who speaks before thinking tweets before thinking you know one would hope that the people on the receiving end of these things would take them with a grain of salt because. you know trump may say those things but he can't act on them because he's got a whole bureaucracy behind him that doesn't agree with them so. it's very destabilizing in and i think it's undermining us ability to negotiate solutions to problems so whatever policy don't trump is concocting stirring trouble on twitter is something that is going to stay he goes down of. yeah as we heard there of all the world's leaders north korea's kim jong un has perhaps being criticized the most and donald trump's tweets after the isolated country's leader issued a new year's day nuclear warning to washington the u.s. president was keen to hit by. the entire u.s.

mainland is within the range of zero nuclear strike and the button is always on the table in my office space you clearly know that this is certainly not a threat but rather a reality. well someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that i too have a nuclear bomb but it's a much bigger and more powerful woman his and my but this is certainly not anything to joke about but i think the situation despite the confrontational rhetoric has been step ally's somewhat there's a recognition that there is a stalemate rex tillerson a few weeks ago did indicate the possibility of negotiations even without preconditions donal's from probably believe that this kind of talk remains popular with his right wing supporters certainly donald from at this state does not believe that he is ready to make the first small so perhaps the two careers may

make the first move kim jong un has now reopened a cross border communications link with south korea in what's being seen as a significant diplomatic breakthrough but the standoff between the u.s. and north korea looks set to continue in twenty eight days after what's already been twelve months of personal attacks and vicious threats from both sides. era of strategic patience. with the north korean regime has failed. what korea best not make it what threats to the united states. they will be met with fire and fury. the u.s. neglects the international community's will establish peace on the korean peninsula behave like children fighting each other in kindergartens and nobody can stop them . and we can't have been

out there shooting rockets all over the place we will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself no one can prompt him self is on a suicide mission. oh yeah. we need the pools we need dialogue. is a sick puppy. living on our french president. has valued to take the fight against fake news to the next level in twenty eight dana during a media conference he also hinted that new regulations against media influenced by foreign states. you look at how it was of the regulator which will be redesigned in twenty eighteen will be increased to fight against any attempt to destabilization

by television controlled or influenced by foreign states. in whedon's the speech the french president wasn't specific about which countries could be influencing french media however r.t. and sputnik have already been in macross firing line he denied both accreditation during his presidential campaign later explaining the move by labeling this channel on sputnik as propaganda. is russia today and have been influential outlets that have several times spoken mistruths about me and my complaint that's why they were not invited to my headquarters all media including russian had access to my campaign russia today and sputnik have not behaved as media outlets and journalists but as organs of influence and false propaganda that at the end of twenty seventeen this channel bronze star to the french speaking world with the launch of our newest station r.t. fronts on their immediately calls quite the stir several french public figures

published an open letter calling for r.t.e. france's license to be revoked they supported their claims by saying r.t. has repeatedly face various allegations from the u.s. and different european countries earlier we spoke with a political commentator who said that mccrone should be kerf alive by taking legal measures. i think what he is now trying to do is to change the french civil code in order to prevent what he sees as a quote him from his press conference today i threat to democratic life of the nation he clearly sees r.t. in sputnik was part of that but i think that he also wants to change the narrative of the conversation to make this more about the use the better what he calls false news fake news i think you need tread very carefully i think it's a very thin line between exercising new rules that protect. people's rights nor have their views challenged by untruths and actually clamping down on freedom of expression so he could find himself acting unconstitutionally if you're not careful

. donald trump ours publicly lashed out his former advisor steve down in what he reportedly revealed to the author of an upcoming tell all book on trump's presidency in a statement issued by the us president he didn't mince words saying that bannon had lost his mind only work for his own interests and was never part of trump space as the palin left the white house in august a year after joining trump's election team mate her serving his strategic advisor mainstream media suggest palin was a pivotal figure in the president's or the reality is steve bannon was involved in many meetings the president signed off on including steve bannon is a member of the national security council president referred to bat in this was shortly before his firing as mr ban and i will tell you that that raised some have goals. we talked to legal and media analysts leinil who believes trump relishes the opportunity to disrupt the mainstream media has no rights if. there's

a simple rule if you don't go after trump he doesn't bother you go after him in any way insult him criticize him take him to task and he's on you with a death grip you've never seen does anybody think that anybody in the drug administration cares one i ota about this i mean it's what it does is it throws the mainstream media the washington press corps and the mainstream media news troops and throws them into disarray which trump thrives on and after he's done with bannan he's going to say something about france or italy or or some his neighbor has someone this is his pattern does anybody not pay attention trump for arrives on this he loves this well with his first

year in office drawing to a close the u.s. president has been talking up his economic record in tobago of trump style he can now make miracle created more than two million jobs unemployment is under seventeen year low the stock market is at an all time high fantastic for the economy our economy has already surged to three percent growth unemployment is at a seventeen year low liberated the american economy and our economy is doing well. and one man who doesn't share president trumps optimism is former u.s. congressman ron paul he told us that the growth in the u.s. economy has principally benefited those already out the top. if you're in the stock market no wealthy person here doing quite well but what we're forgetting here when we listen to this rhetoric of all this optimism is that there's a large segment of our population that's haven't a difficult time where there is prosperity and more jobs it depends on death yes an

individual can feel very good if they have a line of credit to the bank but eventually that line of credit runs out we in this country benefit because we have the reserve currency of the world we can run up a lot of debt and we can spend a lot of money and even with that we've had a great deal of difficulty is last eight years trying to get out of the recession now i see everything we do is a big bubble and almost we have dealt with in these last eight years have just created a huge bubble and everything is in excess whether it's our military budget our overseas gage friends whether it's the welfare state and that bubble will come to an end we're going to have a sudden cataclysmic and which is sort of what happened to the soviet system it's not going to be identical and our states aren't probably going to break up but i do sincerely believe that we will no longer be able to afford our empire around the world. yemen suffered its first deadlier strike of twenty eight

years today with more than twenty killed in the port city of odessa just a week previously three of the world's biggest humanitarian agencies joined together to highlight that yemen has passed the grim milestone of injuring more than a thousand days of war expanding about three quarters of the yemeni population needs humanitarian aid another run two thirds are deprived of food water and proper sanitation. i am poor i have no tender i can live i suffer from the cold. i was given a place to sleep when some people to warm up on hot days mislead right on the

sidewalk. but there is no how that comes very rarely wants to gear maybe but now we have no help our blanket on tattered fifteen people and their sleeping not. for syria under rock twenty eighteen means emerging from the shadows of eyes old brutal rule a few families were left on scarred by what they went through rock as the it has the story now of two young syrian girl struggling to survive after being left alone in the robert city of tourists or. meet sally she's five maybe six perhaps seven she doesn't know and the smog hits the streets.

surviving isis's see each of their disorder was no mean feat so many perished as a result of starvation sickness violence. if. sally is a survivor she has a sister and brother were abandoned by their parents years ago they divorced and left the children to fend for themselves. oh. you. don't want to learn that she spends her days begging stealing playing and surviving no easy lot for them in this life former neighbors who knew their family have taken pity on the kids and have looked out for them but it's not easy. i wanted to take her in but she kept escaping that i sent people to look for her but she never stays in one

place long show escapes. there. sally's sister all she has left since her brother died of starvation we found the older girl at the end of this gloomy bullet riddled cargill is a room with broken windows in it leaves a young girl with only flies bloodstain mattresses for company. about a month ago sagitta who doesn't remember her age was brought in with a head injury when she fell she damaged an implant that siphons away the fluid different people tell different versions some say the full was accidental others

attempted suicide but i'll but i but if fluids keep building and there will be consequences she will lose her sight hearing and the ability to swallow much of the pressure on her brain was graham. in hospital i don't know she'll find no cure in dead as order as we were filming a nice a shell landed just a few hundred meters away sagitta needs to get to damascus to survive but lacking identification relatives and trapped in a war zone it's difficult to see how that's possible. sagitta doesn't get many visitors but there is one little person who always makes a smile. if left alone sagitta begins to scream and cry she needs people there is

cool is for optimism. sidesteps suffering has touched a cool that action is being taken to get the girls out of bed as sought but for now all they really have aside from promises and p.t. use each other or i guess do you see from that is on syria in fact we have some positive news on young since that report was filed in october she made it to the mosque artie's local source informed us she underwent surgery on a hospital there. is bach endure is a war with her sister we can only hope twenty eight thousand brings them a brighter future. laughs all our stories for now sean thomas is here with the news affecting your world again in just over thirty minutes time or our t.v. programs they'll begin in just a moment goodbye from me for no. one

else seemed wrong. why don't we all just don't call. me. yet to say proud disdain comes to educate and engage with equals betrayal. when something find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. los angeles the city of luxury and free but also an alarming number of people living in the streets. simple fact in l.a. use there's just not enough shelter even if people on the streets right now decided

to come in there's nowhere to come in it's been a struggle. this man found his own response to the problem and constructed dozens of tiny homes for people in need of shelter when you have nothing in order to go. you know having something like this may as well be a castle but do the authorities accept such. tiny house on a city parking space is not a solution. someone monitoring the site otherwise it will be a free for all there are a better alternative to end the homelessness crisis. when you don't. see the teachers what. they could. what they need not through. let alone.

said. no that's a. few speak french. yes. let's send. them to. it's the cradle of jazz. we have. to close this jazz feel. the city of climatic. alligators. on the lose of poverty and crime by the. close. of street racing in the face of the night this

is new orleans. the best place in the world. alone to welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle bitcoin for some it's the perfect marriage of technology and finance for others it's a get rich scheme though no one can deny its market value was soaring and becoming an attractive alternative to the current global banking system is bitcoin

revolutionizing the world. cross talking bitcoin i'm joined by my guest firesign in new york he is a fund manager and author of the book planet ponzi in atlantic we have jeffrey tucker he is director of content for the foundation for economic education and in cambridge we crossed garrick heilman he is a research fellow at the university of cambridge all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want i always appreciated gary let me go to you first in cambridge explain what is going on with bitcoin i mean i'm of the age and i used to work in finance i can remember the dot. com bubble and then it's melt down here and not being very well versed in bitcoin what is going on here is this just speculation or is this the new shiny radiant

future go ahead in cambridge. i think i think a little bit of both to be honest and certainly we've seen you know some aspects of this story before as you mentioned you know after the dot com bubble exploded in two thousand two thousand and one there were a number of winners that emerged from that area and a number of new companies that were born after that have done quite well you know big has already been declared dead several times in two thousand and eleven wired wrote an article saying the rise and fall of a coin we saw the crash in two thousand and fourteen yet it keeps coming back so wouldn't surprise me if we have another crash maybe a few more in front of us but it does seem that there is something important happening here with regards to the future of finance the future of money yeah well at least for a small number of people who become at least i guess technically in the cloud somewhere fabulously rich it's really an amazing story jeffrey i mean kara called this i think in an article a minor miracle is that it would you use the word miracle here let me go to jeffrey in atlantic. i read that article and i of i appreciate that term actually it kind

of is nobody ever thought anything like this was possible before two thousand and eight before the white paper of two of october two thousand and eight we didn't really have the means to do what the block chain does today just for background to block changes the real underlying technology of the coin in the real reason for its value going to just an expression of that logical value. allows us to do something we've always wanted to do with something actual but never had the ability to do it thanks to these distributed networks and cryptography we can do it now you know mitigates against jeffrey kind of put it in the same cli for me because you know i was in finance for a number of years and there's always you know what's it backed up by you know you know what are the assets you know you know you always look at that and then but what jeffrey just said there kind of explains it it's the technology is the safety that's what backing it up here do you buy that because you know you can say this is a scheme it's a get rich but i mean there's something to it and people are making money here and

you have to makes everyone interested to get involved in it if you have the means go go ahead mitch how do you explain it all. well i mean we need perspective i think bitcoin has come about in a time where the central banks reckless central banks around the world has distorted every market and too much credit too much debt and too much leverage have created instability in the financial markets so we need to add perspective so we need to look at risk versus reward with bitcoin and in the bitcoin trade so bitcoin has gigantic volatility you're seeing thirty percent moves either way in a day or forty percent moves for so it's not for the faint of heart so you know my perspective from an investor and being in the banking community internationally for thirty eight years you look at the iconic figures like jamie diamond who said it's a ponzi scheme and it's going to zero these are totally wrong but the establishment banks and the way that the fractional banking system works people want to escape from that people want to escape from the establishment but what we've got going on

here just to be clear is we've got inflation in every asset class stocks are trading at stratospheric valuations apple has a market cap approaching eclipsing one trillion dollars facebook at six hundred billion so if you look yesterday a couple sorry if you look. recently you saw a pullback in the nasdaq the fang stocks facebook apple and all the technology issues they lost sixty eight billion dollars in market cap in a day where the market cap of bitcoin is what around one hundred sixty billion dollars so on a relative basis it's a much smaller move and it's a very emerging market so i think we've got to look at where we are in this in alternative asset class i mean you're looking at are a leonardo da vinci painting trade that run one hundred fifty million dollars so i mean we need to put it into the proper historical perspective now stocks are way overvalued so are bonds and so is property so people are looking to get out of the

dollar system and i happen to agree you need to diversify but i think you should also get. some precious metals gold and silver which have been currencies for some hours and years i mean dollar is backed by fundamentally not nothing ok let me go back to cambridge carol i mean there's a lot of people are saying that. large investors are getting involved in trysted in bitcoin is that distorting the price because they have the deep pockets that this price level to get into the market is there something behind out there that you know that because i having been in finance i mean this is this is speculation ok i mean that people are not buying on facts or buying on speculation right now go ahead in cambridge. right i think certainly the hedge funds the big whales that are coming in the billion the billionaires we read about you know are certainly influencing the price direction but i think there's still a lot of money on the sidelines i was at a hedge fund conference recently and less than twenty percent of of the funds in

the room there are some pretty big funds in the room have taken a step into this space and i think the ones that have a lot of them have done so as individuals rather than putting their funds in because you know it's still very difficult to short yep there's major counterparty risk a lot of the exchanges cryptocurrency exchanges will do things like reveal their financials or audited financials to fund so things that you know hedge funds are used to having in typical markets they trade in are not in place yet here but they're coming if see i mean nasdaq do come into the market with futures platforms you know if things like e.t.s. and you know other things roll out bring more regulation to the space then i think you will see even more hedge funds come in the price you know could go either way frankly i think the investment playing field has been a bit lopsided in favor of the bowls and that could level and a lot of the hedge fund guys are passionate about crypto and frankly they would probably i think from a psychological perspective prefer to make money crashes on the way down the well

that would certainly help them rationalize their lateness to the bartunek you know market you know jeopardy is very interesting is that it's i think one of the interesting phenomena about bitcoin is that it's a lock of regulation and going back what mitch had to say here and we have to remember this phenomenon came into being after the financial crisis crisis of two thousand and eight which the banks were responsible for and so it's an element of that here is because that the freedom of here but the go ahead jump in go ahead . yeah you know this certainly is the i think of the success of big time is and part attributable to the fact that it has not been managed from the center is not been regulated and that allows a lot of innovation and for people to try out things you know you want to talk about market caps you can talk about one hundred fifty billion for a big climb but really you have to look at the whole class of crypto assets right now and you're looking at last i checked about three hundred fifty billion once you

include all the various tokenized block chan's that are out there all the various the ferry m applications the various all coins and we're just beginning to see things we're going to see things coming up within the next year like these lightning networks that are going to be used for small transactions that are going to fix the prevailing problems that exist in decline which is that the networks are vastly clogged right now and is very expensive to send and receive. it's going so hard so fast as almost become unusable just by itself for regular small transactions that. are looking for things like oh yeah that's the reason why i never really got into it because it's not easy to move around lease i'm not adept at doing those kind of things or you know mitch another the other people are saying that this whole thing with a big going it's really just an investment it's not really. a mechanism to buy and sell it is to park your money somewhere and leave it there because you don't trust

the banks i mean it for it to be really universal you have to be able to be able to use your wallet as they call it you know and buy things and sell things it's not that easy to do it's not widely accepted to the many more innovative people do say they accept the go ahead midge. it's part of you know it's part of a diversification strategy where you'd have some big going to just sit on it not worry about what your basis was and whatever the losses are you're going to eat the losses and if you get a profit out of it fine but you know it when you have that much volatility you know i disagree that the big hedge funds will get involved in this when you have a thirty percent volatility swing each direction so from peak to trough and back up again down and up again i mean no investor wants to tolerate that kind of volatility and how can you manage that kind of volatility becomes very difficult so are the hedge funds and the banks going to jump in head first up at these levels probably not if we get a more bit a bit more stability into these markets you'll see more investment but also from

that risk reward perspective you've also got to keep in mind that this is a non regulated market that's the attractiveness from people but governments have overreach like we're seeing in the media right now the deep state runs america they're trying to rewrite history here with these statue wars and that's always a dangerous time so if too many people get on the bitcoin train and get on the crypto train the government could come in one day and say it's illegal in this country we're cracking down on everybody because right now when you open up an account they they demand the k.-y. see know your customer information and they they will when it becomes bigger they will try to regulate it and they will try to control it it's difficult for the government to let anything come out of it's you know come out of its grasp the federal reserve prints willy nilly trillions and trillions of dollars since we went off the gold standard backed by nothing now that this is a ponzi scheme the government that's what my book is about the government debt.