was. a child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. snowden delivers a christmas speech a warning that much spying could damage the way the next generation frames but there's still time for kill. where the outcry against drug abuse had been heard across the world also he travels to a region in pakistan where there are mom strikes had become a deadly every day reality. and audience happy by a lot exit leaves people there wondering whether the end justifies the means i just i couldn't sleep not so i could think about things i get up at school drug and then i'm going to bed again and you know i couldn't do anything or all i could think was this dish off the streets to some of those trying to keep

a roof over their heads as banks push to repossess homes from struggling families. international news and college life from moscow you will see international was made . and welcome to the program christmas comes but once a yet so for those in the u.k. who close it up in front of t.v. to watch the queen's christmas speech it probably came as no surprise that it wasn't the only message on the box and alternative address was enabled by a man who believes there's no reason to stick to the balls to buy a car has a story. christmas day here in the u.k. is a sacred tradition it's all about the christmas turkey the family gathering and of course getting around the teddy to watch the queen's speech with your family this

year the queen was wishing brits a merry christmas she spoke about the birth of her grandson about the year's achievement spots channel four airing an alternative christmas message from n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden who of course revealed the extent of mass government surveillance programs in the u.s. the u.k. and other western countries and he was speaking today all about privacy he said that george orwell's one thousand nine hundred eighty four was a real fairy tale compared to the reality that we're living with right now and he said that children born nowadays are really going to grow up with no concept of privacy whatsoever we have sensors in our pockets to track us everywhere we go think about what this means for the privacy of the average person a child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all they'll never know what it means to have

a private moment to themselves and recorded on the last song he did end on a positive note saying that to gather the public can work for a better balance to end mass surveillance and the to remind governments that really if they want to know what the public is thinking they should ask and it's cheaper than spying channel four said that they chose edward snowden for this christmas message because of the extent of the revelations that he has brought to the public this year and the questions that he's raised around democratic society so they're going to be hoping that they will have not just fear as towards questioning that status quo that little bit more by having edward snowden talk to them about privacy today. under earlier we're told jim kellock the executive director of the open rise group and he told us that snowden showed how the n.s.a. surveillance we can security technology is and exposed us all to criminal activity

but he was really important that he have this opportunity to tell everybody in the u.k. about what he's what he's been able to tell us so that we can start to think about how we reform surveillance in the u.k. it would go to the show to everybody is vulnerable as a result of the kind of surveillance that's taking place not only we've got a ball from security agencies but because they weakened security technologies in general they ain't ordinary people bundled to the activities of common criminals who can use the same vulnerabilities that the n.s.a. have introduced to hack people's computers steal their identities take information from. snowden's not the only one delivering a christmas message on liberty a u.s. civil rights group has had a say to releasing a comedy b.z. of santa poking fun at their say or should now at r.t. dot com. was less than

a week to twenty four scene where summing up the most pivotal news of the outgoing year. and then the latest in our series the problem of drone wall say in the middle east america's near decade long presence in pakistan has left numerous victims of strikes by a manned aircraft despite the white house claiming that most are terrorists human rights groups are raising their law on the growing civilian death toll in the latest incident after seventeen people were killed at a real world wedding ceremony in yemen listen carefully reports now on the human price of america's war on terror. the locals call it death in the skies in pakistan's northwest tribal region an american drone as seen from the ground it's become the weapon of choice in the u.s. war on terror and this is the damage it can wreak under president obama more than

three hundred such strikes on pakistani soil against alleged al qaeda and taliban suspects. but ordinary civilians also pay a price this man is one of them i mean a lot was on his way to work at a mine near his village when a drone struck the area he lost his leg in the attack three other miners who were with them lost their lives we live in constant fear of another strike we are simple villagers who are stuck in a war that we didn't ask for it's a hopeless feeling or to be deaf is above our heads all the time although the attack took place three years ago i mean new laws says the pain is still severe the sight of his injuries upsets his children meanwhile depression anxiety and lingering fear have pushed him to take up tranquilizer pills and that if i do them in the same arrogance should be able to tell an ordinary person from a television leader what they should know who they're killing of what did we do to

deserve this. this is my ex any grown arctic it's a question echoed by now darren who lost part of his hearing short term memory and nearly his foot on. the drone shockwave was so intense that it threw us i saw it far from the place where we were sleeping after several minutes there was another strike and it killed many more people attorneys out of bar has sued both the u.s. and pakistan on behalf of the civilian victims he says they're the voiceless people of the zeerust on isolated by geography and politics simply call it a concentration camp that you have built a wall of. military and militants and behind that wall you keeping more than eight hundred thousand people who are not allowed to come out and no one from the rest of the country is allowed to go in and that's a kind of tree which u.s. is using to use and test its drone program in many ways the epicenter of the cia's highly classified drone program is a black hole on the map

a region of pakistan off limits to outsiders especially westerners now evidence of the drone strikes is almost impossible to get but these were smuggled to islamize bought from the tribal areas they're believed to be fragments of actual hellfire missiles retrieved from a war zone most americans never get to see the fragments collected by a local journalist who spent years documenting the civilian toll of drone especially on children just images of the living and the dead for nor it's personal . to me whenever my three year old daughter hears a plane she runs inside and won't sleep that night the children here have been traumatized by the drones the sound of a door banging shot is enough to terrify them. and that fear can turn to anger a new generation radicalized by the war by carrying out drone strikes killing innocent people who are not part of the conflict you just why did the conflict.

you're giving a reason to people who were not part of the conflict to become part of the oz i'm going so of course this is make me hate the americans we're angry and want revenge they've destroyed our lives my parents my wife my children we all see america as our worst enemy now while promising to rein in their use the white house says drones are both legal and effective. when translated by defense that's cold comfort for the victims. are pakistan drivers have been praised by the obama administration as a surgical weapon allowing them to take out terrorist leaders unsaved lives of american soldiers but to drone campaign is no mere believes the efficiency of the

u.s. one month strikes is questionable to say the least we're seeing actual legislative bands coming out of countries where drone strikes actually happen the yemeni parliament has asked for a ban on drone strikes the pakistani national assembly passed asked for about on drone strikes when we hear about the drone strike that happened in pakistan that did end up getting the second commander in chief of the taliban in pakistan and you know you see everyone saying well you know the drone program is great this happened but we also have to keep in mind that he's been proclaimed killed at least four different times by drone strikes prior to this one so who died in those drone strikes that happened before this one that finally worked i think those are the questions that we need to ask when we think retrospectively about the many times the drones have supposedly killed people. the u.s. war on terror has become a heavy burden for civilians of the country's way it waged our correspondent went

to yemen where unknown strikes reap a deadly toll each yeah well shall report next. these loopholes to be sour here braving the elements in order to stand up to us oil giant chevron. this comes after a massive hunger strike that returned the world's attention to the place that sums up the job gulag of our time. is an undeclared global battlefield in which yemen is just one of the front lines. the un is doubling its peacekeeping mission and soft so don west thousands are believed to have died in the recent unrest the u.s.

is also sending marines closer to the country to help evacuate its citizens the walls yonder is the only thing to independence from the north so yes ago but he's now on the brink of civil war a power struggle between the president and his socks deputy has inflamed deadly tribal tension america has been geisha in the region since the one nine hundred seventy s. when all dry and chevron discovered oil that i did was at the helm for persia of south sudan's independence also an historian corn was amazing in the sudanese civil war during the eighty's explains why the u.s. wanted another country on the wild. united states was basically the midwife for south sudanese independence united states in its real world posed to the cartoon base of government not least because it would seem as being anti israel and was perceived as being pro palestinian not only that but there is oil in sudan and the

oil is in the cell phone this problem i don't do that nor and then there is the china question the chinese state oil company is deeply invested in south sudan and for a way the chinese was also seen as a tool through which could be accomplished through independence and searching for stuff so that chevron felt that it would be in their best interests if south sudan were to secede because it would be easier to exploit the oil in a divided country as opposed to a united country that was a major reason driving the split do the math we're talking about hundreds of thousands of girls produced in south sudan and with oil let's say roughly one hundred dollars a barrel you can see that this is a pretty penny. and the wake of a deadly attack in egypt the government outlawed the muslim brotherhood that ahead and i'll see how the former governing policy is now going to say the terrorists responsible for tuesday's deadly bombing well ask what this means for the deficit

with a deeply divided country i should say plants. that fish in the times to face still costs a shadow of what this region with fear is that fresh fish from the sea is around the plant contaminated meat. crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want.

there's a media leader so we leave the media. like to see bush and see your. play you play the physical. shoes that no one is asking with the gas that you deserve answers from. politics. to. international coming to life from moscow welcome back egypt's military backed interim government has officially branded the muslim brotherhood as terrorists and declared its activities at home and abroad in a goal the organization is blamed for tuesday's suicide blast and cigarettes that killed sixteen and who did scores of others the muslim brotherhood denies being

involved in days demanding an investigation cairo based journalist shahira a man believes the government's evident death against supporters of the ousted president morsi. this is a new escalation in the long running feud between the security state and the muslim brotherhood what they're trying to achieve is to crush the zionist group altogether and not to leave any room any space for that group to enter into political life again. they seem more defined they never they've already called for protests on friday saying that the coup is the real terrorism here and they feel that this is a return to plead january twenty eleven the return of the police state repressive measures being taken. all measures taken to silence any form of dissent so

i expect more violence more bloodshed and it's a it's a vicious cycle. you are a sharing turns of signs of improvement but the austerity scars randeep for the nations who need bailouts oil and became first to prove that it can now go it alone but it's buying so gunning for homeowners who've fallen behind during the lead years tessanne see limit some of the families living under threat of being turfed out onto the streets. most people here remember the cold to tiger with the sense of knowing callie economic boom times in the mid ninety's up until two thousand and seven that went bust in no small way the young for the structure behind me would have been the offices of the anglo irish bank one of the struggling banks it was effectively nationalized it was a stark reminder of the property boss to be is to a banking crisis and a 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 the preferred term which of course. repossessed the house while arlen 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 were 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 with art and on businesses to paralyze the entire nation they have failed to deal with the mortgage crisis but coming up a creative solutions we can measure how much the bailout has cost us in monetary terms we have never evaluation how much this is cost of 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 i mean i'm going 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 insolvency arrangements can also be made for those who want to just and other debt with this perhaps there's a glimmer of hope for people like julia i would be bankrupt of course. you know it's bad luck and the reason why i'm hoping to be bankrupt christmas is that i can start again let me become what i was before does or assume your r t r l and we will know ways to keep our cash safe but it's a different matter for bitcoins as one how plus owners discover

a bloomberg to be house has found out the hard way showing his printed bitcoin on air to thousands of euros only to get digitally pick pocketed by. the browser bypassing britain called go away cameron that lets people watch online porn by getting around unpopular government filters the new number ten backed by war has been a bit over the seller's even blocking out sex education resources. former georgian president mikheil saakashvili has been declared persona non grata in ukraine here has also banned such five other people from georgia the e.u. and the you are from entering the country all of them are suspected of working with the ukrainian opposition during the ongoing anti-government protests here pushkar one has more. well the most 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 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 also european union and u.s. citizens who have been banned and treat to ukraine 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 to 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 hundred 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 so far as no evidence that any of them made it to the blacklist of visitors in ukraine and although the ukrainian authorities say the entry ban is temporary it seems to be already working as several people have been turned down at the border. let's now have a look at some other world headlines in brief police interrogate have used rubber bullets and water cannon on protesters against government corruption thousands

rallied in istanbul demanding prime minister erdogan resignation on wednesday at a one had to reshuffle his entire cabinet after three key ministers resigned over allegations of corruption and bribery the scandal is the biggest challenge the ministers face during his eleven years in office he claims it's an international plot to undermine his government's credibility to head over elections in march. be aware then britain has made it a chaotic christmas day for tens of thousands of people high winds and heavy rains have bite of the country leaving many without power around a thousand homes were flooded following most of our creations in southern and central parts of the country and there's a warning that life threatening storm conditions will persist. the sea resort towns across iraq have left at least forty four people and a dead and scores more injured one bomb exploded near a charger in baghdad as christian worship is left at christmas service the president of the arab lawyers association in the u.k.

believes the iraqi government is too preoccupied with an internal power struggle to deal with six terence tried. and you have other politicians who want to remove them so that they can stay in this place and what is there is what's called the political process which is really a sham it is not a real political process because you cannot have a political process when you are losing something like twenty thirty people a day this is a civil war the fault of the end of the day must lie with the government because the government any government anywhere has a duty to protect the people has a duty to protect the society has a duty to make the lives of the ordinary people tolerable at least and this is what this government is failing. iraq suffered its worst year of violence since two thousand and eight of the nine thousand people lost their lives together would be

investigative group iraq body count he has an address database that gives you the stock numbers documenting the deed the deaths and attacks that are ravaging the country that it's at all to dot com. japan is famous for its seafood but fishing near the devastated fukushima nuclear plant isn't perhaps such a bright idea local fishermen claim they're landing immense amounts of contaminated

fish and do their best to keep it from consumers tables even the authorities insist tests it is safe. now explain. work doesn't stop in the port of saumur despite being just a few kilometers from areas still ravaged by the twenty eleventh's tsunami and still contaminated by radiation seafood of all shapes and sizes lands here several times a day not only fish has traditionally been integral part of the japanese culture but also one of its prized acts boards last year alone the exporting companies pocketed more than two billion u.s. dollars however there are serious concerns now this particular cat was made in the waters of the bush team on nuclear power station after it became known that he drawling system at the fukushima nuclear power plant was severely radiated fears grew that the contamination could be spreading into the pacific there are significant contamination in the bottle sediment especially in the paul and the

rebirth system so we can find a very very high concentration of the right. fish factories around the fukushima prefecture now have to take radiation measurements but despite lab workers assuring us the fish was free of any harmful particles were taken samples from every catch we make and if we ever find even the slightest trace of radiation will destroy the whole catch so far there has been none of this species safe and even the nuclear plant operator tepco is standing firm that the nearby waters are clear of radiation this edition is pretty much on the control we've built fance is not polluted ground while there's a leak into the ocean we were surprised to learn that most of the seafood we saw at the port of soma will never make it to the shelves of fish markets or restaurant tables. most of the fish caught within the thirty kilometer radius is thrown into the garbage because it is radiated and tepco is paying local fishermen for it so

they're happy and keep silent some of it though makes it to stores but only locally seafood firms here are under threat and there are five professors possibly affected by contamination in the sea accounting for almost forty thousand tonnes of fish per year but things may get even worse as the third anniversary of the fukushima disaster approaches south korea has become the first country to bear in japanese fish and seafood imports. reporting from japan. next in our senior national crystal desex what they turn international community of rain.

although i have gone duck hunting a few times i've never seen the duck dynasty t.v. show but gosh i heard about the standoff involving one of the stars of the show phil robertson who got suspended for making what many consider anti-homosexual comments in an interview this celebrity scandal is creating a lot of arguments about freedom of speech on social networks many people who believe that robertson deserved to be booted from the show for what he said argue that freedom of speech means that robertson can't be arrested by the government for what he said but the eighty t.v. channel has the right to fire whom they like the thing is that if the situation were reversed and robertson was fired for making pro l.g. p.t. statements then people who are currently defending any right to hire and fire as they please what all be bashing the t.v. channel for violating the stars freedom of speech think cry that firing him would violate his rights and i'm sure some websites would make him into a hero or demand a boycott or closing of a n.d. forever very few people actually believe in freedom of speech for all they just believe in freedom of speech for people who agree with them but that's just my

opinion. hello and welcome to crossfire where all things considered i'm peter lavelle the phrase international community is often bandied about in western media as if its meaning was clearly understood by all in fact when western politicians and media invoke the phrase international community it almost always reflects the thinking and.