because. you. just saw the 3 pm sunday afternoon general. these are the headlines this hour the body of assassinated iranian general money is returned home as tens of thousands lined the streets of his killings put the world at war alert after relations between the u.s. and iran sink to the lowest in the. wiki leaks co-founder julian assange claims he's dying in prison in london plied with sedatives and subjected to 23 hours a day of solitary confinement he made the allegations in a christmas phone call currently to a friend. rang me because he spent christmas with me. in 2010. 1 time and he sounded well he said to me but i'm slow

dancing. and new year new protests for hong kong after a massive turnout for 2021st rally with riot police deployed again to disclose the protests. hello welcome to the weekly with me kevin owen the on r.t. international our 7 day round up all the news that's made and indeed is making the headlines 1st this week and indeed the year got off to a troubling start with tension skyrocketing in the middle east following the united states assassination of iran's most senior commander. monies body has now been repatriated to iran where he'll be buried tens of thousands of mourners early have been paying tribute to the general crowds also strong the streets of the iraqi capital on saturday for a. huge funeral procession rallies been ongoing since friday's deadly u.s.

airstrike on baghdad international airport around swiftly to avenge sullivan his death as relations with the united states plunged to a new low as for donald trump he's also threatened to retaliate quote without hesitation if iran attacks american bases they attacked us and we hit back if they it's like again which i strongly advise them not to do we will hit them harder than they have ever been hit before so that iran has responded saying that the u.s. doesn't have the courage for a full blown military confrontation the latest exchange of threats then comes after several rocket attacks took place on a rack on saturday evening close to both the american embassy in baghdad and a military base near the capital iraqi security forces say norm was hurt but so far no one's come forward to say they were behind it here's a look at how 2020 opened with a turbulent and terrifying 1st week. love

. it. so money's assassinations polarized opinion worldwide out within the us to next our

senior correspondent or goes to takes a closer look at the consequences you can imagine how trump agreed to it then he was playing golf and up comes an agent smith holding a folder he says was the president you remember when we killed baghdad yes the eyes the sky yes the media did love it how how would you like to do it again. oh yeah. iraqi television is just confirm that cosine sula monny former general in iran's revolutionary guard the commander of the clips force has been killed in a rocket attack apparently initiated by the united states. to settle for the us at our allies on alert at the petra matic attack iran's top military commander here and. around the community. salim

80 has been perpetrating acts of terror to destabilize the middle east for the last 20 years one gets the impression that the agent that came up to trump didn't exactly brief the president and potential consequences of killing the 2nd most powerful man in iran general. c'mon the of iran's quds force we took action last night to stop. a war we did not. take action to start a war that you probably shouldn't have killed him general sunni money was considered an icon in iran and iraq a man who helped prevent isis takeover of iraq in syria who inspired and moved belies tens of thousands of people multiple countries to fight the blight that is isis while qaida you know enough and the americans are not aware what a great mistake they've committed they will face the consequences of this criminal

act not only today but also in coming years there is no doubt that the us is now more hated among iranians and iraqis hundreds of thousands have joined funeral processions and protests condemning his murder rage is in the air iran has promised revenge american civilians are being evacuated from the entire region u.s. embassies and bases in this slew of countries are in lockdown troops have been put in combat readiness and now now middle east in the red lert they claim that they only want peace that was the time to take this action so that we could disrupt the spot deter further aggression from qassam salami in the iranian regime as well as to attempt to deescalate the situation trump asked no one europe woke up to a world that was a heck of a lot more dangerous than when they went to sleep germany claimed tensions that

only god up stating the obvious the british called for everyone to come down from doesn't us for permission frankly the europeans haven't been as helpful as i wish that they could be the brits the french the germans all need to understand that what we did what the americans did saved lives in europe as well at best he's right chances are he's wrong and at worst what america did is going to kill a heck of a lot more. people than would have died otherwise which they may have thought of the us to anyone but they didn't trump told no one not even his own federal government not the house of representatives and not the senate this action may well have brought our nation closer to another endless war exactly the kind of endless war the president promised he would not drag us into or rather he did tell someone apparently what trump kept from his own nation from his own people he told the

israelis our assessment is that the united states informed israel about this operation in iraq apparently a few days ago the murder of a mani was an act of war by any measure by any book on law and social media world war 3 was the top trend people are genuinely afraid the us football team has counsel plans to train and counter ahead of the world cup out of security concerns and judging by means being spread appropriate or otherwise no one in particular is enthusiastic to go to war all black humor aside any escalation would be disastrous for all of us human lives 1st and economy 2nd a 5th of the world's oil passes by iran every day in the event of war that would stop. we don't yet know how much of a blunder sulaimani is murder was what we do know is that the world now is

a more dangerous place millions will hate america for this and that hate will last for generations just remarkable isn't it how many people more and more keep having to die so trump and the pentagon can feel safe. our senior correspondent here we've been in reaction to from analysts in the u.s. questioning donald trump's decision to kill general solar money. if this action this assassination this drive by shooting in gangland style makes americans safer then why was the 1st thing the state department said is for all americans to get out of iraq as quickly as you can you know so obviously it's not making us safer the idea that now pompei would say oh we need to decide deescalate we don't want war what you've already create you already made an act of war on iran and over. there's no justification under international law

moral law our constitution is just aggravation and the fact that we're there in a way as a gas then have an embassy there we've never had been given any authority to do what we did i think it's morally wrong and if they're doing this to make us safer they said that we had they had to do this to make american safe complete nonsense i i feel less safe because there will be retaliation expansion and who knows what is going to lead to. the fact that he's a high state official in a government that we're not at war with we've crossed the rubicon not only in tehran but in moscow beijing pyongyang caracas they ought to sit there and say to themselves all right the americans now feel entitled to kill anybody and our government because of what over what disagreements over syria or whatever else. wiki leaks founder julian assange claims he's slowly dying in the british jelly's

incarcerated in alleges he's trying and kept in solitary confinement for 23 of the day seems he made those disturbing claims in a phone call to his friend smith on christmas eve. sounded awful and it was very upsetting to hear him the idea of him being sedated has come from several people who visited him who clearly been told and the british government have been asked about it and they refused 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 here please remember he's served that time all the bail charge and he served his time to that he's now on remand it's highly unusual to put a remand prisoner in belmarsh when they're not a threat of 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 so at least a sender some representative to check on him but that hasn't been allowed nils meltzer the un rockets are on torture has been very clear about asylum just mistreatment and describes it in the most of pulling terms and yet its claims very recently in november that the british government of completely ignored his request to see julian probably his health properly assess. to briefly recap a surge was arrested in april and sense there medics and un observers of war that is physical or mental health is in decline hearings june february to decide on his extradition to the united states he's accused there of course of publishing classified military documents and could face a 175 year jail sentence as the british home office has refuted the science his claims of torture calling them unfounded unfolds but is still spurred some

politicians activists and celebrities to further draw attention to his plight. truck in this next something in china china says it's sacked its top official who dealt with relations with hong kong state media say when jimmy has been replaced as beijing's chief liaison there's been months of violent antigovernment protests in hong kong which took on the renewed energy of the new year. good. good good a particular aspect of the unrest violence and brutality when perpetrated by the hong kong protest is gone largely without comment from the west to tell annex today

asks why that could be. 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. with an amendment to a preexisting lot 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 rest themselves from beijing all the while coming down hard on those aggressive does 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 but of course i was . glad. i was. at. 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 disagree with you. you cannot fight for democracy by terrorizing the public to force other 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 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 you 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 in clearance amnesty for those arrested at a protest and wilmont to 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 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 stooped 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. foreign tourists away nobody's coming to hong kong. tolbert to. buy 50 per. week you see it was just drop by 50 per se as far as as fare rises and as prosperity fades it seems this fight for freedom is costing hong kong more dearly than many could have imagined. saskia taylor reporting there now we're

going to take stock of her 2019 a bit more next as reflect on more the signature event of the year just gone. so as far as the big memory machine should we say we're going to talk about this time there are numerous political figures who are left languishing behind bars in 2019 with some claiming the charges against them were politically motivated q the go to jail maria bhutto crucially big headlines in the wake of the in the year just gone the russian national and gun rights advocates spent more than a year in a u.s. jail for acting as an unregistered foreign lobbyist you may recall the federal prosecutors in the media said that her involvement with the gun american lobby and also mingling with the republican circles see the proof enough that moscow is therefore sending signals to meddle in the u.s. news coverage smither as a spy she was also wrongly accused of trading sex for political gain sushi got back

my own discussed direct with us what she'd been through. just when you think it would have happened if the political climate been more settled all of the trump became president is going to bring up their own business long political and taught us it certainly political climate is one thing and yet your thing is released as much to our great to see it that there is racism in us and it's getting stronger. if i belong to any other ethnic group number i shouldn't there be no keith today however if you are russian and you are and you last there is reason to be worried and i am living proof. that this do you agree it was done on purpose to create an image for the us audience the public is familiar with the dilemma because corporate. absolutely absolutely they just took some hollywood cliches in made me the scapegoat the color of my hair and my features served as

proof of guilt that's the way it should be because we see this in the movies only because quick bade him. made for good headlines on t.v. if you are moved to sex for money hype the piece itself is pretty boring for an agent or not there's a bureaucratic never really exciting he added flames to the story i saw with my own eyes that there is no justice in the us some he's more than 90 percent of defendants guilty to a way jury because they know they'll be convicted what kind of justice are we talking about the. need to. sign the plea deal we were watching the case very closely just like all russia some noise said the prosecutors might not have enough evidence to prove. why then take a plea bargain with his mother with the yellow. imagine you are in a foreign country away from your parents you have no contact with your family you're locked up in solitary confinement it's very cold and you sit on the floor so

you might be facing a 15 year sentence i started about how old i was going to be and whether my parents were going to be alive when that came and then you find out that according to statistics and you was about 90 percent of the fens who face the jury get convicted of the chance of you losing is while quite high start besides who would have been judging me and i would have faced a jury in washington the people who watch c.n.n. and people who already have been fat this narrative and with those people you would have mattered what i was being accused of i would have been on trial for being russian out have been sentenced to 15 years so i believe i made the only right decision there was no other way to signal stronger meaning so do you. big story of the year come to talk to us almost as soon as he got off the plane. it was also a year of information overload of new ways to block what we didn't like. but things

went much further than a simple face so much was talked about cam of soul culture was that it was the new term full speed online but why the repercussions though when sometimes the collective silencing the voices or even people even taking a big hit to their careers at times because of it caleb open next takes a look at how the power of the public backlash became weaponized on the web. u.s. society is said to be the freest in the entire world never before have people been so free to be who they want to be identified however they want to identify and you can say whatever you want yes americans have total freedom of speech just so long as what they say doesn't go against the mainstream media narrative if that happens you get cancelled. so how do you avoid getting canceled well be careful when making jokes or better yet avoid humor altogether a comedian lost his dream spot on saturday night live after making

a joke that was offensive to chinese americans and even if you're offensive joke is decades old it could still hurt you kevin hart lost his gig hosting the oscars after his tweets resurfaced and were discovered. facial expressions can be important also this young man smirked at the wrong time though he was also wearing a hat that has been deemed to be offensive team soon make america great again around seeing a native american out there in washington a troubling incident at the foot of the lincoln memorial disturbing viral video has sparked outrage toward covington catholic high school america great again hat is just as maddening and frustrating and triggering for me to look at as a k.k.k. hood as to avoid this cat also. who the 1st. to support is just trying to get your honk if you through your right hand i don't want.

you to kill people like you and the political views that this hat is associated with can also land you in hot water like former miss michigan after 18 now as the aids conservative which i think is very hard you know. it's harder than becoming our eyes on him again. it's not just trump's supporters liberal star scarlett johansson faced a huge amount of backlash after she tweeted out that as an actor she can play any person any tree or any animal such insensitivity the term cancel culture has recently been added to dictionaries so there is no escape best to apologize in advance for your past jokes your political views or for your religion. r.t. new york kaleb turning is so we stories for us new york city in the last year or more the news of the year just gone and the rough was happening right now when the

weekly returns with me just over half an hour here we're not international keep up to date as with what's happening in iran and so much more r.t. dot com a social media meantime here in moscow is kevin always saying thank you for watching our channel a big season's greetings from russia. there's a lot of areas economy where china has caught up or surpassed us you know the mobile payments market 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. last. time of the time called parisian to repeat the same mantra sustainability it's very important it's accelerate the

transition to sustainable prize board sustainability stay number man not a more equitable and sustainable well. they claim that production is completely hama's. number articles and got it into something companies want us to feel good about buying their products while the damage is being done far away and this is something i'll just let's keep going to an even and i mean look. this is the mood stimulus and we didn't want any minute and i'm stunned to see many understood so when and. what politicians do so. they put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected . so when you want to be president. or somehow want to. have to go right to be cross this is what them before 3 of them or can't be good

that. i'm interested in the waters in the. city. i interviewed limits of being. world and rape is a very very traumatizing thing to have happen but i've never seen trauma like i've seen from women who are veterans who have suffered military sexual trauma. i cannot remember how many times a young female marine that had been raped or sexually assaulted told me that she looked at these guys as your brother or the suspect as your brother it's a kim to what happens in a family with incest because you know in the military when we're functioning at our

best coach piece of unit with brothers and sisters one of the band of brothers and sisters i mean we are family when that ball and of trust is violated. the wound penetrates to the very most inner part of one's soul one psyche. i have this folder that i keep i have all my boot camp letters in it for my mom and my sister and. people and. i was just going through some of this stuff and i'm like what's this and you know and i open it i'm like oh my god. my suicide letter. bomb i'm sorry for the grease that you must feel. just because i'm gone physically doesn't mean i will be there spiritually.