headlines this hour a man detained in russia on spying charges appears to be a citizen of britain canada ireland and also the us media speculation grows that he was seized by moscow to be used as a bargaining chip or so to come. we could call a national emergency because of the security of our country absolutely you know we can do it i haven't done it i may do it i may do it. threatens the claire states of emergency if there's no consensus on funding his border war democrats meanwhile are reviving talking to. police don't play. because we're going to go in there really is the mother. of the u.k. spent nearly a quarter of a million pounds continuing to protect

a radical muslim cleric deporting him to another country we put the issue up for the back burner suggesting it's appropriate that the u.k. a taxpayer should pick up the bill for a terrorist mastermind who was going to get three the rule of in the u.k. no one would nor would you do differently. come to life from moscow you're watching international britain canada island and the u.s. have all confirmed a man held in russia on spying charges is one of their citizens a former u.s. marine is now at the center of intense media speculation with more israeli patrol. haven't they god as get rather used to hearing about russian spies getting caught in america we have the hybrid warfare that you're seeing with russia which is very much forefront inspired master this is the one saying this is

a hard and fast rule of trading when you when you go into espionage. particularly coming out of the soviet union or russia they will accuse of being a russian spy has pleaded guilty in a us federal court this time the case is the exact opposite paul whelan an american national and former u.s. marine was arrested in moscow in perhaps the fanciest hotel in the capital but who would have known when the news broke that as many as four countries would end up saying he's our guy about mr we won the embassy violent in moscow has requested consular access to an irish citizen currently detained in russia we are extremely worried about pool whelan we have offered to consular assistance consular officials are aware that a canadian citizen has been arrested in russia ambassador huntsman expressed his support for mr whelan and offered the embassy assistance however when it comes to

the canadian passport the suspects brother couldn't even say whether he still has it or not i don't know i know that he was once a canadian citizen so he may still be and i know that he is an american citizen right now strange but that's how it is paul whelan is in detention in moscow having been charged with espionage although his family is sure the reason he went to russia was just a wedding party the american ambassador had been given permission to see the spy suspect and so he did mr whelan's lawyer is seeking bail for his client but don't forget several countries have lined up to help him out so while u.k. officials are waiting for the green light to get access to the alleged spy their top diplomat has spoken out opposition is very very clear individuals should not be . used as pawns of diplomatic leverage we need to see what those charges are against him to understand whether there is a case or not we're not ruling out any theories tool at this stage as to why this

might have happened there are very few details on the case that we know of for now there hasn't been much reaction from senior officials either but journalists around the world are all over this story and speculation is rife he faces up to twenty years in a russian jail deal that's plenty of time to be swapped. what's most likely as we'll as a pawn in russia's play to get back one of its spies after maria patino here in the united states. do you believe the arrest of your brother was retaliation was revenge in some way by the russians as you've just heard many are linking this case with the case of maria booted up she was arrested in america in july and eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring against the u.s. with the russian government official and at least one other person without notifying the attorney general however the fact is the charges brought against

maria buton and paul whelan are completely different you are trying to there will only this week the washington post to publish an article about mr wiggins to tension and then it former cia official john saif dieted lead in was a spy saying random americans without diplomatic immunity collect low level information we asked legal media analysts lionel for his reaction. he says that we only use according to this people with diplomatic immunity when you look at this as far as the illegality of it what is the role of the diplomatic community how does that work are does that in any way interfere with spying and vice versa you're not going to see a lot of people address this and you have to see a lot of people in american media in the american media speak to this particular point we must assure that all individuals in all countries are accorded the rights that are that are available to them what's fascinating is that you will see

american mainstream media in particular that does not have necessarily some of the best newsrooms some of the best. let's say experts available who will have to feed that twenty four seven media monster you have to feed it you have to give it something you're going to talk to anybody who's ever been remotely work with the cia was in the cia drove by the cia knew somebody who was in the cia so a lot of time you're not going to see some of the best vetting of the experts. another round of budget talks between congressional democrats and the white house seems to have led nowhere with the u.s. government shutdown now entering its third week the sticking point is funding for donald trump's board a war with democrats reviving talk of in page meant the us president is now threatening to take radical action have you considered using emergency powers to

grant yourself authorities to build this war without congressional approval and secondly i have to go you have yes i have and i can do it if i want so you don't need congressional approval to build though we can use i'm absolutely we can call a national emergency because of the security of our country absolutely you know we can do it i haven't done it i may do it i may do it did indicate after the meeting when he spoke that he would actually consider calling a national emergency in order to construct his wall so that he could do so without the approval of congress trump also summarize the meeting he felt the meeting was productive but the representative seemed to have the other idea we had a very very productive meeting lengthy and sometimes contentious it's very hard to see how progress will be made unless they open up the government we recognize on the democratic side that we really cannot resolve this until we open our government

he said he'd keep the government closed for a very long period of time months or even years also said that in the meeting nancy pelosi the speaker of the house of representatives that she. he told donald trump that she had no interest in impeachment they were not looking for impeachment that's the quote there has been a call to get the ball rolling and kind of jump start impeachment proceedings against trump from some democrats one democrat in the house of representatives actually has some rather colorful language to make this call the police don't want and maybe days off because we're going to go in there we're going to be some of them. while trump said that he was told by nancy pelosi that quote we're not looking for impeachment in the meeting that just happened nancy pelosi has elsewhere said that she would be open to the impeachment of us president trump. and we should avoid. political reform we've reached this point where if you have control of congress or half of congress and. the president is

from the other party you attack the president by refusing to provide the votes to pass the president's agenda he'd run into problems right away because there is no national emergency is causing this this impasse over something that most americans don't really want or care about i think that the upper hand goes to the democrats and they're just going to wait him out until his own party tells me he has to fund the government because it's costing the their supporters too much and it's costing the country too much to hold a quarter of the government unfunded for a lengthy period of time is going to cause so much pain that he's going to have to cave. ok well let's go to live pictures now from paris because any hopes the french government had that the best protests would be confined to last year have been dealt a bloody today thousands of the movement's members have once again flooded the streets

of paris to the eighth consecutive clashes erupted say as protesters broke streets in code for president macro resignation. the was. was was. was. was i was. when it comes to spied all efforts by the authorities has come situation down security personnel have again been deployed to the capital to prevent violence today's protest has been held just two days after the yellow vests sent macron a letter full of anger and contempt. you do not give straight answers and you drag

things out by proposing false measures measures that the people of france reject. when will you understand that you and your people are no longer credible and that you have lost the confidence of those who believed in you and in your movement nineteen months ago from friday a government spokes person to brand the demonstrators agitators who were focused on nothing more than staging a. roomie's mall division says the announcements of emanuel macro the yellow vests have become a movement of agitators who want insurrection and to overthrow the government moreover those who call for debate don't want to participate in the great national debate. in other news north korea and the u.s. need to act more on talk less to solve their deadlock in peace negotiations that's according to comments by an advisor to the south korean president and it comes after kim jong un's new year address in which he expressed readiness for dialogue but also warned of the dangers of failed diplomacy. no approval and didn't although

i am ready to meet with the u.s. president again and to any time a new threat to bring about outcomes there will be welcomed by the international community however the united states continues to break its promises and misjudges our patience by unilaterally demanding certain things and pushes we had with sanctions and pressure against our own public then we may have to seek another way to protect our country's sovereignty interests and to stablish peace and stability on the korean peninsula but it was a difficult year for north korea and the u.s. with grave warnings and insults being fired from both sides but kim jong un more trump eventually reconciled because don of looks back now at a rather explosive twenty eight. at the beginning of twenty scene the state of relations between the united states and north korea could be summed up with the contest. time itself the measuring contest in relations seemed

unthinkable yet that was exactly what twenty teams brought in some of the best faces of classical literature it all began with a woman. this is still north korea's leader could easily make a run at the gold medal if political freestyle was a millon but this simply a human face to the leadership of the reclusive state almost all the support of the games itself where the teams of north and south korea walked under one flag in fact even. at least in the way were reconciled in pyong trying at least in the form. of the material. from. fast forward a couple of months and history's made the leaders of north and south shaking hands smiling laughing walking all to shoulder in the no man's land between their

states. from apply status perspective the whole affair looked almost like a competition incivility with pyongyang peeing to gain the upper hand another all of branch of the world korea obliteration of what they said was the nuclear test site which i got to witness. this photograph. and now everything is being turned into a massive cloud. does in fact see go to see many things but no outside a high school hello we're inside the west end of the north korean leader kim jong il and i'm absolutely shocked. this is how suddenly you get treated.

cranberry juice at kim jong un's residence the whole faja and fury thing seem to go out of fashion fust so don't trump decided to put aside the summit will happen and personally i think it's going to be a success predictability though is not one of the traits trump is known for he kept the world confused regarding his intentions to meet kim jong until the very last moment is a very substantial chance that it will work as i always say who knows who knows what's going to happen who will either have a very good meeting or we want to have a good meeting and maybe we won't even have a meeting at all it will see how it all works maybe you won't everything can be scuttled but eventually the two met and they felt and how shame about their feelings toward each other.

like you've spent i was really being tough and so we're seeing a lot back and forth and then we fell in love ok one thing that twenty didn't seem to be in the north korean saga is that donald trump and predictability still don't go together as his emissaries were scolding came from tools living alan sort of a long distance relate. sure but. you can proof of his infatuation through the south korean leader but it would be out of for you into korean summit in the fall straight years three to place last year sign that perhaps the two koreas don't

really need anyone but each other to finally reconcile the washing r.t. still to come for you this hour britain has been paying large sums of money to protect a controversial hate preacher deported that's among the stories we've got coming up just after the break. i mean. the. country has gone into

a nihilistic fever i think we've got to hit the road and get out the traveling across america to find what makes america the charlotte the genius is the quintessential american hero this is a weak point around which all of it is god and so we always are on the margins to what this. culture has meaning for you. we're starting last with. we're going to head east into the swamp we're going into the belly of the beast i think i want to leave now governor any more of them it may be completely different but the end of this journey. again that we will know a lawn watering perhaps from awful you for t.v. shows or movies but you may want to be careful when saying them in public because it's like the iconic ninety six film seinfeld for example it does seem to be

offending a new generation if you is with jokes like this one. state makes the best soup in the city jerry the best not to call soup nazi. and not like you cut in line because of the catches us will never be able to get super again and that wasn't the only joke that's caused the fence another included a reference to native americans using the term indians and in one episode a flag of push rico is set on fire and stamped on by one character then a stereotypical betrayal of a gay couple or so angered some but opinions are divided as to what is comedy and what isn't. i wondered how long it would take for the perpetually offended p.c. police to come off to one of my favorite shows it's still the best thing on television . for. it's comedy genius comedy that's the whole point of comedy where you laugh with each other surprise some people still low there in the world. who is the freaking crybaby that wrote this trash seinfeld was

funny when it is it's funny now and it will always be funny if these jokes from seinfeld are now offensive we better take saturday night live off the air to you can't. perhaps the most iconic ninety six friends is also failed to pass the sensitivity test of younger generations last year online streaming service netflix uploaded the series but the sitcoms jokes did fall a little flat some viewers branded the story lines and sexist and also homophobic we spoke to the comedian ron. i don't know where the selective virtue signalling originates from i don't know how a bunch of people woke up number like hey we're outraged about seinfeld today hasn't that been off the air for about twenty years yes but we're mad about this today and here's what we're mad about like there's more important things going on

in the world i hope that they you know maybe take up a cause or something like that because you know we have some real reasons to be outraged in society right now and one of them is certainly not t.v. shows that have been off the air for twenty years. now it's been revealed that britain has spent almost two hundred thousand pounds protecting the wealth of the preacher. after he was deported to jordan to face terror charges some revealed by the times newspaper sparked anger to among aspens is an insult to the british tanks boom one point seven million pounds in legal fees for hate preacher abu qatada total cost for deportation including welfare payments so far one point nine million pounds christ sakes two hundred thousand pounds spent on protecting hate preachers human rights you couldn't make it up no wonder people want to come here they get two hundred thousand even if they leave. well the u.k. granted tireder asylum in one thousand nine hundred four after he claimed to have

been tortured in jordan the u.k. then arrested him after nine eleven on terror related charges target was then sent back to jordan twelve years later after he was assured he would not be taught should there but his deportation overseen by the then home secretary theresa may did come at a rather hefty price a bill of at least one point nine million pounds racked up including payments for legal fees and aid and is mentioned nearly two hundred thousand pounds was spent after he'd been removed from the country to check on his condition and to ensure that he wasn't being tortured the british government committed to monitoring tarter for up to three years and the last payment was made in twenty sixteen but we put the issues raised by migrant deportations and this particular case up for debate. and the first place. should never have been granted asylum here by can one thousand for your recipe is one for and the key you say should never of claimed asylum in all reality we are at the hearty to the convention like most civilized countries

which means if somebody claims asylum and they can show a genuine fear of persecution we are obliged to grant them asylum you're suggesting it's appropriate that the you care taxpayer should pick up the bill for a terrorist mastermind he was going to get through the rule of involving u.k. only thing and you know i don't know which is different because let me finish now and i on a second i gotta finish you're suggesting that the you care taxpayer should take your pick up the bill for a terrorist mastermind to come to the u.k. live off benefits and then when he does get deported back to jordan we further pick up an extra two hundred thousand now if that's not well nihilistic perhaps is a better word than anarchistic but either way it's pretty imbecilic the fundamental fact is that this guy was by any definition an al-qaeda terrorist mastermind i'm glad that he was deported i mean i am disappointed that we've had to spend two

hundred thousand pardons to look after his well for in jordan when that money could have been spent much better for example keith here in the u.k. looking after british victims of our qaeda violence wouldn't you agree with me with me or not point where would you like to see the line expand on another universe or is victims who chose i'm only slightly disturbed david that seems to be that your opinion as to whether somebody is wrapped up in criminality or not is sufficient to convict them and the fact is that jordan already having victim in these absence then had to acquit him when he was retried for exactly the same thing because it was discovered that the evidence was tainted it's not my opinion that he was a tie. mastermind it's a matter of numerous reports by various heads of intelligence services if an intelligence service alleges somebody is a well known terrorist or something like that but if those countries provide the

evidence to support those contentions then i'm afraid i'm not prepared to listen with deep credence to any intelligence services that alleges something against somebody simply because it suits them politically to do so in essence what keith saying must must be must be music from heaven to the years of any prospective terrorist wanting to get into the u.k. and yes going to your initial point we should toughen up our laws much much more robust from to make sure that such wicked terrorists do not enter this country they can go to jordan or forever else they want but not in the united kingdom. now in a historic split from the russian church the orthodox church if you crane has been granted independence thomas the official document of the decision was signed today by the head of the global orthodox church and. while ukraine's president welcomed

the decision other orthodox churches have condemned it saying the move is politically motivated and could lead to the split of the entire orthodox society. that's how the news is looking so far today here in r.t. we're back again with more for you in about thirty five mins. we're continuing our special episode here the new year celebrating not only twenty nineteen but ten years of crisis reports at some point in twenty nineteen i'm not sure exactly when that is but we'll keep you posted. nobody could see coming that. would be in the spot a problem for. any interrogation out there. is threat promise threat

promise threat. the process. to put people in that frame of mind make them one comfortable make them want to get out and don't take no for an answer don't accept their. she said. santa statement that i will be home by the next day there's a culture on accountability and police officers no. misconduct it has nothing to do with. hello my name's peter and i've been living in bush for about seven years and this is a film about just some of the crazy things i've. been

. through.

time after time to 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 with the british government in chaos we speak to someone who once received the biggest individual democratic mandate in the european union a long time comrade of jeremy corbin ken livingstone's and the agreement to lift sanctions on any train wreck of one thousand seen improvement in the fuel peace and security and the positive steps every train is taking to meet the demands of the security council while britain continues economic warfare all around the world what's behind it voting to drop the un sanctions against the fact the linchpin of global security eritrea plus we talk class in golden age hollywood and the ogre of show business with the son of joan collins author and artist alexander newly all the more coming up in today's going underground but first to that country bombed out orders from tourism a is today is expected to be the last briefing at the u.n. of on boy staffan de mistura on syria this was the official his pleas arguably went

on heard by the british government shortly before u.k. bombing in the spring recall of doing sure expect for international humanitarian and human rights law including your money did an access across syria to all people in need and we urge once more concrete respect to rid the lucian twenty four d. or one throughout syria that resolution of a cease fire apart from against isis al-qaeda linked groups wasn't really a factor for drazen may and blairite labor for them it was about the highly likely over the conclusive we judge is highly likely but is that the syrian regime has continued to use chemical weapons since then and will continue to do so or as their opposite number said i believe that the action was legally questionable and on saturday the united nations secretary general i'm turning to terry said as much.