i. caught in the crossfire iraq summons the u.s. ambassador in baghdad over sunday's deadly american airstrikes in a country which the pentagon says targeted iranian backed militants also to come we go in search next not the outskirts of. a slew of headlines saying that germans are getting increasingly frustrated with slow internet speeds and coverage we ask locals just how bad it is. called loss of footsie this is impossible to understand 7 years ago i was driving through the baltic republics and poland even today i don't have that quality of connection in germany. and the new years miracle we find out what happened to a little boy who was pulled from the ruins of a tower block that collapsed in russia

a year ago. morning this new year's eve is just going to 11 o'clock here in moscow you're watching r.t. international now baghdad has summoned the u.s. ambassador over the latest american airstrikes on iraq and syria which killed 25 people iraqi officials say they were unable to prevent the attack with their objections being ignored by washington the u.s. special representative for iran brian hawk has defended the operation though and insists they targeted iranian backed militants to deter iranian aggression. one of the things we want to emphasize is that this was a defensive action that was designed to protect american forces and american citizens in iraq we're also working on the mission of restoring deterrence against me and aggression on sunday the united states hit 5 targets belonging to qatar has

bella it's in our it's an armed group that emerged after the u.s. invasion of iraq and has repeatedly targeted american forces is also one of the main shia groups fighting islamic state in both iraq and syria according to the u.s. the bombing raids were in retaliation for friday's rocket strike on the kook base in iraq which killed one american contractor no group has claimed responsibility for that but the pentagon does blame the militant group but after the attack hundreds of protesters gathered on the streets of the iraqi capital they condemned the u.s. airstrikes and expressed support for the militia who were bombed protesters burned the u.s. and israeli flags chanting no to america because he darn of takes a look now at how iraq's got caught up in the standoff between the u.s. and iran. they come they see they leave a barren wasteland american airstrikes on foreign soil have become

a normality the whole world is their militaries sandbox and this time they've been playing in iraq's corner where we did was dick a decisive response that makes clear what president roh as said for months and months and months which is that we stand for this long. to get the full of american men and women in jeopardy i would add that in our discussion today with the president we discussed with the other options that are available and i would note also that we will take additional actions as necessary to ensure that we act in our own self-defense and we deter further bad behavior from militia groups or from iran the u.s. bombing pro iranian forces in a. iraq unilaterally if there's one country living in the borderless world of tomorrow that's america and what happened yesterday was clear aggression it was not right and we tried to stop it but the us insisted very unfortunately this thing

happened i said this was a very dangerous matter and asked to discuss it face to face with the responsible parties not only by from what he said the decision has been made and i am informing you of this but for baghdad and installed bigger than the airstrikes themselves is the fact that the bombing of votes land wasn't even about it it had nothing to do with iraq instead washington was after iran and its power grip on the middle east part of america's great again plan of weakening tehran irony is america that complains so much about iran now who was the one to inadvertently elevate iran into a powerhouse it is now in iraq in particular saddam hussein once pampered by the us was iran's greatest enemy and the cia even aided his brutal chemical attacks against the rayney an army but then hussein himself became

a problem fell from grace and ended his reign on the gallows the us invasion created a power vacuum which you run didn't hesitate to fill iran as the major destabilizing in influence in the middle east and we aim to fix that one of the greatest security threats facing peace loving nations today. is the repressive regime in iran really think twice about that since the u.s. has been after tehran on so many levels from sanctions to declaring iran's elite military force a terrorist organization but they are not stopping there and the u.s. has been particularly aggressive in trying to push to iran's influence out of iraq . this alone shows just how much free will the u.s. has left its ally iraq in being the master of its own foreign policy and there's no indication washington's going to stop in fact the exact opposite we're not done

this is an ongoing process process right now you know we are observing what is called a shadow war or proxy war whatever you want to call it but this is getting to be a very dangerous gambit on us part that. gazin this unilateral economic warfare against iran that is also impacting negatively iraq's economy and good deal of what is wrong in iraq's economy today can be traced to us is erroneous have pushed to the region. pursuing a misguided policy not just toward iran but also iraq saw in chaos and instability and this will 'd inflate anti americanism in iraq and in the region you will make it harder for the us to sustain its military bases in iraq and the us government is simply not assisting the. you know

a vested interest of iraq is in stability entering clytie by pursuing these unilateral warmongering policies. the wiki leaks founder julian the signs claims he's slowly dying jail and is often tranquilized and kept in solitary confinement 23 hours a day he made the disturbing revelations in a phone call to his friend on smith on christmas eve. sounded awful and it was very upsetting to hear him the idea of him being sedated has come from several people who visited in who clearly need told and the british government have been asked about it and they refuse to address that matter and what they say is they're not mistreating him but clearly he's being kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day he sounded awful at that time. the bail charge and he served his time too and he's now on remand it's highly unusual to put a remand prisoner in belmarsh when they're not a threat of

a physical or violent threat to society i think we need some answers from from the british government why are they treating him like this why can't we have some independent assessment 100 international got to those and asked to arrange a visit so at least a sender some representative to check on him but that hasn't been allowed nils meltzer the un rocketeer on torture has been very clear about asylum just mistreatment and describes it in the most pulling terms and yet it's claims very recently in november that the british government of completely ignored his request to see julian probably his health properly assess. a son who was arrested in april and since then medics and un observers have warned about is declining physical or mental health a hearing in february will decide on his extradition to the us there who is accused of publishing classified documents and could face 175 year jail sentence commenting

on the claims that he signed is being mistreated day the u.k. government says that they are unfounded and also force but that doesn't stop politicians and activists and celebrities continuing to draw attention to his plight. there was not. enough time she had been exposed to psychological torture for a prolonged period of time that's a medical assessment and we asked for in all states to investigate this case. 15 killings rape and. things of.

the medical situation is that by urgent there is no time to lose. just come tempest 11 in the morning here in moscow now when you think of germany you might think of technological prowess and the fish and seepage getting increasingly frustrated with their internet as europe's economic powerhouse does seem to be life really behind when it comes to speed and also coverage nationally sip sas went to find out more. likes to present itself as a industrial and technological powerhouse and country very much in the fast lane but those who run the internet here haven't really got the memo because life on line pretty much wrong id snail's pace we are in the heart of berlin so let's check the connection.

not exactly impressive but it might be that all of these guys here are glued on you tube and are stealing all the bad with. so let's head old side maybe we'll get more like you with mobile internet. like almost every word on the planet these days people are addicted to their phones they just can't stop staring a bit but the question is whether germans get the service they pay for and a recent study shows that they certainly do not and less than 2 percent of smartphone users get the speeds they were promised for but we're out here on a fact finding mission so it's time to do a test. not the result i was hoping for but wait until we get outside of the city you'll be

pleasantly surprised. we are 40 minutes away from berlin so let's see if we can actually make a phone call. seems like i have bad signal more like no signal actually so imagine i had to actually information on line superhighway well good luck with that i would actually have to get on the actual highway and off to find signal and international comparison germany ranks 70th according to recent. ports for the nation house for me because of the european countries with only 65 percent of its territory being covered as this cold last effort see this is impossible to understand 7 years ago i was driving through estonia the baltic republics and poland and i always had a stable connection over the phone even today i don't have that quality of

connection in germany more than angry and that is to put it very mildly many of complain that this makes it hard to do business in the area when there is slow internet time and as we know time is money so it's important for the economy so we have a good mobile coverage if we cannot achieve that continue to damage the economy. to a story that started a tragedy but has ended with hope a year ago a baby was rescued from the rubble of his collapsed house in russia's magnitogorsk but we're pleased to say after treatment and care little banya is now taking his 1st steps. i asked her.

i thought. that i. was puzzling us a little for one of our rescue workers heard a child crying we stopped all our equipment in order to listen and make sure when we said quiet the baby reacted and went quiet to you people when we said where are you we started to react again. she. was. in the police just my eldest son and i fell together i'll find it was left alone in his bed you managed to get out and he was left that. the child was conscious one huge life to and taking down the parade senior at the moment the child's remains in

a serious condition on the ice the future of insulation cd. an amazing story still ahead here this hour we continue our review of the past year looking at some of the k. events us to come just awful. wow 2020. whopper. is your media a reflection of reality. in

a world transformed. what will make you feel safe. isolation community. are you going the right way or are you being led. by. what is true what is faith. in the world corrupted you need to descend. to join us in the depths. for a mate in the shallows. so

again i with 2020 just hours away it is time to look back at more of the key events that shaped the last 12 months. and today's topics are don't believe the hype and also streets of rage well 2019 was characterized by banks of political hysteria if we can call it that from angry debate about climate change to the wider doping scandal and of course emotions also ran high over breaks it or johnson's victory in the u.k.'s general election gave leaves hope and left some remaining is in despair. looks at the hopes of. the festive season is upon us mulled wine christmassy smells and sounds the promise of snow but the time to come together and to tell stories and wow do i have a good one of the past. one queued morning over 3 years ago the british

people woke up and decided they just had enough of those bureaucrats in brussels and all 60000000 mourn the loss of their redpath courts 17400000 rejoiced off with those european shackles make britain great again off till they promised it would be easy getting out of the e.u. can be quick and easy the u.k. holds most of the cards. can choose the path we want an optimism a part not shared by david cameron because he made 50 accept but to resume bounded to the rescue on her lap at kitten heels and she meant bricks it means bricks it breaks it breaks it breaks it means bricks it and we're going to make a success of it so she clapped and triggered article 50 starting the hold to force

process and to have credit she did manage to wrangle a deal from the e.u. so the pressure was the only one who thought it was any good but desperate times desperate measures and off to parliament she went and it was a bust the deal was flattened not once not even twice but 3 times 2 years on m.p.'s have been unable to agree on a way to implement the u.k.'s withdrawal. as a result we will now not leave on time with the deal eventually she ran out of that 2nd policy son so turned to the problem to her mom the times door she heard i cheer i do so with no ill will but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country i love and boris johnson i bet but that won't but maybe he'd be the one to get right set up most of all what are

we going to do to really. get bread daddy's really good once you've got it can you make a promise today to the british public that you will not go back to brussels and ask for another delay to tax it yet and so young and revealing that. you find it was just too much effort to get invited to my part about so suspended it but opted not to go down while so he said ok fine back to brussels more negotiations and he returned to london with a deal even portland police to walk on a saturday but alas knows that his people jump like he was rejected and he was forced to beg you to get him out that could lay some of his m.p.'s you can go to him new troops on the ship yards to the right 328 the notion that 301. be. not

a good start forests so suspending parliament haven't watched pos new deal also what. it does no one can do is going to the opposition into a general election by putting jeremy coogan. is desperate absolutely desperate to avoid scrutiny. i. on the eve of the election the polls were close to boris turned on the charm and one moving people door to door. or was. nothing like a good movie reference to win you an election because on december 12th boris was popping champagne and dining on his new parliamentary majority he got his wish of

a korban free christmas and now he might well get his wish for january breck's it the question is will we finally get our wish for just a bit of. code 6. now another key events of the year st process did grip cities all over the world chief among them is paris in fact the whole of france it seems was affected by a kind of a yellow fever. now reports the hive his protest movement has been shaking things up every weekend this year. as $29000.00 winds up in front since that time move reflection was a good year what gifts did it bring well there were plenty from the government but many seemed to go down like a lead balloon and people took to the streets time and time again.

yes we all know the french all famous for striking and for protesting but in 2019 it felt like that there was something we picking at old wounds its theme of a year with on going protests and into professional strikes throughout the year one protest movement stood out every saturday without fail the yellow vests took to the streets. a movement born in 2018 but it left that small cone 2019 the yellow vests one to

change in the social fabric in france they've charged to the streets in anger of what they see as being a hugely unequal country with a growing divide between the rich and the pool mccaughan had given them concessions but they were rejected week after week the yellow vests and the police clashed thousands on both sides injured. then you say well the climate strikes led by phone says use they took to the streets to decry the country mostly doing enough to join the freud just strikes president michael was incensed and demanded that they take that action elsewhere

marching every friday to say that the planet is burning that's nice but that is not the problem people should go protest in poland help me move those i cannot push forward. and of course ending the year has been the big one and nationwide strike against pension reform. the public transport strike has brought most of the country to a standstill under was sparked over the plans to merge 42 different pension schemes into a universal points based system and if you know anything about the french you don't mess with that were toying meant so as 2100 was to

a close there was only one question to ask those who take into the streets would not call me after all the unwanted gifts he presented to the french this year below folbre christmas is naughty or nice list he is a naughty child that's for sure and i hope he will not have any presents from father christmas so i think that it's father with who is coming to see him i know i think someone should tell my craw on that father christmas doesn't exist at all as if he was a child i am not sure that he would have a lot of presents this year because he has not been very wise he did not listen to his people. no t.v. no t.v. it's not nice to see you i think that he will be deprived of gifts this year and also next year. wrapping up our review of the year for this hour at least but back with more interest in.

the buzz you live but if she warned you post the budget and i did the dishes at the balls more than those jeans nudist beach and you see me we need to you the truth. about that when you die. in the news i mean guys without infringing balls. a lot of you will see sawing during fuzzy fights about who could shout the most ardent most called. it as in the adams to me as if. this but out. here in chief of people dot com adult 5 days doing. an english lady a few people who simply knew she would include in it will.

join me every thursday on the alex simon chill and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see that. today there are good dentists and bad evidence the bad news in yemen the united states deems to be a threat to look at those who work in syria the cia and the us military were engaged in covert actions really throughout the world. where they were assassinating populist leaders they were backing up right wing military juntas funding an army of death squads there is no end because there's always a small. really good. profit.

i am max kaiser out being new there. wow i'm feeling it 2020 should be a whopper stacy yes this is our last day of 21000 we're heading into 2020 we have a lot of predictions that means because of course no beginning of the year is a true beginning of the year without some predictions i think 2020 could be a year for giago we saw coming into the end of the year these uprisings across the world so will we see pitchforks and billionaire taxes was going to have a banner year the globalist direction against banker i can patient for sure because the millennial zen agenda is

a folks are going to give up they're going to realize that this better a game from the beginning they have no chance they're not going to make as much as their parents did life expectancy is falling in america and the environment is collapsing and they realize they've got to fight their way out of this or they're going to perish so they're going to there's going to be pretty gnarly to use a millennial term i think that was a generation x. term i remember that and i from my childhood so i think it is indeed a time that people in the younger generations and they have the vote now they are the millennial and they have the power and i think you saw that in the terror this year in the billionaire boomers because they came out like no other fear i've ever seen on them we saw jamie diamond leon cooperman michael bloomberg bill gates lloyd blankfein they all came out terrified of this billionaire tax i the notion not the .