scottish politician calls for the assets of journalists working for a sporting news agency to be seized around in the organization a kremlin stooge. comes after sputnik published leaked documents just in the u.k. is funding a think tank that aims to foster until russia sentiment across europe were taken a look at the think tanks alleged. cry over one of germany's most acclaimed journalists exposed for having fake stories for years deepens as it's alleged that he stole readers' donations collected on behalf of people featured in his article.

for joining us this is r.t. the. scottish lawmaker has called for drastic action against alleged russian propaganda speaking to you can use paper the times alex cole hamilton demanded the seizure of assets of russians working for the sputnik media outlet calling it a crime and stooge of the boy who has the story is an internet based radio station whose u.k. headquarters are up in edge him 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 warfare against britain or to destabilize britain should have their assets seized take a listen to what he had to say to the sunday times. we're going to zation such as you can are to pump propaganda backed by vladimir putin and have been complicit in

the cover up of events from human rights breaches to the russian invasion of crimea other countries have taken a tougher line on the assets of russian nationals than we have in the u.k. 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 it 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 to the journalists known to the times article gave us their reaction. i didn't receive any request from the times to use my name and proof while and naturally i'm annoyed with the fact that they did so overall i would say that the newspaper has been foolish and disrespectful to the staff at sputnik and r.t. and that it forms part of the on going on to russia purchase

a to buy the government as a deflection tactic from bragg's it and other issues and initially it was it was a bit of a shock on the other hand it's kind of hardly surprising given the anti russian sentiment there is you know travel in all your key newspapers just say and we expose this integrity initiative which ruffled a few feathers people are not too happy about it and then we saw this times article carpark and make the claim that somehow this explosion of the integrity initiative by an r.t.c. 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 except and under the headline of being part of a shaman stooge but never hand we know that we've done nothing wrong and i would say that this very much into keys that we are doing something right here we send requests to several international media organizations for their view on the story

and to find out what they think of the times article whether it meets ethical standards we are still awaiting their responses russian embassy in london says thirteen publishing journalist data the times is following the example of the controversial ukrainian website peace maker now that site posts personal data of people it considers to be enemies of the state some of the people who appeared on the list were later murdered last month germany called for the side to be shut down after it published details of former german chancellor gerhard schroeder the un says peacemaker violates the right to privacy and presumption of innocence honest right a new clock believes the times article shows that anything goes when trying to shut down dissenting media. the sunday times and its sister paper the times have waged a war against russian media which is operating lawfully in this country in the u.k. for a number of years now and the intention or the aim is quite clear they want to get sputnik closed down and they want to get r.t. taken off air in the u.k. that's very very clear and they will do anything to try to further that you know

what's been happening is it's i would good for us call it harassment i think putting the pictures the photographs of people who work to support the on a in a newspaper like that i think is tantamount to incitement almost it might put those people's lives in danger people who work for russian media british journalists who work i think of him threaten the persecuted and i think that you know we've got to stand up against this mccarthyism. steroids really what we've got at the moment. is money bashing sputnik in the times article the science bear nimmo defense fellow with the atlantic council he posted numerous sunday russia tweets the most latest article also talks about alleged violations by the possibility of sanctions against the channel he adds r.t. only emphasizes the kremlin's position while giving little airtime to critics on the most names already appeared in documents that show his alleged links to the integrity initiative group spreading anti russia sentiment and he's not alone the

league paper suggests the u.k. funny charity has been using journalists across europe to stir up until russia feeling explains. if she were a new organization it would be integrity initiative lo and behold an army of propagandists the sky's the as anti propagandists whose job is to malign the slander be it states ideas people even british politicians our investigation has found wiring evidence the shadowy programs official twitter account has been used to call. the labor party and their fish oils one three quoted newspaper article calling corbin a useful idiot that goes on to state he's open visceral anti-press tinnies and how the kremlin course as surely as if he had been secretly peddling weapons to 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 operational to defame him well funded by the british government no less but slandering german corben opposition politicians isn't their only job the integrity initiative which is working to counter disinter mission 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 the early two million pounds this financial year but funding covers its activity outside the u.k. and it has not found any activity within the u.k. 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 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. as we will no doubt attract unwanted attention irregardless here 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 very influential italian newspaper surprise more bashing russia it became increasingly evident in twenty sixteen that russian strategic narrative sometimes including dissent from ation 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 winnie 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. it appears that the promotional 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 are us here at r t according to the leaked documents they have people presumably who they paid to report r.t. to off corm 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 off to sea

we've all noticed how anti russian sentiment in the media has soared over the last years and saw as still we now know one of the reasons but above all these leaks and in my view tear the mosques off the bol that fights russian propaganda as they claim and what's underneath is ugly. we have the foreign office to comment on the integrity initiative allegations it told us the claims were being spread by kremlin news channels as part of a russian this information campaign he spoke to piers robinson chair in politics at sheffield university he says that it's much less about countering russian propaganda and it's more about sowing embedding narratives on the 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 the outcry surrounding one of germany's star journalist exposed last week as having faked stories for years is deepening class or lotus who was fired from

dish legal magazine allegedly appropriated readers donations for people featured in his articles that included often syrian children on the devinsky has more. being accused now of being a purveyor of fake and fictitious news he's actually now being accused of embezzling money as a result of his stories the story but it clear that this relates to is one from two thousand and sixteen he told a heart wrenching tale about two syrian all phones a brother and a 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 wasnt an orphan 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 outlets 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 is for. u.s. policy. and 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 it's all worked out just beagle 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 route 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 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 to his deceit is far far deeper than we already know the gunman has fired shots at a restaurant in brussels the security chiefs want potential terror attacks across europe details right after this break. expect very many people will truth to be biologically go. move your body your working for also means your mind isn't working for. i believe we will have pretty much no why would we old people we will have a much greater number of the old people. the greek riots occupy wall street arab spring these are the beginnings.

of the protests across europe today it was all connected it's all based on the exact same concept of bankers printing too much money creating this wealth and income gap and it's delayed or deferred riot you know it's true that the violence was baked into the cake and now leaders like back home are getting their just desserts. fears are growing a fresh terrorist attacks in europe after a gunman wielding a k forty seven five shots at a restaurant to one of the most prestigious parts of brussels police found three bullet holes in the window of the restaurant in the avenue louise districts though

no injuries were reported the restaurant itself has been closed while police investigate and the authorities haven't identified as yet a suspect also known as also on the list after the u.s. state department issued a statement warning its citizens of a terror threat washington says tourist hot spots. public areas or of particular concern and confusion remains over last week's incident again we can the u.k. reports of a drone shut down the country's second largest port police are now saying they may not actually be the drone know what quite sure two suspects have been released and were just after the incident with the security minister but wallace warned the terror group al qaeda is resurgent and planning spectacular attacks we spoke to former british intelligence officer sean she thinks most of the military interventions of contributed to the current fear of a terrorist attack. whereas you look at the warning at barcelona from the u.s. state department that would indicate potentially that they have specific

information specific intelligence that there might be some sort of operation planned there although warning tourist where going on buses and going to major tourist transport hubs i fail to see how that's going to potentially stop some sort of attack and it would probably just potentially frighten tourists i think the support and encouragement that was tacitly given by certain western countries to the terrorists in syria allows them to build a base and sony isis had a foothold in the benghazi region and if al qaeda is resurgent then they are going to have the same so the whole of north africa now is a mess and that was created by nato intervention and this is what's led partly to the migrant crisis across europe and this is leading again to terrorist bases that can strike out against europe. u.s. stock market has suffered its worst ever christmassy session the dow jones lost almost three percent during monday's trading the index is now almost twenty percent lower than it's september pig though to slide up enough to donald trump lashed out

of the federal reserve of course it was on twitter. the only problem our economy has is the food they don't have a feel for the market they don't understand this is three trade wars or strong dollars or even democrat shutdowns over borders the fed is like a powerful golfer who can't score because he has no touch he can't part of the u.s. president was referring to last week's hike in interest rates by the fed which functions as america's central bank the stock market is on course for its worst december since the great depression and the u.s. treasury secretary has been seeking to carm investor nerves on sunday steve the new chin issued a statement saying we continue to see strong economic growth in the u.s. economy but after he held a meeting with the country six largest banks seeking assurances that they have enough liquidity to keep up lending for consumers and businesses. let's bring in jeffrey tucker he's editorial director at the american institute for economic

research and it's great to have you on jeffrey very unusual i would have thought to see a president attacking the head of the federal reserve in such a direct aggressive manner is this dispute between them damaging for the economy. it is unusual i mean it's typical that a presidents would apply pressure on the head of the fed to of course lower interest rates every president wants interest rates to be zero you know but that's not what we're doing anymore and the head of the fed as is wisely i think understands as the kind of had a fan of the federal reserve but but but something has to change we have to raise rates and we have to fix a balance sheet that is not why the financial markets are under pressure you can look over the last twelve months and see every sense from start his trade protection trade war stuff the markets have not liked it he should get a clue reverse these crazy tariffs and start making peace with the world that would

be the most bullish time for the stock market and i tell you how how not to fix a start market is to is to announce publicly that you're creating a plunge and. this is just a an amateurish navas announcement by the top of ministration truly embarrassing he talked about the tariffs the trade war with china is that backfired then would you say is it too late to walk that bank. it's not too late to walk back if he wants to fix the markets just make peace with with with china get rid of the tariffs it would we would see the stock market war the world economy has not liked trump's ridiculous trade policy but unfortunately he's very ideologically dedicated to a more cancellers to vision of trade and it's been devastating for america for china and really for the world economy and for the stock market in general i mean he needs to wake up and recognize that he was wrong and he has to go forward that's what that's what would terms blaming the it isn't the stock market or the democrats

he says it's that you know they're shut down. borders that that's his excuse is it a legitimate one is the government shutdown speaking of us this. now then i don't think investors have ever cared about these ridiculous washington government shutdowns or all phony anyway i was taught markets have never cared about this stuff and twenty five years it's been going on this is all response to trade or and also this announcement of the plunge protection team you know you can't announce something like that expect start markets to go oh that's that's good we're going to be protected no it means we're expecting a plunge so the market gave trump has his climbs and that he needs to wise up and realize what's really going on this is not really about the federal reserve and it's not really about the democrats in the border wall or that's not actually at all of the government shutdown this is all about the market's been spooked about

a very aggressive and really essentially crazy trade policy does disrupting supply chains all over the world and taxing consumers and. leading to endless retribution from all of the countries it's not good for the world economy and trump needs to realize that he is one hundred percent wrong on trade is to wise up and get with the program the markets are punishing him right now and he may it's time that he realize this is this jeffrey going to speak to my guest jeffrey took attitude direct at the american institute for economic research thank you. fletcher . now into the news and a u.s. aircraft carrier has entered the persian gulf for the first time since two thousand and one company by a fleet of warships and what washington is calling a show of force against iran. i mean for maybe showing that they're committed to rezone stability across the globe particularly in the gulf region and it's very

economically important area for them to our world and so we're going to continue to go wherever we can internationally national waters and we're going to you know show our presence. until rounds now threaten to block the strait of hormuz the only exit from the gulf a third of all trade passes through the strait iran's elite revolutionary guards military force have been conducting drills near the area for over a week it's been reported iranian ships have launched a drone and missiles close to kerry but tehran has denied those ties are so sad. and this comes amid rising tensions between iran and the u.s. after washington with drew from the two thousand and fifteen the nuclear agreement and reinstated sanctions person that deal the worst ever commander of the iranian revolutionary guards mohammed ali said the u.s. deployment a warship in the gulf is merely a gesture aimed at giving its allies a false sense of security a professor of political science at the university of tehran gave us his view. it's

part of a larger strategy of the trumpet ministration trying to pressure iran i mean this administration since taking into office nearly two years ago has been trying to pressure iran via sanction we are threats and now bringing an aircraft carrier very near to iranian waters is very provocative i think the significance is. right now at least more of a threat rather than an actual military confrontation and i think the drills in the persian gulf are essentially trying to demonstrate both to the americans and to the israelis that the rain in forces are prepared we have to remember that from the rain in perspective the americans in the past two decades have a tattoo of iran's neighbors afghanistan and iraq and the only. tool that you warn has as a deterrent for an american attack is to have a strong military. watching out of me for this even to stay with us they were

coming down hawkins is very adept and he'll bring about up to date in half. school. you know world big partisan group. 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. and 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 we're watching closely watching the hawks. my son in this doing drugs my nephew was still in drugs my sister just with doing drugs it was like an epidemic of drug abuse america's public enemy number one in the united states is drug abuse started going after the users in the prison

population. we started treating sick people people who are addicted to these drugs like criminals while i was on the hill i became convinced that the war on drugs was a mistake there are countless numbers of people who are in prison for. a long sentence in this for. minor offenses. it's a lot watching your children grow up in miss you in waves in saved by daddy as you're walking out of a business it's just it doesn't get easier. the . feeling a.