life among the ruins. report from inside mosul hears from the locals about surviving in the city five months after being liberated from islamic state. and. the. russian america's top diplomats. approach to north korea. also the. palestinians on their way from gaza to visit their relatives in israeli jails.

from just ten pm now in the russian capsule. thanks for being with us this hour. been more than five months now since iraq's second largest city was liberated from there's precious little time low for the people of mosul to return to his latest report from the city reveals the grim reality of life on the ground today. there are things you have to see to believe mosul is such a place the old city of mosul is by any measure a dead and miserable place more rubble than buildings and even that mixed with unexploded bombs and decaying bodies at the spite these people are coming back to live here and low self and not out of choice all the time to.

consume. could have and if. i did they enter a little when in which i. do it and money. longer she will the u.s. led coalition spent all in all more than a hundred thousand dollars strike hundreds and hundreds just in mosul the money required for just a few airstrikes could feed all the civilians in old mosul for months but no one has sent anything the local garrison division five shares its food with the locals and and showed up and handed out blankets but that eat no one else has helped their normal borrow not overlook the know how alone i still

believe not one of them but they know what donna no one marked no no no. no no no not to my dad. this isn't life it is a grim existence imagine spending your days salvaging copper wire to feed your family at eleven years of age she's a little hungry i'll get a lot of you know modern medicine not. what else is there to do in mosul watch the seven of them to still it don't look hollow questions that picture i mean that if. that if you. take these children have been through hell and you are going to have jani have to fight and to hell and it's the oh and you know god that you want it is why do you madea minimus hollow l.b. mound like done to closing your eyes won't help

a lot in mosul the smell is always there to remind you how many people are still buried in the rubble here is the gulag michel if you want to come. this year roughly two thousand five hundred ninety nine times me thought i was. if not the smell then hunger if not that then the dormant bombs if not then isis. five months since they declared victory escorts walked around with pistols in their hands drawn and cocked ready for isis hideaways. shot up with us with a goal mughal one of money. at the death of the

going to have. it will take you no longer than a few minutes to find isis flags or propaganda weapons i'm unique or unexploded bombs bodies tunnels this is one of the tunnels that isis used to move in and around the city for hided. it's a. matter. the world has forgotten mosul it's out of fashion no longer trendy and locals have a well founded suspicion that this was never about saving them. a recent investigation by the associated press found that up to eleven thousand civilians were killed during the battle for mosul that's ten times higher than an

earlier estimate if third of those were killed by either iraqi or u.s. led airstrikes. the red cross regional spokesman for the middle east earlier told us more about the situation on the ground in the city people believe that once the battles are over that the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people who fled mosul and left their homes are able to come back this is extremely wrong we are seeing the footage now on the screen how can they possibly go back when the city has been almost wiped off the face of the earth around five hundred to seven hundred thousands of people who fled mosul are unable to go back because primarily there is extreme and grave danger to their lives when it comes to unexploded remnants of war bombs are everywhere there is no access to clean water in the city there is no health care access our part as the international committee of the red cross we have started working with the medical facilities in the city and around the city supporting them with the medical supplies and and medicine needed to treat

the people all the humanitarian organizations present in iraq and working in mosul today are able to deal with the humanitarian catastrophe that the city has witnessed not one single humanitarian organization can really bring what is needed today to more sort. of has held a phone conversation with his american counterpart rex tillerson according to a statement from the russian foreign ministry he criticized the u.s. approach to north korea. so again a lot of room pointed out once again that heightening tensions over the korean peninsula through washington's aggressive rhetoric towards pyongyang stepping up military preparations in the region is unacceptable. and joins me live now with more samir thanks for giving us this update aggressive rhetoric accusations of that behavior from the united states what exactly is russia's concern over america's

approach to north korea well lavrov like you said has pointed out that washington's aggressive rhetoric and amplified military preparations are unacceptable and elaborate is most likely referring to south korea in us as joint military exercises and even south korea has suggested postponing its military drills until after the olympics to avoid any provocations but this proposal was rejected by secretary tillerson. but if it is possible for south korea and the u.s. to review the possibility of postponing the exercises and have made such a suggestion to the u.s. and the u.s. is currently reviewing all of these exercises have been ongoing for many years i'm not aware of any plans to change what is scheduled. but the fiery rhetoric between washington and pyongyang has kept the international community on its toes for some time now let's take a look at a quick recap. they're of strategic patience. with the north korean regime

has added states is prepared to use the full range of our capabilities to defend ourselves and our allies our suspected leader kim jong said that the u.s. would be unhappy to witness north korea strategic power on its independence day and called for frequently sending big and small new packages they will be met with fire . like the world has never see. any threat to the united states or territories will be met with a massive military response. the u.s. neglects the international community's will to stop this b.s. on the korean peninsula. but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies we will have no choice but to

totally destroy north korea now russia has repeatedly offered to mediate the situation but we've been hearing mixed messages from the trumpet ministration so it's unclear if this phone call will make any difference at all but it's certainly a positive start indeed that looks like negotiations are likely to go on well into the new year recall know about updates on the korean peninsula. now and social media it's been a pretty peculiar twenty four hours on twitter for julian a song for us the wiki leaks found his account temporarily disappeared there was a cryptic message from the u.s. navy getting to the bottom of all this money and of course. christmas morning arrives and julian assange just twitter account mysteriously disappears well this is what anyone trying to read his tweets was faced with for much of the day an error message saying sorry that page does not exist well if you're not familiar with twitter that appears only when an account is deleted rather than if it's been

suspended by either twitter or the account owner the vanishing act didn't go on notice to by other so on twitter and that's when theories began to circulate about what might have happened to us account. songs when he was prepping to drop something. trying to protect his drug of information. because he exposed the democrats and the clinton crossed family believe we can say without a shadow over doubt. it's true julian the sun going dark is next really significant development wouldn't want to be hillary clinton right now. can disappear as a conspiracy theorist rush to post the attention seeking. twitter christmas

people. but that's not the end of the story because also that day the us navy fueled the conspiracists with this tweet just two words julian a son written and speech marks that tweets was deleted swiftly as it appeared but it was up long enough for people to take a screen grab the neighbor's explanation was that one of their twitter team and advertently posted during a routine monitoring of trending topics before taking it down again not everyone was convinced by that explanation though some side it simply didn't watch. while others felt that sound one and the u.s. navy might have been giving a cry for help to juliana sanch also made a vague reference to the u.s. navy but it concluded by saying that despite all the excitement julian assange situation remains the same. despite some auditors from the u.s.

navy and tweeted today grist physical surveillance dylan songs physical situation of the embassy remains to north to confined without charge in violation of two un rulings requiring the u.k. to such. as sound as time line was later resorted to but there has been no explanation from either twitter or mr a sound some suspect that he was being prevented from making new earth shattering rather lesions while others claim that the restored account looks suspiciously different from the one that was temporarily taken down. in other headlines on israeli law has been filmed shouted insults at palestinians as they made their way from gaza to visit relatives in israeli jails just before he tweeted a photo of himself with an israeli flag saying that you've come to confront the families of described as animals. but.

there is really parliament's press service has refused to comment so far on the incident the fire brand behind the stunt all run as he was trying to garner support for a new bill that would prevent palestinian families from visiting prisoners in israel he staged some publicity stunts before as well as a member of prime minister benjamin netanyahu could party he first gained notoriety with a godfather style political ads he also tried to discredit a left wing by creating a false identity in order to provide made up testimony and he wants threatened to execute the family over the lead to palestinian criminal in a facebook video and more recently as you can see in the video that he violated protocol by taking an unplanned selfie with donald trump during his visit to israel

in may. and the red cross which was caught in the bus at the time from the gaza strip to the israeli prison has blamed the or thorough dues for the incident the organizations that it was their duty to ensure the family's safety during the visit a lot of cement go from the regional red cross told us the incident was unacceptable protecting human dignity of the human here and you're going to see action that is extremely important to us so people being treated this way south to one of the buses that were provided to them to be able to going to visit their families is something that is acceptable because there were elderly are there were children and there were lots of women on that last so that is why we call on the israeli authorities still help us are helpless to shore up their sleeves and the happen in the future there have been various no legs for following different conflicts that took place between that israeli state and between have passed there

are several that there are people missing people i think there are missing israelis and also missing palestinians and for us as a humanitarian you're going to say should the pain of the missing or the families of the missing people one of the utmost priorities and we've been calling on the authorities of all sides to respect their obligation not to the international humanitarian law. but u.n. is facing nearly three hundred billion deficit and it's pocket over the next couple of years as the u.s. amass the nikki haley didn't mince her words over the reasons why the budget is being cut the inefficiency and overspending of the united nations a well known we will no longer let the generosity of the american people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked this historic reduction in spending in addition to many other moves towards a more efficient and accountable un is a big step in the right direction. un members agreed the new budget on sunday

capping is at five point four billion dollars the united states of course makes the largest contribution owing to the size of its own economy is responsible for twenty two percent of the payments to the main budget contributes more than a billion dollars just over the last two years the us also accounts for nearly a third of the un's peacekeeping budget with more than three billion in annual payments on these latest funding cuts come just days after the u.n. overwhelmingly voted to reject donald trump's the sit in to recognize jerusalem as the israeli capital only nine members including the u.s. voted against the resolution one hundred twenty eight others supported it the united states has tried to pressure u.n. members with threats ranging from cutting aid to taking the manes of those supporting the resolution. when we make generous contributions to the u.n. we ourselves have a legitimate expectation that our good well is recognized and respected the united

states will remember this day they take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us when we're watching those votes against us will serve. we don't care just about everything that ambassador haley has done since assuming pause as being contrary to the spirit of the u.n. charter has been quite and diplomatic to the very notion of war diplomacy complete pack packed list tag for listeners and without any sense of nuance so this kind of crude language of threat and punishment use against nations and so forth this really hurts the uses image and credibility of war wide and united states is not helping it by having someone representing the united nations who saw undiplomatic and for into the spirit of the united nations. a special way. let's you know if your home is being sleep drawn has been developed by

american whistleblower and the surveillance company and edward snowden it works on andro devices can spot shadow electronic intrusion but it's unusual explains that model sort of you a few things you want want to keep quiet edward snowden has set out to prove he's capable of much more than leaking n.s.a. secrets he's keeping up the fight against digital surveillance and this time it's in the form of an app he's created a personal security system in the hope of empowering journalists and activists to secretly monitor their possessions and how the very fitting name meet haven. makes it harder to wince citizens really search. without getting. scripts is kind of. more people want to crack down. with i. say let's take

a closer look you simply install haven on any android phone and your device tends into a surveillance system it works by the app detecting changes in the environment using sentences already built in say you left your phone and attended in your bedroom and an intruder breaks in well first of all it uses the camera and it'll instantly start recording and may catch the unwanted visitor of course you could also set a trap for a nosy partner snooping through messages secondly the built in microphone will pick up any conversations to be private while that's great for recording intruders voices which you also be tempted to leave it somewhere you shouldn't in all cases of a breach you'll receive encrypted a let's say the up helps keep you safe but it can be exploited i can have a good site if there's domestic abuse going on for example and you want to record it and then go to the police they can have a bad side because you like you know being stalked by a jealous ex spouse or a jealous spouse even there's a potential. with you for it to be hijacked as well tickets running on android

which i think has closed it's of software within it so there's always a plus minus fifty the new technology of course that said edward snowden himself has always been notoriously careful about the technology around him famously asking journalists to place their phones in hotel fridges to stop the oil would be snoopers so it's uncertain whether this app will create a physical space you can trust or make you more paranoid of the device lying next year be aware of the spy next door. austria's recently sworn in charts that use margaret relocation quoters are helping solve the refugee crisis sebastian kurtz believes the problem should be handled in the migrants own home countries migrants who settle for europe don't want to go to bulgaria are hungry they want to go to germany austria or sweden they should be helped in safe areas in their own continent the e.u. should support that perhaps even organize it and back it militarily other similar

calls in the past from other european leaders just last month the french president proposed minute reaction to put a dent of people trafficking in libya some believe though it's approach that's deeply flawed. from the damascus center of strategic studies. to send european troops or european armies to protect these. virtual zones i think it's not practical in first of all these armies will be involved in the internal affairs of this country and their reaction from the law people will be may be negatively they will lose a lot of. soldiers first so i think to be engaged in internal a verse of any account you would it would be reflecting on their internal affairs and i think they should read very good the story of syria during seven years

they should read the story of libya the story of yemen the story in africa and i don't think that this is a good approach. now these pictures show just how desperate some migrants are becoming crossing the alps in this footage from italy to reach france now battling freezing temperatures and often insufficient clothing to try and seek a better life in europe and there's little sign that the flow will end any time soon as we've just said european leaders are increasingly willing to take direct action in migrants home countries. are again suspects e.u. members are trying to restart risk themselves as major players in the middle east and africa. are feeling that they are. outside of the political settlement now example in syria they are outside in libya they started to go if you are against libya then became not.

internal affairs of libya in yemen this is maybe in africa we cannot see that they. are all is very important so because of that they are trying to. to review their role in the middle east. now switzerland may not be a member of the european union but its president wants to hold a referendum on her country's relationship with brussels a fundamental referendum which helps with sly clarify its relationship with the european union the bilateral paths important we have to know in which direction to go. the issue's been causing some arguments between switzerland and brussels since last week when the e.u. decided to set a one year limit on swiss stock exchanges access to the block extension will now depend on whether there's progress in negotiating a so-called framework treaty between the two sides although switzerland isn't any

e.u. member it's part of the visa free travel area known as the shan ganz zone it's got strong economic ties as well with the e.u. currently regulated through more than a hundred but actually accords which could be simplified by the framework treaty some people in switzerland are very cautious about establishing closer e.u. ties we discussed the referendum idea with a euro skeptic from the swiss people's party which currently holds the majority in parliament the relations between switzerland and brussels get worse part of the problem is that in the worst in the world the boycotts start to increase unfortunately it looks like the european union is trying to weaken our financial center so we have to sleep in the past our own government has made a dramatic mistake to get on its knees way too quickly when we were attacked in that sense by the americans

a few years ago and now towards brussels to seem dangerous here we get on our knees too quickly that's all the headlines from r.t. for this hour do check out any of our stories on our website. and want to leave a comment on our social media as well we're back at eleven pm moscow time with more global headlines. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see that.

when lawmakers manufacture consent to step into public wealth. when the ruling classes and protect themselves. when the financial merry go round lifts only the one percent so. we can all middle of the room sick. leave the room clean relieved really. what politicians to do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president interim or somehow want to.

have to do like the press was like before three in the morning can people that i'm interested always in the waters of my colleagues. question. themselves somers and i built tiny houses for the homeless. six years back and they are here why do these guys down for me a tiny house is not a solution it will be a free for all. these nice safe conditions to live and. to sooth opponent around the city of los angeles. always good terrorist. nobody should be homeless anywhere but especially in one of the richest countries in the world.

i build everything with truth because i make a lot of mistakes. and it's easy to back out your mistakes in compton south central l.a. a pint sized idea has some us in a battle with city off already so when you have nothing and nowhere to go. you know having something like this may as well be a castle. the mayor of los angeles has declared the city is in the midst of a homelessness crisis. is trying to solve it one tiny house at a time the tiny house idea is very simple it's shelter. food water and shelter are not optional they're required for human survival so it's

a. temporary solution and like the first stone a foundation if you will to helping people who are homeless. according to elvis these cheap and portable tiny homes are meant to be on the streets of l.a. . and they need to fix. but right now they're not moving anywhere because city authorities banned them so they used to belong to somebody yeah yeah. and now they're being used now now they've been sitting here for a better part of a year collecting dust. and people are you know struggling and suffering. so yeah it's really sad i mean it's you know this is human life here you know. los angeles authorities have accused his tiny homes of threatening public safety but elvis has seen the tiny house movement go viral online with support coming from right.