deadly. stuff including the. dying in prison. 23 hours of solitary confinement a day we hear from a friend. in a call from the wiki leaks co-founder on christmas eve. because he spent christmas with me and my family in 2010.

he said to me i'm slowly dying. view of the key events that shaped 20 continues we shared some. life from our international news. the decades lasting welcome to our international good to have you with us. hundreds of iraqis have attempted to storm the u.s. embassy in baghdad with some of the protesters starting fires there they are reportedly demanding its closure american forces exit the country iraq's popular mobilization forces say 2 dozen people have been injured at rallies in. the nation's prime minister has urged the assembled tried to leave the m. warning of

a tough response if they don't want to risk comes after american bombing raids in iraq and syria kill $25.00 of the regular. was. god. or joy no boy or middle east correspondent paul asli or michelle greenstone from artsy paulette let's go to you 1st the protests there they show little sign of relenting what do we know but days of it. well certainly at this stage they show no sign of dissipating we know and we've received reports that the american embassy staff including the ambassador have been evacuated from the compound but these reports come as we continue to hear that iraqi security forces off firing tear gas on the

crowds to try and get them to disperse now many of the people there were earlier attending one of several funerals that was organized on shoes day for some of the victims of sunday's american airstrikes and as you mentioned the situation at the moment is far from being under control earlier the american ambassador was summoned for an explanation of the american strikes that targeted some 5 sites belonging to the qatari hizbullah armed group now this is a group that emerged off to the american invasion of iraq in recent times and has repeatedly been involved in attacks against american forces it is also one of the main shia groups that has been fighting islamic state in syria and in iraq now according to the americans the sunday air strike was carried out in with telly ation full bomb a bomb attack on its base in quetta cook during which one american contractor was killed as of yet there's been no. summation for that attack but the pentagon

insists that the american that the hizbollah group was behind it now the iraqi prime minister has slammed these strikes. across the what happened yesterday was a clear aggression it was not right and we tried to stop it but the u.s. insisted and very unfortunately this thing happened and i said that 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. now the protests began on sunday night after the american strikes when hundreds of people took to the streets of baghdad condemning the americans and at the same time expressing support for the militia they burnt american and israeli flags in the chant and slogans such as down with america and no 2 america. ok well let's cross to michele greenstein who's in washington d.c.

for some of the reaction from the u.s. michelle one of we've been hearing they're. all for one thing we have u.s. president donald trump insisting that iran is orchestrating this attack on the on the embassy in baghdad we also have senator marco rubio who doubted the theory that the u.s. in any way brought this attack on the embassy upon themselves take a listen. room killed an american contractor wounding many we strongly responded in ways we'll know iran is orchestrating an attack on the u.s. embassy in iraq they will be held fully responsible in addition we expect iraq to use its forces to protect the embassy and so notified iran is directly responsible for orchestrating the storming of the u.s. embassy in iraq and must be held accountable for it and the safety of every american serving there. now we also have the state

department's special representative for iran brian hook emphasizing that sunday's air strike was just a defensive action take a listen. 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 really so working in the mission of restoring deterrence against remey integration. now in terms of a response from the u.s. press we have the washington post bureau chief for iraq syria and lebanon explained to her readers that the embassy had been stormed not by the iraqi people but by qatar even has been lost supporters and we also had c.n.n. anchor jake tapper read tweet an analysis by former national security advisor to the top administration john bolton in which he declared the demonstrations as a sign of iranian control over militia groups not a sign of a rocky anti americanism and this is all of course despite the crowd outside the

embassy shouting down down usa thanks michelle michelle greenstein for our team america joining us before that middle east correspondent paula it earlier for today . well we're joined live now to dubbo a bit further into the program by corrosion shamu crush is a lawyer middle east expert speaks to us from tehran today crush your tick 1st donald trump blaming her for the embassy attack and pledging revenge as well. thank you for inviting me yes as you said i'm not into the trap is he might be saying the right scene because what we can what we cannot is that this this militia is in the one going or another control of. the iranian government are being written in the new guard and is a direct retaliation after a u.s. airstrike today to the militia iraq's leader and this is something we don't

really associate with iraq american relations but there the country's leader call the u.s. strikes a violation of sovereignty i hope badly could this damage by dad washington types. it could be it could handle their relation because you have 900 member of the parliament saying that they do not want any foreign troops on iraqi land because what the iraqi are not to see not is because that there is a proxy war between the usa and iran. in the persian gulf arab vs saudi arabia and that. confrontation is moving back to iraqi territory now what we noticing is that the iranian attacks some american bases the americans we tell you the militia in the media shout controlled by the riyadh you indian retaliates back so all these attacks are taking place in iraqi. territory and what they don't want is they want

to be free and they don't want to be controlled by the americans so that's why so 10100 members of the parliament american troops to leave iraq and to let iraqi government conduct its policy how does that flesh itself fight crush what kind of consequences from what you just said there could there be from this worsening a relation. this worsening of the relation one question is very important to be raised there is when the americans conducted on this militia being you that there would be a recalibration and american people are smart people so we didn't do it one way or another. in my. sort of attack on the american embassy which is a bunch of by the way but they knew that might happen my question is and i'm not sure i don't have the answer if the americans knew that there would be

a retaliation by india mind in the shop and within big take this as an excuse to attack iran's iraqi that it. could want to do that but that might be serve as an excuse to attack iran directly which has not made it don't want. to have a proxy war with iran whether in iraq or syria and but the question might be raised because as you know i'm a weekend american sali foreign policy expansionism and they can take as an excuse to attack i want to just get your thoughts the sound isn't great cross will just stick with a little bit longer how do you think iran reacts to the statements by the trumpet ministration being directly implicated is there a danger of direct military confrontation because of this situation and there might be because it iranians are so are a smart people so they knew that if the attack. the u.s. embassy 40 years ago iranians took 'd american diplomats prostate.

you're in it embassy here in iran and. you can't launch an attack which the attack faith but they knew what that this might be as it might serve as an ex used to. be but i think they're not they're pretty sure that the americans will not attack directly right because they not that donald trump doesn't want doesn't want to get in a direct war with iran or any other country as of now so that if they've been doing that the americans will retaliate we will probably bomb strike on our there are there iranian interests in syria are in iraq but there i think the pretty sure that the americans will not. crush thanks very much very high in that are interesting on their faces very as well the sign was great there across thanks very much crushed lawyer middle east expert speaking from tehran i just wanted to say it's

a very dangerous moment absolutely thanks for having our i'm going to cross countries thank you. all right 2 more world news now a big story we're closely following as well wiki leaks founder julian assange claims he's slowly dying in a u.k. jail and is often tried and kept in solitary confinement 23 hours a day he made the disturbing revelations in a phone call to his friend von smith on christmas eve. all fall 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 and he said to me that i'm slowly dying in these remember he served time for all 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 violence 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 at least to send some representatives 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 appalling terms and yet his claims very recently in november that the british government are completely ignored he is request to see julian probably his health properly assess julian assange who was arrested in april and since then medics and un observers have warned about his the climbing physical and mental health of the of the side on his extradition to the us

there he's accused of publishing classified documents and could face a 175 year. commenting on their claims that assad has been mistreated the u.k. government says they are on funded and they are faults but that has not stopped politicians acted as other high profile figures to continuing to draw attention to his plight. the word. she had been exposed to psychological torture for a prolonged period of time that's a medical assessment and. asks to 4 in all states to investigate this case. 15 keating's wait and.

the medical situation is that by urgent there is no time to lose. you know of the past year and it was certainly an action on her way to be a recount. you know world of big part of the lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up 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 on the back 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 we're watching closely watching the hawks. so we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy to. let it be an arms race. spearing dramatic to follow only loosely i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk.

hello again with 2020 just hours away it's time to look back at more of the key events that shaped the past 12 months. today's topics are don't believe the hype of streets of rage let's look at the former 1st 2019 was carved arise by bites of political history from. debates a by climate change to the wanted to. of course emotions run high over brags that boris johnson's victory in the u.k. general election well it gave leverage hope gave remainders some more despair are to. being looking at the entire saga. the festive season is upon us mulled wine christmas the smells and sounds the promise of snow but the time to come

together to tell stories and while do i have a good one of. one queued mourning over 3 years ago the british people woke up and decided they just had enough of those bureaucrats in brussels i'm all 60000000 mourn the loss of that rep paul supports 17400000 rejoiced off with those european shackles make britain great again a fuel they promised it would be easy getting out of the e.u. can be quick and easy the u.k. holds most of the cons. the. old. can choose the path we want an optimism apart not shared by david cameron because he made a hasty exit but to resume bounded to the rescue on her lap at kitten heels and she meant it breaks it means bricks it breaks it. wrecks

it wrecks it means breaks it and we're going to make a success of it so she clapped and triggered article 50 starting at the hold to force process and to have credit she did manage to wrangle a deal for me you know the party she was the only one 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 a deal eventually she ran out of that said pelosi son so turned to the problem to her mom the times door she hooked up to her 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've been wrong but that one but maybe he'd be the one to get. most of all what are we going to do to repay you to get bread shit dad out before you get it out of the 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'd find it was just too much effort to get invited to my part about suspended it but that did not go down well so he said ok fine back to brussels more negotiations and he returned to london with a deal even puerto template to walk on a saturday but alas knows that his people jump like crazy was rejected and he was forced to beg you to get him out that delay some of the campaign you can go to to

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 an awesome 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 on the charm and one woman people door to door.

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. 6 chrome 6. and other key events from the euro was street protests gripped cities all across the world chief among them horace and fact the whole of france it seems was affected by a kind of yellow fever charlotte dubin ski reports on the protest movement that's been shaking things up every weekend this year. as 29000 winds up in front since that time move reflection was a good g.a.a. 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 protesting but in 2019 it felt like that there was something. re picking out old wounds it's been a bump 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 home to change in the social fabric and fronts 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 poor not corn had given them concessions but they were rejected week after week the yellow vests and the police clashed thousands on both sides injured.

then there was a climate strikes led by throwing says youth they took to the streets to decry the country more than doing enough to join the fridays to feature 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 a 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 i don't know what 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 there 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 after all the unwanted gifts he presented to the french this year the old father 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 i think that it's father with her who is coming to see a man now i think someone should tell micron that father christmas doesn't exist at all 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 but his duty. no t.v. no t.v. not nice to see you i think that he will be deprived of gifts this year and also

next year. we're done on the farm next taking a look at all the fast approaching new decade in store for those whose lives revolve around culture. close it's next on r.t. international. wow i'm feeling it 2020 should be a whopper. and

when you. look at that is there was more to the book about. the it's about. me. just chill.

the united states agriculture sector contributed over a trillion dollars to the gross domestic product in 2017 along with $21000000.00 jobs making up over 10 percent of all u.s. employment and with over $2000000.00 farms running currently you'd think that would equate into jobs market profits but it hasn't at least not for some was barack and the 1930 s. the us posted almost $7000000.00 farms and in the middle 800 hundreds farm workers responsible for over 70 percent of the total u.s. workforce now farmers only make up about 1.5 percent of the u.s. labor force and according to the u.s.d.a. 70 percent of farmers make less than a quarter of their income from farming relying on off farm jobs and subsidies for the rest 20 nineteen's median farm income is projected to be negative

$1449.00 per year so why are the people responsible for growing our food having to go without. for 34 years the folks that are made have come together all year long to help those farmers and the industry they work in to better provide for everyone and for one day a year they bring together the biggest names in the country and rock music to celebrate the american farmer. was. the 1st took place in september 22nd 1985 and since then farm aid has raised over $53000000.00 to support of alrighty of programs to help farming thrive from the most moral corner to the tops of buildings and city centers here is farming president willie nelson back in 1993 addressing the farm income policy forum sponsored by the department of agriculture for the past few years the u.s.d.a. has been reporting that farm income.