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

a terrorist act against the police did take place and illegitimate seizure of power occurred the government offices. are broadcasting live. international i'm john 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 already been signs of more on dressed with riot police firing tear gas at petrol bomb hurling demonstrators. i.

am particularly aspect of the unrest violence and brutality one perpetrated by the hong kong protesters has gone largely without comment from the west taylor comments . hong kong has gone from being the economic pole 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 so like continue to hail the peaceful aspirations of those fighting to rest 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 discussing what they're doing in hong kong they're taking away basic rights trying to stream trampling the most basic human rights of its own citizens 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 but it was. i think. scenes 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 can all fight for freedom of speech by silencing people who. i 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 acts are one step closer to the acts of terrorism china is treading kathleen refusing to send in troops to shut down the protests and local elections were held in which pro democracy candidates won 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. 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 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 of preserving democratic rights then of course as the incendiary legislation washington's passed the human rights and democracy out it 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 some turn north necessary and without groans they will also home 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 finds his pocket that little bit lighter on his home but little less popular the violence in

hong kong has spooked foreign investors shop his appetite has also soured in the wake of all the fire. lance 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 acid 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 tourists in the retail sector because. foreign tourists away nobody's coming to hong kong. for the gold. in october tourism rifle fell by so 50 percent or more. it was dropped by 50 per se as far as as fair rises and as prosperity faves

it seems this fight for freedom is costing hong kong more dearly than many could have imagined. iraq your 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 parts of demonstrators are calling for the full withdrawal of american forces from the country and the u.s. says it will deploy $750.00 troops to iraq in response to the threat posed to its embassy president donald trump has accused iran of orchestrating the attack and vowed that it will pay a big price tehran for its part says it 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 and 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 as artie's comments. iraq is in flames the u.s. embassy in baghdad has been seized by crowds of people chanting death to america. 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 events iran killed an american contractor wounded many restrainer respond and we'll now run his 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 fort 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 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

a face to face with the responsible parties and not only by phone he said that the decision has been made up and i am informing you of those iran also disagrees wonderful rudeness of the u.s. officials is to such an extent that after the massacre of 25 people and we're doing 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 think twice. but why is iranian influence on the rise in the middle east let's 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 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. art see me york. r.t. has spoken to the group targeted by the u.s. as blah here's what a spokesperson had to say it without them with 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. 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 u.s. uses made a pretext to attack in this case the attacks on american bases are just cover for defeating the shiite militia. ukrainian former riot police charged with being part of the group of who shot civilians in the made on protests in kiev in 2014 have spoken to journalists for the 1st time the officers were exchanged on sunday in

a prisoner swap between. the self-proclaimed. republics. and more than 50 protesters lost their lives in the 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 coup snipers. there was no order to fire on the citizens a terrorist act against the police did take place illegitimate seizure of power occurred the government offices were taken over we are 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 the offices even came to the trial detention facility pretended to be lawyers masked security officers beat us in a cell i needed heart surgery i was this in 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 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. switching gears now or with 82001000 officially behind us let's take a look back at more of the events that defined the year. i. hired to do this let's go to the big board. kind of fancy here we can take a look at the highlights so how will you remember 2001000 more we've got a couple things here don't believe the hype and miracles happen we'll get to that one in a 2nd let's talk about the hype there was a lot of hype about a lot of things in 2900 including about the power of social media to influence

people in this case will look at tick tock shock. and see if we can actually get to work there we go are trying to look at the rise of a new application now called tick tock it has become hugely popular although it is not liked by everyone take a look. see so. many. 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 are 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 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. u.s. china trade wars i'll tell you what this year has shown these has still it 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 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. you.

will dance sensation ilya there certainly does live up to the hype let's see if we can fit in another extraordinary story from the past 12 months miracles happen let's take a look there see what's behind door number 2 we've got to siberia save phoenix child or field of dreams we've all heard of the miracle on the hudson where the field of dreams is the story of the russian passenger plane which crash landed in a cornfield just outside moscow in august is actually a beautiful story for the sad part of the aircraft got into trouble when it hit a flock of birds shortly after takeoff the beautiful part miraculously ever. he was on board survived.

and i made a. shift at the teacher still still 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 casts good 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 read to call for the engines became unstable 1st the left one and then the right one we usually simulate the situations when one or 2 engines out wolf despite all i want to for the plane was going down we realized that we didn't have much time just one or 2 minutes to make a decision. 2019 was a year of extraordinary variety both good and bad and our video agency ruptly was able to collect some incredible moments take a look. it was a little. colder. does

it really feel like we're being impeached. but that's it for me i'll be back at the top now with headlines stay with us this is our to international. the world is driven by a dream shaped by one person of those. military

thinks. we dare to ask. and we're going to fulfill the repeated promises of politics to the people i promise you know we've all bots the future the. places you read really oh.

pretty good. now you want to 1st correct that. no. longer. call being cut cut. cut a link i link i link up my yard time after time corporations repeat the. it's a mantra sustainability it's very important to excel or a transition to sustainable prize board sustainability space where man a more equitable and sustainable world. they claim their production is completely harmless. because. 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 else just as he went on

even us i mean look. this is the moon i mean listen we didn't want anyone and i'm stunned seemed understood so when. joining me every thursday on the all excitement and i'll be speaking to get a feel of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you that. thousands of american men and women choose to serve in the country's military and the decision little sheltered lives every song came to a complete. the day that i was raised to be instructed is 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 us military rape is a very very traumatizing thing tat happen but i've never seen trauma like i've seen women who are veterans who have suffered military sexual trauma reporting rape is more likely to get the victim punished them the offender i had an almost 10 year career or chose very invested in and i gave that up to report a sex offender who was not even put to justice or put on the registry. simply an hour in violence male sexual predators for the large part of target whoever is there to prey upon whether that's a man or one. of

the 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 the 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 with the ecuadorian foreign minister who helped grant asylum just silent is 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. underground 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 newell

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 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 prison as he awaits extradition to the usa for revealing the war crimes

of nato nations all that appeal her roof reflects a reaffirms my own assessment as you may know that and 1st of november i did 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 un special rapporteur. 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 more important is true i think believe you in other words yes but i also think that about a year ago i.