it's in with the new around the globe with spectacular celebrations from australia to america we show you the highlights. looks at the legacy of the twenty twelve that could have been if things had turned out differently and explore some of the challenges the world might face in the coming months. and. deal looks set to put america on the edge of the fiscal cliff and tax hikes for millions of americans for a time at least. very

happy new year. well twenty thirteen has made it around the globe with an array of fireworks performances and cheering crowds as take a look at how the world has been partying new zealand was among the first to usher in twenty thirty crowds the harboring oakland joy the fireworks exploding over the city's sky tower australia joined the festivities almost two million people gathering to see the now standard jaw dropping fireworks from harbor bridge as the clock struck midnight here continued triumphant march through asia when one of the most spectacular shows on veiling in hong kong were count down to twenty thirteen commentated light extravaganza on the land and in the sky europe then picked up the holiday torch berlin hosting one of the world's largest open air parties at the brandenburg gate while the u.k. pulled out all the stops with

a mesmerizing fireworks display in the heart of the capital at the london eye and across the atlantic over a million spectators descended on york's times square to celebrate the event the traditional drop of the crystal ball. and here in russia the new year officially kicked off with the traditional chime of the country's main clock on one of the kremlin's towers revelers from across russia came to red square to watch the crowning moment of fireworks above the iconic sent battles could. well there were mixed emotions regarding the year that's passed some sad to see it end but many more hopeful that twenty thirteen will see better times. and often takes a look at the world that could have been. twenty twelve was certainly full of disappointing headlines hope fueled by the arab spring turned into the turmoil of the arab autumn and the war in syria claimed countless lives and the

fiscal crisis all the european union torn apart at its very seams and the problems facing our world today certainly don't offer themselves up to an easy fix what if things had turned out differently what if opportunities were actually the pawn instead of missed well here's our look at the twenty twelve headlines that could have been. diplomacy succeeds in syria ending bloody conflict. instead this was the image of syria the world saw increasingly violent clashes between government forces and the opposition had claimed more than forty thousand lives efforts to negotiate a diplomatic solution fell flat because divisions ripped apart both the country and the international community hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled to neighboring states where many have found conditions to be dismal meanwhile syria's war is threatening to spill over its borders as tensions escalate within and in the

region. have told me to try and sanction slashed. except. by the u.s. rules to restrict foreign. mideast peace of israel league two state park has promised on. it yet this was their reality israel's assault on palestinian militants in gaza israel's anti-missile shield repelled most attacks on its territory but a strike claimed the lives of more than one hundred sixty palestinians many of them civilians just plain harsh condemnation from many in the international community the war and israel's subsequent decision to construct three thousand new settlements effectively slammed the door shut to any prospects of peace go through people power moment use. step aside and let democracy in. get lost get my notorious kuantan in my prison permanently shocked euro zone cuts the cuts and lifts

austerity. but the news of austerity only tightened as deep public sector cuts brought thousands of angry demonstrators to the streets of greece spain italy and portugal. the worst economic crisis of a generation has battered the european union's very foundations exacerbating tensions between member states but some regions now desperately wanting out i grew up in a europe that was divided from east to west living in a europe that is divided from old to south and never at any point in the history of this union has there been more discord of rank that we covered. corporate cash banned from the campaign coffers as part of the us political. know here for u.k. british quit european union. we found a julie in the solyndra pointed un free speech and. instead a song remains a political refugee at ecuador's london embassy where he's been granted asylum he

continues to fight extradition to sweden over alleged sex crimes charges that he says are politically motivated and tied to his work in leaking international government secrets. the power of people speaking up and resisting together terrifies corrupt democratic power so much so that ordinary people here in the west and the enemy of governments an enemy to be watched and enemy to be can for all and to be impoverished true democracy is not the white house true democracy is not a true democracy is the resistance of people with the truth against flies from right here in london. everyday ordinary people teach us that democracy is free speech and dissent. from heretics to hero american whistleblower bradley manning finally free. droning on the nations agree to end iraq of remote control.

egypt's arab spring sees democracy defeat hardline islamist. the reality on the ground was anything but egyptian president mohamed morsi is fouled like power grab unleashed fury and frenzied street battles and a fast track to constitutional overhaul referendum left a bitter opposition eager for change for them twenty twelve saw the arab spring transformed into an egyptian nightmare had the revolution to get rid of a tyrant. in order to that we made elections the revolution and elections to choose someone to the present us turned out that this guy is also a tyrant himself and he has had lines may have been the stuff of imagination but that's the of twenty thirteen can bring any of them to life. r.t. moscow. or celebrations on capitol hill were delayed as lawmakers use the early

hours of twenty thirty to strike a crucial deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff the senate eventually agreed to hold the proposed tax hike which would have affected a virtually every american worker with a deal still has to go before the house of representatives later on tuesday economics expert max kaiser told us that it's still too early to pop the champagne . some people call him the crazy kaiser mr max joining us the good to see you max i mean two thousand to two thousand and thirteen a big happy new year to you there it's a rule we kept and a nice a here you know you never tell you what made you always go for the juggler with all the guests you have on the cars report is there anyone at this point you already are eyeing up with two thousand and thirteen any dictums in the future absolutely we're going after jamie diamond i don't think kraft ready for. we're going to find him we're going to jail i'm a lot of the banks that are compadres this is the year we see pranksters in jail

iceland is already putting pranksters in jail now the rest of the world's going to stop putting pranksters in jail the disco clip is just more theater from bankers and politicians trying to distract people from the underlying root to task for payback is a bunch of bankers who are manipulating the system day in and day out destroying the economy this fiscal cliff is just more drama more theater and it doesn't really focus on the true underlying problems and we're going to see more of this going forward in two thousand and thirteen anything good bye flecked attention from the mobs with their pitchforks and their torches they were coming after these people they want to just delay that day of reckoning for as many months as they can but that day's reckoning in twenty eight it's coming. now there was one common new year wish among europeans that their leaders might ease up on the cuts. the government's listening for the truth is the

government can't afford to listen to one of our economic contributors says countries are still heading down the wrong path he explains why. well it's been a tough twelve months for the world's top whistleblower. spent half of twenty twelve under house arrest and remained in the ecuadorian embassy in london where correspondent sara firth has been following his ups and downs through the year a lot of you say we did more in a year old media organizations decades we've really had front of everything that's been going on we've had him at the beginning of the year. and we saw his the pill rejected we then saw that dramatic twist in the tell when he went into the i could do it and. we. certainly the british media we see a lot of them turned on him quite viciously especially during the course of this

year with the. events happening surrounding. a lot of people would put that down payment simply to jealousy. first year was a success for barack obama who secured his second u.s. presidency and washington correspondent says he not only succeeded in snatching victory from mitt romney but also votes from the third party candidates. there were cheers of relief here when he won i would say because the alternative was thought to be so much worse many voted out of fear that romney could win for them he was another george w. bush so whether americans have fallen out of love with obama the two thousand and eight euphoria was gone that's for sure back then there were these crowds you know in the streets all across the country shedding tears of joy so bad in their view where the eight years of bush presidency obama was we get this savior and then he went and saved the banks saved the auto industry something he took a special pride in during the election campaign but across the country people

remained out of work and are still out of work so this time president obama ran under the banner it could have been so much worse as you imagine it was not a banner for the national euphoria it was more like you have no choice but to choose me kind of something that shocked me while i was covering the election here it was it was the second debate between obama and romney i'm sure you'll remember if you remember that i just presidential nominee from the green party jule styne was arrested right outside the venue where the debate was taking place she was protesting for exclusion from that is a nobody like no news channel here mentioned her arrest none and i was switching channels for hours to see if anything was said about that and it was nothing i can imagine what the reaction would be here in the states if a presidential candidate is the other big country was arrested in the media there wouldn't even mention it but apparently it happens in the u.s. no big deal president kennedy's get arrested all the time right well there was some

irony and yes anyway during the election campaign the mainstream media had been focused on nothing else and no one else but these two candidates and we are t.v. as you remember of course saw the is saw an opportunity there to show what others don't and we hosted the debate. well the end of the if so will barack obama's victory overshadowed by the primary school shooting in connecticut and that the president to pledge and then the to the epidemic of gun violence tom hartman takes a look at whether the under the free he's ready to loosen its grip on the right to carry a firearm my guess is what we're going to see is cosmetic change we're going to see probably the or the assault weapons ban come back they'll be a fair number of loopholes in it but you know the u.s. is not going to end up going the way that switzerland or israel have done or many most european countries have done australia when john howard was president one thousand nine hundred eight when there was a mass slaughter and then they said ok that's it we're going to buy back all the

guns and it's not going to happen here there's just too much money being made with guns insane supreme court or at least five right wing crazies out of the nine on the supreme court decided that even though the second amendment says in order to maintain a well regulated militia necessary for the for the security of a free state the right to you know you people have the right to own guns that's half of it the other half of it is that the supreme court also said that corporations interest groups lobbying groups billionaires can throw unlimited amounts of money and politicians. well there's soul searching among the russian opposition over why the protest mood in the country lost steam in the past year and a few minutes time ati's people about why fewer people took part in anti-government rallies in total twelve bussy examines the activists actually are. full so they'll be a change of leadership in iran in twenty thirty but what will that mean for the west that's just ahead.

he survived war atrocities. to make a final decision. has changed his life and the world around him. by giving up. hope. and love to so many children. nikolai the american worker on r.t. .

welcome back here with r.t. russian politics or a kremlin return for the putin and fresh anti-government protests in twenty twelve lower numbers smaller than the year before political analyst watch developments in the heart of the rallies he told my colleagues kevin owen and then they saw no way how he sees the protest movement in russia panning out. i would say it's kind of bleak but not hopeless ok we didn't come up with any new ideas new organization new faces and if pussy riot is that we are of the opposition that's pretty dreadful

situation for the russian people and political development in general here and there was political change in this country in a positive change who does make up the opposition as we head into the it's a very interesting question because i have gone to most of the major demonstrations and there were people there of goodwill in my opinion but then there were fascists there ok who were communists there and then there are people there ok and it's your right to demonstrate i also for actually like the idea but they didn't accomplish anything that i could see they have no organization no unifying ideas except for i don't like but a mere putin which is not a very it's not a political agenda there were a few protests which i was out as well where it did seem like that was the method if you wanted to gain traction on this opposition movement do you see people coming out and take the train lost a lot of its novelty effect right now ok because political change takes years in the years and years that have to be local this is what happens in political changes

with countries that were what they were carrying at one time it takes a long time to get people involved in the process and that is happening very very strongly there's some people who want to really fast and they don't want to do it through elections they want power because they want power because they believe they deserve it and what about the fact that we're not going to see any presidential elections of course that all led up to being elected a third term this protest and now they're kind of when i'm down now i would say to people i mean if you want to continue to protest fine but you know join a political party there are forty four of them now you have a choice ok get involved see one of the things i saw with a lot of the protesters is that they want someone else to do all the hard work ok they want to go out and wave a flag and say you know give out a slogan we don't want to do the hard nitty gritty work of political change and that's what they need to do. well peter has been the sec ting a russian in global politics in his cross talk series throughout the past twelve months and r.t.

dot com i spent two of editions of the show for you to watch on demand. europeans have a year of fairly uncompromising cuts to contend with which already saw plenty of street protests in the past year with servicing their own debt and unemployment is one thing but investment advisor patrick young says none of it is enough to repair the country which remains the biggest headache what's happened so far has been so when engine cuts on the masses and we really haven't managed to make the wrong motives that impact upon the whole nation itself greece is still fundamentally in a huge problematic situation it goes not remotely have a functioning government system that fiscally is going to manage to organize itself in any which way possible to manage to get through the continuing swinge cuts that need to take place out of course then we're looking at the whole issue of the

demonstrators are the governments listening well the truth is the governments can't afford to listen because what we're seeing within the european union even if the euro has survived miraculously for twelve months government has run out of money the european union's western socialist model of spending huge amounts of money borrowing even greater amounts of money and hoping to pay everything manyara or indeed thirty years from manion or simply does not work. well just over two years ago ireland was bankrupt and being bailed out to rescue its failed economy on top of that it's now the country's turn to take on the next six month presidency of the european council well for more on the presidency in the e.u. we're joined by robert auld director of the bruise group which analyzes european affairs thanks for joining us here on r.t. how much faith will other e.u. nations have in ireland's decision making do you think given its reputation for not being able to sort itself out. well arland has enormous challenges of itself and

its own economic problems which will continue and the i.m.f. has warned there austerity drive may actually be hurting the situation even more might need to be slackened instead of this hard cuts and tax rises which will further hurt the irish economy to course to deal with enormous deficit but of course one of the key challenges facing many countries in europe is of course the economic difficulties and ireland is of course rigidly sticking to the austerity drive which the european union wants which it mandating arlan to do it's effectively running its budget policies in many different areas amount of money that it can do it can spend to deal with the deficit but of course the problem itself in europe is of course austerity and that's hurting it creating a lot of unemployment it's creating a very severe recession so arlen's medicine that they're taking and partly suffering from but they're getting on with it isn't really vital for the rest of

europe so if they're going to be driving forward the agenda in the european union for the next six months that's not the. economic problems and indeed ireland is one of the most problematic as you say of the troubled states and has not got enough to deal with without holding the e.u. presidency as well at this stage. well yes it does have a great deal of challenges in the you of course the budget situation in europe in the european union isn't sorted out yet the whole situation regarding britain's membership is coming to the fore britain of course maybe will be having a referendum at some point on britain's terms of membership all these issues need to be discussed and agreed in the forthcoming year and so on and the taking on the presidency for the first six months has a key role to play but of course they've got their own challenges to face and it's a very difficult task now the presidency of the european union has in some ways been downgraded in terms of the influence it has because now the council of view of

the european heads of state the council of ministers have their own. poi's as the president and fall in the foreign affairs is run by the high representative but of course arland must still be driving forward the agenda but of course they've got their own difficulties and they don't issues they need to face. the problems of ok what is too great right well let me ask you this this coming year twenty thirty in the east has come up with something called the european year of citizens to essentially highlight the rights people have because they're in the e.u. what do you make of that. well one of the key what people should have is a via to elect their own governments and for that to actually make a real difference but of course with the european union power has become too centralized amongst the institutions in brussels and that just takes away power from ordinary citizens so the european union can tell us why it's that we have but

of course we don't actually have the vite to make a real difference elections because far too many decisions now are made at the supranational level made decisions being made in brussels away from the citizens whether they be the citizens of britain or spain or greece for that matter ok but where will you be restored but were there any success stories in twenty twelve must have been something i mean after all the countries predicted to have collapsed by now are still surviving well course unemployment continues to go up and that for the states within the euro zone that's very alarming and that their economic problems will not be resolved until of course it's recognize that the euro the single currency is the cover for these countries really need to have a back of powers away from brussels to all the different member states and of course britain should of course have its own referendum on their membership as well and have their own say but it needs to be recognised that the european union is of

course failing economically so it still is still there it still exists but the price of people are paying is of course no economic growth and of course massively high unemployment which is now reaching alarming proportions for many different eurozone states or leave it there robert oulds director of the bridge group thank you for joining us here on r.t. . well iran chooses a new president in june but has served his maximum two terms and there's little clue as to who will replace him to tackle the almost inexorable tension with the west of the terrence nuclear ambitions with journalist afshin rattansi who's often share his insights on iran without it he doesn't expect the new leader to bend to foreign will. i think whoever we people of iran elect policy foreign policy terms things are going to be much the same people are already talking about the mayor of tehran at the moment i was in a job himself president ahmadinejad was the mayor of tehran the new mayor of tehran

ghalibaf and people are talking about him. perhaps winning in june because it's too early and is notoriously difficult to predict iranian elections as to whether they will be as hardline and again the terms in the terminology of western corporate media on this are bizarre and they just get islamic extremists in all sorts of different morning because the point is iran is there to stay in terms of forging a very different type of developing nation economy because it has all that oil and has all those resources and it's not going to suddenly start changing things the way the i.m.f. or the way that washington wants it to be. what iran's nuclear plans are and the power switch to dominate headlines coming out of the middle east this year online we've got expert opinion on the. market to be shaping how the rest of the region is for machines. from iran to israel to the palestinians all that.

also photo finish for twenty twelve we've lined up a gallery of eye catching snapshots of stories that captured worldwide attention in the past year. the recent conflict in gaza isn't putting israel off planning even more settlements in occupied palestinian territories despite saber rattling from hamas and fatah who are vowing to rearm and defend themselves by all means a middle east reporter paullus their outlines how this might affect the region's future. if you look at what's happening on the ground israel continues to announce

settlement construction and the palestinians continue to say that for as long as these announcements continue they will be no resumption of peace talks it wasn't so long ago that the palestinians were awarded upgraded state has actually united nations but you cannot detract from the fact that we still have palestinian faction groups hamas and fatah who always seem to be at each other's throats in less than a month the israelis will go to the polls and by all predictions they will reelect the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu for another term of office and it doesn't seem as if he has an olive branch so certainly the prognosis for any kind of peace moves is far let's hope that as tough as it will be the two sides will find a way to work together happy new year for the slayer there well more world news for you this hour. at least sixty people including children have been trampled to death at a stadium in the ivory coast around two hundred more are reported injured a stampede happened as crowds gathered to watch

a new year fireworks show. and tens of thousands of people have marched for greater democracy and the resignation of hong kong's top political leader. has faced a fall in popularity and a no confidence vote against him since he came to power six months ago he was elected by beijing that committee of twelve hundred people. but a few minutes we meet an orthodox priest who built an entire village for his adopted children all seventy of them myself the breaker enough to stay with us. you just love me enough you know is that.