headline stories this hour russian lawmakers voted in favor of giving moscow the power to classify new media outlets foreign it's similar to those made against r.t. in the united states in response to washington's actions the self-appointed guardians of global freedom as they usually quiet on the treatment of ortiz. reveals the volunteers attempting to help refugees crossing international borders are being treated as. we hear from one humanitarian aid worker who fell foul of the authorities. to. do it for me. out of the humanitarian. help of this little girl.

around the clock across the world this is our team international my names you know me to welcome to the program our top story this hour lawmakers in russia's lower heights of parliament have voted in favor of requiring media outlets which are funded from abroad to register as foreign agents it is in response to similar pressure placed on r.t. america in the united states and brings us up to date with the details not first of all we wouldn't be hearing this news from the russian parliament if it wasn't for the american department of justice which forced r.t. america to register as a foreign agent and the u.s. the russian government promised to fight back and we can see that it's happening but to make similar demands for foreign media and this country to register as foreign agents russia's own legislation required amendments and they have just been

approved by the russian duma and now the draft bill will be moved. on to the upper chamber of the russian parliament for a 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 foreign countries i.e. their governments international organizations or foreign organizations for an individuals as well as russian legal entities which are funded from any of the sources that i mentioned above if a media organization becomes a foreign agent whatever it publishes has to come with a disclaimer plus it has to provide the russian authorities with regular reports on their finances something that was also discussed at the same duma session was a recent buzz feed piece titled secret finding sixty russian payments to finance the election campaign of twenty sixteen but the first thing that comes up on your

mind if you're reading this headline is that it's a groundbreaking investigative report on russian meddling in the us election the article tells you about citibank money transfers intended for russian embassies abroad wow the problem is though that russia also had its parliamentary election back in september twenty sixth and there were polling stations opened at russian embassies around the world for russian citizens who couldn't vote at home and that required some money russian officials did confirm that the cash and these transfers was spent on that but to read about this in the original buzz feed article you really have to scroll down and scroll down a lot so this bit of quality investigative journalism by buzz feed or maybe not was also brought up at the duma session earlier this wednesday. we got in

touch with a number of global press freedom organizations to get their reactions to r.t. america being coerced into declaring itself a foreign agent but the response has been strangely meted out against he explains 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 rude to you by the russian government every twitter account of america where it's 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. will also have to send copies of everything that publishes to the u.s. 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 only see representative in freedom of the 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 may be next. as this is an issue in 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 iraq ali and syria canada russia iran israel turkey 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 is 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 or 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 ating web site 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 this channel the site's accuse the publishing links to russian propaganda even though it's only a tiny number compared to what drudge links to from the washington post itself here so the 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's a brutal business not even a thank you instead you are a 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 goal 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

where another matter of concern for u.s. officials has been over the russian computer security giant kaspersky lab. according to multiple reports israeli spies tipped off the n.s.a. that russia was spying on them using antivirus software made by the russian company cast last 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 not entirely sure of it is that actually yes this is the idea but here's the rub after months of investigation no conclusive evidence has been fun to support claims that the antivirus developer has been involved in cyber spying. are you aware of any breach use to our national security that have been cast brewski products so we are still working through the process to identify

for that phrase several times a day working through the process that you've so efficient are going to answer so it's not conclusive at this time you don't know whether or not systems have been breached by kids bruschi products you had we do not currently have evidence that conclusive evidence that they have been breached well two months ago homeland security ordered agencies under its umbrella to identify the software on their computers and remove it on the grounds of the alleged espionage threat well that is after the moscow based company was accused of leaking classified information to the russian secret services kaspersky lab denies the allegations stressing that it has never assisted any government with cyber espionage efforts defense foreign affairs analyst gregory couple told us the allegations against kaspersky likely had no grounds to begin with. they're making these judgments and take these actions based

on more or less is syria rather than on detail the evidence there is no question that the allegations were prompted by an anti russian styria in the us media and in the left wing circles of the us political machinery this is. almost rabid it's a logical view within media and leftist circles in the united states dead russia must be to blame for something so they'll keep making these allegations so they'll keep making this because it does distract from other issues which which they should perhaps be paying more attention to in the united states political scene. and in another twist to the claims against the computer security giant wiki leaks has revealed in the last week found the cia has created a hostile program that imitates caspar ski software according to the whistle

blowing group it uses computer viruses to send back information to the cia. now a report from a u.k. based think tank claims the european union is effectively making criminals out of those volunteering to help refugees cross borders by classifying their humanitarian actions us 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 again 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 kalai jungle camp when they were discovered by mr laurie he told us his story. years ago i went over to help in in france in 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 would i decided to try and get still her family is 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 not 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 next soldier. or the act of benevolence could have landed him five

years in prison before his punishment was for just one thousand euro fine and called the crime of compassion by the media here's rob again on the french authorities. 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 the refugees about which i've met these. you know these are escaping you know severe 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 internalize america with that is self coupled with the fact that donald trump is completely out of his depths 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 that kind of kid him selves in that kind of trying to sweep you know the issues under the under the capital so to speak the situation is going to grow where we realize that you know something has to be done in zimbabwe armed forces put the country's president under heiser rest and take over the state broadcaster will bring in all the details on more news in about ninety seconds time. chose seemed wrong. when old rules just don't hold. any belief yet to shape our disdain comes to attitude and in games from an equal betrayal.

when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. every single minute there's a new drug for some fabulous days like shaky likes and you know they make up then they get a grant from some corrupt congressmen in america billions of dollars and the side effect is always make may do stupid. me and do something to what you know but the american flag is inducing suicide because you look at that you say oh it's a farmer to conquer say.

you are back with r t international the lebanese president is accusing saudi arabia of a hostile act it concerns the lebanese prime minister who flew to the saudi capital on abruptly resigned in riyadh. 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 and hunt and look how look i'm free in thirty arabia if i wanted to leave tomorrow i would leave tomorrow all lebanese people need to know that i did resign i know it's not an ordinary way of resigning but any prime minister i know that but i did it because i wanted to send them into shock positive shock so lebanese people would realize that our country is in danger and it does seem to be strange fact after strange fact in this one trying to look into it for us is beirut based journalist martin j. . it's reading more and more every day like a really bad hollywood movie scripts where nobody really knows the ending we

received a statement in beirut which i could get a certain amount of attention that the president here michel own is losing some patience with the situation with the standoff but he suggested that he can only accept the resignation of his diary if kerry comes back to beirut and presents himself in person because of course and i'm back to sunday where the nation here was grip's by our live television interview which mr hariri gave whereby he said to the presenter that he expected to be back in beirut in a number of days for the last year while mr hariri has been prime minister in lebanon there was a great deal of pressure and expectation on him from the saudis in particular new crown prince mohammed bin salman to redress and renegotiates the power balance in the region both in lebanon and outside lebanon critical to this deal with the haass the crux of this entire to buckler is yemen now become if he comes back to lebanon

and most people suspect he will next few days he would have a lot more leverage on his side to negotiate a deal has. the racial divide in the united states is being seized upon by a group of activists who've been trolling school campuses with posters declaring it's ok to be white a move that's offending both pupils and teachers. been identified bunch of people have been plastering signs and stickers like these in neighborhoods and campuses across america claiming it's ok to be white wow one of the vice of comparing the nation is in shambles really shocked that someone like had the guts to do this because it's like we try to promote diversity so much but see in the melting pot that is america everyone is always proud of their heritage you have the african heritage studies you have the hispanic black jewish heritage months cultural

appropriation movements and so on but these people who want to publicly state that there is nothing to be ashamed of being white are hiding their faces so much for diversity hard law school will not let that happen here with well see and learn together in a community that is stronger. because of our diversity we are taking this seriously and are investigating this incident this may be part of a concerted national campaign to form a racial and political tension in our school and community but who would even come up with this crazy idea the ford chair and chat room the so-called troll kingdom these guys have been responsible for spreading trends and movements whose purpose was one thing only trolling and about two weeks ago they again initiated just that they asked their followers to spread this poster with very carefully crafted guidelines such as a no way coming in contact with the left keeping

a polite non-aggressive font and no vandalism among a few other pointers amazing now isn't it four chan created another obvious trolling complain with the purpose of exposing many people's sensitivities making them act a little crazy towards a flyer. put it out there publicly to say hey we're going to told use people and see how they react the media knows it but these two react anyway because they think that this act is so reprehensible before five letters on a regular sheet of paper is just going to destroy the whole world all separately at writer in the new york times as questioning whether it's right for his children to be friends with white people here's political commentator on funny brian logan again he blames the media for exaggerating the racial conflict in the country. well i think the racial problem is overblown and often is really that many racial problems in the united states many of the problems they people think that we face

are just pretty bad about people in the media like the guy who wrote the article in a new york times and many others most people pretty much get along there is some separation of people but they just basically along cultural lines that could be within races as well so it's not so much about this big racial division there is some racial tension but i think the media who wants to have that be the normal thing they push in some people unfortunately fall into with. things stateside america is pulling the plug on funding a program to clear wartime munitions in cambodia the country still littered with mines and other explosives after the u.s. dropped more than two million bombs there during the war with neighboring vietnam officials and on penn say they move comes as a surprise and insist washington has a moral duty to help clear the remnants which still have secure consequences for the population.

they just decide to come to see map. i have no right to say but you know this very disappointed this is a. moral obligation where did drop a lot of bombs in cambodia killing many people's destroying these come body and. how is this school many facility income order. that we cannot during the first phase of the us drug bombs people were evacuated from this village the second time they drop small bombs the blue and white plastic covered bombs which. in all the bamboos it was the second face during the third face when all of the people fled they drop big bombs such as b.

fifty two. done 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 ponds. even disco was nothing really developed in the arm didn't fool develop outer. before i didn't really get mad until the u.s. embassy announced that it was because of the take us then i got my. story still developing there are people in this southern african country of zimbabwe where the military seize power on the ten long time president robert mugabe early on wednesday there were reports of heavy gunfire and explosions being heard in the capital tanks being stationed at key points across after the military

took over the state broadcaster that move has prompted speculation of a possible coup but the military says it is targeting corrupt individuals around this and bob wayne president the army also said that mugabe who has been in power for almost forty years is safe. and live from moscow every hour of the day this is our international more program start in just a moment with the global news headlines in thirty.

they call me a useful idiot i mean you called me a useful idiot a useful idiot useful idiots go expressing my opinions on t.v. there are thousands of us doing it behind his record is the same strategy we attack persons instead of talking about what's next you'll ban me from getting this close to the white house i'm with a group code pink why not ban the color pink one hour stretch i should be sent to the town because i'm going to try to break me on the wheel but what a long time that this will come since you don't scare me and i'll continue to voice my opinion i'll continue to speak out in good company i'm in good company you going

with me you want to do this because we are free thinkers. corning to the department of justice r t the channel you're watching now is an agent of before and even hostile power all the while the d.o.j. refuses to explain why this is the case critics warn r.t. is a test case for a wider campaign of media suppression. i . this is boom bust broadcast around the world from washington d.c. i'm bart chilton filling in for lindsay friends coming up we're going to talk climate change and the paris party that u.s.

president donald trump has not been invited to attend this one with his eiffel tower dinner pel president and french boy wonder emanuel mccrone plus over one hundred other world leaders that it's been ten days since saudi government officials and business leaders were thrown into jail related to corruption charges what are the current ramifications for geopolitics and oil will begin to do it plus president donald trump is back from his whirlwind asia trip what did he actually accomplish we'll find out but before we get to those stories let's go to boom bust bianca sheedy for some stories and today's financial and business headlines bianca a notable probe that leader in the u.k. is under fire for telling investors to take their money out of britain and pay john redwood penned a column in the financial times titled time to look further afield as u.k. economy hits the brakes and he wrote it is strange to watch the u.k. authorities out of step with the rest of the world all central banks in japan the

euro area and the u.s. are all pressing the pedal to the metal to get faster growth the bank of england has been gripped by a fashionable british pessimism the calm received backlash from from some lawmakers like labor's peter dowd who said redwoods comments show his apoc receipt after voting to leave the e.u. . standard and poor's has declared that venezuela is in default after missing two interest payments the ratings agency made the announcement after the government failed to pay two hundred million dollars and coupon payments for global bonds due in two thousand and nineteen and two thousand and twenty four it also followed a meeting in caracas that ended with bondholders having little idea if at all and how it could be avoided but if you ask venezuela the talk went well in a statement on monday night the government said the process of refinancing venezuela's foreign debt began with resoundingly success the start of this refinancing of our debt ratifies our full intention to comply as we have always

done with all our obligations leaders in lebanon are fearing the crisis if the country doesn't abide by demands from saudi arabia the concerns follow lebanon's prime lebanon's prime minister stepping down earlier in november and what was widely seen as a result of pressure from the saudi government on sunday he warned of possible sanctions if the main political power in levanon doesn't stop meddling in conflicts like the yemen civil war an estimated four hundred thousand lebanese people work in the gulf region which brings nearly seventy eight billion dollars a year in remittances back to lebanon and therefore any sort of blockade is imposed lebanon's economy could be in big trouble and bankers think it could create a situation much worse than cathars and for a quick markets update the new york stock exchange closed down thirty points or twenty three for zero nine on crude oil brant crude closed down to sixty one ninety nine while west texas intermediate finished at fifty.