the next day there is a culture on accountability and police officers know that they can engage in misconduct that has nothing to do with all their cry. at least four people were killed and dozens still unaccounted for after apartment block collapses following a devastating gas explosion in the russian city of. president putin's at the scene and has been meeting with rescue workers. come from such a joint patrols. the spike in the number of illegal immigrants trying to get to 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 to russia. and a french newspaper apologizes after people compare its latest from page to images from the nazi era.

hello for me to ask each q. and. a and happy new year if you've already welcomed in twenty nineteen sorry to say the holidays are getting off to a tragic start here in russia 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 coordinator. we should think of those who lost their lives and who were injured but now let's start to work with us we have all the necessary equipment and all the necessary person now we are now clearing the debris the risk of collapse still remains. after meeting with officials and rescue workers the russian president paid a visit to the hospital where the wounded are being treated he's promised

a full support for those affected by the tragedy. and over a thousand people have been evacuated from their homes following the explosion because of the risk of further collapse one of the building's residents described the scene to us. 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 they're all so 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 there was just trouble. the authorities say that a period of mourning will be announced after the end of the rescue and recovery operations that era shooters across developments for us 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 that 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 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 fled they were all. blown out. if we look at the how the emergency services responded that they respond within ten minutes and there are literally hundreds and hundreds of rescue 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 team of psychiatry's have been deployed the emergency minister is on the scene as well and the emergency services have said that they will deploy more people if required what they're most worried about i mean the temperatures that are freezing it's minus seventeen minutes of time most of the officers for this rescue operation it's predicted that it might go to my esteemed saturday night for everything what

about that as with all tied 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 family members and friends. and obviously they're still waiting to see how bad the fatalities and the injuries are. different today there was a former official of russia's emergencies ministry has praised the responsibly local authorities and the rapid deployment of the rescue teams. the local authorities acted in the right way and their response was determined by the possible number of victims and 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. for sure 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 here over the last fifteen years.

if i were closely following the situation and not need to go because that rescue operation continues after the collapse of that block of flats we'll let you know if we learn anything new. britain and from say they're ready 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 may first 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 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 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 callaway today is the point 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. well the increasing pressure has meant the u.k. . a home 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 this mosque 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 job its plan is to keep the number of specialist border force boats under review but he admits there is 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 have the home office is in need of armed forces support the no navy air force an army is stand ready to assist and 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 a 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 he ok home

secretary weighs up his options on the issue time is taking for a concrete solution. or are you member states of agreed on the necessity to undertake more decisive measures to curb the migrant crisis however the head of the european commission has criticized countries in the blog for changing their stance on claudia and her stress that they can't continue to work like that. all e.u. leaders have called for better protection of the european external border for more than two years and now suddenly many sizes started voicing concerns this would be interference in national sovereignty everything would go too fast and the numbers would be too high that's blatant hypocrisy. so clearly not happy when mr young has offices talk to independent journalist robert hun is welcome to r.t. again. he's criticized those members as hypocritical over their border policies but why are they pushing to strengthen them. where he says they're hypocritical but of

course this is the key problem for the european union isn't it he said that unless they have a united order order force that from texas reinforce that that's not europe because that's the problem the countries concerned extremely nervous about having their country with e.u. . border guards who would be sooner or later they'd be a deciding who is less here and its particular area be very upfront about this they're not prepared to agree to this. as some e.u. officials have previously suggested boosting the border force to something like four times what it is at the moment but would brussels ever go for that really because that starts the sound like it's the beginning of the end for one of the corner one of the corner pillars of all the was founded on free movement. yeah but i mean the talk about it from. no one's ever suggested free movement across the front area of the e.u.

but the worry is you have thousands of from tax agents who reports of brussels in what is supposed to be independent countries within the e.u. that's the key worry and it really is very difficult to see how the problem can be a result of that but the the free movement does come into question doesn't it if you've got e.u. members trying to stop migrants from crossing within the e.u. up within the yes i great show but i mean you're putting your finger on the on the real problem that people don't trust the european union to control immigration as they feel it should be controlled and therefore are prepared despite what they say . to hand over control and of course to that extent your girl is right there in your critical he's being a hypocrite when self busy understands the problem as well because in a very few months he'll be off he won't be there anymore somebody else i mean to deal with the problem what about hungary would have been firmly against if you

mentioned transferring its border control to the agency what can be done to try and unite these states some fail far more aggressively angry about this than others. well the the the real problem is something i said on your channel for a number of times is the european union has to distance itself from the american policy of intervening in the middle east these immigrants don't come from nowhere they come from countries that the west has stirred up for one reason or another if you lie syria iraq afghanistan libya and so on and it is from these countries these people come absolutely first thing to do is to stop meddling in these countries and let them settle down. mentioned a two year period in which the e.u. has been trying to improve protection for member states are going out and that's probably going to get snorts of derision from places like italy and greece and spain and what have you is it something of an acceptance then that brussels has failed those countries most impacted by flows of refugees oh absolutely are many

italians in particular are very bitter about this it's completely left on their own . at the same time putting out an endless criticism of their economy. ok we'll have to leave it there robert arnie's thanks very much for joining us on our ticker to talk to once again and happy know you happy new year. after years of bitter wrangling the united states and israel's decision to leave the un's culture and heritage organization came into force this monday washington announced its intention to boycott unesco in october accusing the agency of anti israel bias. on october the twelfth two thousand and seventeen the department of state notified unesco director general irina bokova of the u.s. decision to withdraw from the organization and to seek to establish a permanent observer mission to unesco this decision was not taken lightly and reflects u.s. concerns with mounting there is. the need for fundamental reform in the

organization and continuing anti israel bias. ok like the new york then analyses kind of. took us through the development while the withdrawal takes effect at midnight now if you look over it in twenty seventeen unesco voted to make hebron the largest city in the west bank as part of a world heritage site now this is a contested site at the center of the city you have the ibrahimi mosque to muslims as well as the cave of patriarchs to jews and it was deemed to be a world heritage site both the both the united states and israel have accused unesco of having a pro palestinian bias now it's important to note that in two thousand and eleven the u.s. and israel stopped paying their dues to unesco in protest of you know asco recognizing the state of palestine and as

a result in two thousand and thirteen both the united states and israel restricted their voting rights in unesco because they were not paying their dues now the fact that at this point israel in the united states are withdrawing from unesco actually fits in with quite a pattern recently of the united states pulling out of international agreements let's review. the united states will withdraw from the optional protocol in dispute resolution to the vienna convention on diplomatic relations the united states is officially withdrawing from the un human rights council we will not cooperate with the i.c.c. we will provide no assistance to the i.c.c. faceless politicize claims are brought against us if a critical bodies institution i'm just prosecution by this village adamant court the council ceases to be worthy of its name we will commence a review of all international agreements that may still expose the united states to

purported binding jurisdiction dispute resolution in the international court of justice now this seems to be just the latest use of a frequent tool implode employed by leaders of the united states if they do not like how an international body or an international court is going they simply withdraw. thanks for that kind of open in new york. here without international law a leading french newspapers backpedaling after its front pages compared to some controversial sinister imaging it's among all stories after the break. and. 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 think. join me every thursday on the alex simon shore and i'll be speaking to get a little bit politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. something seemed wrong why don't we all just don't all. get to see how this day becomes active. and engaged equals to trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

all over again thirty russian children who've been held in a prison in the iraqi capital have returned home they were jailed with their allegedly ice a link mothers who went to iraq and syria but in a culture of a report. listen a little bit you know. what. the 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 do know we did d.n.a. tests the specialists went to iraq to take something that's is not in the material when from the identification process then i will not have the necessary documents

and search for the children smell the seeds. 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 you know dozens of russian women remain in prison in baghdad most of them facing charges for joining terror groups and some 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 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. but in a culture that started to bring them home campaigning last year and in that had to

reunite children had been living in iraqi orphanages with their relatives back in which at least eleven children were returned as a result of our campaign and dozens more on other efforts you can follow their stories on. dot com. one of france's biggest newspapers has dedicated a front page to the anti-government protests made a collage of pictures of president the demonstrations unfortunately though it reminded some readers of another notorious image. and.

to. get in the car the dated saturday december the twenty ninth has provoked critical reactions from some of our reduced with polar joys to those who have been shocked by graphic design developments used were furring to russian constructivists from the early twentieth century which used black and red in 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 an image of the lunatic fringe saw that policy 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 suggestion but if you look at this it is a bit shocking. i think it's more important to grabbing things that we need to meet us instead of making climates that will drive us no one.

talks of trying to herald their arrival of twenty nineteen in some parts of the world already six of the twenty four time zones i've seen in the new here including parts of russia's far east well the history of just under five hours away from it here in moscow new zealand and austria. we were among the first to kick off celebrations and as ever sydney let up the night sky in spectacular fashion.

so happy new year to you if you there already now as we say goodbye to twenty eighteen it's time to look back at some of the events that have shaped. because north korea dominated the headlines throughout much of the year with fears of a nuclear conflict with the united states president trump and kim jong un exchanged a series of vicious threats but when the two eventually met things thought of the pair even seemed to form something of a bond and we may end up a trying to get the chance to look around the north korean leader's 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 now they're taking us somewhere. so we're here and 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 i came john will be. and the reason why i think so is because just through the store 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. north korean chocolate i can tell you that it tastes just like any other. anywhere around the world.

so this is how suddenly you get treated to cranberry juice. residents. i can barely remember being given such. a location is 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 the 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. so that said it all ended with. 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. go right. that's it for me kevin i was here and now to keep you updated on the new year. in a few hours time looking ahead to what we can expect from the coming twelve. once out for now though from a column brian i hope you have a happy and prosperous twenty nineteen and i hope and some doubt it.

will so you will be in. last year's does. it with the people most of us are not all what i mean. i mean.

really i look so good with a movie can you see as enough to buy if. you're in the form of the media. i'm with you more with the baby when was in the mom was nothing to do with many balls of goodness but while. i was at the field. six.