staged a huge protest in hong kong on new year's day after a night marred by clashes with riot police. iraqi forces regained control of the u.s. embassy grounds in baghdad after 2 days of violent clashes with protesters who tried to storm and torch it. and ukrainian former riot police released from jail in a recent prisoner swap revealing details contradicting the official version of the 2014 made. where more than 50 people lost their lives. 3 of those officers. the evidence shows that the police say there was no.

it's a terrorist act to. take place and illegitimate seizure of. the government offices were taken over. our broadcasting live direct from our studios in moscow this is r t international i'm sean thomas certainly glad to have you with us. after a night marred by clashes a major new anti beijing rally has taken place in hong kong and there have been already been signs of more unrest with riot police firing tear gas at petrol bomb erling demonstrators. was was.

a particular aspect of the unrest violence and brutality when perpetrated by the hong kong protesters has gone largely without comment from western artie's taylor khan it. 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 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 media was. 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 cassidy's refusing to send in troops to shut down the protests the local elections were held in which pro democracy candidates one in the landslide hong kong authorities conceded defeat the extradition built has been withdrawn but still the barricades are signing the flames according to china washington still the 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 talked down beijing's words to paranoia but let's take a look joshua wong why he 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 in century legislation washington is passed the human rights and democracy out it includes i'm going to stay for those arrested up protests and we'll 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 some turn north further than necessary and without groans they will also harm the relationship and interests between hong kong and the u.s. all of this on top of the protest as musts 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 that 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 sri fall 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 lists because hong kong saw its lowest number of visitors since 2003 the major. is really the truth in the retail sector because. nobody is coming to. my 50 per. week. it's dropped

by 50 per se as far as as fear rises and as prosperity fades it seems this fight for freedom is costing hong kong more dearly than many could have imagined. iraqi forces have regained control over the u.s. embassy grounds in baghdad after 2 days of violent clashes reports say protesters tried to set a building in the compound on fire on tuesday a crowd tried to storm the embassy and also torched part of it demonstrators are calling for the full withdrawal of american forces from the country and the u.s. says it will deploy 750 troops to iraq in response to the threat posed to its embassy president trump has accused iran of works trading the attack and valve that it will pay a big price tehran for. it's part says he does not want war but will not hesitate to strike back if threatened 100 marines have already been redeployed from kuwait to reinforce the embassy in a show of strength u.s.

army helicopters flew over the compound firing flares as a warning to the protesters the embassy unrest comes after american bombing raids in iraq and syria at the weekend 25 people were killed artie's kellam up and come. iraq is in flames the u.s. embassy in baghdad has been seized by crowds of people chanting death to america. was. a good god and i. was. i am i 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 trunk doesn't see it that way this is his assessment of

it that iran killed an american contract when many we strongly respond and always will and iran is orchestration in the attack on the us embassy in iraq they will be held fully responsible in addition we expect iraq to use forces to protect embassy and so north of heart 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 city of restoring deterrence against in rimi integration the united states recently conducted air strikes against iranian backed militias in iraq in syria this comes after washington blamed iran for the recent rocket attack that killed an american can. 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 i said that this was a very dangerous matter and asked to discuss it face to face with the responsible parties not only by phone he said 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 the off to the massacre of 25 people and we number of iraqis and violating iraqi territorial integrity and national sovereignty it is now in a flagrant brain graeme attributing the rockies purposes to 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 ready to think twice. but why is iranian influence on the rise in the middle east let's not forget that the united states along propped up the rons 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 for different factions in the country hoping to stabilize its own borders 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. are to see new york party has spoken to the group targeted by the us has bala here's what it's spokesperson had to say. and without them the herd 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 often 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 in 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 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 riot police charged with being part of the group of officers who shot civilians in the

made on protest in kiev in 2014 have spoken to journalists for the 1st time the officers were exchanged on sunday in a prisoner swap between kiev and the self-proclaimed done yet scandal republics more than 50 protesters lost their lives in shootings blamed by ukraine on the riot police however the released officers say they have evidence disproving that giving further weight to claims that the attacks were in fact carried out by pro snipers. because. 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 and illegitimate seizure of power occurred the government offices were taken over we had determined to prove to the ukrainian people that the ukrainian police work to protect them. but 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 that 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. still ahead r j international if there is a chance you missed any of 2907 big moments we have you covered stay with us.

on this edition of crossfire are questions for you with the viewers we received quite a few questions here we do our best answer some of them. and

welcome back this is our team international so we have 200-1000 officially behind us let's take a look back at more of the events that defined the here. we. are so we got the big board here and let's take a look at what we got how well you remember 2019 there was a lot of hype about a lot of things in 2019 including about the power of social media to influence. people let's take a look at we got don't believe the hype for 100 alex all right tick tock shock what do you know final break that let's take a look at the tick tock story. right they have an r.t.c. way of trying to looks at the rise of a new application called tick tock and how it has become hugely popular although it is not liked by everyone.

so now. i'll be honest with you up until last week i had no idea this thing even exist it 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 quickly around the world mentions of these same protests. censored now just let me show you what the people behind 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're 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. u.s. china trade wars i'll tell you what this year has shown these has still ities could 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 while these top executives and held google to the wall over android updates anyway for now 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. hard so there's the talk let's see if we can fit in another extraordinary story from the past 12 months we have it labelled miracles happen we've all heard of miracle on the hudson well what about the field of dreams is the story of the russian passenger plane which crash landed in

a cornfield just outside moscow in august and it is a beautiful story the aircraft got into trouble when it hit a flock of birds shortly after take off that's not the beautiful part miraculously everyone on board survived. i don't i mean a. oh. shit oh sure she'll sell it was. the tough.

lift. there was no panic on board even though the london was rough the pilot did a great job she landed the plane really capsized tell us please how do you feel now did you her child 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. to reach to call the engines became unstable 1st the left one and then the right one would usually simulate the situations when one or 2 engines out despite all i want for it's the plane was going down realized that we didn't have much time just one or 2 minutes to make a decision. 2019

was a year of extraordinary a variety both good and bad and our video agency ruptly was able to collect some incredible moments to look. it.

doesn't really feel like we're being impeached. that does it for me and i will back of the top the hour with more news you are watching the international stay with us . the world is driven by shaped by one person with those words. no dares thinks. we dare to ask.

but if she warn you posted by you than i do the dishes at the bazemore those jeans nudist beach and you see me. true she. does and about that come up when you guys e.q.'s. in the news i mean guys without infringing balls. a lot of you will see sawing during fuzzy fights about 2 kids each other both sides most cool. as in the adults to me as if i choose. this but out. here in chief of people god knows what film days doing he says. english 38 for people who simply knew. him when including.

leaks last. week. when you. look at that is the closeness to the book and movie but. it's close to that so that's. just for the.

show. the ratings of the salyut asians the end is here hawk watchers of the year i mean it's the end of the year and as we sit down with family and friends for annual season of holidays and good cheer waiting to ring in the new year it is important to take a moment or 2 you know take a moment or 2 we'll look back at what was the year that came before this day what took place around the world in our nation and our lives during those 300 some odd

days that brought us to this very moment. well today on the show we will do just that we will take some time to examine just a sampling from some of the biggest stories we covered all year long i mean we've got protesters aplenty from france hong kong to haiti all with the buyers of change in their hearts some more celebrated some were shamed and some were tragically ignored by the world on a world scale and speaking of protesters you couldn't find a bigger cause than those carrying the banner of the extinction rebellion those brave souls who shut down streets glued themselves to capitol hill hallways and starved just to shake people in the recognizing the grim meat hook reality that is our climate change future and who could talk about the big news of 2019 and not talk about the apprehension the controversial demise of billionaire pedophile and sex trafficker geoffrey epstein the political elites man with the little black book

the man who owned an island built on sand with a trail of friends and accomplices that includes 2 presidents and a prince 2019 also brought us real time looks at how the united states flexes its foreign policy in latin america through manipulated headlines jack ryan t.v. shows and brilliantly covert regime change operations that are no longer kerber covert and not really brilliant it's all that and a whole lot more as we take a few moments to reflect on the year that was watching the hawks in 2019. that i got.