an eleventh hour deal looks like it might fall through putting america back on the edge of the fiscal cliff. ireland assumes the six month presidency of the e.u. facing a wide range of issues from a challenging it european agenda to its own ailing finances. and it's in that with the new around the globe we digested the highlights of two thousand and twelve and look at the headlines that could have been if things had turned down just a bit differently.

and a lot from our brand new studios in moscow this is r.t. certainly glad to have you with us a last minute deal on the american fiscal cliff was passed by the senate in the final hours before the deadline but it has to go before the house of representatives now the original deal agreed to raise taxes on americans making more than four hundred fifty thousand dollars per year but the house has postponed of the vote indefinitely calling for more spending cuts lawrence freeman editor at the executive intelligence review magazine says nothing can save the u.s. economy from crashing over the fiscal cliff. and anyway this whole operation have been a manipulation. and a farce to work over the minds of the american population big with no nothing in the proposal that any way shape or form will actually help the economy what with being right now again with twenty seven the people unemployed and missing for

a year forty nine point seven million people live we already have handsomely people going to the bread line to get their food so this question of the big global economy and the wealth of the population is not good at all for nothing it's going to be resolved we're going to get aggressively to change the whole by means of with them so that with the eagle separation of the banks now will we need some of the debt that is with build here today or tomorrow obama is believes we nothing good for the american people. and now let's look at how two thousand and twelve on the whole unfolded for america last year was a success for barack obama who secured his second u.s. presidency our washington correspondent says he not only succeeded in snatching victory from arch rival mitt romney but also votes from the third party candidates as well. 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 that 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 the savior and then he went to save the banks save 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 four so this time president obama ran under the banner it could have been so much worse as you imagine it was not a banner or a national euphoria it was more like you have no choice but to choose me kind of something that shocked me. i was covering the election here it was it was the second debate between obama and romney i'm sure you remember if you remember that i

just presidential nominee from the green party joel stein was arrested right outside the venue where the debate was taking place she was protesting for exclusion from the state and nobody like no news channel period 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 presidential candidates get arrested all the time right well there was some irony in that 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. the end of the year victory overshadowed by the primary school shooting in connecticut it led the president to pledge an end to the

epidemic of gun violence artie's tom hartman takes a look at whether the land of the free is ready to loosen its grip on the right to carry a firearm my guess is what we're going to see is a cosmetic change we're going to see probably the or the assault weapons ban come back to be a fair number of loopholes in it but you know the u.s. is not going to end up going the way that's what's a longer 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 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 in politicians two thousand and twelve saw something of a rise of the machines as drone warfare shot into the headlines there killing of civilians abroad and use for keeping tabs on people inside the u.s. drew fire from abby martin the host of artie's breaking the set and she thinks things will get even worse in two thousand and thirteen. really when we're talking about drones actually a really serious topic because people are under this notion that drones are somehow precise they're the good way to fight the war on terror really they completely are counterintuitive they create in the harbor more terrorists they have a ninety eight percent failure rate i mean so why are we using and i mean it's just amazing to me that this president is rain on drones and taking on more and more drones and then not only that but i mean the surveillance drones are going to happen in this country in two thousand and thirteen congress passed a bill to now authorize surveillance drones all over the united states so this is

just not going to stop it's going to get worse decide from the from the deaths and the double tap drones that we have in the middle eastern countries now is going to create a chilling effect where people aren't going to want to dissent as much and that's the real problem with the online privacy the online erosion of our civil liberties as well as people are going to speak out as much if they feel like they're being watched and to just over two years ago ireland was bankrupt and being bailed out to rescue its failed economy on top of that it is now the country's turn to take on the next six months presidency of the european council as a lawyer smith reports the celtic tiger has some hard graft ahead of it. it's all changed by the e.u. presidency as all islands takes a six month rotating challenge on the first of january not the ovi a choice islands one of the pegs the countries that have the nice stable economies in europe and sure enough arlen's the first country to take hold in the presidency

of the twenty seven nation bloc while being propped up by i.m.f. money so for the next six months the e.u. and systemic problems will be presided over by one of its weakest and most problematic members so what specific challenges does face in europe over the six months of its presidency first the european economy is slowing flaws and the crisis is nowhere near over secondly it must preside over leaders actually agreeing to an e.u. budget for the years two thousand and fourteen to two thousand and twenty something they've spectacularly failed to do so in fall and thirdly there is a problem coming from right here in london increasing british opposition to brussels and the threat to european cohesion that poses the irish government expects the e.u. presidency to coast in excess of seventy million euros money the country can ill

afford and what will it be spent on twenty four million on catering accommodation and transport for example and another twenty million extra governments doth. robert oulds director of the bruges group says too much power concentrated in the hands of brussels could create a serious obstacle for that you member economies. 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 right 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 a volatile britain or spain or greece for that matter and that should really be

restored their economic problems will not be resolved until of course it's recognised that the euro the single currency is the wrong cover for these countries really we 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 our 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 investment advisor patrick young forecasts a gloomy future for the eurozone saying a survival of the euro would be miraculous. what's happened so far has been swinging cuts on the masses and we really haven't managed to make the world move to state impact upon the whole nation itself greece is still fundamentally in

a huge problematic situation those not will most likely how 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 of course then we're looking at the whole issue of the demonstrators are the governments listening well the truth is the government's counter afford to listen because what we're seeing within the european union even if the euro house 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 yama or indeed thirty years from mine yana simply does not work freedom of speech but not for the whistleblower. after the break parties correspondent over julian assange just challenges it throughout the year reports on what two thousand and twelve

meant for him. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images from world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations through. choose your language. kelly because we know if you're going to kill someone. she was going to consent. to use the degree to. choose the stories that impact the. truth. often.

and a lot from moscow this is our to have you back with us it has been a tough twelve months for the world's a top whistleblower joining a song spent half of two thousand and twelve under house arrest and the remainder in the ecuadorian embassy in london our correspondents our first has been following his ups and downs throughout the year a lot of people say wiki leaks in jail is like that mole in the u. of t. the media organizations have done decades we've really had a front seat view of everything that's been going oh we've had him at the beginning

of the year the fighting extradition to sweden we saw his the pill rejected we then saw that dramatic twist in the title when he went into the i could do it embassy seeking asylum we've been learning today in the songs it was certainly the british media we see a lot of them tell him quite viciously especially during the course of this year with these. events happening surrounding julian assange a lot of people would put that down plain and simply to jealousy. as the syrian conflict enters its twenty second month international envoy lakhdar brahimi says the crisis must be solved in two thousand and thirteen and wants his peace plan to help achieve that but as the new year rang in heavy clashes and the shelling were reported near the capital middle east expert pepe escobar believes that the will to stop the bloodshed should also come from outside syria very sad to say to everybody all over the world that the top geopolitical tragedy of two thousand and thirteen is going to be the top geopolitical tragedy of two thousand and eleven the

rape of syria the only possibility it would be that the opposition. in a syrian way this sides not to listen to the saudis the turks the qataris the americans the brits and the french and they sit down with the assad government and they will work out a transitional government or at least the rooms they should all period leading to free and fair elections is this going to happen not likely the recent conflict in gaza is in putting israel off planning even more settlements in the occupied palestinian territories that's despite saber rattling from hamas and fatah who are value to rearm and defend themselves by all means our middle east reporter policy outlines how this might affect the region's future. if you look at what's happening on the ground israel continues to announce a 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 status after united nations but you cannot detract from the fact that we still have palestinian faction groups hamas and fatah who always seem to me 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 fog let's hope that as tough as it will be the two sides will find a way to work together a happy new year and we follow with the recent news from the region violence has flared up again in the palestinian territory in the northern west bank several palestinians were reportedly injured when israeli security forces fired on them after the troops were pelted with stones and bottles the trouble erupted after the soldiers disguised as vegetable sellers apparently tried to seize operatives of a local jihadist group checkpoints and blockades have been set up in the area

follow our middle east correspondent updates on twitter just look for paula slayer our team. three days of mourning have been announced in the ivory coast where a stampede during new year's celebrations claimed the lives of over sixty people the tragedy occurred after the end of a fireworks show performed at the city stadium according to reports a large crowd are leaving this spectacle crushed into a mass of people outside causing the stampede. at least four people have been killed and dozens wounded after an explosion in a crowded area of pakistan's southern city police say the bomb was planted on a motorbike and detonated at the moment a political rally of the city's dominant party passed by no group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the liberal party but police suspect militants might have targeted the rally prior to upcoming general election. russian politics kremlin return for vladimir putin and a fresh anti-government protests in two thousand and twelve although in numbers

smaller than the year before arty's a political analyst watched developments in the heart of the rallies he told my colleagues kevin owen and an eastern hour earlier how he sees the protest mood 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 in the 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. 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 force actually like we have ideas but they didn't accomplish anything that i could see they have no organization no unifying ideas except for i don't like by the mere putin which is not a very it's not

a political agenda there were a few protests which i was at as well where it did seem like that was the method if you wanted to gain traction on the 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 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 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. peter lavelle has been dissecting russian and global politics in his cross talk series throughout the past twelve months and has plenty of editions of the show for to watch on the bat. iran chooses a new president in june mahmoud ahmadinejad has served his maximum two terms leaving the question of his successor unanswered the next president will have to tackle the tension with the west over tehran's nuclear program journalist afshin rattansi who's often shared his insights on iran with r.t. doesn't expect the new leader to bend to foreign will. i think we people of iran elects a foreign policy and 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 present in

a job as the mayor of tehran for 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 tone 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 and 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 let's now look at some other stories you can find on our website the vatican is ratcheting up its security a new card system implemented after last year's information breach scandal is dedicated to prevent any more. from occurring. research

has revealed that only fifty percent of signatures on memorabilia by the beatles and elvis presley are authentic to our website to find out which other celebrities have had their signatures for items for sale. two thousand and thirteen has made it in or around the globe with an array of fireworks performances and a cheering ground here in russia the new year officially kicked off with the traditional chime of the country's main clock and one of the kremlin's towers across the atlantic over a million spectators descended on new york's iconic times square to celebrate the event with the traditional drop of the crystal ball and one of the most spectacular

shows unveiled was in brazil where some two point five million revelers gathered on the famous copacabana beach there were mixed emotions regarding the year that has passed with some sad to see it end but many more hopeful that two thousand and thirteen will see better times. 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 on the war in syria claimed countless lives and a fiscal crisis saw 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 sees 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 as iran's nuclear. gunning to end game father u.s. rules to restrict firearms mideast peace israel links two state track to palestine . but yet this was their reality israel's assault on palestinian militants in gaza israel's anti-missile shield repelled the most attacks on its territory but

a strike claimed the lives of more than one hundred sixty palestinians many of them civilians despite hard. national community the war and israel's subsequent decision to construct three thousand new settlements effectively slammed the door shut to any prospect of peace people power moment you step aside and let democracy in. get lost get my notorious kuantan of my prison permanently shot. 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 with some regions now desperately wanting out more grow up in a europe that was divided from east to west going to europe that is divided from

the self 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 please. know we here for u.k. british quit european union. we found julian the soldier appointed 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 terrify 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 camera true democracy is the resistance of people with the truth against lies from tolerate to right here in london. every day ordinary people teach us that democracy is free speech and just sent. from heretics to hero american whistleblower bradley manning finally free. droning on memo nations agree to end iraq of remote controlled war. egypt's arab spring sees democracy defeat hardline islamist. the reality on the ground was anything but gyptian president mohamed morsi is foul 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 two thousand and twelve saw the arab

spring transform into an egyptian nightmare had the revolution to get rid of a tyrant the dictator. in the order to that we made elections and that evolution and elections to choose someone to the present us and turned out that this guy is also a tyrant himself and these headlines may have been the stuff of imagination but that sea of twenty thirteen can bring any of them to life with the coffin of r.t. moscow. well coming up we meet an orthodox priest who built a whole village for his adopted children all seven years that's after a break right here.

in this remote siberians in which people still sing the songs which russians sang in the middle ages and they cherish the nation to choose practiced by the will set up church before the seventeenth century the old believers here is sign here are a conservative community. the debate believe me there yet. but i doubt i'd have president that. was the people here are happy to show their way of life to tourists and teach them how to dance in the local star. the. seventeen year old is from the same village she now studies in the city and dances at a club. she puts on her costume and the traditional amber necklace only when she comes to visit her grandma.