u.s. attorney general jeff sessions has announced a hunt for the tens of thousands of missing text messages sent by f.b.i. employees they were sent at the height of the agency's probe into the alleged russian meddling in the u.s. presidential election some of the exchanges that were seen raises serious questions about bias within the f.b.i. from washington his senior can. months of text messages between two f.b.i. staffers linked to the trump and russia probe have gone missing one of the agency's peter struck he oversaw the investigation into alleged russian interference now he was also part of robert muller's team that was looking into suppose the pollution between trump and the problem prior to that the clinton e-mail investigation which went nowhere and then there's lisa page a lawyer for the department of justice who also worked for robert muller the couple payment to prominence back in december when their private text conversations were leased to congress girls hillary should win. i know. and maybe your man just the way you are because you're

a man to protect the country from that manifest. thanks it's absolutely true that we're very very fortunate and of course i'll try and approach it that way these text messages proved that both struck and page were biased in favor of hillary and the messages even hint at some nefarious political activity so when they wanted to dig deeper it turned out the rest of their conversation had disappeared the f.b.i. ascribed the dates lost to misconfiguration issues related to rollouts provisioning and so for upgrades the conflicts with the f.b.i.'s collection capabilities but let's look at the time frame of these text messages december fourteenth twenty sixteenth roommates seventeen twenty seventy and when did muller's investigation into prussian blue should start oh look may seventeenth twenty seventeen surprisingly convenient the timing is just too coincidental seems that they were trying to plant the evidence somehow as an insurance policy thinking that trump had

no way of getting elected and then when he did scrambling in order to try to stop the election or to create the necessity of an impeachment of trump they were conspiring inside the f.b.i. to figure out how to catch trump on some sort of you know criminal activity having a russian connection russian money laundering being involved with putin in the in the russian trump collusion of which they provided zero evidence. the disappearance of crucial data is not uncommon in the u.s. intelligence community the n.s.a. recently revealed it accidentally erased surveillance information to simply free up space on its hard drives the data was related to the presidential surveillance program or p.s.p. which included warrantless wiretapping during george w. bush's time in office the n.s.a. was ordered to preserve the information by a court as it was deemed important to a number of pending lawsuits the b.s.p.

internet content that matched great cheerier that were broadly used to delete dead of a certain type in response to mission requirements to free up space and improve the formants of the backup system the n.s.a. has no reason to believe at this time that the continent data was specifically targeted for deletion. russia's defense minister has revealed that moscow is in talks with several nations over the purchase of a state of the art russian missile defense system artie's has more details. internationally it is described as one of the best air defense systems in the world with a range of about four hundred kilometers and the ability to hit as many as eighty targets at the same time traveling at a speed of up to five kilometers a second i was going to say our but no second and perhaps that's what explains the demand also russia is using the ask for a hundred in syria words job is to act as

a shield for the russian army units in the country so let's take a look at the system in action. it tell me which nations are interested in the russian army's top man didn't specify although he mentioned the regions some countries in the middle east and also in southeast asia that wasn't the only so to say teaser that came from the russian defense minister what he said was that whenever he's in talks with the

other army bosses from the other countries there is always some discussion about potential contracts to buy some of russia's best defense tech so if we are to believe him soon we are meant to find out who's next to get the f. four hundred mention the word next not must mean that russia has already sold some of these defense systems well for example turkey has already god a contract. tell you what when these papers were of saw and it was big news this is what adds the spice to the story think about it turkey is a nato member and a key ally of the u.s. in the region and it chooses russian made air defense systems to keep their skies safe someone else who's military my is all but dependent on america and saudi arabia and a few months ago the saudis and the russians agreed on

a deal to purchase the system as well china is getting it india too so let's see if the next customer proves to be a surprise. jamey's head of apple and has witnessed a month between its tensions minute into northern syria will have all the details after this break. all see we have a great team we need to strengthen before the freefall. and you're better than a legend to keep it so it's at the back.

in one thousand nine hundred two that my 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 winning spirit to the r.c.t. . recently i've had a lot of practice so i can guarantee you that peter schmeichel will be on the best fall since my last will call him in that three. thousand old euro zone t.v. russia. fly strike strike left left left more or less ok stop that's really good. welcome back to the program turkey's continued military campaign against the kurdish militias in northern syria is causing tensions to flash as far afield as germany on tuesday pro kurdish activists protesting next to the turkish airlines

task at hand of fraport and up clashing with turkish passengers almost two hundred people were involved in the poll which was broken up by police using pepper spray. ankara began its latest military operation against the syrian kurdish fighters at the end of last week it used them as terrorist and is concerned about the growing consolidation of power in northern syria a political commentator adel darwish told us that washington must take a clear position on the hostilities and help the two sides work towards a solution because with lying to themselves probably against the likes of you as we

have see the awful let's see is from frankfurt and probably other places it could actually spill over and affect europe figure people with big far away it's very very hard actually to the american foreign policy at the moment first the americans have to explain to their allies of the old world what is there is to raji and good policy on the situation. do the world actually to have a peaceful settlement in syria and keep the. the political integrity of syria as a nation is did as does one of a number to do the actually want to end the conflict and see peaceable. one of the largest consulting firms in the world ernst and young has been accused of multiple illegal dealings a former employee who says he was fired for revealing the allegations disclosed

that the accounting giant is involved in bribery money laundering and the cover up of illicit gold purchases from conflict zones igor if you donna has the details. the story hidden in the court papers filed by this auditor against his ex bosses could be one of the grandest smuggling scams greed money laundering and back door dealings measured in billions of dollars. is accusing one of the world's biggest audit ing firms of covering up the tracks over dubai precious metals megacorp act one. ernst and young for an audit inspectors come to dubai and the first thing they see is a pile of moroccan gold buyers casually bundled up on a desk stacks of gold at a gold refinery could be business as usual except these bars are literally painted silver in order to sneak them into dubai four to five tons of gold gold bars

coated silver smuggled old to more cool arriving in dubai declared as gold when the team found the discussed it with with colucci the admitted this is the way of doing business with the with these moral consult lawyers inspectors do some more digging and what they reveal brings us to act two some of the precious metal in colossus coffers could be blood gold shuffling through papers auditor's discover the refinery was more than happy to shake hands with small mining operations in sudan and the democratic republic of congo apparently colossi asked for no licenses offering cash in hand in exchange for gold proceeds from surge sales in conflict torn countries are known to directly fuel gang wars which are responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths soldiers naam group leaders see in control of the gold mines as a way to money guns and power for forty two of the ruthlessly of them targeting civilians in the process so ernst and young employees calm through colossus cash

transactions that's when we get to act three apparently the company deals in cash almost as much as in conventional bank transfers. that billions of dollars go into a legal black hole impossible to trace so the auditor's diligently record every failure of the dubai giant but there's no pat on the back for them from the boss we requested a meeting with the babies to get it or when they realized that we're not going to alter our findings or change them they went ahead and. changed their ongoing lines in such a way that our findings and all for their conclusions will not be made public ernst and young have denied allegations they were in cahoots with the group the dubai refinery is still in business saying there's been no material impact on their ability to operate or trade i'm just rehired the man who led the team and expose

the alleged wrongdoings says the audit in giant branded him a troublemaker and sacked him so is blowing the whistle a noble thing or just a falls here and in this saga it's left up to the court. r.t. it turns out a north korean pop star who has thought to have been next executed is now going to lead her country's delegation and the upcoming winter olympics and it's not the first time there's been confusion at the well being of high profile figures from that part of the world.

so. let's. say about the round up of our top stories don't forget to check us out on social media on twitter you tube on our website that's called i'll be back at the top of the hour with all of the latest news so you stay with us.

but for many years so i know the game and so i got. the ball isn't only about what happens on the pitch for the fun of school it's about the passion from the fans it's the age of the super money billionaire owners spend spend. so you didn't twenty million on one player. it's an experience like no one else on to because i want to share what i think what i know about the beautiful guy my great so will more transfer. and thinks this minute.

this is boom bust broadcasting around the world from washington d.c. bart chilton. coming up we'll take stock of equities get it sorry probably too soon we move fast around here we'll take stock of equities then after a listen to our mo of stocks to do an analysis of some key companies and analyze their performance plus holland cook of the big picture tells us why baby boomers might be the most money consequential generation out there and we go to miami for the north american bit point conference and then talk to jeffrey tucker of the american institute for economic research who's there for the conference but first let's get to a couple stories topping today's business and financial headlines net neutrality the principle that internet providers like comcast and others and local internet and television service providers must treat all data on the internet the same and

not discriminate or levy divergent fees by user content website platform or the app use that service providers business not discriminate that principle was overturned by the f.c.c. the federal communications commission on a three to two party line vote in december well now democrat senators say they hold more than fifty sen votes in an attempt to challenge the repeal of net neutrality that means they have picked up at least one possibly a few republican votes this news represents a small glimmer of hope about the future fate of net neutrality and the fairness principle of access to well knowledge without net neutrality we have a century created a closed and captive media caste system where knowledge is basically being rationed according to a pew research study last year those who live in rural areas are about. twice as likely not to even use the internet as urban or suburban americans which have more

choices for news and information and faster connection speeds the debate about the debate will continue and we'll see if those more than fifty plus senators might get a vote to overturn the recent f.c.c. net neutrality pullback. the news this morning is that i.b.m. international business sheens has reported higher revenue numbers for the first time in nearly two years and expects continued growth this year on the other side of the spectrum amex american express saw the first quarterly loss since get this one thousand nine hundred two amex c.e.o. kenneth chenault all says it was do like other companies we've discussed in recent recent days on this program due to the tax bill passed at the end of last year well other stocks are making major moves this year let's bring into the ever vested ballista arvo of stocks which you usually tells us about retail numbers but she looks at stocks every day so it's great to have you with us on this comment on this

topic you want to comment on the i.b.m. and the amex numbers. well the sand bar good to see you and yes well i mean i was very interesting because the stock has not made brand new all time highs since two thousand and thirteen and here we are in two thousand and eighteen so to have an earnings miss like this as far as the stocks reaction like you said they had some good news in the report but their reaction was negative because the night before the earnings the stock was around one sixty nine and that a gap down in the morning and the pre-market around one sixty four and fell on the day so i just think that investors didn't see what they wanted to see with i.b.m. and it's really been lagging and it's had a hard time competing with the likes of microsoft which has been performing extremely well in this bullish market and how about apple stock you know they made that major announcement yesterday that they had a pullback and they were going to supposedly create all these jobs in the u.s.

although some of those they were to create anymore their stock is near an all time high these days isn't it. yes actually i thought it over one hundred eighty which is big news for the stock we're really getting closer and closer to that two hundred level which is i think what investors are looking for awful has earnings out february first so that's going to be a that's the biggest actually earnings night of the c.s. and google amazon and apple all report february first after the bell so that's going to be a big night and investors are waiting for that but i'll tell you it i generate tank fortune came out and apple was announced at the top of their list for the world's most admired companies so apple is still up there and you mentioned about them creating these jobs the big news today was that there repatriating two hundred fifty billion dollars of their overseas assets into the u.s. because of this new tax reform and that is huge not only is it huge for apple in the growth they're going to see and the u.s.

with that money coming back it's also huge because the government is going to get some of that money taxed over thirty billion dollars and that's all going to go into the u.s. treasury now in fairness i mean their business they're not philanthropist there dude making this move because you know the corporate tax rate was thirty eight percent it went down to twenty one but that repatriation fee is only fifteen point five percent so while they are going to pay all this money as you say melissa they're actually saving fifty billion buckaroos so it's also a big money decision for them now we talk about but what about google and alphabet for example how are they doing they were killers last year they still going strong . google still stronger than ever again made new highs with the market in the last calendar year as many times almost as a market did but i will tell you the biggest strongest stock on the market is still the beast of amazon it seems like that is headed right to fifteen hundred if it has a good quarterly earnings by anybody you know said head over thirteen hundred one

over thirteen twenty five i think there's huge expectations for that whole sector attack of this year of two thousand and eighteen that a big year two thousand and seventeen is a lot of expectations out for that sector to continue the growth this year particularly with the savings again with tax reform all these corporations are going to benefit from that and amazon just continues to expand and expand and expand although you mentioned about apple being a company for profit which of course they are they still did not have to bring all that money back to the usa because they're going to be taxed on it which if they keep it outside of the u.s. they wouldn't be taxed on it so they still did not have to make a move like that it's probably my you know inquisitive and doubting former regulator mind at work melissa i just i see all these companies and we need them and they provide the economic engine to our democracy but when they make claims like we saw you know with with wal-mart that they're going to raise prices and then they're going to under their breath we're closing sixty sam stores i just get

worried apple is already going to spend several weeks ago sixteen billion dollars in the u.s. in a single year so for them to say they're going to spend thirty billion over five years you know that doesn't really start my engine a whole lot but there are good company they make a great product you know and so finally before we go i want to get your take on gee i mean they're talking about a break up that would be incredible what your thoughts on that and on the g.e. stock. well that's like going from apples to oranges talking about amazon and g.e. amazon is one of the strongest stocks in the market and gene is one of the weakest a well known stocks in the market right now and it's unfortunate the last time we're talking about a brand new all time highs the g. sol brand new all time highs was back in two thousand so eighteen years ago the stock sixteen dollars it does report january twenty fourth so that will be an important day for the stock however as they haven't really performed in this bullish market they would have to literally got to the thirty six dollars level

stop or up sixteen so it would be a tremendous speak for them to get back up enough trend g.e. is in a down trend and to me it's really not a buy till it gets up over thirty six bucks a share right now and i mean that seems unlikely could it happen yes but i think it wouldn't more likely if it had even a good earnings rally so a little bit and then take its time moving back up they had had the new c.e.o. came aboard in august of two thousand and seventeen and you really got to give the guy a chance to see what he can do here he hasn't even been at the home for a year so we'll see what he can do i mean he's going to try to turn the company around. super that is so fun to do a little round robin we want to do that again we love you on real to retail numbers that we love you on stocks most armor founder of stocks whooshed thanks as always thanks for having me. holland cook host of the big picture here artie america did

a really interesting show on friday and i've asked him to give us the cliff notes version for you all who who missed it hala you make the point that nobody is getting any younger and that's one reason why the book baby boomers may be actually creating a lot of economic ingenuity in our in our economy explain all that part every day in the u.s. a ten thousand people turned sixty five and in the next two decades another sixty five million americans hit the big seven zero we baby boomers born one thousand nine hundred sixty one nine hundred sixty four were the biggest generation in history until those millennial scame along yet we outnumbered boomers remain the most consequential generation on july one twenty sixteen something began and it will never end that day the oldest baby boomers turn seventy and a half the age at which by law they are required to begin withdrawing money from

ira accounts this dough squirreled away for decades and earning interest is now flooding the retail economy. although we do occasionally ask a teenager for a tech assist boomers are tech savvy one reason young people are fleeing facebook for other social media platforms is that their parents and grandparents are there eighty three percent of boomers conduct online research before making major offline purchases which busts another myth that as we get older we're so set in our ways and so brand loyal that we don't consider new products boni boomers are lifelong experimenters to our parents' horror way back when baby boomers are health conscious they purchase seventy seven percent of all prescription drugs and sixty one percent of over the counter drugs already expecting to live longer than any previous generation they spent on teeth whitening and cosmetic surgery and the

golden years are now baby boomers control eighty percent of all leisure travel spending they've got the time and they've got the money there were forty million grandparents in the usa in one thousand nine hundred eighty there will be eighty million and twenty twenty and you know they dote on those grandkids so while millennia old media buyers on madison avenue figure twenty five to fifty four is the demographic sweet spot the numbers say they're aiming to low that super excellence is why when you to come and tell our viewers thank you so much and if people want to catch the full monty version of the big picture we're going to get it you can see this most recent episode and all the shows we've done at you tube dot com slash the big picture our t. watch any time anywhere on any device thank you hala appreciate you being here that part. time now for a quick break but stick around because when we return manila chan talks china and

economic numbers plus why have a little bit of a dicey debate about regulating digital currencies stay tuned. we're bit coy by your area eric out there because my underage daughter brock there said this was their your choice of a day to go to all kinds of new crazy eyes and yeah it sure good carriage very thing a bit of a fall back. a bit. this is says harlan kentucky the. oldest moved the boys to the world rich very funny zillion only.

a co money city it was almost no coal mines left. the job to grow all the coal was it showed that there was a love to see these people as survivors of a wool disappearing before their eyes. i remember thinking when i was younger that if anything ever happened to the coal mines here that it would become a ghost town but i never thought in the million years i would see the and it's how often this happened. about your sudden passing i've only just learned you worry yourself and taken your last to bang turn. your act caught up to you as we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry suddenly i could 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 each fret. but then my feeling started to change you talked about war like it was again still some are fond of you those that didn't like to question our ark and i secretly promised to never again like it said one does not leave a funeral in the same as one enters a mind it's consumed with death this one quite different. the speech he allowed because there were no other takers play to claim that mainstream media has met its maker. live yes that was pretty much the police work the plumber play you please. help remove the last election i will yell so he will move forward so will the young to my wall so you will play the in your one of the of the most upper middle bush or that show playing according to you fuck that.