you're watching r t tonight make killings mass graves and faust and dead across the country violence in south sudan escalates is some question whether there's more to the unrest than just of internal conflict because my comment on my coming out. while the white house prices drone strikes as a pinpoint accurate anti terrorist weapon are to look at the staggering number of civilian casualties the amount of tax have reaped. island hopping bail out banks at least people there wondering whether the end justifies the means. couldn't do anything at all if you think that was the sticks and i had no way i wish to speak to some of those trying to keep a roof over their heads as banks push to repossess homes from struggling families.

for a good evening to you if you just joined us for a christmas cheer as well of course if you're celebrating it today my name's kevin owen here at r.t. international tonight. the u.n. is sending over five thousand more troops to south sudan almost doubling the number of peacekeepers there for the past ten days the country's been engulfed in deadly violence which the u.n. says has already claimed thousands of lives. reports. the un says that investigators discovered mass graves in the rebel held city of into with fourteen bodies at one site twenty bodies at a nearby site but the possibility of there being either even a third site now tens of thousands of people have fled the country amid fighting between rebels that are supporting former vice president riek machar and president

salva gears forces you have to remember that south sudan is a young country and a civil war is what initially caused its breakaway from the north you know the united states campaigned for it some experts believe that washington's enthusiasm for south sudan's autonomy had less to do with humanitarian issues and more to do about the south sudan irony right now is that no matter which way you slice it the international community has another crisis on its hands that may be costly and complicated the country's top u.n. humanitarian official said the death toll from the past ten days has surpassed one thousand but added that there's no official firm counts it may be more it may be less nobody knows what we do know is that the violence is spreading and spreading quickly. really important there was late to stop that washington send marines to the one of africa to help evacuate its citizens from south sudan the u.s.

has been engaged in the region of let's remember since the one nine hundred seventy s. when all journal chevron discovered oil their first washington was also one of the biggest champions of south sudan's independence in twenty eleven let's discuss this and the background what's happening now with the author historian gerald horne he was indeed mediating the sudanese civil war in the 1980's and a better person to talk about it with either gerald folks or taking the time to be with us this christmas day very happy christmas to you as well of course. that's why the clock back in fact let's talk about twenty eleven first what led to the events of twenty eleven then one the clock back maybe more interesting really we talk about the role and we put off and talk about on this program the role america played in the secession and the split in twenty eleven but how involved were they in practical terms. united states was basically the midwife for south sudanese independence if you go back and look at the press coverage in united states in the run up to two thousand and eleven you'll find numerous articles that picked it and alleged struggle between the cartoons based government of the north sudan which

were said to be influenced deeply by islamic fundamentalism and the southern sudanese who were mostly non muslim and were depicted as being oppressed by the north this conflict was portrayed in deeply religious terms which you're using the words depicted you could trade that means to me that you're not believing that what is the real picture than well the real picture is that the united states and israel were opposed to the cartoon based government not least because it would seem as being anti israel or at least perceived that way and was perceived as being pro palestinian not only that but there is oil in sudan and the oil is in the south and it's coming out through the normal and then there's the china question the chinese oil company is deeply invested in south sudan and for

a wing of the chinese was also seen as a tool through which could be accomplished through independence and secession for south sudan so its politics and oil play in the care all you want here at so many times don't you know with so many backgrounds to conflicts when you are mediating back in the not in the 1980's was always the problem then or was it politics. well there was the problem then too already chevron which is a california based or oil corporation had made inroads into the south sudanese oil economy and it was clear that chevron felt that it would be in their best interests if south sudan were to see because it would be easier to exploit the oil in a divided country as opposed to a united country and is that what drove the split twenty years oh no so that was a major reason driving the split also i should add that in self sudan you have scores of different ethnic groups right now the focus is on the the dinka and the

noor but there are many more than that there was conflict between amongst them but washington was able to encourage them to unite against the norm and now of course that particular scenario is unraveling how did the split that we're seeing now than help american companies given the fact that there's so much violence at the moment and of course in the south a seventy five percent of suit of sudan's oil in such an unstable region at the moment is that helping american old companies of the states and at the moment that were frayed that quite typically they didn't think things through that is to say that as you know the turmoil there is basically hampering oil production but keep in mind this is in some ways a replay of libya that is to say the u.s. intervention and nato intervention in libya in two thousand and eleven has disrupted oil production which was not necessarily in the best interests of the

united states and nato but once again they did not necessarily contemplate that scenario just briefly can you quantify the amount of all we're talking about and how many hundreds of thousands millions of barrels is it i don't know something five percent of sudan's oil is worthwhile what's what's the quantity of it. well do the math we're talking about hundreds of thousands of barrels produced in south sudan with oil let's say roughly at one hundred dollars a barrel or you can see that this is a pretty penny. saying ok jerald hold off for the story and love to see it today thank you very much for your informed comment. now as we prepare to say farewell to twenty thirteen artie's looking at events that made headlines throughout this last year. these are the results been. braving the elements in order to stand on u.s. soil giants chevron. this comes after

a massive hunger strike that returned the world's attention to the place that summed up the gulag of our times. is an undeclared global battlefield in which a young man is just one of the front lines. and the decade of america's drone warfare in yemen and pakistan has left the population in fear of a strike any time anywhere and crucially on anyone this year source of alien victims testified before the u.s. congress but their stories were waved away by the white house that is says these anti terrorist attacks are pinpoint accurate but in the latest incident of seventeen people were killed at a rural wedding ceremony in yemen. reports next on the human price of america's

war. it says no faith for the one who has no trust but both are now in short supply in this part of yemen for months the class has been without its mouth teacher and this pupil without his father this is the big show about a charity i didn't know. his name is still on the staff schedule but i leave hasn't been here since signing out of class on january twenty third the last could be the finality the father of three was killed by a u.s. drone alongside his twenty year old cousin salim a college student who drove them in a borrowed to yoda they picked up two strangers who turned out to be suspected al qaeda militants witnesses reported a whirring sound in the sky and missiles struck their car. the smell of death was everywhere some of the bodies were burned beyond recognition the rest were ripped to shreds and scattered all around. i found

a part of saleman side the car the rest was outside we only recognised him by a piece of his trousers you couldn't tell who was who if they were even human it was sickening. one drone change the sleepy farming village for ever less than an hour's drive from yemen's capital kabul lawn is far removed from al qaeda operations but without warning it was thrust into the war on terror. saleem's mother shows me where her son used to sleep she can't bear to get rid of his things although she knows she'll never return home. can't help us i didn't understand until the next day that an american drone killed my son why tell me may allah deprive them of their souls like they robbed us of our son. he was the only one providing for this family all we have left now is our tears we only target al qaeda and its associated force and even then the use of drones is heavily constrained

before any strike is taken there must be near certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured the highest standard we can set. accept there was a deadly failure yemen's interior ministry confirms the cousins had no links to terrorism in a country where tribal ties surmount all the loss was felt far beyond the family the white house has never acknowledged the deaths let alone the strike but mohamed shows me the evidence this is what killed them what's thought to be a fragment of a hellfire missile launched from a drone. the u.s. believes this is its best weapon against al qaeda although not officially at war in yemen the covert drone campaign has been dramatically ramped up here under president obama. yemen's al qaeda threat is real it's plotted attacks on international airliners and caused hundreds of deaths the

cia describes it as the most dangerous and active branch of the terrorist network the defense is that drone strikes have seriously damaged his ability to plan attacks but critics here say it's doing the exact opposite it does not contain the ghosts of. facts that may have contributed to the growth and expansion of the. and at some point when we can slug enough powerful enough then to be able to inflict serious damage the u.s. war on terror has no borders often waged remotely with cruise missiles and drones it's an undeclared global battlefield in which yemen is just one of the front lines of fight against groups like al qaida in which ordinary civilians also end up paying a price. i ask obama to bring my dad back to life all the kids at school have their fathers but we don't reporting in ca law on in yemen and lucy catherine of

foreign policy phyllis bennis says the u.s. routinely turns a blind eye to international law whenever it stands in the way of the government's goals. there is no justification for killing children old people noncombatants there's no legal justification there's no moral justification the fact that these are the victims these are the actual the terms of u.s. drone strikes goes to the heart of what's wrong with drone strikes the idea that they are somehow surgically accurate is simply demolished that argument is demolished by the amnesty international report by the initial report of the un special rapporteur the reality is that in the u.s. says we have determined that it is legal to use drone strikes in afghanistan to use drone strikes in pakistan where we are not at war the fact that it may be a violation of international law is simply dismissed as irrelevant international law in the united states unfortunately is too often only applied to other countries

and not to ourselves i'm just not just the heavy civilian toll that america's drone strikes have brought to pakistan people can't even leave the area where your mind aircraft are waging war correspondent went to a region that's been turned into a walled off road for the u.s. military machine we've got that report coming up next out. next year a spokesman have managed to shake off the burden of an e.u. bailout but what price to the man on the street good question well homeless organizations there estimate that sixteen families lose their homes each month in the capital dublin result. that thousands more are still battling the banks to try to keep their homes. most people here remember the celtic tiger with this sense of known cawley economic boom time for the mid ninety's up until two thousand and seven that went bust in no small way the arm for the structure behind me would have

been the offices of the anglo irish bank one of the struggling banks that was effectively nationalized it was a stark reminder of the property boston the ensuing banking crisis and the painful austerity that continues to today and for some irish families though there is also a daily reminder the threat or reality of losing their homes we had a mortgage was very high on the value the property was falling below the mortgage so i ended up with a cash offer five hundred passengers and two thousand and eleven and i was delighted but the banks refused to accept the offer because it wasn't more which was eight hundred i climb with the rears so instead they prefer terms of course. repossessed the house while arlo may have officially exited its bailout it's still mired in debt and the end of september almost one in five home loans worth a total of twenty five billion euros we're still not being fully repaid homeless organization focus arland estimates that sixteen families lose their homes each month in the capital the banks have had

a catastrophic effect on data activity that aren't on business to paralyze the entire nation they have failed to deal with the mortgage crisis but coming up with creative solutions we can measure how much the bailout has cost us in monetary terms we have never evaluation how much this is cost us in emotional and mental health terms i could barely push. one foot in front of the other because i just i just i couldn't sleep nights i couldn't think about things i get up at school run a minute and then go back to bed again and you know i couldn't do anything at all or think i was this dish and i had no way i wish a new law was passed in december which would automatically discharge a person from bankruptcy after three years as opposed to the current twelve year term personal and solve and see arrangements can also be made for those with mortgages and other debt with this perhaps there's a glimmer of hope for people like julia i'm hoping to bankrupt christmas you know. you know it's bad luck and the reason why i'm hoping to be bankrupt christmas is

that i can start again that may become what i was before does or so you are to ireland and she's keeping a bright outlook this christmas just ahead ukraine but some high profile foreigners from entering the country are going to report on that and we're talking about a very unusual christmas address in the u.k. as well just a few minutes from now you can join me kevin. but i'll talk about language as well but i will only react to situations i have read the reports but i'm like. you know i will be a comment on your latter point saying. to carry out a car is on the job you know how i. think you know more recently. when you made a direct question be prepared for

a change when you know you should be ready for our. freedom of speech a little different approach. dramas that can't be ignored. stories others refuse to notice. this is changing the world right now. so picture. from around the. globe. to be. a logan you're watching r.t. this twenty fifth of december christmas comes but once a year of course but for those of you in britain even chew who are coated up in

front of your t.v. to watch the queen's christmas speech you better know it isn't the only message on the box this afternoon an alternative address is due to be delivered by a man who believes there's no reason to stick to the rules looking at our batsmen the national clocks it's just but when you ask for in britain so it will just happen probably boy because in london to tell us more about it i'm told by edward snowden of course he's giving that what's now become a bit of a routine every year a alternative christmas speech spill the beans there what do you have to say. well kevin as you know is out there christmas day is sacred here in the u.k. it's steeped in tradition it's all about the christmas turkey the family gathering and of course gathering around the telly regular family and watching the queen's speech today she wished brits a merry christmas she spoke about. minutes throughout the year and of course about the bust of her grandson but channel four as you said like to broadcast an alternative christmas message and this year it was delivered by an essay

whistleblower edward snowden who of course revealed the extent of mass government surveillance programs in the us in the u.k. and in other western countries and today he was speaking about privacy he said that george orwell's nineteen eighty-four was a fairy tale compared to the reality that we're living with nowadays he said that children were born at the moment are going to grow up with no concept of privacy whatsoever that for them they'll never know what it means to have a single private moment or an on recorded on the line is thought now that's pretty somber stuff for christmas day but he did end on a more positive note saying that by working together the public can try to help build a better balance to end mass surveillance and remind the government that if they really want to know what we're thinking asking is always much cheaper than spying

now edward snowden has of course been one of the most important public personas a news personas this year because of those revelations which is exactly why channel four cherry seem to deliver this alternative christmas message and they said that the information that edward snowden has placed in the public to maine has raised serious issues for a democratic society now the alternative christmas message itself has become somewhat of a tradition it's it's been. in its twentieth year now and parsed. the past speakers include the former president of iran mahmoud ahmadinejad's brigitte bardot margin lisa simpson and survivors of the nine eleven attacks in new york so the idea behind it is to be extremely thought provoking and to just get people to question the status quo a little bit more and certainly by choosing edward snowden city to talk about

privacy today i think they're hoping that view is will be nudged to question tradition and the status quo that little bit more cabin as you say food for thought is the turkey the christmas put to slowly digested with the scrutiny sherry no doubt. very best wishes she with the guys over there london as well of course happy christmas from moscow. now on. the healthy food but not for the employees apparently we got a story about one mcdonald's the restaurant's pushing its workers to choose a salad instead of its burgers. i'd also piracy for good tell you how an iconic heavy metal band plans to use data from a legal song to fill their. interest rate of about it always plenty of good stories for you to take.

pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today. hello again ukraine's band thirty six foreigners including former georgian president mikheil saakashvili from entering the country was declared persona non grata or suspected of working with the ukraine opposition to destabilize the country in the ongoing antti government protests. as more. prominent person on the list is obviously former georgian president mikheil saakashvili a well known supporter of the so-called color revolutions he's already visited the

independence square once in december there are allegedly another twenty nine georgians on the list among them is a man who is on the international wanted list for being behind the unrest that broke out during the protests in may two thousand and twelve in moscow besides georgians there are some european union and u.s. citizens who've been banned and treat brain ukrainian parliament member who initiated this move said that all these foreigners have been working with the opposition to destabilize the situation in the country however from what we know there aren't any high profile european or even american politicians whom we saw so many times in the end of independence square in kiev and to name just some of them it's victoria nuland the u.s. deputy secretary of state who visited the protests twice and even handed out some

cookies to the protesters as a sign of support the e.u. diplomatic chief catherine ashton who helped talks both with the government and the opposition and even the u.s. hawks senator john mccain who is well known for supporting regime changes he was he had been to key of the so-called orange revolution a decade ago he was active during the arab spring in egypt and libya and he even let his support to the syrian rebels so far there is no evidence that any of them made it to the blacklist of visitors in ukraine and although the ukrainian authorities say the entry is temporary it seems to be already working as several people have been turned down at the border. twenty five moscow time world news in brief the iraqi capital baghdad has been hit by twin blasts killing as many as thirty seven people and injuring scores more explosions targeted an outdoor market

in the churches worshipers leaving a christmas service churches have been increasingly targeted since the fall of saddam hussein and the population of christians as hard in recent years to over nine thousand people in iraq have lost their lives in violence this past year. egypt's military backed government officially declared the muslim brotherhood a terrorist organization the move could lead them to harsher punishment for members of the group and those financing it hundreds of brotherhood activists have been arrested after the ousting of president morsi in july egypt's officials have accused the group of being behind tuesday's deadly bomb attack and travel to the police h.q. in the city of man so. hundreds of opposition supporters have clashed with police in thailand as they try to enter a registration center for upcoming elections new polls were called for february after weeks of anti government protests demanding a prime minister step down but the country's main opposition party promised more protests and said it would boycott the elections which the ruling party is widely predicted to win. the next full news bulletin thirty four minutes with me kevin i

would tonight coming up but after the break a little festive cheer and breaking the set of the martin looks at some of the areas stories that made up this year enjoy. super street interesting. strategic vision told try. a longer covert team of journalists trying to release which leaves documents about zero united states it's right. there. may be a local media more pro-american they encounter fear ignorance and pressure.

the country blocks the way to information freedom. media stop on our two. if you leave with the economic ups downs and the find out all day long the deal sang i and the rest of life it's going be a few will be everything on all. of . what's going on guys i'm abby martin and this is breaking the set so here's some interesting news coming out of ten downing street the british prime minister david cameron has taken heavy criticism of the purging of a decade's worth of speeches anything. it is from the conservative party's website

that's right i think there's a wave of historical revisionism sweeping cameron's government after all it's hard to prove that you haven't lived up to any of your initial promises if they're completely expunged from the public record now of course party members are defending the move saying that purging the content is a campaign strategy aimed at replacing old messages with new ones but cameron's former speechwriter in burrell disagrees that this is just a campaign strategy and in that quote the use of sophisticated software to ensure search engines do not stumble upon these archives slightly just slightly undermines this claim is that as it turns out the party went as far as instructing websites such as an internet archive and google to fully remove deleted pages from their databases pages that these websites often keep for posterity usually went away until cultures and died out of their history or buys but now it looks like if you have the money and if you have the power it's as easy as going to divorce from the royal family. the

please please. please very hard to take a. look. at how to act with the terror threat there are those. that believe. that. for the last few decades the chinese government has done everything in its power to control the growth of the country's one point three billion people.