you know it's. no. good for. russian citizen the united states pleads guilty to. cases politicized claiming she was put on the psychological pressure. also coming up the

french rejects a motion of no confidence in the government despite growing criticism of president . of the protests. in the west bank said. after two israeli soldiers were killed. in a shooting. thanks for joining us in the program. the maria boots a russian national detained in the u.s. on charges of being an unregistered foreign agent has now entered a guilty plea at a washington d.c. court who said i was told she faces up to five years behind bars or could be deported. as the details. well in the washington d.c. court room we saw maria boots and 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 espionage and out of 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 put in that has nothing to do with justice or investigation of any kind but this is probably a form 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 russian response to the way bettina has been treated people be waiting to see what happens next. mel a call from the international human rights committee believes the way mary buton is being treated in the u.s. is unacceptable. maria buton is being held in prison in the city of alexandria and the conditions susan are downright unacceptable as if she's

dangerous felon or a terrorist or a serial killer says been kept apart from the rest of the inmates she spent most of her time in prison like that she's got no way of communicating with other inmates zille out to go for a walk only between two and four am which is appalling really for all practical purposes she's been deprived of sleep either go for war could talk to a loved one some the firm which is understandably of great importance to maria asleep maria has to make this choice on a daily basis it clearly constitutes a violation of the human rights convention under which sleep deprivation this class is a form of torture going without proper sleep for a prolonged period of time could pose a serious threat to a person's health. the israeli military has launched a manhunt in the west bank for a palestinian gunman who killed two israeli soldiers at a bus stop troops have set up checkpoints and blocked roads throughout the entire

area ramallah based reporter who has more details. according to reports initial reports was that palestinians opened fire on israeli soldiers on a flying checkpoint near a model be it or assume is that happen all roads were closed there's really no army has entered normal loaches 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 on the main road between palestinians and israeli settlers settlers have been 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. all throughout thursday and to use very

protests were held in the west bank my colleague to discuss the recent escalation and the deaths of the two israeli soldiers with the head of the asian jewish congress. starting with the situation in palestine area what can israel do to further avoid the escalation of violence in ramallah is well tries to do its best to avoid this kind of escalation but israel's duty is first of all 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 motive 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 and of fortunately we suffer from terror cells only reply of israeli population to terror to stalk any perpetrator who wants to kill civilians and this

kind of reply of blockade of some region that unfortunately terrorists are hiding in its force proper reply and spur is to provide proper protection for israeli and arab civilian population. other headlines there are the terrorists who killed three people in strasburg christmas markets has been shot dead by police on the outskirts of the city that has now been confirmed by the interior ministry sharif checkouts had been on the run since tuesday evening according to eyewitnesses the shooter shouted god is great in arabic as he opened fire just outside the market or thirty's say he was a strasberg local and he may have been radicalized while in prison he had a criminal record in both france and germany and was on a security watch list of the shooting and initial failure to catch the gunmen caused international alarm hundreds of french police were involved in the search

the suspect is known to have been part of radicalized networks italian government has also been closely following the situation amid fears of a copycat incident plus german security forces have been assisting in the manhunt as well the french prosecutor earlier gave his assessment of the terror threat through all these considering the target the perpetrators way of his profile and the testimonies of those who how the human you know a lot of a bar and to terror police have been called into action terrorism has once again struck our country in strasburg reminding us in a dramatic fashion that the threat is still very real and we heard earlier from two members of the european parliament from quite different ends of the political spectrum they did agree though that europe's current out of terror policy does need reviewing. we kept one minute of silence for the victims as we do recently. as we're doing every day and does good is good and bad because we are doing the work of the this

a lot of time this mandate so that means we have to change policies to find the sources of the terrorism and to attack the sources of the readers of the we have to stop the wars in the middle east we have to really degrade their words realize the youth of the suburbs of paris and brussels move and we have to do to work together with the moderate islam to the week of two to establish some long term goals and try to achieve them marial as miles i think this was expected this is proof that this is a must terrorist has committed a crime that was relatively easy to commit i believe it is time to react the terrorist who carried out this massacre yesterday was well known to the police so why wasn't he detained in advance we discuss a heron stross book with the e.u. having opened its borders this free such a nation of people has bought a loud criminals to move about freely every time we have such tragedy we get back to the topic of border control and i think we should take back control of the

borders and make the criminals afraid again because now they are not scad yet ordinary people are scared of going to christmas markets with their kids scared to go outside it is not enough to light candles to cry to say like they do all the time. just because we bought the clan we all front and we want france to live in peace. that's it for just a few moments now back with more news just after this short break.

thank. you. i put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president i'm sure. that you're going to be crushed it's like before katrina more can't be good. i'm interested always in the waters of our .

international. has rejected a motion of no confidence in the government cool off the four weeks of civil unrest across the country. has this report. well this was no surprise the result of this this vote of no confidence as you mentioned there rejected by french m.p.'s in the nationalist assembly on thursday evening they rejected 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 and addressed 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 ones of the yellow vests over the last few weeks now the result as i said wasn't a surprise because. the public on march 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 would felipe had to say and also the leader of fonts also meese. one of the parties who tabled this vote of no confidence. a portrait of. the bill containing the president's social and economic emergency measures will be submitted to the council of ministers next wednesday this bill will also stop the health insurance hikes giving poor pensioners an annual saving of three hundred euro recovered the arguing over the issue of we need a financial revolution a grand clean up an eighty percent of tax knishes from which this country's richest ten percent profit now it comes as funds has been experiencing a few weeks now of a yellow vest protests these protests started back on nov seventeenth do you to what was going to be i need tax hike on fuel hate in front of that since being the

first after a government u. turn and not because of the protests but since then it's developed into something much white with people demanding many other things such as reform the tax system here fronts and we've also seen farmers steve a police union and ellis trying to join in the protests and showing their support as a designation once. was. was was . was. my. gut was. that he was. a fugitive he.

was. but. was. french journalist i many camorra villa says there is no quick fix to the crisis now gripping france the problem is this it's not only an economic crisis even if it's an economical crisis it's an institutional crisis because the micro was elected by default it was elected by the people there was an. election and people were against the far right candidates because the because of and to fascism and the

there were able to to vote for mr merkel in france or whether you have a position from the left or persons from the right you have people who cannot get along together the only thing they are being common is that they want to get rid of her of macro and micro. used to weak for its legitimacy or to too strong. with these powers so it has only just got to go away and we have to change the constitution not only get rid of macro but change the entire constitution make much more parliamentary much more you call a constitution. u.s. national security advisor john bolton has outlined a new strategy for africa limiting american aid to certain countries he said the previous strategy led to billions being spent in effectively the united states will no longer provide indiscriminate assistance across the entire continent without

focus or prioritization under our new africa strategy we will target u.s. funding toward key countries and particular strategic objectives. when his speech bolton also said the new strategy would encourage african leaders to choose high quality transparent unsustainable projects that would benefit back countries as well as the united states he emphasized the new objective of resolving conflicts and sort of freezing them the u.s. national security adviser also claimed russia and china pose a threat to american interests in the region. 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 stronger affairs analyst told us that the u.s. is unable to rival beijing's economic clout on the continent. china has taken an

interest in africa because there are lots of resources in africa 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 the u.s. was containing china for a year they need to go in and compete with china and of course you know question 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 wall way by a resting at a high executive. you know that kind of arm twisting in order to get concessions is

probably not going to win any friends. jailing of donald trump's former lawyer michael cohen could now pave the way for the president to be criminally prosecuted that's according at least to the lawyer representing stormy daniels the former porn star who allegedly received hush money from cohen on trump's orders michael cohen was sentenced today donald trump is next thank you the felony is paying my colon to commit a felony it's pretty basic you pay someone to commit a crime they commit the crime you are liable criminally liable for their commission of their crime as well as they are being liable donald trump meanwhile has denied directing his former lawyer to break the law just a day after cohen was sentenced to three years in prison occur and was convicted for several federal crimes think lewd lying to congress he also confessed to making illegal payments to women who claim to have had affairs with trump in order to keep them quiet. well live now it's a former u.s.

republican state congressman michael patrick founding thanks for joining us good to have you on the program today as we just heard this tell me daniel said every lawyer said michael cohen was sentenced the day donald trump is next certainly. some tough talk but do you think that's really realistic you. know i can usually give you a more considered answer but i'll just tell you flatly no first the reason that cohen's payment was illegal is because the southern district of new york convinced him that the payments are under the f.e.c. the federal election commission was had to do with the election and therefore were not reported and therefore were technical illegal normally that's handled with a five iron that they got cohen to to cop to that and a handful of other illegal activities and for which he's going to jail and probably on a deal because he didn't go to jail for a number of other things ok so now he's done something illegal it's

a carrying error on the f.e.c. forms it should have been reported i suppose but maybe not mr obama had the same problem that he paid. reverend jeremiah wright to not be involved in the campaign to go it's the same kind of condition. obama was fine there is campaign i should say was find an enormous amount of money as trump's campaign ought to be fined as well if this is actually a technical violation of the f.e.c. so when you say trump instructed his lawyers to do something illegal and that's illegal well ok i mean it's a hypertechnical reading of the f.e.c. law he instructed him to jaywalk and he jaywalked and therefore that's a high crime in this to mean or i don't think so secondly the southern district of new york cannot cannot indict a sitting president this is not just tradition this is also precedent to d.o.j.

and. so he's not going to be indicted that's what impeachment is that's a fancy word for indictment but proper a document of the president of want us to comments by the u.s. house of representatives and then it goes to a trial in the senate should such a thing happen so it's the burden is on mrs pelosi if mr trump is to be indicted or impeached if you prefer the word not up to lawyers in the southern district of new york i just want to come back to what you said there about the possibility of impeachment because of course the democrats will take control of the house of representatives there's a lot of speculation over what could happen there what's your prediction do you think they will try to go for that impeachment. well i don't know what mr miller has or what even the guys in the southern district of new york have if they have something more than they've shown already that would be interesting to see it might give mrs pelosi the nerve to go do this but if there's nothing more than what we've seen already in regard to the cohen matter now there it won't happen it can always happen it's a political act it's not

a legal one but it has legal implications the trial in the senate will be much as it was twenty years ago with clinton nobody but you know it will keep them from having an impeachment if they want one or even former u.s. republican congressman thanks for giving us your take today the national. oh that's it for the south join us again about thirty minutes for the latest level headlines next up the i like someone. survives a no confidence vote but now is a lame duck heartbreaks it blooms angle of merkel has announced or intending political retirement and. as president of france is in the

balance the three pillars of the e.u. are on shaky ground is the euro project suffering a crisis a competent. prosecution will need to become almost. a full design. where you question the threat of fines. by the number one place you do i mean yeah i mean i mean political pressure on the. moon conclude to security genocide nuns were the kind of business models used by american corporations. he's sold on good mental disease has been able to use. the solution. in association with. newton he saw as it is just simply deleting. an investigative documentary. ghost war

on oxy. you know i work with potential school shooters for a period of twelve years and none of the students who we work with in our facilities the syllabi ever went on to commit a school shooting so that gives me hope that if you catch the students early enough and provide the kind of support and mental health treatment that they need that they can come out of the crisis. welcome to the alex salmond show and what has been a momentous week for u.k.

politics with the prime minister's breck's it proposition boarding in the commons on job under assault from the tory backbenchers to reason is one last hope has been to appeal to the rest of europe to qatar more slack on her brakes deal and so and this week show alex test attitude of other europeans towards brics that he visits denmark a country which is joint they get a piece community on the same day as the u.k. i want to share it many of the same you know skeptics tendencies he interviews the top social democratic politician and former defense minister nick cowdery to test had the danish political winds are blowing with regard to britain's brics it and alex also speaks to the iraqi who represents a say two islands in the danish problem and i'm combines european skepticism whether wish for independence for his own island spread first tier treats messages and e-mails and another great response to our show on pricks at last week first of

all from sandy sandy says it's the break up happens it will be to these incompetence that will make it happen let's says. sure yet on brick said keep up the good work serial but thank you len and sovereign will swear she is for a government of national unity think chance will be a fine thing with caroline lucas as pm the begging says thank you alex salmon for keeping us informed you wouldn't it is absolutely vital for folk like me to be able to recognise what is going on and what it might mean for us and finally stacy keach who has a view on what george can even said on the show last week and she says i'm the s.n.p. eliminating the people of scotland with the pru european stance regardless of that was a new vote in the u.k. referendum on breaks that if we were part of the e.u. and the u.k. then we still would be independent a total. i don't know britain's brecht debates some of the more enthusiastic big city has argued that many other countries were swiveling on their own membership of the european union while you may hold even the least odds on which countries might

accompany britain at the exit door it was thought that many might follow where britain tried to both lead one of the favorites was denmark a privately independent country which famously rejected the maastricht treaty and refused to join the euro however and wonderful wonderful copenhagen alex find little or no enthusiasm for the decks it seems that however see our first look quite much bricks a tear expectations. welcome to the alex salmond show from christian burke where the danish parliament has been based for a hundred years from oil of course to many of their avid viewers of bargain it's here that the davis parliament discusses all aspects of the day this route but one of the things that top of the agenda at the present moment is bricks that the implications for the u.k. and the implications for denmark i would some poor the gift to get us to see

ourselves as others see us that's what robbie burton's had to say and today we're going to find out what denmark has to say about bret's. that care to help welcome the exam and show your family has been a fixture of social democratic politics and denmark for many generations how do you assess the situation with the elections to not coming actually i think we're going to to win the election and get back into government the opinion polls are quite narrow but the leaning away so we're quite quite optimistic but don't tell nobody. well they're the quick glacial changes in there is politics there are people still worldly but the social democrats seem to be moving ahead and the people's party seem to be moving backwards but it's not because the source of adopted some of the people sparked is program and privilege rhetoric on for example the thorny subject of.