there have

been violent incidents i mean why do you think they're getting so little media attention. well two main reasons one is a certain chick importance of your own compared to tunisia is located. in the persian gulf or gulf if you will where most of the oil is coming from. tunisia is on the mediterranean it's a small country not many people know about the american. society of on too many in america have been an enemy and mean a major enemy and a major obstacle for american policy debate that is since its evolution one hundred seventy nine also remember america intervened in the year to promote democracy destroyed iraq to destroy syria they destroyed libya so to them the success of tunisia is very important so that the arab spring would produce a model that everybody should meet a look that not all western intervention was

a failure in the case of you on the very happy to look at any small detail that happens or any small part this to inflate it in the media to look as if this is the end of their vision and what will happen after. so it is totally different approach in covering tunisia and. politest totally different you speak about a different approach externally but what about the actually what's going on in iran in tunisia both governments haven't been willing to give in to the protesters demands. is it really so different to what's happening in iran and what are the differences in times of the motivations of the protesters and indeed the government response about countries. well in tunisia this is the beginning of the evolution in two thousand and eleven it was economic issue unemployment inflation and despite the fact that the tunisian government was successful in

dealing with the political the politics of the evolution they were not able to solve the economic issue when it comes to you on the economic issue is the believed it to or the americans related to its foreign policy and vision the intervention in yemen in syria in iraq in libya known in whatever you have whatever you have so do you try to portray the protests in iran as action was as a result of. foreign policy intervention in the middle east if you change this policy the economic situation would improve and so do you try to inflate some of the protest slogans regarding. financial aid to. hezbollah or to others whereas this is not the case in tunisia to this is not helping anybody internationally is not intervening in anybody's even in their neighbors they are really generally like it by many people and you don't see any

thought with the tunisians they have just economic problems the two is the sick who had been affected by that. two years ago and that is affecting the economy the government is doing a lot of things nobody is calling for the overthrow of the vision in tunisia they are not happy with the government with the policies of the parliament the boss this budget but nobody is saying we want to topple the government this seems look at that happened in two thousand and eleven and toppled the banality whereas what you have in iran some small protest wanted to oversee but most of the majority of the protests were only objecting to the economic policies to. option two mismanagement and the government in iran limited formed springle lessons and said ok you have to have the right to protest but you don't accept the.

support and stuff like that and will try to change certain things and i think even a couple will do also like tunisian government to some economic changes i mean to me as he's been going through some times recently you know since the start of the arab spring as these protests are economic do you see a potential of them switching to a political motive on the protest you know making the country descend into further chaos and is there a risk of that happening. no not at all you know the arab spring a painful experience to many countries including tunisia so nobody is looking for the revolution as a tool for change they are protesting like in many countries that you will have protests about certain government policy but it would not. in too big of full blown volution that we have seen in two thousand and eleven. what you see

today are just for this in certain areas for example in the tunisian capital. district this is well known squatter settlement and it always has problems and this is where it happened and also some parts of tunisia in the south where you have a high level of poverty and with who should be busy lexy the booze it started in two thousand and eleven i don't think tunisia. public government or even parties want another of evolution in the country because the they have guns would before and it did not produce what they expected so there was disappointment was the volution as a tool for change ok dr saeed study sociology professor thanks for joining us here not a great to get your insight on what's happening there in tunisia. now the b.b.c.'s found itself accused of censorship by its own journalists that's after some claim they've been prevented from talking about equal pay and that follows of

course the resignation of a senior journalist who claims she wasn't paid the same as some male counterparts here's artie's police go with further details. carrie gracie has resigned as the b.b.c.'s china editor and she's penned this open letter where she explains that last summer when the b.b.c. revealed the salaries of its highest paid staff she discovered that the two men who do the same job as her essentially as international editors but in other regions get paid much more than the two women who do those jobs as well take a listen to what she had to say master law i learned that in the previous financial year the two men least fifty percent more than the two women these revelations damaged the trust of b.b.c. staff gary gracie said that the only solution that she had for her b.b.c. bosses would be for all four international editors at the b.b.c. to be paid the same amount and crucially she wasn't after

a pay rise she simply wanted equal pay however her bosses at the b.b.c. instead offered her a substantial pay rise but one that was nowhere near equal pay and she says that the b.b.c. told her that quite simply the men's jobs were worth more and those two men's jobs are north america editor and middle east editor by the way so on top of this original conflict with the b.b.c. there is now another issue and that is that often news of this story broke the head of news at the b.b.c. center polite reminder to all the staff saying that because of impartiality rules no one would be able to report on the story if they had expressed a view on it but the problem is that plenty of women at the b.b.c. have to eat their solidarity with carry gracey over this issue and they are now

accusing the b.b.c. of trying to keep them quiet and of trying to censor them the rules of also resulted in a situation whereby effectively because of this you've got the story being. reported almost exclusively by men now the b.b.c. won't comment on the controversy however they have referred us back to that guidelines take a listen to what they have to say when dealing with controversial subjects concerning the b.b.c. or reporting must remain julie impose sure as well as accurate we need to ensure the b.b.c.'s impartiality is not brought into question and presenters all reporters are not exposed to potential conflicts of interest and the b.b.c. might have to get used to reporting on itself or she referring us back to those guidelines because this looks like an issue that isn't going away and there are likely to be more high profile resignations over this issue of gender pay inequality. to discuss these threats across life a journalist and commentator martin summers thanks for coming on the program so

good to have you on the b.b.c. is being accused by some of censorship by its own staff in fact is there a crisis of trust within the company or just a bit of a fuss over nothing well it's going to obviously going to be difficult when the b.b.c. has to report about itself. because if the b.b.c. is the center of controversy then it's becomes quite difficult to disentangle who's speaking on whose behalf and on what basis they're talking are not very familiar with b.b.c. guidelines but you can see they're getting themselves into a bit of a mess and this or they i mean these claims for a wave of support for the senior female journalists journalist equipped her demands over her demands for equal pay do you think her claim was justified. well the fact of the matter is that a lot of the time we don't really know what people are paid what and i think the needs to be a lot more transparency about what people are paid in general in scandinavian

countries everybody's pay is public knowledge because everybody's tax returns are made public and they have been for you know for many years in britain we have a culture of secrecy around pay it's almost embarrassing to ask people how much they earn and therefore you know therefore people don't discuss it there's also questions of commercial confidentiality when somebody is being given to you know doing a deal with that with a company particular the b.b.c. is off and it's often turned out behind closed doors and nobody really knows what's going on on the think what this controversy brings out is how little we know about how much people are paid. and what the decisions are based on and i think we could all benefit from having a more honest and open attitudes of all of these matters i mean kerry gracie was paid less than her male counterparts in in similar positions that was the allegation and the way this was formulated was that this was about gender of gender discrimination but there is of course the other argument that she might have had

you know less work or less of a work you know volley more responsibility than others than perhaps you happened to be how male colleagues this had nothing to do with gender is that a possibility here at all. well it's a possibility i mean you could argue the b.b.c. correspondents in the us or the middle east is of syria is a more senior position but then you've got to ask yourself why is those senior positions always filled by i mean and i think that this this kind of question is going to be asked not just at the b.b.c. but in general in society but i think with b.b.c. in particular because it is a public service broadcaster they've got a to show that they're being fair about pay and be the go to show the being open about how these decisions are taken and i suppose i would argue that frankly they should let people have their opinions and just say the b.b.c. you know except some people have different opinions about this even when the b.b.c. is the center of the controversy it's going to be a tricky one whatever happens i think by her resignation what she she's done is

brought all this into the open and no doubt the debate will continue it's not the first time is that you know channel the media's been at the center of the gender pay dispute it's happened before there was a report very recently i seem to remember about you know very major companies in the u.k. outside the media that also had you know gender pan equality do you think the b.b.c. and other organizations are doing enough to tackle you know what's clearly an issue at the forefront of public discourse. well no they're not so i mean we clearly don't have equal pay i think the latest figures from the b.b.c. show that their pay is more equal than the the general rule of companies in the society but still not completely equal i mean there's all sorts of reasons for that discrimination clearly one of them in the in the past and possibly even know then of course there is the secrecy about who's paid what anyway i mean some of the

stars at the b.b.c. in the light entertainment side get paid enormous sums of money but you know we're talking millions and you know some people say well why they paid that and i think that's because there is a market for highly paid people that are very popular and there's bound to be controversy about this but i think the morse transparency we have about it says as i suggested in scandinavian countries it's a normal practice and of course in those countries they have more or less extended pay scale anyway because once people know how much people are paid they tend to be much more judgments all about why people are being paid more than they ought to be at the top of the at the top of the tree and i think what we need more honesty about all of this all round is is everybody's best interests certainly not an issue that so going to go away anytime soon martin summers journalist commentator thanks for your take today on r.t. on that story. now north and south korea have held their first

official talks in more than two years ago she issues were held in the demilitarized zone between the two countries is what i guess if it is following developments. it went well which is rare to hear these days when it comes to the korea's one north korea agreed to send a delegation to the winter olympics in pyongyang chang sportspeople performance for the cultural events it's simple if the north attends the olympics it's much less likely to stage a provocation launch another missile to family reunions relatives separated by the war that haven't seen each other for decades could be allowed reunions the extra month and three perhaps most importantly south korea has proposed to face meetings between the north's and the south's military officials in order to deescalate tensions at long last alternately to denuclearize the peninsula

it's a long shorts but it's a start with number one i think we should be engaged in these talks in an earnest sincere manner to give a new year's gift namely the results of the talks to the korean nation so. it will as you mentioned earlier we hope to bring a precious gift to your people but matches the expectations of our people it is been a chaotic year from escalation to escalation saber rattling and childish rhetoric near enough every month the u.s. and south korea would stage war games on the north's borders they'd send a message. they even sent nuclear bombers to the north borders north korea was no less provocative

and it tested increasingly advanced ballistic missiles stage suspected nuclear weapons tests and. it now reportedly has the capacity to hit mainland united states and kim jong moon has boasted he has his own button and his desk is part of who is button big contest with trump which is why these talks was so important they allow for a pause for hotheads to cool off and for titan fingers to ease off on the trigger is i think it's a step back from a military solution because there is no military solution it other than death and destruction of hundreds of thousands or a million people or more in the long run both sides would benefit from peace whether there are people within each government that have an objective to maintain this conflict to maintain the battle state that probably are however you know so

it's hard to say put north korea into one camp however i see what can come from the talks is a type of peace. treaty and the type of situation where these countries can learn to live in peace and that's only going to come from building relationships of the latest talks following months of escalation and rhetoric and saber rattling with the north korea and the u.s. donald trump however claims it's his aggressive attitude towards exactly what made the development tick breakthrough possible. totally destroy north korea that's called the military option the nuclear and ballistic missile programs of that regime require a determined response. little rocket man

is a sick puppy. a lot of people said a lot of people have written that without my rhetoric and without my tough stance and such a stance i mean this is this is what has to be done if it has to be done that they wouldn't be talking about olympics that they wouldn't be talking right. that's it for this hour for myself on the team here at all to see our website and social media for more news and views we're back in half an hour for more global that. the two thousand and eight economic crisis turns some countries into paid these are

the countries with weaker economies that needed austerity policies if you are in a situation or even the recession austerity is a very bad idea it doesn't work and it makes millions of people very unhappy those who are unemployed see their wages decline almost a decade how good are the results. by the people gathered in which the wider world beat people with you or do i. believe will be she was i mean if a legal. challenge. i think it's the fact that they cannot get it. while the same measure is still in place to one of the consequences is to weaken labor slowly dismantle the will first one of this is the truth the consider is that the consequences are actually quite acceptable to the decision makers.

well when the guys report i'm max kaiser you know trillion dollars of new wealth popped into the well folks fair last year the question is is that a good thing or a bad thing you know if it's all an evenly distributed it just goes into an ever smaller concentration of a few kleptocrats and tack a stock or nincompoops. side a good thing. yes max in fact in twenty seventeen the world's wealthiest became one trillion dollars richer that's just the five hundred richest people in the world on the forbes list so that's one trillion dollars that puts into context by the way

the crypto currency market which is not yet a trillion dollars. you also have the u.s. housing market added two trillion dollars last year again a lot of that is owned by the likes of blackstone and all these other private equity groups. so just putting into context this trillion dollars five hundred people all right two thousand a financial crisis when sub prime became the buzz word of the year and many people lost their homes they vulture capitalist the private equity groups warren buffett they swooped in and they bought hundreds of thousands of units for pennies on the dollar and now they have become america slumlord and yes they're making a nother two trillion dollar hit but the black community was completely disenfranchised and now they're on the streets of course because they've been made homeless by warren buffett and his elk the biggest gain in the number of billionaires was thirty eight chinese billionaires on the bloomberg index added one

hundred seventy seven bill.