these are things taken for granted here in britain. but in 1990 in burma, the winner of the elections, the nld, was never allowed even to convene parliament. i hope that we can leave such days behind us, and that as we look forward to the future, it will be the will of the people that is reflected faithfully in burma's changing political landscape. this journey out of burma has not been a sentimental pilgrimage to the past, but an exploration of the new opportunities at hand for the people of burma. i have been struck, throughout my trip, by how extraordinarily warmhearted and open the world has been to us. to experience this first hand, after so long physically separated from this world, has been very moving. countries that geographically are distant, have shown that they are close to burma in what really matters, they are close to the aspirations of the burmese people. we are brought into proximity through our shared values- and no geographical distance, no human-made barriers, can stand in our way. during the years of my house arres

britain did have an option. when you have -- when you have a debt, a high debt, and when -- when the economy has just collapsed, then of course the debt/gdp ratio rises automatically. now, how do you get it down? that's the question. i would say and a keynesian would say you don't get it down by shrinking the economy further. that is a move that will actually cause it to rise. you have to find some way of getting the gdp up and then the debt-gdp ratio will sink. and i think that's very, very, very clear in my mind. and i think events have borne it out. what we've had is a great experiment in the application of a particular economic philosophy which neil agrees with. he says this is a temporary blip and in a year or so, we'll be back to buoyant growth. >> i don't think it will be buoyant growth. one has to realize under a debt mountain such as the size of britain -- >> it's not a mountain. >> it is a mountain. debt to gdp is up there with japan at 600% if you include public and private debt. that's important beca

britain is celebrating the diamond jubilee of queen elizabeth ii. it marks her 60th year on the throne. whatever you may think of the institution of monarchy, the queen has led an extraordinary life. she came to power in 1952 before the current prime minister david cameron was even born. she meets with him regularly as she has done with every prime minister back to winston churchill. the past 60 years have seen elizabeth's britain undergo great change, from leader of an empire to member of a commonwealth. but through all of this, the queen's presence represents stability and continuity. >> i declare before you all that my whole life-- whether it be long or shot-- shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. >> rose: joining me from london, suzy menkes. in london, sally bedell smith, her latest book is "elizabeth the queen, the life of a modern monarch." from cambridge, john burns, a london bureau chief of the "new york times." with me in new york, naill ferguson, he's a professor at harvard

. >> the burmese opposition leader addresses both houses of britain's parliament. it is a rare honor given only to the few. and returning on to britain, a symbol of the fight for freedom, but just how close is she to achieving that goal? hello and welcome to gnp. i am george alagiah with a world of news and opinion. also on the program, will anders breivik and up in prison or psychiatric hospital? spain pays a heavy arts for its latest debt auction, but there were plenty of takers. what is going on? it is early morning in washington, 7:00 a.m. in -- 7:00 in the evening in shanghai and midday in london. the burmese opposition leader is set to address westminster. it is a rare honor. it is a mark of her remarkable journey from prisoner to the international symbol for the fight for political freedom. is all of this too much, too soon for a country that still has a long way to go? more on that in a moment. but first, here is naille. >> aung san suu kyi has already begun her day on her whistle stop tour of europe. she is also due to meet prince charles and the duchess o

. >> jamie: what an historic day it is, in great britain and around the world for that matter as today's diamond jubilee celebrations get underway, in london. all commemorating queen elizabeth ii's 60 years on the throne. the queen herself as you can see, there, on the shores of the river thames, a short time ago, leading a thousand-boat parade down the river and good morning, everyone, pretty exciting in london, and martha mccallum is there and i'm jamie colby and he we're here for you in new york well, as you can see, we are witnessesing a spectacle of pageantry and history, millions are expected to join the festivities in great britain throughout the day, martha mccallum is joining us now in london to tell us what to expect. >> jamie: hi, martha. >> reporter: hello there, eric and jamie. >> jamie: we are dying to hear all about it. >> reporter: it is just beautiful, jamie and eric and we have the flotilla is underway behind us and we'd are celebrating as you said the queen's diamond jubilee, 60 years of her reign in great britain, now, this is not something that happens every day. it

on the world's top whistleblower julian a son loses his axe to edition of people from britain to sweden on assault on sex assault charges. for malcolm to the weekly this sunday here on our t.v. it's eight pm in moscow and i'm and he said now a good to have you with us we begin with russia's warning that the u.n. human rights resolution condemning the syrian leadership for last week's houla massacre wristy railing the peace plan moscow called it premature because the investigation's ongoing and that it's putting pressure on the security council where russia is resisting foreign military action on sunday president also insisted his troops had nothing to do with the slaughter of more than one hundred people in the city he blames armed rebel gangs for the attack and outside forces for. instigating the conflict to trigger intervention washington which backs the syrian opposition and push for regime change admit there are plans for military action in your car park a contributor to britain's guardian newspaper says western states are using the recent tragedy in houla as a pretext for possible

working on developing new nuclear power stations in britain but the other two. have both now pulled out so it's almost as if the government hasn't noticed the writing on the wall that's left the u.k. government having to hunt further afield for the much needed cash despite saying they won't let the pendants on outside sources it's countries like japan and china that person's reported to have been touting around for investment and you know in a sense we're kind of offshore project for other countries i mean it seems to me bizarre that the u.k. which is quite a big and supposed to go to country. opening up of foreign investment from other countries because knowing the best route to invest in nuclear their own country don't want to take it so they're going to have britain having being one of the first countries to gain new clear britain's power stations are now old with many being decommissioned and with nuclear accounting for around sixteen percent of the country's energy provision the government says if it doesn't get the investment in the new plants it needs it

at least the previous judgment five to two not unanimous but this this court here in britain seemingly oblivious and believing that there is no need to argue points of law for a guy who has not been charged with any crime in the united states people have called resuscitation and president obama has even film footage of him saying that julian assange is guilty that surely in a normal process would make for a complete farce of any legal case but in the united states in an election year and let's not forget how many nations in the world don't like leaks but whatever the case you know people will be sending c.d.'s we know what's going on around the world and people around the world will find new ways of sending information and leaking information to wiki leaks with or without julian assange. just briefly you talked about people turning on of songs he's also criticized for his program here on r t what do you make and again just briefly of the swap in the way you seem he was a hero and now he's a world you know a criminal. the attacks were on our t.v. and the mainstream media for even having

britain's a supreme court denies requests to reopen to the extradition appeal case the decision means the world's most famous whistleblower is one step closer to being sent to sweden to face sex crime allegations. and an. egyptian crime the supreme court orders and the dissolution of the country is one that's dominated parliament and the like and it was unconstitutional in another court decision a law banning hosni mubarak's former premier from running for president struck down days before the runoff vote. in the syrian capital is rocked by a powerful blast that has left fourteen people wounded a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at near a security police office which officials believe was the intended target. coming up with laura lester. good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c. these are your headlines for thursday june fourteenth two thousand and twelve brandt and w t i crude oil prices have been close to an eight month low as opec met today to talk about production quotas now according to media reports the group will not cut output a

britain france saudi where they do not want to succeed it's the syrian government wants to see the russia and china for the last fifteen months it's been an attempt by western powers backed by states to topple the regime in damascus and this reminds me and i'm sure remind a lot of people too about what happened back in the late one nine hundred ninety s. yugoslavia a situation where the loss of big government there was under enormous pressure as well what we had then was western forces backing the rebels against that regime we had a massacre so-called massacres taking place we should being used as a pretext for military intervention which is what we got in the nato bombardment of yugoslavia and twelve months ago we had exactly the same thing again with libya but we had across the stories coming out of libya america and britain with the forefront of saying look we've got to intervene which is what happened in the end of course i said it's deja vu it's like one thousand nine hundred twenty seven all over again. we were violence from syria spread across the border with at least thirteen kill

so britain under the gold standard was largely panic-free. it was indeed a financial system that, as i think they said in mary poppins, was the envy of the world. and no small part of that had to do with i think the objective nature of of the currency, but a part of it had to do as well with the ethos of personal responsibility that seemed part and pashs elrcel of the financi arrangements. there was no regulation of banking in edwardian england. not a single regulation on books as i understand it and the banks were solvent. today we are positively choked with legislation, dodd/frank 2300 pages or so, and we still see -- we see the most extraordinary demonstrations of near-misses and of flat-out misses in our financial system. i think you are hard-pressed to put over the point that the gold standard was the cause of financial disruption. humanity is the cause of financial disruption. the question is, what system best contains it? and under what system and what system is the most equitable and the most given over to establishing prosperity. it

was picked apart by foreign powers that had their own agenda in the case of syria the united states britain and france are in the are in the quest that we colonizing of a different kind of colonization but of colonization nonetheless of the entire or oil rich geo strategically important region the period the people of syria are are sort of pawns in somebody else's geo strategic chess board and that's why this civil war is happening ok josh is this. a colonial project i mean to echo what we just heard. well if we want to look at the geostrategic dimension at the end of the second world war the united states. understood that it had defeated hitler by denying him oil and his panzers and his air force came to a stop and that oil was going to come out of the persian gulf for the united states in preparing for the third world war wanted to make sure that it had sewed up the persian gulf now iran is trying to push america out of the first gulf syria is iran's ally russia china have important interests with iran and syria they see syria not so much as important in and of itself but as a marker it's

and the world's top whistleblower julie the sergeant loses his extradition appeal from britain to sweden on sex assault charges. hello and welcome you watching the weekly here on r.t. our round up of the top stories of the last seven days with me kevin owen and first russia's warning that the u.n. human rights resolution condemning the syrian leadership for last week's houla massacre risks the railing the peace plan moscow called it premature because the investigation's ongoing and that it's therefore putting pressure on the security council where russia is resisting foreign military action on sunday president assad insisted his troops had nothing to do with the slaughter of more than one hundred people in the city he blamed armed rebel gangs for the attack and outside forces for instigating the conflict to trigger intervention washington which backs the syrian opposition and the push for regime change admits there are plans for military action let's get some thoughts on this and sharif. top political journalists neil clark he's a contributor to britain's guardian newspaper is on the lin

the outside interference the arming of the opposition the motion of civil war by the united states britain france and their clients in the region this would not have evolved at this point it was it inevitable that there would be a sectarian conflict as joshua seems to seems to ponder there i think the united states and britain and france are honoring change path they recognize the vulnerabilities in different societies if they're if they're divided based on religion or ethno sectarian divide those divisions are then utilised in order to break up the country we see in the case of in the case of iraq that's precisely what what the united states the united states did that in the case of yugoslavia it was an inevitable that you would break apart it was picked apart by foreign powers that had their own agenda in the case of syria the united states britain and france are in the are in the quest that we colonize you know of a different kind of colonization but of colonization nonetheless of the entire or oil rich geo strategically important region the period the people of syria are are sort of pa

well while under house arrest in britain julian assange began filming his talk show that airs next on r.t. this tuesday don't forget you can also catch previous episodes at our t.v. the cop. the irish people have said yes to more sturdy this week in a nationwide referendum supporters say this will ensure stability and more rescue cash while critics fear the country will lose power to make its own decisions are to store smith explains. yes to writing european austerity into new will and ceded more still pretty to brussels the sixty forty result saw a split between rich and poor with middle class in rural areas in favor of working class. against sin fein leader gerry adams campaigned vigorously against the treaty and is now island's most popular party leader as a result the government real number of commitments during. we're converted to the notion that you can't cut your way. up to get people. back into work. just banking. the result of the greed of private bankers. so we. hold to those commitments they'll need to unemployment up to fifteen percent welfare payments a cut public sector

it was a real surprise in great britain. remember, they are focused on the napoleonic wars and fighting france. there's a world war that's really the focus of their attention but here on this shore our american navy is now proud. we've stood up for ourselves. the british focused a little more attention. they say you can't engage one of these american ships. they realize we build bigger, stronger ships than a typical frigate so they said you can't take on an american ship unless you have superior force, two-on-one, and there was a blockade on the atlantic coast. so much of the action of the war of 1812 moves inland to the lakes. that's not "constitution's" story. she's here on the coast, but eventually towards the end of the coast she does escape the blockades and meets the british one more time. this is a wonderful portrait of william bainbridge actually painted by sarah peele, one of the first female professional artists in our country, the daughter of charles wilson pierre, and there's a wonderful store we this portrait be

they hope that this will in fact establish a legitimate say of the islands as part of britain. and that the people will vote if it's ninety percent ninety five percent and so on that is a very strong vote in favor of remaining part of britain not choosing to be part of argentina and it's if you like a signal. that the focus is or is the argentinians call them last month in those wish to stay part of britain and don't wish to become a province of argentina. a british foreign office minister jeremy brown is currently in the falklands officially commemorating our marking rather the war could there be anything else. or something more to his visit at this time. well if you look at the language which is coming from what is are it's the argentinean government is using very very strong language and some people might say threats about security of the rebel and they're claiming it very very strongly. and the british minister will then say right we are behind you we're going to defend you here and this will be a clear signal. that britain will defend the folger those if in fact they are a

has france and britain left the region in the second world war they left minorities in charge in all the eleven thousand states and what's happened in the post colonial era is that the minorities have been thrown out of power the maronites in lebanon the sunnis in iraq the the jews in palestine of course have been able to become a majority and they've solved their problem by by becoming the majority in gathering jews from around the world and of course pushing out muslim palestinians but the alawite so the last minority that rules and that's the heritage of the french colonial period the sunni muslims are going to overthrow them i believe and what's going to be a protracted war because it's becoming a proxy war as your your guests have have mentioned and so it's going to be a long struggle and i'm joshua's as you can we hear liz very important let's take a look at some of the recent events in syria. am syria has descended into civil war and all means including force should be used under international supervision to help restore peace this is the take on the situation in syria voiced

britain also controlled parts of china. remember, british gun boats were started open war which forced the dynasty to give up control of hong kong. these are all long in the past now. these days, british employees work for indian bosses and indian investment in britain is on the rise. in china, it is no longer britain and other western powers, but it is beijing that is often calling the shots. >> talking about trading places now. these global shifts of power. obviously population in developed countries are decreasing while it is the opposite situation for developed countries. how significant is this? >> many experts do point out the change of demographics as an important factor to explain the rise of the emerging nations. the world's population passed the 7 billion mark last october and it is forecasted to keep on growing. but what is interesting here is where exactly these increases are taking place. the trend varies considerably by country and region. united nations surveys estimate that asia's population will exceed 5.1

britain has been up until now the largest donor. it has been the education that i hope can play a major role. we need short-term results so that the people may see it as a tangible positive impact. we need the creation of positive opportunities that are particularly important. longer term, the education system is desperately weak. reform is needed not just of schools and the curriculum and training of teachers but also of our attitude of education which at present is too narrow and rigid. i hope also that british businesses can play a role in supporting the reform process. through what i have termed democracy friendlyinvestment. investment that arises on a countability and environmental system. i investment in labor intensive sectors if carried out can offer benefits to our people. one test will be whether new players will benefit from the investment coming in. britain played an important role in facilitating a visit next month in the initiative secretary. i hope this will be the start of many similar initiatives in the months ahead

syrian experts everywhere in the world or people from britain saudi arabia also send his money by weapons walkie talkies. he says every day tons of this aid to go through his hands but for him it's not enough as soon as he gets better he'll return to syria. is a selfie a radical sunni group whose influence in this part of lebanon is growing dramatically. there are demonstrations in favor of the syrian uprising a role so to support package everything sounds. we also made some of fish a calmer bakley one of the founders of the banned islamic group. suspected of links to international terrorism cases his input in the syrian revolt in send in the rebels the ideas and encouragement to achieve the ultimate goal what would be to make all the overthrow of the government would make all the squabbles speak for against the. issues and make them all applies again to see a government and other selfish a can triple the runs this car parts shop he confirms that every sunni and especially every salafist here in lebanon is involved either ideologically or financially in what he calls syrian liberation. al

it is a favorable peace treaty because britain abandoned the idea of creating a buffer state for indians which they promised they were going to negotiate. they completely abandoned that idea. that was favorable for the united states. most of the other issues of the war were not addressed. they simply agreed to return to the status quo. so really not that much happened. >> domestically? >> diplomatically with british directly and yet people wind up confident and feeling great about the war and that to me was really the fun and interesting puzzle that drove me to look at patriotism and how you shape emotion and therefore feelings about the war. there is a newspaper in boston in 1817 that says we're now enjoying an era of good feelings and that phrase was picked up and repeated immediately in newspapers all around the country. i think it's really true that the nation did enter a period of good feelings and to figure out exactly how that came about is something that i think is analytically very interesting. >> you are participating in one of a couple conversations here. on the war of 1812, i

and the world's top was a lower juliana's songs loses his access edition appeal from britain to sweden on sex assault charges. it's midnight in moscow this is r t coming to you live from new sanaa way with our weekly program a look back at the top stories from the last seven days we begin with russia's warning that the u.n. human rights resolution condemning the syrian leadership for last week's houla massacre risks to rallying the peace plan osco called it premature because the investigation's ongoing and that it's putting pressure on the security council where russia is resisting foreign military action on sunday president also insisted his troops had nothing to do with the slaughter of more than one hundred people in the city he blames armed rebel gangs for the attack and outside forces for instigating the conflict to trigger intervention washington which backs the syrian opposition and force they all set out admits there are plans for military action sarah marusek from america's syracuse university believes the u.s. never truly backed the peace initiative. everybody in washington w