at ten pm even more scope the president live approach and says america's poor human rights record means it can lecture others as moscow responds to washington's decision to. also add lining dramatic leagues all of maybe the launch of a political career well julian assange is set to outline his career well julian assange is set to outline his plans and it could also london embassy look at that. and the u.k. reveals the war in afghanistan is costing over seven billion that figure expected to rise before british troops are withdrawn.

hello and a very good evening chief you just joined us it's kevin irwin here at the new center tonight in our top story let him approach in a slammed america's he would rights record citing indefinite detention and sanctioned torture in overseas prisons while speaking to journalists the president defends. i mean ski act passed recently by american lawmakers saying that it's a continuation of a series of anti russian laws like the jackson then a guy act which was abolished recently and putin says that the us as a country which is still uses prisons like i will agree will go on to animal words violations of human rights happen on a daily basis has no rights to criticize the human rights situation in russia. our

us partners and their lawmakers say they are concerned about human rights in our prisons that's fine of course but there are plenty of issues they have themselves abu ghraib and guantanamo where for years people have been detained without charge it's inconceivable prisoners walk around in chains like in the middle ages they've legalized torture inside their own country if something like that happened here it would cause an international outcry but it all remains quiet in the us we've heard plenty of promises to close guantanamo but it's still there it's still operating maybe there is still torture going on there secret cia prisons has anyone been brought to account and they're pointing at our problems well thank you we're aware of that making this the ground for passing anti russian laws it's something absurd and we have a no way provoked such action russian lawmakers are currently working on what they

say will be a proportionate response to the money ski act and part of the plan is to introduce a ban for americans to adopt russian children. this has been causing quite a lot of debate in russia and the president has commented on that saying that adoption and the problem with it is that it's not in the cases of abuse. russian children adopted by american foster burns of but the lack of a proper legal reaction from american authorities to prevent them from reoccurring including the lack of serious punishments in light of the n.t. government. protests which have been continuing for around a year now the president was also asked a question implying that he's managed to build an author retain a regime in the country during his time in power let's listen to the president's reply. i believe that we've provided stability which is the perec was it for the development of our country i believe it's a very important thing but i wouldn't call it authoritarian i can't agree with such

an opinion but the most prominent example that proves my point was my decision to take to the sidelines after two terms as president if i thought that to tell a terry and or authoritarian systems would be the most preferable for our country i just changed the constitution of. the prince of what i was russia's stance on the carpet in syria the president stressed to once again that moscow does not support president assad's regime but it also doesn't want to see syria drown in care os and a civil war for the next two years we're doing which and says it's only up to the syrian people to decide what sort of a political future they want and who we want to see in control of their country you know we are not concerned about the faith of assad's regime we understand what's going on there the family has been in power for forty years and undoubtedly there's demand for change but we're concerned about what happens next in the country we

just. between today's opposition if it takes power and the current government if they become the opposition this can't go on forever now on a lighter note putin has also denied speculation that he's been experiencing some problems with his health and has also answered a question which is bothering millions of people right now about the end of the world well the russian president says he knows when the world will end according to him it will happen in a few billion years one of the sun stop shining these are some of the more serious and less serious issues touched upon the conference which lasted around four and a half hours continuing the president's tradition of these extended. forms and included over twelve hundred journalists from different parts of russia and from abroad. it's going off there the model for a lot of information battle wiki leaks editor julian the sun just set to give a christmas address in the next few hours he'll deliver his speech from the balcony

of the ecuadorian embassy in london we've been in scott for the last six months of being granted political asylum as much anticipation as to what many have to say of his lower smith thoughts on possible topics of his address later on thursday joining us and she's doing something which is usually reserved for heads of state queens the pope people like that he's giving a christmas message from the balcony of the ecuadorian. for the last six months and in fact this speech will mark his six month anniversary inside the ecuadorian embassy now the last time judy and i appeared in public it was back in august and they'd organize a kind of a rally around the embassy so speeches by politicians and other supportive as a kind of a con of the atmosphere with balloons and all that kind of thing and then he. and he made a couple of important points one of which was to urge the u.s.

to end what he calls the witch hunt against wiki leaks and he also called for the release of bradley manning who is of course being held. on trial in the u.s. accused of leaking classified documents to wiki leaks so those are two things that he may mention again when he talks later on thursday he also may talk about his most recent bids to run for the senate in the two thousand and thirteen australian federal elections he's made that announcement and he's said that wiki leaks is setting up a political party for which plans are significantly advanced and they have received significant support from notable australians he says that that party is designed to promote openness in government and politics and also to combat a growing intrusions on individual privacy one of the things i learnt during the interview that he gave me a couple of weeks ago was that julian assad is increasingly unwilling to talk about

his personal situation he prefers to stick to the wider issues and so that's why one of the things he may talk about would be the continuing blockade of wiki leaks by a visa master card and pay pal that's a case that's ongoing at the moment and also a possible further leak that he mentioned to me they're talking about leaking more documents in the new year watch this space he said yeah absolutely it will be a bring the highlights of what is going to so little bit later on after the speech has taken place tonight the battle for transparency is long been a struggle for wiki leaks with the ongoing investigation in the us alone block on donations by credit card companies too but a spokesperson for the whistle blowing web site kristinn hrafnsson told me the front center continue nonetheless. well we know about the ongoing. investigation the secret grand jury you know sundry in virginia there is. an ongoing attempt to

find an angle to bring charges against julian and possibly all those working for we believe as a very serious matter of course very shameful for the obama administration not to stop that for the man who was right even taken four years ago to increase transparency and what we have seen is totally the opposite which comes against whistleblowers. that has no first place in history it will continue to work as we have done despite the difficult situation that you has been in in the ecuador embassy you know for six months but problems with your house arrest that hasn't stopped us we have continued to work. the economic blockade has not stopped us either even though we are getting into a dire situation financially but that's a battle that we have decided to turn into all out war and i'm sure we'll have a victory there as well in the new year. coming up tonight about see with me kevin i would still time magazine name is barack obama person of the year for

a second time but critics say the u.s. president needs to take stronger action on issues such as gun control the very the focus in on the course we talked a bit more about that after the break. it's perched atop a jaw drop and the view from the tobolsk kremlin stretches as far as the eye can see. for a city that chilled all of siberia for centuries. it lost its economic importance even before it was bypassed by the chance i bear in railway but the ball's cremains a spiritual center. was scenes like these are a yearly occurrence thousands of orthodox worshippers give themselves implicit water to commemorate the baptism of jesus.

in the fifteen eighties the russians had only just conquered siberia taking it from the muslims. surrounded by enemies to ball supposed to be their stronghold constructed on top of the city but soon enough it became an economic hub siberian fire was the oil of its time bringing in a third of all russia's state revenue but the balls committed location help of the fence but the russians are the russian the crowds who led a revolt against the czar and eight hundred twenty five known as the decembrists will stand here and drove there they created a replica high society adopting the latest fashions as soon as they came out or at least once they made it from paris to siberia but the city also served up some bit of irony for the russian royal family after the bolshevik revolution. this is the office was nicholas the second spend most of the last year of his life his whole

family had been exiled here they lead a fairly comfortable existence this was a big house but they weren't allowed to see visitors or gartside themselves whilst leaving the ordinary normal countryside life style they even have. but within the year and his family would be dead. of human capability. struggling with a dream. to become first. for.

the u.k.'s reveal the staggering cost of its involvement in the war in afghanistan more than seventeen billion pounds and of course has been proposed withdraw its troops the defense secretary saying that final price could be around twenty billion pounds all this comes amid public spending cuts in britain an effort to try to reduce the country's budget deficit and his police report. seventeen billion pounds

the british government has just revealed that that's been the cost of the so far eleven year war in afghanistan now it was a very deal at the same time as a clear timetable was announced for troop withdrawal from the region we're going to have u.k. troops slashed by about a half by the end of next year down to five thousand two hundred and then another large chunks of troops are leaving by the end of twenty fourteen but it's those seventeen billion pounds that are being spent that have been spent on it for the war on top of the existing defense budget which means the estimates for the final price tag for the afghan war might be something around twenty billion pounds and of course the u.k. is going to keep sending money to afghanistan after twenty fourteen they're going to be sending something like seventeen million pounds for aid towards the afghan national security forces after twenty fourteen and this is all at the same time as the government announcing prolonged all series here at home that's going to

continue until at least twenty seven hundred twenty eighteen and the chancellor announcing that there's going to extra welfare cuts and an extra ten billion pounds slashed from the welfare budget along with cuts in every single other government department now i'm joined by john hillery who is the executive director of antipoverty charity more on point seventeen billion pounds down the line about money have been better spent elsewhere you could hardly really think of any worse way of spending the money as you say if you pointed out here in britain we're seeing enormous cuts to government spending and to the world for budgets about twenty five billion pounds in total which actually is almost the same as been spent in the war in afghanistan but in afghanistan itself the impact of the war has been disastrous defense spending can be just after this is seventeen billion pounds over and above the existing british defense but you even before the last thirty program it was clear that over seventy percent of people in. britain wanted the war to be

ended immediately or very very soon it's a completely unpopular war people in britain want to the troops out people in afghanistan also want the troops out and now we're being faced with these massive cuts on top of that people are really angry about the fact that the waters continue what the british people want this to try to destroy the horrible recklessly of the person which they've lived with for the last thirty years now already the defense secretary has said that parts of afghanistan where it's being under government control and so that means a lot more questions from the british taxpayers about the eleven years spent fighting the war and the twenty billion pound price tag for it. is due to walk free from prison earlier than expected a moscow court cut the jail term for the former tycoon and his business partner platon lebedev they've been serving time for oil theft of money laundering. and off reports. the present terms for the two goons were reduced due to

a change in the russian prison penal code sensually there's hundreds of thousands of russian businessmen are believed to be serving behind bars for various financial crimes as a result of the russian government had decided to soften somewhat its penal code when it comes to those financial crimes of course this case is no ordinary one it's one of the most high profile cases in recent years in russia back in the early two thousand the government had accused the two former yukos oil partners of tax evasion yukos was then the largest oil firm in the country it went bankrupt at the assets were taken over by ross snapped and this has prompted many in the west to. accuse the country of a politically motivated case these are charges that moscow of course denies now before the two men had finished serving their sentences in two thousand and ten a moscow court had given them fresh prison charges this time over accusations of money laundering as well as the charge of stealing more than thirty billion u.s. dollars worth of oil despite this had become somewhat of

a poster boy for the russian opposition which says that his continued imprisonment is evidence of the russian state's control over the judiciary despite all this of course that the thursday appeal hearing the court had ruled that the men will be able to walk free by two thousand and fourteen lebedeff will be able to go around august and is expected to be released by october. protest as a vote on the streets of. the. rising tension in recent days ahead of the deal which is expected to make say because we're on thirty nine billion euros people are frustrated with cuts to their health care and education as well as the government breaking its promise to raise. woodridge refusing to ask for aid from its neighbors. told me. could lead to the breakup of the euro zone. i think in the first year people would have understood it was just the agent don't

do doing it provided. you so much and everything into blamed for the first year you could actually bring the previous government but now you can be free from the boy that's the spanish bailout because they know that it's too big to bail out and if you really have to rescue me it's end of the euro seemless would be really risky and falsely. just plain time and we're still on the road to the bankruptcy court and eventually a breakup of the us a. lot of great stories on our website and i just skimmed through a couple of them for you here at r.t. dot com a violating a battle code reporting about a leading human rights watchdog saying israel broke the laws of war by targeting civilians and media garza during last month's military operation when i read about that we got a lot say about the call and also to better late than never the u.k. finally agrees to one of the british veterans of the arctic convoy they carried crucial supplies to russia during world war two recognition now we're reporting on

that. there's been a mixed reaction over time magazine's decision to name barack obama person of the year for a second time the u.s. president gave the award for becoming what they called the symbol an architect of the new america but the editors enthusiasm for the u.s. need is not shared by all americans many remain unconvinced by his actions including domestic matters such as gun control of course very in focus right now is going to teach you can reports. they're choosing president obama as the person of the year second time the first time they gave him the title right after the two thousand and eight election as to someone who had the most influence on global affairs although at that time he hadn't had the time to exercise all that influence but then president obama also received the nobel peace prize in two thousand and nine ers shortly after his election although i guess at that point he hadn't made much peace in the world the award was seen as much more of an advance credit then

and in a college meant to factual achievements on the peace front later president obama went on to spend credit sending more troops to afghanistan and carrying out regime change in libya under the or you will banner war for the sake of peace as far as his person of the year title critics argue president obama was time's choice by default their short list this year also included the gyptian leader mohamed morsi and the pakistani girl malala yousafzai who was shot by the taliban for advocating for women's education president obama may be the person of the year for the time magazine but for advocates of gun control in the u.s. he still has to earn that title president obama had a news conference where he was asked why no meaningful action has been taken on gun control in the last four years of his presidency although one of his campaign pledges was a ban on assault weapons he basically said he had lots of other things to do including waging two wars and quote it's not like i've been on vacation he said

those in the u.s. who suffered the numerous incidents of gun violence would probably not be satisfied with such an answer but the president pledged to finally take more active steps in the coming months he said the administration will come up with a more definitive proposal on gun control but people have heard those words before and nothing happened getting a semiautomatic weapon is not a problem in the u.s. adam lanza who killed twenty small children and. six adults at an elementary school last week fired from a semi-automatic bushmaster rifle it's a military style rifle a powerful weapon and its sales are on the rise in the u.s. in the last four years the market for such guns grew thirty percent i spoke to don't devour about this is not a recent journalistic some of the actions and policies of u.s. president speak louder than the words of the judges. time magazine's editors giving me giving him the award can only be you can only guess impute whatever motive

a have to them in terms of what he's actually done we have to look at his policies in terms of workers getting jobs nothing in terms of giving people who are in foreclosure relief not much in terms of peacemaking he started more wars than george bush and so you know we have to look at his policy rather than what some magazine who may be going to the f.c.c. or some other regulatory agency for relief for the many t.v. stations the time inc owns rather than that we need to look at his policies well go back to two thousand and eight when he was given supposedly because of the influence he had on international affairs and within four weeks of receiving that said he had no comment about israel's war on gaza that ended up killing fifteen hundred civilians it's pretty meaningless and the thing that's most revealing is they themselves pulled an electoral college over a popular vote scam when they said it's the editor's choice and not the people but the people voting for the president of north korea over the president united states

. so the nice top stories in brief fia's syrian rebels claim they've made significant advances saying they've seized as many as six times in the hama region the position forces also say that liberated a palestinian refugee camp in damascus and seizing it monday meanwhile the u.n. has launched a huge humanitarian effort by announcing a one and a half billion dollars aid package for refugees suffering from this twenty one month long conflict. egypt's top prosecutors are trying to monday's offered to resign as the country gives it to saturday second round of voting on the controversial constitution that it was public disorder after morsi sacked him last month one of his first year in fact i think on himself from the justice minister will now decide to prosecute his fate the country is divided over the constitution and opponents clearing the documents rushton the limited rights and creating an islamic state. prosecutors in italy demanding now a one year prison sentence for former prime minister silvio berlusconi the charges

relate to his alleged role in revealing transcripts of private conversations with a newspaper owned by. two thousand and five discussion between a leading italian politician and financial company president was apparently illegally scotti denies those charges it was moyers of course want to run in the verdict it would be a reason lectures in which the seventy six year old is running for prime minister once again. the un security council is demanding that israel holds its settlement plans in the occupied west bank in east jerusalem immediately the move to build housing in palestinian lands is seen as illegal under international law israeli media however are reporting now that more than three thousand extra homes have been approved in addition to the several thousand given the go ahead earlier this month paula slayer's the latest. israeli officials say that they're pressing on with plans to build six thousand new homes this defies criticism from western powers who

fear that the move will hamper an already famed hopes for a peace deal between israelis and palestinians you'll remember that it was just last month after the the fact a recognition of palestinian sovereignty at the united nations that is well made its new announcement in terms of settlement building it said that it would expand settlements in the occupied west bank as well as in east jerusalem and at that time there was international unquiet the point needs to be made that israel continues to build in i said defiance of international law and as well as of united nations resolution so many critics are pointing out that is also assertiveness with settlements is part of the reason why it's becoming increasingly isolated by its was felt partners primarily in europe but that's not to say that washington is also not losing patience the united states has said that it is deeply disappointed by israeli construction plans in an unpredictable sharp reaction the obama administration has softened the criticism of israel saying that these construction

plans run counter to peace the point also needs to be made that next month generally israel will be holding parliamentary elections which is why many are suggesting that these are nonsense by the prime minister netanyahu are a means of trying to garner up domestic support as well as change the reality on the ground one of the options that myth and you know and like minded people. creating a situation world by the number of certainly will be such a significant one that eventually the solution will be more or less let us get the big to the sixty seven borders and let the third list remain under the palestinian state rather than evacuate them to new areas which will be annexed to israel most of the international community see the settlement construction by tel aviv as illegal certainly the palestinians see it as a real obstacle to creating

a viable capital in east jerusalem policy r.t. tel aviv. has co-chair with the business so it's twenty eight minutes past ten. will be honored. on a course in that address also touch on business as well as what russia is going to have to address next year some key economic issues here one one of the issues of course is bringing the money back home and stopping massive capital outflow life is such a big star is that what we end the what we'll talk about in the business after a very short break. wealthy british style. that's not on the typewriter the money.

markets why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on. the eve of you. to meet. choose your language. of choice week over though in the financial front today still some of the. treatments the fumes the concerns get a. chance to the opinions of the typical.