And a dash of sugar. Im ali velshi in washington, d. C. And this is real money. This is real money coming to you from washington, d. C. You remain the most important part of the show. Tell me whats on your mind. Russian president Vladimir Putin and chinese president signed an historic International Deal in shanghai valued at 400 billion. China commits to buy russian natural gas for 30 years to power its growing economy. The worlds second largest after the United States. Todays deal connects russias northeast t through siberia. Todays deal has huge implications for u. S. Engagement in the world. Now in a stroke of a pen today russia got some strategic space to breathe and its confrontation with the west in ukraine. This weekend vote necessary ukraine go to the polls to elect new leaders. At the same time pro russian separatist agitate for secession in the east. Right now threequarters of russias exports go to europe through ukraine. The good nick news helps putins standing at home as russia continues to slide into a recession. Todays deal improves chinas president in asia. Its no coincidence that china sees its more of a threat and sees it as a threat with with japan and philippines, u. S. Allies. While a Major Energy Deal between russia and china makes perfect business sense to both countries, dont kid yourself. This deal is about much more than business. Few are more qualified to comment on todays chinarussia deal and what it means for u. S. Policy than former National Security adviser Samuel Sandy Berger he is now chair of the albright stone bridge group here in washington, d. C. Good to see you. Good to be here. Lets talk about this gas deal, first of all. On one level it makes a lot of sense. Russia has ample gas. China is going around the world looking for energy where it can find it, but as i implied there is more than politics here. These are two major powers pushing back against the United States and the west right now. This has to be seen as a marriage of converging interest, not enduring love. The sinosoviet relationship is a troubled one over the years. They have fought wars, their borders are quite unstable, but circumstances now make the deal right. Putin has wanted this deal for a very long time as an Eastern Market for his energy. I subject when the price is revealed china got a good deal. Well see here. Does this hurt the west, particularly the u. S. Trying to impose greater sanctions on russia because of its incursions into ukraine now that he has breathing room . He knows somewhere that gas can be sold. I think both sides, both parties seek a strategic advantage. Putin wants a little elbow room to the east as he gets squeezed on the west. I think china wants a bit of push back against the United States as they look at this rebalancing and pivot as a sign that were trying to contain china. But i wouldnt overread it. On putins side he still needs the european market. None of this oil is available. Its in the ground. He needs to build the pipeline and he needs to get it to china. He still needs the european market. This is not going to ease his problem on the european front if he continues to be aggressive in what he does with ukraine. It might buy him more diplomatic support from china but there is not much that china can do to help him. On the chinese size they obviously see this pivot, the rebalancing to asia, but the pivot has always had two elements. Its a rebalancing in two ways. Its a rebalancing from the middle east to asia, but its a balance within asia that i think the administration has been pretty clear about. The balance between our other friends in asia and the u. S. China relationship. And the u. S. China relationship does not shrink. It gets better and better. Its still the most important bilateral relationship in the world. There was a deal between the bank in russia and the bank in china to settle transactions in rubl es or yen. Is that convenient . Is that an important shift away from the dollar as the World Reserve currency . I dont think so. Its insignificant in financial or economic terms. The brits have riled with the currency being in dollar. The chinese have. But contracts are all in dollars dollars. I dont think well see in any near term an shift. The chinese are troubled by the fact that they have trillions of dollars. Theyre not interested in anything that devalues the dollar. Not in the short term. Over the long term i think they would like to see more of a currency but thats over the horizon. Ultimately, this energy deal between russia and china, this currency settlement deal between russia and china, if youre in the white house, you have to watch this, would you be more alarmed if youre in the white house watching all of this and say, what should be our reaction . No, you have to watch this very carefully, but you still have to be focused on two things. I would still be focused on what is russia going to do in the ukraine. Thats still a very dangerous situation. If they continue to disrupt things in ukraine, if they try to stop this election we may have to go to another level of sanctions. No one is talking about nuclear power, no one is talking about it, but there is a ceiling. Reporter if we went to another level of sanctions it would have an impact on the global economy. Thats one danger. On the other side obviously the u. S. China relationship continues to be extraordinarily important relationship. Its a delicate relationship. My own view of this relationship is there are so many dimensions to it that no single dimension now can tear it down. Are we allies . Are we adversaries . My phrase is its too big to fail, and we have to manage it very carefully. Thank you very much for being with us. Yes. My next guest says you may bang for your buck by pumping up the middle class. Plus a comeback story about an underdog american city. After years of flight middle class families are slowly returning to philly. This doesnt match the story we have of a hollowed out philadelphia. Its anything but. There are probably certain areas that are hollowed out but i guarantee theyre being gentrified as we speak. Rockys middle class story continues. Keep it here. Al Jazeera America presents the system with Joe Berlinger mandatory minimums are routinely used to coerce plea bargains mandatory minimums the whole goal is to reduce gun crime, now weve got people saying this isnt fair. Does the punishment always fit the crime . Had the person that murdered our daughter got the mandatory minimum, he wouldnt have been out. The system have been out. The system with Joe Burlinger the Performance Review. Have been out. The system with Joe Burlinger that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. And yet, theres someone around the office who hasnt had a Performance Review in a while. Someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. Im looking at you phone company dsl. Check your speed. See how fast your internet can be. Switch now and add voice and tv for 34. 90. Comcast business built for business. Were following the stories of people who have died in the desert the borderland memorial day marathon no ones prepared for this journey experience al Jazeera Americas critically acclaimed original series from the beginning experiencing it has changed me completely follow the journey as six americans face the immigration debate up close and personal. Its heartbreaking. Im the enemy. Im really pissed off. All of these people shouldnt be dead. Its insane. The borderland memorial day marathon only at al Jazeera America protesters demanding higher minimum wages took the fight to mcdonalds headquarters. Police arrested some of them for trespassing. Activists flooded around the headquarters theyre fighting for wages of 15 an hour. Thats double the federal minimum wage of 7. 25 an hour. The average wage for mcdonalds workers is 9 an hour. That means half earns more and half earns a less. Well, stagnant wage growth has been weighing on american households and the economys recovery not just at lower income levels. Median house income is now 53,000 a year, thats 4,000 lower than it was before the recession began in 2008. Its 2,000 lower than it was when the recover reagan in june of 2009. Economist Stephen Moore said that the real problem for u. S. Growth is not a flat minimum wage but a declining middle class paycheck. Steve with the think tank heritage foundation. Welcome. Its great to be back in washington. Youre not saying dont worry about the minimum wage. Youre saying increasing ma minimum wage will hit the middle class harder. Well, making a slightly different argument that i think the minimum wage is a die version. The truth is 95 of americans make more than the minimum wage. The real issue that we should be talking about in this country, and let me go back to the minimum wage for a minute. The truth is most people who make the minimum wage, not all but most, its a first or second job. Younger people, a lot of teenagers, those are not the people economically we should worry about. Were not worried about people earning that in the beginning right. We should be worried about the middle class. There is angst and anxiety about the numbers you just showed us. They still have not recovered from the recession. Theyre 4,000 behind. We talk about the middle class a lot on this show. You road an oped with senator rand paul. You talked about the minimum wage and middle class workers. The problem with the minimum wage that has got everyone ignited, its not that first jobs, but its those who are much later in their career. People are doing jobs and it doesnt seem fair that you cant earn a living wage working as an airport baggage. There is no recovery. Thats the point that rand and i are making. If you want the high wage jobs back. Thats what i want. I want americans to be the highest paid workers in the world. We have to bring jobs back, make the economy more dynamic. Maybe doing more in the energy industry. Those are some of the highest paying jobs. But my concern for the minimum wage, if we can go back to that for a minute. Most people watching this show are people like myself. I was earning 2. 50 an hour, but that first job is important because then you get your second job and third job and learn job skills. People under the age of 21, 22, i wonder if you should agree with me, we should have a training wage or teenage wage. I think thats what happens is when youre 50. Right, the bill that the president is talking about does not have that teenage wage. That will take a lot of people out of the workforce entirely. Now back to the middle class. Is this wage stagnation . You look at wages in the United States. They have gone up. The pile of money paid to the pile of americans is bigger than it was. The problem is the way the economy bu bifurcates, theyre not sharing in that growth. Thats new, by the way. There is a mythology, the president said this has been going on for decades. Thats not true. We started to separate in we started to separate in 1970. Not really. Thats where i would disagree with you. If you look at the 1990s, the middle class did pretty well. We had upward mobility. That seems to have stalled in the last ten years or so. Median wages have been flat. We can give you a graphic to show you this, but youve seen upper class wages, the top 20 have grown in a way we would all like. Thats true but its misleading. In the United States we have a lot of immigrants and we plenish people a replenish at the bottom. So if you look at families over time and say how are they doing five or ten years later we do have a lot of mobility. Thats slowed down a little bit. Weve seen a study by harvard and stanford saying that upward mobility in the United States now lags canada and australia and other places. Other places for whatever reason your dream of being able to move up that ladder, this is what i worried about in the middle class. Me, too. This dream is being diminished. You talk about your story at 2. 50 and hour, a family in Small Business but you lived the American Dream. I did. I wonder if its wage stagnation. That study that youre referring to, i have some problems with it, but the whole story of the American Dream is that anyone can start with meager means and rise up. The big problem right now is the people on the bottom 20 , ali, theyre having a hard time moving out of that, this permanent poverty class. That has a lot of factors behind that. The education system, the welfare system, all of these things. Anyone who works a fulltime job youre going to be surprised when i say this. If you work a fulltime job in this country, you got kids, you shouldnt be living in poverty. I dont think the minimum wage is the best way to solve that. Earned a income. Some kind of worker credit so the government will supplement your income if youre working. Working is key. When you talk about that bottom 20 half of them dont have anybody working in the household. If no one is working, you wont be able to climb out. Youre at the heritage foundation. Youve influence politics for decades in this country. And we are coming up to a Midterm Election where we need solutions, countered the ones the president has if you dont like them but they sound Like Solutions as opposed to were not going to worry about this bottom 20 , we need the dream more than we need the facts. We need people to believe that they can keep on moving. Will we hear that from conservatives . This is why rand paul and i wrote this piece. Its not enough to criticize the president s ideas. I dont agree with most of his ideas but the republicans have to be a solutionoriented party, and they have to speak to the middle class. Saying look, we have solutions for you that will help you rise up. Ill go back to the energy revolution. I think its crazy why not build the keystone pipeline. Why not continue to develop our resources in the country. Thats just one example. Do you think its going to be built . I think its a nobrainer. Its not just keystone. We have pipelines all over. We already have them. There was a big story that i that did not get enough attention. The deal between china and russia, theyre going to be building this huge pipeline. We were just to sandy berg er about it. The coauthor of a book that you need to read regardless of what your political stripes are. Its just a good book. In the movies rocky balboa was the gritty, determined underdog who refused to give up. That describes philadelphia middle class families who endured through decades of decline. This particular area that im in right now were tripled. Thats 300 increase. Ill have more on these challenges and hopes for the future as my series on rockys middle class continues. And the worlds biggest election. Well get insight on indias new leader Narendra Modi from investigating a dark side of the law they dont have the money to puchace their freedom. For some. Crime does pay. The bail bond industry has been good to me. Ill make a chunk of change off the crime. Fault lines. Al Jazeera Americas hard hitting. Theyre locking the door. Ground breaking. We have to get out of here. Truth seeking. Award winning, investigative, documentary series. Chasing bail only on al Jazeera America on techknow. Im at the National Wind institute, where they can create tornados. A greater understanding. We know how to design for the wind speeds, now we design for. Avoiding future tragedies i want a shelter in every school. Techknow every saturday, go where science, meets humanity. This is some of the best driving ive ever done, even though i cant see. Techknow is there an enviromental urgency . Only on al Jazeera America all right, we have spent the last couple of days telling you about the new face of philadelphias middle class. It is smaller than it was 40 years ago, but its better educated and more diverse. The middle class in philadelphia has finally stabilized. Big question is how do you expand a crucial core group of a citys residents when the city itself is struggling on so many fronts. For a city so celebrated philadelphia still has many hurdles. Reporter ask the average middle class resident living in the suburbs of it philadelphia theyll say youre crazy to live downtown. Bad schools, high taxes. When you look at how philadelphia fares on poverty and crime it ranks monk the worst lingering at the bottom of the list with cities like detroit and baltimore. Drive through parts of philadelphia and you might think that youre in detroit. Vast blight. The hollowing. Phillys middle class is no more evident in parts of West Philadelphia or lower philadelphia once bustling middle class communities. The exodus of 400,000 middle class residents is clear. But they didnt go far. Economies have grown significantly over the past four years. Their success has come at the expense of philadelphia. Reporter there are vibrant parts of the city. Now comes the task of luric bag the middle class people back to a city thats starting to stabilize. Gentrification and a flush of jobs from universities like penn, temple and drexel are beginning to show the beginnings of a new middle class. My house is the first house on the corner. Reporter long time owner of victors cafe in philadelphia. He took me on a tour of his neighborhood and said gentrification is happening quickly, and theres money to be made. So this doesnt match the story that we have of a hallowed out philadelphia. Its anything but. There are probably certain parts of the city that are hollowed out, but i guarantee theyre being gentrified right now. People are buying them up because people with do it. Reporter the city has decided to reassess its property taxes which for long time homeowners in the neighborhood could be a real problem. Gregs property tax has gone through the roof, so to speak. This particular area that im in right now were tripled 300 increase. But its not just property tax that is struggling the middle class. They have the second highest tax burden in the country second only to bridgeport, connectic