to teach creation why you should care about humans and. this is why you should care only dot com. you're watching our take tonight ukraine seeks clarification from the e.u. the european commission says trade deal talks with the country are on hold all this amid nonstop anti-government protests in the capital that are being cheered on by western politicians will bring you the latest also this week a massacre reported in syria with rebel forces said to have killed dozens of civilians in the latest of a series of atrocities and the. island shakes off the baler blues after breaking free of the e.u.'s aid program but the government warns that doesn't mean an end to austerity. also russia says it doesn't want to dominate the world but will stand firm in defending its values president putin delivers his annual state of the nation address.

all over again even if you just joined us just after ten pm now you're moscow my name's kevin zero in this is the weekly roundup of the top stories of the last seven days and first ukraine is seeking official confirmation that the u.s. frozen all work on a trade association deal tonight it was after a tweet was posted by the you commissioner for enlargement saying kids expectations are unrealistic. reports. we have a statement by one of the european officials who is responsible for the enlargement of the european union particularly doing eastern directories of the staff and. more thought here is that there is still a cow that i called the words in the deeds of the president's government regarding association agreement with the union of a further and further apart the arguments of all those grounds reality with. mr if you will also why don't. say that several

days ago in brussels when he was meeting a delegation of ukraine's government here that warned that any further discussion about the association deal is conditioned by the crate to sign the deal i did not know the wording of the signing this deal has been put on hold because the grave had no answer to that of this latest statement by the european official also puts huge pressure on the coverage because he has been saying all along continuously during press corps is that we as with the european officials and the opposition that israel would not step down from your integration. he was fully expecting to sign of the same deal in the year is the future meanwhile the protests are. everywhere across the brain more than definitely more than one hundred thousand people are now in the central square of the capital and we're watching the situation to see how the latest date with the european officials wake up may or may not and the protest is even more. diplomatic sources are citing money matters is

the reason behind the alleged deeper spokesman kevin spin saying the very start of the country's failing economy couldn't handle the deal being offered by brussels not to mention the modernization requested by the e.u. which would also cost billions of dollars. well though these are the scenes that we're seeing today the and also plenty government runs have been gaining momentum in central kiev that's that you see there on your screen while or over here tens of thousands also took to the streets this weekend to support president in a covert to release and indeed just a few hundred meters apart as to drugs on the mccurry sees a legal expert and blogger who joins me now live from london xander thanks taking the time to be with us hi there diplomatic sources saying that she cranes financial demands of the derailing this agreement surely there's more to it than that though no. well i have i think there are actually i mean the point to say about this is an agreement is that what it effectively does is it it severs the ukraine's economically with russia ukraine it makes the ukraine part of the european single

market in a way that is incompatible with its existing as trade agreements with russia on the seventeenth of december the ukraine is going to make a whole set of new agreements with russia new trade agreements which are incompatible with the association agreement the europeans realize now that that isn't going to be stopped and so they've realized reluctantly that this can't go forward so what's happened so much so in the last three days mostly just three days ago wasn't that the european parliament adopted a resolution saying the you should use all means possible to boost ties with ukraine yet we're now seeing this complete u. turn what's changed. well as i said i think this is changed first of all misty on a covert sean thursday made absolutely clear for essentially that this is so c.h. an agreement is simply not viable i mean he even said that the negotiators who negotiated it should be sacked mr azhar off of the pro-government rally yesterday

said that said essentially the same thing that it would destroy the ukraine's economy to press ahead with it on tuesday as i said the ukraine is going to do you do all kinds of economic deals with russia these are completely contradictory to the association agreement that is on the table the ukrainians effort tripartite negotiations with the europeans to sort this out with them and with the russians together in the same room perhaps unwisely the europeans said no and how they're faced with a situation where following the agreements that the ukraine is going to make on tuesday this thing simply will not fly and i think they've come to that the reluctant realisation that this is so is it making life uneasy for president yet a covert sleeping soundly know that the decisions seem to be made by the you well possibly not i have to say though that in some ways i think this clears the air

because we have this issue of a possible association agreement hanging hanging around realistically it wasn't going to solve the very severe economic problems that the ukraine has in fact is it would have made them worse now what about those reports last week where we heard that janak overture was talking about still looking at some sort of agreement with the e.u. or where did all that go. well i do think it goes anywhere actually i think misty on a covert she's doing all of this because just a few weeks ago he was telling everybody that this is only a suspension and that this is the right thing for the ukraine and he's a politician and he has to find some face saving way of getting out of the situation which he's created for himself but realistically he has to deal with the russians he's doing that on tuesday it's inconsistent with the association

agreement as it stands and i think everybody's gradually coming round to recognizing what about the two hundred thousand protesters out of the streets who are pro the you would have begun to do next well that's a very good question in a sense they've been demonstrating now for several weeks that they're not changing the situation on the ground they there was an attempt made about ten days ago to bring the two to get a vote in the parliament to bring the government down that failed i gather they're going to try that again on tuesday but it seems unlikely that's going to succeed so in the light it's probably the best thing for them to do would be to concentrate on the elections that are going to happen in february two thousand and fifteen. he's going to be very difficult for the opposition i think to tell all the all of these people to disengage and go home but realistically. that may be what they will

have at some point to do ok thank you for your time for a few thoughts i'm kind of a chorus legal expert you are going along with us there thank you thank you. as folks in mexico syria they are the government forces are fighting to reclaim the town of drone near damascus and said to be the scene of a massacre this week earlier by al qaeda linked militants our sister channel r.t.r. a big fall this report. r t sources in the military say radical islamist fighters and toured the town of address and massacred local civilians according to the latest figures at least eighty people were killed in the districts which the syrian army has now liberated entire families were killed other families were kidnapped and are being used as human shields in the battle against government forces. that are out. militants from jabhat al nusra and the

army of his lawyers seize control of all the streets and cross roads very quickly. to positions on the route of how it is they carried out the massacre the first reports said twenty had been killed but they received outdated figures it's a horrifying situation or a scene of murder atrocities and clear r t sources in the military also say that some of the kidnapped families have been transferred to areas south of the town they're now being held in strategically important zones which the rebels have been using as a base of operations in these places are heavily fortified sources also say the total death toll in an address may in fact increase because the syrian army has not yet liberated the entire town. meantime western officials reportedly considering direct negotiations with jihadist forces specific political analyst told us these misread likely to embrace diplomacy. they clearly say that democracy isn't part of

their chip objectives actually it's something bad because it is some sort of framework as they describe it for multiple beliefs and face and whatever it is to live with each other and that is pretty much contradictory to their idea of islam which is you know the main or the only true religion and so on and so forth and that is definitely not going to be permissible you know anyone who opposes them in the areas that they control the can easily take them and cut their head off under the the accusation of blasphemy and what they want is for others to for you follow through rather than to have what they feel is a meaningless political game really that in their own point of view would only allow what they call the regime to survive. this as the u.k. based syrian observatory for human rights is reporting that at least twenty two people have been killed in the airstrikes in the syrian city of aleppo fourteen of the victims are said to be children stay with r.t.

for the latest updates from the war zone and get also more insight online of course at r.t. doc. island is finally ready to financially go it alone partly having managed to become the first state to work itself free of rescue loans this milestone is expected to dominate the irish prime minister's televised address later on sunday if you're as time test for similar reports from dublin. people know that in that decision they endured three years of very very deep you had salaries going down and you had their benefits of being slashed a lot of deep spending cuts so what the government really is trying to do is say that this today is symbolically stepping out of what they call the shackles of the kreutzer hoping that this will really give that morale boost to the people whoever they are there is no illusion here that there are still high unemployment that have to be tackled as well as them very high number of people skilled young workers leaving the country moving to countries like australia or canada to pursue better

opportunities some of the businesses here construction businesses starting over again here in dublin however when you go just one hour out of the capital the story is really different than has come through the worst of the crisis but we shouldn't underestimate the size of the crisis it faced because of the enormous holes in the banking sector which in turn resulted from very cavalier lending by the banking system irish state citizens and taxpayers have had to pick up the bill for the mess the banking system was in the government already said that austerity policies are actually going to be continuing so if this is to be seen as a success it's going to be a psychological or moral do sting success in terms of exiting again more closely monitoring of the troika economically there's still a long long way to go for our loan to really be calling itself a success. ahead a protest about protests.

rally in spain turning ugly during a campaign against possible restrictions on authorized demonstrations which been labeled an attack on democracy we follow that up plus to elsewhere in spain it's a matter of save cavers a keep minutes see living in a hollow hills of in order to get out by the authorities but those settlers refusing to cave in we got this story to. russia's president made it clear he's ready to defend traditional values in his state of the nation address this past week the theme of putin also said the country doesn't aspire to be a superpower or to lecture others on how to conduct their affairs but is ready to defend itself whenever necessary you go piskun off ports it's traditionally become the place to be to find out the president's vision of the present and his plans for the future every year russia's top politicians businessmen economists and elites gather at the kremlin to listen to his address first had just returned from there as well and here are some of the key points why the world had to meet russia isn't

looking at dominating the rule but that doesn't mean it has to stop protecting its sovereignty and traditional values. we know that there are even more people around the globe who support our position in terms of ensuring traditional values these are the values of traditional family and the value of human life including religious life that is not only material life but also spiritual of course this is a conservative position but the point of conservatism is not that it hinders the movement forward and upward but that it precludes the movement backwards downwards back towards chaos and a barbaric state. diplomacy was another point in the president's speech more specifically recent breakthroughs with syrian chemical weapons and the rein in nuclear programming many analysts agree these are examples that diplomacy still works by the time when russia. suggested. the process of chemical disarmament stars in syria. very few countries in the world were keen to

support the so-called obama option which would have been yet another bombing of yet another country so i think this is a very important lesson. of crisis of this type should the sole u.s. plans to build an anti missile defense system in europe one of the biggest sticking points in moscow's relationship with washington was of course also talked about the president's message was simple without a threat from iran what's the point of building it moscow does see the shield as a threat to its national security and putin says powering up russia's military is one of the ways to protect against it. you know when you look at what you do see unless it was more sinister that it's no country should harbor illusions of achieving military dominance over russia we will never let it happen russia is ready to meet those challenges both political and technological we've got all the potential needed we our military doctrine as well as our military equipment allow

us without any doubt to ensure russia's security finally it referring to the current situation in ukraine putin said moscow respects the desire of those partners who want to be closer to the e.u. as long as decisions aren't made by hotheads and are based on dialogue you've got to get off r.t. moscow. south africa's looking to the future is now some of those laid to rest but some modern songs to show later in the program hear their fears the tension of the sophists is about to boil over. so you don't know if you're confident that the irish people won't be asking it down to step in you got to tell what the what the private banks of any costs will start after hopkins whether that be funny now economically what always happens as regulators central bankers politicians they say this will never ever happen again

and it keeps on company but we have to ensure is that if this does company can it doesn't cause such a classic please make an awful cost for tots. right to see. first street. and i think you're. on a reporter's twitter. instagram. mandela's been laid to rest of his own home after ten days of international mourning for the

iconic leader has gone down in history as the man of course who vanquished apartheid and bridged racial and ethnic divides but with mandela's passing some africans fear the ghosts of the past may return policy reports. don't lean software fijian south africa from the congo because of one man nelson. mandela causes the one while out of the do nothing. came but now he's gone and only means afraid she and other foreigners like her will be kicked out i think that they will just well thought i was because they don't one foot in the air they are complaining that it's put in the attic in their jobs millions of africans have fled their troubled countries in search of a better life in south africa but more often than not they've swapped one harbor for another with no money work or prospects a handful have made this place a methodist church in downtown johannesburg home if you're

a green or you for your german or if you're fringe and you come into this country you weren't to experience what experienced here one of the things apart it did for instance was that it divorced us from the rest of africa where failed is struggling to support his wife and five children in a brutal attack she was beaten so badly she miscarried he was left for dead the crime being foreigners in a strange land i think we could we have. a right to life i think i should put. that lead to work in south africa prejudices run deep not only are african foreigners accused of taking jobs away from locals they're also held responsible for accelerating crime so they could do is doing the film or they're going to do the work to do in britain. where we have to deal with somebody

going home though is not an option political instability acute poverty and violence awaits them. for twelve long months has been too afraid to step foot outside this church and now with mandela gone she's more free than ever to says something about the flawed another but now is not no one will talk about the flooding this as night falls the stores close providing refuge to people seeking sanctuary in a country that doesn't want them here r.t. johannesburg south africa. the russian venture of. who has six round the world trips under his belt marks his birthday in his own unique style we're talking about that soon setting off a solo trip across the pacific ocean in a small rowing boat when we double that r.c. dot com is going to during launch voyage there are cameras there to capture it also online to google's snapped up a firm providing a four legged research robot for the pentagon. this kept the reasons why under

wraps you might think is a strange move arty dotcoms got more on the breakthrough technology anywhere on our website you can read up more about that. thousands of staged violent protests to madrid venting their fury over a draft law that could have forced tough action against some sanctioned rallies. where two dozen people were injured seven arrested were angry crowds attempted to surround the spanish parliament and activists condemned the proposal which would suppose hefty fines for offenses such as burning the national flag color tackle democracy bills likely to pass into law though with strong support from the conservatives who hold the majority in the legislature activist store asparagus says the protesters need to show the not ready to give up without a fight here see here is there is a new c.e.o. this is only the beginning we need a lot of efforts to stop the terrorists who don't want this year to end without at least starting to demonstrate against a strong. and yes this is only the beginning because it will take some months for

the law to be considered and adopted yes it will hopefully achieve what we want that it's not the last time we need more people as. this protest was mostly spontaneous we want to make our voices heard now we wanted to feel it and always wanted imus and we don't be able to shut us up and we aren't about. what is southern spain meantime a cave dwelling community is also standing its ground when talking with them this week hundreds of activists formed a human barricade to resist being forcibly moved from their residence say the government was the most to make way for a luxury resort you know when to meet these defiant settlers. hammering out an existence on the outskirts of granada sprucing up a front yard with some of the best views in town it's an eclectic community that's literally burrowed into a mountain the residents of the hill of san miguel have converted dozens of caves into bona fide homes. we've been living here for two years not and do not

a wood community it's the kind of place when neighbors helped each other out. it may not be a life of luxury there's no running water or electricity but for residents like anna that's not a problem when it does that to live long enough lay their eggs that we've done nothing for them don't cover everything here. but those who have made their home here may have their days are numbered although they've lived here for years now the city council has been fighting to get them off the land. these are improper houses and it is a residential area of the city that the caves aren't safe for any humans to live and that they could collapse at any moment. it's an argument this resident simply doesn't buy one tony opara has lived on the hill of san miguel for more than eight years he believes the city is over exaggerating the dangers in order to help

developers get their hands on the land actually one of the united fans here and that's why houses because he's already. i mean i think of it said with the arcs to protect the roof. they need to be done even in a venue and he's willing to do everything to keep on living here and have for a. big study to. give me the city council wants to clean up the hill years ago developers announced plans to turn this area into a tourist attraction and we think that's what's really behind their vision. for now only eight caves are facing the risk of eviction burma is one of the residents who could lose her home she too suspects and i'll tear your motive that would be like giving up the city council wants to shut down the kings but they don't want to do you them down that's why we think they really just want to. the land to use it for

their own purposes another concern cited by the officials is sanitation the caves they say are dirty and the area has been described as a slum that sits above the city we made a very clean not so faith in residence the city council isn't likely to abandon its plans to help the residents but for the people living in the caves of san miguel giving up is simply not an option reporting or not a space and for our team captain of thanks for being with us tonight coming off the break the irish minister in charge of ties with europe tells our team what his country's going to last since joining the e.u. four decades ago. in just a minute. just

imagine a foreign leaders like alexander lukashenko or vladimir putin just showed up at anti e.u. protests and all garia greece are hungry to urge people to leave the e.u. and join up with the eurasian customs union obviously the big stream media would be on fire screaming that this is part of an attempt to usurp democracy and steal the country's away some sort of imperialist agenda and you know what they might be right about that but the weird thing is that for some reason the mainstream media isn't talking about foreign politicians speaking to and or possibly agitating protesters in ukraine like speaker of the lithuanian parliament loreto grows in india and e.u. vice president got sick put to sea of each and former polish pm jaroslav kaczynski yeah the european union brassfield is just fine for their politicians to go to foreign countries and fire up protestors to start a pro e.u. revolution but then all their journalist write about is how russia is trying to put pressure on ukraine to not join the e.u. the obvious hypocrisy of this stay. all the way up to the boss scale but that's

just my opinion. hello and welcome to worlds apart this year marks fortune years since arlen joined the european union but you don't see much celeb rationed here and that may be due to the fact that few have paid a higher price for this integration than the arash people each one of whom already contributed almost nine thousand tourists in taxes to effectively saved are the euro was that worth it while to discuss that i'm knowledge oin by the countries minister for european affairs pascal donahue mr donahue thank you very much for your time i know that when arlen was celebrating the thirty if thirtieth

anniversary of joining the euro there was this whole program of exhibitions and conferences to solve very they're cation but we don't see. that level of celebration this time around and i wonder whether it is due to all this perhaps it reflects maybe a broader more skeptical reassessment of joining the e.u. well the main reason for the change in diet mood is the scale of the economic crisis that audience health insurers over the last five years. we have gone through a period in which our economy went through a very sharp decline we saw on employment go up do we how to deal with a very very difficult. crisis within our banking system. and because of all of dos it's understandable that people are not really at the mood to celebrate anything. because of the difficulty that many people feel.

we are seeing for the first time now in five years some signs that the scale of difficulty is coming to an end we're seeing our private sector create jobs for the first time now since two thousand and eight and our economy is now on the third year of grote. hope if you were to come back in a few more years time to look at the next face of where we stand you see a very big difference from where we are now well i mean did hope to see a big difference couple of years from now but i think some would argue that one of the reasons why people are so skeptical about this whole european integration people in our land i mean was because of them having to incur all that private banking doubt upon themselves and. i wonder whether you think that arlen would have been pressured then obligated to be all that banking that if it wasn't a member of the e.u.

citizen number of assumptions in your question that i would challenge i think they're wrong the first assumption is that there is a majority of people skeptic skeptical in number and as a certainly increased from the last thing it has increased thousand priests but that's very different from saying are inferring that the majority of people are against our scandalous average or thing you know this is not just isn't this growing you were able to as an inference in your introduction of your question the . a majority of people are against the level of integration or where we stand in our relationship with europe at the moment. that's not to say that the russian now oh for people are accepting dot integration it's the same it has changed over time we joined the european union as a country whose level of income was below the european average despite everything that's happened we're now at least in line with and ahead of us in some cases.