yes and you know the expansion of those hostilities with will exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation even more we see violations cross the country. and it's really sad to. issue or speak about civilian casualties in a matter of less than a week so for us this is painful and. whenever we see civilian casualties we i mean. this is just horrific. that facebook may have closer ties to washington than previously thought it's now emerged the social media giant is relying on experts funded by branches of the u.s. government and later when it comes to tackling foreign influence with more his. how's that for a mark zuckerberg nightmare he or his steam in front of a horde of suits go and sort these russian bots out sort out the fakes

sort them out or did i just paint a good picture of the reality web giants of been facing lately in the past election you. we seen how foreign actors are of using social media platforms those images that can be attributed or associated with the russian company lack of resources a lack of commitment and a lack of genuine effort the likes of saw a could have proudly said we're just a platform where independent and sorting out what you call fakes is none of our business but when wall street alarm bells are ringing you know how it can happen with the stocks it could be better to zip it and focus on an intense year. see if we stick to be the tough year began with. news feed algorithm the trick was to boost posts with let's say pix of your friends cat and sideline all

that politics related media stuff haha they say this lead to less views likes and comments under donald trump's posts move it on facebook has evolved from policing offensive content to policing news views ideas it can be anything apart from your friends if people flag them as potential hoaxes we send those to fact checkers and if those factors that is provably false then we will significantly reduce the distribution of that content why do you want to just say get off our platform will look as a horn to some of this content can be i do think that it gets down to this principle of giving people a voice eventually though the get off our platform way to sort things out still prevailed ok and now. it's time to meet the fact checkers journalists have found them in a tiny room at these guys' h.q. got it at the end of the day facebook's not so happy with that online policeman's

hat so zuck in co are outsourcing the digital share locks i'm being serious that's what they call themselves who are let me check where they come from. linked to nato with their help thirty two suspicious pages have already been sorted out the big ship is not turned around overnight takes a while. if no give them some opportunity to work with them and i hope that in a month when we have at least three of the platforms in that we will see. a willingness to collaborate with us to come up with a solution bravo and it's not just facebook for doing just as great one question though since already most americans head to social media to get their news when will freedom of speech ring a bell well political commentator brian legan says that the left is now moving to

get rid of undesirable views on social media platforms. feels like the only people they have the right to speak out are those who agree with the leftist principles if you are against lefties ideology in any kind of way they find a way to demonize you they call you a conspiracy theories they say it is you're promoting fake news we're coming more under control because parisians and a lot of these people who are in the government and corporations are kind of working together to colluding with each other any kind of extra regulation from the federal government will most certainly impact freedom of speech online it's going to be a battle to try and corral the internet back and kind of the mainstream media. form a where you get your news q.e.d. for you and you don't have any kind of distancing viewpoints. name on a new u.s. poll or to suggest that the reputation of news organizations is in the klein it found that more than a quarter of american citizens not think that their president should have the power

to close media outlets deemed to be behaving badly. and took to the streets of new york to get opinions home freedom of speech which the american media just can't get over the anime of the people label first slapped onto it by donald trump a little while back anime of the people i think crosses a line i think it's reckless i respectfully ask that and this is a phrase that has a long historic provenance it goes back to the french revolution it goes back to stalin to now when the president attacks journalists we question his motivation at this point you could dismiss the comments simply as media oversensitivity or biased against donald trump however whether it's media partisanship or trumps behavior it seems pretty clear that public support for freedom of the press is stark now at this point less than half of americans say they believe the mainstream media is working hard to engage in honest reporting now what's more shocking is that twenty

six percent of americans more than a quarter say they'd. believe that the president should have the authority to shut down any media outlet that isn't gauging in what they call bad behavior now it's not surprising that most of these lidia's haters are republicans and it's no secret what outlets they want to shut down. do you think that's surprising to you do you think a lot of americans agree that the media outlets should be shut down i do i think the smart if you're smart and you have a good mindset where you see different things then you would know things like that obviously should be shut down especially if they're not telling the whole story that's a joke that's a joke once again the school back to page one of the press led to him appearing to those twenty six percent mean that you know the constitution i'll be brought me i don't think the pressure be closed down but it doesn't mean we have to read it or pay attention to it i just block it out. i don't really know what their definition

of bad behavior means if there is a clear definition of bad behavior i know maybe i'd agree with that statement more of course if they're imposing by always or inciting some kind of peaceful motion that i don't agree with them and then maybe they should be looked at more in depth but in terms of shutting them down often you jerk reactions no i don't agree with that it now seems that the first amendment is the first thing that many americans want to be amending. r.t. new york. now toto whose bite you had this in syria has been turned into a monument dedicated to those who helped defeat the terrorists because like colossus had night scope on the walls of the former hi dad.

on. watch out international still to come for you this hour pro-life campaigners were arrested after clashes with police in argentina's capital that among the stories we've got for you just after the break. the game has national camera. roughly once the showed some moves before them. to joan cool videos and sell them with the roughly string of ads. going down more on string i don't rightly dot tv. when lawmakers manufacture

consent to instant of public wealth. when the ruling classes project themselves. in the final merry go round be the one percent told. it's time to ignore middle of the room signal. during the room clean real news is. the world. again the people of easter island demanding the return of a sacred sacred statue taken more than one hundred years ago by the british navy it

was presented as a gift to queen victoria before eventually ending up in the british museum where it's currently on display lottie's on the sea chalker asked business is there if it should be handed back. hosting an estimated eight million objects the british museum is one of the world's best known collections of art history and culture and often the subject a fiery debate about whether op chick source during the british empire is colonial times should be returned to where they came from. the latest dispute ironically involves a statue called lost or stolen friend

a fitting name to the indigenous people of easter island or trying to recover a unique figure taken one hundred fifty years ago and given to queen victoria who then give to get to the museum this is reportedly being negotiated as we speak. the circumstances have changed and we heard that there's a possibility to discuss the stones are trying to chile with the museum and the british government the british museum attracts scores of tourists so it's not surprising the museum is putting up a fight claiming their better preserved under its own watch sometimes offering temporary loans as a compromise but what do the visitors think let's find out sooner really speaking i would say it should be returned i think it's part of a heritage says to stop history we fought over this whole kind of colonialist british empire thing and stuff nice theory but it's rare and this museum is very well appraised and very well known and so i think like staying here would be at infante so you're leaning a little bit more towards letting them stay here. i stand firmly on the fence i

mean i can see the benefits of post to be honest i mean if they went away we wouldn't see them here and we would have to appreciate do you think it's realistic to expect that a place like this would return some of the you know some of the most famous pieces are ones that work. brought here under questionable. in the wake of government plans to change the constitution and strip white farmers of their land some south african politicians are looking for more black emancipation a new party has made headlines after banning whites and foreigners from becoming members slip as more. after the death of nelson mandela there has been an increase in racial politics and incitement here in south africa and now as the country starts preparing for elections to be held at the beginning of next year one new party has emerged that only for black people the muslim african congress says that its goal is to restore the ideals of african people it's gone as far as to say our

membership is not open to anything that looks white this is a far cry from how mandela saw the rainbow nation have to look to is in the cities and so i don't think it's a good concept i don't think it's something that will work here though going backwards obviously but it's like that too we shouldn't allow them in south africa most parties are fighting for is unity in south africa but not having a party that now takes only black people sort of like promotes racism it's become popular in south africa particularly among the white community to talk about reverse racism in other words discrimination against white people whereas once people of color who deny jobs education and political power the tables have now turned and many whites complain of being overlooked because of black economic empowerment policies ironically many south africans once felt they were not quite enough today there are those who feel they are not black enough police they are teeth johannesburg. pro-life campaigners have been arrested after clashes with

police in argentina's capital i believe that. the. battle. over. the arrest here followed the rejection of a bill to legalize abortion police in buenos aires put up barricades to hold back angry protesters and threw projectiles comfrey said that now earlier voted against the law with force in the first fourteen weeks of pregnancy. so that bridge up site that's how the news is looking so far today here in r.t. we're back with the headlines and more news in just over half.

first. of all the. georgia shows don't google so document on the first thanks. to any. and the person. nearly. eight days into. it do most of it it does. some of the sheen you know girl. was not very. good news. for me that's. what they were.

good fortune you know what. i mean preferred. to come this morning bill he smiles all at. you know world of big partisan movies a lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. in. the wings of the united states is dangerous for most of the illegal immigrants

. plus it must be just as there was a simple but i want to become us and enter another one of the. but there are many of them look for refuge in the so-called sentries on the dresser used to share information about undocumented migrants with federal authorities. want to see them or know. what data. they have or what are their options to stay in the country with donald trump in the. movie. the. struggle to. trump the push the political. will to put the book.

on the welcome to worlds apart cuba is one of those countries that have long been perceived and described in terms of ideological opposites known in the u.s.s.r. and later russia as the freedom to change of capitalism it has long been seen in the west as one big reason ruled with an iron fist but when you spend almost half a century documenting the lives of its people as my guest today has done you'll find that the reality is different from the ideal or ideological cliches what is cuba really like to discuss that i'm now joined by john alpert the american journalist and documentary filmmaker so it's good to see you in our studios thank you very much for coming thanks for inviting me i appreciate it now if you're here in russia to promote a documentary called cuba and the cameramen reach our seniors are very

straightforward and they're very honest title because you really show cuba as you. experienced it over what is it forty five forty five years on the film and i think this is very unusual for a western north american journalist because most of them believe that you need to cover stories from the position of iron neutral observer and so often from a position of judgement rather than experience or immersion why did you break that tradition i wanted american people to really experience what the cuban revolution was like and it's complicated and i don't think you can understand this ninety second news report i don't think you can understand it in twenty ninety second news reports i spent forty five years following three families and fidel castro when you watch the revolution and you watch these people age and you learn a lot about cuba and i think it is also very obvious in your film that this kind of emotional involvement that you develop with your character is also allowed you not

so not only gain trust but actually gain unprecedented access to some of them including fidel castro you go the extra mile to show him as a human being rather you know a historical figure the way you show came up to really how you remembered him. that's the way i remember him fredo trusted me. and with you that he considered me to be a friend and. took a risk. in my camera into places it had never been before into his bedroom into his kitchen. taking his shirt off for me. and he is not a bullet hole but is this it's a feel that nobody had ever seen even the cubans had never seen a feel like this before but i've seen some reviews especially in the american press and they were very very critical of. the reviews that i saw i saw there were about three weeks after the really right wing people who obviously i don't think it even

seen the film decided they didn't like it but up to that particular point of resetting the review was positive positive positive but i think the big accusation of the claim that some of the review writers made was that you were. way too friendly and not critical enough but pam how did you i think there are some very very critical moments in this film special period in cuba when the economy collapse when the soviet union fell. and they withdrew their support in cuba the negative impact on the cuban economy was like an eighty five percent contraction of their economy no electricity no transportation food shortages and because the people trusted me the people who are suffering i film things that the cuban people never filmed and that nobody else is filmed in so. the room reviews that i saw understood that. more gratifying was it and i still get them

today the hundreds and hundreds of e-mails from all over the world especially from cubans and because i think you cheated them really as a human being rather than you know a foreign they're coming into their country and passing judgments about how flawed various systems really is and i think this is what many people experience with western journalists including in this country when somebody comes to your house to your country as flawed as it may be and tells you you know how flawed do you really are and i tried really hard to be honest and. most gratification i get is when the cuban say that when their children ask them these are pro castro needed to castro when their kids say mommy daddy what was the revolution like they're going to take my film out and show them my film now to close this famous saying by a british historian lord acton that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and i'm not sure you would put it in quite those terms but. i think

being in power for so long as fidel has been in power and being hunted for so long because i think he survived more than or around six hundred assess a nation at times that would change your personality have you noticed any character changes in him over time well i think i was the last journalist. the last american to be with fidel before he died. and he was always very open and friendly with me i think in terms of his relationship to the united states. he had a he needed a strong defensive posture because the aggression focused on him was really really very severe i think it hurt the revolution i think that the revolution needed to be more flexible and he to be more flexible with the human rights that needed to be more flexible economically. and. to some degree pushed into inflexible position that he didn't come out of you saying it was a matter of. personality aging or was because of the pressure that his

country was subjected to i think it's both. i think it's very very important to have a very very strong feedback loop when he was young was all over the island he was playing baseball with everybody. you know he certainly could do that towards the end. but every country needs to be corrected my country really needs to be corrected and you know that's the that's our work that's the work of false reporters some people say we're not patriotic. i would like to say that maybe that's quite a high form of patriotism when you point out the things that are wrong with your country because you want your country to be better well i agree with you but i think it also depends on how you say it because i think sometimes and that's my personal issue of the day american journalism and american or western criticism in

general is that sometimes critical things are being said to put people in countries down rather than show them deficiences in their systems and i heard you say in some of the other interviews that you believe that cuba was never really given a fair chance to run its social experiment to the fullest do you still believe that i sure would have liked to have seen that happen you know when the revolution began free health care free schools housing guaranteed jobs literacy campaigns that taught everybody how to remove the we were fighting for these things in the united states at that time and the fact they were going on in cuba was very very exciting. but there was always so much tremendous pressure economically politically and militarily against the regime you know would have been let the cubans experiment so we don't have to try this if it doesn't work we can look down there and all gosh it didn't work in cuba let's forget about having universal

health care. but they never had the chance the problems with the communist systems in general is that while they are striving for bigger things they tend to forget about the little comforts of life and i think you put it well in one of your interviews when he said that it's good to have free education and free healthcare it's also nice to have a hot shower shower in the morning if cuba hadn't been pressured so much if it hadn't been sanctioned so much do you think they would have figured out how to provide both to their population you know that they had internal debates that are about the economy and sort of individual is that i don't think they were resolved i think is one of the reasons why che guevara left the country because he was in conflict with some of the other people that have more power internally and the tragedies will never never know cuba is now in the process of having a piss full transition of power and the united states department of state has already described it in pretty derogatory terms. well they said it wasn't free it

wasn't fair it was dictatorial in nature. they also believe that this is not really a change of power after all and you know just a change of a figure had but. there's no way of knowing what i'm going to ask you at this point of time there's nothing in their way of making it an educated guess but i'm going to ask you still. how do you think the relationship it's been transamerica and cuba on to this new president is going to develop over the next few years how do you see i would like to see it continue on the path to normalization that was started in the previous administration i think that was healthy look at the block. caden the animosity for fifty almost sixty years did it change the regime in cuba no it was a completely unsuccessful policy if you get in your car to go see your bush every day in your turn to key in the car doesn't go any place when you get in that same

car every day for fifty years no you go to the metro you take some other route to this the united states had a talk about cuba's inflexibility we had a really inflexible policy too there was totally unsuccessful cost a lot of suffering on the united states can afford to be inflexible when it comes to little neighbor now and then announce there is no point. that's going. to the retrogressive miami community that is every day more and more a minority unfortunately that's back and forth again the last administration realize that the majority of cuban americans want to normalization the normalised and when you normalize you can talk. and i want to tell you from my experience in cuba when the united states use sugar instead of a hammer things change in cuba in the way that the united states wanted them were like i can't go backwards fast enough in the future to show you what what's going

on in cuba now. it seems that in order to protect lection prospects in florida there is a little bit of a game that's being played with the very very very reactionary cubans who are disrespected more and more every day by the cuban community since some western commentators compare this new president make l.g.'s now to now gorbachev and i know that you visited the soviet union during its reformist years of glasnost and perestroika reach as inspiring as they may be now in hindsight it ultimately led to the collapse of not only the system to the soviet system but also the collapse of the country do you think that's likely a likely scenario for cuba if the new president indeed pursues the reform or gender or if he doesn't so that was a question. that i was asking myself and i was very very curious because of the half a century that i spent in cuba because of my love for the cuban people i wanted to

observe this firsthand but i didn't want to preserve it from the back of the pack and so i had. asked the cuban government to allow me to come inside as they were making their deliberations as they were passing the power in to observe this basically like a fly. and. they didn't answer me i had the choice to be in cuba or be here in moscow for some very important things this past week and i chose to come here to moscow instead of going to cuba well we are very happy it's you're welcome here in this country but for the time being we have to take a very short break we'll be back in just a few moments station.