you're watching beyond one hundred days. the european union has found more than 3,500 examples of russian disinformation. all geared at destabilising the eu. and the european parliament says it's an orchestrated strategy. according to a new report, the russians are spreading fake news in as many languages as possible through as many channels as possible. former presidential advisor steve bannon refused to answer investigators‘ questions on russia. he says it was the white house who ordered him not to. mrtrump, his mr trump, his promise of fake news awards may indeed by —— be fake news. charm offensive or a genuine push for peace — north and south korea pledge to compete under one flag at the winter olympics. and modern—day makeovers? the app that turns presidents and prime ministers, into works of art. get in touch with us using the hashtag ‘beyond—one—hundred—days‘.

hello and welcome — i'm katty kay in washington and christian fraser is in london. the full scale of pro kremlin meddling in european democracies has been exposed in a report by the european parliament. what's more, the report concludes, that an orchestrated strategy of disinformation has been extremely succesful. the ee‘s stratcom east team was set up in 2015 to counter russian interference in news reports. the task force found 3,500 examples of pro moscow disinformation. they found recent fake news items include claims that france has banned christian symbols and that denmark is feeding family pets to zoo animals. the eu's findings largely corroborate a report released here by democrats in the senate — they found. that the kremlin backed a coup in montenegro. and supported right wing groups

in france and germany. as well as left wing ones in italy and greece. the senate report also concluded there'd been meddling in the brexit referendum and catalonian independence referendum. and that putin had ordered the killing of a number of russian opposition figures across europe. not to mention the invasion of crimea and ukraine. senator ben cardin commissioned that report and hejoined us earlier. so senator cardin, we know what the russians have been trying to do, you detail it in your report. i guess the question is if they are trying to cause disruption in the european union or sow doubts about electoral processes, how successful have they actually been? we know mr putin has had some success. we know that he has caused a slowing down of serbia's integration into europe because russian troops are in georgia, in ukraine, it is much more difficult to see those countries‘ accession into nato. we know that russia was active in the brexit referendum.

so we know that they have seen some success in their operations. and european countries have recognised that and taken precautions. so in the german election and the french election we saw the impact of russia was much more minimised because they took steps to prevent that type of influence. you detail in the report some of the things that european countries are trying to do. and there are quite different approaches. the germans for example have taken down some sites and the french might be about to do the same. but they have got criticism that that is close to censorship. the czech republic on the other hand leave the sites up and hope that the mainstream media willjust tell people that this is fake news. which is a preferable path, which path works best in your experience? we want to see best practice, i must tell you i think the all in approach that we have seen particularly in the scandinavian countries where they really develop the curriculum for the children to understand that there is fake news out there and to watch for what is accurate and what is not accurate.

we have seen with cyber defence which some countries have been very aggressive on that. and we should demand disclosure on internet advertisements during campaigns. we should take down those social media sites that are clearly foreign dominated, that are there to try carry out messaging which is against the interests of the country. so i think that there are legitimate areas where you take best practice in order to defend ourselves. senator, the swedish government announced this week it is creating a new government agency to tackle russian and other propaganda. it is putting money into intelligence and into cyber defence. when you compare that to eight months out from an election, with what is going on in the united states ahead of the midterms at the moment, it is pretty stark. you are quite correct. with the swedish government, what it is doing is preparing for their next elections. the us, we have been attacked, we were attacked in 2016. and yet we have yet to take steps to protect our election process

in 2018 from the president of the united states. we should have an interagency fusion operation to get an all in approach to defend our country. president trump has failed to do that. senator cardin, thank you very much forjoining us amid the singalong in the senate! i should just explain that he was in the rotunda, a building where all the rotunda, a building where all the senators have their offices. anyone can go in and today we had a group supporting those young people who could be deported onto the dream act. that is democracy! latvia is on the border with russia. i read in that report that for every tweet sentin

that report that for every tweet sent in russian, five are sent by russian bots. it is a five in one ratio. sweden also saying it has interference already in its election so interference already in its election so this is a big problem in europe. 0ne so this is a big problem in europe. one of the items of fake news i picked up in that european parliament report, one item is saying that sweden is about to introduce a law demanding written consent before you have sex. not quite sure who believes that but i'm afraid some people do. jeff flake was on the floor of the senate today talking about many things and he talked about russian interference as well and made the point that there has only been one cabinet meeting, he has only brought his cabinet secretaries together, not even once,

to discuss this. and senator carden said that that was negligent. and republicans i think would also say more has to be done. and why is the president not taking this as seriously as you might expect given that america was attacked by russian disinformation during the 2016 elections. former white house advisor steve bannon went before a congressional committee on the russia investigation yesterday and refused to answer questions. he says the white house ordered him not to. democrats on the committee say mr bannon was effectively gagged by the trump administration. but this may not be the last time we hearfrom mr bannon on the issue of whether the trump campaign colluded with moscow to win the 2016 election. american press reports say he has been subpoenaed by special counsel robert mueller — that would make him the first member of the president's inner circle to receive a grand jury subpoena from the mueller probe. 0ur north america reporter anthony zurcher is with us. steve bannon is called before the

congressional committee and he goes voluntarily, he gets there and ask a question and he just gets on the phone to the white house? apparently his lawyer was in communication with the white house at the time he was sitting in this interview with the committee. he was claiming executive privilege, maybe not directly, the white house saying while you are with the president, working in the white house, apparently on the transition team as well in the lead up transition team as well in the lead up to the inauguration of donald trump, that you cannot divulge to congress what kind of advice you are giving the president. that the president is entitled to a candid advice from his advisers. this is a privilege going all the way back to richard nixon. does it suggest that steve bannon might have told things to that committee that could have made the white house nervous. to that committee that could have made the white house nervousm certainly seemed that way. what we heard from the michael wolff book,

is steve bannon thinks donald trump junior and jared kushner and paul ma nafort junior and jared kushner and paul manafort had a meeting with russians during the campaign which was treasonous or unpatriotic. he may also think there are other problems with for example money—laundering. so those are all things he could have talked about. although it seems like a lot of the investigations of robert mueller is looking at the firing of james comey robert mueller is looking at the firing ofjames comey and any possible obstruction ofjustice. firing ofjames comey and any possible obstruction ofjusticelj will never submit you to a 10—hour congressional hearing on russia, christian! ten hours in front of a senate committee and not answer any of their questions. it is remarkable. ina of their questions. it is remarkable. in a way i suppose it was a test of his loyalty yesterday. the democrats probably thought he would spill the beans. that could have been the case and republicans and democrats were upset about this,

their separation of power concerns and congress has the right to investigate the presidency and possible misdeeds as part of the hearing. what is more interesting, news reports that steve bannon is willing to talk with mueller about anything and everything, no executive privilege concerns with that kind of interview. and media reports today that that will be not an official grand jury testimony any more, there was a subpeona issued yesterday by beverage some agreement whereby steve bannon will fit with the prosecutors and talk with them in much less formal and much less under the glare of the spotlight kind of procedure. that is what other people do from the trump in a circle, sean spicer for example. they all had this less than formal interview process. thank you very much. i guess the question if he does not answer questions

satisfactorily in the informal chat situation then does the subpeona rear its head again. clearly steve bannon is central to this. and someone bannon is central to this. and someone these investigators really wa nt to someone these investigators really want to speak to because he spent so much time with the president. well we have the deputy chief of staff, and former campaign manager on the trump campaign today, both before the house. and later in the week we have the communications director, very much in the loop. but the white house saying we want to get this finished as quickly as possible but on the other hand telling them all but they're bound by executive privilege. so not really helping to bring it to a speedy conclusionlj think bring it to a speedy conclusion.” think the white house has said they hope it will wrap up soon but no indication here that it is actually going to be done any time before the summer going to be done any time before the summer when paul manafort goes to trial. a senior republican took to the floor of the senate today and compared president trump

to the soviet dictator joseph stalin. but the main criticism injeff flake's speech was reserved for his party, for standing by as mr trump assaults the american media. the senator is free to speak his mind because he is retiring this year. but there are other republicans who share the opinion, that by classifying the news media as "the enemy of the people", mr trump not only endangers journalists around the world — he also sets a poor example for countries led by authoritarians and dictators. the enemy of the people was how the president of states called the free press in 2017. mr president it is a testa m e nt to press in 2017. mr president it is a testament to the condition of our democracy that our own president uses words infamously spoken by justice talent to describe his enemies. and in an opinion piece in the washington post yesterday, senatorjohn mccain also called on the president to stop attacking the

news media and encouraged congress to embrace a free press in ways that donald trump does not seem too. whether trump knows it or not, these efforts are being closely watched by foreign leaders who are already using his words as cover as they silence and shutter one of the key pillars of democracy. so said john mccain. he went on to make the point that some people, journalists have been arrested around the world in the last year under the premise of fake news. and that term has started to spread and authoritarians are using it. that speech from jeff flake was designed to coincide with the donald trump fa ke to coincide with the donald trump fake news awards. he said that they would go to the most corrupt and biased of the mainstream media and would presented onjanuary 17. biased of the mainstream media and would presented onjanuary17. the interest in these rewards is far greater than anyone could have anticipated. but when asked when the

rewards were absent from schedule today the press secretary told white house reporters that they were only a potential event. so are the fake news awards in fact fake news? last night on his show jimmy fallon gave us his take on what the awards could look like. the first annual fake news awards. your host, president donaldj trump. biggest loser. welcome to the fake news awards which are totally real unlike the really fake news which is fa ke unlike the really fake news which is fake and not real. this is the first annual fake news awards. and the winner, have a guess. cnn. they were actually the only nominee. and the

failing new york times! the whole of the washington press corps has been ina campaign the washington press corps has been in a campaign amongst itself to see who was going to be able to claim the honour of actually getting the fa ke the honour of actually getting the fake news award. no one wanted to be left off the list.