at least three people are dead and seventy nine missing after an apartment block collapses following a gas explosion in the russian city of might need to cool. britain and france to step up joint patrols in the english channel after by the number of illegal immigrants trying to get to the u.k. over the past two weeks. thirty russian children held in a rocky prison with their allegedly i saw linked parents are now back home we were there when they returned to russia. and a french newspaper apologizes after people compare it to its latest front coveted images from the nancy era.

a very warm welcome you're watching r.t. international with me great to have you with us we do start this hour with breaking news at least three people have been killed after a part of a residential building collapsed due to a gas explosion in maque need to go russian industrial city around one thousand seven hundred kilometers east of moscow or thor as you say the fate of seventy nine people is still unknown a resident who was evacuated from the building describes the scene there. it was also. i was woken up by the sound of the explosion and the shattered glass the windows in my living room were blown out i ran to the kitchen the windows there were also shattered i could smell smoke you know my neighbors were yelling the main door was blown out and it was blocking our door and then as i thought there would be a stance but we left the corridor and there was just trouble. don

of joins me in the studio now eagle understand the explosion happened in the early hours of this morning the situation is quickly developing the search and rescue is still underway what's the latest you can tell us well according to the latest information now there's only one version as to why this whole thing happened and that is a gas explosion according to the latest information from the officials it took place on the on the first floor the second story is you've as you would like as you prefer to put it over the central sort of block of the house so you can see the whole central section is collapsed as a result so there was a very powerful blast indeed the fate of seventy nine people is unknown so according to some information. was released by sources and by anonymous media outlets is that some people have been rescued from over there using fires fire

exits and far ladders but according to the official from information from the authorities seventy nine people nobody knows what happened to them some ten people were world they were taken out of the rubble but right now there are at least ten ambulances rescue crews who are on scene now the whole apartment block has been evacuated the there are there is a temporary shelter in and in the nearest school right now the total number of people who are who may be out of home right now is to three hundred people the number is three hundred people could be. home because basically the whole apartment block will be will most likely be unpopulated so they will the people will be moved out and right now the authorities are looking into the possibility of buying them all of of providing them with a different with different housing with housing in a different apartment block now the official response has been so far very high

profile both the health minister and the and russia's emergencies emergency minister both of them on their way to this city of magnitogorsk now three people are indeed confirmed dead so far so this is the official death toll seventy nine still unaccounted for so yes and indeed now the big thing the big question is as to why this happened not not as to why but how this how this happened what happened to the people what what is the fate of those seventy nine people who could be under the rubble right now also a very very big volunteer reaction to this is just people just ordinary people ordinary citizens of the city they flock to the scene of the tragedy and they are helping official rescue teams. take people out of the rubble you know clear the clear of the mess left by the explosion so they are helping the rescue operation

now of course the timing of the whole thing is also quite tragic because it is the new year's eve and here in russia it is the big deal it is sort of like like it is christmas in the united states or in the u.k. it's the big deal that they're here the big deal is the new year's eve is the new year is so people so if it's the holiday season so people were off most people were off so everybody was at home and it was the night so everybody were having their rest right before the break before the big celebration what the thought would be a big celebration well now. well this regard tragedy absolutely i was just about to say the timing couldn't have been worse with it being in the early hours of the morning also the holidays a majority of people would have been at home and of course well you know yet the search and rescue will be successful in finding these those seventy nine people still alive but you know it's very likely that this death toll could continue to rise thanks for bringing us the latest on the. person on the

front say they are to increase joint patrols in an effort against illegal immigration into the u.k. are soft and expected to rise in migrants arriving in britain via the english channel over the past two weeks a correspondent and he says that he picks up the story. deeply concerning the u.k. immigration minister is sounding the alarm made for a recent surge in migrant crossings over the english channel what do you do in a crisis pick up the phone well the u.k. home secretary and the french interior minister at least spoke to each other but is this really enough to combat channel crossings from the u.k. and france it's a partnership all too familiar when it comes to border protection but having spent millions already to sattar and then move refugee camps one of the biggest flashpoints of the migrant crisis the port in colorway which made headlines almost daily.

from cal a today of the poor to seen a spike in the number of adults some children arriving at the kents coast sporadic crossings were seen at the start of the refugee crisis but more recently over two hundred twenty men women and children have attempted to make their way over in the last fifty days or so. we wouldn't.

although increasing pressure has meant the u.k. him secretary has had to cut his holiday short he's been y. day accused of having a failed strategy he has still to explain exactly how the government plans to handle the small screen in the operations british ruled they've not got a grip on it what we've got is unsatisfactory and somebody has to do something alternately the buck stops with him secretary for now such a job its plan is to keep the number of specialist border force by sender if you but he admits there's no easy answer as for defense britain's armed forces are at the ready if need be we have not heard any requests asea bit of the home office is in need of force to support the no navy air force an honest and ready to assist and amidst all the mounting pressure there's also the problem of cracking down on people smikle is the problem is that the more one house patrol craft out there the

more it can be regarded as a pull factor because people these guys know that if they get halfway across the channel they're going to be picked up so it is a very fine dilemma to for the home secretary to consider is he a k. home secretary weighs up his options on the shape time is taking for a concrete solution and the latest developments six more rainy and men were found on a beach near dover on sunday morning professor of international history at london school of economics alan scared says that up to now the u.k. government's efforts to tackle the crisis have been on satisfactory. live to ministration spin at fault we only have five patrol boats in the triangle the sort of unified the troll boys for the board of fools only one of these is actually in the do it was straight in the chair no this not all of. the government seems to. done nothing to supply more birds parties because in past years they've been very

few attempts to cross the channel but since christmas there have been no one hundred attempts partly because there's a group one suspects it happened much more difficult to cross the border and. there's a russian children who had been held in a prison in the iraqi capital baghdad have now been allowed to return home they were jailed with that allegedly i still link to mothers who went to iraq and syria medina cotton of our ports. the little. children have returned to russia this evening from iraq brought on a plane organized by russia from baghdad the children are in quite a bad shape it is sad that almost all of them are in need of urgent medical

assistance this return home has been no easy task officials say that they have been gathering documents an average of two for months to prove that these children are russians we did d.n.a. tests specialist twenty you have to take samples and the material went through the identification process then we will not the necessary documents and so as for the children's relatives the previous flight of this kind to happened over a year ago meantime children aged four to fifteen have. been in prison in the rocky capital with their mothers almost all of them had to leave their mothers behind now dozens of russian women remain in prison in baghdad most of them facing charges for joining. have already been convicted all of these children were born in russia and taken by their parents who fled to syria and iraq allegedly to

join terrorist rinks and arriving back here in moscow the children have been receiving hospital treatment and general rehabilitation and of course they have already been reunited with their relatives who have been looking for them for months. well i'll tell you started a bring them home campaign last year in an attempt to reunite children who were kept in a rocky often ages with their relatives but. french newspaper le monde has did dedicated its latest front cover to anti-government yellow vests protest it made a call out of pictures of president mccrum on the demonstrations but unfortunately it reminded some people of another iconic image.

to call the dated saturday december the twenty ninth has provoked critical reactions from some of our it as we apologize to those who have been shocked by graphic design the elements used were referring to russian constructivists from the early twentieth century which is black and red this is the way he looks with his face turned to the right it's quite interesting he looks a bit like a dictator and the shams of his own his best to give him but image. i saw the apology from the join up it is true that when you look at the front page he immediately think of nazi germany as i understand it they regret it now because they went too far in a way there is nothing about nazis in here only

a suggestion but if you look at this it is a bit shocking. i think it's more important to work on things that need to be addressed instead of making black makes that will drive us no way. my. recent poll suggests that the majority of americans are against genetic engineering if it leads to so-called design a baby face but many also see the benefits if they could eradicate disease the findings reveal the seventy percent of u.s. citizens service. it would approve of gene editing to defeat incurable diseases that children inherit such as cystic cystic fibrosis around two thirds would also give their backing to engineering that would prevent non-fatal conditions like

blindness however most americans oppose genetic modification to choose eye color height and intelligence levels. or the poll in america comes a month after groundbreaking claims from china the technique while still extremely controversial was used on twins lulu and nona in an attempt to make them resistant to hiv infection. and last but it just. this sort of read was that. through. the end to you fact people. a few days later before returning. to. the czech hold the surgery when. the result. was. as you handed ethical concerns over embryo gene editing in china has

seen the scientists put under guard he remains in a university guesthouse in the city of shen journ and has defended his actions but some scientists say it's a step too far. what i heard that there were born children from it i thought oh my gosh i'm just trying to herd american microbiologist brian hanley thinks it's hard for people to accept such technologies as most don't understand the process. being able to deliver this to arabs which is a much which is in most ways are a harder role however adults can concerned about is one of the yes the coalition says that clearly an embryo can't consent however i think it is unlikely as long as we're not causing damage to a child. a child who's going to object to being born. with more strength than usual with more enduring still usual longer lifespan usually or with.

better mental capacity most of the public doesn't really understand the technology very well or what were you she was i think it's that with this perception of change over time i. a march by a women's group in california has been cancelled by organizes i have a concern that it's going to be too white up to this point the participants have been overwhelmingly white like in representation from several perspectives in our community instead of pushing forward with crucial voices absent the organizing tea will take time for more outreach some members clearly weren't satisfied with the cancellation pointing out that i have a seventy percent of the population in the area all white others say the organizers failed to encourage diversity. the women's march which has

been held every year since two thousand and seventeen has been accused of lacking voices from minority groups and of anti semitism so make a college professor and author of on jemison believes the organizers were right to look for diversity. they seem to be being a reasonable but i guess we need to be careful that this doesn't become into a kind of hollywood casting call for a few token women in veils white women especially white women from the middle and upper classes can pretend to be the voice of women i don't see why women other races and from the lower classes can also speak for women it's definitely if women from all different backgrounds are not present don't really need to find a way to get the matter to them stay with us for more news after this very short break.

which. country has gone into a nihilistic fever that's why i think i'm gonna hit the road and get out to traveling across america to find what makes america take the charlatans the genius of this place especially american hero this is it we've come to a point on which element is gone something we always are on the margins someone called the culture has million forty characters ah. we're starting last with is moving ahead of east into the swamp we're going into the belly of the b. i think i want to leave now doesn't get any more gonzo than the new maybe

completely different time and in this journey. join me every thursday on the alex salmond short and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see you then. welcome back now with the last hours of twenty eighteen taken away it's time to look back on the events that have shaped it so back and enjoy our twenty eighteen news crews. the. one north korea dominated headlines throughout much of the year president trump and kim jong the next changed threats and then the two met and apparently mellowed any of her trying to get a chance to visit the north korean leader's palace ahead of

a meeting with russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov. we were told to leave most of our belongings and all our mobile devices behind and now they're taking us somewhere. so we're here in this just to keep our men one photographer and myself rolling a lot of state in. this area is completely deserted and it looks like we're in circling something that appears to be the powers. that be if only someone told me where exactly we are right now but we are being told to fold. the groups. i don't really know what exactly this place this

but it looks to be the area where it came john will be. and the reason why i think so is because just through this door i saw him john and sister and she was having some sort of conversation with the guards but nobody speaks english here hello. and as far as i understand this is circular. i believe this is a bit of a historic moment. and came john thune are talking behind this small we were asked to wait in this room so

let's just have a walk around and take a look at what they. to offer a. dark north korean chocolate i can tell you that it tastes just like any other dark chocolate anywhere around the world. so this is how suddenly you get treated to cranberry juice looms residents. i can barely remember being given such. locations around the world we were just told. the president which is just outside the doors. of the city to be. interviewed and given the fact that we're inside the residence of the north korean leader kim jong un again i'm just going to say i'm absolutely shocked. and. it is really disappointing that we won't be able to find out exactly what's

being said behind these stories but just a few hours before mr kim and mr lavrov met the russian foreign minister said making the korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons is a very delicate issue maintains that the interests of all sides must be respected. in the world. so that said it all ended with. inviting him to russia so let's see whether the north korean leader will accept the invitation for now we're heading back to the airport in the russian foreign minister's motorcade to try and go right. into russia found itself in the limelight more times than i probably would have wanted to. pulling out all the stops to. as a threat and as

a televised russia's foreign minister. again this the challenges that russia has faced this year. needless to say it's been a difficult year groceries on the constant pressure from those who see it as competitive for some kind of dominant position in world politics we see this in the way the u.s. behaves they talk openly about the need to restrain russia and china and they don't like iran or north korea either. we would like to see a european colleagues showing independence through their practical actions or unfortunately they're not entirely ready for this the fall of the united states even when it clearly runs counter to their interests let me give you an example the vote on a russian resolution in support of maintaining the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty we heard more concern from europe than anywhere else on the decision by the united states to unilaterally withdraw from this treaty but the entire european union voted against our proposal so in effect they voted for the i.m.f. treaty to be terminated and here to once again be overshadowed with the threat from

american missiles which are banned under this treating the next step of course will be countermeasures from russia this is not our choice but the e.u. cannot fail to appreciate the threat to the security of its own capitals there is no explanation for their votes against our proposal other than a false sense of solidarity with the united states and this is just one example the last in a chain of events this year but a very significant one. this question needs to be addressed to washington our president and his representatives have repeatedly said that we are ready for such talks at any time that washington wants them naturally this must happen on the basis of equality mutual respect and mutual consideration of interests we see the extent to which foreign policy towards russia in america has become hostage to domestic political struggles over there competing with each other to see who can attack russia more is considered a useful means of attracting votes says there is nothing we can do about this but we are always ready for equal dialogue with any country including the united states

as. well thanks for choosing r.t. international on the final day of twenty eighteen and we're back in just over thirty minutes with the latest. seem wrong but. just don't call. me. yet to shape out. educate and gain from an equal betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart. just to look for common ground.

hello my name's peter and i've been living in bushnell for about seven years and this is a film about just some of the crazy things i've got in the time. i mean it's interesting there's still a problem because. i still see if. you

know world a big part of new things a lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bats and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks.

to social. and so he shared not simply fortier's own the groundbreaking music of pink floyd still sounds fresh in the lyrics of roger waters are as relevant as ever how hard is the balancing act between music and politics well i'm hearing say peter's worth to ask the legend himself watcher waters musician author activist co-founder of pink floyd and my guest today is really great to have you with us today welcome to our show thank you everyone's really happy that you're here looking for your tour and i'm looking for a little chat so i'm going to start from the eternal question because you've been pushing the boundaries of music forever. at the same time the lyrics that you write are always very powerful so the question is what is more powerful the words or the music.