at least four people are killed and dozens still unaccounted for after an apartment block collapses following a devastating gas explosion in the russian city of. president putin's at the scene and it's the meeting with rescue workers. joint patrols in the english channel after a spike in the number of illegal immigrants trying to get into the u.k. over the past two weeks. thirty russian children who'd been held in an iraqi prison with allegedly parents are now back home when they return. and a french newspaper apologizes after people compare its latest front page to images from the nazi era.

here at r.t. h.q. this new year's eve we are in fact six hours away from twenty nineteen. the holidays have got off to a tragic start i'm afraid to say rescue teams are scrambling to find survivors in the rubble of a collapsed apartment block in central russia at least four people have died and at least thirty five a missing after the building in the city of magnitogorsk came down following a gas explosion president has been meeting emergency coordinators. we should think of those who lost their lives and who were injured but now let's start to work. we have all the necessary equipment and. clearing the debris. still remains aloft a meeting officials and rescue workers the russian president paid a visit to the hospital where the wounded are being treated he's promised full support for those affected by the tragedy. over

a thousand people have been evacuated from their homes following the explosion because of the risk of further collapse one of the buildings residents described the scene to us. i was more cannot by the sound of the explosion and the shattered glass windows in my living room blown out i ran to the kitchen and the windows there. i named is really really knew it was blown out and it was blocking all we're doing now. to stand up because i don't want to just trouble. all the authorities say that a period of mourning will be announced after the end of rescue and recovery operations do richard risk ross developments for it's an absolutely tragic incident this especially as it's new year's eve national holiday people will be preparing for the big celebrations tomorrow really really sad story this it happened the location is actually the southern part of the ural mountains quite

a remote area happened around six am local time in the early hours so you can as you can imagine most people would have been sleeping certainly in their flats there it was caused by a gas explosion in the center of this building this multi unit building in the section just collapse the two adjacent sides we've been told by the emergency ministry the being the real worries that those two sides would collapse as well hence over a thousand people were evacuated there what we know about the building itself it consists of forty eight flats there was one hundred twenty people registered to be living there four people we know so far have died tragically five people have been hospitalized one of those a child and five people were retrieved from the rubble so we do have is one eyewitness account from a lady who tells us what happened. there was a blast as first there was an earthquake who rushed to

a balcony and so fire in that house on the second floor no windows were left in else let. they were all blown out. if we look at how the emergency services responded they respond within ten minutes and there are literally hundreds and hundreds of speed workers now helping to try and retrieve others in the rubble of to be don't know whether the survived or whether they are fatalities additional teams psychiatry's have been deployed the emergency minister is on the scene as well and the emergency services and said that they will deploy me people if required what they're most worried about on the temperatures that are freezing it's minus seventeen minutes of time is a real sense for this rescue operation it's that predicted that it might go to my next step and it might also have required to go back as with all it's hard to things like this the communities tend to work together to try and help people and

that's exactly what's happening that at the moment that's pulling together helping those who've lost their homes army members and friends. and obviously that still waiting to see how the fatalities and injuries are. going to richard there was a former official of russia's emergencies ministry's praised the response of local authorities and the rapid deployment of the rescue teams. the use of what we do for you local authorities acted in the right way and their response was determined by the possible number of victims local rescue teams started working as soon as they were able to both the local rescuers and the back of team a well trained and qualified to carry out rescue operations. this year dozens of people have died as a result of gas explosions in apartment blocks in russia other tragedies linked to building collapses have claimed more than one hundred lives over the last fifteen years.

or we're going to keep watch on what's happening in magnitogorsk as the rescue operation continues after part of that residential building collapse and will be bringing you the latest updates as soon as we learn. for an afront save to increase joint patrols in an effort against illegal immigration into the u.k. after an unexpected rise in refugees arriving in britain across the english channel

over the past two weeks and he says he has the story. deeply concerning the u.k. migration minister is sounding the alarm made for a recent sage in migrant crossings over the english channel what do you do in a crisis pick up the phone well the u.k. him secretary and the french interior minister at least spoke to each other but so is this really enough to combat channel crossings from the u.k. and for. it's a partnership all too familiar when it comes to border protection but 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 or mistakenly. 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. to me. was. 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 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 as yet but of the home office is in need of armed forces support the now navy air force and army is stand 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 too for the home secretary to consider is the u.k. home secretary weighs up his options on the time is ticking for

a concrete solution. well among the latest developments a group of suspected migrants were arrested on monday morning after landing on a beach in kent six a rainy a member also found on a beach near dover on sunday morning international history professor alan scared says that up until now the u.k. government efforts to tackle the crisis have been unsatisfactory the current administration has been at fault we only have five patrol boats in the channel so we only have five the total boats for the border force only one of these is actually in the do it was straight in the channel and it's not all that. the government. done nothing to supply more boats parties because when asked years they've been very few attempts to cross the channel but since christmas there have been a hundred. partly because there's a group one suspects it happens much more difficult to cross the border and.

thirty russian children who'd been held in a prison in the iraqi capital have returned home they were jailed with their allegedly i saw a link to mothers who went to iraq and syria medina cotton of the reports. a little bit you know. the children have returned to russia this evening from iraq wrought 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 who did d.n.a. tests specialists went to iraq to take some lives in the material one from the

identification process and then one will not the necessary documents and search for the children smell exceeds the previous flight of this kind to happen over a year ago meantime 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 some have already been convicted all of these children were born in russia and taken by their parents who fled to the rich and iraq 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. she's started to bring them home comparing last year in an

attempt to reunite the children to be living in iraq who finishes with their relatives back in russia at least eleven children were returned as a result of a campaign and dozens more while their efforts you can follow their stories on dot com. well how to deal with the families of islamic state fighters was a much discussed topic this year not just in russia but also in europe three recap the past twelve months here's what a public guest had to say about britain's approach back in july. 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 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 it is what we're seeing is extremely.

positive but it is that he was trying to tell you well you 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 you know drones are two percent accurate. about ten twenty percent accurate you're lucky you're you're going wrong are. going to get analysis from doing alternative facts and we are really franchising 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 in the 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 or to be put in a cosy cell to them go through a judicial system they're in a conflict zone they're a threat to this country so they're 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. it's a very rare vulnerability and 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 new 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 defeating curable diseases the 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 modifications to choose things like i color height and intelligence levels of the u.s. pole comes a month after groundbreaking claim 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. when lulu and lars was just a single. this soldiery was the door we threw each edge of the enter its effect people. a few days later before returning little in the long arm to greece. which checked how will that use surgery when the whole genome sequence is

the result is that. this surgery was c. as you handed ethical concerns over embryo keynoting in china has seen the scientist put under god he remained a university guest house in the city of shenzhen and has defended his actions but some scientists say his work is going to step too far. what i heard that there were live or in children from it i thought oh my gosh you just jumped ahead american microbiologist brian handley thinks that it's hard for people to accept such technologies because most don't understand the process being able to deliver this to adults which is a much which is in most ways an a harder role however 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 which i know that

a child is going to object to being born. who are more strength than usual with more endure instant usually longer lifespan usually or with. better mental capacity most of the public doesn't really understand the technology very well the world one moment you shoes or i think it's that with this perception will change over time i. know without the international a leading french newspapers backpedaling after it's from pages compared to some controversial sinister images it's all next story after the break. you know world of big partisan movies lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that made stream media refuses to tell more than

ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the back 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. make this manufactured to send to the public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. in the final merry go round. the one percent. in the middle of the room sick.

and one of france's biggest newspapers has dedicated a front page to the anti-government yellow vest protest the hmong made a collage of pictures of president bush on the demonstrations unfortunately that reminded some readers of another more notorious 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 in the way he looks with his face turned to their eyes it's quiet and expressive he looks a bit like a dictator and the shams that is there on his vest it gives him a bad image. even if i saw their 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 dressed instead of making climates that will drive a snow way. cause

there's no escaping the dates and the clocks of trying to herald their rival of twenty nineteen in some parts of the world already people across new zealand and australia were among the first to see in the new year and as ever said a lit up the night sky in spectacular fashion. i. i always set the bar high now as we say goodbye to twenty eight it's time to look back at some of the events that have shaped it.

north korea dominated headlines throughout much of the year with fears of a nuclear conflict with the united states president trump and kim jong un exchanged to say there is a vicious threats but when the two eventually met things the old and the pair even seemed to form something of a bond i would pick up a chance to look around the north korean palace ahead of a visit by russia's foreign minister. we were told to leave most of our belongings and all our mobile devices because they're taking us somewhere. so we're here in this just to keep our men one photographer and myself rolling a lot of shade 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 fold a small. group. i don't really know what exactly this place this but it looks to be the area where i came john will be greeting. and the reason why i think so is because just through this door i saw him john the 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. clearly. i believe this is a bit of a historic moment. and

talking behind this wall we were asked to wait in this room so let's just have a walk around to take a look at what they have to offer. 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. residents. i can barely remember being given such access at other locations around the world we were just told to see the president which is just outside the doors.

here. and given the fact that we're inside the residence of the north korean leader kim jong un the moon again i'm just going to say it 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 in making the korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons is a very delicate issue moscow maintains that the interests of all sides must be respected. so that said it all ended with inviting 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. right from inside kim john residence. getting into the places other channels that's it for me the news team for now thanks for watching all of your spending then you have a great time and i hope you have a happy and healthy twenty. 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.

time after time so you know what you're going on the ground while we're away for christmas we're screening some of your favorite episodes of the season coming up in this we speak to sheffield. about the u.k. government's hostile foreign policy and hostile environment from libya and yemen to all grieve and as the trades union congress celebrates its one hundred. fiftieth anniversary today we go to the site of the battle of all green where tens of

thousands of office goggles and u.n. miners were attacked by thousands of police following the lord mayor's appeal to home secretary sajid javid we speak to the general secretary of you am and a minor arrested on that day. that's all coming up in today's edition of going underground well i mean the lord mayor of sheffield's office and with me is the lord mayor of sheffield called beth thank so much for letting all you know i'm going to. ask you how come you're here there are pictures of the first lord mayor sheffield william jeff gold a rather mining company. you. and you know what is honestly me being lord mayor is such a celebration of the so many other people about it with be a mother who made sacrifices will be friends who grabbed me and so the people of sheffield who really put their faith in me and chose me to be the lord mayor so

it's it's just amazing i kind of feel as if like i am just merely a reflection of sheffield at the moment and it's just i mean i generally do feel privileged and honored to hold this position then with something that happened the past forty eight hours one of your many initiatives on mental health would have you been yes each month i choose a campaign to focus my attention kind of really saw campaign so july was a whole anti rally and advance time coming to the u.k. and august it was the all grieve minus campaign for justice and then this month for me kind of wants to kind of touch on the topic of mental health especially as we lead as it was and well suicide prevention on monday so i kind of thought well. how can i just country be a bit more and actually just get behind the amazing way it's already been happening so i kind of with the help of a local charity the public health department or the council put together a u.k.

suicide prevention charter because at the moment and obviously.