this is. germany. costs critics for. syria part of a deal to free an imprisoned german journalist also on the program. turkey syria. could deal with. troops. inside a russian. people indicted for meddling in america's

election just the tip. of the program thawing of relations between turkey and germany. seeking strong cooperation between the two countries over the weekend turkish prime minister said he was hopeful of. building. a deal potentially worth billions for office however the deal has already been done in exchange for last week's release of german turkish journalist. been held in turkey for a year without charge germany's foreign minister denies the claims but for the democrats. says he's suspicious. also it is the name of the foreign minister would never admitted it in my view it's perfectly clear there's

a connection there if you look at the whole story i assume is a direct link to little boxes among exist yet. let's go from g.w. political correspondent to thomas sparrow welcome the thomas the german government is denying any link between dennis usuals release and a multi billion euro deal to build where has the speculation come from this is not a new fail this is not something that just started a couple of days ago with the release of mr u. turn in fact it's something that we've been talking about for for weeks now but it's only a speculation and it's only a speculation fueled by for example the comments that we just heard there from the lawmaker if you ask the german government if you ask for example zeke my god germany's foreign minister he will say that there was no deal neither dirty nor clean that turkey didn't want anything and didn't receive anything that the release of mr huge there was only the result of diplomatic efforts and it's impossible to

confirm independently whether there was a deal or whether that those issues were even discussed for now it is only really speculation so there is speculation about about a link between any deal and mr huge was released and one of the deal itself has a deal been done between turkey and germany to build tanks into. germany's relation with turkey on a military base on a military case on a defense case is something that goes back for a long for a long time in fact germany is described as the second supplier of arms to turkey it's very difficult again because of the nature of this issue to find out exactly how much has gone into that how big the deals are but there was an official inquiry not long ago that revealed that germany had approved around twenty five million euros in arms sales to turkey in the first eight months of twenty seventeen that was considerably less than the year before that but it still reveals the extent of

of the relationship between turkey and germany in this particular issue so i'm curious recent use of german leopard tanks against the kurds in northern syria prompted calls for germany to holds arms exports to turkey given that background could berlin be considering closer military ties with turkey we can certainly say feel that this is a very controversial and a very sensitive issue because obviously on the one hand you have the defense situation which is particularly important both for germany and for turkey you already have the military component again you have an economic component there that we've just discussed our selves here but you also have a third component which is the human rights situation in the country in other words the the country where these weapons are going to be to be used and that is something that has generated a lot of controversy here in fact lawmakers here in particular opposition lawmakers have been saying that germany should stop all arms sales to turkey and that's

precisely why this situation is particularly controversial tom aspera thank you. meanwhile turkey's offensive against the kurds in northern syria looks likely to escalate that's after a reported deal between kurds in the region of africa and the syrian government damascus will send pro-government fighters to the rebel held area to help repel turkey they will be fighting alongside kurds are light to the syrian democratic forces or as the f. a battle hardened rebel force ready to fight off to his forces. roll call two hundred fighters from the syrian democratic forces or s.t.'s present for inspection at their barracks the exact location here in northern syria cannot be revealed it's the same ritual here every day at five am. not one. of. the assembled officers say that they carry on the fight of their

martyrs inspired by their spirit and the blood they spilt these men are between eighteen and forty and are kurds arabs christians their respect for the fall and unites them against the terrorist forces of i-s. and their determination to defend their homeland. none intel and on the whole s.d.f. forces have freed huge areas from my yes and from the al nusra front. that they have stabilized the region and are now well prepared to repel any enemy regardless of who they are the point is and it's. the first assad's troops in two thousand and twelve and then the terrorist group i-s. in both twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen including from the iowa stronghold of raka now this battle hardened militia wants to defend against another offensive this time from turkey's military and its allies turkey's president wretch of enda one says he wants to free the area of kurdish terrorists that's the official line these officers here find that both maddening and amusing. on the

gun who are getting free a land from its own people he wants to free it from the people who freed it from my ass while thousands of fighters died in order to defend the slant of. the. village i want a town. to do to do fight though with any with any. yet in some villages in northern syria people are fearful again like intel. one sixty five christian orthodox families live here now there are only seven. and. most fled because of ah yes it's especially in christian inhabited communities where the terrorist group left destruction in their wake expelled or killed the population and blew up churches.

has said when i saw that i was in shock and just cried. in this house i a smil it since showed their wrath and left their names on the walls the family here was able to flee in time now that this village is freed the inhabitants have to worry again along with erda once allies the free syrian army radical islamic groups are also coming to the region that brings back nightmarish feelings. they. were before and. i consider heir to one the greatest terrorist he's a criminal who attacks innocent people and takes their land away his allies around him are all i-s. people who knew that. the evening meal is rather meager and yet these s.d.s. officers voice their confidence in the wake of attacks from turkey the u.s.

offers military support for the s.d.f. were also seems high among these fighters hardened after many years of war. as good as this film did only correspondent julie holland who joins us from istanbul welcome to the situation on the ground it's often very confused to have confirmation from the from the kurds on from syria. troop movements. well there is no direct confirmation yet by the syrian regime in damascus but state t.v. and that's considered the voice of the regime is reporting that pro-government forces a set to end a friend and i quote within hours so that indicates that indeed something might be happening on the ground quite soon one important distinction here as far as we hear these forces are no official syrian army forces but rather a paramilitary forces allied with the syrian regime but still that might change

a lot on the ground since there is no syrian military presence in the kurdish controlled areas in north and syria since twenty twelve so if they now are headed for afrin that's changing a lot yeah so let's pick up. how much is that likely to change the. well the turkish troops will see themselves are confronting not only syrian kurdish fighters in north in syria but also troops allied with the syrian regime and they will have to decide all they willing to take the risk and continue with operation all of branch are they maybe going to retreat or pull out completely that's a decision they will have to make especially since on cry in the past weeks emphasized they're not going to conquer any territory in syria they are going to respect territorial integrity of syria but now of course if they continue their

attacks especially against pro syrian government forces they will have difficulties legitimate legitimizing their offensive so we expect reaction soon by the turkish government by the turkish military them explaining what their strategy now is going to be are they opting for further escalation or deescalation a what's in this for what is to mask get out of cooperating with the. well my guess is damascus is goal is to recapture reconquer territory in syria to gain control again over large parts of syria and if they indeed struck a deal with the kurds which also includes a political agreement which the current so far deny they say this deal has only pro pragmatic goals it doesn't include any political agreement but if it did for example some kind of

a federal system which includes the kurds but under damascus as control it means to moscow's would regained territory and would be the major power to control large parts of syria again. in istanbul thank you helena humphrey is head now on one of europe's top bankers has been accused of wrongdoing we actually never ever hear about sort of story do we owe never. exactly the top banker in fact of the central bank in latvia were talking about it in moscow shavit he was detained on sunday also being questioned by anti corruption all forty's now him say which is also a member of the european central bank's governing body he was questioned for hours amid accusations of bribery and money laundering in the country's financial system . that feels top banking official from savage arriving at the country's anti-corruption agency from savage seen here wearing a cap was questioned by authorities after they raided his offices and property it's

unclear exactly what charges he is facing but the news comes a week after u.s. authorities proposed banning one of latvia's largest private banks a.b.l. the bank for allegedly to north korea latvia's finance minister sought to offer reassurance. i can assure you that the latvian finance system is stable banks don't have liquidity issues so depositors can feel completely safe in a sense that along the way the flow of the snow me privately is this going up watching you know in order to protect the finance sector stability and reputation i think that room said it should resign from his post while the investigation is ongoing but not enough not to tell the latvian prime minister has also called for him seven to step down but markets are still likely to remain uneasy about the state of latvia's banking system on monday the e.c.b. said it was stopping. bank payments amid the u.s. investigation and whether in savage case isn't linked to the a.b.l.

the probe it calls beyond the country's borders as a member of the e.c. peace governing body from savage has access to confidential information relating to europe's most powerful financial institution on the story for us is our financial correspondent conor had who is in his in frankfurt home of course to the european central bank good to see conrad what could the fallout be from this case. well we don't know exactly why the. anti corruption investigators in latvia have arrested and interrogated the chief of the central bank there so his lawyer says the allegations are about something that happened years ago so it remains open whether all this really has to do with this bank a b l v which allegedly infringed on the sanctions against north korea and against which the european central bank has imposed

a pavements moratorium but whatever it is of course this raises questions about the euro system and the european central bank itself these allegations now are not the first cases of corruption and money laundering in latvia and in the latvian banking system so one has to ask whether the e.c.b. really controls the sector effectively i mean what we've also got your zone finance ministers meeting in brussels what will they likely be talking about. they will be talking about you personnel as the european central bank's vice president constanza will leave his post this summer there are now now it's time to make a decision who will be his successor there are two candidates one is the spanish economy minister who is the green dos and the other candidate is the chief of the irish central bank philip lane the european parliament seems to have a bit of

a preference for the man from ireland but having that as you know the ministers of the eurozone have their own arithmetics when it comes to decision making who said in which post. kind of that it was enough for us in france thank you. as frank to fill now in the trolls behind the fake news headlines. there have been a u.s. special council's decision on friday to indict thirteen russian suspected of meddling in america's presidential election was thrown international attention back on so kremlin backed propaganda w. has been speaking with a former internet troll who worked at the internet research agency in st petersburg which u.s. investigators say is a fake news factory she told the w.c. correspondent you're in russia that those thirteen arrests barely scratched the surface of what she describes as a mass operation. russia's second city st petersburg apparently the

center of the fake news operation aimed at disrupting the twenty sixteen race for the white house two years ago this young journalist was working alongside the so-called internet trolls at the russian agency for internet research the official name of the troll factory whose buses have now been indicted by the united states. employees at the troll factory get a list of topics every day that they have to work through bad news about the united states was always one of the more important topics. it would have been in. touch of ela tried to make contact with those working inside the building to no avail. the revelations by lit miller lifted the lid on the troll factory unselfish kena straight instant petersburg. curtains on the vin dos no sign at the

entrance into that unsuspicious looking building here in sun pit as burke so called internet trolls a supposed to have dramatically meddled in the us election american investigators say. this video from inside the complex was sent to torture valid by another whistleblower that minute says they're better paid than the average russian more than a thousand people are thought to work here and it's by no means the only troll factory in russia but the. tories last movement today no one can exactly say how far these trolls have really influenced the us elections and individual voters mean yes but but it's absolutely clear that there was a meddling going on. and as yet. it's enough for just one person to put out false information in return for payment that clearly constitutes an attempt to tamper at

the. miniseries the handful of russians indicted in the us is only the tip of the iceberg. in that since there weren't just thirteen there weren't even just one hundred thirty of them there were many more that there was and still is an enormous operation going on. and the thirteen who have been accused are just the ones the americans have got hard evidence against i hope the investigations will continue. with them there are simply so many people who are working professionally for the russian propaganda machine hope that others will soon be investigated that would suddenly shown. until that happens simply just bag is unlikely to be the sole source of russia's fake news.

reports have produced and presented by yuri russia from our moscow bureau he joins us now welcome yuri how do these trolls decide which subjects make good fake news fodder. why the don't to do it by themselves on their own obviously a philosophical told me that every employee of the so-called troll factory got a list every morning from he's all her boss advisors three to five topics were old is always there or at the top she said that it was ukraine and the us usa as for the guess at the topics of migration the use of the weapons to dealing with minorities and other controversial issues who are particularly important over this is the trolls have been probably posting behind with a false identity they have been acting as us citizens with a fake accounts sometimes the trolls pretended to be journalists who posted on fake ukrainian websites pretending to be opposition fighters and what proof is there

that there was meddling in the us elections. well that's a good question as to how the my report of the vista blow us off six added to was a bad enough if only one person posted wrote it were wrong things for money and then spread it in english on the internet it's a question not only from vista gators but probably also for scientists and political experts the question is how impressionable on eric and sad most of the employees were rushing students who were divided into units that worked on certain sides of projects she for example was supposed to live journal and popular russian blogger sides all this worked on social media sites like facebook twitter and you tube which are very popular in the united states as well i where does the money come from. well the u.s. investigators election that you have a guinea pig was in an ally off russian president vladimir putin managed to the group in san petersburg. an issue is official of it chief cook off of the kremlin

so his company deliver us food to the kremlin to president putin personally he said he was not upset by that indictment telling us that americans are very emotional and see what they want to see an interesting detail about the progression more he is supposed to finance this so-called divide now group according to russian media reports this is a private military company that has been operating illegally in syria some of their soldiers were reportedly killed in the u.s. attack in syria recently so mr big ocean the chief cook of the kremlin of mr putin seems to have his business his illegal his dirty business in syria as well. in moscow thank you. so a russian medalist the winter olympics has tested positive for

a banned substance the international olympic committee is awaiting the results of the big sample or the court of operate arbitration for sport has launched a doping procedure alexander crucial netscape has won a bronze medal with his wife in mixed doubles curling has tested positive for mel don't you if confirmed it will be a major blow to russia's efforts to emerge from a drug cheating scandal crucial netscape was travelling to so. has come to seoul a big i will be sent home if he's a failed test is confirmed. so let's get the latest on this the rest of the big story from john from the w. sports max metal welcome not just with this suspected doping mill donja is the substance what is it it's actually a heart medication and in russia or in many other countries and. you can get it over the counter often without prescription and it increases blood flow primarily but for an athlete it also improves stamina and improves exercise capacities so it

was banned for most sports in twenty sixteen and that time maria sharapova the former world number one tennis tested positive for it and said at the time she was taking it all her life didn't know that it was inclusion and the banned list and subsequently banned for fifteen months so this is a very prominent drug in terms of russian doping and it's a huge blow to the russian athletes competing under a neutral flag at this event picks because of course there have been allegations of a state sponsored doping program in russia and improving that image is going to be difficult if another athlete has positive so how have fish oils that athletes reacted so well i mean fellow colors have been quite baffled by this victoria more as ever one of the russian colors competing at this of them picks says the sport is more about accuracy than strength she doesn't understand why one would hope it doesn't make sense and she feels it must be a mistake other athletes from russia have come out and said they think perhaps he

was spiked there's no evidence of that so far and the russian women's curling coach sag a bell and of says he can't believe it after the whole scandal surrounding journeymen says i don't believe that a normal guy could have taken that he would have been would have had to been completely stupid actually his words and his what mark adams the spokes person for the i.o.c. president had to say. should this case be proven or should this case cup come to fruition that will also be part of the consideration. as to whether they will be allowed for them to march in the closing ceremony under their under the flag. you know for a let's look at the other stories that from most of the big stories that from the day ted highlight so far was a world record in the ice dance from the canadian comeback couple yes that's tessa virtue and scott moore they beat records getting

a score of eighty three point six seven ice dancing is essentially bowl room dancing on ice and they won in vancouver twenty ten got the gold medal there then in sochi they got the silver medal and we can see some of that dance they have only they came back out of her time in twenty sixteen and since then only lost one single time they already at this in the piece want to gold in the team figure skating so that the gold now going into round two and the big competitors will be the twenty sixteen and fifteen world champions going to proper doctors on six of all of fronts while pronounced there was a also a debut for a new sports what is big well it's part of keeping the olympics relevant it's a snowboarding event and if we take a look at it you can really maybe get the idea of what's called big look how high up this snowboarder is that kind of gossip from austria and this is a county double cork and eighty. but you know forty five meters high around forty

nine meters even quite a daunting prospect is kind of like ski jumping with the added feature of doing a trick when you jump so after the success of slopestyle and half white snowboarding this was introduced in this elin picks and obviously the crowd was quite thrilled so very briefly was the board is the board attached to his feet and you have said you wanted let's have a little less impressed even though you know that's the qualifying with the medals happening very soon thank you so much. this is that they. will have more at the top of the hour in the meantime of course as always the web site that's. playing. chloe.

she sixteen years old homes her own business and is helping to prevent water shortages in south africa. becoming. something about the water being wasted on her parents. so she can stall the phonic system and. it's a simple idea that's really. a

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