the day after his father was released from a russian prison the son of former oil tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky says the family has been reunited in the german capital. washington is told to rein in i'm accountable defense spending at the pentagon and the eight point five trillion dollars since nine hundred ninety six. charges of. prison break in two thousand and eleven the. streets is stifled by. the first time in my life that the child is. having a. political witch hunt in egypt. the story of a schoolboy. showing support for the country's deposed leader.

from a studio center here in moscow which just. this is international. has met his whole family in the german capital the formal oil tycoon flew straight to being let out of a russian penal colony on friday following a presidential pardon. reports from outside the hotel where he's believed to be staying. on the how to cause he's first full day of freedom was a day of reunification with family here in berlin his son told us the son pavel who'd flown from new york told us that the whole family had been reunited as they were only very happy now means his mother and father. mother and father was flown he. has been here in berlin quite a quite

a lot in the recent past she has been receiving cancer treatment here and a bill in city hospital. they were that was a fact the whole reason behind because of course he'd been granted the presidential pardon on humanitarian grounds was the the ill health of his mother's press secretary of the russian president dmitry peskov who is the the spokesperson for the timea food and now he said that khodorkovsky remains a russian citizen he is a russian citizen he's free to return to russia whenever he would like and live there should he want to also you said that he's he's free to stay here in germany should he want to as well it is pretty much as simple as that and no peskov also outlined the letters that were written by her to call ski to vladimir putin he said there was to one of them was a personal letter to president putin the of the was the official petition to be to be released from prison and that it was that petition that resulted in him receiving this pardon is released on humanitarian grounds due to the serious ill

health of his mother we'll get a glimpse into what could be coming next on sunday he's holding a press conference at the berlin wall museum where he may outline what he plans to do know that he's out of prison initially had said he just wanted to spend time with his family enjoy the holiday season but perhaps he might have some further reaching plans in in mind that press conference he said almost certain to to thank . to thank the the former german foreign minister to again. i missed again she seems to have been instrumental in making sure that mikhail khodorkovsky killed come here the german chancellor in a statement from the chancellor spokesperson angle merkel spoke first and she paid she paid tribute to the work done by mr genscher in bringing holocaust ski here to germany and she also praised the work done by the german government behind the

scenes in making this possible and well could be called holocaust skeered to germany. where he is just behind me in the outlawed hotel now enjoying his family reunion. peter over there in berlin where more analysis from hans friedrich von plots he's a diplomat and germany's former ambassador to russia it looks like but lin has been working very hard to get cortical out of jail what's in it for germany well there are two points one one is. that the fate of. holocaust ski touched many people here who felt. he didn't get proper legal treatment and the second thing is of course that relations with russia are very important for for germany and europe and in fact the world but this affect relations between moscow and berlin and anyway.

sorry can you repeat it i can communicate but won't this helping of quarter koskie have any impact on relations between moscow and berlin would it not lead to strained relations at all how would moscow feel about this. well quite quite frankly the one thing which is key to many questions is. the rule of law in russia and of course the fate of holocaust skee is related to this as far as he is concerned as an individual but settling this case now of course opens the perspective of promoting the rule of law in russia in general terms and that is very very important but if i manage stolen billions worth of dollars of assets in germany he would have ended up in jail to call the

cops he was found guilty after all of. this this is right and wrong it is it is it may be right in the individual case and it may be wrong that this case was singled out and many many many other cases of the same nature were no never reached the courts of law of russia so that was a very selective exercise in in. safeguard safeguarding justice in russia along with the amnesty where we're seeing the release of many other prisoners with a quarter cup ski incident now what does that do for russia's reputation abroad will the west really embrace it will it really improve its image. well. i think the reception of president putin's decision.

was a favorable one but of course guarded with a reserve of say we are waiting for what is going to happen next there are there are other colleagues of mr holocaust ski who are still behind bars and the general case of rule of law and doing justice to too many individuals who are presently somewhere behind bars former german ambassador to russia thank you very much indeed for your thoughts live from berlin great to talk to you thank you. welcome and of course we'll be bringing you more news and perspective on become a critical release throughout the day here on r.t. and on our website r.t. dot com. the pentagon has secured a six hundred thirty billion dollar budget for next year even though it's fair to account for the money it's received since one thousand nine hundred ninety six a whopping eight and a half trillion dollars of taxpayers' cash has gone to defense programs none of

which has been audited is black budget has sparked concerns over potential fraud is going to check on reports. the pentagon is almost certainly the biggest source of waste in the u.s. government of reuters investigation says since one thousand nine hundred ninety six the pentagon has spent eight point five trillion dollars in taxpayer money that has never been accounted for and nobody can say for sure how many billions of that amount of wasted on goods and services that were never delivered on over payments to contractors and many other things what does congress do about it nothing and national security expert steve miles serious here with me to help us crunch the these numbers even if we leave dollars on accounting for a lot of money this is the kind of thing that you would think would bring capitol hill to a screeching halt they would be hearing this kind of almost daily you know various committees looking into it none of that just leads to massive waste and there can be all sorts of fraud that you don't know about just one example when the inspector

general looked at iraq which was you know a lot of money but in the grand scheme just a portion of the money the u.s. spends what they found was about fifty billion dollars of the money the u.s. spent there was wasted about six billion dollars was completely lost they had no idea where it was completely unaccounted for and put that in perspective that's about the amount of money that other countries would spend on their defense in a year total and that's just the least pocket change that we lost in the one thing i found very interesting in this report is that the pentagon appeared to use a standard operating procedure to enter false numbers or so-called logs to cover lost or missing information in their accounting in order to submit a balanced budget to treasury so they could write a new everything in this probably the most shocking part of this is that they get to the end of the day and they say oh there's money missing what do we do we'll just put a number in there that says it's there and we'll sort it out later i mean again this is this is the type of operating practice that if you did it in your own business if you try to do it with your own taxes for the government they haul you

off to jail what contributes to the massive waste is the fact that for two decades the pentagon has dug in on. it means nobody checked if the numbers in their accounting make sense congress has just passed the budget that allocates around six hundred thirty billion dollars to the pentagon roughly the same amount as last year how much of that will be wasted taxpayers will never know in washington i'm going to r.t. washington needs to wake up and stop cracking down on unaccountable even spending at the pentagon that's the view of retired u.s. army colonel douglas macgregor i have actually been in this position when i was the director joint operations that shape headquarters for reasons that i did understand my pay was suddenly reduced and it took a year older at least straightened out and then subsequently i was paid money that i had actually earned but for reasons that no one could explain had not been paid to me from my point is that you're dealing with billions of people and

a lot of instability a lot of movement and it's a difficult system to to work effectively this is an enormous problem and this is something that absolutely must be addressed and addressed in a forthright manner at the moment no one on capitol hill seems terribly concerned u.s. intelligence expert gordon duff says lawmakers have become increasingly corrupted by that time to the military industry. we have so many defense entities that have gained so much power in washington over the past ten years certainly the. i consider the phony war on terror as been an opportunity for the defense industry to buy congress the pentagon it works much like the federal reserve we have overt and covert policies we have so many black budget a budget projects including nuclear weapons development projects that when dark is

early as one nine hundred ninety one we have heard of none of the advances we know that were achieved during the strategic defense initiative in the eighty's and ninety's the ohs of all gone dark but they're continuing to eat funds and we're watching much of the military budget used for sustaining a top heavy military and air force for every third person is a general. in a few minutes here on off the international curbing the festivities. the scottish capital works to keep public order during the holiday season introducing special patrols to help those taking the celebrations just a little bit too for the story and much more for you after a short break. the

news a secret laboratory to mccurdy was able to build a new most sophisticated robot which will unfortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach the creation why it should care about humans and we're going this is why you should care only on the dog. choose your language. because we know if. someone. chooses the consensus to. choose the opinions that invigorating to. choose the stories that impact your life choose access to.

egypt continues to pile criminal charges on the ousted president mohamed morsi is now facing trial ever prison break in two thousand and eleven journey uprising against hosni mubarak's regime then the public show of support for morsi can lead to serious attention from the authorities however young the offenders reports on the story of one fifteen year old who suffered. mohammad buckra waits at home for the return of his fifteen year old son credit jailed for taking a pro morsy ruler to school teaches notify the authorities when they saw the four think it symbol which commemorates the bloody august dispersal of sit ins in support of egypt's ousted president. the first time in my life that the child is locked up in the military prison for having

a ruler resume and their arrest warrants out for me for inciting my son to take the ruler to class but even if they look my son up we're ready to keep fighting islamist supporters of morsi like mohammed say they are in hiding fearful of showing any allegiance to the ousted misname brotherhood president. since they cleared the sit in some men started shaving their beards and the women to go off their new cabs anyone who is against the coup does not sleep in their own homes they spend nights at friends or even in barns they're not even arresting are to this but normal people the checkpoints because they look like islamists with a beard even the simplest expression of support for mohamed morsi like a piece of stationery puts people in danger both in their communities and the state hundreds of morsy supporters have been arrested and many face trial after july's overthrow by the military security forces say the crackdown is necessary to secure the country but human rights organizations say it's part of a wider clampdown on i the military backed government is

determined to inforce new legislation banning protests without police permits so now leading secular activists are on trial to jailed under the new normal you're not going to let them break down on political activists is normal and natural because it's easy to accuse them of working for a foreign agency and charge them with treason attacking people even killing them is part of a political game played by the state. the government insists on restricting and controlling demos to keep the peace. egypt's dissidents are determined to keep protesting no matter the consequences boccieri for r.t. for shaikh. well this is a photo of khaled in his classroom apparently shot on a mobile phone now if you look closer you can see him giving a four fingered salute a sign the canal apparently landed tippins in jail regardless of age or gender well allen muhammad chairperson of the british egyptian for democracy group says that

the detention of the fifteen year old is far from an isolated case so this fifteen year old child along with many many children are now placed in prison just because they have things simple symbol it's a symbol with full fingers on a yellow background and he's actually placed in an adult facility alongside suggs and rapists and criminals and in fact this is actually outrageous what we're seeing is the military regime. going absolutely mad because a child is reminding its of its atrocities and the clear violations of human rights are taking place and as as you know at the moment there are many many children as well some of them we know about some we don't know anything about because once they're in prison you don't get access to a lawyer or medical attention either. back in the u.s.s.r.

why not. look at a study that suggests more people living in former soviet states wish the union had never disappear even two decades its historic collapse. plus full situation with no limits the world's oldest profession gets official support in canada and the unanimous decision from the supreme court. a group of wiki leaks associates documented the journey through central asia and such media outlets willing to print leaked u.s. diplomatic cables you can watch the movie in full right now on a website. called. st augustine. strategic leadership. team of journalists trying to release wiki leaks documents. more pro-american they encounter fear ignorance.

country blocks the way to information freedom. media stop. millions around the globe struggle with hunger. what if someone offers a lifetime food supply no charge. and we think that. there is no. evidence any problem with genetic engineering. there. is profit. for social justice

golden rice. time now for a world update this hour here in r.t. now these are the latest pictures from the international space station where the first space walk to replace a broken coolant module is on the way to nasa astronauts are carrying out the job which will take three separate space walks to be completed the pump in the external cooling loop shutdown last week and if it doesn't fix the would have to be abandoned we'll keep you updated on their progress here on r.t. international. hundreds from the greek island of crete march from the country's parliament in athens outraged by a new property tax a clash with police and threw oranges at them in defiance of new legislation which was introduced by the government as part of the measures the farmers who previously only had to pay income tax claimed it could put many of them out of business.

hundreds of protesters attacked a police station in hamburg and threw stones at cars after a rally over the possible addiction of refugees from a nearby center number of arrests were made in the forty's declared a danger area warning of more demonstrations cultural center flora has been occupied by refugees for over twenty years but the building is now under threat of collapse. and fifteen people have died in a series of attacks across iraq a senior military commander was killed during a search operation for al qaeda fighters in the western province also in the west gunman opened fire on a police checkpoint killing four officers while in the north two soldiers were killed in a camp by mortar shells now he is keeping track of the violence in iraq in a special project that you can look at right now on our website r.t. dot com. holiday season in the scottish capital edinburgh is in full flow right now and so is the alcohol which accompanies it special patrols and so-called booze

buses have been deployed to maintain public order and help those celebrating just a little too hard on the surface reports. in the streets and pumps of edinburgh and the festive spirit is alive and well. and with the city's bars and he tells filling up the holiday season provides a much needed boost for the local economy. that. the scottish new year is known as hogmanay and the celebrations held in the city of renowned around the world of being a hot ticket. basically we have the tradition is that you're go round the houses and you take or you take a glass of whisky and some coal coal to keep you warm and whiskey to to have a drink and i think new year's eve was invented by the scots but it's not all cause

for celebration and violence and police start it's a busy period and in edinburgh this year number of schemes have been put in place to try and provide support for the people here corson a little too mary safety zones and to say called these buses will be an operation to try to take the strain off the local services the scottish ambulance service says the buses will be there to treat those who suffered a minor injury or have simply overindulged so last the city gears up for a busy holiday season and as that midnight countdown is party goes here in edinburgh asked to try and enjoy the spirit of the event just easy on the spirit. sarah firth r.t. edinburgh. well as the end of twenty thirteen approaches art is breaking the set looks back on the main events that shaped this year. the most inspiring

international diplomacy stories of the year an agreement with the wrong and six world powers of the development of the country's nuclear program and while it's only a tentative six month agreement a warm relationship between iran and western powers is a much needed step toward stability in the middle east finally the most inspiring story of two thousand and thirteen has to be edward snowden in this courage to come forward and reveal an out of control and unconstitutional global spying machine infiltrating all of our lives has changed the world as a result of snowden's actions and we now have documented proof of just how severely the intelligence community has violated our fourth amendment rights and now we have the knowledge we need to fight back. more news in just over half an hour from now in the meantime as promised the media

stand movie on the risks and challenges faced by whistleblowers. they're calling obama's happy smiling sophie photo with the danish and british prime ministers at the mandela funeral an international incident but before we rail on obama for doing something stupid a funeral we need to clear one thing up the washington post says that this action occurred at the memorial service after the funeral was over and trust me after about three hours of serious lectures at a conference or some sort of super long wedding most of us will just be banging our heads against the wall out of boredom and i've probably checked my email about

seven times obama's place no. i said most of us but the president isn't supposed to be like most of us because he represents all of us it's one thing when you're fourteen and too stupid to realize that selfie photos at the wake after grampa's funeral is a bad idea but it's another thing entirely when one of the most photographed and powerful people on the planet takes a selfie at the memorial service of someone he claims to respect although i might sound annoyed this sophie is pretty much irrelevant this is just a big error of etiquette there are plenty of real concrete things with real consequences to be bad at obama over like our being religious wacko rebels in syria or signing into law the n.b.a. i wish with all my heart that we only had to be angry with obama over some minor etiquette errors but sadly they're just a drop in the obama bucket but that's just my opinion.

does use it this scope of this to quote i think i would have to define from a. movement movement view to go with the food.

good luck a good one from a. niche is not one of more than with what you look to see. about the atlantic going up which is literally true it's not me true nichols but the city needed it but it's pretty good but. because of hospital. disappeared there's just it's because of that the girl did it because of our reasons for her to be able. to provide information on the family to provide information on but these are very big in the. what will they get one hundred budgies t.v. and some of the news that. proceeded to pick up put it with. the person that does it. with the right information on a market of stocks and it's doubled like you'll need to do better. than it looks

then and if would it still routine. what makes it in the input that a minute issues the third must be seen. something but. you didn't say when you sign your form. no still no no no and if. you hadn't had. really gone it was. going to come to get explicit in this look at us. but what i bet it. the been used. that has to be used to deliver is near let not short them vision see business nearly. stuck to system but business people . was it up as whatever the little bit that it must be legal never who you are when you didn't was in the city and you know all that that go with a couple times and it's because they do know it was made then you know it's a crisis definitely didn't and i think that you know the writing that made you go

to the c.d.c. and you could hear you know. you could see him we didn't see the dead didn't do that well you wrote those years a. third look at this poor boston partners and. to find out a. couple fucking were jews and just. it's not just this detainee this revelation throughout central asia it's happening . this is extremely interesting strategic region between china russia. this is the state department spring.