russia has officially stepped into two thousand nine hundred with the clock having now struck midnight in all eleven of the country's time zones will bring you a glimpse of the festivities in central moscow. but there's a damper on the celebrations in the russian city of need to go at least seven people were killed and thirty five left unaccounted for after an apartment block collapses following a devastating gas explosion. plus in other news britain and france are 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. for the past two weeks. and thirty russian children who had been held in an iraqi prison and with their allegedly ice a link parents are now back home we were there when they returned to russia.

very happy new year from moscow where we're already two hours and one minute into two thousand and nineteen i'm glad to have you with us as i mentioned the year two thousand one thousand has arrived in the russian capital moscow it is a huge holiday for russians and everyone here it's the city center it was a huge draw for people out celebrating here don quarter on red square. happy new year from moscow to all our viewers right here it doesn't look like there are many people but right off camera and right past the police blockade back there there are huge crowds of people from not only moscow not only russia but from all over the world who have come to red square to share in this new year's celebration of the clock just struck twelve and people were enjoying before the the attractions on red square lights but now they are just watching this magnificent firework display

over the moscow river had a second here it's it's been it's pretty loud have been going on for a while and but actually in moscow has just celebrated new years ahead of several other places in the world like australia japan has already celebrated it in the middle east many other places and even other russians across the many times owns of the russian federation and president putin before giving his main address congratulated them on a happy new year and now this new year specifically is not a usual one for russia because there was earlier today a tragedy in the ural mountains city of magnitogorsk where several people were killed and more injured and others missing in a gas explosion that collapsed part of a building but the people of that city have actually come together and let the

victims and those affected by the collapse into their homes to share in this new year's celebration it's quite a heartwarming story and it gives people a lot of hope. a somber new year in the central russian city of need to go to sky as it attempts to come to terms with the tragic collapse of an apartment block on monday morning the federal emergencies ministry now says at least seven people have died and that at least thirty five have been left on accounted for after the building came down following a gas explosion more than a thousand people. have been evacuated from their homes following the explosion because of the risk of further collapse one of the eyewitnesses described the scene to us. just a travels there if not at six in the morning we heard an explosion and ran to the kitchen window with her purple smoke and the building started collapsing the shock waves were so strong that our bed was shaking when i heard a woman shouting loudly for help i don't know what happened to her. our correspondent go to don i was on his way to magnitogorsk he brings us some details

the blast affected the total of forty eight apartments and potentially more than a hundred people but rescuers say that the total number of people unaccounted for as a result of the tragedy is thirty five this is the number of people that still have not made contact with the rescuers or with their relatives but we heard from a witness and to one of the residents of that apartment building and they told us about the tragedy also. 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 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. there was a blast as first with that there was an earthquake we rushed to the balcony and safire

in that house on the second floor no windows were left in our flat they were all blowing out now the official response to the tragedy has truly been massive the two ministers the emergency minister and the health minister have been here all pretty much all day working on site the governor of the region has been here and of course the russian president vladimir putin came here and he visited one of the hospitals the treated the wounded in the tragedy here is what the russian president had to say. we should think of those who lost their lives and who were injured but now let's start to work with us and we have all of the necessary equipment and all the necessary person now we are now clearing the debris the risk of collapse still remains. now it is still not clear as to how many people how many residents of that apartment building will be able to come back to their homes after all it is a serious gas explosion a whole section of the building collapse so experts will have to evaluate as to is

this building still habitable for those who are left homeless by this blast the authorities the local authorities have already promised to buy a new flats and new apartments but so far the main operation is this search and rescue operation officials are saying that it is set to last for at least the next forty eight hours we are currently and routes to the city of magnitogorsk and so i will be keeping you up to date with all the latest former official at russia's emergencies ministry has praised the response of local authorities and of the rapid deployment of rescue teams. but we do so what we do with the 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 of well trained and qualified to carry out rescue operations. in two thousand and eighteen dozens of people died as

a result of gas explosions in apartment blocks in russia other tragedies linked to building collapses have a claim to more than one hundred lives here over the past fifteen years. i will keep you posted on developments overnight and tomorrow as the rescue operation continues in the bitterly cold urals region of russia.

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 guest of the world of politics sports i'm showbusiness i'll see you then. come back this is our team international now as we say goodbye to two thousand and eighteen and let us take a 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 a series of threats but when the two eventually met things thawed and the pair even

seemed to form a bond of sorts in may go have 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 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 fee area where it came john will be greeting surrogate 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. 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 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 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. invite. to russia 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 to try and go right from.

britain and france to increase a 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 has. deeply concerning the u.k. immigration minister is sounding the alarm made for a recent sage and 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 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 of 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 to.

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 these mass criminal operations in british waters. they have not got a grip on it what we've got isn't satisfactory 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'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 no navy air force an. answer 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 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 to 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. or had among the latest developments a group of suspected migrants were arrested on monday morning after landing on a beach in kent six iranian men were also found on a beach near dover on sunday morning international history professor alan scared says that up until now the u.k. government's efforts to tackle the crisis have been unsatisfactory. live to ministration has been at fault we only have five patrol boats in the channel sort of any of five patrol boats for the board of fools only one of these is actually in the do it was straight in the channel that is not always. on the government seems to have been done nothing to supply more birds padi's because in

past years of being very few attempts to cross the channel but since christmas have been of a hundred attempts assia partly because as a group one suspects it happens the be much more difficult to cross the bridge. after years of bitter wrangling the decision by the u.s. and israel to leave the un's culture and heritage organization came into force this monday washington announced its intention to boycott you nasco in october accusing the agency of anti israel bias. on the twelfth of october two thousand and seventeen the department of state notified unesco directed general it mean a book of the u.s. decision to withdraw from their goodness nation and to seek to establish a permanent observer mission to unesco this decision was not taken lightly and reflects his concerns with the mountaineer being such an escrow the need for fundamental reform and they're going to say sion and continuing anti israel license

unesco now at this point that we can review that in twenty seventeen there was outcry from the united states and israel when unesco designated a 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 its review of 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 for critical bodies and institution unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court the council ceases to be . our they have it's 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 peter

galbraith a former u.s. ambassador to croatia believes america's withdrawal from international agreements and organizations will eventually be reversed. so this this is entirely political step you know i do it has to be pointed out that we already have that is that so many of these institutions the united nations the international court of justice were ones that were created human rights were created by the united states the united states to lead. and now we withdraw but also this constant from a very sized ministration or 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 five 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. thirty russian children who had been held

in a prison in the iraqi capital have returned home they were jailed with their allegedly ice a ling to mothers who went to iraq and syria when you know questionable reports. it was you know. 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 sad 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 europe to take samples and the material went through the identification process then we filled out the necessary documents and searched for

the children's relatives 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 us here were 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 from. our two started

a bring them home campaign last year in an attempt to reunite children who had been living in iraq you're finishes with their relatives back in russia at least eleven youngsters were returned as a result of the hard campaign and dozens more by other efforts you can follow their story. on archie dot com. that does it for me once again happy new year i'll be back with more news at the top the hour that's about thirty five minutes stay with us. nobody could see coming that false confessions would be that prevalent in the spot the place the fault for coverage. had any interrogation out there what you'll see is threat promise threat promise threat lie a lie a lie the process of interrogation is designed to put people in just that frame of mind make the most comfortable make them want to get out and don't take no for an

answer and don't accept their denials she said therefore which. sat on a statement that i would be all about it the next day there's a culture on accountability and police officers know that they can engage in misconduct that has nothing to do with solving a crime. i've been saying the numbers mean something they matter to us is 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 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 numbers you need

to remember is one one business shows you can't afford to miss the one and only. superman some. mystery based. on the course and the. play you mustn't. able to get lost lost or when i was at

the marxist yes i'm a southerner i'm not. in the. midst of a muslim. stylishness but i. know you're lucky she will look back at. the paper and look listen can look up the locket opinion. that will tell you this

is what she commented look at the questions on the phone and you know that they could also be the ink they have now would you let them into the political thing. lois and i might and well i may just swallow what i thought was mistrustful a. the mental school with some money. going to. school so say look good luck up in new york was what he told us got three months he told us. to start off. to prison or safely in the almost thought the c.m. must.

i'll be stunted. because i'm. going to stun. the boss. does he. she she doesn't include the people most of. what i mean.

so you have up in the middle part of our. lives up of a doubt that i mean. that. doesn't mean that it was. just being on set. or living right here. that if i mean that you. and i. thought oh yes that was. nice. to know when you go get out what. was that in the middle but i'll be.