over to the u.k. now where thousands of documents relating to controversial episodes in british history of peer to be missing the national archives claim they were misplaced or simply removed by civil servants and the revelation has sparked quite an outcry the british people deserve to know what the government has done in their name and their loss with only a few accuse ations of a cover up as a historian it's impossible to believe this loss the declassified files themselves show governments view the public largely as a threat the threat of democracy is deeply embedded if it happened in russia for example would be up in arms about corrupt governments but hey this is the british way to avoid scrutiny of its past misdeeds and artie's polly boyko takes a closer look now at what the exact pages of history have been lost. well the national archive is a very important resource especially for people like historians and journalists because it keeps documents relating to the country's history and the idea is

a perfectly transparent system whereby once government documents are deep classified anyone over the age of sixteen can go to the national archives and access these files but not all of them because it appears that some of them have gone missing some of the files relating to thorny a moment in british history among the files missing are papers relating to the full clinton's war there are documents missing relating to the northern ireland troubles as well and perhaps most controversially the files relating to the famous. letter from way back in nineteen twenty four that was a huge political scandal at the time because m i six almost certainly forged a letter that was then leaked to the press that well it was just discredited the labor government at the time and ultimately resulted in its downfall now the files

missing are all listed as misplaced while on loan to government departments so there is this situation now where a number of different government departments are under pressure to explain why they have taken these bits of paper but they have failed to return them now we've asked the home office for a comment on that is an obvious letter we still haven't got a response we have however heard from the foreign office now the foreign office had misplaced a file relating to the markov case that was way back in one thousand nine hundred seventy eight it was the shooting of a dissident both gary and journalist on waterloo bridge which isn't too far from where i'm sitting now this is what the foreign office. to say about those documents take a listen seventeen of nineteen documents have been recovered and sending them back to the national archives we're still searching for the documents to have not yet

been accounted for so an explanation there and clearly efforts being made to shall we say correct what has happened because the public care has a right to access these files access these chapters of british history rather than finding that they have been misplaced and according to some misplaced a little too conveniently omitted contact the national archives they told us that when loaned files go missing they request that action be taken international affairs commentator jonathan steele says that the huge loss of sensitive documents raises many questions. scandal because as you pointed out most of them refer to incidents in the past britain was in a very bad position because there was a question of torture in northern ireland there was no obvious letter interestingly when the time when we're talking about free news we used to tamper with elections all kinds of allegations being made we haven't got the evidence that was once

a variable has now gone missing preference is being asked to do did you did you keep documents did you make copies did you make. the duplications why didn't you then send the originals back if you were making a copy why didn't the government department send it back to the national archives where they belong. just on the turn prevent a whole series of questions that need to be answered. facebook has blocked all accounts of the head of russia's chechen republic so after the us treasury included his name in a list of sanctioned individuals. has more on the story so since last weekend the facebook and instagram accounts of the head of russia's church their region runs out. could there of have been unavailable that smaller than just regular offline status isn't the pages were blocked it was big news in russia and chechnya since mr

kadeer off is a really big fan of social media it's a bit like donald trump and twitter on a smaller scale but the total of four million subscribers that's something it's more than changes population could arabs instagram became one of the main if not the number one new source in the region the reasons for taking the chechen president offline were first unclear but it's easy to start drawing conclusions given the bad following since so quickly and there you have it a few days actions so quickly and there you have it a few days later facebook admits it if you read the network's terms of use you'll find it rather difficult to interpret the rules on banning people but the question is why have the pages of russian companies for instance mostly hardware producers which are also under sanctions not all so been blocked so after all facebook seems to be quite vulnerable to pressure from washington some may now even say that they

could have seen it coming after hearings like this in america the extent to which the russian exploited your platforms maybe this isn't some this isn't some just the government has to do this is something that you guys have to deal with and fix this brings us to the question of who won or who lost in this indeed the band is an inconvenience for and i was on he ends up having to switch to russian equivalents of facebook and instagram think of it as let's say switching from apple to android but where does this leave the reputation of facebook and its attempts to keep up the image of being independent time will tell but i bet users will start having second thoughts about their social media. lives after this not all the russia but around the world. well north african country of to news year has demanded an apology from the united arab emirates after emirates airlines banned female to

museums from boarding flights to the u.a.e. last friday citing a possible terrorist threat the move has caused unsurprisingly quite a lot of widespread anger. i wish him she would believe my would i go to a country that wonder exactly if that is the case and we should also be opposed to just on the united arab emirates. knows that these approaches are a force preventing our lovely visiting arab countries is unacceptable when we see the westerners going from country to country freely the most rigid is one of the tunisian state must defend the rights of two new zealand women and force the u.s. to apologize. the passenger ban was lifted the very same day the gulf states foreign minister later tweeted the necessary for security stressing although also that respects the values of respect and i'll use rather to museum women without searingly it wasn't enough for tunisia retaliated by banning all emirates

flights from landing at its airports and this tweet was posted by the airline informing customers that flights had been suspended we spoke to a two museum blogger and activist who said bua use initial passenger was an insult it consider that what happened is all asian of often asian women rights but it's a violation of women rights and general the spokesperson for the national presidency talking about security problems but this doesn't justify what happened if a small female babies were not allowed to go on planes i don't think that. was the tunisian government is still asking for official apology and it happened under the pressure of people here in tunisia. and

a large saudi coalition air strike has hit a busy market in yemen killing at least twenty five people that's according to local security services we're about to show you the. immediate aftermath of that attack we should warn viewers though it does contain images that are distressing dozens more civilians were wounded in the bombing raid which happened in the west of the country many of the victims are children so you arabia launched its campaign back in twenty fifteen in march of that year to support the government against shia who three rebels. has repeatedly claimed that its airstrikes do not target civilians international law professor believes the global community should bear some of the blame for what's happening in the water one country. the international community particularly the members of the international security council during the night of nations security council are participant our company with the crimes that

are being committed. crimes are being committed against defenseless. people civilian people in popular markets it is absolutely unconscionable if there is any doubt that there have that these acts constitute crimes against humanity there should be at least some kind of investigation also since november saudi arabia has been blockading yemen splodge the war ravaged country into an even deeper humanitarian crisis. is no camomile no where rubbish rubbish and we drink from rubbish and if and when accuses us of lloyd they can come to us with everything with the right choice.

to hand over the governor now and why he are looking for fools who have no work no work places that is why we work here. today if we look at the middle east yemen is the most urgent humanitarian catastrophe that the world needs. to highlight the almost eighteen million people need some sort of humanitarian aid more than twenty people men women and children lose their lives on a daily basis in yemen food and. medicine prices have really

increased to an unattainable extent where people are unable to buy their basic necessities this is really unacceptable for people to die of totally preventable reasons. i would say you're crying now we're a major prisoner exchange between care from the self-proclaimed donetsk and lugansk republics in the east of the country has now finished it's the largest since the start of the conflict the japanese foreign minister and the u.k. foreign office have both called it a significant step towards implementing the minsk agreements. and president of my old micron have also praised the swap they've called on both sides to exchange the remaining prisoners sort of on course if the details this is the largest prisoner exchange since the beginning of the conflict back in next wednesday fourteen seventy forty great his soldiers were returned from donetsk and lugansk.

while three hundred and six were supposed to be returned from kiev here to the nest and look guns however that figure has changed at the very last minute with the authorities in kiev cleaning that some of the prisoners had already been released and some of the prisoners have refused to be reserved back here to point all number of those who read third hole into the guns stands at two hundred forty the beagle however everything went smoothly during the prisoner swap. he failed to close the checkpoint as it was agreed for this prisoner swap the exchange to a little bit longer a lot longer than. and initially of course this prisoner swap with the humanitarian part of the minsk agreements which are designed to settle the conflict here in the east of ukraine however one positive that can be taken out of this is that the

families will see their loved ones for the new year holidays both in ukraine and here in the contested territories as well. meanwhile the u.s. department of state has released a statement regarding yesterday's phone conversation between. the document says that the us secretary of state asked russia to return its representatives through the region they left just last tuesday saying that this would help to decrease the violence in eastern ukraine. which is going back to recover our breaking news story from this hour the russian city of st petersburg security services say an improvised explosive device may have caused the explosion at a local supermarket or the force of the blast is thought to have been equivalent to about two hundred grams of t.n.t. the device was allegedly filled with objects aimed at causing as much damage as possible emergency services say ten people have been taken to hospital the surrounding area has been put on lockdown the building was immediately evacuated

russia's investigative committee says it will consider all possible causes of the blast. thanks for staying with us here on r.t. international just going thirty pm moscow time that's all for myself from the team for this hour we're back at the top of the next hour time for more global headlines . but. with. all. the. snow worm good i'm. stupid to

even. youse knows to. east oklahoma. into. those so the fall colors cause so. los angeles the city of luxury and fame but also an alarming number of people living in the streets. the simple fact in l.a. is there's just not enough shelter even if people on the streets right now decided

to come in there's nowhere to come in and it's been a struggle. this man phoned his own response to the problem and constructed dozens of tiny homes for people in need of shelter when you have nothing in order to go. you know having something like this may as well be a castle but do the authorities accept such solution tiny house on a city parking space is not a solution her to someone wanted touring the site otherwise it will be a free for all and is there a better alternative to end the homelessness crisis. hello

and welcome to cross talk where all things are considered peter lavelle president donald trump's two thousand and seventeen national security strategy report tells us how he sees the world or rather how the washington foreign policy leads for a candidate who ran on a message of change the report is unremarkable in its defense the status quo policies and views clearly washington's neo cons are running the show. the national security strategy i'm joined by my guests in washington michael o'hanlon is a senior fellow at the brookings institution and we have brian becker he's the director of the answer coalition as well as host of loud and clear a daily new show on radio sputnik all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate brian let me go to you first i'll be quite blunt i mean i read it quite carefully it seems more or

less a continuation of what we've seen for almost the last thirty years and actually seems a lot more. confrontational i would say. the some of the points that about trade actually agree with on immigration i actually agree with but more or less the same guy only the people that wrote the two thousand and seventeen report could have written the one justifying the iraq war if you actually compare tex they're very similar in the words they use go ahead. well i think i'm glad you mentioned the iraq war because the national security strategy which is a congressionally mandated report from the executive branch. it sometimes is a predictor of what's coming in in the case of george w. bush six months before the invasion the shock and awe invasion of iraq.

bush came out with the national security strategy which provided although we didn't use the exact words of preemptive war it was the logic of preemptive war another words the u.s. arrogating to itself the right to perceived threats and go to war against them even before the us has been attacked of course that would be a violation of the u.n. charter and international law but nonetheless it became a powerful logical explanation for what came later the question now with donald trump's national security strategy is does this predict where trump is really going in and i think it i think it does i mean he mentioned china twenty four times in the report mentions china twenty four times all of them in a bellicose aggressive way it mentions russia in a in a bellicose and aggressive way there's no kind words for either china or russia iraq and north korea rogue states and of course non-state actors terrorism is the

third dimension of the threat to america and so you have the trump administration sort of bringing together the america first or overarching sort of agit prop of the trump election campaign with this idea that the rise of china or the reemergence of russia now back on its feet means that america is receding that america is being humbled that america is the victim that america is threatened and so i think what trump has actually done is articulate the not just the possibility of a new cold war but the logic of a new cold war and thus it becomes almost official in washington and. things will follow from that ok well that's a very interesting takeaway mike what was your reaction to it because when it was over a year ago i think it was when we still had candidate trump and he was. in the national interest i think his article was i mean this principled realism i still don't see anything principled and i don't see any really real is

a minute here go ahead mike. hi peter nice to be with you i agree with some of what brian just said i do think that there is a tone in the report that is strong and tries to push back and that push backs pushes back strongly against china russia north korea iran i agree with all that i do however and by the way you're aware i'm not a supporter of president trying but i never was but i know who he is and i know why he got elected and the putting america first concept if i could just begin with that in my in my first comment because that is the centerpiece of the opening page and i think the title of the report or at least the subtitle and i think frankly the way in which that concept is described is basically ok now i share some of your and brian's concerns about the tone toward certain countries that we can come back to that but putting america first of course can be interpreted as a zero sum competition among nations or it can be interpreted as here our

principles we're going to try to live by we expect others to live by them and if we can all do that then we can all prosper and at least in terms of the theory of the report at least in terms of the language that's on the paper i think that it's more the second that in fact there is an effort here to say we should be able to get along with other countries so some of the criticisms about the sort of generally negative tone of the report i don't really agree with that i do agree that the report is very tough on china and russia and north korea and iran ok let me read you a short fragment here and this is directly directed to russia and china these competitions russia and china require the united states to rethink the policies of the past two decades policies based on the assumption that in gauge human with rivals and their inclusion in the in international institutions and global commerce will turn them into benign benign amazing actors and trustworthy partners for the most part this premise turned out to be false i mean this is really really remarkable it is you

know it's not the international system it's the international. the system as it's perceived and constructed by the washington consensus and if the chinese and the russians don't want to play by our rules want you to rules they are rivals even adversaries like i pointed this language extremely arrogant because it doesn't it doesn't bring good policy foreign policy result for the united states and i would say put the world go ahead brian yes absolutely i am so i'm so glad that you read that particular part of the report because it says so much it's not just that that part of the report is not simply an attack on russia or china it's a repudiation of past u.s. policy or the perception of u.s. policy since the end of the soviet union when they're talking about going back a couple decades we're talking about going back to the time of the collapse of the soviet union in the socialist bloc countries so trump is repudiating the past twenty five years well during the past twenty five years the united states sought

to function as a unit polar dominating power but still used multilateral institutions in other words kept the framework of multilateralism and the hallmark of american foreign policy at the conclusion of world war two and keep to the construct of the post world war two world order that had the united states in charge but in a multilateral framework where different powers including its defeated enemies from world war two japan and germany had a place they had a place as junior partners where they were given access to markets etc rather than what happened after world war one trump i think is stepping back on a lot of levels of the abandonment of the paris a climate treaty the rejection of t p p the rejection of almost anything that has to do with a multilateral framework to bring up of the joint comprehensive planners trying to sabotage the iran nuclear arms deal we see in this document the us in america first it says america will be the dominant power we're no longer going to

pretend. multi-lateralism is enough to keep china and russia and other countries in their place because they are rising and so american must put them back in their place and thus it will be by the exercise of american quote american threats american intimidation we see that at the u.n. today trump is telling the rest of the world you know if you vote the wrong way today on jerusalem you're going to be punished that's not engage me that's the cost of the and using either military or the threats of military or economic aggression or sanctions as the way of this imploding or policing the new post world war and now post or order i think that's very interesting you know mike when i read the report i found it to be very defensive about defense ok because i what really disturbed me was the lack of using diplomatic tools and i really very much agree with what brian was having to say here i mean particularly china i mean we've seen

this in history over and over again a rising power either you you know back off and let it happen you deal with it or you have a war ok and it seems to me out of the three options here this administration is actually telling us get ready for a confrontation i don't think it's really necessary but that's what it looks like go ahead mike. peter so thank you let me focus like you just did on china for a minute i thought it was a little too strong the report in terms of how i talked about china i think there should have been a statement to acknowledge just how far china's common how much progress it's made and and the order of the international order that you and brian were talking about did help make it possible so it was american strategy in conjunction with other countries including the soviet union but also our allies that created a u.n. system and then in the west that created an economic system that facilitated china's rise so whatever china's rise has become it was partly our doing and partly

our hope now there are problems in the u.s. china economic relationship and i think. we do need to take those very seriously but i agree with you that the tone overall is is too negative you know right now we have security concerns about china but that is to some extent inevitable with a rising power and i think overall i have worries about china too but most of its military activities that we don't like are in the uninhabited islands of the south china sea and they're not attacking other countries that are not doing things that historically you know rising powers that at the beginning of the twentieth century for example you know my well should have been a little more measured not mike let me say with you here i mean. put yourself in the chinese position in beijing and they read this report here and then they hear from the american white house sort of state department why don't you help us more on north korea i mean if i was sitting in beijing i said well what are you talking about these are your words this is your official policy and you come to us for help i mean it's really quite remarkable the same thing that actually can be applied to russia i mean bellicose language towards russia but then they say we need your help

or you're not doing enough to fight terrorism in i mean i think if you're outside that bubble it's really kind of. odd rhetoric coming out of this government in thirty seconds i'll stay with you mike before we go to the break go ahead. well i would treat russia and china very differently and i'm sure we'll come back to russia and we were right it was interesting that in his speech in his speech president trump did not use negative language especially about russia in fact he talked about the phone call he and president putin had thanking each other for recent cooperation and so that was a distinct contrast the speech was a distinct contrast to the written report ok gentlemen to jump in here we to go to a short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on trump's view of the world staying with them to.

come to call russia no one's ever known one has ever had a country never even heard about most.