>> welcome back here. you are watching live from prison "france 24." our top stories this hour. russia accused of deliberately meddling in the u.s. election. they believe moscow launched a multi--facetted campaign to influence the result. another attack in turkey with the istanbul nightclub shooter still on the run. a car bombing kills two in izmir and plamed on kurdish separatists. the u.n. warns that sabotaging water supplies is a war crime. more than five million people are suffering severe shortages in damascus as fighting continues in the syrian town.

♪ >> first we for to the united states, where senior republicans are calling for greater sanctions against russia over the cyberattacks. the director of national intelligence, james clapper told a senate hearing earlier that russia was behind a faculty mass eled campaign to disrupt the election. john mccain said that means it is time to take action against moscow, but it puts him at odds with president-elect donald trump, who has cast down doubt on the findings. here is our report. >> top security chiefs testifying in front of the senate armed services committee, a economy headed by johnny mccain, who is on a

mission, to get to the bottom of the recent russian hacking in the recent presidential election, a move he describe as an act of war. he says americans deserve to know what happens. >> every american should be alarmed by russia's attacks on our nation. there is no national security interest more vital to the united states than the ability to hold fry and fair elections without foreign interference. hat is why congress must set partisanship aside and work together to get comprehensive solutions, to deter, defend ainst and respond to foreign cyber attacks. >> he and lindsey graham had pushed for a wide ranging investigation by a senate select committee similar to the watergate hearings. but the snort majority leader nixed that plan. instead, they had to settle for

separate investigations in existing senate committees. the main part of the investigation is likely to be carried out by the senate intelligence committee, who is meetings are off limits to public and media scrutiny. several u.s. intelligence agencies have concluded that russian hackers authorized by accessed n, democratic party e-mails to i influence the election. trump has dismissed it saying it is time to move on. the obama administration has sponded by enacting more things against russia. >> i am joined by kevin ryan, a retired u.s. general and director for intelligence at harvard. thank you for joining us on "france 24" tonight. how much, if any, of an impact

did russian hacking have on the outcome of the u.s. election in your view? >> well, i think in my view and in the view of the current administration, the hacking did not affect the outcome of the election. i think this is key to remember and it is reason why president obama and his administration thought that they could basically sit on information or any kind of a response to the hacking until after the election. had they thought it was affecting the election, i think they would have spoken out, or i think they would have taken some action before the actual vote. >> so proof then of foreign meddling in a u.s. election, is the united states getting a taste of its own medicine. it is no secret that washington in the past has tried to influence elections all-around the world. >> well, yes. in a manner of speaking, the united states has tried to encourage democracies where

they don't exist. we have supported certain candidates. our president has maybe traveled to another country and stood side by side with a candidate or made comment in an effort to help them get elect the. that's all true. i don't equate that with what the russians did in this case. they hacked e-mails. the russian government directed the hacking of e-mails, and according to the mccray report -- the c.i.a. report, what we have heard of it, the pervak intention was to help president-elect donald trump get elected. this is slightly different, but there are similarities, yes. >> john mccain says this is an act of war. do you agree? >> no, it is not an act of war. an act of war would put the united states in what we call existential threat.

an attack on mainland or something like this. but it is a serious breach of protocol. it's a serious breach of our security systems here, and the united states should and is responding to that. >> is there any way the u.s. can protect itself against any future cyber attacks? >> i think in general clapper's testimony today to congress, he and the undersecretary and others all made clear that ultimately there is no way to 100% protect the united states to y other country, provide complete protection against cyber attack. there is a new phenomenon, and we have to deal with it. but there are ways to better protect ourselves, and we are doing that now. >> what do you think of donald trump's position, casting doubts on findings, and

aligning himself with the weak pleeks founder, julian assange? >> i think this is the biggest problem we have in the united states right now in terms of the hacking. it is not the effect on the election or the fact even that the hacking occurred. egun to rift it has b make between the president-elect and the intelligence community. i think it is a combination of two things. one he is concerned about the implication for his own election. i think he feels it casts doubt on whether or not hwon the election. and number two, it comes at a time when he is coming into his new administration, and i believe he has had the intention of doing an ntelligence community shake up around reform even before this time. so this is causing concern among the intelligence community organizations also. >> i can tell you that he has

picked former senator dan coates as his director of national intelligence. do you have any comment on that? >> well, former senator coates is a competent and patriotic american. he is certainly capable of doing important work for the administration. but i do not see him as an intelligence expert or someone who is fully tuned in to the intelligence community issues. i think that is probably what president-elect trump likes about him. so he can basically tell senator coates what he wants for the office of intelligence, decrease it probably, reduce its scope, and coates will do all those things. >> general ryan, thank for you talking to us. >> thank you.

>> well there, has been another attack in turkey. in one blamed not on islamic state, but on kurdish separatists. a policeman and a bailiff were killed when a car bomb exploded in izmir. officials say the toll could have been much higher. they were stopped at a checkpoint before they set off the explosion and escaped. here are details. >> the car approached the court entrance used by police officers and judges. they challenged it. militants got out of the car, opened fire. in the fire fight they detonated the bomb that was in their car. they killed the policeman who challenged them, and they also killed a court clerk. police returned fire, killing two mitt tennants. a third militant was thought to have run away into the city center.

izmir governor said according to the information we have got, it was an attack by the p.k.k. in other words, the kurdish insurgents. the attackers were well armed. hey had five grenades, two r.p.g.'s and other things. it was thought they were planning a bigger attack, but because police challenged them, they didn't get that far. i should add an additional point. the leader of the pro kurdish party, the h.d.p., along with 11 other leaders is in jail at the moment. he released a statement from prison today in which he condemned the attack on the istanbul nightclub five days ago. he said after these atrocities, the government always calls for national unity.

but it cannot expect to generate unity when academics are in jail. >> just like the izmir attack, the violence today in izmir is likely to further put tourists off of visiting turkey. that is a source of concern for people who work in the industry. >> outside the majestic mosque, it seems as if there are more police than tourists these days. our guides ang around waiting. alleyways are empty. attractions are proof of its failing tourist industry. >> i used to get a lot of tourists from several countries. >> istanbul was target of five attacks last year, including a

bomb attack near the airport and the blue mosque. last year the industry lost almost 40% of its income. secure fierce and a political crisis has diven away a key tourist demographic. europeans. as a result, this travel agent is offering all-inclusive trips for half the price. 40.ur who tell is 30 or the food outside of this area is very cheap too. >> after the brutal terror attack on the upmarks rain and nice club, there are doubts now out when and if turkey's tourist industry will ever be able to recover. >> in baghdad, 11 people killed in a blast this thursday. at least 22 people were wound.

another bombing earlier in the day killed 27. the islamic state group is being blameded. it has claimed responsibility for a string of deadly blasts lately. nearly 100 people have been killed. the united nations is warning that the sabotages of water supplies are war crimes. rebels and others or blaming eesm other for that. it follows fighting in and town. the rebel-held here is our report. >> the taps have been dry in damascus for weeks. the children spend their days making trip after trip to wells to get water for their families. >> 70% of the city's water comes from a rebel-held area.

the u.s. says infrastructure was deliberately targeted, leaving 5.5 million people without access to water. >> this has been the reality now for two weeks. it cannot continue like this. we need immediately to restore water supplies, since it is so enormous, the number of people freakted. and certainly many people are only now on subsays dance level subsays minimum -- dance levels. >> they are plaming each other. though a cease-fire has been in place since september 30, the fighting and suffering continues. a woman who is said to have

undow influence over the president in south korea is on trial. judges are set to rule on whether park has violated the constitution. >> she is a key figure in the worst corruption stanley ever to grip south korea. a close friend of the country's president appeared in court in seoul. she is accused with colluding .ith president park an accusation she denied again on thursday. >> the defendant claimed in the trial there was no intention of pursuing private interests in the case of mir and case port foundations. she stressed that the foundations were established for public purposes. >> south korea's parliament voted for president park's impeachment over the stanley in

december. her powers have since been suspended and handed over to country's prime minister. on thursday, the constitutional court began hearings to decide whether to uphold or overturn that vote. back in november, president park apologized to nation, but denied committing criminal offenses. the scandal has drawn hundreds of thousands of protestors on to the streets of seoul for weekly demonstrations, demanding her resignation, and protestors are expected to gather again this weekend. if the court upholds parliament's decision, president park will be the first catically elected leader to leave office early. >> that is how britain's new envoy to brussels has been stribled. he is a former ambassador to moscow. now he will have a key role for

negotiating britain's exist from the european union. he replaced ivan rogers. >> brexit may have gotten that much harder for the u.k. roger has been replaced by tim barrow, seen here next to boris johnson. some european leaders think that the loss of rogers' experience leaves the u.k. in a more difficult negotiating position and more likely to leave the e.u. without a south brockers it's. >> they are lacking experience. it takes longer time to develop what will be the right ways to move forward. i fear a very hard brexit, but i hope we will find a better solution. downing street has it has confidence in baro, calling him a seasoned negotiators with

experience in brussels, and saying he will bring his trademark creativity to the job. >> but some brexit advocates right baro is not the choice. they said on twitter that they said replaced one knighted diplomat with another. in his resignation, rogers criticized prment teresa may, saying she has no strategy, no goals and no coherent negotiating team. >> hundreds of thousands of ducks are to go culled in france after a severe outbreak of bird flu. it begins on thursday and could go on for more than two weeks. >> thousands of ducks are being taken to the slaughter house. france has ordered a massive cull of poultry in the southwest region on affected with an outbreak of bird flu.

32,000 free range ducks are to be put down. >> it hurts. it is not just about losing money. it is also because we like to work and want to keep on producing. >> some 800,000 birds out of a total population of 18 million in the south of france will be culled in the coming weeks. the government bleels it is the best way to contain the outbreak. they contacted farmers to try to reasure them, but as they came out of the meeting, many said they feared they won't be compensated on time. >> we don't know when it will come. it could be either the end of january, end of march, end of april. we don't know when we will be compensated. many poultry farmers are going to have to pay their bills, but they have no money. >> on this farm, 1,100 ducks have been culled. healthy ducks that happened to

be reared in an area with the virus. this former has lost 15,000 euros. >> i understand they have to put down those that are sick, but why sellouter those that are healthy? >> they have found cases of the strain over the past two months. >> let's get some business for you. kate is back with us. starting in the us,s, president-elect donald trump has been at it again on the twitter, threatening toyota not to move car factories to mexico. >> it is the third manufacturer he has targeted. ford announced it is con selling plans for moving a plan to mention. ow trump's tweet have been targeting toyota. he said there is no way the automaker should be allowed to baja. few factory in

he has issued similar threats to general motors. he said he is already trying to keep jobs in america. the mark is increasingly sure that he will carry out his campaign promises to damage trade ties with america's southern neighbor. take a listen. >> well, i won't be surprised if the decision relies on a single thread by the president of the united states and other reasons that are unknown so far. however, the message that has been sent across the border is that the new president of the united states is going to threaten companies to move locations back to the united states, to not send jobs overseas, and that he is to force incur, these companies to stay in the united states.

i think that is ominous. i think that is going to have a long-term impact not only on the trade relations between mexico and the u.s., but also the u.s. competitiveness. as president fox said, if companies tries to invest abroad, its in the interest of the stakeholders. >> the peso has lost 16% since trump's election in november. since ford's announcement, the central bank has intervened, confirming it has started selling dollars on the currency market. e peso had rebounded earlier but now drop back slightly. let's check in on the stock markets. the ftse had a chop any mark. trading above 7,200. closed under that benchmark but still in the green there. some losses over on wall

street. the dow jones dropped about 100 points earlier on. the nasdaq has ticked up above the flat line. huge financial losses and score closures for macy's and serious. macy's trading down over 14%. elf-driving cars, ultra thin tv's, and other things are all rage at the consumer electronics show, opening thursday. we have seen some of the latest innovations during the days of previews. now the public can get in to try some of those gadgets. making a splash can provide much-needed exposure and sometimes funding for tech firms true ig to make it big. french tech firms has found its things. be

>> stealing the show in las vegas. the french technology and innovation picture has become one of the fastest growing in the industry. a momentum that many french startups like this developer hopes to use in their favor. >> when you work in innovation, it is important to place your product on the international market as fast as possible to outrun the competition. being a part of the c.e.s. is essential in getting in touch with the biggest national distributors. >> in five years time, it multiplied its revenue so fold and went from a small start up to a growing tech company. >> in five years we went from less than 50 employees to over 200 and we are still hiring. >> investments increased by 72 %. the unprecedented growth came

last year where they met with unexpected success. for this french start up, currently developing a reading soft wear for the blind. >> last year's show allowed us to make initial comebacks. we came back with a few deals and investments, allowing us to come back stronger. >> with a talented labor pool, strong government's support for innovation, fresh tech has made its mark. it is just getting starred. >> moving on to some of the day's other business headlines. volkswagen has been sworded to defend itself in a lawsuit brought in the u.s. over the ee miguels. . officials say they should have been informed earlier about issues affecting 11 million cars world rolled. they have been agreed to pay

theriot than $17 billion. >> car sales in the u.k. hit aggie all-time high in 2016 with a record 2.69 million new models registered. industry experts expect the level to drop off. the pound sterling makes the price of import cars more expensive. apple has pulled the "new york times" app at the request of beijing. the paper's website has been blocking china since 2014. the times have ask them to reconsidering their consideration. >> the app story had its best month of sales to date in december. developers raking in over $20 billion in sales. that is 40% more and year ago. apple itself claimed about $8 billion. the most downloaded app of the

year was pokemon go, while super mario was the most down load thanned on christmas and new year's days. they continued spending a $248úp

01/05/17 01/05/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> we have said repeatedly over the pa two months that the outsource is not the russian government and it is not the states party. amy: wikileaks founder julian assange says russia was not the source of the leak of females from the democratic national committee. the senate holds a hearing today on russian cyber attacks. this comes as president elect

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