our first i was puzzled by the admission of michael that actually i'm going to quote him. certain segments of this. presidency in this book were false and there to make up their own minds well that's not a term that's not journalism markedly reaction to i don't want to waste a lot of time and gossip yeah well he specifically said that a lot of what he says in the book quotations and so on contradicts each other and that some of the people were flat out lying to him. and that in some areas he's going to let the readers decide what is true in other areas he's going to decide on a narrative that he believes and this guy is a charlatan he's a flim flam man he's he's he's selling scandal to an audience a resistance liberal media audience they want to believe it's like fox more i want

to believe now this is a review of one of his earlier books in the new republic hardly you know a center left magazine much to the annoyance of wolf's critics the scenes of his columns aren't recreated so much as created springing from wall so magination rather throw from actual knowledge of events even wolf acknowledges that conventional reporting isn't his bag but rather his absorbs the atmosphere and gossip surrounding him a cocktail parties on the street and especially during those long lunches at michaels he's around town enough to have those insights to spark people to come across pieces of information he also has a talent for making the most of even the briefest encounters his great gift is the appearance of intimate access i think we got this we got the flavor of the reactions to the book and the excerpt that people are talking about i think is we're also really in. things that maybe what is different in this year we started

last year when everyone is an expert on all things related to russia which virtually none of them are experts they hardly learned anything about russia through the course of two thousand and seventeen but in two thousand and eighteen is now the mainstream media they're all psychologists ok that they can judge the the mental health of the president of the united states again the rushes scandal story is fizzling out we'll talk about that later in the program and now i know it's the president's mental health that's the new story i think there are of course questions some bold dramas behavior even though i think that the fact that he had p.p. and b. this will be on the good side of his presidency as well as the fact that skeptics admit that he did more than a factor and drops back to the united states than the last five presidents would have to admit it but you know you're talking about facts. this is the media doesn't

talk about this is what the problem is it was here is it that we mark this is what i'm getting at here is that they don't want to look at facts they want to look they want their narrative to be prevalent and they reinforce it twenty four seven this is the time once again for the time honored tradition of american partisan political dysfunction where the side that lost the election starts accusing the side that won the election be that the president being that the people that elected him of being crazy is there's nothing you know you know it's every president since nixon nixon for carter reagan bush clinton they have all had their questions their sanity their mental health questions in the mainstream media but to this degree it has never happened and here's the thing and i think what's really interesting here in a much broader sense. is that this whole idea of the loyal opposition is

disappearing it's disappearing in the neo liberal world and that is the a huge threat to the system because if i dislike you then you're you know you lack morality so it's not that we disagree is that you're evil and this is you know having a loyal opposition is the key the foundation to political stability in the west it has been for. well that's disappearance degree dish no institutions their arm story it's a destruction of democracy because i remember very well despite all of the differences between say bush sr and clinton when clinton won the election bush said no we will all stand behind the president and that was normal but then somehow he and i can't even imagine a bomb of saying that and when he said something similar in the first three or four days after the election everyone understood he's going to say different thinks it

will lead to. the election to inauguration the obama administration did everything in their power to trip up the incoming president let's change gears talk about north korea an interesting. set of events occurring here in the north in the south are going to start some kind of engagement here it looks like the russian chinese plan for a freeze for free is the north koreans would hope their program if the united states and south korea would stop maneuvers in the snow so did trump win this one or is he being outwitted go ahead i think he's just being ignored it maneuvered around the north korean government has what it wants it now has a nuclear deterrent which the u.s. has given every indication that despite all the rhetoric and bluster coming out of the white house the defense secretary and trump's tweets of course that it is not willing to sacrifice millions of south koreans to prevent north korea from having a new. to turn so. now north korea and south korea are now actually starting

to sit down and talk directly to each other rather than the hub and spoke type relationship or foreign policy u.s. would prefer that south korea only do what it says it with regards to north korea one of the interesting things or demon is that you know you won't get this in mainstream media but the south koreans are reminding everyone that they are a sovereign state and they have the right to determine therefore i think they're reminding themselves absolutely who would you know if you look at western media coverage in the politicos in washington they're quite bewildered by this because it's the south koreans taking the initiative oh my goodness they have historical agency new that's true but how did the whole story begin south koreans just indicated that they had the letter they had a message from north koreans suggesting to reestablish connection you know fax connection at a twenty connection so basically the south koreans did what the north koreans asked

them maybe you can still do they started talking and they at least checked the fax machine and that already made things so well i would bet that no north korean athletes north korean team may go to chance for that in big games unfortunately the russian olympic team will not be allowed to do that they chose you how absurd the more than world has become but if you look at the history of the program i think the south korean story is very important it's very important what you mentioned south korea was allowed to become rich in the seventy's and eighty's by the united states as a deterrent against north korea against china against the soviet union. no new country itself to south korea where a lot to become reach even when they became said to wired some of them they don't really enjoy remember trading relations with the united states you get the timing the deal is a car arrives and do it even if it costs them but that's about all that what is really interesting richard. you know i mentioned then the russian chinese idea and

then you have a south korean you have north korea if this is what it's going back to what it should have been a regional problem resolved by the countries in the region not an outsider determining what south korea's foreign policy and defense has in the would be should be if you point out that both russia and show you know both have good relations with both of these countries more or less right and that all four of these countries stand to benefit primarily economically from improved relations between north and south korea russia would like to supply energy to south korea they want a transport corridor through north korea providing south korea access directly through russia to your beautiful your markets there is every potential here if they manage to push the u.s. with its big big button out of the way. that there could be

a real breakthrough you know we have to start with baby steps of course in relations between north and south korea brokered by russia and china which both stand to benefit from reunification oh and eventually your feelings are unlike when you look at the four players here what's being initiated and we've seen you know false starts before but everybody in the four countries they're basically going to get everything they want well and that's really quite remarkable because it's done through diplomacy well we've had a similar story with syria how timidly who is now resolving the problem why is the fighting dined little by little iran russia. and two in essex eleven ok so the country is that close to syria that have an interest in syria been peaceful there of course much more capable of bringing peace to that region then the outside i think solely to ukrainians will. want to see that

there's a little bit of thing about it was it a really positive that short break we'll continue our discussion on stories in the new year state with our team. all see we have a great team we need to strengthen before the freefall world cold and you're better than a legend to keep it so it's at the back. in one thousand nine hundred two that must qualify for the european championships at the very last moment no one believed in us but we won and i'm hoping to bring some of that waiting spirit to the r.c.t. . recently i've had a lot of practice so i can guard see that peter schmeichel will be on the best fall since my last will call on that story as well as three. thousand zero zero zero

zero hitter here i called russia. by strife. left left left more or less ok stuff that's really good that. everybody i'm stephen ball. task hollywood guy will suspect every proud american first of all i'm just george bush in honor of the news story this is my buddy max famous financial guru and we're just a little bit different i'm not. going to run no one knows up with all the drama happening in our country i'm shooting the road have some fun meet everyday americans. and hopefully start to bridge that gap this is the great american to. me. in the heart of the

swiss alps this is a place probably more secretive than the pentagon more mysterious than the cia and better guarded than for knox ellis was customs are here permanently on the site is controlled by them and they impose the opening times. opposite it is from his office the procedures in place of the strictest in all europe masterpieces by artists like pecans oh and modigliani i kept boards and sold inside this warehouse that's where the report comes in it covers up deals which are naturally discreet commercially discreet felt but also discreet because they concern fraud. some of those paintings are linked to dark secrets nobody knows how many of these secrets a kept inside the geneva freeport system you'll never obtain an inventory of all the works in the freeport who knows how many there are three hundred three thousand three hundred thousand is it

a matter of confidentiality only is it the world's black box of the art business. welcome back to crossfire all things considered i'm peter lavelle to remind you we're discussing stories in the new year. ok gentlemen let's move on to the united nations and iran and we know that the at the end of two thousand and seventeen in the beginning part of this year when there were a number of protests in iran and we saw a flurry of particularly. congressional officials and course the media. excited about the possibility of giving freedom to the iranian people they didn't

really understand the story and these were economic protests and when push came to shove there were a lot more pro-government protesters going out and supporting of the government here then you had the humiliation of the united states again in the security council when most of the permanent members saying what are we doing here why are we here it's an internal problem for iran to resolve the united states again standing completely alone of course the iranians were claiming there's some kind of colored revolution that we're it was in the works we've seen this play book before but it's very interesting the isolation of the united states when it can't comes to around this this is a complete fail for washington and the trump administration particularly nikki haley she has no friends there are apparently and there is a political scientist in the united states michael brown that he basically rolled on this we leave from obsession to obsession from russia china iran north korea.

across but iran is the longest obsession that has been going on for thirty eight here. so when you are obsessed about something you. judge. it what's going on that iran is a complicated country there are different groups basically and some of these groups are demanding things which are quite contrary to the state's want you know that there are conservatives in the run who want to go and to be more conservative than it is now and the figures twelve people killed during the protests there were days when the united states by its drone attacks killed more people because the reality of just thinking here mark is that when they were vents going on in ferguson there wasn't no one in the with the russians the chinese or the french or the british they didn't call for the united nations security council to convene because there were riots inside the united states but the united states seems to think that each

it has the moral responsibility to protect protesters in iran when they don't even protect their own people at home that's exactly what the russian representative to the united nations and the united nations chastised nikki haley about should be should that investigate further should and should we invested by investigate occupy wall street or these matters for internet and what happened with that shooting in las vegas i'd like to know something about that maybe the u.n. can help us find out what happened. and i think would be a good idea. these protests are completely there's hasn't been a story since russia gate well i mean there are so many of them stories actually that the press has gotten so wrong and the press was baiting the press the commentary at the foreign policy blog in the u.s. we're babying as one regime change regime change freedom i mean the iranians of course if they want to sanction is to. force the uranian people to change the regime and now they're saying that they want to help the people of iran that is

completely contradictory to the rebbe know what they said in the past i'm old enough to remember john mccain just a few years ago singing. bomb bomb iran so tell me again how much the u.s. figures in the in the u.s. government care about the people of iraq and their freedom but these protests actually started. outside of tehran this wasn't the green protest together this is an urban middle class these are working class poor in small cities in iran that were angry about subsidies and benefits being removed by the popular moderate prime minister just recently reelected in a landslide rouhani and. there is some indication that they actually have the support of conservatives within the government because this is seen as a neo liberal move as they please in this way and the conservatives are more economically left but some people say these protests tests were more than hijacked

by violent armed rioters others say that there was actually some small parallel riots going on that were trying to do under the cover of the protests but the government actually reacted fairly moderately and rouhani said the people have a right to protest as long as they're peaceful i don't think this was the reaction that the u.s. wanted and i think they of course they had their color revolution figure in the game and any suggestion that they were involved at some level in these riots is absurd when it does say it is the iran is on the agenda it's on the minute you heard. the deep state in their. colleagues in in israel they think that they definitely want to see if they don't make a secret out that would and of course you would just imagine what would happen if you reacted on in the same way i think these reports in russia that. breach of human rights or they should be investigated these reports would be looked up on you

know under a microscope and. this how did they try to influence the political process and that was actually part of the city. anger that the dared to cover occupy and we did a great job ferguson i'm very proud of our team all right let's change gears here. the russia gate still kind of moves along though its parameters are or are thinning . here but one story that stays with us and i think we should have been at the very center of it is the fusion g.p.s. christopher dossier we have republican congressional officials coming out saying they want an investigation of this parallel we have a new investigations into the clinton foundation three of them possibly for here so both are fine have a life of their own mark here but i'm really really think this fusion g.p.s. thing is the key to it this is the this is the glue that has the entire russia gate conspiracy theory how is it pulls it all together there's

a big broad legal pushback that's the story at the beginning of this year against russia gate. metaphor is suing the f.b.i. special investigator mueller for stepping outside the boundaries of anything to do with the election trump russia gate and going back through his tax records from from more than a decade ago so he's calling for judicial review of the powers that mueller has we have the clinton foundation is now being investigated for corruption for taking the songs of money from saudi arabia and other gulf countries while the u.s. was arming these countries to the hilt we have this investigations are being called for into both krista first steal this this former british spook for hire that was hired by the d.n.c.

and then later essential picked up by the f.b.i. if they were at least paying his expenses. two to create opposition research in english really interesting how the new york times gave. fusion g.p.s. a little bit of. space to redeem themselves in the article in january second tier of the republican speak investigation by glenn simpson and peter i think that's how you pronounce his name and here they say. in the years since the publication of the so-called steele dossier the collection of intelligence reports we commissioned about donald trump's ties to russia this is a fabrication this is fake this is fake it wasn't a collection of intelligence reports that is this is opposition research completely different ok and they're trying to pass it off as being the same thing and you have the failing new york times carrying water profusion g.p.s.

this is a complete scam on many different well the new terms have been so shameless in its campaign against trump for over a year but you know i think two years is just it's impossible to read them because out of nine if they get in my meal you know or. eight i think. trump is bad but i think there is an interesting point here i think it's comical when the same time tragic poor mind of what they would have made of what it wanted to make pro-american president or the ukraine he wanted the young polish to turn against drugs when it comes to power and for their you know they did a really rewarding to. actually now. matter for this so now he is suing he is going to war. ok i don't usually virtue in politics metaphor i was making a lot of money and so through the protest of brothers and everybody else ok it's

all about that it's all about influence in money so i you know making him into a pro-american press. and ok maybe kind of how much you would get paid going i have to disagree with you but i have no problem with the new york times taking out hit piece after hit be something i don't drop because there is a lot of domestic policies environmental concerns that he frankly deserves it on but what i do have a problem with is them pursuing against all reason all evidence this russia gates scandal as the because you were popular. within australia and spewed garbage to make it. look and porton year later there is no evidence of collusion there isn't even any more evidence that russia actually did anything to hack or interfere with the election and still this witch hunt goes on they keep generating more smoke more smoke they're hoping to carry this whole

partisan. mccarthyite of fear into right into the midterm elections to give them both energy and then if they manage to take back both houses jump right into partisan political impeachment oh my goodness we've got what we've got eleven months to wait a minute just don't expect any actual evidence of collusion but i mean they have already had over a year. of spinning their wheels i mean it's quite amazing that this story continues to go on without any basis in fact go ahead you before we're going to grow well i think it's not just that story you just repeat a certain assertion and then people finally will start believing it it was the same with this so-called mcclaren report that leads using drugs no proof whatsoever not a shred of evidence but since the russians did not treat you it as the head of their international committee no said it must be true in the same way no shred of

evidence of russian collusion in the election but since the russians did not present evidence denying it. must be true so negative negative negative evidence against proving a negative position is really saying it is the trivial import ada really it's that is a really good good reflection on the media you're ok they do what they do you have to do is you you're guilty and you have to prove your innocence so exactly ok gentlemen that's all we have time for many thanks to my guests here in moscow and thanks to our viewers for watching us here in r.t. this is the end of our broadcast segment stay with us for the extended version on our you tube channel see you next time remember. i had a great education a good job and a family that loved me. i never had to worry about how i would eat somewhere i

would sleep. i'm facing christmas alone out on the streets of london. well you know . i cut the glory like. you know the snow is still give up food for the hope. that you don't really feel like a human being you know. and then. the guy just came over to me saw me and gave me a job in this book. in two thousand and sixteen the panama papers shocked the world with the tax haven secrets two trillion united states dollars passed through most of conseco in the

amount of time that we had that then in the panama papers exposure that's what shows something a lot of money it really is. journalism it's a fact of journalism looking at things that people want to keep secret and asking why would they want to keep these things secret. millions of. documents were examined. the only people which basically have tried to get an advantage out of this sort of newspaper. and probably other politician which were attacking other politicians the media were quick to find targets such as the kings of morocco and saudi arabia the president of argentina several prime ministers. and russian president vladimir putin of course. oh my god i've had so i have sued so many newspapers for defamation some

things don't just happen by chance it was very striking there were no merits of single special book oh lots of people from the brics countries specially brazil russia and china that this special project reveals what was missed in the media coverage. of the panama chronicles. at that your sudden passing i've only just learnt you worry yourself in taking your last bang turn. here at us we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry for the economic so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on. but then my feeling started to change you talked about more like it was icky still some more fun to view those that didn't like to question our arc and i secretly

promised to never be like it said one does not leave a funeral the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with this one different speech because there are no other takers. to blame that mainstream media has met its maker. power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and the shell of the match is over their heads up saudi arabia these days is as corrupt as the day is long and he's just stealing money from folks and with us try to be at it but america is like that's reform meanwhile ok already there actually are in the process of reform but that somehow evil. that. the.

north and south korea of the hold the first formal talks in two years so often don't trump claimed his top salt some strong yet made to me it's impossible. israeli prime minister faces mass protests over mounting corruption allegations with thousands again marching in the streets of tel aviv and. also in the headlines new coalition soldiers are in full swing in germany i'm going to look at attempts to end what some see as the country's worst political crisis in years.