at least three people are dead and seventy nine unaccounted for after an apartment block collapses following the gas explosion in the russian city of magnitogorsk. person in france to are to step up joint patrols in the english channel off to a spike in the number of illegal immigrants trying to get to the u.k. over the past two weeks. the russian children are held and held in an iraqi prison with the allegedly isolated parents are now back home we were there when they were turks to russia. and a french newspaper apologizes after people compare its latest front cover to images from the nazi era.

a very warm welcome to you you're watching r.t. international with me. now we start this hour with our top story at least three people have been killed after a part of a residential building collapsed due to a gas explosion in money need to go towards go russian industrial city around one thousand seven hundred kilometers east of moscow or thirty say the fate of seventy nine people is still unknown a resident who was a vacuum waited from the building described the scene. almost as i was more cannot 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 i thought there would be

a stance but we left the corridor and there was just trouble. well joining me now in the studio with the latest is artie's a ghost town of eagle thanks for coming in it is a developing situation so you can bring us up to speed on the latest let's just talk about how how awful the timing is it's new year's eve it's a holiday that's freezing temperatures tell us more well indeed the tragedy couldn't have struck at a worse moment possible here because again as you said it's a national holiday so nobody has to go to work pretty much in the overwhelming majority is off today so it's early morning it's it happened at around six or seven in the morning so everybody's in birds or just waking up and it's ahead of the new year as and then an explosion hits so we do know it was a gas explosion in the central part of the building the one that essentially collapsed and so basically because of the explosion and the collapse of the total of forty eight apartments were affected so people from forty eight apartments could be under the rubble and that's one hundred ten residents in total officially

according to the official documents of the those forty eight apart apartments accommodated more than a hundred people so that's why such a large number of unaccounted people we do know three bodies have been already recovered four people injured seventy nine dozens really dozens are unaccounted for nobody knows what's happened with them so that's why a lot of rescue teams are on the sides a lot of. and they are really really rushing beyond taking any time because it's freezing temperatures go below twenty. twenty degrees celsius so it is freezing in this is no would could make the difference what could make the whole difference if a person makes it or if a person doesn't make it because even if a person finds themselves in some cavity in the some safe space between the collapsed blocks still it's freezing and they can just freeze to death

it is an absolutely appalling situation at the moment it was a gas explosion we believe do we know what caused that explosion at this point not yes indeed the only official version right now is it was a gas explosion on the first floor again in the central block of the building how it happened nobody knows yet but we know that the criminal investigation has been launched in general the official response has been pretty huge two ministers in route to the city to the site of the tragedy the health ministry the health minister and the emergency as minister vladimir putin has been briefed on the tragedy and from what we understand he's monitoring it personally so emergency situation has been declared in the city as well and hospitals are basically on standby with blood ready for whoever might need it given the timing of this that this tragedy and given the temperature is minus twenty one

degrees celsius we believe it is in magnitogorsk right now is the we can we be optimistic do you think about these trapped people well the body count i'm afraid i have to say the body count might and is likely to climb up but really well everybody is hoping for a miracle right now but it's not just the people in that particular section of the building that collapse that have been affected the jason basically the whole it's a long long apartment building in the whole of it has been evacuated some more than a thousand people more than a thousand people in total live in this one building alone so. many of those are believed to be after the authorities to meet and evaluate if this other parts of the building are safe for people to return to then they will be allowed back to their apartments but the adjacent sections to where the blast struck they have been evacuated and most likely around three hundred people are now won't be able to

return to their flats or the authorities have already promised to buy and just give for three new flats for those who won't be able to return to their old apartments for now they are looking for options to accommodate them in dormitories or one dormitory right now the all the all have been evacuated to two nearby schools and this is sort of an emergency shelter for them also locals are turning in great numbers from what we've been hearing and really the tragedy instantly touched the hearts of other people in magnitogorsk and they're bringing in things like hot food clothes again it's minus twenty celsius outside so the how the can to relieve the suffering of those who have been affected by this tragedy well as you've said all out efforts to get while to try and recover these seventy nine people who are still

missing let's all hope for the best and hope that they'll get home safely if those are thank you. and other news now britain and france say they are to increase joint patrols in an effort against illegal immigration into the u.k. just after an unexpected rise in my quince arriving in britain via the english channel over the past two weeks and this is that they picked up the story. deeply concerning the u.k. immigration minister is sounding the alarm made for a recent sage and migrant crossings over the english channel what to do in a crisis pick up the phone while 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 is a partnership all too familiar when it comes to border protection but having spent millions already to sat up and then move refugee camps one of the biggest flashpoints of the migrant crisis the port in kobe which made headlines almost

daily. from cal a today for the poor to seen a spike in the number of adults some children arriving at the kents coast sporadic crossings was 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 if in the last fifty days all say. the even.

increasing pressure has meant the you 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. they have not got a grip on it what we've got is unsatisfactory and somebody has to do something ultimately the buck stops with the home secretary for now such a javits plan is to keep the number of specialist border force 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 to zero but if the home office is in need of armed forces support the no navy air force an. answer amidst all the mounting pressure there's also the problem of cracking down on people smugglers the

problem is that the more one house patrol craft out there the more it can be regarded as the 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. for the home secretary to consider is the u.k. home secretary weighs up his options on the issue time is ticking for a concrete solution in 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 effort to tackle the crisis has been unsatisfactory. the to ministration has been at fault we only have five patrol boats in the channel sort of unified the troll boats for the board of fools only one of these is actually in the do it was straight in the channel of 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 hundred attempts this year partly because there's a great fear that one spreads happened much more difficult to cross the border. thirty 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 their allegedly i still links mothers who went to iraq and syria medina cancian of reports. little of. the children have returned to russia this evening from iraq right 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 who did d.n.a. tests specialists went to iraq to take sound bites is that in the material went from the identification process then i 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. in prison in the iraqi 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. some have already been convicted all of these children

were born in russia and taken by their parents who fled to the rear in a rock allegedly to join terrorist rinks 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. after we started to bring them home campaign last year in an attempt to reunite children who were kept in iraq often ages with their relatives i can russia at least eleven children were overturned by our campaign and dozens more by other references you can follow their stories on our website r.t. dot com. how to deal with the families of islamic state finances was one of the most discussed issues this year not just in russia but also in europe as we recap the events of the year here's what a panel of guests had to say about the u.k.'s approach back in july. there hospitalist approach it has to be a balance of using the judicial system for people who have committed

a crime by joining prescribed organization and a rehabilitation program and i think michael recognizes that and his review of the terrorism strategy is bringing holistic piece together our counter radicalization and i counter terrorist threats in u.k. has been absolutely a joke we have had the government listen to that is what we're seeing is extremely . positive but it is what he was really well so he will finish i'll finish doing my bit so we have a situation we've got british kids in syria being radicalized now we don't know who's committed what crimes now i do we bring them back home all we are going to take them out with. asked strikes which are about twenty percent accurate or drone strikes which ten years of use in afghanistan or pakistan show up out there for six or seven percent accurate indeed no drones are two percent accurate about ten twenty percent accurate you're lucky you're you're going wrong and. i'm going to

get analysis from doing alternative facts and we are really franchisee our justice system to the usa because usa has a death penalty but the reality is that we are using our sovereignty and telling the world that britain is not competent enough to really. sort of put through criminals through the criminal justice system they are british citizens we need to deal with our rubbish we've got to bring them home if they are capable of being d. radicalized and we can deal with them like they do in some of the nordic countries or some the scandinavian countries and we integrate them into british society great how do you go in and arrest these people and bring them back in a nice little police car to be put in a cozy cell to them go through a judicial system they're in a conflict zone they're a threat to this country so there are legitimate military targets we do not recorded we do not count civilian casualties we do not count collateral damage if there is believed to be we have. very responsibility the response no no no no no no

no no no on the first series in parliament it was absolutely clear the m.p.'s came forward said we have no records we have no evidence and the reason is we do not count them. a recent poll suggests that the majority of americans are against genetic engineering if it leads to so-called designer babies but many also see the benefits if it could eradicate disease the findings revealed that seventy percent of u.s. citizens surveyed would approve of gene editing to defeat incurable diseases that children inherit such as cystic fibrosis and around two thirds was 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 was still extremely controversial was used on twins lulu another in attempt to make them brazil's stunt

to hiv infection. and last was just a single. this soldiery was that. through each into. people. a few days later before returning. to greece. which checked hole 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 guest house in the city of shenzhen and house defended his actions but some scientists say it's a step too far. what i heard that there were wives or children from it i thought oh my gosh it just jumped ahead and i reckon microbiologists might at brian hadley think it's hard for people to accept such technologies as most don't understand the

process. being able to deliver this to adults which is a much which is in most ways are a harder and harder adults can consent and that is one of the young ticklish news is that clearly an embryo can't consent however i think it is unlikely as long as we're not causing damage which i know that a child who's going to object to being born. who are more strength than usual. more in durance to new genre has a longer life span new usual 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. this perception of change over time. when a brand new year is just around the corner let us take you back to the event some

people that say twenty eighteen off this very short break. welcome to the crystal ball edition of crosstalk what can we expect in the new year we have a great lineup of guests telling us they. join

me every thursday on the i like simon short and i was speaking to us from the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. welcome back french newspaper le monde has dedicated his latest front cover to anti-government yellow vests protesters and made a call large of pictures of president mccraw on the demonstrations but unfortunately if i minded some of another iconic image. and.

the cover dated saturday december the twenty ninth has provoked critical reactions from some of our readers with poet joyce to those who have been shocked by graphic design elements used were referring to russian constructivists from the early twentieth century which used black and red this is the way he looks with his face turned to the right it's quiet and express it looks a bit like a dictator and the shams it is down to his vest gives him but the image of the lunatics we saw their policy from the join up it is true that when you look at the front page you immediately think of nazi germany as i understand it they regret it

now because it 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 and. i think it's more important to grabbing things that move to meet us and start making climates that will drive us know when. a march by women's group in california has been cancelled by organizers of a concern is that it's going to be too white. up to this point the participants have been overwhelmingly white lacking 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 cancelation pointing out that over seventy percent of the population in the area are white say the organizers felt to encourage diversity. well the women's march which has been held every year since twenty seventeen has been accused of lacking voices from minority groups and of anti-semitism sonika college professor and author shavon jamieson believes the organizers were right to look for diversity they seem to be being 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 their lives white women especially white women and the middle and upper classes can pretend to be the all women i don't see why women other races and from the lower classes can also speak for all women generally if women from all different backgrounds are not present but we need to find

a way to get in the tube with the last hours of twenty eighteen ticking away it's time to look back on the events that have shaped it sit back and relax and enjoy our twenty eighteen years chris. was. well north korea dominated headlines throughout much of the year with fears of a nuclear conflict with the u.s. president trampin kim jong un exchanged a series of threats but when the two eventually met some things thought on the pad even seemed to form a bond any pressure and got the chance to visit the north korean leader's palace ahead of meeting 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 van and just to keep our men

one photographer and myself following a lot of savings. in this area is completely deserted and it looks like we're in circling something that appears to be the palace. if only someone told me where exactly we are right now but we are being told to fall this man. group. i don't really know what exactly this place this but it looks to be the area where it came john will be greeting. and the reason why i think so is because just through this door i saw came john 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. i believe this is a bit of a historic moment. sergey lavrov and kim 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 some lemonade.

so this is how suddenly you get treated to cranberry juice at the rooms residence. i can barely remember being given such at other locations around the world we were just told. the president which is just outside the doors. of the. city. and given the fact that we're inside the residence of the north korean leader kim jong the moon 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 one 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. so that said it all ended with. inviting him to rush up 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. franco right side. residence in pyongyang. the headlines for this. that. plane .

people. have been saying the numbers mean something they matter the u.s. of the with one trillion dollars in debt more than ten white collar crimes happen each day. eighty five percent of global wealth you long for the rich eight point six percent market saw a thirty percent rise last year some with four hundred to five hundred three per second per second and bitcoin rose to twenty thousand dollars. china is building a two point one billion dollar a i industrial park but don't let the numbers overwhelm. the only number you need to remember is one one business show you can afford to miss the one and only boom bust.

explain. please. cut. i. cut. player. play. hello and welcome to cross talk where all things are considered i'm peter lavelle welcome to the.