president says it's very possible the north korea crisis can't be solved peacefully casting down toward talks between north and south despite the two reaching a breakthrough soft power deal to march compete under one flag at the upcoming winter olympics. elsewhere the u.n. agency for palestinian refugees has slammed america's this isn't to slash funding for the organization dubbing it the worst crisis in its history also to come. rushing even to disappear in parliament right now. with lies and lies in line are being told throughout europe and we hear this seems to read over and over again it's all about russia the european parliament with the clashing over threats and

fake news and allegedly coming from moscow. you're watching international. says there's a possibility the north korean crisis won't be resolved peacefully united states president claims that that's because having dialogue with kong is next to impossible let's get more on this story now from r.t. correspondent joining me from the united states kelly books like donald trump then back to his usual rhetoric when it comes to talking about pyongyang. yes if you look at the reuters interview donald trump repeats a lot of his typical rhetoric against north korea speaking against them blaming them for a lot of the trouble in the region and then from then he goes on to talk about how pressure and sanctions seem to be the right idea saying that dialogue might be

impossible this is from trump's interview i'm not sure the talks will lead to anything meaningful they've talked for twenty five years and they've taken advantage of our presidents of our previous presidents now if you listen to trump's words you would think that the talks currently taking place between the north and the south are relevant they're having no impact but actually there have been some historic breakthroughs in the recent dialogue between the two koreas it was announced that for the first time there will be a joint team representing all of the korean peninsula at the upcoming winter olympic games will be a women's ice hockey team competing under a joint unification flag representing all of the korean peninsula furthermore the north will be sending two hundred thirty people to the south as kind of a cheering section to oversee and participate in the games so these are certainly big breakthroughs let's take

a look at what has gone on on the korean peninsula as we've seen the two koreas in gaging in dialogue with each other in recent weeks. to sound much together in the opening ceremony under the korean. female ice hockey team. now furthermore i it's important to note that in trump's rhetoric he didn't just lash out in north korea he said that while he praised china for some of their efforts he said that they hadn't gone far enough in helping to economically isolate north korea and from there he actually criticized russia and said that they were not helping at all now russia has many times stated that they are a signatory to the international sanctions against north korea and that they have never actually breached them now with his criticism not just of north korea but also of russia and china trump continued to emphasize that he believed it was his strong armed approach and threats and sanctions and further isolation and

punishment of a country that was the best way to create peace on the korean peninsula from new york and so a correspondent thank you. now it's not just donald trump sounding tough on north korea western allies of the nine hundred fifty s. korean war they've gathered in canada and they've been pushing for even more sanctions but i guess the of tells us whether the meeting came up with any meaningful solutions the pressure campaign will continue until north korea takes decisive steps to do nuclear i think. is to send out a very clear message that we want to intensify that pressure it is not the time to pressure or to revert career the surest path to peace is to keep threatening north korea into submission after a long and challenging meeting that's the best the value of a group could come up with the purpose of our meetings today is to improve the

effectiveness of the maximum pressure campaign and combat north korea's attempts to evade sanctions the united states looks forward to hearing from our protest votes on how we can best do that more sanctions toughest sanctions though one might wonder what there is less of north korea to sanction or why they would work now when they haven't for the seventy years a few of the participants also proposed ripping up all diplomatic relations with the north that were to work and diffuse things re-inforcing autonomous majors when and where available. discord to include cutting off diplomatic ties to his north korea solid meeting of north korea's former enemies literally almost all of these countries were participants off the korean war on the side of south korea states such as luxembourg colombia greece belgium difficult to imagine what relevance they

have to the korean crisis these days but there you go noticeably absent with two countries that are actually relevant to the crisis apart from north korea itself the two countries that actually share a border with the north china and russia. russia and china were not invited to this meeting so they just said the meeting will take place on the sixteenth of january you can come in the evening we will tell you what we have agreed on this was unacceptable what the state department said about russia supporting this meeting that's a complete lie we consider this meeting harmful to. the most important parties involved in the korean peninsula nuclear issue aren't taking part in the meeting but we don't know what the goal of this meeting is so i don't think this meeting is legal or representative from the very beginning china has been opposed to this meeting issues ok so you invited

a bunch of countries that have little to do with the crisis and came up with all the tried tested and failed solutions they went a step further refusing any advice russia and china have long stood by a double freeze meaning north korea stops doing this. and south korea and the united states stop sending nuclear bombers to harass the north and poor's with the war games. no said rex tillerson when the north does it it's a provocation when we do it it's deterrents have a jew away but couldn't you wait. at

long last after years north korea and south korea and holding direct face to face negotiations the olympics around the corner and everyone with any sense once things to settle down so what does the vancouver group do while it gathers all of north korea's former enemies and declares it intends to tighten the noose around kim jong un's neck how's that for a path to peace. security analyst and former u.k. army officer charles she bridge says it's ironic that while south korea is seeking peaceful solutions it suppose it allies are escalating the rhetoric. it's a considerable course diplomatic achievement for the north and arguably for the south but i think it's particular ironic that last this if you like not exactly a fall on the bottom on it's going on at least a thawing of tensions between north and south what is happening in vancouver the

former allies of south korea of course are tightening the noose as they call it increasing the rhetoric and raising the temperature south korea itself today is seemingly at least for the time being rejecting that belligerent approach and actually adopting an approach of talking and trying to ease tensions and seemingly with some first steps as results it appears to be the case that when the interests and the foreign policy and the actions of the united states are put to one side local players are to some degree at least able to start finding local solutions. the u.n. agency for palestinian refugees has slammed america's decision to freeze more than half of its planned funding for the organization the agency has called it the worst funding crisis in its history white house spokesperson announced the decision earlier we committed a voluntary contribution of sixty million dollars for twenty eight thousand so far

sixty five million dollars that is money that will be held for future consideration it's money that's been frozen at this time it's not being canceled it's just being held for future consideration this is not aimed at punishing anyone. well the move sparked massive protests in gaza many venting their anger at the united states decision you can see here people holding banners and chanting slogans they're demanding further assistance for refugees. hundred started out of the world europe the arabs and everyone who has a connection to the palestinian cause is responsible for this we are the palestinian people who were evicted from our homes towns and c.d.'s we have a right to the support of the un r w l m which provides a minimum of assistance to the palestinian people are that what is now provided is not enough for a family to leave on for a month all these middle east correspondent paula slip takes a closer look at how the decision may affect refugees. what we have heard from the

united nations relief and works agency that this american money freeze will result in a dramatic reduction on the lives of palestinians this is a humanitarian and relief agency that supports some five point nine million registered palestinians and their descendants who fled or were expelled from israel during the one nine hundred forty eight and nine hundred sixty seven wars they currently reside in the palestinian territories in gaza in east jerusalem as well as in jordan syria and lebanon and this is why there is some concern being expressed that particularly in those host countries this decision by the american president donald trump could result in any instability now this is a huge blow to one where because the united states is the single largest donor and it follows course from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to have the agency close down altogether. you an r w a is an organization that perpetuates

the right to return for palestinian refugees narrative in order to eliminate the state of israel therefore the un r.w. must become a thing of the past now for nearly seventy years only right has been a lifeline to the palestinians who say that without it basic access to services like education health care sanitation would simply vanish and leave hundreds of thousands of children to even move on but then they are today there is also concern about his latest move undermines the ability of the united nations to respond in the future if and when there is a flare up of violence. earlier

i spoke to dr mustafa barghouti general secretary of the palestinian national initiative he says the decision will hurt palestinian refugees who are scattered across the middle east these are now more than five million or six million refugees that will be punished for being good a few g.'s be would be deprived from the schools would try to put out a medical care to leave people deprived of the people with disabilities this is a very serious a blow to the. very important engine see that is providing the community in the palestinian refugees in syria in lebanon jordan and in palestine itself back in june the us ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley tweeted a picture of herself posting with palestinian refugees at a camp in her post she explained how she wanted to speak with them about their hopes and their dreams two weeks ago she altered her tone calling future funding of

the refugee agency into question. the president has basically said that he doesn't want to give any additional funding arced start running until the palestinians are agreeing to come back to the negotiation table and what we start the resolution was not helpful to the situation we're trying to move for a peace process but if that doesn't happen the president is not going to continue to find that situation this. is directed. that ides of the palestinian defuses a typical gloom what you just said. being punished because we're not coming to the table of negotiations is totally and couldn't mr president that i can offer the negotiations those who are viewed as i don't know his dick and off of. he has dickon of the issue of settlements so his dear bill is the empty why would come to an empty table over to him this will never happen.

most of the european parliament a busy day discussing russia and suppose it threats coming from moscow theater all over us more now what we did see is this polarizing any piece on one side the group that said that russia was the root of all fake news and lies they were trying to drum up support and extra cash for the east struck calm task force now that's the e.u. body that tries to look into an expose what it sees as fake news r.t. sputnik featured very heavy in some of the rhetoric coming from these enemy piece they're focused firmly on the fact that every vote in europe was potentially the target of a dust that the russian plot and there are russian agents in this faro parliament right now and they're already trying to actively influence our elections russia to come to other channels are dangerous it's quite interesting. that the

communists and the name extremists nationalists in these chamber they see russian this information. of course your cards but we can see you are also voices pointed back towards those same every piece you just heard from saying that they were just looking for a bogeyman a scapegoat for their own political failings and that russia fitted that skate go perfectly we need to be careful when using phrases like i'm not trying to defend the russian regime i'm just rather skeptical of references to interference in the us and european elections there is no evidence of such interference. she did it with lies and lies and lies are being told throughout europe and we hear this seems tory over and over again. you say that the russian media spreads false figures and facts to us when have russians provided false facts when i followed events in libya

afghanistan iraq and syria and in all instances i've seen the transatlantic lies the media have been reporting published that bindings of following from this debate in whether there needs to be more financing for the east struck on passports in the spring and keeping an eye on that expect to see this debate over fake news not going anywhere anytime soon. about to our top story this hour donald trump has said that it's impossible so it's possible the north korean crisis will not be resolved peacefully is adding that dialogue with pyongyang is next to impossible to go between the careers have led to a major breakthrough in relations let's talk about this with eric's iraq in human rights attorney he joins me live on the line eric it is a situation where things look to be improving with the koreas uniting in just ahead of the winter olympics but now we have the u.s. president saying that peace just might not be possible why do you think he's so

negative about the situation. well we've seen this go on for decades now where something gets us closer to peace and something gets us hopeful that there might be a breakthrough and one side or the other explodes with rhetoric and it causes a problem or there's a missile test and such i think in the end there is a suspicion about peace on the part of the united states i think that president trump somehow believes that this pressure approach is the is something different than has been applied before which it isn't and in reality he wants to pull back some of the thunder if you will back to washington because you have again the north and south talking remember in two thousand and two thousand and seven they reached very substantive agreements the two sides of korea they marched

under one flag at the olympics in beijing in two thousand and there was a lot of hope in this situation there seems to be an effort to try to sink the possibility of peace and try to muddle the waters a bit if you will if the u.s. doesn't want peace. presumably conflict war would be a disaster if for so many people what's the emir is it to try and create some perpetual tension is that a useful thing for the u.s. . well the perpetual aspects in this conflict are the continued state of war which one is very financially lucrative for people it is something that is. there are billions and billions of dollars of weapons involved there's tens of thousands of u.s. troops and bases and posts and naval fleets and everything else around korea

and without that conflict the whole dynamic in northeast asia changes and so i think the us is a little. jekyll and hyde with its policies because on one hand it wants to have a resolution wants to have nuclear ization wants to have peace and on the other hand pumps up this rhetoric and doesn't support the very impressive aspects of the north and south meeting and what that could possibly be for peace and so the motivations relate to finances they relate to geo political factors of the u.s. power in the region if you will and they relate to trying to ice out china and russia a little bit as a player in this as was evident in vancouver where there were very important

meetings and side meetings with groups like women across the d.m.z. other political and peace groups that were meeting in vancouver as well with alternative visions that don't get reported too much so we're trying to almost slide into the old cold war dynamic of the east versus the west it seems donald trump has called on russia and china will criticize them for not putting enough pressure as he sees it upon north korea is there any evidence to suggest that that kind of believe you're into approach aggressive approach actually works. yeah this is been approach done since the axis of evil under george bush from prior to that to the failures of the agreed framework when the clinton administration thought the regime would collapse and we're playing waiting games and waiting games but this is been the forgotten piece and we've been waiting far too long for peace

on the korean peninsula and my greatest hope right now is that the international committee could community coming together in south korea south and north talking and dialogue happening around the world that maybe we can take this off the plate as a centric u.s. issue and make it an international issue and support the efforts of south and north coming together in korea to finally have the kinds of negotiations that they agreed to in writing in two thousand and seven they said the current arm assist regime will be ended and will build a permanent peace regime and they agreed to both work on that and to get the international community and the u.s. involved in that that's what central at this time and the armistice regimen of a temporary ceasefire a stablish permanent peace so we're not wondering about violence during the olympics so we can deal with nonproliferation issues and then we can reunite

thousands and hundreds of thousands of separated families and hopefully change the dynamic in the region that can be an example for the whole world frankly ever explain great through to you my guest in human rights attorney thank you. another nice pro independent supporters have found a mass rally in counter lonia that is celebrating the first session of the newly elected regional parliament which has a separatist majority. mass rallies for the common site since come to learn is vote for independence was declared illegal on the tree it means for a number of pro independent politicians jailed or cattle only the colors put them on went into exile in belgium many now expressed hope that he will return to power . we expect that from here today man can be proclaimed president the best option

what he that he swears in as president and brussels because what people have chosen and then he comes back to catalonia as an elected president. but i think there is a way that he can be elected and stay in brussels you know what is best for the country is to disobey the spanish monarchy and to make the catalan republic go forward there is a whole country behind him a social majority and once the catalan republic we don't have anything to do with the spanish monarchy emotionally mentally speaking and we want to make the republic go forward. as the first session of parliament wrapped up the question of the election of the regions president remained open among claims that he could run the region vice guy paul through a special representative of the session lasted the seats of those parliamentarians absence due to imprisonment or exile were marked with yellow ribbons the symbol of the independence movement. apart from pro independence activists anti

breakaway movements of also being gaining popularity meat. this is a fictional land inside catalonia which includes the barcelona and gado regions the activists who came up with it wanted to split from catalonia and join spain is their reasoning. yes but alice i don't know if a lot is that i can i mean we went from being one of the main drivers of the spanish economy to a mediocre autonomy at the exit of more than three thousand companies was followed by encouraging the civil population to disobey the constitutional order to get a republic that lasted eight seconds and without any international support. russia's investigative committee is claiming new evidence refutes allegations of state sponsored sample swapping at the sochi olympics at least on the hawkin's as more. well this is the result of a low inquiry by russia's investigative committee going all the way back to last year with regards to that doping scandal they've looked into some new details of

course of google rights in coffs account before head of masters and an approach now whistleblower and fugitive in the united states into some of the technical details in his allegations namely how allegedly these samples were transported and tampered with they found out that these samples were transported to the social abode three under strict conditions of supervision and then processed during daytime periods of between thirty minutes and two hours so a very rapid turnaround that of course contradicts the clouds which was quite different the people coming through the fire and here. i was in a liberal. school. they're claiming that this alleged operation took place in the dead of night it was of course his claims that resulted in this scandal which resulted in the banning of many russian athletes and blanket

ban and subsequently on the team. himself of course is a controversial enough figure as we said he's the former head of moscow's brought tree he is wanted there in russia on drug trafficking charges on selling and moving dangerous and illegal substances we understand he's now under a witness protection program in the united states nevertheless despite these charges it was his evidence his allegations that led to the mclaren report subsequently used as a basis for this banning blanket banning of russian athletes at international olympic events just last month we learned there are you see decided to impose a ban on the blanket ban on russian athletes at the south korean winter olympic games making them participate hundred neutral flags not on the russian flag not playing the russian at them. so this result really puts into question. any of rotten coughs allegations raises more questions that alters but certainly a very interesting turn to this story will be very interesting to see to follow it

and see where it goes after this. file activists supporting the recent movement against sexual misconduct are taking aim at the peers or third actors and other public figures who don't the direction in which the so called me to campaign is heading they face of furious backlash has the latest examples i feel like every time you turn around another me too headline has hit the press with new accusations from directors to actors to fashion photographers but it seems we've reached a turning point as we're now on time miss our concern that the campaign is becoming a witch hunt take margaret atwood author of a handmaid's tale and acclaimed work attacking mythologising who says she's starting to doubt the movement this structure guilty because accused has applied to many more episodes in human history than salem my fundamental position is that women are human beings the full range of sente and demonic behaviors does entails including criminal ones they're not in

keeping all of wrongdoing the backlash she's received online and in the media has been ruthless strange how someone so brilliant can demonstrate so little insight and self reflection i guess privilege is blinding which margaret and i would get back to reading dystopian future but i'm a surgeon ist world instead of you know actively creating it. i mean seventy eight year olds on exactly knowing that progressive takes connelly's a right the first female african-american secretary of state also says me too maybe changing perceptions of women and not for the better i do think we have to be a little bit careful let's not turn women into snowflakes let's not infantilize women over in france one hundred influential female artists are being led by actress catherine deneuve and signing an open campaign letter against me to rape is a crime but in system comes the floor is not a crime nor is gallantry of sharpness aggression now this liberation of speech has

been turned on its head but the reaction to that was furious and another was forced to issue a hasty apology a few prominent men have also voiced their reservations one of them was actor liam neeson there is a bit of a witch hunt targeting famous people may accuse of. touching some girls in the forest something they they're being dropped from their approval right or something unsurprisingly nice and comments have also been less than well received by many the problem here seems to be that there's often a if you aren't with us you're against us mentality with movements such as me to those who are speaking out about their concerns are not condoning sexual assault nor attacking the campaign itself but more often than not their words are twisted or go unheard attwood may have said it best herself in times of extremes extremists when ok you're right it was that but that's.