the scottish m.p.'s calling for the assets of journalist working for russia sputnik to be seized branding the media outlet the kremlin stooge it comes after sputnik publish new documents that suggest the u.k. is funding a think tank aiming to foster russia sentiment across europe we look at the think tanks alleged methods. and the outcry over one of germany's most acclaimed journalists exposed for having great stories. as its alleged he still read his donations collected on behalf of the people featured in his article.

it's six o'clock and you're watching all three international live from our moscow studio. welcome to the program. with the alleged threat of russian propaganda still being trumpeted across the west a scottish m.p. has now issued a chilling threat speaking to you can use paper the times alex cole hamilton demanded the seizure of assets of russians working for the sputnik that calling it a crime. has the following story. it's an internet based radio station whose u.k. headquarters are up in edinburgh in scotland and this liberal democrat m.s.p. alex quill hamilton has told the sunday times that any russians who live in scotland and engage in what he calls information rule fair against britain or to destabilise britain should have their assets seized take

a listen to what he had to say to the sunday times. organizations such as you can are to pump propaganda by vladimir putin and have been complicit in the cover up of events from human rights breaches to the russian invasion of crimea and other countries have taken a tougher line on the assets of russian nationals than we have in the ukraine the u.k. government must look again at what can be done that is pretty harsh rhetoric but that would have been a hit if the sunday times hadn't printed it along with the photographs of all the people that work in sputnik up in edinburgh it reads a bit like a wall of shame editorially there doesn't seem any reason for those photographs to be there other than sort of the newspaper outing these people as sort of being involved in anti british activities almost reads a bit like an incitement to violence in terms of why the spotlight has fallen on

the radio station up in edinburgh and sputnik well it appears that some of the reporting that they've been doing has been rubbing politicians up the wrong way in particular the radio station just like r.t. has reported on the leaked integrity initiative documents and they happen to reveal that the u.k. foreign office happens to be funding and anti russian public influence campaign through a british think tank and that's been quite a major story both. sputnik and c but the times article has already written off these leaks these documents about integrity initiative because they say that they come from russian hackers we spoke to produce put thinking ok also named in the times article who says that such accusations against bootlick mean that they are doing a great job. and initially it was it was a bit of

a shock on the other hand it's kind of hardly surprising given the nz russian sentiment that is you know travel and all you keen newspapers just say we expose this integrity initiative which ruffled a few feathers people are not too happy about it and then we saw this times article cock up and make the claim that somehow this explosion of the intake soonish to buy an r t suggests that it was a russian hack of the anonymous integrity initiative documents so it's i mean it's just ridiculous not nice to see your picture up there with your name makes a and under the headline of being part of a train when stooge about another hand you know that we've done nothing wrong and i would say that this very much into keys that we're doing something right here. we've sent requests to numerous international media organizations for their take on the story and whether the times article met ethical standards and we're still waiting for any response the russian embassy to the u.k.

says that the times is following the example of controversial new craning website peace maker in publishing journalist data dempsey added that the organization for security and cooperation in europe should look into the actions by the times peacemaker prints the personal data of people it calls the country's enemies its so-called black list has been strongly criticized abroad after some of those names were murdered last month burning coal to shut down the website when it published details on former german chancellor gerhard schroeder the un says that peacemaker violates the right to privacy and presumption of innocence author and russia analyst martin says he's not surprised at the attacks on sputnik given that its views differ radically from the mainstream western agenda. put. a radio station which had to curage the russian point of view directly from perceived

problem russian point of view. that really jars was a lot of people in britain because they found. followed very very difficult to counter. the usual accusations that it is biased and so on is if you like normal in the information war all weapons are being used russia is the main target in europe and therefore it's not surprising the support that has been picked out as our two years in the past been picked out as well for their reporting. in britain but many in the british. don't like the point of view the opinions which are big broached with many bashing sputnik in the times article the outlet cites benetton in a. with the atlantic council he calls but nick an instrument of russian state power not an independent journalism outlet and the name is not

a new one in the integrity initiative scandal already appearing in released documents showing his alleged links to the group spreading anti russia sentiment and he's not alone the leaked papers suggest that the u.k. funded charity has been using journalists across europe to stir up until russia failings what investigates. if she were an organization it would be integrity initiative low and behold an army of propaganda ists disguised as anti propagandists whose job is to. the slander that states ideas people even british politicians our investigation has found barring evidence the shadowy programs official twitter account has been used to attack or been the labor party and their fresh us want to quote a newspaper article calling corbin a useful idiot that goes on to state he's open visceral and western isn't how the

kremlin course as surely as if he had been secretly peddling westminster tattle for money you can imagine the shock mr corben must have felt when he learned through these leaks that integrity knishes eve had no breach in the defame him well funded by the british government no less but slandering german opposition politicians isn't the only job with integrity initiative which is working to counter this information overseas by bringing together groups of experts to analyze and discuss the problem posed by russian this information the government is funding this initiative with daily two million pounds this financial year but funding covers its activity outside the u.k. and it has not found any activity within the e.u. . the hacktivist group anonymous has leaked details on the operation integrity initiative functions by setting up independent clusters candidates seem to be

hand-picked big plus a few influential charismatic but the chief requirement seems to be you've got to really hate russia the integrity initiative was set up to bring to the attention of politicians policymakers opinion leaders and other interested parties the threat posed by russia to democratic institutions in the united kingdom across europe and north america now here is what's been bugging me personally if these white knights and self professed fighters for the truth of what they say they are why are they hiding why are they trying to stay in the shadows anonymity of the team remains paramount as our activity increases we will no doubt attract unwanted attention irregardless he is how their class the system works see you have an article in the

french le monde a harsh attack on alleged russian propaganda in france the author the french professor happens to be part of integrity initiative french cluster and at least according to the leaked lists and gets paid to trash talk russia they even boosted their grand plans when visited by who found the institute of statecraft which birth integrity initiative in italy and the atlantic council published a big study with help from an editor of less a very influential italian newspaper surprise more bashing russia it became increasingly evident in twenty sixteen that russian strategic narratives sometimes including dissent from asian and conspiracy theories were. systematically spread in italy by the vast network of pro and five s websites and social media accounts not so much of a surprise it's called mini is also listed as

a member of the italian cluster and also gets paid for his work unfortunately according to an internal integrity initiative memo their peers to be a shortage of russian propaganda in italy in a do it appears that the promotion of a strategy to spread disinformation and to influence the italian political opinions has been limited and came much more from national populist boxes rather than from russia what a foreign country strange isn't it how they choose to keep that part secret we can go on and on about other clusters but you get the point they're pretty initiative even targets us here at r t according to the leaked documents they have people presumably who they paid to report r.t. to off gone the british media regulator ofcom actually publishes complaints statistics only if over ten complaints didn't make that list it seems like

integrity initiative not audience members convinced of calm to go after tea we've all noticed our anti russian sentiment in the media has soared over the last years and soars still we now know one of the reasons but above all these leaks and in my view tear the mosques off the baal that fights russian propaganda as they claim and what's underneath is ugly. the u.k. foreign office to comment on the integrity initiative allegations it told us that the claims were being spread by kremlin news channels as part of a russian disinform asian campaign we spoke to piers robinson chair in politics at sheffield university he says this is much less about countering russian propaganda and more about sowing and imbedding narratives on

a domestic and regional level. it seems to be just as much about promoting insuring up official u.k. policy towards russia as it is about actually countering any russian threat the u.k. government and other western governments in the us in recent years have had increasing difficulties persuading enough of their populations as to the legitimacy of the foreign policies that they have been pursuing and at the same time western countries have been going through a period of political crisis an economic crisis and i think a lot of this drive is as much about trying to shore up shakey official narratives and trying to shore up political systems in a situation of political crisis as it is actually about countering russian propaganda or i think i would suspect that's a little bit of an excuse here that really what's going on at problems much closer

to home. this is not just to do the u.k. this is europe wide and there also are indications from the documents that they are intending to start to have some kind of impact within the united states a very wide ranging network that seems to be established reason why it needs to be covertly of course is that if a media organization or of a journalist is to let on that he or she is involved in a program which quite clearly is pushing a particular agenda then the credibility of that journalist will be damaged and this is really what is very deceptive about the integrity initiative it's about co-opting journalists and academics into a into essentially a campaign which appears to be a propaganda campaign in order to manipulate opinions and the only way that can really work effectively is that readers and viewers don't know what they're reading is something which has emerged from a particular political agenda. a

disgraceful in the top german journalist is alleged to have stolen donations from often to syrian children those details are to this break. you should. put themselves on the line. they get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president and you. want to be rich. but you want to be pros that's what it looks like three of the people get. into st paul's at the

water's edge. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race is also a spear in dramatic development only really i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. welcome back to the program the outcry surrounding one of germany's staunch expose last week is having fake stories for years is deepening class who was fined for. allegedly appropriated reaches donations for people featured in his articles

including orphaned syrian children. he has more details not just being accused now of being a prevail over conflict just news he's actually now being accused of embezzling. money as a result of his stories the story particularly that this relates to is one from two thousand and sixteen he told a heart wrenching tale about two syrian all phones a brother or sister they were living hundreds of miles apart in different cities into after escaping syria and they were dreaming of a life together a life together in germany and he urged his readers to donate money to try and help these two siblings his brother and his sister make their dreams come true and to get them to germany where the money was funneled into his private account and while it's not known how much actually went in there this spiegel is now investigating the claims that he actually embezzled that money because it turns out according to

a turkish photographer who was working with him on this story that one of the children didn't even exist and the second one the brother who did exist was actually living with his mother in turkey and was and often so now dispy go as far as a criminal complaint looking into that embezzle mint possibly of money. as a reaction to that story now to speak also used its front page this week to say its sorry to its readers for the fake news that it's been publishing for many many years this house is shattered the worst thing that can happen to a print media outlet has happened to us for years we allowed fake reports to go to print for us it's particularly horrifying that managed to deceive us for so long without being uncovered well in the fallout of this scandal dispy girl is now facing other accusations notably one from the u.s. ambassador to germany who's accused the magazine of having anti american bias.

u.s. policies in certain segments of the american people it's clear that we were targeted by institutional bias the anti american bias that the magazine has. exploded since the election of president trump. worked at just spiegel for a number of years and he was considered to be such an excellent journalist that the magazine decided to make him stuff in two thousand and seventeen he's won many accolades both in germany and internationally for his work including just this december he was given the german reporters association prize and back in two thousand and fourteen he even was named by c.n.n. as being journalist of the year we just spiegel is admitting that at least fourteen all of his articles were fictitious they were fake it's now looking deeper into his other articles and it could be that the scale of his deceit is far far deeper than

we already know following those accusations from the us ambassador on spiegel's perceived anti americanism we shall describe it in her reports and magazine has apologized to all american citizens who may have been insulted and slandered by reports spiegel however says that it does not have an overall anti us bias political commentator and publisher told us washington is focusing only on the fake stories that don't fit its narrative turning a blind eye to the rest. they change those stories that make america look bad and jay those journalists who are most critical do not care on those people and those journalist who did fake stories about syria and most of the stories about syria and this war there were faked and were lies america is of course just taking those who don't want to stir up their their present policy

policy they do the politics of america first america only america great and whatever and they don't they just don't care anymore whether it is very obvious or whether it is not obvious. but in security minister has a veil that he meant defense chief just before the gatwick airport trying to address an airport terror attack threat. the aviation threat is real aviation is still a blue ribbon the vent for these terrorists and al qaeda are resurgent they have reorganized their push to mirror more plots to wards europe will become familiar with new methods and still a sponsor aviation attacks while is told britain's sunday times newspaper that thoughts of an aviation attack by al qaeda are keeping ministers awake at night the report adds that the terror group's growing capabilities will force a security crackdown in the wake of the gatwick incident when reports of

a drone paralyze britain's second busiest airport last week. u.k. ministry is reported to be concerned by the us withdrawal from syria warning that it will create a new safe haven for islamist french president emanuel micron's shares those fears saying that he deeply regrets donald trump's decision the u.s. is also planning to have its troop presence in afghanistan. after seventeen years of its war in that country but analysts warn that the war on terror has not only failed to defeat al qaeda there but has actually spawned the birth and spread of numerous other extreme militant groups artie's eagle is a doll takes a broader look. over the past eighteen years u.s. leaders have named a multitude of reasons for its troops to be stationed fight and die in afghanistan . the united states military has begun strikes against al qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the taliban regime in

afghanistan this military action is a part of our campaign against terrorism nine eleven disfigured and reformed the global security order as ranks of u.s. troops moved into afghanistan to defeat al qaida and do thrown the taliban. i. would as it may sound. the outcome of this almost two decades long war is hardly worth the price both the u.s. and afghanistan have paid more than sixty thousand of us and afghan soldiers have been killed al qaeda is still there and nineteen other terrorist groups including eisel cropped up and gained foothold in afghanistan right under the nose of the u.s. army there. as

for the taliban it is no longer in power but still this is hardly a victory worthy of eighteen years of hard fighting as the current government struggles to remain in control of just over a half of the country but the war on terror was only one of the points on washington's to do list in the country. we will work with local leaders the afghan government and international partners to have a reconciliation process in every province half of afghan children without education poverty and discrimination are rampant the country is ranked third for

corruption by transparency international not exactly a shining light of democracy so when donald trump stepped into the oval office he promised among other things to focus on soft power let afghanistan be the country its people wanted to be. we're a partner a friend but we will not dictate to the afghan people how to live or how to govern their own. x. society trump calling afghanistan a partner falls into the basket of cases when long distance relationships just don't work beat out good leadership ordinary citizens they don't see american troops making a difference for them. either fighting as we have a number of civilian casualties as a result of these attacks if they are here for our protection and why bomb us why do we have civilian casualties that is why no one ever felt safe in their presence better do as an afghan citizen and i don't feel safe with the u.s.

army vehicles and tanks in the streets we are afraid a blast to make or at any time the afghans have faced a lot of issues because of that what they made of this creation of course business is down there is no security and people come to america one thing in afghanistan and that was to destroy an already very very hard very damaged country in terms of removing the terrorists from moving taliban and everything they have failed because taliban is still there taliban have actually expanded now and so trump boasted about being a problem solver in the end we will win but since the u.s. president's own definition of victory is this obliterating isis crushing al qaeda preventing the taliban from taking over afghanistan the u.s. army is no withdrawing its evacuating running away deserts in the battlefield

beaten. u.s. officials generals whatever they will always keep saying that this war has reached a stalemate because they will never admit that this war has already been lost when the u.s. invaded afghanistan in two thousand and one the taliban consisted of maybe two hundred to four hundred members today that were his ation is splintered into several different order. nations across continents in the numbers of tens of thousands this war has been a complete and utter failure the pentagon the white house and trump will never admit that they will call it things like a stalemate and then now they're going to look at private contractors to try to save this war. in washington the national christmas tree may be close to the public on christmas eve going to park service is the u.s. government shutdown makes it difficult to repair damaged lights senate democrats

are still at an impasse with the president trying his demand to fund a border security well meaning the shutdown is unlikely to end soon meanwhile the u.s. president is celebrating one design of what the new u.s. mexico barrier might look like. what building the wall what building the wall folks were building a big beautiful powerful wall a great great wall and it's going to be a real what's going to be i what's going to be beautiful it's going to be a walk to your action would build the greatest wall you have never see eye eye. to

. it looked like something that was made on microsoft paint in maybe about one thousand nine hundred ninety eight when trump talks about his ideas for the country he sounds like playing the sims video game for the first time and now he's really proving me right because he you know you see this picture and it looks like something that would bet that a child could have made it's cartoonish it's amateurish it's amazing that a group of people who are allegedly in charge of the country saw that design and said ok the wall is a largely unpopular idea nobody knows exactly how much it's going to cost it's

a total waste of resources it's a total waste of money it's a waste of time and it's based in spite and bigotry. found out from back in around thirty minutes with but in the meantime stay tuned going underground have on the international. time after time to hear what you're going on the ground while we're away for christmas with screenings of your favorite episodes of the season coming up in this his british ahmed saudi arabia's partner of the yemen the war the u.a.e. subverting the u.k. democracy doesn't run cons nuclear pakistan continues i.m.f. negotiations with the look east or west plus what did yesterday's remembered sunday

seventy really being hip hop artist on that division though be on the demise.