hello and welcome to cross talk peter lavelle taxing people in the name of health is one of the aims of the so-called fat tax governments all over the world and throughout history have adopted policies to influence behavior in the name of public health should food be the subject of a sin tax like alcohol and tobacco. cross-talk the so-called fat tax i'm joined by mimi roth in new york she is president of the national action against obesity in los angeles we have robert ferguson he is c.e.o. of diet free life and serves on the presidential task force on obesity for the national medical association and in manchester we cross to bill bradley he is the london chapter leader of the western a price foundation or i focus is crossed i mean you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it but first tell us more about what is called the fact tax well first i must say it's quite ironic to see one of the least obese countries in the world be the first to implement the measure but irony aside let's figure out what this tax is all about the law which went into effect in denmark in ear

a low in welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle to forgotten spring a state appointed investigation claims bahrain used excessive force as it halted protests led by the shia majority in february and march this report is seen as a final attempt to bring bahrain's increasingly polarized sides together there is little indication of this happening anytime soon. and it can. start. to cross our brains quagmire i'm joined by kate hudson in london she is the general secretary of the campaign for nuclear disarmament and birmingham we have peter ere he is a middle east consultant and in prague we cross to mitchell bell for he is the editor of the essential european journal of international and security studies at metropolitan university prague cross-talk rosen a fact that means you can jump in anytime you want kate i'd like to go to you first in london what do you think about this report a lot of people are calling it a whitewash while at the same time the regime in bahrain has good made a lot of violations or made against its own people. well i think it presents a number of very interesting

less than ten minutes peter lavelle is back this time asking his guests on a cross talk if the world is taking a two selective approach to the arab uprisings but first the green update business update with kareena melican. thank you man hello and welcome to our business update this hour a double dip recession in the eurozone now seems all but inevitable the o.e.c.d. warns that the bloc will see a contraction of one percent in the fourth quarter of this year and will continue to shrink in two thousand and twelve nick parsons from national australia bank believes that things could be much more much worse. clothing the worst fears the coming true those worst fears could be substantially worse than what the o.e.c.d. actually announced today you're right to point out that it's revised down substantially its growth forecasts it's saying for the euro area as a whole next year it's only going to grow by north point two percent so it's very very weak growth but it's worth pointing out that central focus that best guess if you like want of a better phrase that central forecast is not the midpo

hello again welcoming crosstalk i'm peter lavelle the party is finally over at least it was twenty years ago the end of the communist party of the soviet union was the final step before the collapse of the us this all right so what are the parties positive and negative legacies could have it reformed itself and changed the course of history. and. crossed at the end of the communist party of the soviet union i'm joined by ronald suny and i'm ann arbor is a professor of social and political history at the university of michigan in princeton we have mark bystander he is professor of politics at princeton university all right gentlemen this is cross-eyed that mean you can jump in anytime you want mark if i go to you first in princeton the primary reason why i'm doing this not only is it the twentieth anniversary of the end of the communist party of the soviet union but to remind people of the events of nine hundred ninety one and how much it really changed the world and how we how the world is. moved on from one great current epic conflict to maybe another epic conflict and we can throw in t

those were our headlines of the hour up next peter lavelle and his gas discuss the end of the soviet communist party and how it triggered the collapse of the u.s.s.r. that's coming up next and cross-talk. will. review the latest in signs and signals from. the future. hello and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle the party is finally over at least it was twenty years ago the end of the communist party of the soviet union was the final step before the collapse of the us that's all right so what are the parties positive and negative legacies could have it reformed itself and change the course of history. crossed out the end of the communist party of the soviet union i'm joined by ronald suny in ann ann arbor he is a professor of social and political history at the university of michigan in princeton we have mark bystander he is professor of politics at princeton university hi gentlemen this is cross-eyed to me you can jump in anytime you want mark if i can go to you first in princeton the primary reason why i'm doing this not only is it a twentieth anniversary of the end of the comm

hello and welcome to crossfire gang peter lavelle the hero of crisis without end eurozone leaders and national governments continue to be at loggerheads on how to rescue a currency that has an unpredictable future with clearly started out as a financial fiasco of the highest order is now a political disaster with few if any positive outcomes. you can. see. crosstalk the prospects for the eurozone i'm joined by robert oulds in london he's the director of the bruges group also in london we have caro well i knew he is chief executive officer at the center for european policy studies and in minneapolis we cross the clare hill she's professor at the university of minnesota law school all right folks this is crosstalk i mean she can jump in anytime you want all right robert if i think go to you first thing you know we can talk about the financial nuances about this i think everybody that's been following the story knows basically that bit of the big numbers involved but you know that as we i thought last week everything had been decided i thought everything was going to be done you know clo

the low in welcome to cross talk on peter lavelle is it deja vu all over again the united nations nuclear watchdog the i.a.e.a. claims in a new report that iran is moving ever closer to possessing a nuclear weapon critics of the report claim nothing new or even damning has been revealed nonetheless the drumbeat of war against iran can be heard loud and clear. live and you can. see. to cross-talk iran's nuclear program i'm joined by mark levine in washington he's a senior fellow with the truman national security project and talk radio host from rock to university in new jersey we have hooshang amirahmadi he is a professor of international development and policy and in london we cross to patrick case he's a journalist and political commentator all right gentlemen this is cross talk to me as you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it but first we're calling this program iran deja vu appropriate i think rightfully so absolutely concerns over iran's nuclear program have been growing steadily for more than a decade when western countries like the united states and. israel exp

the lawyer welcome across town peter lavelle syria's bloodiest day maker has ruled out any military operation against syria though this could change the face change on the ground can and will western powers succeed in overthrowing the current syrian regime without direct use of force and if there were to be regime change in syria what would replace it and how would the region's geo political dynamics change. we can. live. to cross-talk the complicated case of syria i'm joined by summer already in washington he's a foreign policy manager at the arab american institute in pittsburgh we have rick francona he is a middle east expert and author of how i to adversity and i witness account of iraq's fall from grace and in chicago we crossed the answer to barak he is a member of the syrian national council or a gentleman this is cross talk you can jump in anytime you want but first marcia syria's experiences bloodiest day and it's been exactly eight months since it all started at the u.n. says more than thirty five hundred people have been filled with thousands more injured yet there seems to be no p

peter lavelle and cross talk guests explore china's position as an emerging superpower amid political and economic woes in the west that's coming up stay with us. twenty years ago the largest country in the. suitcase it. was how did. the janitor. where did it take to. keep. a low in welcome to crossed our computer without china's maneuvering our chinese fortunes faring during the global financial crisis and the eurozone fiasco political uncertainty in the us and the arab spring is china and then again or is the world undergoes massive economic and geopolitical shifts and as the world changes will china take on a greater leadership role. came. across not china's growing influence i'm joined by greg audrey in irvine he's an entrepreneur and co-author of death by china in miami we have already shankar he used a ford motor company chair in global business management at ohio state university and in beijing we crossed to doris nesbitt she's the director of the nesbitt china institute all right folks you have difference a points of view on this and i want you to show my viewers ok but first

peter lavelle now asks his panel of experts should the world not get used to the idea of islamic democracy cross-talk is now. and. welcome to cross talk i'm curious about as tunisia goes so does the rest of the arab world to be sure successfully holds the first election of the arab spring with the islamic party coming out on top of egyptians also will soon go to the polls and there is an exam a party they're expected to garner the most votes should we now get used to the idea of islamic democracy. to cross-talk the future of islamic democracies i'm joined by you sort of got nucci in tunis she is a member of the in the to party in jerusalem we have david rosenberg he's a columnist for the jerusalem post and in denver we crossed a major me he is a professor at the university of denver all right folks this is cross talk that means you can jump in anytime you want my very much encourage it but first moshe should we get used to the idea of islamic democracies well at least in so far as elections go democracy and social change may have been the arab spring slogans be events unfolding in the marg

the gloves are off later today and cross talk as host peter lavelle grills his guests over the western role in the arab spring take a look. we saw a year ago almost now the turmoil in egypt which is now returning no democracy there obviously the americans or the west are waiting for a western friendly government to be imposed and this of course sucks up to the israeli situation so that the border with gaza is controlled by the west and by israel to create this who is talking about the lack of democracy that been an uprising in egypt and have been clamped down there was no democracy there and these developments are part of the process and i believe that it is an inexorable process in which ultimately the arab peoples will achieve the democracy that they aspire to everyone should have the right to democracy except for the palestinians and the people of bahrain ok because these are national security issues of the united states of america. syria is another country that are feeling about the decisions being made from outside it's now suffering more pressure and isolation after the arab leag

here on araa to you still to come later in the day the gloves come off in cross talk as artie's peter lavelle grills his guests over the role of western foreign policy in the arab spring full program coming your way in the next hour here's a preview. we saw a year ago almost to the turmoil in egypt which is now returning no democracy there obviously the americans with the west still waiting for a western friendly government to be imposed and this of course sucks up to the israeli situation so that the the border with gaza is controlled by the west and by israel so there's lots of problems and even the small country of kuwait has got a very hidden agenda there which we're not actually seeing in the media yet and of course the whole thing in syria we got another potential libya coming up here and plans for two already in the arab countries to impose a no fly zone over syria where is this going to stop and i should probably point out that this idea of a wide arab spring is a bit of an exaggeration considering that even in bahrain or in any of the situations in which civil. segments of the societ

peter all of our reporting from red square that peter lavelle and his guests look at what economic model countries could follow to stave off any future credit crunch as though it's the silence of business news with natasha. it's twenty four minutes past eleven am here in moscow welcome to the business program on r.t.e. it's taken almost two decades of talks but now russia has its foot in the door of the world trade organization the country is in a final round as informal negotiations smoothing out the remaining issues a decision on russia's membership is expected by the end of this week peter west bank atong believes that would make russian companies more competitive. i think the major point to be made when it comes to the increased competition from players is that i have a feeling there's a lot of improvement cost cutting efficiency to be done in russian companies to actually cope with this so if you want to be really hard on this i mean i i do think that these employers doesn't actually provide a threat they provide an opportunity for companies to make themselves more efficient more tr

bail them out beijing's role in saving struggling western economies is actually something that peter lavelle debates with his guests on cross talk to be coming your way here when i see in the next hour. the chinese have been very hesitant because they see that the europeans just can't get their house in order they've created such a mess of their economies are nowhere near is cutting them strategic as china does and we've got to be clear that finding our moral hazard in keeping us behaving badly either in europe or the united states is not in china's long term best interest it's or we want to see the west continue to harm itself we really in the post given all the problems we have to talk top down to china and say what we've decided scored and what we think is good and what you would do is. you can see crosstalk next hour in about twenty minutes from now nato may have ended its operations in libya but the western presence is far from over with big companies replacing the warplanes of the countries that bombed the oil rich country and are getting lucrative contracts to rebuild it laura smith n

hero going to survival cross-talk later asks what's next for the beleaguered single currency join peter lavelle and his guests at seven thirty am g.m.t. here on r.t. . russia launched an unmanned probe to one of mars's moons in the early hours of wednesday but it hit technical trouble. a series of robotic maneuvers should have taken place after the probe separated from its booster rocket that has not happened and federal space agency officials say they have three days to sort the problem out there probes designed to bring back soil from the martian moon phobos which should on earth some secrets about our solar system's creation also on board is china's first mars satellite which will be put in observation orbit around the red planet. explains the mission of them bush. ever since galileo galilei first pointed his telescope but most people couldn't help but wonder is there life on the red planet the question is still in the air now russian scientists have decided to study mass in one of its two moons phobos in a single ambitious mission. our focus is obtaining a piece of soil for a proper study.

the next peter lavelle on cross talk gas exports china's position as an emerging superpower amid the pull.

hello and welcome to on the money with the business of russia is business i'm peter lavelle today we're talking about russia in a global economic context. discuss this i'm joined by years of the chief economist at deutsche bank also in the studio with me is nick poole he's archy's business editor and anatoly we look off he is head to head of asset management at gazprom back but first and when let's have a look at the impact of the w t o entry for russia's economy. eighteen here is the pros and cons and overcoming obstacles before russia has made it clear it will join the w t o the benefits range from russia's expats potential to attracting more a d. and engine internet sector is likely to get the most out of the w t o extension well agricultural and want to industries and predicted to break ground as foreign companies production will be my competitor so far this secretaries have been able to survive due to protective measures taken by the russian government as you know the whole point of the world trade organization is to reduce this is to level the playing field for the world so you've

and as europe stumble through a steepening debt crisis artie's peter lavelle his guest discuss whether this might be the time for the e.u. to give the reins of power back to national governments across ike is heading your way next hour but here's a short preview. if released last week were to have voted and voted for and passed it on the left the choice to the greek citizens would have meant that the greece greek citizens would have got a veto on economic governance within the eurozone which is almost unheard of that is the good thing of this crisis is that you see real clear me moving this direction also. so you don't really see a losing their jobs as a good side to this crisis. because we know it said. it's on the streets people we know and you say there's a good thing to these crises. now the u.n. head has drawn attention to the increase in attacks on serbs living in northern kossovo ban ki moon said that the rise was caused by the decision of christian leadership to extend its control over border crossings in the serb dominated area for months now sir protesters have been blocking

cross talk coming up next with peter lavelle on the unfolding events of the arab spring and what the protesters real goals maybe stay with us here on our key. it. was. a low in welcome across our computer we knew tensions in violence but in doubt many of the hopes that the heart of the egyptian revolution is mubarak's military establishment angling to remain in power will next week's parliamentary elections be held and if they are it will be seen as fair and legitimate. to cross-talk egypt's prospects i'm joined by running al maliki in cairo she is the chief editor of the daily news egypt in high thought we have david because he is a professor of middle east studies at the university of haifa and in london we cross to karl charo he's a middle east blogger all right this is cross-eyed i mean we are all more my guests can jump in anytime they want but first marcia is egypt's revolution progressing well events are changing fast and it's hard to say right now but tension in egypt has remained unrelenting for more than a week now the country's health ministry says at least forty people ha