an engagement equals the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart, we choose to look for common ground. ah, the pentagon has announced a new multi $1000000000.00 military, a package for cab, claiming it's the largest military delivery. then the ukranian conflicts began ukraine shells, a number of western russian cities on orthodox christmas eve injuring multiple civilians that despite moscow calling for a truce on the christian festival. and ukraine has exported almost 17000000 tons of brain intended for the most affected by food insecurity in africa. reports show that europe has received the majority of those deliveries. ah,

hello, good morning from moscow and from wherever you may be watching. welcome to the hour's top news stories from around the globe. i'm fearless about the u. s. has announced it's new military aid package for ukraine worth almost $4000000000.00, claiming it's the largest military delivery since the ukranian conflict began. the war in ukraine is at a critical point right now, and we have to do everything we can to help the ukrainians continue to resist russian aggression. today's announcement, the largest security assistance package in total value that we have committed so far reflects our enduring commitment to support ukraine. the pentagon says the package will include 50 bradley, infantry fighting vehicles, $100.00 armored personnel carriers, hundreds of anti armor rockets and more ammunition for high marsh rocket systems.

and that's just a fraction of the legal aid washington is that to send in total the u. s. has provided ukraine with almost $25000000000.00 and military assistance. there are flounders co director of the international action center says the rapidly growing spending on the military means other sectors of the u. s. economy will be affected . the republicans and democrats support military appropriation to they cannot reach an agreement on health care. 2 months that never happened, but on the military budget. yes, military budget grows. they reach an agreement, and it happens so fast that dupes without real debate. but it can mean devastating cuts in education funding schools, housing infrastructure in the u. s. which is decaying rapidly, things like that they will do again and again. meanwhile, the republican leader of the us house of representatives, kevin mccarthy,

has proposed a cut of $75000000000.00 to the defense budget. the proposal came shortly before he was elected a speaker of the house, and is believed by many to have been a concession to secure has now victory amid divisions among g o. p. law makers, who for years have push for increases and military spending. sarah founders again says mccarthy has always voted in favor of boosting defense funding and change the stance in order to become the speaker of the house. every year they make promises that they're going to cut military bunch of them every here and yet it doesn't happen. so it certainly will not happen under kevin mccarthy who has always voted for the defense budget and is a complete hypocrite, actually called in march of $22025.00. and was to saw when ukraine wasn't doing enough, should give more and more and more work. and that was what he said them. and it's

not much different now except that he is maneuvering in order to become the speaker of the house. as washington decides on a new, a package for ukraine, he is using us supplied weapons to shell its former territories. as orthodox christmas began ukraine, reportedly far dozens of nato shells at the russian city of gore of cath, wounding a civilian. he have also shalt another western russian city of mucky as you can see . the moment of the strike on christmas eve captured on cctv quoted. locals reported air defense systems activating to intercept the attack and no casualties were recorded. also unorthodox christmas eve, celebrated by both russians and ukrainians. kiev security service agents rated multiple churches across the country saying that pro russian materials were found there. at the same time ukrainian officials claimed to be impartial towards

religious denominations. ukraine also rejected russia. christmas truce proposal to let christians across the country, disputed regions, visit churches to worship journalists. sondra vanden ended, says the ukrainian government is trying to provoke a new armed response from russia. i think it was to be expected because yesterday in the western mainstream media, they already said that you didn't agree to the true. so i think it was that we expected of you. it's propagation that they do a good afternoon. 12 new because then the be started, it's for sure the big sign that between the ukranian church and the russian tourist is not respect that it shows from the ukrainian side and also to west side the the don't want the truth. they don't want to go at all because otherwise they will okay to at least respect and holy moly day like christmas. and it's meaningful for

russians and ukrainians. this date, like when, when, when it was christmas to respected russian military personnel serving in ukraine have joined orthodox christmas celebrations. the festive service was organized for the service men and women with the russian m. o. d, emphasizing the importance of holy festivals. the service was also attended by those mobilized and autumn, who have now completed their military training. earlier the head of the russian orthodox church patriarch, real called for unity urging to pray for russian orthodox believers for being persecuted in ukraine during his traditional address, a head of le festive fats of service in moscow may be receiving this video. oh, christmas is celebrated on the 7th of january and russia, in accordance with the julian calendar. millions have attended traditional midnight

services throughout the country that began in the late hours on friday and continued into this morning. our t, steve sweeney will take us further through moscow celebration of this winter holiday season. ah, happy new year. or we say here in russia. no them go them. written whole time. prime minister winston churchill famously describe russia as a riddle, wrapped in a mystery inside in an enigma. in many ways he was right. russia spans 11 time zones, bouldering europe to the west. and as far as china in the east were here in the russian capital, moscow, which is my home for the last 6 months. and i'm going to show you some of my favorite spots in this fantastic city. we're in 3rd guy square where vladimir elliott, you will, you know, better known as lennon by many thunderous speeches. but today is transformed into

a winter wonderland with many fantastic christmas market. ah. we're here in all of us, both her main tourist st. roughly the equivalent to london docks of 3. it is full of pub balls, restaurants and short setting souvenirs. and today is a bustling and lively stream as russian celebrate the winter. holidays is moscow's oldest surviving thoroughfare. we are here in patriarch, poland. my favorite place in the whole of moscow. during the night to know 5 revolution. it was held by student militia. the many spacious apartments surrounding the park were taken from their wealthy owners following the 917 revolution and turned into communal living spaces. but today is

a haven for romantic, young and old, who are often seen rolling hand in hand or sitting on the many port benches casing . of course, no trip to moscow would be complete without visiting the well famous bush theatre is most associated with tchaikovsky swan lake, which i have been lucky to see myself. here you can see performances of many of russia's most famous, composes, and right to include him for coffee shop, the cove, h and the of the ascii pushkin. i most favorite of all the author mikhail vulgar cough with now move to red square with the iconic some puzzles cathedral in the background. close to hare, the leader of the $917.00 revolution is buried with lenin's tune. still attracting thousands of visitors every year to day russians of fucking hairs. they celebrate the winter holidays. taking in the many christmas stores,

sampling the food and of course the obligatory mode why. of course i couldn't come here without something the good to myself. here i am talking into a russian new year favorite, which is pancakes with red caviar. ah, i have to say it's absolutely delicious. which is so good. really takes the absolutely delicious. it's not every day that you got to eat caviar, but i could certainly talk into this everyday. i can tell you this is goon, moscow's most exclusive department store. here you can find many of the world leading fashion. brands is wrong with shoppers and you can see the christmas decorations adorning the department store. and many people taking cell fees at a christmas tree, which is at the center of many russian love ice skating. i

want, i'm here. i'm going to give it a go myself. but bearing in mind, i struggle to stand on my own 2 feet of the best of times. let's just hope that i make out with her in one p ah, where outside, another of moscow department stores zoom. and i have to admit that this was my favorite. and you could probably see why, hey, we are surrounded by what our design a christmas tree, bringing a magic and sparkle to the capital city. hello sure, you'd agree with me that this rudy goes up. the muddrick of moscow, ah

and as the world celebrate christmas are t visits one of the most significant sides for believers, the sacred road from nazareth to bethlehem. this way is believed to have been taken by mother mary while she was carrying jesus. our correspondent maria the notion of follows and mary's footsteps and reports on political obstacles that pilgrims from palestine faith watch her report later. this power egypt pound, has dropped to record, blows against the us dollar. this comes just weeks after the international monetary fund agreed to throw cairo a lifeline with a $3000000000.00 aid package. egypt national currency has tumble to unprecedented

lows since the countries central bank, the valley, the pound to meet the i m. f. loans requirements. the $3000000000.00 bail out for the cash strapped country was approved after cairo's pledge to make its currency more flexible, allowing for easier foreign financial involvement. egypt economy has also been experiencing the impact of storing fuel prices. the countries inflation rate jump to a 5 year high late last year, as banks limited the withdrawal foreign currency, which egypt is in dire need of. amid the economic challenges, the countries authorities launched a larger privatization plan seeking to attract more foreign investment. the director of the asia center for studies and translation says the western financial establishment is seeking to subjugate the egyptian economy. this is i, fortunately, the following submission to the prescriptions of the international font and wall bank. we have a lot of economic mistakes because after the dilution of 20112013,

unfortunately, the same economic group backed, giving the advisory services for the presidency and their the financial and wanted to be a pharmacist. even if i still belongs to america, i'm relaxed with this until 6 soon. banking and federal leader. and they find that if we are not following such the prescriptions of the liberalization, privatization and making, you know, the inflation lower to a specific extent. they think that the economy will be bad and no investors will come in and a lot of back things will take place. unfortunately, they didn't give, for example, but gyptian falling to some sort of demand as we requested before. and of course, the are the only galks and the menial dares in egypt all over be about the keys off the people and the, the raising the rates of the prices every day,

without any control from the government. because the having, you know, the upper hand, unfortunately zimbabwe is taking action to limit foreign exploitation of its natural resources. the african countries government has suspended the processing of permits for the extraction of strategically important minerals. the move comes after some local miners fail to declare their discoveries of certain minerals. the new restrictions are also aimed at providing more oversight on the activity of foreign mining operators. in zimbabwe, the country holds the largest lithium reserves in africa with the metal and demand for high tech production lines. in many countries, in bower earlier reported billions of dollars and losses due to the illegal extraction of its lithium by multinational companies. to put all of this into

perspective, lithium, known as white gold, is a valuable component of electronic batteries used in cars, mobile phones, and computers. it's price has shot up by 1100 percent in the past few years alone. and it won't stop there with the man projected to see a 750 percent increase by 2030. with the world looking to shift to cleaner energy, many countries will be seeking to secure supplies of the metal. then bower is the sakes, world's largest lithium exporter with the government, hoping to meet one 5th of the world's total demand. when it fully developed its lithium mining capacity, we heard from some local politicians about the significance of the new restrictions . the country been losing billions of dollars in the export of lithia which is on very high demand globally because lithium is used for electric, but trees solar but trees smart phones, et cetera, et cetera. and i think that was

a very positive, double move that was made, but the government was above which because we're at a stage where we are supposed to be, is shoring that we makes about which little economy. and we can only do that when we are preserving what we have into to mining the prices of what we have and how we're going to betray do with other countries that we know resources that we have in our country. they've been a lotto for all the time. it's put in the country. and as a country we've been if to delete as much, we every one of the biggest lead them to pushing the world benefits into federally . so we kim, i bought a would be so our policy to buy the export overall. we come to encourage shadow companies to come except bishop to come check. ah, the frenchman, history of ecology has become the latest target of eco activists. campaigners spray painted the facade with orange to denounce the french government perceived an

option on climate change. and while the active vandalism only had a minor impact, some of the activists as options have allegedly threatened people's lives are t contributor rachel mars then gives us her take. the european union has long wanted to turbocharged its green energy agenda. 2022 was a year, they realized that their tank was on empty because while they sanctioned their own gas supply from russia. so after years of banging on about the found a sea of fueling the european industrial economy by praying for solar powered, sunny days and sufficient when to turn landscape destroying windmills. europe relies this year that that plan is far from ready for prime time. and they were desperate, so the blocks industrial engine, germany started firing back up cold plants, france scramble to blow the rust off of its decommissioned nuclear power plants,

both casualties of the blocks green energy obsession, newly appointed prime minister of britain. re she soon arc preached to the climate change faithful ahead of the cop 27 climate summit. he said he was going to turn the u k, into a green energy superpower. but apparently he didn't get the memo that britain was on the verge of opening its 1st coal mine in decades. or that coal was so badly needed in the us. people faced exploding energy costs due to the use own anti russian sanctions. that citizens in poland were trying to dig around in their own gardens, in the hope of striking pool, which is illegal by the way. so desperate times mean desperate measures. the european union simply reclassified gas and nuclear energy as green power. tossing environmental activists overboard to face the icy waters of pragmatic reality. elsewhere in australia leaked documents blew the lid off the scam of so called

clean hole, suggesting that it was little more than a ruse to justify selling it at a higher price, which the customer can then ostensibly recoup by claiming lower carbon taxes for burning it face with frustration and disappointment, cultured and intellectually sophisticated environmental activists of the lead stay generation or last generation, took matters into their own hands by running around europe and physically attacking priceless works of art, which obviously weren't just exposed in such a way that any toddler with the marker to scribble all over them. during the club 27 summit in egypt, these activists glued their own hands to john constables. the hey wayne. in london's national gallery. then they tossed mashed potatoes at french impressionist clod, monet's lay mud on display in germany's potsdam barbara rainy museum. when caught,

they were told to crouch, with their hands, pressed against the wall below the masterpiece. now in both cases, perhaps they should have just been left there with their hands stuck and made a permanent part of the exhibit that would have been fund. i'm satisfied with the impact of their efforts on actual environmental policy. they then took to super glueing themselves to the tarmac at music airport. now this town term meant that airplanes trying to land how to blow through even more earth killing fuel. as they were forced to circle around above while trying to figure where it lands until they could ultimately be routed. meanwhile, down below police work to literally dig up the road. in order to remove the activists from the pavement, there is also just stock oil movement that took center stage this year with a message for government to stop all new exploration development and production of british fossil fuels. as british citizens grappled with skyrocketing energy prices,

these economic survives, we're defining a quote, livable future as one with no fossil fuel. yes, scott livable future doesn't include being able to afford a roof over your head or heating or reasonably priced food or anything else that factors in the availability dependent cost of energy. ha ah, nor to such a livable future apparently include the ability to get to work to earn a living as politicians took as she with the protesters. disruption we recognize the right in the united kingdom under our democracy for peaceful protest. however, we are vehemently against protest that include wilful vandalism. the disruption of individuals attempting to earn a lawful living. the blocking of roads that impedes parents from taking their children to hospital for life saving appointments and the utterly selfish act of

depriving a son attending his own father's funeral by stopping the flow of traffic on the nation's highways with the har realities of the european energy crisis coming up against opponents like these mother, earth could be waiting an awfully long time for some truly capable white knights to come to her rescue. amid the rising power of multinational corporations, india is fighting to break free from the grip of pesticide and g. m. o. companies i've shown returned the speak to environmental as dr. vandana sheba on this week's going underground. watch the program on our website at r t dot com. the soils are being destroyed every single day across the global south. how exactly do you tie up this incredible network of you and agencies the world you know, make for me, i'm f, e u, multinational corporations. all these different interconnected elements are somehow

connected to that. so such a basic thing on life, on earth, the soil, the process of making nitrogen fertilizers through burning fossil fuels at high temperature to fix atmospheric nitrogen is the same process that made explosives. when you apply ammonium nitrate to the soil urea to the saw it all living organisms assigned i saw is living is fungi. bacteria as well is what creates the facility and create life in the soil. this toxic substance starts to kill life in the saw. so increase desert, one kilogram of nitrogen fertilizer uses 2 meters of diesel. it emits carbon dioxide plus nitrous oxide, which is $300.00 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide. and they have time to change that makes it worse and the side, those, the vicious cycle of desertification of this. interestingly, my research a bad, i'm sure that the same crop,

cultivated chemically uses 10 times more water than the crop contradicted organically. so land is not the scarce element on the left. on the planet. water is ah, hundreds of orthodox pilgrims flocked to bethlehem the city where jesus christ is believed to have been born r t 's. maria for notion of follows and mother mary's footsteps retracing her journey from nazareth and reports on modern age political obstacles. some pilgrim face the city of nazareth, so they says, where christians believe the annunciation happened. an angel appeared to mother mary some believe on the side of the church behind me, telling her she would give birth to the son of god. and it's from here that her journey to bethlehem started where jesus is believed to be born. what would that 150 kilometer journey look like today? what would the pregnant woman face on her way?

we decided to take this trip and see with our own eyes. nazareth is the largest arab see teenager, l. arab israelis, many of whom identify themselves as palestinian citizens of israel, form more than 20 percent of the country's population. but it would only be possible for mother married to be here if she had an israeli id. or if not, she would have to go through a number of difficult procedures with israeli authorities to apply for permission to enter in stay. and she could still have been rejected. no one can know for sure which ruined mother married to 2000 years ago, but that would more likely be the shortest one which runs through what is today the occupied west bank. we are entering the border right now and we'll have to go through the checkpoint. hi, how are you? yeah, good. what's be going to be. it was rather easy for me. i'm a foreigner and a journalist, but it was mainly because we were traveling from israel to the west bank to go the

other way around is an almost impossible task for the west bank 3000000 arab population. regarding up shortly after the checkpoint, we are in the town of uni now in the northern part of the west bank. it has been in the news a lot recently, almost daily, military raised by the ram. the army here have often turned violent casualties among civilian population. the officials from the palestinian authority say more than 50 children were killed since the beginning of these here alone. we meet a local watch outside. janine knew the little greek orthodox church thought to be the 4th oldest church in the world. it is believed that mother mary made a short stop here on her way to bethlehem. i was leaves in the west bank, just him in his drive from nazareth. but he cannot go there. well enough that all goes on as i thought the jewels at them, i need a special ferment from the really occupation army from the start authorities. and

in order to do that, that sort of criterias that number apply to many palestinians. so it is a very limited access to the seniors to vote and as it ought to utilize him, even if you get the permit for the fall of humiliation full of obstacles. and it's something he's a junior at all. it makes me sad because after all, this is a holy land, we are angry towards the international community. in fact, we're seeing the international focusing on what everything that is happening goal at the world. every single law that has been broken by the states, yet it is supported by the west. it is not even blamed by the way stand. everybody is asking palestinians, the people who are under occupation under opposition to be more than it and not to, i mean, it's a world full of focus. we continue our journey to the south without. i was as a resident of the west bank, he's blocked from entering jerusalem, where outreach takes us. some of the roads would also be restricted opera habitate

for him as a promise teen. in soon we approach one of the settlements was mentioned around nobliss, the center of d and samaria. the biblical name of the west bank that israel uses homes for around half a 1000000 israelis. we are now inside the settlement known as the car, which has a reputation of being home to the most extreme israeli settlers. they are at the full frontal of the settler movement, so called price tag policy, which calls for violent attacks against palestinians is a price to pay. in retaliation for actions against settlements within the west bank . navigator kept telling me go straight. but it looks like we had the data and now we have to go back. the west bank barrier was billed by israel in the early 2 thousands when we have left the wall and all the checkpoints behind us we reach bethlehem. the atmosphere

is in contrast to everything we so on the way. but the words aunt, as a person from bethlehem has a green card. it has a green passport. it was as green. i did, i can visit gerald and whenever so i think that's my 1st time and it's so different how the news katrina is such a hot tick and it's such a big mess. but it's, it's beautiful. everyone was so friendly and let me out and fast, but didn't totally get into the christmas spirit, but it's now getting, getting to me it is a special place and i thought with a great chance to be here once in a maybe in a lifetime, i don't know but i'm around i'm coming all year. so some great morning so so happy christmas here is this exciting i think take.