at least four people are dead and sixty eight unaccounted for after that apartment block collapses following a gas explosion in the russian city of might need to goals. britain and france to step up joint patrols in the english channel after a spike in the number of illegal immigrants trying to get to the u.k. over the past two weeks. thirty russian children held in an iraqi prison with that allegedly on the legs parents from now back home we were there when they returned 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 aussie international with me. now our top story this hour at least four people have been killed after a part of a residential building collapsed due to a gas explosion in magnitogorsk a russian industrial city about one thousand seven hundred kilometers east of moscow authorities say the face of sixty eight people is still unknown a resident who was evacuated from the building described the scene. 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 my neighbors were yelling the main door was blown out and it was blocking our door and then as i thought there would be stance but we

left the corridor and there was just trouble. joining us live now with the latest in a direct shooter thanks to coming in a day right now we have been across this story since the early hours it's a developing situation of course can you bring us up to speed on the latest it is developing and the figures are coming in as always in these very tragic events and you can't ignore the timing it is new year's eve it's a national holiday it's likely that there were people at home because of that fact families the explosion happened in the early hours of the morning around six am local time about seven hundred kilometers east of moscow. and we callus you as i said that people were asleep in their beds they were preparing for the celebrations and the actual incident was caused by a gas explosion that the emergency services are saying to us in the center of a building if you can imagine it it happened at the weakest point in that building and it just collapsed we have got

a few figures here the building consisted of forty eight flats it was around one hundred twenty people registered in that particular building four people so far have been confirmed dead or people hospitalized including one child in that and we do have one eyewitness account who describes exactly what happened. there was a blast as first we heard there was an earthquake who rushed to a balcony and so fire in that house on the second floor no windows were left in our flat they were all blown out. it is an incredibly concerning situation especially given you know the amount of people who are still unaccounted for we do understand that the emergency services were very prompt they certainly were very prompt and you're exactly right there are sixty eight people still unaccounted for they know what's happened to fifty two people there the emergency services they reacted very

quickly they reacted within ten minutes of this incident happening approximately four hundred sixty nine rescuers there were planes on standby. vladimir president vladimir putin has been informed obviously and he's got staff on sunday by should they require more there's additional teams of psychiatry that are being deployed and the emergency ministry. you know has said that obviously a criminal investigation is under way for this now because of the freezing temperatures and the emergency services did say that this could have had an impact on why this happened so quickly we don't know twenty one to yes exactly minus twenty or so you can imagine but there is obviously the possibility of hypothermia on top of injuries that you would get from experiencing an incident like that so there are people probably there underneath the rubble they're doing their best to get them out but they have they are a bit worried the other thing about this is so this was actually

a building complex so that building collapse there were two of the buildings so over a thousand people now in a factory did they're worried that those other two buildings might collapse as well . in circumstances like this what is a positive is the community is pulling together obviously it's a hugely tragic situation they are rallying rallying around i think providing accommodation and blankets because obviously they've lost their homes lost family and friends some of them and we don't know what's going to happen at this point in time but like i say the investigation is underway you know to do so this is a doing that best and i will keep you updated as more details coming absolutely will be bringing our viewers all the latest on the situation throughout the day let's hope for the best the duty to thank you for now. in other news now our version of strong say there to increase joint patrols in an effort against illegal immigration into the u.k. also after an unexpected rise in migrants and rising in britain via the english

channel over the past two weeks our correspondent had missions to the 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 both having spent millions already to set 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 were seen. the start of the refugee crisis but more recently over two hundred twenty men women and children have attempted to make their way if i in the last fifty days will say. that it. was. well the 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 the operations in british ruled they have not got a grip on it what we've got is unsatisfactory and somebody has to do something alternately the buck stops with the one secretary for now such a job its plan is to keep the number of specialist border for space under review 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 of the home office is in need of armed forces support the no navy air force an arm and ready to assist and amidst all the mounting pressure there's also the problem of cracking down on people smugglers but the problem is that the more one house patrol craft out there the more it can be regarded as the pull factor because people at these gangs 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 time is taking for a concrete solution. the latest development six more iranian men were found on a beach near dover on sunday morning professor of international history at london school of economics alan scott says that up to now the u.k. government's efforts to tackle the crisis have been unsatisfactory the administration has been at fault we only have five patrol boats in the channel so we only have five patrol boats for the border force only one of these is actually in the do it was straight in the channel there's not always. the government. done nothing to supply more boat parties because in past years of being very few attempts to cross the channel but since christmas have been over one hundred attempts this year partly because there's

a group one spread happens to be 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 islington mothers who went to iraq and syria within a quarter never reports. 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 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. to for months to prove that these children are russians

we did d.n.a. tests specialists went to europe to take samples and the material went through the identification process then we filled out the necessary documents and search for the children's relatives the previous flight of this kind to happened over a year ago meantime these children aged four to fifteen have been 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 terror groups and some have already been convicted as all of these children were born in russia and taken by their parents who fled to syria and iraq allegedly to join terrorist rinks on 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. he started to bring them home campaign last year and attempts to reunite children who were kept in iraq you often ages with their relatives back in russia at least eleven children were returned by our campaign and dozens more. you can follow that story. on our website r.t. dot com. how to deal with the families of islamic state fighters was one of the most discussed issues of 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. the 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 my actual recognizes that and his review of the terrorism strategy is bringing holistic piece together our counter radicalization and i can't just tara strategy has been absolutely

a joke we have had the government listen to. what it is that he was really well so he was also the story 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. asteroids which 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 french are using 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 rubbish we've got to bring them home if they are capable of being de radicalized and we can deal with them like they do in some of the nordic countries or some scandinavian countries and we integrate them into british society great how do you go in and arrest these people bring them back in a nice little police car to be put in a cozy cell to them go through a judicial system there in a conflict zone they're a threat to this country so the legitimate military targets we do not record we do not count civilian casualties we do not count collateral damage if there is believed to be we have. very reform ability the response no no no no no no no no no on the first part of it was absolutely clear the m.p.c. said we have no records we have no evidence and the reason is we do not count them . and recent polls suggest that the majority of americans are against genetic

engineering if it leads to so-called designer babies but many also see the benefits if we could eradicate disease the findings revealed that seventy percent of u.s. citizens would approve of gene editing to defeat incurable diseases that children inherit such as 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 i color height and intelligence levels of the poll in america comes a month after groundbreaking claims from china that 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 was just a single. this soldiery was that we threw each into two fake people. a few days later before returning. to.

check whole the surgery when. the result. was. as you handed ethical concerns over embryo gene editing in china has senior scientists put under guard he remains in a university guest house in the city of shenzhen and has defended his actions but some scientists say it's a step too far. what i heard that there were a lot of orange children from it i thought oh my caution just jumped ahead american microbiologist brian hadley thinks it's hard for people to accept such technologies as mr understands 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 yes the coalition

says that clearly an embryo camp consents however i think it is unlikely as long as we're not causing damage to a child that a child who's going to object to being born. who are more strength than usual with more in durance to news of a longer life span new genre or with. better mental capacity most of the public doesn't really understand the technology very well for one moment you should so i think it's that with this perception of change over time i. want a brand new year is just around the corner but let us take you back to the event some people they say twenty eighteen off this very short break stay with us.

but. i've been saying the numbers mean something they matter the u.s. has over one trillion dollars in debt more than ten white collar crimes happen each day. eighty five percent of global wealth you longs to be ultra rich eight point six percent market saw thirty percent flies last year some with four hundred to five hundred trade per second per second and fifth cornrows to twenty thousand dollars. china's building two point one billion dollars a i industrial park but don't let the numbers overwhelm. the only numbers you need to remember is one one distance shows you can afford to miss the one and only.

welcome back french newspaper le monde has dedicated his latest front cover to governments yellow vests protest is a mayday call laws have pictures of president mccraw on the demonstrations but unfortunately it reminded some of another i told the image. and. then didn't do.

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 developments 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 expressive he looks a bit like a dictator and the shams that is around his vest it gives him a bad image of. lunatics we saw their apology from the join up it is true that when you look at the front page 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 suggestion but if you look at this it is a bit shocking. i think it's more important to broken things that need to be dressed instead of making climax that will drive us no way.

a march by women's group in california has been cancelled by organizers of concerns that it's going to be too white. up to this point the participants have been overwhelmingly white legging 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 over seventy percent of the population in the area are white others say the organizers failed to encourage diversity. 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 so they could college professor and author of on terrorism believes the organizers were right to look for diversity. 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 are those who are women other races and from the lower classes can also speak for all women generally women from all different backgrounds are not present but we need to find a rich and that you were the last hours of twenty eighteen taking away it's time to look back on the events that have shaped it so sit back and enjoy our twenty eighteen news curves.

was. well north korea dominated headlines throughout much of the year with fears of a nuclear conflict with the u.s. president kim jong un exchanged a series of threats but whether to eventually met things thoughts on the pair even seemed to form a bond if you are trying to i got the chance to visit the north korean leader's pilots ahead of a meeting with russia's foreign minister sergey 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

powers. that be if only someone told me where exactly we are right now but we are being told to fold. 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.

i believe this is a bit of a historic moment. sergey lavrov and kim john are talking behind this wall we were asked to wait in this room so let's just have a walk around and take a look what is. 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 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 of. movie 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 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. in the world. so that said it all ended with. inviting kim john 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. residence and pyongyang. there is on your world headlines. with the latest to see that. seems wrong. just don't all. get to shape out. and in again. the trail.

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