and then you glimpse something else here sees some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew. i'm trying hard. to propose new law banning u.s. citizens from adopting russian children gets a second reading in parliament just ahead. and up an ecuadorian embassy in london for six months the world's top whistleblower juma song it's a christmas message i'm plotting his personal aspirations for the year to come. president barack obama backs the renewal of a ban on assault weapons in the u.s. after the massacre of twenty children at sandy hook elementary school.

well news and much more from our new mosque a studio is this is a state. of a bill which if passed will prevent a u.s. citizens from adopting children from the country the action is said to be part of moscow's response to washington applying sanctions against a list of russians as part of the so-called magnitsky act several activists have been detained after staging protests against the proposed adoption ban in the russian capital they say it's the children that will be victimized if the legislation goes through. the courts now from the state duma. just to remind us that a game of news gave us the russian lawyer who was suspected of large scale tax evasion he died in prison before a court could make a decision on his case he's seen by many in the west especially in the u.s. as a victim to various human rights violations in russia and the recently i'm going to

lawmakers pass to the so-called mugging in the act which allows sanctioning russian officials suspected in the us of being connected to human rights violations in russia in moscow by many of the shows this law is seen as anti russian and a legislator syrian state duma had been working on what they say will be a proportionate response and besides sanctioning american citizens for thought to be connected with violations of the rights of russian citizens mainly that we are pushing for the draft only to also include a ban for american citizens to adopt russian children adoption has become quite a heavy issue in the relations between moscow and washington due to the so many cases of abuse and sometimes even death like the story of twenty one months old the activity of russian boy who was adopted by an american couple and he died after his adoptive father left him in a locked car on a hot day and or another case when an american adoptive mother put her child on

a plane back to russia hearing only north and underwear with him all this is causing outrage here in russia but not only the cases themselves but also a lack of a proper reaction from american authorities to prevent these cases from reoccurring including. heavy jail sentences this draft has become a source of heated debate both in the public and among the political elite a russian lawmakers have shown to be quite emotional on this issue when it comes to the executive power i would just heard from the president's spokesman community school who said that it's understood why the deputies are being sold motional due to the evidence and the russian rhetoric coming from some members of the. international community but at the same time he said that the kremlin has a more reserved approach in the meantime it's clear that everybody understands all those responsible for the violation of human rights or especially children's rights have to be punished but it is causing debate whether or not

a general ban on adoption by americans should be introduced and we've heard from several ministers including the foreign minister has also spoken against introducing this ban so the debate continues especially here in the state duma as a russian lawmakers continue reviewing the draft now it's already announced his intentions to run for parliament in australia also says on julian assange his agenda for twenty thirty cooped up in the ecuadorian embassy in london for six months top whistleblower set to deliver a christmas message outlining his plans for the year ahead. 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 dossiers 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 seen concerns over his health we've seen julian assange addressing world leaders as well as giving a number of personal exclusive into the city 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 judy the sun is expected to give a christmas address normally the territory of mourning but in this case julian a son's will be summing up his own going predicament and outlining his plans for the year ahead now what is to come remains relatively unknown we've seen the dramas unfolding over the last six months so you can be pretty sure it will be

unpredictable there's a lot of rumors a lot of talk at the moment that we could see in twenty thirty julian a son's running for the australian senate and forming his own wiki leaks political party well those 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 and today we're marking the six months since julian assange thought asylum in ecuador by turning up at the ecuadorian embassy here in london. surface there now president barack obama has made a move toward stronger gun control in the u.s. if your support for an initiative to renew an expired balun assault weapons and the creation of a new law to tighten gun sales regulations the proposal comes after a mass shooting at the sandy hook elementary school that took the lives of twenty six people including twenty children marty's marina portnoy has a distance. 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 the 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 one commentator told r.t. the gun business is not criticized by some u.s. media outlets due to their links to arms producers and the rights. they have a message they have a narrative that narrative has to percolate through their delivery system which unfortunately are their anchors and reporters to set up the delivery system for the pundits for the host driven shows where you have the right wing. mentality come in

and it's rehashed and then shot back out you know in these various media outlets where they're pundits feed into this is their message machine at work the talking points coming from the n.r.a. the politicians that are in matched in the n.r.a. and in conservative causes i mean that's that's that's not speculation on my part that's politics and media want to one for the last fifteen years. greece is preparing for yet another twenty four hour standstill as people protest against growing cuts on the city to breaking economy the details are just ahead. and sold ready for blastoff three spacemen through the film farewell to the families so you're up for a five month trip to the start the latest addition to the space station team set lift off from kazakhstan as we'll show you shortly here and i'll take.

the sun rises over what seems like and most forest here in new directions crime hundred kilometers north of light of all stalk as in much of the world it's disappearing at a catastrophic rate. mortgages both illegal and those finding ways to outsmart the system for filing down the forests of the region for them profit goes well beyond the future of our planet and the result could be an ecological crisis we are on the hunt for illegal loggers and it's not going to be easy to forests. and our chances are slim now for now we can stay in our dream but as soon as we find quality tracks we'll have to drop our wheels and get out silently in order not to scare the loggers off. xander someone in ca has been a ranger for over twenty five years he can spend weeks at a time tracking a single group of loggers easier to work when snow falls in autumn it's impossible

to find human tracks and even transport tracks are hard to see after hours of driving we get sent in the right. you can see that the ground us soft here which means that they have twelve the tractor trails are very fresh which in fact means that we need to be quiet in order to not scare them off as we get closer. this team says they're legal but have no documents now xander can now call the police to take over his work here is done he is overwhelmingly outnumbered there are too few rangers working in the promote the region and the w w f says the government isn't doing enough to stop it just you. know do it because no one tries to stop them in just five years the forest will be gone what will the people who live after as you do it's a question more and more people are aware of today climate change and the safety of our environment as a whole are being discussed around the world and perhaps it's those small steps that might be a start to people living in harmony with nature. to

speak or language. all these programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six fifty r.p.m. interviews an intriguing story for you. then try a little to the arabic to find out more visit our big teeth dog call. wealthy british style it's an expert on the right look for. the markets why not. going to. find out what's really happening to the global

economy with max cons or for a no holds barred look at the global financial head. lines to an end to kaiser report on our. welcome back more news for you now wasco says it's doing everything possible to bring about the release of two russians are kidnapped in syria on monday being held for ransom by suspected rebels also sees an italian citizen when other hostage a ukrainian journalist remains on militant hence the deadline passing on a fifty million dollars price tag for her life meanwhile a news crew working for a u.s. channel has a scape talked to several days in captivity it comes as fighting intensifies across the country in the capital damascus rebels are locked in battles are honest in the vicious who support the syrian government so observers a plenty of audience on foreign meddling. terrorist groups your library and

kidnappings for financing so those troops park in latin america that's true. terrorist groups so that in many other places. they already have world tension announcing as always and there are stories that are urging the goal of the the enemies of syria are going to divide it into what many little pieces so you want nobody seriously mario and. there is where you have a kurdish. forces and you have other sections and then you'll have all these sort of opposition members fighting against each other for the troll i mean you know that the muslim brotherhood paid goons from around the world all want to impose their own totalitarian system on what's left of the of syria. ratings agency standard and poor's has a raise the credit rating of greece's sovereign debt comes just hours before a planned twenty four hour nationwide strike as people continue venting their

frustration biting cuts on monday athens received a fresh tranche of bailout funds from the e.u. and the international monetary fund over many experts say that this by the much anticipated cash the greek economy is far from salvation. the fact that the ratings agencies gave us a higher rating to be green bombs and yet there's going to be a strike and you get what's happened to that right now the international community be i have nothing if you see b. and e. c. have two wars austerity which makes investors happy but of course makes the people angry and so you can see this strike on a lot of people a lot of people get very upset in greece while a better 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 then you'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 stripes and yet investors feeling more secure . in the bonds of a buying greeks even money this crisis is far from over we never solved the basic problem over present the europeans have yet to solve the basic problem that european. countries are insolvent base 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 up some point the issue becomes when is that going to happen and how far will the european and europe perhaps be able to kick the can down the road . and then dependent panel tossed with investigating september's deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi has revealed that the systematic failures at the state department were behind the security breaches that the mission of the assault claimed the lives of the american ambassador to the bin and three on that u.s. officials it happened as

a violent demonstrations over an anti is now make film made in america began sweeping across the arab world and the state was in the attack because of an opt out of a similar protest however the report suggests the incident wasn't preceded by any protests used to confirm that the intelligence information was a terrorist attack. french court has refused to drop the pimping charges against dominique strauss kahn the former international monetary fund chief allegedly took part of the true sex parties with prostitutes which is defense of the rights. said the authorities were trying to criminalize lust is the last inquiry against this sixty three year old who's already fought off several sex crimes charges. polio vaccination workers have been killed in the pakistani city of peshawar six others have also been killed since the invasion and want a new un vaccination campaign has now been suspended contradicting reports on who

was behind the attacks by the taliban that has previously threatened workers wrong and u.s. agents pakistan remains one of three countries in the world where julio is still in demick. now with a medical check ups and the final training behind them the latest to members of the international space station crew are ready to head for the stars temperatures in kazakhstan have dropped to minus thirty degrees celsius and several preflight traditions have had to be cancelled but the team is hoping that some music will keep things on a high that some bottom forty. a farewell on guitar music was in the air as the next crew of the international space station said their last goodbyes to earth. it will be in the cockpit too says the i assesses next commander chris hadfield and actually when we're sitting on the launch pad inside our soyuz there will be music playing both two to warm up our bodies and to warm our hearts while the music will be

a comfort there was months of work ahead on the station preparing a launch is like a technical and scientific symphony no rocket crew and an orchestra of engineers around them cheering up for the main overture. for the families this time is as nerve wracking as it is exciting chris hadfield's wife says she'll still feel connected to him while he's up there again through music but like really if you're here if you'd like to be playing so much music because that part of it life and then you work hard at it life you know they were sure that no way lots of me you know this is me yes there's a speck corner only i assessed for a trustee guitar. but being away from home at the most special time christmas surely that is hard to cope when i'm out in space i start to feel homesick i'll probably do what i do on earth and that is to. to open

up my guitar and. play songs that are important to me we shouldn't feel too sorry for chris thomas as well as enjoying music they'll be able to look down on earth as we celebrate so it's seasons greetings from our sweet sounding spacemen merry christmas. happy new year to. tom watson r t baikonur. broadcasting the launch live here on r.t. and also online so don't miss the liftoff twelve minute past with a gnc and of course you can learn more about the mission r t v dot com. also online megastar gerard would you might consider russia his search for a new homeland as the actor claims elin down says french citizenship in search of excruciating taxes. supporters of russian champion football teams in the petersburg say they don't want any african or that an american players

in the squad but claim it has nothing to do with racism they addressed the club's management in a written manifesto which also stressed that no man would be tolerated ortiz which had been portrayed gave us some insight on the story. i don't want any african players black players or latin american players and to be honest that's an absolute joke i mean. i think forget probably the best player was born and then his way or his life in america danny is probably the best rush limbaugh has come into play in the russian premier league over the last ten years or so and france is a better manifesto was correct. or was to be submitted. for best player i mean they also say that they want to give preference to homegrown players players watching every team in the world would want to do that because it would be much cheaper but the fact is. russia don't produce enough good players i mean real madrid they don't have players from just one man just or madrid. because this is all has grown and

has developed of course any supporters have been in trouble before haven't they bad behavior quite a few times there was an incident last season with the fam was chucked a banana. and of course just this season they had to spend it and they were docked three points for a technical loss when a fan flew around the pitcher in russian premier league match against an army moscow so i mean this is a club which has a lot of problems of its fans but unfortunately it doesn't want to take any measures to try to control the fans behavior and of course you've got russia hosting the world cup in five years time how could this impact on their knees this attitude widespread among i wouldn't say it's massively widespread but it isn't it isn't so i think what the problem is is a group of around one hundred two hundred hard calls needs and spoke fans who are racist and you get this around the world you'll get this in the u.k. you get this in italy you'll get this in germany you just can't change them for education for whatever they will say the same the problem is you have

a few thousand teenagers who go on to the matches and they don't know what they're doing so they copy what these. races fans are doing and what the club needs to do is try to educate the teenagers the clubs. the russian premier league the russian football union they need to get special players involved because teenagers will look up to these players and try and get. campaigns going in respect of a two thousand and eighteen world cup i think this is a massive opportunity for russia to try and tackle the point of racism because we're going to have a lot of people coming into the country. people of ellen his guests a poll no punches in the latest debate on cross talk just ahead of you after this short break stay with us. in japan the average height for men is one hundred eighty two centimeters ten

centimeters shorter because of that some employers refused to hire me one of them even told me directly that i was too short to deal with the clients computers already spent three months in this hospital and plans to stay for another four to add the coveted seven santa maters to his stature invented by the famed soviet orthopedic is good for you is there a friend in nineteen fifties these frames were initially used to treat fractures in deformities by cutting bones and slowly pulling them up or therefore stimulating tissue regeneration it was out of was able to receive arms and legs and people who thought they were crippled for life be sent to the other patients bones and in many cases their shattered lives to go when professing lazard designed his first brain using bicycle parts sixty years later he says invention is increasingly being used to help people quite eager to fracture their legs to become a few centimeters taller than the ultimate goal is still the same fixing somebodies

life both literally and figuratively about a third of patients admitted she was out of center now days seeking surgery focus medical reasons most of them a man and most are not what you would call vertically challenged professor novick of who operated on many of them says it usually comes down to a man's pride some of the first patient to turn to us with a leg length i mean a quest to meet his fifteen centimeters to be still want to surgery because panos tool than him we like to say that we need to break their legs in order to fix their head maybe nothing wrong with them from an orthopedic. point of view but there is something psychological that prevents him from living the law as fully being happy and we fix it like lengthening surgeries a band in many countries and even the will out there pretty expensive in russia the entire course costs eleven thousand dollars about one tenth of the similar package in the united states financial considerations were one of the reasons that brought

this washington state native to western siberia his main motive for the surgery had to do with how he fared in the auditors in america average is one seventy five i was one sixty seven or one sixty. eight centimeters with the average if i just wanted to be average for women height isn't so important you know i think girl can be short and it's not a big deal i think it's like expected to be taller just before the operation most this matter a russian girl who found he's a regional hide quite in dealing yet he still want to have a day surgery adding seven more centimeters to the self-confidence she told me the whole time you're crazy you're normal you're perfect. for an hour so. what a compliment for somebody who's used to falling short of his own expectations.

following welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle there's no greater gift than the gift of giving as the u.s. deals with its great fiscal woes should tax cuts be low to revisit the nine to nonprofits and charities particularly at a time when a list advantaged need all the help they can get or is this a false debate the real problem is gross income inequality. not the politics of charities i'm joined by richard land in nashville he is the president of the southern baptist convention's ethics and religious liberty commission in new york we have stephen pimp ere he is a professor at columbia university and in bloomington we cross to leslie when koski

he is a professor at indiana university school of public and environmental affairs are a gentleman cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want richard if i go to you first in nashville of the fiscal cliff is looming and everyone has to pay including ending tax cuts and this is going to hurt charities but everyone has to pay how do you feel about that. well i'm all for capping deductions at a reasonable level and clearly part of fixing the fiscal cliff is going to have to be government reductions in spending and increased revenue but i don't think that that indian or capping charitable deductions is a wise move for over one hundred years now america has been doing this and we've discovered that americans give a lot more when they are given a charitable contribution for doing so and the estimates are that for every dollar in tax relief that a person gets it's three dollars of advantage to the community and to the economy

there's no other government program that's a three to one advantage and ten percent of our workforce ten percent of our workforce work for another for a nonprofit charitable organizations religious and non-religious it seems to me to be penny wise and pound foolish to cap the charitable deduction it's different than all other deductions ok it's different than all of that deduction stephen what do you come in on that and i was going to stephen first go ahead well. i mean i think that part of the problem is in some ways the premise of the question is wrong that the fiscal cliff really isn't a cliff it's more like a curb it's more like an outstanding crisis on austerity bomb some people have referred to it doesn't necessarily require that there be cut certainly there's no urgent need for cut i mean part of the problem is that the way in which the issue has been framed has distorted the particular kinds of challenges that we do in fact face i don't think that we need.