president barack obama backs the renewal of a ban on assault weapons in the u.s. after the massacre of twenty children at the sandy hook elementary school. just to deliver a christmas message outlining his personal aspirations for the to come as he remains holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london. ready for blastoff final farewells and preparations are on the way as three crewman get ready for launch to the international space station.

online on screen h.d. international news and comment live from moscow this is. president barack obama has made a move towards stronger gun control in the u.s. the proposal comes after the mass shooting at the sandy hook elementary school that took the lives of twenty six people including twenty children he voiced support for an initiative to renew an expired ban on assault weapons and the creation of a new law to tighten gun sales regulations marina porton has the details. when you consider the tragic events that unfolded at an elementary school last week in the us it is not surprising that finally u.s. president barack obama is taking a position that would reinstate a ban on assault weapons in america now the last federal assault weapons ban which expired in two thousand and four prohibited the manufacturing of eighteen specific models of semiautomatic weapons along with the manufacturing of high capacity

ammunition magazines that could carry more than ten rounds now according to white house spokesman jay carney obama would also support legislation that closes a so-called gun show loophole that has allowed some weapons to be sold without criminal background checks of the buyers since obama has been president for mass shootings have taken place but until now critics say that obama has skirted the issue of federal gun control last week's massacre at that elementary school in newtown connecticut claimed the lives of twenty innocent children ages between six and seven and also six staff members were killed in the gun control advocates say it's a shame so many lives have been lost before u.s. leaders finally got the ball rolling on legislation in real largest firearms maker in the u.s. also announced on tuesday that it's being put up for sale by its owner freedom group international is the maker of the bushmaster rifle the weapons thought to

have been used in friday's connecticut massacre shares in publicly traded gun makers have been dropping for a third straight day there's also been reports of a large spike in gun sales in recent days because many believe that the federal government will in fact enforce stricter gun control political analyst believes the battle to control public access to guns will be won easily. there is a strong go try the show. believe for a moment the americans. to post. right at the start that you should write the constitution under the second amendment to the rights. those states gone's of free will or the private. ownership story of guns our logo and perhaps to be much improved. by decent must occur i was terrible of these because well they are going to argue that the laws of the current laws must be. different list

you're going to have people who are going to be opposed to the private ownership of guns then they're going to argue about the massacre. and then you're going to. the amendment of the right people say stop their arms of course they're going to stay the law should be strengthened to prevent the mentally unstable to get hold of guns well we would like to know what you think could be done to reduce the number of deadly shootings in the u.s. you can log on to our website harty dot com to take part in our latest poll and the key on screen so far we can see that's a tiny between those who think the media should be forbidden to overhype the massacres and those who believe that the second amendment would prevent any measures to control the guns few of you claim harsh new gun laws and restrictions could help the problem and even already puts faith in the increase of security in public places go online to have your say because if.

he has already announced his intentions to run for parliament in australia but what else is on julian assange and his agenda for twenty thirty mile the top whistleblower is set to deliver a christmas message his plans for the year ahead as sarah first reports. it's been six months to the day since julian a son's thought refuge behind the doors of the ecuadorian embassy it was a bid to avoid extradition to sweden where he's wanted for sexual assault allegations that he continues to refuse to travel to sweden because if it will be extradited to the u.s. america investigating the wiki leaks website for publishing documents including dossier on the wars in iraq and afghanistan now despite having twenty four hour round the clock police protection it's been a busy six months that julian assange and we've had him publish

a book we stream concerns over his health we seem to live in a sound addressing world leaders as well as giving a number of personal exclusive interviews. and of course we've had the ongoing protests and vigils in support of both julian assange and the wiki leaks website and in the next couple of days today the sun is expected to give a christmas address normally the territory of mourning but in this case julian assange would be summing up his own going predicament and outlining his plans for the year ahead now what is remains relatively unknown we see in the dramas unfolding over the last six months so you can be pretty sure it will be predictable it's a little grimace a lot of talk at the moment that we could see in twenty thirty julian assange is running for the australian senate and forming his own wiki leaks political party although it will be the next steps and of course r.t. is going to be there every step of the way taking you through this ongoing story.

greece prepares for yet another twenty four hour standstill as people protest against growing cuts and disintegrating economy the details are just ahead here on r.t. . but first moscow says it's doing everything possible to bring about the release of two russians kidnapped in syria on monday they're being held for ransom by suspected rebels who also seized an italian citizen another hostage a ukrainian journalist remains a militant hands with a deadline passing on a fifty million dollars price tag the knife meanwhile a news crew working for a u.s. channel have escaped after several days in captivity the hostage crises come as fighting intensifies across the country in the capital damascus rebels are locked in battles with palestinian militias who support the syrian government some observers blame the violence on foreign meddling the role of the enemy is that syria has been divided into many pieces and so you want to be

seriously mari right now there is where you have a kurdish. forces. opposition members fighting against each other i mean you know the muslim brotherhood. paid goons from around the world all want to impose their own totalitarian system on what's left of the syrian america and saudi arabia has happy supporters financially and militarily. number of terrorist organization disrupting the use in north africa to claim that they have a war on terror is one of the biggest is the world history we support throughout the region. the next crew of the international space station will soon be blasting off from kazakhstan to join their colleagues in obits roman romanenko tom marshburn and chris hadfield would take their places in the soyuz rocket it's already been moved out of its hangar and put on the pad so you spacecraft is now the only

vehicle able to carry astronauts to the station nasa has been actively engaging private companies in space exploration lately with none so far able to outpace government backed programs. and will be broke also the launch live right here on r.t. and also online so don't miss the lift off at twelve minutes past twelve that's noon g.m.t. and you can learn more about the mission at t. dot com. plus it's for feels like the british spend over one hundred fifty million pounds a year on phone calls to find out how much tax they have to pay. for the. technology innovation all the developments from around russia.

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for. the. blind. would be soon which brightened if you knew all about the song from the funniest impression it's. nice clean stop totty dot com. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada as. a child corporations are old today.

ratings agency standard and poor's is raised the credit rating of greece's sovereign debt this comes just hours before a planned twenty four on nationwide strike as people continue venting their frustration at budget cuts on monday athens received its second tranche of funds from the e.u. and the international monetary fund however as one expert says despite the much anticipated cash the greek economy is far from salvation. the fact that the ratings agencies gave us a higher rating to begin bonds and yet there's going to be a strike in the case what's happened to that right now you know after community i.m.f. the e.c.b. and easy to have some work towards austerity which makes investors happy but of course makes the people angry and so you can see this strike going on and people

a lot of people getting very upset in greece while the investor community is relatively happy because you know there is more greater safeguards that their money is going to be returned to them in the form of bonds so i think that you going to continue to see this is exactly where you'll go up and the people are happier but the investor community is less happy and they're going to have a swerves to the right where you have more austerity making people more angry and more riots and more protests and more strikes and yet investors feeling more secure . in the bonds of a buying greeks even money this crisis is far from over we never solve the basic problem over present the europeans have yet to solve the basic problem that the european. countries are insolvent based simply do not have the money to pay back all the money that they have borrowed and because of that fact which is incontrovertibly we are going to come to a day of reckoning of some point the issue becomes when is that day going to happen

and how far will the european and europe perhaps be able to keep the can down the road. an independent panel tasked with investigating september's deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi has revealed that systematic failures at the state department were behind the security breaches at the mission you saw the lives of the american ambassador to libya and three other u.s. diplomats it happened as protests over an anti islamic film made in america began to sweep across the arab world and the it was believed the attack had developed out of a similar protests conclusions of this report suggest otherwise. french court is due to decide whether dominique strauss com will stand trial on charges the former international monetary fund chief allegedly took part in luxury sex parties with prostitutes which the defense denies strasse can says the authorities are trying to criminalize lust is the last standing inquiry against the sixty three year old who's already fought off several sex crimes charges.

thousands marched on the presidential palace in cairo as egypt's opposition continues to protest against the proposed constitution which is backed by the president and the muslim brotherhood the document has been criticized for being a virtually islamist which many fear could limit people's social freedoms whether the draft will prevail is being decided in a two stage referendum which kicked off last saturday preliminary results show most egyptians had voted in favor of the new constitution but opponents claim that the poll was tainted by mass irregularities the country's justice ministry has ordered an investigation into allegations of widespread vote rigging and political analyst on the shabby believes that the ongoing division over the constitution is only deepening the wide cracks in egyptian society there is a very strong division within today between.

of egyptians that are more towards an islamic system predominantly islamic religious organization or in jail and another group that you have a lot of supporters in egypt that want to have a democratic secular. well president morsi is saying that he is presenting a democracy that he wants to lead the country and he wants to lead the revolution towards a more democratic system but his actions so far have not proven to be. compliant with this well it's leading to more tension you had a lot of violence in the past weeks in the streets clashes in the streets the country's economy is not picking up food is getting poorer and poorer the whole system is collapsing the government the public administration the infrastructure of the country is really suffering from the shortages that the violence is spreading to other parts of the country and i think that this shows that mr morsi and his

administration do not have the potential to do provide the stability that is needed and on the other hand they do not answer the as but i should of the group of people who took to the streets in the past and who were able to overthrow the previous regime so he's acting in a way that is very similar to the previous regime in fact. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has defied international criticism and is pushing through settlement expansion in the occupied west bank he's looking at the possibility of four and a half thousand homes and two more settlements on top of the controversial fifteen hundred in east jerusalem for which he's already given the initial go ahead then you know who called jerusalem the eternal capital saying israelis should be united there the palestinians want to be the capital of their future state and threaten to go to the u.n. security council and the bodies for current members are reportedly preparing a statement condemning israel's plans the push for expansion was announced after

the u.n. upgraded the palestinians to a non member observer state step towards recognizing statehood political analyst phyllis bennis says the israeli government is using the settlements for its own political game. they don't need them for security they don't need them for what they like to call natural growth the settlements are a political point that will be condemned perhaps by the security council criticised even by the obama administration but without any serious repercussions for israel which will largely be allowed to get away with it and as long as the israelis can count on uncritical support from the united states which so far they can there will be mild criticism but there will not be a hint of what real accountability would look like that would mean for example the u.s. saying to israel your settlement policy is illegal all the settlements are illegal and you need to stop them now when israel says no the answer would be ok you're an

independent country you can do what you want but you know that thirty billion dollars that we've pledged over these ten years you know the four point one billion dollars in tax money directly to your military that we're giving you just this year alone we're not doing that anymore and you know how we protect you in the united nations so that you're never held accountable we're not going to do that either that would be what real accountability would look like what real pressure would look like with israel becoming increasingly isolated by the international community over its expansion is policy the arab spring means the country is becoming surrounded by potentially hostile governments which makes some israelis say the deposed dictatorships were safer but for the country the new democracies near its borders. the ripples. there's a storm brewing in the middle east and it's leaving a chill in the hearts of most israelis say what you might about the arab spring it poses an obvious problem for tel aviv they mean and so we've seen just

a few weeks ago. plenty of missiles falling on israel form a radical. i dream and we see. already the beginning of maybe a attrition war in the golan heights we see plenty of the angels in the mediterranean sea israel's backyard has become a lot more dangerous in the last two years weapons from libya are leaking across borders and landing in the hands of unknown militant groups the trouble ahead is symbolized by the muslim brotherhood sweep to power in egypt from this rally in june an ominous promise by the movement to make sure resulin and not cry will the capital at a minimum what will see is the free flow of weapons money and supplies from egypt into the gaza strip we will see egyptian volunteers going into the gaza strip to fight that's the minimum moving up from there the possibility of egypt israel war

is by no means impossible but it was democracy that brought the muslim brotherhood to power and our deal both israel and the west came to espouse but both are now waking up to the reality that things might in fact have been better under the previous dictatorships at least for them we had a difficult situation but at least we had the contact you know with the leadership secondly president mubarak was committed to the peace process the situation today is that we are confronting a new president who belongs to a certain institution a certain movement which do not believe in the right of israel for existence. israeli leaders know all too well that whatever friendships however useful they have with arab leaders it doesn't alter the basic freight posed by an arab awakening that in most countries is empowering militant islamic groups we will expect that these governments when when they will will but pressure not only on the

friends of we feel also this is. the new changes in the democracies that is emerging in the arab world will have a tremendous challenges and. in order to maintain. law and order to establish a real democracy the need need some time but elevate fears that in the time it takes for that democracy to really take root and for the arab public perhaps one day to accept a jewish state relations with its arab neighbors will get far worse before they get better the challenge now for israeli leadership is twofold to avoid inflaming arab public opinion while protecting israel and also to counter the growing to space many israelis feel of the growing isolation in an increasingly volatile neighborhood policy r.t. tel aviv. well that's the way it is the moment here on our table but with

a news team with more news for in about ten thirty five minutes from now in the meantime join us for a trip to the russian city of sochi as it prepares to host the twenty fourteen winter olympics that's coming. on the edge of human capability. struggling with pace and. layout to become the first. force call in the. world for. science technology innovation all the latest developments from

around russia we've got the future covered. secret laboratory tim curry was able to build a new most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tim's mission to teach creation why it should care about humans and world this is why you should care only on the dot com. brighton. moved from fans to.

nice friends down totty dot com. since childhood america's always stood out from his peers he hates losing and has never missed a single training session he came first in everything swimming ballroom dancing or chess at the age of sixteen started to lift weights four years later he took on the bronze medal in weightlifting from the london paralympics. coming in third place at the olympic games was his first serious defeat. medal for me was poor consolation because when you know that you really could do better but you could show a much better result of course that upsets you but i'm only twenty. those were my first paralympic games so the result was

a good start and i must keep up this level and move forward to. avoid the i was born with a spinal injury when his mother was leaving the hospital they told her she had to do some special massages and he would be able to walk she had to do some special massages on the dish to become a coach and adapted physical education every day they did special exercises hoping for a miracle however the boy could never stand on his feet to walk. it was very difficult i had stupid thoughts in my head when we were at a hospital with him i even thought of jumping out the window with my son ivan wished he was mentally handicapped so he would not understand that he could not walk but my husband told me i think about what you're saying do you think you'll feel any better do you think you will feel any better. prison so we accepted the

sad truth and began to fight. grandfather saw it on t.v. . the vehicle powered by the arts and by it was a really special vehicle for people with leg disabilities. they used to ride it very often and he drove it literally everywhere but. for the many years his home made hand bike to go to a regular school in russia children with disabilities receive home schooling as a rule but for his parents it was a question of principle. did not consider himself to be disabled. u.s. in the world there is three steps going into the school building about half a metre away and once he fell over. and after that the headmaster wanted us to take him in and out all the time but i said no it's no big deal if a child falls down happens to everyone when they're kids when you bought them because you and we made him go outside for a walk when he was driving his hand bike his knees were shaking because of the

atmosphere around him but i shouldn't he saw that people looked at him and it made him very tense but for the mayor was elected class president after lessons were over he never had a minute to spare he went swimming played the guitar took wheelchair dancing lessons and lived in wait he traveled a lot taking part in numerous performances in competition. is cuba because you see the way you. play the most father was his personal driver and bodyguard after leaving his job he adjusted his schedule to his son's timetable however he's never made concessions to his son's condition. you won't be able to get through we will. i want to show the apartment to my son we're definitely going out. of the war if you want to achieve something you have to go all the way there's nothing you can do in this

life. but to remove this wall you'll still be under-floor heating here are you going to door into the kitchen. where you can move the balls any way we like. we need to redesign. most russian cities especially the olympic host city of sochi are in need of disabled access for the twenty fourteen winter olympic and paralympic games. more than thirty years ago before the nine hundred eighty summer olympic games in moscow so leaders dorothy's refused to host the paralympics. the organizing committee explained that the country was not ready for such an event. brochure.