russian lawmakers vote in favor of getting media register as foreign agents. in the united states. in response to washington's actions the self appointed global press freedom stay quiet on the treatment of. also ahead this hour u.s. officials from using bestselling russian security software on the alleged espionage threat but there's no evidence to suspicions. volunteers trying to help refugees are being considered. from the humanitarian aid.

to the world this is r t international my names you not only a welcome to the program this hour's top story russian lawmakers have voted in favor of forcing media outlets to register as foreign agents it's in response to similar pressure placed on r.t. america in the united states. has been following developments for us just bring us up to spec about what a fact that these amendments could have. didn't hi well we wouldn't be hearing this news from the russian parliament if it wasn't for the american department of justice that demanded that r.t. america register as a foreign agent in the us the russian government promised to fight back and we're seeing that happen right now but to make similar demands for the foreign media in

this country to register as a foreign agent russia's own legislation required amendments and they have just been approved by the lower house of the russian parliament which is called the duma and now the draft bill will be moved on to the upper chamber of the russian parliament for the final vote the amendment has it that a media outlet may find itself on the list of foreign agents in russia if it receives money from a foreign country i.e. foreign government also international or foreigners in his ations or foreign individuals as well as russian legal entities that receive funding from all the sources that i just mentioned above if a media outlet becomes a foreign agent whatever it publishes has to come with a disclaimer plus it has to provide the russian authorities with reports on its finances regularly now something that was also discussed at the same duma session

was a recent piece by buzz feed thai told secret funding sixty russian payments to finance the election campaign of two thousand and sixteen i bet the first thing that comes up on your mind union when you read that headline is that this is a serious investigative report on the russian meddling in the us election campaign the article tells you about citibank money transfers that were intended for russian embassies abroad wow. but the problem is that the russian duma had its own election in september twenty sixth being russia was choosing its new lawmakers and there were polling stations opened at embassies around the world to make sure that russian citizens who cannot vote at home can do that abroad and that does require some money russian officials did confirm that the transfers the money

that was in these transfers was spent on opening these polling stations but if you go to the buzz feed article you don't read through it unless you scroll and you have to scroll a lot and i can tell you that some attention at that session was also drawn upon this serious bit of investigative reporting by buzz feed ok with the comprehensive updates on the news today thank you for trinket from central moscow this hour. well we actually got in touch with a number of global press freedom organizations to get their reaction to r.t. america being coerced into the turning itself a foreign agent but it's been a strangely muted reaction it's not just the explained. washington has had enough of. russia today a russian propaganda arm why have you not shut

down r t on you tube it's a propaganda machine mr walker r t push what we might call fake news it's can't just shut it down but making life miserable that it's caton by law america will now have to put this disclaimer on all of its work if we show you a video of a fireman in texas rescuing a kitten well that's brought to you by the russian government every twitter account of america over its correspondents has to have that disclaimer in its bio problemi is that it doesn't fit into the bio which means that america can't be on twitter. we'll also have to send copies of everything that publishes to the us government reports videos and even tweets within forty eight hours everything must be ready for inspection at any time. so how is journalists

reacting freedom of speech groups and all that well here is how outraged they are i'm afraid i'm not we'll enough informed about this particular topic to report anything of substance to your viewers well that's surprising and here i thought it was all over the news for weeks ok next response the office of the or a c. representative in freedom of media has just received an official let's run this issue we cannot provide a comment for the time being not sure where the u.s.c. have been but they say they just got the letter obviously had no idea about what was going on vacation maybe next. i asked this is an issue about washington that it's not appropriate for us to comment on the details that explains it the national union of journalists only comment about things in the u.k.

and china and the rock island syria canada russia and so on. their response has been left one thing the president this sets is huge it's enormous but hey doesn't concern them yet russia has been so effectively vilified by the press by the u.s. government by the u.k. government that organisations who should be speaking out for free speech who should be condemning these attacks against r.t. are either too afraid to do so or they see they are actually aligned with the attacks and so i find that incredibly disappointing i think people whether they like r.t. or they don't like r.t. should defend artie's right to exist to broadcast in the united states to say what

it wants to say to interview a wants to interview i think the right to free speech the right to free inquiry is now greatly under attack in the united states in the land of the free you better watch what you say or i'll put you on the list. well now one of america's most popular news i'm greg gating websites is getting caught up in the campaign against r.t. the drudge report which links to hundreds of news sites is under fire from the washington post for showing stories from r.t. the sites accuse the publishing links to russian propaganda even though it's only a tiny fraction of what drudge links to from the washington post itself here's how his site boss mark drudge reacted i've linked to washington post over ten thousand times in twenty five years of doing drudge report i can only give them thirty seven

percent of their referral traffic he said brutal business not even a thank you instead you were russian operative this was all think amusing and ridiculous for a time but it's now heading into a dark place it's a dark and dangerous path and we don't know how far it will no go it is branding of journalists as agents and that is very dangerous of course for the safety of journalists in many hotspots and difficult parts of the world while there is more on this story in today's cross talk on the program picking up on the repercussions of the intense political pressure against r.t. america people realize that the establishment media is essentially a lost leader in other words when a guy like jeff bezos had a resigned and over the washington. and the owner of the washington post that's right years. and

a six hundred million dollars let's do the math right six hundred million dollars deal with the cia buys the washington post for two hundred million dollars which looks pretty good deal pretty good to be a pretty good deal. but you know you washington post will never talk about that ok that talk about transparency i want to be able to say you know whoever larry king jesse ventura peter whatever right they want to be able to say who is required to file as a foreign agent said blah blah blah oh ok they want to be able to use that little were exactly what i'm saying let me go let me get let me go to rocky that's exactly it it's the name and shame approach here they are they want the they can fight our arguments they can fight our arguments because they know they don't have anything in their arsenal and i would say that they've gotten so used to lying to the public and getting away with it and then we just we hold fire to their feet and that's what they don't like and that's why they a target each and every one of us to destroy our names ok because they can't

destroy the truth. on another matter of concern for u.s. officials has been over the russian computer security giant caspar skill up quoting of multiple reports israeli spies tipped off the n.s.a. that russia was spying on them using antivirus software made by the russian company casper ski lab the f.b.i. is investigating the company's potential ties to the kremlin worried that its software could be used to spy on americans so the software that scanning his computer looking for sensitive files sends a message to russia saying hey here's a sensitive file and since they have some sort of a backdoor they can access it well this is there's a sequence here that we're still of not entirely sure of it essentially yes this is the idea however after months of investigation no conclusive evidence has been fun to support claims the anti virus developer has been involved in cyber spying. are you aware of any breaches to our national security that have been facilitated by

the cat's perske products so we are still working through the process to identify for that phrase several times a day working through the process and that is not sufficient of an answer so it's not conclusive at this time you don't know whether or not systems have been breached by cast brewski lab products you had we do not currently have evidence that conclusive evidence that they have been breached or two months ago homeland security ordered agencies under its umbrella to identify cast perske software on their computers and remove it on the grounds of that alleged espionage threat well that is after the moscow based company was accused of leaking classified information to the russian security services well kaspersky lab denies the allegations stressing that it has never assisted any government with cyber espionage efforts the fence on foreign affairs analyst gregory copley told us the

allegations against kaspersky likely had no grounds to begin with they're making these judgments and taking these actions based on more or less is syria rather than on detailed evidence there is no question that the allegations were prompted by an anti russian is syria in the us media and in the left wing circles of the us political machinery there is. almost a rabid it's a logical view within media and leftist circles in the united states that russia must be to blame for something so they will keep making these allegations so they'll keep making this because it does distract from other issues which which they should be paying more attention to in the united states political scene. just an update in another twist to the claims against the computer security giant wiki leaks has revealed in the past week that the cia has created

a hostile program that imitates casper software according to the whistle blowing group that uses computer viruses to send back information to the cia. moving on the lebanese president is accusing saudi arabia of quote a hostile act it concerns the lebanese prime minister who threw the riyadh under brockley resigned on saturday nothing just defies that hariri did not return after twelve days we consider it to be custody and detention violating the vienna convention and the convention of human rights. to picking apart this story first beirut based journalist martin j. is live on the program hi martin what indeed is the latest on this diplomatic row and what could result from it do you think. well at the moment we just don't know we're waiting to see in the next day or possibly couple of days with mr

hariri will actually follow through on what he saw on television just a couple of days ago that he would return to beirut very shortly in the next couple of days so a lot of a number of pundits are wondering whether that means friday or saturday or it it means a more looser interpretation of the phrase we're possibly looking at next week i think elm present allen's comments today are a sort of reaction from the lebanese president who hasn't really been able to do too much in the last few days with this this this drama which has been erupting in lebanon because most of the limelight has been stolen from him by that has been a leader hassan nasrallah so i think every now who point to whether he comes back at the weekend on sunday it is an important league meeting that may well be a milestone when he comes but before then a lot of the day so just of the way to see i think thanks for the update for beirut's based journalist martin thank you for that. you might think rescuing

a small child from living in a sewer would be seen as commendable but if it's a refugee being help the european union regards that as criminal that story next after the break.

welcome back to the program a report from a u.k. based think tank claims the european union is effectively making criminals ot of those volunteering to help refugees by classifying their humanitarian actions trafficking or smuggling well one of the volunteers mentioned in the report is a fifty year old former british soldier rob laurie he hit the headlines back in january twenty sixth seen when french authorities rounded on him for trying to help

a four year old and her father illegally cross into the u.k. now they were living in a sewer pipe of the notorious col a jungle camp. they were discovered by mr lehrer he told us the story two years ago i went over to help. in in france the notorious jungle and i was building shelters there. and i befriended a young afghan girl and her father and she used to help me for many weeks and you know amongst building shelters until one day i found out she had a family who lived literally two miles from myself and i decided to you know with with you know a little bit of thoughts of what we are i decided to try and get to her family it was quite obvious that you know i didn't do it for money it was quite obvious i didn't do it for you know any political gain or anything like that it was quite

will be she had a purely did it out of a humanitarian. desire to help this little girl the french government the three judges in the car so all this for what it was they viewed it as a stupid act by an ex soldier. well value of benevolence could have landed him five years in prison before his punishment researchers to a one thousand euro fine i call the crime of compassion by the media rob suspects the french authorities have an agenda i could only presume that agenda would be that if they were to stop aid workers are humanitarians going to hell then that would force refugees and then back off awesome away unless you've actually lived among refugees and heard some of the stories you can't really understand why they would want to come over you know two european shows refugees about these. you

know these are escaping. you know real was let's look at what's happening with governments around the world at the moment but just take donald trump's america show it donald trump is trying to return allies america with itself but with the fact that donald trump is completely out to be with any kind of knowledge of refugees around the world so if the governments think by restricting humanitarian aid workers other volunteers or charities to help on the ground there can a kid in cells and that kind of trying to sweep you know the issues under the under the cap it so to speak the situation is going to grow but we realize that you know something has to be done. the u.s. is pulling the plug on funding a program to clear on exploded munitions in cambodia the country is one of the most

littered with mines and other explosives some of which are the result of the war in neighboring vietnam when the u.s. dropped more than two million bombs on cambodia locals say washington has a moral duty to help clear the remnants which still have severe consequences for the population. they just decide to come to see my. soul. i have no work to say but you know. very disappointed this is a. moral obligation where did drop a lot of bombs in cambodia killing many people's destroyed when it was come bored in. school many facilities.

let me say that during the first phase of the us dropped bombs people were evacuated from this village the second time they drop small bombs the blue and white plastic covered bombs which burned all the bamboos that was the second place during the third phase when all of the people fled they drop bigger bombs such as between the two. that we thought she was just born with that condition as we know now it was from those chemical weapons in the past we only drank water from the small time. was not. in the arm didn't for duval i had her before i didn't really get mad until the u.s.

embassy announced that it was because of the take us then i got mine. now there is a peaceful in the southern african country of zimbabwe where the military seize power and detained a long time president robert mugabe early on wednesday there were reports of heavy gunfire and explosions being. heard in the capital tanks have been stationed at key points across after the military took over the state broadcaster the move has prompted speculation of a possible coup but the military says it's targeting corrupt individuals to run the president the army also said this mugabe who has been in power for almost forty years is safe. he will be keeping a close eye on that story plus the rest of the day's big news in the coming hours i'll see you again and just over half an hour's time this is r.t. international.

i'm not. home a. little. every single minute there's a new drug for some fabulous days like shaky likes in the they make up then they get a grant from some corrupt congressmen in america billions of dollars and the side effect is always make. me do suicide. well you know that the american flag is inducing suicide because you look at that you say oh it's a farm

a cocker see. here's what people have been saying about rejected a night with us next to the lawn awesome the only show i go out of my way to launch you know what it is that really packs a punch oh yeah it is the john oliver of party americans do the same we are apparently better than blue nothing better to see people you've never heard of love redacted the night not the president of the world bank no. wonder the woman. sent us an email. years ago i traveled across the united states exploring america's deadly love affair with a gun if a bad guy tried to get to one of my family members he would have better luck with that i don't i think they are and hurting when i buy my babies says my book was published in the year two thousand more than home for. million americans have been killed by far olds in the u.s.

side i had a thought to me as i did this is a middle school we go through drills and we put ourselves in real scenarios it was interesting to see who actually got hit. and i decided to return to the subject to track down each gun owner who i'd met and photograph those years of god i don't know they did but we are not. on the shores of the mississippi river new orleans louisiana. the city is known around the world for its jazz. the famous musician louis armstrong and sidney bishop the born here.

in treme and african-american neighborhood. the bethel church is packed this morning. if you're a. good tour all right on thirty five i was shot and killed during what appears to be a revenge hit. there fairly common in the area. the mother of the victim has already lost a relative in a shootout pete. guns kill almost one person every day within the black community is. believed to be turned over. to the victim's brother his visit since. he was murdered in downtown was of course you know i mean it's furtherest or no one was going to sit in the united states but you know. that's not support it's always

wanted a better. supporting to caribbean tradition if you must be joyous. if your own marriage turns into a celebration of. dances jazz and alcohol the company could just see this time as last year. and then all of this starts to. let this little boy like the sun. light. the light. and then spin the constant three times in honor of the neighborhood of the deceased the third district. listed

the rate has increased by thirty percent this. new orleans is one of the most dangerous cities in the united states it's also the one considered as the most joyful. its nickname is big easy. but hurricane katrina struck louisiana in august two thousand and five and it literally saw new orleans. winds over one hundred ninety mph floods over several feet. one thousand were killed. one hundred thousand were forced to leave new orleans falls into chaos.

that. kept. in the neighborhoods hit by the floods criminality exploded. especially on the eastern part of the city where murders happen on a daily basis. so simple citizens like brandon gear up to defend themselves. keep a lot of this stuff handy just in case again something crazy happens active shooter . a young millionaire sidney torres fights to increase security in the tourist. is what. those little connect to them like. you said was happening and that's.