at least four killed and dozens still accounted for tonight after an apartment block collapses following a devastating gas explosion in the russian city of. president putin's at the scene and it's been meeting rescue great. britain and france had to step up joint patrols in english channel after a spike in the number of illegal immigrants trying to get to the u.k. over the past two weeks. russian children had been held in an iraqi prison with their allegedly isolating parents back home he was there when they returned to russia. the french newspaper apologizes off the people compare its latest front page to images from the nazi era.

this new year's eve live from international's news h.q. it's kevin zero in with you this evening thanks for watching and first a national tragedy rescue teams have been scrambling to find survivors in the rubble of a collapsed apartment block in central russia today at least four have died and least thirty five of missing after the building in the city of magnitogorsk came down for gas explosion president putin was there i met with emergency coordinators . 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 personnel we are now clearing the debris the risk of collapse still remains after meeting with officials rescue workers the russian president paid a visit to the hospital where the wounded are being treated is promised full support for those affected by the tragedy of a thousand people a bit of i quoted from their homes following the explosion because the risk of

further collapse one of the buildings residents described the scene to us it was almost as soon 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 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. thora to say a period of mourning will be announced after the end of rescue and recovery operations there tutors across the developed. 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 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 we heard there was an earthquake we 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. if we look at how the emergency services responded 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 obviously we don't know whether they're survivors or whether they've fatalities additional psychiatry's have been deployed there 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 that limits the time is of the essence for this rescue operation it's predicted that it might go to my is twenty seven at nightfall so they're really worried 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. at the moment that pulling together helping those have lost their homes

family members and friends. and obviously they're still waiting to see how bad the fatalities and the injuries are. yes a very fluid situation due to the reporting that a former official at russia's emergencies ministry's praised the response of local authorities and the rapid deployment of rescue teams as like. the use of little by little 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 a 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 here in russia other tragedies linked to building collapses of play ball the one hundred lives here over the last fifteen years.

of course closely following the ongoing situation in magnitogorsk as the rescue operation tonight continues for part of that residential building that's collapsed we'll let you know if we learn anything new. also the news tonight spirit of france say they're to increase joint patrols in an effort against illegal immigration into the u.k. after an unexpected write in refugees arriving in britain across the english channel over the past two weeks and he said he's got the story for you. 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. 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 almost daily. from cal a today for the poor to seen

a spike in the number of adults some children arriving at the cannes coast sporadic crossings to a scene 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 alternately the buck stops with the home secretary for now such a job its plan is to keep the number of specialist border for spokes 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 have the home office is in need of force to support the no navy air force an. 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 at these gatherings 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 ok home secretary weighs up his options on the issue time is taking for

a concrete solution. russian children who'd been held in a prison in the iraqi capital have returned home they were jailed with or allegedly i saw a link to mothers who went to iraq and syria did the coaching of the reports the robot. could see 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 that almost all of them are in 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 really did d.n.a. tests specialists went to iraq to take some lives in the material went through the

identification process then i will not the necessary documents and search for the children smell excuse me the previous flight of this kind to happened 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 homes . there is behind me now. russian women remain in baghdad most of them facing charges for drawing here were found have already been convicted all of these children were born in russia and taken by their parents led to the red rock allegedly to join terrorist ring arriving back here in moscow the children have been receiving hospital treatment and general we have believed haitian and of course they have already been we united too with their relatives who have been looking for them from. party started to bring them home campaign last year in an

attempt to try to reunite children who were living in iraqi orphanages with their relatives back in russia at least eleven youngsters were returned as a result of our campaign and dozens more by other efforts to you can follow their stories on our site r.t. dot com. after years of bitter wrangling the u.s. and israel's decision to leave the un's cultural heritage organizations come into force monday washington announced its intention to boycott you know esko in october accusing the agency of anti israel buyers on october the twelfth two thousand and seventeen the department of state notified unesco director general irina bokova of the us 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 a real. need for fundamental reform in the organization and continuing anti israel by. these kind of open talks next through the actions that provoked america and

israel's withdrawal from the desk. now at this point out that we can review that in twenty seventeen there was outcry from the united states and israel when unesco designated hebron the city in the west bank designated as a world historical site now there is a contested area in the center of that city to muslims it's the ibrahimi mosque to jews it's the cave of patriarchs and at that point we saw some loud outcry from the united states and from israel now it's important to note that this isn't the first time that we've heard accusations of a pro palestinian bias from the usa and from israel and twenty eleven when the nasco body officially recognized a state of palestine at that point the usa and israel both stopped paying dues to unesco they were then stripped of their voting rights in two thousand and thirteen after having not paid their dues so at this point we see the united states carrying

out a policy that its long carried out which is when it doesn't like certain international accords and agreements or international bodies it simply withdraw let's review the united states we 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. baseless politicize claims are brought against us hypocritical bodies and institution unjust prosecution by this illegitimate 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 so the united states continues to withdraw from international bodies and

international agreements in response to decisions it does not approve of. and that's good. the folds of peter galbraith the former u.s. and boston to pray shit on the line this need is a from miami high so thanks for making the time to be with this yet another organization that the u.s. is seemingly turned its back on is washington's exit from unesco a political move purely as you know who was the first to call to recognize palestine as a state i guess that's the catch. of course it's a political move and it's not the first time the united states has withdrawn from you know esko in one thousand nine hundred four the reagan administration withdrew from us go over the so-called new world information order eventually that was reversed by george w. bush who was looking for international support in two thousand and two for the iraq war so this is an entirely political step you know if you would has we point out that the irony of it is that so many of these institutions the united

nations the international court of justice were ones that were the human rights council were greeted by the united states the united states to lead and and now we withdraw but also this constant from a very politicized ministration a very extreme one one i have to point out that lost the election by three million votes and based on the midterm results is not likely to be around it after twenty twenty and so very likely these decisions will then be reversed so my advice to the rest of the world is take a deep breath and america will be back in. the nest go celebrate protect will heritage sites is kind of sad i guess looking out if in the politically minded to think well hey you know this should chile come before politics protecting these places. oh of course it should and i was the first u.s. ambassador to croatia and i was in dubrovnik in december of one nine hundred ninety

one just days after it was shelled and who was there unesco was there trying to protect the monuments the work that you nest goes down around the world particularly on heritage fenice and balmy on in afghanistan and all sorts of places were world heritage safra it's not just american heritage it's the heritage of all of us have been endangered and you nest goes been people it's doing lots of other things it's training teachers in iraq stability in iraq is an important american priority it's doing work on literacy in afghanistan or in a crowd no afghanistan is the source of the nine eleven attacks this is something that's important to the united states to europe to russia so it's it's a hugely important organization that look at the world as should not just the moment america's next that the the last u.s. contributions are relatively small it's something that europe and russia the arab countries and china can easily make up so carry on with the organization it and as

i say some point the u.s. . i mean you've represented your country abroad what do you think of this when you can talk personally no no you're a former ambassador i guess you can you say you know hang on tight hold your breath the u.s. will be back this sad new that has to even have to say that. oh of course it does and it you know we have somebody who is bizarre in his behavior who is as the president of the united states again who. wasn't elected in the sense that if he if it were so true democracy he would have lost by two percent of the vote. in an administration full of extremists and this really does not reflect where the american people are and it doesn't reflect what makes for a extensible. world order you know what i mean i mean you know the human rights council is

a very important institution. and the first one does may not agree with everything it does but the place to fight that is in the human rights council the u.s. because we were behind the creation of the international criminal tribunal for the former yugoslavia and i instantly testified in four cases there the international criminal court is an outgrowth of that and the united states had signed up for it and then that the bush administration which had no or it's of international law with through it we sort of back in the obama administration you know but you know that i can accommodate americans so it's a bit absurd peeta i just want to thank you for your time tonight and bring if you're experienced in plots to what's happening now it'll probably all change as you say get in the new year but for now we'll let you have the night off happy new year and thank you for making the time to be like this and not intend it over maybe not the new year but two years from now it will change peter galbraith former u.s. ambassador to croatia live on the program. well so which will be

a light lantern smushed plate so raise a glass of champagne this new year we hope you're enjoying your evening with just a few hours away here in moscow. for just three hours forty minutes we're going to talk about was after the break we look at some of the celebrations already underway for twenty nineteen i'm kevin though in this is our team to bash. 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 the rich eight point six

percent market saw thirty percent last year some with four hundred to five hundred three per second per second and bitcoin rose to twenty thousand dollars. china's building two point one billion dollars ai industrial park but don't let the numbers overwhelm. the only number you need to remember in one one business shows you can't afford to miss the one and only. one of france's biggest newspapers is dedicated to front page the government yellow vests protest the hmong made a color pictures of president the demonstrators unfortunately though it reminded

readers of another in the image. in. the cover dated saturday december the twenty ninth has provoked critical reactions from some of our readers with polar gys 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 expressive he looks a bit like

a dictator and the shams that is around his vest it gives him a bad image. as you did if we saw that policy from the join up it is true that when we 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 and. i think it's more important to work in things that need to meet us instead of making comments that will drive us nowhere. so he go and twenty eight saying looking forward to a new year around the world the clock to chime to herald the arrival of twenty nine t. already of course in parts of the world seven of the twenty four time zones of scene

in the new years including russia's far east which you can see right now michel to there as lot of us talk of we're still almost as a say just but throw it off i was away for the remote new zealand and australia were among the first to kick off celebrations fab fireworks as ever sydney skyline lit up. ah. so as we say goodbye to twenty eighteen is time to look back at some of the events that have shaped it.

north korea domination headlines throughout much of the year with fears of a nuclear conflict with the u.s. president trumping kim jong il in exchange the series a stretch for a while but when the two eventually met things thought of the pair even see the bone for a bit in may got the chance to look around the north korean leaders palace ahead of a visit by russia's foreign minister. 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 just to keep our men one photographer and myself following a lot of state 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 us man. groups. i don't really know what exactly this place this but it looks to be the area where it came john will be greeting serve. and the reason why i think so is because just through this door i saw came john in 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 jong 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 all. dark 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 at the rooms residence. 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.

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 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 in 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 and the russian foreign minister's motorcade. franco right.

memories just going well that's how the news is looking for most go tonight i'm kevin and from the rest welcome to the new year if you want to wish you a great new year all very best for twenty nine other. international.

when of the yellow box which you can from we can see as nothingness missed it by one. some was not from the course and then one doc a lady more than a month one of a number a meticulous often when there was a lot a lot of us yes i'm a solid rabbi why i will write you the instability vs mr i'm a hottie he knew i was on one of them is was stylishness is what i came for the blogs. where you're looking for that. one.