place after weeks of massive yellow vest protests more than one and a half million people have signed a petition to sue the french government over its alleged failure to act on climate change. journalists rights groups worked with indifference to the naming and shaming of russian media workers by a british newspaper in connection with allegations of spreading this information. elsewhere russian town becomes the subject of a national scandal after the children of local officials going to trip to turkey using charities. for joining us this is. the one

a half million people have already signed an online petition demanding to sue fronts over climate inaction problems on the french president who's tried to block eight furious yellow vests protesters rallying against fuel tax rises. seems this was not the president the corn was hoping to find under his christmas tree on christmas day this petition is backed by four charities including two charities here in france and it's not just go on and move the one point six million signatures it's also being backed by french celebrities but we are simply going to sue the french think over the rights and actions regarding climate change you assume we're trying to force the state to drastically reduce emissions in the west with another headache perhaps a president who's already been having a difficult few weeks as the yellow vests protests continue they've been going on now for more than six weeks some of the weekends here in paris have seen would have been described as the worst royd seen more than half

a century. now they all started six weeks ago on nov seventeenth over plans to increase a tax on fuel here in france now that led to president trump in the u.s. to mock president might call over that the paris agreement isn't working out so well for paris protests and riots all over france people do not want to be large sums of money much to third world countries there are questionably run in order to maybe protect the environment chanting we won trump law france for weeks off to

protest started president might called turned round and said you know what ok i've heard your cries we're actually going to scrap that field tax increase all admission now the yellow vest protest as haven't been totally appeased by that and it seems that president michel. as i'm good environmentalist's bligh making that decision many people saying you can't sit on the fence when it comes to climate change how can you scrap a fuel tax which is meant to be used for money to improve the environment and say at the same time that you're fighting to protect the environment the international community remains committed to the fight against climate change fronts and your must show the way the fight goes on and this comes amidst bad pollings for president michael as well a current polling suggests that he's at twenty seven percent follow there when he came into office when that was around sixty percent so it seems the festive period not so fresh if the president might call in and it seems the french president is on

many people's naughty list this year. well the protests have echoed around the world most recently in germany where an m.p. from the left parties are urging people to rally like the french. there should be more resistance in germany we need more people to come to the streets that's how we'll achieve our aims let's pressure the government the politicians to bring about social justice signs of the cold fusion judea even worse than in france because the new new a liberal policy is that a monarch moving forward in france has already been passed and. so we are seeing the facts first german establishment is scared because they know that their position is untenable they know what they have done to this country and they know that the people are angry one of the problems in france is that the movement is not a party nice to know but they are just starting out and forming leaderships in germany we already have been understood leader of the movement which is dark next

she has credible political experience and she can provide that leadership to guide us to a change in our country. british newspaper the time to name and shame stuff to russian media outlets offices in the u.k. after an m.p. accused the organization of spreading disinform ation the hounding of the alice journalist be met with indifference by media protection groups. initially it was it was a bit of a shock on the other hand it's kind of hardly surprising given the instruction sentiment there is you know travel in all your key newspapers just a bit it's yes not nice to see your picture up there with your name except under the headline of being part of a crime when stooge but as i say you know it's very much part of what's going on just saying you carry the sunday times has been so thorough in its reporting of the threat of so-called russian descent from ation that its latest story about the russian funded radio station sputnik which has

a bureau in edinburgh carries the photographs of the journalists that work there labels them kremlin stooges and quotes a politician who suggests that their assets should be frozen i would good for school harassment i think putting the pictures of photographs of people who work on a newspaper like that i think is tantamount to almost it might put those people's lives in danger i'm a member of the national news journalists and are we right into my unit in the new year to ask what do you need is planning to do about these journalists working for russian media organizations here in the u.k. have had to develop a thick skin over the past few years as tensions between london and moscow have heightened articles calling for outlets like r.t. and sputnik to be banned have become a regular occurrence but recently the big papers have gone a step further and they started singling out the journalists working for russian media outlets this is the london bureau chief for russia's channel one more series

of last month he did some filming outside the gates of a british military base first story about the british army's cyber warfare unit aimed at fighting so-called russian propaganda he didn't break any laws gave his press credentials to all the security guards he met and left several weeks later the u.k.'s daily mail newspaper. undid his personal details and accused him of being a spy the story was reprinted by a plethora of papers it ratcheted up so much that the u.k.'s defense secretary issued a statement for citizens to stay vigilant and. we sent an inquiry to the defense ministry there's a form on their website but we didn't get any response filming near the base is not a legal it's a public area of public land you don't need permission to film there you need permission to get inside talk to the stalls we didn't record our interaction with the security personnel we didn't try to penetrate the b.b.c.

correspondent did the exact same thing as us it was broadcast and no one thinks of punishing him there's nothing illegal and you don't even have to work for the russian media to find yourself in hot water just expressing views that the mainstream is enough to be labelled a stooge putin's poor or useful idiot in the information war nowadays you have extreme language and if you find someone with an opinion which you object to and you don't agree with you then abuse them or her by causing by causing them a stooge or to use the famous explosion about lenin there were useful idiots the sputnik story isn't the first time the sunday times has used the naming and shaming tactic back in october the paper took aim at the tongue in cheek i see why am i you tube channel which is funded like r.t.

by russian taxpayers and fronted by yours truly the paper didn't shy away from printing my photograph and labelled the project the blue peter of russian propaganda the times didn't request a comment from r.t. or myself it seems that naming and shaming doesn't carry a right of reply. artiest several media organizations to comment on what happened among them the international federation of journalists the international press institute and the o c to let you know what response responses we get as they come in. german magazine der spiegel says is supporting one of his former top journalists to the police over allegations he stole donations made to people who featured in his articles plus flotus is already mired in scandal after he admitted last week to fabricating more than a dozen stories to spiegel since sacked the award winning writer suspects that he may have faked more stories than the doctor. and one man who's popularized the term

fake news is donald trump take a look back at some of the year's biggest fakes in his opinion. i think you are fake the level of dishonesty you said it is for me it was for. i realized. the issues and how fake the press can be very faked that one from famous catchphrase fake news has dominated the headlines ever since he first uttered it why does it drive his detractors so crazy well some would argue that it's true false information and deceptive reporting seems to be everywhere let's review some of the fake news of twenty eighteen. well one of the most outrageous examples was the cover of time magazine it depicted a sobbing toddler representing donald trump's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents however it turns out that the girl in the photograph

was not separated from her mother. who was not separated from her mother but yeah she's the face of this immigration problem and she has helped create awareness. but let's go through some other examples now folks had a good laugh when it was revealed that the washington post that actually cited the satirical publication known as click call when reporting on the fact that british people were trying to make the song american idiot by green day go through the charts when donald trump was visiting the country and in other instances we've seen journalists just straight up making things up. for example a reporter for the web scene known as mike claimed that maria who to know who's just pled guilty to charges of being an unregistered lobbyist for russia was in a meeting at the oval office i thought this was a photo show but it's not this is my review. of the in the russian spy in the oval

office with trump turned out that she was wrong the person in the photograph was actually a national security council staffer but in the journalist defense they both do have . red hair and we all know that all of us gingers look the same. how about a paper on canine rape culture in dog parks or a feminist rewrite of hitler's my struggle it turns out that this year fake news was used to make a political point people were submitting fake research in order to expose what they believed was a bias in ak and damia some of the fake research got through. so. closely . and one trend we saw throughout the year was fact checkers retracting their fact

checks what could be more embarrassing those who claim they are stopping the spreading misinformation actually spreading misinformation themselves and admitting to it based on what we've seen throughout the year it seems pretty clear that fake news will be while alive in twenty nineteen. r.t. new york. may be hoping for at least some respite from what he sees as a fake the president has already tweeted merry christmas eve open to his presence.

hollow. man. teacher it's. late. now is blackwater back to find out more news after the break. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race often very dramatic development the only very

critical time to sit down and talk. greek riots or 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 sure that the violence was baked into the cake and now leaders like are getting their just desserts.

coming that's the chilling warning in a bizarre full page gun magazine in the name of one of the world's most notorious missing blackwater top private military contractors blackwater was banned from iraq in two thousand and seven following numerous numerous arifin reports of muscle civilians will make the out even stranger that blackwater was renamed i could be me meeting many to speculate the infamous. i wonder if. there were dead bodies everywhere wouldn't be. going to. be among the dead bodies lying on the street that some. seven years old.

we have requested comment from both the magazine and the company that now owns black water we'll let you know soon as we hear from the. blackwater found erik prince recently published plans to replace u.s. troops in afghanistan with a massive private army idea was repeatedly turned down by defense secretary jim mattis but mattis is now stepping down so last week announced that he's having the number of pentagon troops in the country and pulling the pentagon out of syria altogether leaving some to think that it paves the way for the missing realities to return in a as donald trump would say

a big way. let's bring him in there benjamin news co-founder of the international antiwar movement code pink good to have you on the day it's seems somewhat bizarre and people thought that blackwater was long gone and the threat we are coming do you think we are going to see one of the most infamous names in the mercenary industry resurrected. i sure hope not the one hand trump is saying that we should get out of the business of fighting wars thousands of miles away and that's the context in which he is called for with the withdrawal of the troops from syrian afghanistan so it would not make any sense to have u.s. tax policy payers foot the bill for a private mercenary force like blackwater in whatever name it calls itself to be replacing u.s. soldiers now there were congressional hearings the lawsuits about alleged criminal

activity conducted by the what would it mean if they were to come back could they come back. well i am sure that among the american public there is a very negative opinion of blackwater and or erik prince and among most of the members of congress as well so i can't imagine that this would go through certainly it's something that general term could try to do as an executive order but i think there would be so much backlash in the united states i don't think the american public would stand for a company that has been so has committed so many crimes in the past and just the idea that we would be paying for people who would be fighting for profit we've privatized so much of our military are ready but it's been all of the services that the military needs not the actual fighting itself i do not think the u.s. public nor congress would accept that. story seriously i mean this appeared in lots

of outlets including some publications linked to the pentagon when there was a chance it could be a hoax but if it's a hoax it's a thorough one. well in the age of donald trump we have learned to take everything seriously because you never know so i we've been absolutely rule it out but this is been floated several times before and it has been shot down not just by general mattis but by so many different sectors of the u.s. society that are totally uncomfortable not just with erik prince but this whole notion of mercenaries fighting for us so i don't say that it's necessarily a hoax i'm sure erik prince is always looking for a chance to come back and with maddest out of the way this is a good time to try again because of the key thing here is his departure he was opposed to the use of mercenaries do you think that an opening has been sponsored now by the likes of prince well i would think that it has because he

is always looking for an opening this is a guy who has for years made his money by hiring people to kill and by making quite a profit on it and so it's his business he's always looking for ways to insert himself in wars that are going on but let's be clear about one thing erik prince and mercenaries make money by continuing wars not by ending them so this certainly would not make any sense for an american public who has shown through different polls that they are very tired of wars that we've been in and in the case of afghanistan it has been over seventeen years so rather than pass this on to a private military i think the american public would be much more inclined to say bring the troops home get out of the world altogether and that that would be an incentive then for peace talks to actually become effective defines for your time i

guess what a bunch of and co-founder of the antiwar movement code pink. thank you. the russian town after the children of city officials travel to turkey using money donated to a children's charity in a culture that has the story. a group of children from the russian town of clint's a five hundred kilometers from moscow went on a trip to turkey the journey was organized by a charity foundation which helps children with severe illnesses and those caught up in difficult situations it does go to the clinton. people who were in the movie with them but at the who continue to conclude or to give of their form dream a new car out of a well turns out some of those children work kids city officials local media discovered a video where the town's top officials try to explain why this happened went viral

but you cannot you cannot mean you've got to be needed to go to the clinic we need to do. it with you. before you can. do but it might seem to work for you it gets even better or rather wars the mayor's daughter was also among the lucky ones to go to turkey russians were outraged and many of them went on social media to vent their fury these super arrogant officials are fully confident in their impunity. they must be fired a government official is a duty not a privilege all right phish shows are the neediest people in our country the poorest scumbags but it's not just ordinary citizens who are up in arms officials have also come out strongly against of the incidents calling it a moral and noxious after this scandal erupted so they had of the city administration explained that the children of local officials work as volunteers

and some of them are gifted members of society. talented children they are volunteers this world and it was the year of volunteers there was a special meeting with the candidates with chosen just as the fund o's to do they had of the charity foundation says there were no violations hearing the selection process she now plans an official complaint against the local media but the flames of a scandal have already been lit the governor of the region says he will investigate what happened and ask for the local official who loved one being asked about the consequences the woman who put it in your book was of which it was weakness and one of the first folks to get your response to the lady well we've learnt that you no longer works there. when the mayor of the town under fire is now reimbursed the cost of sending those children of officials on the trip.

china has highlighted what it calls hypocrisy over u.s. claims of spying by beijing accusing washington of using its embassies around the world for covert surveillance but if the u.s. accuses china of attacking cyber security but the latest wiki leaks release shows the u.s. is guilty of throwing stones from glass houses. are the same and came after wiki leaks published a list of u.s. embassies purchases the report highlighted spy gear reportedly made for cia and national security agency global operations that beijing claims that u.s. embassies are being used to spy on foreign nations around the world including washington's own allies diplomatic compounds are said to book various spy quitman to including cameras disguised as ties shirt buttons and caps embassies also purchased microphones night vision gear and secret g.p.s. locators the u.s. is yet to respond to clive's network security expert benjamin chad told us that this would be not just a violation of international law but also of agreements with beijing. the now

infamous u.s. eavesdropping of its alleys is already common knowledge world president's office ellie's openly criticized the us on the use of similar equipment before a certain spying behavior our rights are all right by allegiance to international laws and agreements not to mention mention trust for example the u.s. and china have signed agreements a few years ago or on stopping spying activities or common soap it's in the more than china it's a peaceful country and we believe in limited situations through trade but at the same time china is becoming very well equipped in mordor warfare expression then being a country in one electronic body. tennis legend martina navratilova is in the spotlight after getting involved in a twitter spat over transgender people taking part in the sport as women. clearly that can't be right you can't just be claim herself a female and be able to compete against women there must be some standards and having competing as

a woman would not feed the standard the tweet provoked mixed reaction online including from cyclists rachel mckinnon he last year became the first transgender athlete to win a world title. that's transforming genitals do not play sports what part of it related to tennis i hope you see your way to regret and how you tremble this never to have a sweet is just another variation on someone saying that if you have a piece you're not a woman let's get real and stop pretending she isn't trans phobic just because she's rage and famous and effect woke like pretensions you're the real hero here and martina the truth is painful to some but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be spoken it's incredibly disappointing that you've been intimidated into backing down from telling the truth. about all of us consider all the greatest tennis players of all time she is also widely known as an o.g.t.t. rights activist however following the spate of criticism she apologised and deleted her tweet. the issue transgender athletes sport is generating huge debate you can

check out more views on the issue by heading to our website r.t. dot com to wrap things up for this news hour join me half an hour later. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world the politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. make this manufacture consent to stick to the public well. when the running clubs isn't protect themselves. with the flame of merry go round listen to the one percent. in

the middle of the room say. diluting the real need for. greetings and salutation. before stoneman dog worse before the march for our lives before newtown beggars sandy hook or even columbine there was poured are for the events of april twenty eighth one thousand nine hundred six in the historic town of port arthur tasmania for ever changed the course of history here in australia both politically and culturally because it was on that day at the tourist attraction and historical site but the.