u.s. tech giants are being sued for allegedly abetting in the deaths of children in cold blood mines in the congo parents of the children say the companies had all the means to prevent the deaths also to. call one is it up to. us democrats use their house majority to impeach donald trump he will now go on trial in the republican held senate us president seems unfair you. really feel like we're being impeached. also to come a school in the u.k. is under fire after the children were given a homework assignment on the manchester ring a bombing in which they reflect on whether terrorists should be given the record

number of journalists will attend russian president vladimir putin's annual marathon media conference today last year's event lasted almost or apples. good morning watching out international where it's just gone 9 o'clock am in moscow now u.s. tech giants among the map on microsoft and google are facing a lawsuit from 14 congolese parents and children human rights groups accuse them of being complicit in the death of children who were allegedly working in coal cobalt mines in the company's supply chains bringing the case alleged the firms had all the authority and resources to supervise and regulate the mines it was some of their testimonies a word of warning though you might find some of the upcoming footage upsetting. the chamber ceiling collapsed on people in

a cold mine john doe 5 was one of only 2 survivors john doe 3 was living in the mine area on his motorbike loaded with 3 bags of cobbled he was hit by a large cobbled transport truck and his leg was amputated after 2 weeks of working john doe well never was severely injured he was 14 years old when he was grassed in the mine the family's uninjured children are seeking compensation for forced labor pointing at unjust unjust enrichment negligence and emotional distress some more say claimed i suffered serious injuries while crawling through tunnels or carrying heavy loads more on the story his saskia tell you. how far would you go to make your fortune hire a child a child kill a child these are the questions the world's most famous tech giants will be in court as part of the landmark legal case that's off to a human rights organization that complicit in the injury and deaths of hundreds if

not thousands of children and the democratic republic of congo all to feed the wallets insatiable appetite for the latest gadgets defendants ample google bill microsoft tesla are knowingly benefiting from aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children in democratic republic of congo to mind called the young children are not merely being forced to work full time extremely dangerous mining jobs at the expense of their educations and futures they're being regularly mean been killed by tunnel collapses and other known hazards common to call gold mining in the d.r. see the case has been brought forward on behalf of 14 congolese families 6 of who have lost children walking and mines the document makes 5 harrowing stories of broken spines paralysis and people buried alive and collapsed tunnels children as young as 6 forced to walk up to 24 hour shifts using tools the human rights group

brandt's as from the stone age many of these children while also trafficked. and while the latest i phone retells around $1000.00 these children were being paid as little as 2 for that troubles if they survive the watching day i've never encountered documented more severe asymmetry in the air. cation of income between the top of the supply chain and the bottom it's dad disconnect that makes this perhaps the worst injustice of slavery and child exploitation that i've seen in my 2 decades of research what could be worth these lives cobol apparently a metal that is essential to those nifty and batteries found in every smartphone laptop and electric car and as the tech boom continues to mont has sort threefold

in the last 5 years alone the d.l.c. as one of the poorest countries in the world but also a mineral gold mine has been only 2 willing to power this for a ship's market it produces around 60 percent of the walls coble supply mining the thought of it by hand now some of those giant corporations which signed a contract with these mining companies say they had no idea what was going on those people in silicon valley can't be big readers than because this has been news before further the horrors of the plight of these children has been widely reported in the media defendants all have knowledge of the forced labor dangerous conditions and extremely low p. provided to child coble minors then you have reports like the one by amnesty international back in 2016 which documented how child cobalt minors were over exposed to hazardous chemicals while walking with no protective gear and basic hand

tools apple's promise a year later it's not use mines that didn't provide professional quit meant must have gotten lost in translation even worse than just standing idly by though pretending you the good guy indeed taking a major peach from the corporate cover of guard defendants apple alphabet dell and microsoft have joined in support of modal mining programs and d r c to create the false impression that they have acted to prevent the known horrors of kobold mining in the deer sea by children but when you are raking in hundreds of billions every year what are a couple of lives over 9000 miles away from you though of course they'll have you believe they really do care people should have values. companies are nothing more than a collection of people and so by extension all companies should have values you know apple has always been at the core about changing the world it's no coincidence

that a company did it catered to free flow of information was founded great here in the us as an american company we cherish the value some freedoms that allowed us to grow and serve so many users we always knew that we were losing our money now was of our life and our eyesight technology but how could we know it was costing lives to. live there will be asked the companies in question for comment they said that reports of misconduct are always investigated with appropriate action taken they also told us to that they are committed to the responsible sourcing responsible sourcing of materials but we also heard from a journalist when the d r c claims that the companies know exactly what they are doing. norville world this system is not good in congo and they are taking profit from this of course they nor very well that's the most of demining the mind coming from the d r c cobalt or gold or any kind of minerals from the instant they nor the

government is less territory or core tribute in directing me to death for $500.00 millions of people walking illegally kids walking illegally 'd in the mine on 100 percent i think 80 percent of those minerals are coming from illegal way and in a very difficult area we can't even call it the bloods minerals and they did they have a direct responsibility on those blood minerals because they do want to buy and they want using it by knowing it which condition those mining what mine is extracted from the us that is the place where we are talking about dispy pour directly from the big copper years. now the u.s. has representatives has voted to impeach donald trump democratic representative sees them a charity to impeach the president on 2 articles a piece of power and also approach of congress however the president seems to be

unconcerned. they are 230 the nasal 197 present is one. article one is adopting. the claim was it doesn't really feel like we're being impeached still i think she was doing better than ever before we got through with you with you on crime we have tremendous support in the republican party like we've never had before. and that support is important too because it is now up to the senate which is most thank republican to decide to trump should be removed from office however mitch mcconnell who leads the majority there said that that is unlikely anticipate support is an outcome just like in the house which voted almost entirely along party lines after 8 hours of hate base with

only 3 democrats say no to impeachment. this process has been partisan vindictive dishonest the president's actions seriously jeopardize not only america's national security but security of our closest allies this investigation was unfair the articles of impeachment are not based on facts but instead are entirely politically motivated president trump abuse the power of his office for his own personal and political gain history books will tell of this day. it will tell of a purely partisan effort to remove the president of the united states i think history will will show pretty quickly pretty quickly in the november 2020 election that this is one of the most stupid errors ever made by a political party because what they're really showing to the world at large and to americans at home is that democrats don't care about the law this a peaceful process was really only meant to deal with treason

a capital offense bribery a serious offense and other high crimes and misdemeanors this process to date is totally corrupted witnesses you know the republicans in the house wanted certain witnesses to come forward they were arbitrarily denied it was a capricious process the democrats are handing trump and conservatives and disruptors an unbelievable set of arguments for a landslide wave election in 2020. when the myth is that the senate will now throw out the impeachment case democrats do have a plan b. when it comes to undermining donald trump they are ready to resort to some old weapons like the miller report. explains. difficult to understand the purpose of last night's impeachment vote why should the upper house of the u.s. congress pass judgment on donald trump when democrats already have a plan b. the house judiciary committee says it will continue to investigate donald trump regardless of the outcome but what else is left to investigate well the house

judiciary committee is saying that they will resurrect the dead i.e. the moeller report this will give them a chance to get back to their roups and bring up that old russian collusion agenda and they can get the impeachment hearings going all over again the public version of the miller report contains numerous redactions these rules 6 redactions withhold information about president trump's knowledge of his campaign's contacts with russian officials and wiki leaks and therefore bear on whether the president committed impeachable offenses yes same old same old even though bob muller found no evidence of trump russia collusion it's all about belief these days i believe even though i don't have the facts to prove it they wanted to elect a president trump i will always believe this that he agreed that if he got elected he would lift those sanctions while maybe instead of just believing she should look into some very solid facts like the recent ruling from the foreign intelligence

surveillance court regarding the surveillance against carter page now that's the very carter page who is transforming the foreign policy adviser just the very next day michael horowitz inspector general of the us department of justice were due to the f.b.i. for failures during the early stages of the russian probe he revealed 17 different omissions and inaccuracy is in the carter page warrant applications and furthermore they include in dr documents and concealed information there were so many errors. we couldn't reach a conclusion or to make a determination on what motivated those failures although we did not find documentary. testimonial evidence of intentional misconduct we also did not receive satisfactory explanations for the errors or the missing information and the failures that occurred now james coleman was the f.b.i. director at the time of the investigation it limited that his bureau was sloppy and

how they investigated donald trump and his team furthermore the infamous cia which started the entire russia probe was not as important as it was made out to be it was one of a bunch of different facts to resemble to a part of the court it was the one that convinced the lawyers that they had enough with that added to the pile to go forward as a question is it seems that you were minimizing the role of the of this field if i was sorry that i did that now call me also said that he does not care how credible steele's allegations were then conclude the reporting from steele was bunk they concluded there were significant questions about the reliability of some of the sub source reporting that should have been included in the renewals when i reached the president i briefed him on a small part of it that i told him i didn't know whether it was true or not i didn't care and in fact he didn't care about the investigation at all in general i didn't know what they learned from the some source i didn't know the particulars of the investigation isn't that investigations or this is an investigation of the

campaign of the man who is the president of the united states while the narrative that donald trump colluded with russia in order to win the 2016 elections hasn't really panned out however the narrative that donald trump has been in appropriately in best to get it by people who have an agenda of trying to bring down his presidency is getting stronger by the day now some people might look at this case and say to the democrats stop beating a dead horse just let this russia stuff go already but it could be more dangerous to try to rivals than they realize it could be a case of stop beating this dead horse before it comes back to life turns around and sinks its teeth into you. argy new york. from tim pietschmann could be one of the topics raised during the russian president's press conference later today and what's becoming something of an end of year tradition in russia vladimir putin will face a grilling from the media and if previous sessions are anything to go by the

president could be fielding questions for a few hours to you elaborate prank or looks at what's in store. 2 christmas is just around the corner so probably stocking up with gifts is the challenge that is on everyone's mind right now well unless you are a journalist with a badge that gives you access to a very special event this thursday the big ad you all are putin q. and a well for such reporters the number one challenge is to get noticed and to somehow leave a sea of colleagues behind by the way if you thought that it all happens behind the famous walls over there in this case you're wrong welcome to moscow's world trade center this is where very soon the q.

and a will begin now let me explain how it works mr putin will be sitting at a table lone in front of a massive audience holding up black cards for 5 years i've been using this nice little r. t. logo a bit further on to the president's left his press secretary usually he is the one who chooses who goes next but sometimes mr putin picks someone out himself and these are the kind of moments we always watch out for if you let them do is complain of their ice or a woman holding a sign that says. ok go for it turn the heat up. oh my god sorry with age comes eyesight issues to distribute these are just translation difficulties i scared everyone my sign today but actually it has putin by which means grandfather. so what are the chances of getting picked 29 things press or sets a record a total of 1895 journalists taken part over the last 7 years

vladimir putin. at the time to answer an average of 58 questions per q. and a so i've done the math the chances are about 3 percent only 3 percent that you get to ask a question not the best of all odds but. the longest event lasted for 4 hours and 40 minutes and usually it's never less than 3 several hours of constantly jumping on your chair waving your black card trying to stand out from the crowd and get the president's attention i'll tell you what that's quite an experience anyway do stay tuned for the show because it could really shake things up a little bit before the holidays from pushing the stock markets up or down to causing a real geopolitical stir just one example it is right in that building that fly out of our proving once back in 25th thing called donald trump

a bright talented man you know the rest of the story into trying to sample the press conferences get underway at 12 noon moscow time today and of course we will have life coverage. argentina love it this country is phantasmagorical the people are extraordinary the government and the central bank maybe not so much because of the central bank but what's going to give us a little bit more detail. means

being in some ways similar. to. the traditional jewish and we often acting it's another words if we're doing it is a bug being. more a key piece in the flexible physically for studious articulate and so on then jews were the 1st modern schools that was the specialization. welcome back with our now a shocking case of child abuse come to light in

a small western russian village 8 local children were imprisoned at home by their father. which is a very special family very well managed children mostly go to church every sunday the top of list is to listen to us least on. the mission this is a. ministry of the children were always very shy one of the boys told me he could only go out when his father was away.

you were suggesting it's what are your relations with the children that are wonderful my most raising them. and why didn't they go to school i was protecting them because it was you which ask those who did you the girl has told us about the atrocities her own father committed against her considering the fact that these crimes were 1st committed a long time again when she was very young could not comprehend the character and the meaning of those actions she was to open my country to such. things to finish it. a school in the u.k. is found itself in the headlines after 12 year old pupils were asked to imagine they were the parents of a victim of the 2017 manchester arena terror attack they were then asked to write

an essay for homework responding to the viewpoint that or terrorists should be forgiven some parents were outraged. i think this is simon is absolutely disgusting for all sorts of different reasons it seems to me to be brainwashing begins i have not let my daughter attend school today and so i can find out more about what the school is teaching our children. at the school has since apologized and cancelled the task we discussed the issues raised here with the political commentator and new york observer columnist andrew walker and also chief executive of the ramadan foundation u.k. mohammed schiff. for aids victims family to be able to have the compassion to forgive is a very personal decision but to try to change the narrative somehow the altera should be forgiven i actually think it's really dangerous the other idea that terrorists can be rehabilitated is often not true and i think what i would have done. school is asked perhaps the pupils to write

a letter to parents to better understand the impacts of terrorism and there is a real concern that if you try to adopt language that we see in this particular exercise that somehow the legitimizes terrorism on their violence and say to young children in this country that you somehow can forgive terrorist i do the you can forgive terrorist if you kill innocent life then you should for political aims and you should stay in prison for the rest of your life look time and time again we are told that the only way to push forward community relations is to try to understand why the terrorists the terrorists no no no no no what you have to understand is why your neighbor is being victimized by those terrorists whether it be muslim families who are concerned for their safety after after the terrorist attacks or whether it's the people being directly affected and we is. british citizens should be really looking at the fact what can we do to keep our country safe but more importantly to hold to account and bring justice for the victims of terrorism we

should teach children the important difference because if the children believe that you know all muslims are like some of the baby the guy who blew up manchester were on earth do we get as a country it's not acceptable to leave that implication in children's minds. now israel has banned christians in garza from visiting holy sites city sorry such as bethlehem in jerusalem during christmas there are reportedly around 1200 christians in gaza last christmas 700 were granted permits to travel to the holy sites in question are these. has more. with christmas almost upon us some people's faced of plans are having to be aborted because of israel over this holiday season it's banned christians in gaza from visiting some sites that for them embody exactly what christmas is about basically hanway jesus christ was born and here in jerusalem where he preached was crucified and resurrected after consulting with all

security bodies in israel it was decided that this year departure permits through the allenby crossing will be issued to garzon christians off to christmas however it is important to emphasize that every request received from the palestinian civil committee in the gaza strip is checked individually and accepted after a security diagnosis procedure the move by these radio thirty's is unusual as typically commission is given every easter and christmas we have to petition for travel through the palestinian civil affairs ministry who in turn poses our applications to the israeli side with and wait for a long time to receive an obituary decision of approval or rejection without further explanation there are almost a 1000 christians living in gaza if since hamas took control in gaza israel has cracked down on travel if a few are gazans are being given permission to make pilgrimages in 201-8700

were given permission to visit holy sites of a christmas this year the number is 0 the decision has been condemned by the israeli based organization which protects the rights of palestinian residents the persistent disrespect shown for the needs of the palestinian civilian population stands in violation of fundamental human rights and also points to an ongoing into speak ation of israeli separation policy between the 2 parts of the palestinian territory gaza and the west bank there's been little international reaction to the christmas bad for example the us state department which prides itself. religious freedoms around the globe has remained silent let's ask people here in jerusalem what they think about the ban do you think it's. lation because everybody should be able to visit the holiest places. to reach to the sickness and where wherever they want to be. even the christian nation jews even the most stems many people do

coming from there for christmas and you don't get to him back when it's a war place and old that everybody in muslim and christian this. because of the war saw it on the way is that. it's not fair to. deprive from your own religion and that's why. they are invading everything. including religion including your privacy including you believe christmas is supposed to be about bringing people together but israel it seems has turned it into an occasion to keep people apart. to receive them. so that's how things are looking so far this morning don't forget that you can also keep yourself updated as usual on our social media pages and you can.

bring the grid to pressure which are old enough to remember there was most of my family were working. there wasn't it was bed you know much worse objectively that day but there was an expectation that things were going to get better. there was a real sense of hopefulness there isn't today today's america where shaped by the turn principles of concentration of wealth and power. reduced democracy attack solidarity engineer elections manufacture consent and other principle holds according to. no on. one set of rules for the rich opposite. that's what happens when you put her into the. narrows. we'll switch we'll just dedicated to increasing power for chills just as you'd expect one of the most influential intellectuals of our time speaks about the modern civilization of

america. all of us will hoops it has been absent a new a baby this sense of behavior that appears even in death and dying babies even if you've never heard of seen love to. tickles by a parents. and then we learn how to use this in a more complex way i am one of the things that we. had to join in with love to contagiously to love and somebody else loves even if you don't know why they're laughing. ratings and sally you tell you. this week while most of washington d.c. and the rest of the country is eagerly anticipating the main event title fight that is the congressional democrats versus us press.