he. was. i france's yellow vests movement shows no sign of letting up in twenty nineteen holding more nationwide protests against the government. and in the news the week funeral was held for the victims of the apartment block collapse in the russian city of magnitogorsk which claimed thirty nine lives and the u.s. government shutdown ends is it now is the rather over funding donald trump's border wall.

good evening welcome you watching the weekly here on r.t. international may be a new year but it's the same yellow vests protests continuing to tax the french authorities at least fifty thousand of the movement's members once again took to the streets across the country on saturday minor scuffles erupted in paris as protesters set barricades on fire and called for president to resign and. i was i. was i. was i was. things were calm at first people were told they needed to declare their gatherings to authority. and that would guarantee our safety we declared the gathering spot

where was our security things got out of hand everywhere they used tear gas on us it looked like a civil war they charged us used pepper spray journalists trying to take cover inside the building lobbies were thrown out it's a hostile situation and it's terrible in any case what's apparent is that this movement is still here it's not losing steam into twenty nineteen it's still going on. or despite the government climbing down over fuel tax increases the rallies have continued for eight consecutive weekends and earlier this week the yellow vest launched a blistering attack on president mccrone in a letter to him 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 when response and with the disturbances growing in my new macro honest condemn

the yellow vests on twitter and called on the protesters to calm down and recommit to dialogue the mayor of the town of maize on the fee believes the president's reform plans though are out of touch with the problem with the public. he said that it will continue is reforms but the reforms is asking for are not the reforms that the french are demanding today you know is the king of european sovereign to which the french doglike so i think he is absolutely dreaming you know all european in the church are and i think is absolutely. absolutely out of the commonsense of the french today i think that the luck of all as been elected by chance but is not having a huge ledger it seems that he needs to implement what he wishes because you know they are seventy or eighty percent of the french nation which doglike what you

propose with protests breading from france to of the european countries pro breaks the demonstrators in london have now also adopted the yellow vest as a symbol in a rally in the capital on saturday that resulted in clashes leading police to make several arrests including a thirteen year old girl. why. was she was one of four people taken into custody during the demonstration which saw protesters hurling smoke from police they marched across the capitol blocking bridges and disrupting traffic but one hundred people took part wearing my disability jackets they also shouted insults about the prime minister and called for the u.k. as a movie exit from you was. the u.s. will not pull its troops out of syria until turkey agrees not to target u.s. back fighters and crick considers some kurdish military units as terrorists the

clarification of washington's strategy came from the u.s. national security advisor john bolton during a visit to jerusalem. now objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal we don't think the turks what you want to take military action that's not fully who was mated with and agreed to by the united states so that they meet the president's requirements that the syrian opposition forces that have fought with us and not endangered well what we are hearing at this stage is that john bolton has been here in jerusalem meeting with a number of israeli officials and giving details of a hard the u.s. withdrawal from syria will work we have heard him say that there will be no timetable and then for the first time we're hearing a condition that turkey must guarantee the safety of the until not u.s. backed kurdish forces now all of this follows the surprise announcement last month by the american president donald trump that he was withdrawing american forces from

syria take a look so our borders our young women our men they're all coming back and they're coming back now there will be a strong deliberate and orderly withdrawal of u.s. forces from syria very deliberate very orderly the turkish president as the one has always held a strong position these are the the kurds. so you know we are in the terrorists and the world will be dark themselves and will continue to. we spoke to mr trump those terrorists should go east of the you're free to. go but. because the bordering us were asked were strategic partners with the us then we should do what is needed to stay a button will be in turkey we will be holding discussions on this very topic the focus of course is on the athlon region which is in more than syria where we are witnessing a standoff between syrian soldiers who have been sent there and are lying to the

syrian president bashar al assad and are supporting the kurds who requested their help and turkish fighters on the other side so the situation certainly is very tense all the turkish president's press secretary in response has commented on the u.s. statement saying it is absurd to claim that ankara will target the kurds he added the turkish goal is to eliminate islamic state jihadists and those military kurdish factions which ankara considers terrorists let's get more on this now from our cafe the director of the british think thank you very welcome thanks for your time tonight omar firstly you surprised by this statement by mr bolton it does seem to be a big you to know what donald trump was saying just a few days ago. they're not necessarily contradicting we haven't been surprised by this because what we understand the original purpose or objective of the american troop withdrawal there are several objective objectives one of which is to disrupt the. sort of unity or coordinated work plan that is

currently being carried out between russia turkey and iran so disrupting this mini alliance or regional alliance is one clear objective of this u.s. troop withdrawal so when we hear the mr bolton say that no attack should take place unless it is coordinated with and approved by the united states it all falls in line so what the united states would like the turks to do basically whether it's the kurds it's that anybody else is to coordinate with the united states rather than coordinating with russia and iran so it's not not surprising at all they have said mr bolton said today he wanted a guarantee it seemed anyway that turkey would not target the u.s. backed kurdish forces how likely is that given that says well we think some of those at least a terrorists in our opinion. well we don't think turkey is going to target

those units. per se what we understand is that turkey russia and iran and of course the syrian government are working towards the integrity of the syrian territory now that means that any separatist group that has sort of intentions or even external backing like the ones in the northeast in syria who have the backing of the united states in arming and funding and so long who wish to deter that fact i.e. order that you know deter or disrupt that objective that the integrity and unity of the syrian land then they are going to be fought it doesn't necessarily mean that there is going to be a turkish invasion but the four countries are coding with coordinating with each other and we have to remember that in the terran summit between russia. between russia iran and turkey back in september they. that they spoke

openly about contradicting the american project over there because it. disrupts or it threatens the integrity of the state and lack of unity and safety and so on but also more crucially the national security of neighboring countries so they have the right to work it doesn't say the turks have been the loudest so to speak so far in threatening to invade that particular stretch of land but we also need to listen to the syrian government where they say any turkish involvement without cordoning to import approval is going to be considered as a an occupation and it's going to be refused so there are some limitations over there and b. that the standoff in membership itself where turkey has threatened to move in the syrian government is openly negotiating with the kurdish militia over there to assume responsibility of that area also east. in place so there are some conflicting interests

a sense of lee on the surface of it but on deeper down beneath we think there is a high level of coordination between the four countries syria russia iran and turkey ok do you think then that dialogue and some sort of agreement or. some sort of a green between all parties involved can be found here and it won't result in an escalation in violence and conflict. we need probably to look at what is happening now as exerting pressure like you know the muscle you know it they're trying to put pressure on the kurds saying look if you don't have an agreement with the syrian government if you keep the separatists idea or if you think that you can . call high stakes and whatever it is then you are going to lose and the turks are against you the russians are not happy with what you're trying to do and obviously the syrian government wants to regain so violently over every inch of

its land so you have lots of enemies so we can see all we can probably give you the turkish pressure or outspoken pressure so to speak as a way to bring the kurds to the table with the syrian government with damascus basically and then again there is a bit of coordination that you can probably see or sense there. how that's going to play out we don't know we know the americans have given lots of weapons to the kurds the americans have threatened to. do some operations in syria under the guise of. combating isis or dies. but at the end of the day another objective one other key objective of the american troops withdrawal is to prevent the possibility or reduce the possibility of american soldiers going back to america in body bags when the american intervention there is basically illegal there is no

mandate from anybody even from the u.s. congress so what the americans can now see or can see. in the better near future that because the arabs will always resent the american presence there they will always consider it as an occupation that is trying to help the kurds to gain an upper hand or so then they might do some operations against u.s. soldiers so this is two fold the american. drole aid to prevent casualties on the american side and be to try and disrupt the alliance but at the end of the day it's a very tight game because turkey has interests syria has interests and they are not very well sometimes they interlinked but they are also conflicting things but the main goal is to try and bring the kurds to the table and soften their language and basically get everything solved with the least bloodshed it's possible sure i know it's very complicated we could talk a lot longer but we got to leave it there was i work half director of the british

think tank an office thank you thank you very much. now monday suspected gas explosion tore through a block of flats in central russia dozens were killed many in their sleep as their homes collapsed in the early hours of the morning on new year's eve. should double which in secret formula but the shot in the office might be it's we didn't beat the defendant the game urgency me to dump a stick in the match of a couple of shots at the last so must look a suitable data mammal number washboard to slice provides please should he do was call to be challenged by my d.d. or c. to a competitor she was the one getting the sort of presidential run up in creature which ensued in a machine the creature al gore spicey to inspire with stood still specific.

pseudo would simply say. i'm just. you know it was also moved to install the bitch not. bush's ali's. leadership but if you. see it's got a bad supply chain it is miles of course paul said on the beach and. he's down hawkins heard some more the stories of those affected by the disaster.

thirty nine bodies appears to be the final casualty count from this building collapse that the recovery works went on for around seventy two hours in total almost nonstop throughout the day and night pausing only for safety as you can see behind me some of the balconies and the roofs are in a state of total destruction and we're not allowed to go any closer for fear they may collapse as well residents fled this disaster scene with only the clothes on their back perhaps a few documents or cash they didn't have time simply to grab anything else they were allowed intermittently to go back to the scene to pick up any other possessions that may have left behind. on the ship a smart and is that of point one one hundred percent of all i see it was. just a child some did i don't condone bullshit so wanted to be sure to just let you have it when you're could you were sure what their own and as you spoke to these people more and more stories emerged one shots example the family

a mother and daughter who slept just as a one off in a different room they would have stayed normally the father stayed on the couch tragically that was the first part of the building to collapse she managed to get away with her daughter the father tragically was not so lucky another story to come out her infant boy who was buried in the rubble here just behind me he was heard crying by emergency workers who rushed to the scene managed to get him out after more than twenty four hours in these freezing temperatures p.c. has been taken to moscow and now despite his multiple serious injuries his condition is described as stable many of the people we've spoken to the witnesses at the scene those who were directly affected by this tragedy are saying they're also pleasantly surprised by how people have come together offering their support for the political views in. the squad to. give them the need to this time so much time is.

and the. flowers of soft toys are getting bigger and bigger. many of them quite emotional in tears coming here to express their condolences their support to those affected by this and of course preparing for the large number of funerals in this city of magnitogorsk. still to come in the weekly the democrats in the u.s. have put forward. the government shutdown. you

know like the e.k.g. for countries is their ten year bond rate you look at that you say oh. the country's not healthy well looks like the health of the chinese economy based on that their interest rates are better than america. you know world of big partisan lot and conspiracy. to wait to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door. 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.

welcome back to the weekend i don't trump has said that little headway was made on saturday in terms of breaking the deadlock over funding his border wall which has seen the government in a partial shutdown for more than two weeks while a president neither the white house nor the democrats look like backing down. we are committed to keeping our borders safe we're in a shutdown because democrats refused to fund border security situation but you would accept even a dollar. for the president in order to reopen. a dollar. one dollar deal like that how you deal with what it's not who we are is a nation i'm very proud of doing what i'm doing because we're going to go in there

with the mother. and. i don't want to shut down i call it doing what you have to do for the benefit and for the safety of our country keep the government closed for a very long period of time. so 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. the democrat controlled house of representatives did pass two bills to fund reopen the federal government but they don't include funding for border patrol prompting trump to threaten to veto the legislation democrats argue that such a war would be un-american the president claims that the idea does have widespread support in fact to hammer home his stance took to instagram with this statement of intent he also posted the following video.

illegal immigration is wrong plain and simple. and the standoff over that looks likely to intensify today with the democrat bill is now heading to the republican controlled senate where they are likely to face hostility we discuss the border wall issue with ned ryan he's from the conservative group american majority and also with robert patillo he's a civil rights lawyer well also understand the president has absolutely no no leverage in this situation he has already made his position position clear they should negotiate this last february during the last government shutdown there there's no reason for nancy pelosi to move on this unless the president is willing to make a deal on daca make a deal on comprehensive immigration reform basically nancy pelosi has him bent over

heard me right now she can demand whatever she wants we're a minimal amount of wall funding there's no leverage to present a hales donald trump cannot back down on this i mean his base is expecting him to fulfill this major campaign promise and i know it doesn't seem like a lot of money i think we're not even really talking about the money because five point six billion and a four trillion annual budget doesn't really mean much at all this is really a showdown between his trunk going to get his wall or democrats going to deny him that and also you know at a certain point we have to acknowledge the left base inside a democratic party does not want to see a secure border is more favorable towards open borders and not really fixing our immigration policy so i think if they want the wall that should be telling the president to do is bring back the chuck schumer legislation from two thousand and thirteen that passed the senate sixty eight votes to thirty two votes in the house republicans killed there could have been a border wall for the last five years of working for the freedom hawk caucus and some of the extremists in the republican party now supporting it so for the current wall what we need to see the c.b.l. score for well. exactly wall will say what's what i mean it's the it's

a funding mechanism so we know exactly how that is being paid for it would be a concrete universal comprehensive plan all immigration reform not simply say we're going to stick still slates in the desert let's go first a problem we need a real plan for this a lot of trump's base is willing to compromise we understand that these dark of these dreamers they did not come here they were brought here they did not come of their own volition we understand that there's a situation and i think that you would be really surprised if you would talk a lot of trauma space they understand there has to be some legal status maybe even potentially a path to citizenship i think people are willing to negotiate but on the same time if there is not funding for a war in return for a path to citizenship or a legal status then we can have a serious conversation in this at some point we all know that politics is the art of compromise we have to actually get to a point of compromise donald trump is dead here is my non-negotiable there is of course you have to come up with something that says what will give you that in exchange for this and i think there is a path i got to tell you though they do not want to give donald trump any wins

especially on one of his major major campaign promises. when a historic split the newly formed orthodox church of ukraine has been granted independence from the russian church in fact just a few hours ago the patriarch of constantinople handed over a document formalizing the split to the head of the new church and while many politicians in ukraine are elated at the decision some orthodox christians are concerned about the potential consequences of the move was made in a question of reports a long awaited president has finally been delivered to ukraine patriarch of constantinople has granted it's ukrainian are to dogs church and the time to me on the eve of our to ducks christmas a special decree was signed officially recognizing an end dependent ukrainian art and alex church and of course ukrainian president petro poroshenko was there shouting to. of question shoot. thank god it would be impossible without god's

blessing. i want to thank the millions of ukrainians across the globe this has become possible thanks to your prayers well sems like for once happy but once all the fuss about churches independence from whole. per se interests ukrainian our two dogs church has been under control of moscow patrick eight and everyone has been ok with it until the fall of the soviet union and ukrainian independence and nineteen ninety one gradually tensions between the churches. through the years was more and more voices and signs ukraine demanding churches and dependence sounds like some in a religious dispute so what's so important about it. altos of should effectively give ukrainian orthodox church full autonomy in terms

of parish financing and lands but in fact how much of it does keith actually get while the documents signed states that ukrainian church actually falls under control of constantinople ukrainian are dogs church can control only territory with then ukraine and as perhaps to create any parishes abroad and all disputes are going to be sas walls by constantinople so basically it is just replacing moscow by constantine noble but well present par shango is struggling in the polls they had of marge's presidential election and experts say while making this a centerpiece policy of his campaign he hopes to win over. and more than that other are to dogs churches are not thrilled at all by the move the tentacles of globalization to trying to penetrate. the church to destroy its politicians

interference in church affairs is a clear sign of this show even as recent fibes led by corrupt politicians and illegally assisted by the constantinople patriarchy have deepened and worsen the already existing split and put the unity of orthodox christianity as a whole in danger and inside ukraine and church itself there is not once unanimity when the plan of autonomy has been announced back and not one of the branches if you crane in church has slammed the plan we consider these actions to be empty canonical they sanction will not bring anything to ukraine except trouble separation and sin but it is at least anyone supporting the move apart from ukraine itself well you must have guessed the answer the united states reiterated strong support for religious freedom and the freedom of members of religious groups including ukraine's orthodox community to govern their religion according to their

beliefs free of outside interference oh well not everything one calls freedom is actually making you free. or professor of church history saying. orthodox stay alexander dvorkin gave us his take on the split. but the majority of ukrainian church goers belong to the canonical church the church of the ukraine which was under the paternal gate of moscow and they showed no sign of joining this new structure and in fact a lot of people in ukraine ever go meant talking about forcing their personal into this new new structure they are discussing the new law which they would adopt to facilitate so-called to facilitate them to leave mosco for turkey. whatever consumption overall gave to them it's not independence because it's going

to be like hens controlled by customs and there are in but almost as specifically stated there to all major questions have to be consulted with consent to know paul it's also auditors also stated so they're exposed to noble all have opportunities thirty eight are holy sites parishes and monasteries are there it's direct control of the ukrainian church is forbidden to have its own parishes abroad etc etc etc so it's independent of only in the name but really it is controlled by consent and. see it as a part of war all out like war old russian company and a portion of the church has been mixed the religion has been mixed into into into the politics nobody thinks about the rights of ukrainian or so there was believers who are the party.