moscow rings in the new year and a new decade fireworks bright lights and cheering crowds in the streets of russia's capital welcome 2020. and as our review of the key events that shaped 29000 continues we shed some light on the impeachment saga. meanwhile hundreds attempt to storm the u.s. embassy in baghdad after last week's deadly american airstrikes on iraq diplomatic staff including the ambassador have reportedly been evacuated from the compound.

from moscow where it's just past 2 in the morning you're watching international happy new year from all of us here. now a new decade has indeed begun here in moscow we enter 2028 just 2 hours ago the celebration is in full swing mass let's take a look at how it was done in other parts of the world. i. well then to see how moscow brought in the new decade his correspondence saskia taylor right in the heart of the russian capital. i'm quite literally standing

underneath the fire i'm in the ferry center i've got boswell's right behind you can hear the crowds going wild and then to my boy i've got this tower and just a couple of moments ago we had the much anticipated 12 midnight chimes from the tower that's the most famous clock tower within the kremlin's walls and it's really become the face of the symbol of new year here in russia so 2025 is officially upon us just now you saw on your screens of course the spectacular fireworks display that was just erupting right in front of my eyes over the river must be an all across the night's sky they launched this year a record 35000 solvers from 11 locations were actually right next to one of the locations and that was all of course to ensure that we had the most spectacular the race unbeatable performance of night and color and of sounds that no one down here was left disappointed and if the reaction of that crowd just below us is anything

to go by it all lived up to the height of the people and are out in force today that way from spock is that singing that dancing the hugging strangers i can see there of course popping champagne not even the rain could dampen this crowd spirit and unfortunately yes we did have rain we've had do woman december and 133 years and it was so dire in fact that local authorities had to bring in some artificial snow to some of the decorations in the center of the way it's very clear that all these party goers are going to be out and about as well into the hour was of the morning they're going to be would be round soaking up the atmosphere and taking advantage of everything that is on offer in my goodness is there a lot from carousels to concepts from ice skating to food markets and daunte sauce and all the while the bees to stroll through a fairy tale moscow that's been decked out with dazzling decorations and light

displays. nothing of course more tasking than the tree in front of the crowd at the far end of red square it towers above us this year at 22 meters high it's weighed down by an astonishing 3 and a half 1000 decorations and to top it all off the house overlooking 3 kilometers of light snaking the way it's all the way up to the star at the top and it's precisely this magical fiber that moscow has at this time of year that brings in on average 5000000 people to the capital in the holiday week many of them do of course choose to flock to the epicenter that is red square and you really can't blame them because a russian saying goes that if you see in the new year here on red square you are in for a year of good luck and who would want to pass up on that i will admit though some have probably opted for coziness and walked over a party along the kremlin walls and i'll be home gathered with family and friends thinking champagne glasses feasting on traditional new year's dishes and of course

exchanging gifts and tonight all across russia children will be looking out their windows and awaiting eagerly a visit from jet models who is russia's father christmas here in moscow one of the last to welcome 2020 with open arms russia has 11 time zones across how fast territory in the far east things appropriately winding down but not here hit the parties are just getting started so from myself from the thousands of rather let's head in the very beating heart of mother russia welcome to a new year welcome to a new decade let's hope these twenty's are as roaring as the last. one now that we are in 2020 we can take a moment to look back at some of the key news events that shaped 2019. well street protests are one of the big themes of the year the great cities all

over the world chief among them in paris in fact the whole of france it seems was affected by a kind of yellow fever shot a bit reports now on the protest movement the shook things up every weekend last 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 picking out the old wounds its theme of a year with home going protests and into professional strikes throughout the year one protest movement. every saturday without fail the yellow vests took to the streets. a movement in 2018 but it left that small cone 2019 the yellow vests home 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 cool mccool had given them concessions but they were rejected weak off too weak the yellow vests and the police clashed

thousands on both sides injured. then you may want the climate strikes led by phone says use they took to the streets to decry the country more so doing enough to join the freud a city just strikes president michael was incensed and demanded that they take that action elsewhere. 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 choice down still i know what sparked it was the plan was to merge 42 different pension schemes into a universal points based system and if you know anything about the french use to mess with that we're toying with it so it's $2000.00 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 be all full that christmas is naughty or nice list he is a naughty child the bastard sure and i hope he will not have any presents from father christmas so i think that it's father with 3 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 it is duty. no t.v. no t.v. it's not nice to see and i think that he will be deprived of gifts this year and also next year in some other key news events from the if it was 2019 was a year of donald trump making the headlines he's even been impeached which doesn't seem to be bothering him too much auntie's caleb maupin explains how the house of representatives vote in favor of trump's impeachment may not have had the effect the democratic party wanted. president from slamming house speaker nancy pelosi is as if not going to be the lady she wrote about in jesus or the 1st you know you do see it so are you sick and tired of it yet every single day there's a fresh delusion of stories about donald trump and his impeachment not just in the

usa but around the world increasingly it seems like the us public is suffering from what could be described as impeachment fatigue. so why are people getting bored and tired over something that could be a dramatic saga of the democrats attempt to bring down the american president well it could be that donald trump has already been investigated and exonerated over russia collusion a rise to mr speaker. to call for the impeachment of the president of the united states of america they're talking about a president who fired the f.b.i. director who was investigating the president for his connections to russian

involvement in the presidential election the public breathed a sigh of relief thought it was all over but then it got going again it didn't work with russia so now it's ukraine this week the president has admitted to asking the president ukraine to take actions which would benefit him politically therefore today i'm announcing the house of representatives moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry once the ukraine stuff got going it got to be a little bit long winded the witnesses repeated the same facts over and over and over again and democrats warned that it could be a long process but there is no limit on the number of the senate. or not a president no limit to the number of times to impeach or not a president if the senate doesn't vote to convict trump or tries to monkey with his trial he could of course be retried in the new senate should he win reelection and

repeating yourself over and over again is a sure fire way of becoming popular no one is above the law and that includes the president of the united states in pietschmann is the way we establish that this man will not be permitted to break the law over and over without consequences if we don't reckon with president trump's persistent transgressions the very foundation. of this great republic is at risk now polls show the us public would prefer congress actually address some of the problems facing the country not spend their time squabbling with the white house those who said times of democrats petty politics and basis witchhunt what i'm hearing out in the street with most people is they're kind of tired they're kind of worn out they're kind of bored your folks and they really want to move on unless there's something new and amazing we know the end game there how did you tune in for the last hearing of the impeachment

extravaganza mainstream media seems to give the impression that the whole country is watching the impeachment hearings but in reality they aren't viewership of the 1st impeachment hearing was roughly 13800000 do the math that's about 5 percent of the u.s. public now when richard nixon was facing impeachment hearings decades ago roughly 71 percent of american citizens tuned in big difference so we decided to talk to new yorkers and see how excited they are about the impeachment process referring to i don't look at the more because this is a real thing i know i'm not i think it's an important story and you get a personal moment of our history of wasting valuable time nothing is getting done i don't need to go through every single process out so i try to watch some of it on this drudge but then again i've been watching bits and pieces and this sense of surrounding information about it it's enough for ready it's not going anywhere and

nothing is going to come out of this where the president's going to be removed and you know people want the country to get on with the business at hand that these to beatrice and i'm pretty sure it's bogus as 2020 rolls around americans are unsure of what the new year will bring however one thing does seem to be pretty clear there will be plenty of congressional hearings and senate debates on capitol hill whether the u.s. public is interested in them or. not caleb oppen marty new york. well here is one story from last year that was an inspiration it's about professionalism bravery and also luck a bird strike caused a euro airlines flight to crash land in a cornfield outside moscow with everyone on board surviving.

i don't i mean. look at the tissue still sell it because. the tough. time. there was no panic on board even though the landing was rough the pilot did a great job she landed the plane really catfish to tell us please how do you feel now did you hurt to let. you know it's better than if i was there lying on the field so everything is rather good the landing was good the files did

a great job landed the plane on its belly everything is fine. it. up to reach to call the engines became unstable 1st the left one and then the right one we usually simulate the situations when one or 2 engines out despite all i want to focus the plane was going down realized that we didn't have much time just one or 2 minutes to make a decision. all 29000 was a year of extraordinary variety both good and bad and all video agency ruptly was right across it all.

it was good it was. simply. it doesn't really feel like we're being impeached hundreds of iraqis have demonstrated that anger outside the u.s. embassy in baghdad threatening to storm the compound we'll have that news and walk to this short break.

you know world of big. lot and conspiracies 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 smart 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 we're watching closely watching the hawks. there's a lot of it here is the economy where china has caught up or surpassed us in the mobile payments markets 50 times the size of the us or over here still writing checks our banking system is not innovated 5 g. we've kind of recently woken up the last couple years and go wow we don't even have a company that can make 5 g. equipment it's been a win win for china and it's been a lose lose for the u.s. .

now turning to some headline news hundreds of iraqis have attempted to storm the u.s. embassy in baghdad with some of the protesters starting a fire there reportedly demanding its closure that american forces exit the country iraq's popular mobilization forces say around 2 dozen people have been injured at rallies in and around the compound the nation's prime minister says the assembled crowd to leave the embassy warning of a tough or sponsor if they don't the unrest comes off to american bombing raids in iraq and syria that killed 25 at the weekend. i was. struck by.

was where u.s. president donald trump has already laid the blame on iran promising it will pay a very big price for the attack on the embassy washington has decided to redeploy $100.00 marines from kuwait to reinforce the embassy the u.s. central command says the additional marines were requested by the state department and their deployment has been approved by iraqi security forces. my colleague at you know neil discussed the situation with our middle east correspondent paul asli earlier and michael greenstein from the america. paula let's go to you 1st the protests there they show little sign of relenting what do we know but today it's over 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 who were attending one of several funerals that was organized on tuesday 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 cutter hizbullah armed group now this is a group that emerged after the american invasion of iraq in recent times it 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 the television for bomb for bomb attack on its base in quetta cook during which one american contractor was killed as of yet there's been no confirmation for that attack but the pentagon insists that the hizbollah group was behind it now the iraqi prime

minister has slammed these strikes closely on what happened yesterday was clear aggression it was not right and we tried to stop it but the u.s. insisted and very unfortunately this thing happened this was a very dangerous matter and 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 and the chanting slogans such as down with america and no 2 america ok well let's cross to michele greenstein who is in washington d.c. for some of the reaction from the u.s. michele 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 route you'll do the american contractor. 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 see and. 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 special representative for iran brian hook emphasizing that sunday's air strike was just a defensive action take a listen one of the things that 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 to terence against

iranian aggression now in terms of a response from the u.s. press we have the washington post the euro chief for iraq to syria and lebanon explained to her readers that the embassy had been stormed not by the iraqi people but by qatar even hezbollah supporters and we also had c.n.n. anchor jake tapper retreat and 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. well that is your update for now i'll be back with the rest of the team at the top of the hour to bring you more news from around the world happy new year. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of

the world of politics or business i'm showbusiness i'll see you there. on this edition of crossfire we answer questions center was fire you the viewers we received quite a few questions here we do our best to answer some of them. time after time called parisian to repeat the same mantra sustainability it's very important to excel or transition to sustainable pries board sustainability stay number man a more equitable and sustainable world. they claim their production is completely harmless. it does not the companies want us to feel good about buying their products while the damage is being done far away and this is something all this must be done even and i mean look. we didn't i mean when i'm stunned seemed to be best

understood so when. thousands of american men and women choose to serve in the country's military the decision little shattered lives every song came to a complete. the day that i was raised to be instructed here you know told to shut up or they'd kill me and i see how it destroyed my life many screamed at me and he made me come in and you graham my arm and he raped me with his birthing curia if you take into account that women don't report because of the extreme retaliation it's probably somewhere near about half a 1000000 women have now been sexually assaulted in the u.s. military base. a very very traumatizing thing to have happen but i've never seen trauma like i've seen women who are veterans who have suffered military sexual trauma reporting really is more likely to get the victim punished to be

a friend and almost 20 year career which shows very invested in and i gave the sex offender who was not even put to justice or put on the road a story this is simply an issue of our in violence male sexual predators for the large part of target whoever is there to prey upon whether that's men or women. on may 3rd of 2003 the ambassador of switzerland to tehran delivers a letter from iran to the united states. in that letter the iranians essentially offer negotiations to open up the nuclear program for full transparency. the proposal came in i happened to see it's because it was also given to a member of congress that i worked for at the time. he sent it over to the white house and called rove called rove called back he said that he found the proposal

intriguing he wanted to know if it was genuine were a promise to put it in front of the president i would call karl rove a dear friend. i've seen him made a far sighted courage put america on a war footing. and protect us accused a brutal enemy in a dangerous conflict that will shape this new century no formal response was given to the iranians at all i'm grateful to have been witness to history. and the argument was that whatever could come out of a negotiation with the iranians. even more could be achieved by simply removing the regime in iraq. in a way to sum up the arguments however a principle in the bush administration said that we simply do not talk to evil. and as tony zinni said former central command commander if you like the rock you'll love the wrong that is

a 10 to 14 year 3 to $4.00 trillion dollar invasion at the end of which the world western asia will look not much different than it does right now it will still be in turmoil and still be in chaos and 70 plus 1000000 iranians will hate our living. in the pentagon and i want to see your new secretary difference 90 years. wolfowitz shared with me in charge terry cheney in 9192 packaged retooling about him went to the white house briefed people like presidents america needs a new strategy for regime change. for her this idea springs back up again in 2001. i went through the pentagon in november of 2001 and one of the general said sure i got this memo on. what we're going to go after 7 countries in 5 years. i said is that a classified memo he said.