huge protest in hong kong on new year's day marred by clashes with riot police. also ahead u.s. forces reportedly used tear gas to disperse protesters. a day after a. washington sends more troops to iraq in response to choose the. ukrainian former riot police released in the prisoner swap between kiev and the self-proclaimed. republic's reveal information contradicting the official version of the 24

sniper shootings in kiev within 50 people. r.t. spoke to one of the officers. because. the police acted there was no. citizens a terrorist act against the police did take place illegitimate seizure of power a good government offices were taken over. from around the world. international my names you know neal your company. after a night marred by clashes a major beijing protest is underway in hong kong this new year's day there have already been more unrest with riot police firing tear gas at petrol bomb hurling

demonstrators. was. was. we're going to examine a particular aspect of the unrest no violence and brutality one perpetrated by the hong kong protesters has gone largely without comment from the west r.t. saskia taylor asks why. hong kong has gone from being the economic power of the orient to the face of the fight for democracy and boy does that fight fire.

an amendment to a preexisting north that would allow for the extradition of criminal suspects from hong kong to mainland china has brought the financial haven to its knees as a protest accent into the 7th month violence on both sides has escalated but all the wild over politicians and john continue to hail the peaceful aspirations of those fighting to wrest themselves from beijing all the while coming down hard on those aggressive dust spots in china you have a chinese government that's getting increasingly aggressive increasingly repressive it's disgusting what they're doing in hong kong they're taking away basic rights trying to seem trampling the most basic human rights of its own citizens beijing is increased its interventions in hong kong and engaged in actions to curtail the rights. and liberties. of its people but it seems so many

incidents have managed to escape the scrutiny of western me. well it's all over the lot. and it. seems like that combined with the discovery of 10000 petrol bombs packed with high explosives and shrapnel make it harder to see is peaceful what appears to be a slippery slope into the territory of terrorists methods you cannot fight for freedom of speech by silencing people who disagree with you. you cannot fight for democracy by terrorizing the public to force others to support you. you cannot condemn brutality by brutalizing people who hold different views to yours deval and x. are one step closer to the actual terrorism china is treading kathleen refusing to

send in troops to shut down the protests the local elections were held in which pro democracy can do that's one in a landslide hong kong authorities conceded defeat the extradition built has been withdrawn but still the barricades on signing the flames according to china washington chance will be china urges the us to correct its mistakes and stop interfering in our internal affairs we will take further steps if necessary to uphold hong kong stability and prosperity as well as china's sovereignty. some have chalked down beijing's words to paranoia but let's take a look joshua was widely billed as the face of the protest movement was snapped speaking to an official at the u.s. consulate oh when i forgot to mention he's not big on compromise so there's no end game there is to infinity ward at home people are willing to engage there's also an

organization funded by the u.s. congress which has been distributing money to groups it claims are preserving democratic rights then of course as the incendiary legislation washington's passed the human rights and democracy act includes i'm going to stay for those arrested up protests and will monitor hong kong to ensure that in the eyes of the u.s. of course an appropriate level of autonomy from mainland china is. these 2 bills the noblest intervention of hong kong sentinel further than necessary and without groans it will also harm the relationship and interests between hong kong and the u.s. all of this on top of the protest as mass waving of the star-spangled banner have sparked concern that the u.s. might be lending more than just a supportive hand leading many to ask the question if the protest as a calling for self-determination is appealing to a foreign power to shape the future the best way to go about it especially when

that foreign power might want to contain a rising star they're reaching. for and using methods that have created challenges for the united states and for the world. and we collectively all of us need to confront these challenges from the p.r.c. head on and on each of the many facets the fallout of all this has a little impact on washington of course it's the average hong kong who find his pocket that little bit lighter on his home but little less popular the violence in hong kong has spooked foreign investors shoppers appetite has also soured in the wake of all the violence with the retail sales in freefall and hong kong facing its 1st recession in a decade bombed apparently being caught in the middle of take ass and rubber bullets isn't topping any tourists the wish list because hong kong saw its lowest number of visitors since 2003 the major. is really the

truth in the retail sector because. for. no way nobody is coming to. my 50 percent more. drop by 50 per se as far as as fair rises and as prosperity fades it seems this fight for freedom is costing hong kong more dearly than many could have imagined. let's move the program on u.s. forces have reportedly fired tear gas at protesters in the iraqi capital who gathered outside the american embassy there for a 2nd day let's take a look reports say protesters tried to set a building in the compound on fire yesterday cried tried to storm the embassy and also torched parts of it demonstrators are calling for the full withdrawal of

american forces from the country. that the usa said will deploy $750.00 troops to iraq in response to the threat straining the attack and it will pay a big price to run for its part says it doesn't want war but won't hesitate to strike back if threatened 100 marines have ready being redeployed from kuwait to reinforce the embassy in a show of force u.s. army helicopters flew over the compound firing flowers as a warning to the protesters the embassy arrest comes after american bombing raids in iraq and syria at the weekend 25 people were killed and. iraq is in flames the u.s. embassy in baghdad has been seized by crowds of people chanting death to america. i. was i was.

i. was. now you might think that iraq has plenty of reason to be outraged with the united states you might recall that whole invading destroying and killing thousands of people in the country thing however truck doesn't see it that way this is his assessment of that iran killed an american contract many restrainer respond and over. we'll now run his orchestration in 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 embassy and so north to fight it's all about iran 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

in rimi an aggression that the united states recently conducted airstrikes against iranian backed militias in iraq in syria this comes after washington blamed iran for the recent rocket attack that killed an american contractor american officials say the airstrikes are completely justified but iraq disagrees with 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 to him i said this was a very dangerous matter and asked to discuss it in face to face with the responsible parties not only by phone he said that the decision has been made and i am informing you of this iran also disagrees wonderful rudeness of the u.s. officials is to such an extent that after the massacre of 25 people and weeding a large number of iraqis and violating iraqi territorial integrity and national sovereignty it is now in

a flagrant brain grame attributing the iraqis protest islamic public of iran the united states has long been working to crush iranian influence in the region this is been a long time talking point of the us foreign policy hawks iran is 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 right. but why is iranian influence on the rise in the middle east. not forget that the united states long propped up the ron's greatest enemy saddam hussein and even provided him with chemical weapons however the usa invaded iraq in 2003 and toppled the iraqi government since that time iran has stepped up its support from different factions in the country to stabilize. iranian influence in iraq is massive

especially among the shia majority of the population now this isn't because of some sinister plot from the ayatollah critics note that washington's actions simply left a power vacuum killable up and with the reportable r t has also spoken to the group targeted by b. u.s. khateeb hezbollah has one person at the say to us. the americans striking this particular force in iraq want to present their actions as a fight against iranian influence but that is not after being attacked by the gangs of eisel it was the iraqi people who were the rebuff and resistance not the iranians as the concluded strategic framework agreement between the usa and iraq does not allow the americans to create military bases in iraq but this agreement is not being implemented today the americans are occupying iraq the military bases against the backdrop of protests in iraq the united states is trying to intervene

in this process and establish its leadership which will lead to complete anarchy in the country and the american presence in iraq will be supposedly justified the traditionally the us uses made a pretext to attack in this case the attacks on american bases are just a cover for defeating the shiite militia. ukrainian former right police charged with being part of the group of officers who shot civilians in the my down protests in kiev in 2014 i've spoken to journalists for the 1st time the 5 officers were exchanged on sunday in the prisoner swap between the self-proclaimed . picks and they claim they have evidence this proving the official version of events from 5 years ago. because that was where the evidence shows that the police acted lawfully there was no order to open fire on the citizens a terrorist act against the police did take place an illegitimate seizure of power

occurred the government offices were taken over we are determined to prove to the ukrainian people that the ukrainian police worked to protect them but we were with what we were beaten in the ukrainian security service office their offices even came to a pretrial detention facility pretending to be lawyers mask security officers beat us in a cell i needed heart surgery i read this in a court but they forced me to plead guilty in order to receive treatment it would be you know we were tortured for the 1st 2 weeks we were almost killed they did not try to get any information from us as they knew we didn't have any they just wanted to pin the blame for the crimes that were committed on us. so i had more from our review of a year that was a pleasure chance you missed any of 29 games big moments we've got you covered.

join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to us from the world of politics. i'm showbusiness i'll see if that. is your media a reflection of reality. in the world transformed. what will make you feel safe. isolation community. are you going the right way or are you being so. direct. what is true what is faith. in the world corrupted you need to descend. to join us

in the depths. or inmate in the shallow. welcome back with $29.00 and dusted let's take a look at more of the event stuff to find the year. and 1st to a particular topic that got a lot of people talking there was a lot of hype about a lot of things in 29 teen including about the power of social media to influence people. the rise of a new up location called tech talk it's become hugely popular

a little not liked by everyone take a look. this is. the sound now look at may not. yet. i'll be honest with you up until last week i had no idea this thing even existed take tock tick tock for me simply the sound i associate with the clock well if you feel the same i'll have to tell you either you're getting old like me or it's just that your online habits need an urgent update take talk a platform to share short videos is now the most downloaded app the king of all apps and twitter and co you've been dethroned just so you know ever heard the song.

if it wasn't for his app store majesty the song wouldn't have become a hit you can hear on the radio anywhere in the world but here's something that may surprise old school folks like me even more the king belongs to an asian dynasty tick tock is that chinese app. so that's why the top democrat senator in his late sixty's is more up to speed than me 110000000 americans who have information with and the chinese government could be grabbing every one of them guess what the u.s. government is already up to reports say they've launched a national security probe into tick talk and the worries are the chinese government could spy through take talk influence through take talk and censor what's on tape talk good god how come the rest of the world hasn't given up american born facebook

speaking of the man who introduced the blue f. to us all it's only natural he is keen to have a go at his competitors or services like what's up are used by protesters and activists everywhere due to strong encryption privacy protections on tick tock the chinese up quickly around the world mentions of these same protests. censored now just let me show you what the people will be hunting tick-tock have to say about all that our data centers are located entirely outside of china and none of our data is subject to chinese law we are not influenced by any foreign government including the chinese government to talk does not operate in china nor do we have any intention of doing so in the future oh someone here is either being really does honest or outright paranoid or a bit of both it's time to stick in. us china trade wars i'll tell you what this

year has shown these has still ities can easily spill over into modern tech slash online territory remember how america once went after i phone killer want to be while way. want to be still the right word washington even sought jail time for one of wall ways top executives and held google to the wall over android updates anyway for now clocks in teen minds and quite a few older ones even in america will be taking the chinese take talk way mr schumer do you have the guts to keep up with the times and join the royal after party. so now you know. with all the news let's fit in another extraordinary story from the past 12 months we've labeled it miracles happen it's the russian passenger plane which crashed landed in a cornfield just. in august they go into trouble whether it's

a flock of birds shortly after takeoff rocky this everybody on board survived. i don't i mean i. was. sure that the money sure she'll sell it was. tough.

there was no panic on board even though the landing was rough the pilot did a great job he landed the plane really kept 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 pilots did a great job landed the plane on its belly everything is fine. up to reach to call the engines became unstable 1st the left one and then the right one would usually simulate these situations when one or 2 engine itself despite all i want to approach the plane was going down realized that we didn't have much time just one or 2 minutes to make a decision. but

we've also been looking back at some of our most watch programs up 2019 next week bring you a november interview from going underground and some hard hitting words from the un's leading figure talk to torture. i'm going to fulfill the repeated promises ok all of it to the people and promise to be you know we've all pots to. be. free. now you want to burst. no.

song. all. coming i can link up my time after time corporations repeat the same mantra sustainability it's very important to accelerate transitions to sustainable transport sustainability stay in her manner more equitable and sustainable well. they claim their production is completely hama's followed. companies want us to feel good about buying their products while the damage is being done far away this is something else this must be done to anyone and i mean look. this is the move in unison we do want to. underscore that look to what

is going in. welcome to going underground we will be back with a brand new season starting on january the 8th but until then we will be showing some of your favorite shows from the last season of the decade coming up in this show will there be blood on the hands of the united kingdom with much of major nation media continuing to downplay the warnings of 60 doctors and wiki leaks julian assange died in a u.k. prison we speak to the united nations kneels meltzer who alleges british contempt of international norms of justice and we speak to go along the ecuadorian foreign minister who helped grant asylum josiah limit his embassy in london well joining me

now is the un special rapporteur on torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment kneels special thanks so much for going on going on the ground this time in the studio just before we get to julian assange there's a saudi media forum at the riyadh hilton on monday and i understand that you and your fellow special reporters have been talking about the case of new jane little who is apparently detained arbitrarily another area here prison she's been there for a year what is this case about well she's a human rights activist the women's rights activist actually that has been the tent on spurious claims of smash and security but in fact she has spoken out for women's rights very vocally and she claims also to have been tortured in detention and obviously no investigations have been undertaken by saudi arabia so we are calling on saudi arabia to conduct these investigations which are international obligations

under the convention against torture which saudi arabia has actually ratified obviously this idea in government would deny there's been any torture and that indeed she is there for national security reasons we write these idea i've been ambassador on the program let's get now to another case what have you made of 60 doctors claiming julie innocent of wiki leaks may die in a british prisoners. waits extradition to the usa for availing the war crimes of nato nations all that pill her roof reflects or reaffirms my own assessment as you may know that and 1st of november i have my own press statement calling on the british authorities to release to the sonship because i was seriously concerned for his life well we covered at the time spoke to you why do you think that there hasn't been more interest in your allegations as u.n. special report. by the media in this country and indeed in the european union

there's been lots of interest in the developing world well to be honest with you i think part of it is that people simply can't believe that what's were reporting is true i think believe you in other words yes but i also think that about a year ago i probably wouldn't have believed that this is possible what's going on due to in the us what we see here is a person whose due process rights for 10 years have been violated severely and systematically in all jurisdictions and all equal proceedings against him at every stage of this proceeding and that's something that's very difficult to comprehend that that's possible in democratic states rule of law states that the u.k. sweden in the us and will ecuador that you can't rely on any authority to protect your rights and this constant threats to be extradited to a country where you face a secret trial based on secret evidence you know judged by the jury elected in

a population where 85 percent of the population works for cia n.s.a. d.o.d. or deal s. around alexandria needs to get into the the infamous espionage court. adjudicated by the same judge as every single other national security defendant in recent years . this is not going to be a fair trial you know that so if you're in this situation this constant threat to be extradited there and then to receive a draconian punishment of 175 years or maybe to reduce it to 120 in prison in the supermax prison and we know what the conditions are like there this is this crosses the line of cruel inhuman and degrading treatment that's not just my opinion that's a consistent opinion of myself my mandate my predecessors everybody.