she's guilty in a u.s. court to being a foreign agent. politicized she has been put under psychological pressure. the french national assembly rejects a motion of no confidence in its government despite growing criticism of president

handling of the yellow vest protests. israeli army conducts raids in ramallah checkpoints around what is the defacto capital of palestine the two israeli soldiers were killed and another injured in a shooting need the palestinian city. police launch an investigation into russian and by athletes over claims of doping at the time seventeen world championships the competitors deny the charges and say the rumors are not. watching all to international life from last year here in moscow with me in a day or two to welcome to the program. a russian national detained in the us and accused of being an unregistered foreign agent has entered a guilty plea at a washington d.c. court. but and i was told she faces up to five years behind bars could be deployed

to acting though that this is outside of the court's jurisdiction and will be decided by the parties accountable and has the details well in the washington d.c. court room we saw maria come forward and enter a plea of guilty to acting as an unregistered lobbyist now she has not pled guilty to any of the other charges and sensational accusations were made in the media regarding being a spy to that effect and in her statement of a fan she came forward and said that she sought to establish unofficial lines of communication with americans having power and influence over us politics and now at this point we don't know exactly what sentence she'll be facing there will not be a sentencing hearing because she is still cooperating with law enforcement the next hearing will be on february twelfth a status hearing now the prosecution is not asking for more than five years and they could file a downward motion in the future to get a lesser sentence and the issue of deportation is something that will not be

decided by this judge this is a federal criminal court however the issue of deportation would be decided by immigration authorities and others so the judge is not ruling on whether or not she will be deported now in the lead up to today's hearing we did hear from the russian foreign ministry this is what was said about the pressure that was placed on boots and in the lead up to today but she's a political prisoner and what's been happening with respect to putin that has nothing to do with justice or investigation of any kind but this is all the food of political pressure and blackmail she's been subjected to a whole range of methods of psychological pressure so will support whatever decision she makes that will lead to her lead at this point we have heard that many russian lawmakers have come forward and called this a miscarriage of justice said that has been badly mistreated saying that the charges are fabricated so there's been quite an outrage in russia in response to the. it has been treated people be waiting to see what happens next is spoke to the

vice president of the russian office of the international human rights committee because he says that in view of the harsh conditions in which britain has been held her rights may have been violated. the witch in the. exam agree and the conditions are not done right on acceptable as if she's done druce felon or a tourist a serial killer she's been kept apart from the rest of the inmates spent most of her time in prison like that she's got no way of communicating with inmates. to go for walk only between two and four am which is appalling really for all practical purposes she's been deprived of sleep you could go food war could talk to a loved one some with food which is understandably of great importance to maria asleep maria has to make this choice of a daily basis it clearly constitutes

a violation of the human rights convention underwood's sleep deprivation is a form of torture going without proper sleep for prolonged periods of time could pose a serious threat to a person's health. and we also discussed the issue with legal analyst jennifer braden she knows there is scant evidence against britain which raises deeply disturbing questions it's always been fascinated by the national rifle association which is a u.s. nonprofit even creating her own so this is a woman who was was politically motivated but didn't know things and then joined that or was involved in the n.r.a. when she came to united states just based on what she had been like in since childhood what i'm seeing now is that the bottom line is that the government or here the united states the justice department are going to prosecutors are arguing that this woman was an agent of russia based merely on her citizenship in alleged communications with somebody in the russian government even though she was never paid and there is very little evidence of direct collusion to undermine u.s.

policy and that to me is very problematic just because she was an outspoken supporter of donald trump who as we know prosecutors have been trying to tire russia and this investigation so it seems like a little bit of a stretch to say that this woman was was politically. evaded to help undermine the u.s. government under our federal rules. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has ordered to increase the military presence in the west bank this comes just hours after an attack by two israeli soldiers were killed and another injured in a shooting at a bus stop near the palestinian city of ramallah it led an israeli forces to immediately impose strict checkpoint rules of around the area local reporter has more according to reports initial reports was that palestinians opened fire on israeli soldiers on a flying checkpoint near a lull bieda as soon as that happened all roads were closed there's really no army is under adama launches the defacto capital of the palestinian authority and there

are currently confrontations happening between palestinian youth and israeli forces the model has been completely closed off by the israeli army and there are also problems are on the main roads between palestinians and israeli settlers settlers of throwing rocks at palestinian cars so those real army has been normal over the past four nights conducting raids searching houses searching stores even taking camera footage from cameras throughout the area israel has put the blame on the palestinian authority and at the same time the palestinian authority is putting the blame on the israeli government it all comes amid deepening tensions between israel and palestine since donald trump unilaterally recognized him as the capital of israel months ago palestinians in the gaza strip organizing mass protests throughout this year known as the great march of return i discussed the recent escalation between israel and palestine and the tests of the two israeli soldiers

with the head of the euro asian jewish congress ariel. starting with the situation in palestine area what can israel do further avoid escalation of violence in ramallah israel tries to do its best to avoid this kind of escalation but israel's duty is for us the wall to protect our citizens it is totally unacceptable that israeli civilian woman pregnant woman can be attacked at the bus station do you think however you describe a terrible situation but do you think surrounding ramallah was a reasonable action on the part of the israeli forces considering the palestinians day of rage was planned for friday arab terrorists which is pointed towards israel didn't start three days ago or three years ago it was started one hundred forty years ago and unfortunately the main motives the main reason for this kind of

hatred that we suffer from is a unwillingness of the arab population to accept a jewish state in any borders so we first of all should try to learn to live together and then we should accept each other ariel there are different perspectives to this obviously there's the israeli side and the palestinian side and i ask you again this action. the israelis would have known that it would cause an escalation and my first question was what can israel do to avoid escalation israel first world supplies all the humanitarian needs of the palestinian population unfortunately we suffer from terror cells only reply of israeli population to terror first of all to stalk in the perpetrator who wants to kill civilians and this kind of reply of. some reason of some

region story. fortunately terrorists are hiding in its force proper reply and spur east to provide proper protection for israeli and arab civilian population. the french national assembly has rejected a motion of non-confidence in the government the motion was tabled in the wake of mass yellow vast protests across the country. live to our correspondent in paris charlotte has been following these protests are charlotte what did this vote actually mean. well this was no surprise the result of this vote of no confidence as you mentioned there rejected by french m.p.'s in the nationalist assembly on thursday evening they were ject it by two hundred eighty nine to seventy now this was launched by three parties from the left of the

political spectrum and it came in the wake of a speech by president mack on an address to the nation on monday where he described france's experiencing a social and economic crisis that's as a result of the protests that we've been seeing the chelation owns and the yellow vests over the last few weeks now the result as i said wasn't a surprise because like a public almost party has got a big majority in the french national assembly but let's take a listen to some of the debate what the prime minister with felipe had to say and also the leader of france also meese. one of the parties who tabled this vote of no confidence. containing the president's social and economic emergency measures will be submitted to the council of ministers next wednesday this bill also stop the health insurance hikes giving poor pensioners an annual saving of three hundred euro. you know everybody if you want we need

a finer insurable lucian a grown clear eighty percent of tax me shifts from which this country's richest ten percent profit. well interesting even murray in the pens party the national rally decided that it was going to support the motion of new confidence against the french government but that didn't seem to help us to say the results night the tally was two hundred eighty nine votes to. to seventy votes pretty much rejecting outright it seems that censure motion now it comes as far as it's been experiencing a fine of a few weeks now of a yellow vest protests these protests started back on the bend the seventeenth due to what was going to be a new tax hike on fuel here in france that since been reversed after a government u. turn on that because of the protests but it since then it's developed into

something much wider with people demanding many other things such as reform the tax system here fronts and we've also seen farmers students police union and others trying to join in the protests and showing their support of the digital asian ones let's take a look back now over the last few weeks of violent protests in france. live . live. live. live.

in a. live . look. at the. well there have been calls for an expected fifth week and protests to be scrapped particularly the. day even given that the security forces are trying to concentrate their efforts on trying to resolve and to find the attacker many people have said they're already overstretched given that they've been out on the streets of france for the last few weeks eighty nine

thousand deployed last weekend including eight here in paris but the yellow dress protesters many of them have said that they won't accept their schools to cancel a protest and a six week of protests looks set to go ahead. charlotte reporting from paris thank you. rushing back in the headlines austrian police are looking into claims russian biathlete is violated antidoping rules at the twenty seventeen world championships my colleague and a farmer spoke to. who gave us the details. now we know that on wednesday night the austrian police went into the hotel where the russian national biathlon team was staying in austria during the world cup actually it was the night before some of the athletes accused were supposed to hit the track and participate in the world championship they put forward the accusations that at least four of the six members

of the staff violated the anti-doping regulations back in twenty seventeen during the world championship in austria just a year ago. this is a very serious accusation because in austria it entails a criminal punishment so the athletes were pretty shocked judging by their reaction and i believe we can listen to some of those i've been accused of something i haven't done i can assure you one thousand percent everything i've been accused of is false i want to ask a rhetorical question do russian athletes really value their sporting careers so little that they do the things we're accused of. against me all the rumors are nonsense total nonsense i have always been true to myself to the biathlon family and to the fans i have nothing to feel bad about i have to say alex on the log in one of the biggest stars of russian biathlon at the moment has a very good point in the question he raised in that instagram post now he knows what doping like he was actually on the disqualification up until two thousand and

sixteen and after that he has never tested positive for doping again he actually reinforced his words in that post on instagram with a printout of all the doping tests he has taken since then in twenty sixteen seventeen including that championship in austria and although those tests were negative in terms of doping the russian sports ministry confirmed to us that they have received a formal accusation from the austrian stories on the matter but it gets a little confusing because the austrian side on their matter they say that they have notified the russian authorities before bringing in the official accusations into the hotel of the of the national team on wednesday night with regard to russia's anti doping agency what are they said well we you know seeing this story happening in the times when the russian anti-doping agency looks to be reinstated by water the world anti-doping agency that decision in september caused a lot of surprise among many nonetheless i actually had a chance to go to the russian anti-doping agency this morning and spoke exclusively

to the head of russian anti-doping agency i believe we can listen to that. what is inspection yesterday it was completed in full it was a thorough in serious all the documents through a thorough loop through the results so good we confident that sharks will reveal no violations we will take the results seriously and implement further measures to fight do. so in regards to the latest scandal in austria is the goddess the head of said that he was cautiously optimistic yet still had some concerns about the story that needs to be investigated needs to be looked at. but next week water is here in moscow he has every reason to be concerned it's a big meeting when they will enter the laboratory with urine samples which is the key condition for result as reinstatement and obviously will be all over that story on tuesday next week and we'll update our viewers with that i can't honestly have from the court of arbitration play of the results of previous stepping tests for the athletes the stand the f.a.a. . says is strong

a real danger because the bridge may be willing to help if it leads to effectively. injury. preliminary investigative research and. release. information from some weird it might be whistle blower. the day we did the information we get this information or a great deal of time but they waited until the moment when. they wanted to have information burial knowledge in territory in good in the me. in this occasion. too quickly. after giggles testified about the company's alleged control of information the issue of speech regulation has popped up thought all media platforms one democrat

his fan of south and broaden what could be an even bigger scandal by simply commenting on it for the details his quarter. if you're perhaps looking for new ways to put your foot in your mouth democratic congressman ted lew is the guru for you especially after his recent statement to c.n.n. regarding free speech i would love to be able to regulate the content of speech the first amendment prevents me from doing so conservatives immediately slammed lou in the media and on twitter they met his statement with skepticism with some of them accusing him of harboring secret tyrannical desires but according to him his statement was actually made in defense of the first amendment i would love to regulate your speech but thank goodness the first amendment prevents me bogus and republicans from doing so get it i'm defending the first amendment perhaps the republicans just wanted an opportunity to grab their pitchforks but lose timing

made everything worse came after google c.e.o. sun dar pinchas testimony before congress amidst accusations that the company is censoring conservative voices and the accusations themselves they came along with bright parts leak of e-mails from google employees e-mails that allegedly outlined an entire conspiracy to censor the right wing news outlet for hate speech anyone want to hold the news and look through broad don't come from hate speech the e-mail said breitbart was quote on their radar and that google had a moral argument according to pinch i though google employees had no means of manipulating search results it's not possible for an individual employee groups of him demanding plato or so it's just those you know we have a robust framework including many steps in the process whether or not there are actually procedural problems that google the company embodies

a much bigger problem one highlighted by a protester who came to the testimony in the monopoly man's clothes but lou didn't seem to think a monopoly on him for. mation was the problem he'd rather pin the blame on people who don't do positive things if you want positive search results do positive things if you don't want to search results don't do not do things and do some my colleagues across the aisle with you getting bad press articles and bad search results don't blame google or facebook or twitter consider blaming yourself so as lou continues to take criticism from the media and twitter it begs the question who's to blame for that lou google you donald quarter r.t. . u.s. national security advisor john bolton has outlined a new strategy towards africa that will direct american aid to key countries he also said the previous trust she had only led to billions being spent and

effectively the united states will no longer provide indiscriminate assistance across the entire continent without focus or prayers ation under a new africa strategy we will target u.s. funding toward key countries in particular strategic objectives in his speech bolton also said the new strategy will encourage african leaders to choose high quality transparent and sustainable projects that would result in prosperity for their countries and the us here for size the new objective is to resolve conflicts instead of phasing them all to one that the us will we evaluated support for un peacekeeping missions involving countries that repeatedly vote against the united states international forums or take action counter to u.s. interests he said they should not receive any american aid crossing live now to professor. china experts and things that come out of the program so bolton is

described past us approaches to africa as deeply flawed what changes should we expect from this new strategy. well i don't think. the u.s. is going to change its stripes dramatically i believe that when bolton says the u.s. is going to engage strategically and figure out where their priorities are they're going to continue to find ways to support. leaders the nations that will support the u.s. objectives and. they will find ways to bring money into those regimes in order to further. you know consolidate more allies in the african region the u.s.

has done this in other parts of the world such as latin america or europe i don't see africa as being any different. i mean the u.s. national security adviser said that the new africans trust who seeks to counter growing chinese and russian influence which is posing a threat to america's interests before he wants my next question are less of a quick listen. great power competitors namely china and russia are rapidly expanding their financial and political influence across africa they are deliberately and aggressively targeting their investments in the region to gain a compare competitive advantage over the united states what's your take on. well we have to understand why china went into africa in the first place and it was

because the u.s. was containing china for years the amount of investment and trade that china could potentially do in western nations such as the u.s. could be much larger if the u.s. didn't block china in various ways. or even in asia like the asian development bank is largely controlled by u.s. money and u.s. directives and for years china was asking them to. build infrastructure in china and elsewhere in the u. asia pacific and the u.s. basically said no they had funded this bank with one hundred billion dollars it was running low on cash and probably only a billion left when there were actually twenty two trillion dollars worth of infrastructure investments that need to be made so u.s. was drastically under-funding the bank and the region and us did this with africa

as well. and so china basically said since i'm shut out from the west the only way they can continue to grow was to go to areas that were more or less neglected by the u.s. africa's certainly was one of them we have to remember if we look back decades that africa was touted as the lost continent by the economist and many other places had written off africa because the u.s. was basically not providing infrastructure money or doing anything to develop the nation and so china went in to put investments and do trade there and so now that they've actually turned it africa into the fastest growing continent the u.s. basically feels like they need to do catch up. because all these african nations and leaders have basically warmed up to china given that china has help too.

grow these nations and make them much wealthier than they used to be and have many more opportunities and so us doesn't want to feel like they're being left out and lose influence and so now they've decided that they need to go in and compete with china and of course you know pressure has gone in there as well and so this is actually good for african nations you know if there is more choice but you know it really depends on how the u.s. goes about dealing with them if the u.s. chooses to. deal in a very mafia like fashion in the way they've demonstrated with huawei by arresting a high executive. you know that kind of arm twisting in order to get concessions is probably not going to win any friends i mean it's quite strong language has been used hasn't. china is using bribes and opaque agreements you've obviously explained from the chinese perspective why they went in and explained the billions of dollars

of dollars of high profiled and infrastructure projects for example. the question of course what's your take on beijing's policies in africa firstly you've touched on lot and also accused russia of increasing its influence in the region through quote corrupt economic dealings what's your take on law as well. well i know less about russia's incentives but i certainly know that china has taken an interest in africa because there are lots of resources in africa as there are in central asia as well and there's just a lot of low hanging fruit china feels that it has a lot of the expertise the know how to build the infrastructure for africa in order to turn it into

a very vibrant region and this could certainly increase trade with china so china sees this as a no brainer that way so between the natural resources and the you know potential for much bigger economies there it was you know certainly worth it for china to engage with them in the in the long run to help them develop even though many african nations or extremely poor and couldn't pay back china for a lot of investments and so china was willing to use barter in exchange for all the services and projects they provided the african nations and so you know china had this flexibility they weren't looking for a quick profit or return the way that many westerners. look at things and which is why.