this hour from exotic to toxic decades of environmental damage on the portuguese island of the atlantic leave locals fearing for their well being as they continue to suffer increased cancer rates they blame the u.s. air force for the contamination. leading german tabloid publishes what it thought was indisputable evidence of russian meddling only to realize that it had been pranked by a satirical magazine feeding the bogus email. we knew how to think like an editor and what we did was we came up with a story that was techie like in the spine it was a good laugh. from a conservative commentators in the us claimed they're being censored by twitter after a wave of i can't suspend. team

here at r.t. h.q. in moscow my name calling bray this is your global news update this hour. the exotic portuguese island of tesoro in the azores in the middle of the atlantic ocean is in desperate need of decontamination decades of u.s. air force activity have allegedly left it polluted with hydrocarbons and heavy metals and islanders say that they're worried about the prevalence of cancer and other serious illnesses. the back to twenty thousand not constant but also waits rude. this is another

constant we're now it eighteen twenty twenty two thousand policemen two thousand going to is nonsense. and it's time to run away from here as we've already stay too long. we have is a series of locations with extremely high levels of pollution caused by heavy metals the hydrocarbons there are very high levels of lead in some zones copper zinc molybdenum makes all of them heavy metals in certain concentrations can cause to realty cancer arrhythmia and neverending amounts of problems associated with an excess of these substances. all my family in that area both of my parents died of cancer my mom of breast cancer and my dad was a different kind of cancer when i was thirty three i was diagnosed with breast

cancer. but much confusing the more cancer cases there are the more that appeal ation asks why is this happening why if a private story i wrote is that on one side all houses have a had at least one case of cancer and on the other side it's almost every other house that is not normal your. the us has maintained a presence on the island since nine hundred forty three tesla serves as a stopover for transatlantic military flights and it houses the sixty fifth base group although it's not known how many personnel are currently stationed there there are one hundred sixty one houses to accommodate them one former employee told us about the health risks that workers at the facility have also been exposed to.

are you going to admit there was also a senate commission that came to the cerro to check a claim illegal proceeds from some members of the american military who were dying of terminal cancer and were exposed to radioactivity into sarah island we know they were here for about one week and during this time i found out what they were doing here they were here to confirm the existence of radiation on to sarah island radioactive contamination the dire environmental situation on the island was first acknowledged in a classified report written in two thousand and three which is since been leaked it details seventeen major fuel spills and one fifteen thousand gallons of oil were released when a pipeline was unintentionally activated that was in one thousand nine hundred four and there's been no cleanup since the report stresses that the island's inhabitants were at risk from contaminants in the soil and water here's what local experts have been telling us. we found in the data that was published referring to the two thousand and seven two thousand and eleven period

a higher number of certain cancers in the prior divots or area than the rest of the source especially regarding the rarer cancers for example i can see with thirty three percent of the cases being in prior different sort of while the area has only eight point five two percent of the population. this is the repeats itself on various islands occupied by the americans this is almost a scorched earth policy where the problems accumulate and the local government doesn't react the population has no capacity to take a stance maybe as a result of scientific illiteracy or a lack of knowledge on the cause effect relations we've contacted both the united states and portuguese governments about this so far though we've had no responses to these specific questions that we've asked them the united states did though forward us a press release from last december it states that the two countries are aware of the situation and that they're seeking expert advice on how best to proceed.

germany's best selling newspapers published what it thought was a smoking gun evidence of russian meddling in the country's politics but in its rush to break the sensational story the tabloid failed to check its sources and it backfired spectacularly as my guest you have explained build thought they had a bombshell the makings of an international scandal here's the meat of it build the published a report about how the socialists the s.p.d. was trying to buy the services of the mythical russian troll factory it's a huge it would be the first direct evidence of russian meddling in german politics here the actors kevin kuhn are head of the s.p.d. as you thing who is running a campaign against forming a coalition with angular merkel the new grow cold campaign yuri

a mysterious russian agent offering the services of an online army under his control to spread the message what build got their hands on was the email exchange between them it reads wonderfully cold words mistrust secret meetings like something out of a spy a movie did kevin i'm ury i'd like to talk to you about supporting your no grow cold campaign thanks for your mail jay already told me to expect a man from you but just to be sure could you name me g.'s favorite beverage as you can certainly understand this is a delicate matter mere mere multi ginger. dear yuri perfect that's a relief so what can you offer me basically we can offer you everything an opinion campaign with books again scholtz social bots on twitter or facebook or even a targeted facebook advertising campaign front page stuff but that was on friday

by wednesday germany's satirists from tannic magazine revealed that it was all a prank they had written the entire exchange and said to build but build rabbits without jew checks and very thick asian what with their and t. s.p.d. stunts and tabloid routes even the email tributed to kevin kuhn or was fake couldn't have sent anything from it other german publications saw the exchange and realized it was specious but theirs to tally it explained bill that was just too excited and anonymous email to all three calls and billed prints everything that fits its agenda remember the drinks name me oh me oh matty ginger well that's now trending on twitter as germans online ridicule build.

kevin kuhn out in the star of the show is suing billed for libel and slander but judging by this picture and he's posted he's also enjoying the show as more i mention they have a social democratic parties youth wing leader named in the prank isn't happy about any of this and insists that if he'd really been made such an offer he would have flatly refused it. both of them it was here but i don't know but this group but of course we would refuse any of these offers we don't work with social clubs i don't have information that will even received any offers. all the terrible magazine behind the hoax posted this triumphant photo online it shows one of the employees

posing with the transcript of the fake e-mails and also the build article the prankster the titanic also turned on kevin cunard for dismissing the story as a clumsy fake they say that the assessment is unfair because it took an entire three hours of work. we're to turn it over to record magazine we work with the same. methods as built so we knew how to think like and build editor and what we did was we came up with a story that was techie like in the spine and we had a good feeling that this would work when there's a story like this for four built they don't care about details it's only interesting if the story is good and it was a good story indeed and it was. like a good movie i hope it will be made into a movie sometime for. the readers of builds just like the editor's

a builder but there are hopeless cases so you can't help them i don't think anyone will learn anything. new we have to turn ignore the people at bill's or german politicians or the german people but it was a good laugh now. and i think that's worth something. and there's growing among the right wing twitter users following an apparent bot purge on the social network a number of prominent commentators claim that their accounts were wrongly targeted and that the site crackdown is actually part of a sustained attack on conservative speech the hash tag twitter lockout began trending on the site shortly after the suspensions a number of right leaning users claim to have lost thousands of followers as a result of the initiative to remove accounts that automatically post tweets some believe that the moves linked to a pledge that twitter made in january to combat the kremlin alleged interference in u.s. political life has been claimed that russian bots have been used to amplify and spread

divisive views on the network including those voiced by right wing commentators we spoke to one whose account was suspended back in september he was rather surprised to hear about her supposed connection to the kremlin in aren't worth twenty ten basically when i realized it was permanent i was a little shot they were actually accusing me of being or. an operative. that i was somehow working for russia part of the russian bots that were. sending out negative information during the election. and in the past a team of investigative journalists known as project veritas of cost doubt on how twitter determines just who should or shouldn't be blocked. if you don't want to. like. the problem of. course is of

course. separately to top us democrats are calling on congress to provide the f.b.i. with an additional three hundred million dollars to help prevent meddling in future elections the call was made by senate minority leader chuck schumer and former speaker nancy pelosi in a letter to the senate they say that the additional funding would help to counter the influence of hostile foreign actors particularly russian media analyst lionel told us though that it would still be a waste of money three hundred million dollars and to get this straight from the f.b.i. to battle russian interference the same f.b.i. that's been trying to investigate russian interference that has netted nothing we cannot point to anything other than buying it added and as was indicated last week in the indictment so we discord now we would

the f.b.i. to continue this investigation which netted nothing you could pin you trying to find nothing. and to prove or to expose or to ferret out examples of russian collusion where cured of war have proved nothing the democratic party are vowing more money more money earmarked not to stop real crime where the real victims the real pain in real sad to know they were to go after washington colu. with the specter of kremlin meddling continuing to loom large in the public consciousness in the us it seems the russians also having a major influence on the english language to. the

previous administration kicked the russians out of their doxes we have kept them out of their touch it's. the same old k.g.b. colonel after. russia had engaged in attempts at developing compromise. syllabi keep this sort of inner circle their business interests have remained fairly stable. for the top of the pyramid of what so as the resident tour which is where the f.s.b. the s.p.r. and the g.r.u. the military intelligence guys are. now watching out a u.s. embassy in southeast europe has been attacked by an unknown among all stories to

head off to the break. live. global. dropping bombs brings peace to the chickenhawk forcing you to fight the battles. to socks for the tell you that will be gossip and public but.

they. tell me you are not cool enough to buy. all the hawks that we all know what. it's exactly four years since ukraine's president got a covert was overthrown after a popular uprising that began in kiev in november twenty third team the protests which initially were peaceful began in response to endemic corruption in the government's decision to abandon an economic deal with the european union but it quickly spiraled out of control.

years on from that uprising and some of the my down activists now see the protests in a very different light they say the hopes for meaningful change in the country have not materialized we spoke to one of them about how the change of heart. to the students compassion for them and sharing that and to corruption and socially i ranted ideas which recency it but were hijacked by the want to gox almost at the very start. using it isn't that i believe it was a mistake to fall for the slogans of the nationalists my personal mistake is that i should have realized that much sooner the people who started those spontaneous protests could answer the question of what they were against but couldn't say what they stood for that was the key problem they didn't have

a plan and therefore allowed themselves to be used but i have no right to judge people for taking part in the protests. but it's thought that people at my done were supporting so-called european values but can it come true because your appeal if it sits at the bottom of the least on freedom of speech if it's a country where journalists get killed in rest of the persecuted why did the revolution for freedom not result in freedom and if europe stands for multiculturalism why did the european revolution in ukraine result in the victory of nationalist radicals there mantises and became a smokescreen for extremist slogans which had nothing to do with the initial protests. but during the uprising the protesters in kiev received strong support from both u.s. and e.u. officials top american politicians were seen addressing crowds of people of the demonstrations and even distributing bread european officials also involve

themselves in negotiations between the two opposing sides but now brussels appears to have become disillusioned with ukraine's ability to deliver reforms perhaps the latest illustration of that the e.u. has reportedly decided to shut down a border checkpoint scheme with ukraine which was supposed to ease customs proceedings and boost trade we discussed the situation with political analyst martin mccauley. crane from brussels point of view from the very can point of view is an important state these countries wish to keep ukraine as a partner as a friend and never allow. and but they're friendly increasingly difficult the european union and western europe are becoming increasingly tired of. an exasperated at the lack of progress. in certain areas the main problem is corruption within the government within the state the elites. so if you have some of the money for themselves or awarding contracts so european

union has really. hoping that ukraine would begin to limit corruption within the state for years to decades now so therefore very slow progress would be achieved in literature sieved the ukraine of european union in the western world will not come closer together. the u.s. embassy in the small balkan country of montenegro and southeast europe has been attacked by an as yet unidentified bomber the attacker through an explosive device into the diplomatic compound in the capital early on thursday morning he then blew in south up no one else was injured and there was no significant damage to the building the u.s. embassy remains open american and montenegrin authorities are now conducting a joint investigation. to him to cast lead from russia have been stripped of their bronze medals in curling by the court of arbitration for sport after one of them tested positive for

a banned substance reporting from south korea his alien patrik so cas is officially saying that the first ever russian medal in curling that was won by the oh are mixed deal well now have to be taken away from them the announcement comes just about fifteen hours after alexander crucially skee who was both doping test samples turned out to be positive formal dhoni chose not to proceed with the court of arbitration for sport hearing that was planned for thursday afternoon. it's silly to do don't they don't be rude violations when the presence of a prohibited substance was confirmed by to doping tests i'm ready for the verdict which is predictably the same in all cases and i weigh the pros and cons and decided to withdraw from the class hearings i think in this situation it's useless and senseless so the washing curler has admitted that there was an anti-doping rule violation formally but he maintains that he is not guilty and that he has never

taken the pills on purpose today we found out that alexander crucial needs he and his wife are not giving up the legal battle completely the russian curling federation will be looking to help them through trying to prove his innocence eventually and also they will try to get back these medals for now they haven't been able to obtain the c.c.t.v. footage or any other possible evidence that could play in favor of the o.a.r. athletes but if they do so the court of arbitration for sport provides the opportunity to relaunch the arbitration later the concentration of mill dony and these two don't bring test samples pointed to single use and we heard from the man who invented the drug that taking those once or twice is absolutely useless besides this we've spoken to the coaches experts other curlers who had

suggested that there may have been some sort of sabotage that someone could have spiked alexanders food or drinks although if the curlers want to get their medals back they will obviously have to prove that and that is a very difficult process. so i would not have a for them you have we'll let you know what happens right that's it for me thanks very much for your company this past thirty minutes or so kevin i was going to be here we go next global news update from albany in just over half an hour. that's just. certain i want to do things that show anybody's doing really be very clear like go

away go. man i mean. i'm a young they they when they have them they have male. skin you need the field is very. soft yeah and then what do you how much they have become of us often look at what do you look local just do you wonder. if this was actually my helmet i mean that would have made you stop with the constant negative . join me every first day on the i like simon chill when i was speaking to get off of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then.

fifty years ago pregnant women to come together as a sleeping co does this is what i mean because like to just said this thought the side effects were terrible but not on the road as shown in dodge one for boardwalk more here not the war gamble. across europe victims are starting legal battles demanding at least some compensation. in two ways first will the physical damage itself but as well there's a constant reminder that the people who actually perpetrated this crime has never been able to justice and there's been a couple of. palestine is getting international recognition with the help of israel at least in the world of zoos i'm in bill for the commission to do it loving you like you know. this is my compass the easiest going up to study hall meetings you know chalk it up just open the shit the

only palestinians who gets the most helpful is to roost on counterparts i don't think there's some of those who in the world under the oak vision didn't know only could give us. and not his office knowledge how to this lady of the mossad that you had i know if you continue muslims you know do more almost lost her don't piss off . oh hello again max to as or here was day zero. as a reporter oh it's going to be some interesting. i threw a mispronounced my second name hare bet and it's actually hurts my god but you know on the ride over to the studio this morning you mentioned that during the last

vacation period in america which is thanksgiving the bait the great migration of america you know when everybody goes on holiday they go visit their family they have thanksgiving dinner they usually fly that actually went from twenty three percent took road trips like last year and twenty sixteen and then in two thousand and seventeen it was something like thirty nine percent and why did they take road trips instead of flying to their destination well they didn't want the hassle of the u.s. dilapidated airports and the t.s.a. you know the whole security apparatus which is now kind of defunct because nobody actually even talks about the war in terror anymore everybody's forgotten that because now we have russia gate so what like why we have this remnant that's the last remnant of the last fake hoax scare was the whole war on terror but you know in order to. you know fix the infrastructure of america trump has proposed a one point five trillion dollar infrastructure plan two hundred billion of that is going to come from the u.s. government and the rest is supposed to come from the private sector so the

therefore mostly charging tolls any plan that might be able to recoup their income back from the users of the infrastructure so it's going to you see where it will go will go to the richer areas that don't even need the funds as much as the poor areas of america so i'm going to compare this to china where they also they don't have these grand announcements of infrastructure plans and hope that in twenty years that might come true maybe the private funds will come from somewhere they just do it and it's quite remarkable because bullet trains are transforming the world's biggest migration millions of chinese cram on to train to make the annual pilgrimage home for the lunar new year holiday as a crowded and often uncomfortable experience that is rapidly being transformed by the country's push into the world of high speed rail china already has the globe's longest bullet train network but it is plowing three point five trillion un or five hundred fifty six billion dollars into expanding its railway.