iran considers a bill on accelerating its nuclear program if new u.s. sanctions are imposed as western powers urgent to fulfill an agreement brokered in geneva seen as a key brakes were off twenty thirty. the child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all privacy is on the verge of extinction warns adults noted as he takes to the british airwaves giving an alternative to the queen's speech and wishing everyone a merry christmas. and competing is nice but winning trumps it all say athletes as they ready themselves for the sochi winter olympics stay with us as we report on the one paralympic contender is using that gold fever to turn tragedy into purpose.

ninety and in the russian capital you're watching r t was memory to joshua welcome to the program iranian lawmakers have proposed a bill on boosting uranium enrichment to sixty percent of new sanctions are imposed on the country the motion is apparently aimed at countering u.s. legislation authorizing tougher prizes if iran breaches a historic deal reached in geneva last a month that agreement raised hopes of a rapprochement between tehran and foreign powers and marked a significant milestone of the year two thousand and thirteen. now let's have a look at what the deal was about iran agreed to reduce raymond richmond from twenty percent seen as too close to bomb making capability to five percent and for the next six months and also to deactivate its advanced centrifuges inspectors

would monitor this on a daily basis and sanctions would begin to ease more what led to the landmark document in english his report me to iran's new leader. iran is the anchor of stability in the region he's trying to convince the west he's not out for blood because the iranian threat is imaginary and used as an excuse for others. and he thinks a nuclear free middle east is the key to peace and stability urgent practical steps towards the establishment of such is own unnecessary. that sounds good too but not everyone believes iran could have changed so much new year's a war in sheep's clothing a war for thinks you can pull the odds the wool over the eyes. of the international community israel the only country in the east that hasn't signed the recent media

determined to push its point across to iran's minutes away from developing a nuclear bomb and blowing up the world with israel being first on the first of targets this rhetoric however mase serve to cover tel aviv's real fears it's not about nuclear weapons not really it's about who's going to be the power in the gulf you've got three contending parties here you've got the saudis and the g.c.c. the gulf cooperation council you've got israel with the united states behind it and then you've got a ron really the only stable state in the region other than israel then there was the first time leaders of the u.s. and iran spoke to each other directly in more than thirty years the phone call that really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way particularly in the u.s. where the president had to deal with a lot of furious lawmakers both republicans and democrats who still think within the brackets of the cold war era a bad bad bad interim deal iran is

a threat to peace in the world and it's not only the issue of nuclear weaponry it is their entire behavior of spreading terrorism throughout the region a lot of us have very tied his hands are tied there are people and lobby groups in the united states that do not want to see the united states and iran after thirty four years of demonizing the country to have relations. limbers eighteen hour long talks in geneva seemed to have brought a final breakthrough iran agreed to significantly slow down its really respond process in return for easing off or sanctions the joy was short lived you have factors in the u.s. senate that. writing new sanction laws. governments. trying to side with this first examined and then we have the

media outlets the third in line with me in the united states and that is trying to scare the rest soon as the american people of the europeans about iran about the iran's intentions but judging by the messages that come from the president the intentions of the two leaders and not others or even in this change an opportunity that doesn't seem to be welcomed by the old school systems in the way people. although the nuclear deal is only a temporary fix and will be renegotiated next year reaching it was no easy task tomic wrangling over iran started to heat up a decade ago when the country was labeled an axis of evil power by the us along with iraq and north korea do partly to its apparent nuclear ambitions and war of words threats of military strikes crippling sanctions sanctions and even cyber warfare were to fall alice now say ron is tired of all this and that's what made the deal possible oh i think. the president of iran has made

a very favorable impression. on the west and on the united states. and he is. he is he appears he and the foreign minister to be negotiating in good faith there's a tremendous reservoir of hostility toward iran and i think the president of iran and the foreign minister have gone very far to dissipate an. impression upon the americans the government and nation that this is a different government this is a government that recognizes the things that have gone wrong in our relationship in the past shown both. that we want to move back into the community with the world we want to do what we were elected to do which which should bring iran back into the international community and into the international economy.

that one of the world's most wanted fugitives has wished britons a merry christmas and constant vigilance and as a whistleblower edward snowden made an appearance on national t.v. whether or not so uplifting message on the emergence of western surveillance states but he and on a cheery note assuring viewers that it's not too late to fight back or just boy boy girl reports 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 it's heavy to watch the queen's speech with your family this year the queen was wishing brits a merry christmas she spoke about the grandson about the years achievement spots channel for airing an alternative christmas message from n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden to him 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 all about privacy he said that george orwell's one thousand nine hundred eighty four was the real. fairy tale

compared to the reality that we're living with right now or 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 phone ronald for 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 in the questions that he's raised around democratic societies so they can be hoping that they will have nigeria's towards questioning that status quo that little bit more by having edward snowden talk to them about privacy today earlier we talked to jim killick executive director of the open rights group and he told us that if the site is remain docile there'll be nothing to stop the rise of surveillance states if we don't think about the consequences of that and ask ourselves how we limit the power of the state in

the face of this change that digital technology brings then we are going to be you know move into a surveillance society just by default because governments are going to use of course they're going to use a bail for people from time to time but what we found for edward snowden is that they've changed the what they do you know twenty thirty years ago they would have targeted a few individuals they wouldn't have been trying to surveil the whole population not unless you were you know east germany or something what about what we know now is that that's what we're doing we're just gathering information on everybody indiscriminately of course we're not going to stop governments from spying on each other but that is a very very different matter than using the excuse of terrorism to keep tabs on everybody. snowden is not the only one delivering a christmas message on liberty a us civil rights group has had a say to releasing a comedy video of santa poking fun at the n.s.a.

watch it now dot com well maybe the time for giving but it's also the time for spending coming up on our t.v. and overdoing the festive spirit has taken hold of millions of brits or are said to be saddled with christmas debt for months to come. and a story of riches to rags for the muslim brotherhood just months after holding the reins of power in egypt the group is now not only banned from the country's political life but officially designated as terrorists. it was just over two months to go before the sochi olympics athletes are putting everything they've got into training for a chance a gold zat service for a victory is just a strong among the paralympic contenders are just maybe the coach snowfall is a story of one athlete found the last of his legs was no match for sporting ambition. this is one second family thirty six year old by d.m.c. lukin is the captain of the twenty fourteen russia sledge hockey paralympic team

and this training base as his home mortgages are here almost every day at this training base morning till night training and while the games are just around the corner the athletes are training even harder than after well most of your every day is the say we get up we have breakfast then we trade on the days that we have a game to play we arrive at the stadium an hour before spend some time to get ready and then we go and fight. but things haven't always been so crystal clear for him but team lost both his lacks while serving in the military and changing. progress i remember everything like it was yesterday i was completely lost i didn't know what to do next this is my friends from the army supported me go to the sport first i tried swimming but they're not let thinks. in two thousand and four he launched a sport club for disabled sports man his dad occasion to slash hockey again five

years later at that time slash hockey was barely known in the country and there were no teams no conscious no experience but these guys managed to change that sassed and fearless just like the plague begin to sit on the set to get the ball to court what it was strange at the beginning i remember there were very few of us at first training we tried to hold the sledge but we could not handle the thrust we were falling down constantly now the newcomers use us as an example of what patients commitment to training and outstanding determination you know these guys have it all to turn their lives around and become an elite athlete to make it to the national team and that takes challenge to be the best at saatchi winter pearland slash hockey has been a part of the. lympics since nine hundred ninety four but this is going to be the first year and russian team has competed and this year the competition on the ice is going to be much tougher. not only at some u.k.

back in canada the world sledge hockey challenge this year we played against the teams of canada in the u.s. they're very skilled athletes we still cannot outdo their experience especially in the little things we're trying very hard at the. more attention competitive pressure but for ng assets and the team is no exception there is one thing that matters the most at them then picks. what every player thinks only about victory how to grab it and never let it go this is important. question a tool or region r.t. . r t has been keeping up with the team so the can for a while now and it will continue to do so as he had to sochi but if you want to read up on his story or watch our previous reports on him and so on our website. such. as the country fourteen olympics what's this place like why is it so

special as the russian resort prepares to welcome the world power the games shaping the city's present and future what more sochi will bring you this is the moment they're reporting from a very cold and snowy windy mountainous tough beyond the olympics but the. starting germ of the first on our team. turkey a gift and a tipple or two but all these christmas pleasures come i have to cost one that matters families in the u.k. will struggle to pay back a new study says it will take the average household until almost the middle of twenty fourteen to get over the debt bump but as laura smith reports nothing could be further from the minds of the credit card wielding consumers on the streets of london. people are in the grips of a buying frenzy last minute shopping last minute spending and last minute going into debt british families are more likely to start the new year buried under

a mountain of credit card debt than almost any of the europeans only remain ians and turks splash more plastic britons are also taking on more christmas debt in two thousand and thirteen than the year before which is granted fears about the wider economy the bank of england says a recovery has taken hold but these debt figures raise the possibility that the recovery's being fueled by money other nations do have other forms of debt says i n. g.'s senior economist credit cards have a killer pit bulls credit card can in soft be expensive the interest rate on it furthermore critic tends to get mixed up on various and she's like you take credit card you pay to do that and you also pay for more precise things such as a present to pay back over a number of months for example critic card it can be particularly useful for

a number of people but we must be aware of the pitfalls if you don't keep yourself under control for now though the most you hear on regent street spend today and deal with the consequences later you know in fact only one in four britons said they had any intention of paying the money back but the high interest rates on credit cards mean debt can easily spiral out of control and tough economic times potentially spell a less than happy two thousand and fourteen for the indebted. coming up later r t international mexico eyes or looks at how big time banks first managed to keep out of jail. the united states we have over and over jamie dimon and and j.p. morgan's critical time at the crime it's a crime of crime they've they've paid a dozens of fines this year for various crimes so you go like jamie is begging to be imprisoned some people i've had this experience when i worked on wall street myself a lot of people they beg to be wiped out financially and my role as

a stockbroker is to euthanize their accounts jamie dimon is a guy who's begging to be euthanized and i think as a country is a world we should get together and answer his wish he wants to become one with his maker he says look i broke the law please arrest me i want to go to jail and be abused by hundreds of thousands of inmates in some on godly way that's my goal in life i'm tired of being free put me in prison i beg you so he breaks more and more laws but unfortunately the law breaking becomes the basis of the g.d.p. for a country like america and they can't put him in jail because i need him out there breaking the law so they can pay themselves huge bonuses at the end of the year so he's really is an existential crisis that's his christmas wish but nobody will fill his christmas wish oh it will be a. little. the muslim brotherhood has officially been named a terrorist group in egypt less than

a year after its candidate mohamed morsi won the presidential election now the group is outlawed by the country's military backed interim government which ousted morsi six months ago the organization is blamed for tuesday suicide bombing at a police headquarters in the north of the country sixteen people died and scores more were wounded the muslim brotherhood denies any involvement and is demanding an investigation cairo based journalist for he says things will only get worse from here. but this is a new escalation in the long running feud between the security the state and the muslim brotherhood what they are trying to achieve is to cry. these samas all together and not to leave any room any space for that group to enter into political life again but they seem more defined the 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 january twenty seventh 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 vicious cycle. and coming up in the program the world's youngest country is on the brink of a deadly civil war we speak to critics who claim that those at the helm of south sudan's push for independence sacrifice the country's future for the sake of their own ambitions. and on paper it's still the world's wealthiest nation but appearances can be deceptive working class americans are increasingly finding that they can't provide for their families and are being left behind by soaring inequality artist reports luis vasquez is a nineteen year old college student and his family's principal breadwinner he makes

seven dollars and twenty five cents per hour working at mcdonald's a company that pays its c.e.o. over thirteen million dollars a year five siblings and a single mother. i mean to be honest the conditions are not great you really can't do much on. one thing for certain is we're actually on public assistance and the reason you know that's the only way we're surviving. fast food is a two hundred billion dollar industry and the so-called ninety nine percent that serve and make the food live in poverty. income inequality and the widening gap between rich and. who are these what galvanized america's occupy wall street movement in two thousand and eleven everything that inspired everything those people were out there screaming and yelling about a few years ago is more painfully more true now more than half of all u.s. wage earners made less than thirty thousand dollars last year this as millions more

are sliding down the economic ladder below the poverty line tonight let's declare that in the wealthiest nation on earth no one who works full time should have to live in poverty and raise the federal minimum wage to nine dollars an hour. months after u.s. president barack obama made his promise. yet fast food workers even more than one hundred u.s. cities have been taking to the streets pleading for an increase in the minimum wage sending twenty five pages so low the majority earning are forced to rely on government assistance like food stamps to make ends meet the bottom line is that wages have gone up the united states in forty years the middle class has been disassembled and this is increasingly a country that has a standard for a third world or developing country distribution of income it's a winner take all society and if you don't win the taking it all means taking it from you to make matters worse this situation is turning into

a supersized problem you see low wage jobs account for the bulk of new jobs added during the so-called u.s. recovery this while fast food and retail which mostly pay minimum wage remain among the fastest growing sectors and while vast ques a computer engineer major continues looking for a better paying job it's hard to find employment but that's the short i can tell you that it's hard to find employment or what i have is this is these are lives that we can actually put food on the table for our families and be able to at least pay some bills and get buy a dream carl lewis of america wants to work and. struggle just to survive maureen a fortnight. now as you look at some other stories from around the world and a judge in saudi arabia has recommended that a leading blogger a face the death penalty for rejecting his long drive but ali has been behind bars since he was sentenced in june to use

a seven year term and six hundred lashes for making supposedly and to islamic statements on his liberal website the case has been linked to a wider crackdown with two of the country's best known political activists sentenced to ten and eleven years in jail sentences and march. the united nations has criticized you came a gratian bill saying it is likely to stigmatize foreigners and create a climate of ethnic profiling the un refugee agency says the initiative if passed would violate the rights of asylum seekers prime minister david cameron has proposed new measures to deter illegal migrants barring fear access to bank accounts private housing and free public services. the japanese prime minister has visited a controversial war shrine in tokyo drawing sharp rebuke from china and south korea its first time in seven years a leader has visited the memorial which honors people who died in the second world war including convicted war criminals this comes at

a delicate time in relations between japan and china and the tensions over a small group of violence in the east china sea that they both claim as their own. european union and some east african nations are sending their special envoys to south sudan to try to prevent the conflict there from escalating into civil war but if mats are expected to arrive on thursday while the american envoy has already held talks with the government and some members of the opposition a power struggle between the president and his sack deputy has inflamed deadly tribal tensions thousands of people are fewer to have been killed in less than two weeks or this country gain in the pants from the north two years ago according to a story gerald ford that was a big. mystic united states was basically the midwife for south sudanese independence united states in its real world posed to the khartoum 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 self in

this public. and then there's the china question the chinese oil company is deeply invested in south sudan and for allowing the chinese was also seen as a tool through which could be accomplished through independence of secession for self-defense chevron felt that it would be in their best interests if so sudan were to see 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 so sudan and with oil let's get a hundred dollars a barrel and you can see that this is a pretty penny. and nature throws an unwelcome christmas party for the passengers of an australian operated ship. the seventy passengers on board were hoping for a once in a lifetime arctic adventure and got more than they bargained for when the sea ice

closed down on the vessel what happened on our website r t dot com and radiation fears for fisherman in japan's fukushima province to dump the most of their catches contamination continues to spread more than two years after a nuclear disaster. that's coming up next it's world apart well it's not a boycott. the so finds the atrocities. of

psychologists and. life to the world. by giving. hope. to so many children. along the welcome to walt a part of some a fascist most famous prisoners for at least recently as part of a nationwide amnesty but rather than seeing it as an octave clemency critics accused the russian government of trying to manipulate public opinion on the eve of the sochi olympics so who is really beating the rap here well to discuss that i'm

now joined by tom election not the russian program director for human rights watch thank you very much for your time first of all let's talk about the release of. whose case really stands out because it wasn't part of the amnesty but rather he was released on a presidential pardon. what was humanitarian grounds i wonder if you read anything into it whether you believe that the grounds were aimed. humanitarian well i think it's largely an effort by the authorities to boost russia's image in the run up to the olympics in sochi in which are just a few weeks away possibly the g eight summit which is also learned in sochi in another few months so yes indeed i would actually agree with me how you how they're costly himself. it is a public relations project does it make of what's less well new not at all because

indeed it means quite a lot for harder for his family it means quite a lot from those prisoners of bollocks if i may call them out there sprott us to those in charge what must riots say for individuals for individual victims of abuses means that it means freedom but done for the state of the rule of law in russia i'm afraid it doesn't mean much while you just mentioned several other high profile cases that are part of the amnesty and again as i mentioned holocaust case is a bit different because it was totally up to put into whether to release him or not it was his prerogative as president that he could have chosen not to exercise it so if this deal was going on anyway of twenty thousand people were going to be released including some of those very famous prisoners that you just mentioned that's what have created this public splash anyway in the political goal that you're alluding to would have been achieved anyway so why fight of koskie well

first of all most boyko who might be kidding because if you look into the amnesty it seems to be sceptical soviets toil traditional kind of an amnesty touching up on the vulnerable groups of prisoners pregnant women elderly people minors women with small children and so on and so forth and none of the last moment there is a month added on to include into the amnesty. nicholas such crimes those who goodness him and most roads and i would like to stay on for just one more question his imprisonment imprisonment had a symbolic value it was always presented as a sort of reflection of how bad the human rights to sion in russia supposedly was i wonder if you attach the same symbolism to his release doesn't mean. let's say political climate in the country may be changing simply because he is being set free.