chinese. the u.s. government shutdown continue. with the media. they just. left. everyone. has done everything they possibly can to make the trip more dangerous.

from all of us here at the moscow headquarters welcome to your new year's. eve online networking site linked to. it created more than a thousand fake. designed to look like. in the u.s. with tracking fake russian but turned out to actually be. creating. well

that was embarrassing to say the least and here i thought you could get away with blaming russia for anything nowadays apparently not but it does set a new low for democrats making think russian boughts to win elections is the irony i find the tactics that have been recently reported highly disturbing for that reason i'm embarrassed by my failure to track. the organization i did support more diligently as a medicine decisions to pounce fun projects that i would rejects the recap reid hoffman co-founder of linked in contributed wittingly or unwittingly money one hundred thousand dollars to a pro democrat cyber security company called new knowledge which it seems specialized in fraud and fake news lies and this information the company

created fake facebook pages to confuse republican voters they created fake russian boats who were tweeted and followed through him or the republican candidate in alabama's two thousand and seventeen special election they then publicly declared that that was proof he had ties to russia because i think russian bullets were re tweeting him dirty very very dirty so surprise atop a supporting more they both have a deep love of country the country's russia but still rather reach a card with question is for you it's pretty alarming when a guy's lips in a fluent russian or speak fluent russian russian is everywhere year later it's moving closer into the oval office interestingly enough the democrats love to mock roy moore when he accused them of setting him up last year but here's an

interesting tidbit. new knowledge she jonathan morgan was also seemingly one of the must the minds behind hamilton sixty eight which claimed to track russian online influence operations russian bots real russian bots.

ironic again that outlets including new york times washington post c.n.n. all use the hamilton sixty eight data to accuse russian boughts of sowing discord and conspiracies online wonder how much of that was fake but food for thought was more by luck than not that we found out about this quote the sea of n.y.t. yet how many more incidents like this could there have been that we don't and never will know anything about food for thought journalist david lindorff believes the covertly bought operation reflects order broader problems i should say and that of the us electoral system dirty tricks are not illegal there. you know they're part of our our corrupt electoral system you can you can lie and you can make up stories you can live all people all of these things are.

allowed in us the us electoral system and then what what compounds it makes it so corrupting is the vast amount of money that can be poured into these campaigns that allows them to pay for this kind of corruption and then on top of that we have a population that's really not capable of critical thought. so people will buy into the stupidest claims about candidates. britten's of defense minister has voiced his deep concerns about a possible spying threat from chinese tech giant weiwei this comes amid a confrontation between the company and the u.k.'s closest ally the united states let's get some details now here's our correspondent ali boyko. they seemed like the best of friends one side with cash to flash the other keen to court chinese investment we have a golden era of u.k.

china relations. the relations between britain and china are very good issues in the past i think we've come to an understanding over a no as premier league said yesterday this should be an indispensable partnership. we have cemented britain's position as china's best partner in the west with the u.k. playing bragg's it really with brussels trade ties with china seem as important as ever but there's a bone of contention coming between london and beijing all rather a phone of contention we've got to look at what partners such as australia in the us are doing in order to ensure that they have the maximum security of the five g. network and we've got to recognise the fact as has been. recently exposed the chinese state does sometimes act in the maligned way while way as one of china's most important tech companies that the world's second largest mobile phone producer

and it makes the laptops and tablets gadgets that rival apple and samsung but crucially weiwei also sells some of the communications hardware that allows mobile phone and wireless networks to operate and when the u.s. currently embroiled in a tip for tat trade war with beijing the chinese tech giant has come into the spotlight washington says it's concerned that using weiwei hardware will give beijing the ability to spy on foreign countries and exert too much control over western infrastructure weiwei has raised serious concerns among u.s. officials for a potential role in cyber espionage given their reported links to china's state security services and while way threaten the security of our networks due to their close ties to the chinese government and now the u.s. is pursuing well ways chief financial officer who was arrested in vancouver at

washington's request main one jew now faces extradition to the u.s. over possible violations of sanctions against iran but the case appears more than a little politicised the u.s. president suggested he might use china's tech princess as a bargaining chip with beijing if anything it's good for the country you for think it's good for what will be certainly the largest trade deal ever made which is a very important thing was good for national security i would certainly intervene if i thought it was necessary australia or new zealand have followed the u.s. is lead and banned huawei from providing tech for its five g. rollout citing security risks the u.k. has yet to follow although there are murmurs in that direction what we're witnessing is more kind of security hope so. thing it can. russia for real other work you know sees itself in a vulnerable position where it doesn't have secure access to this particular market

i would imagine irving talks in the back room between the american state department and the british foreign office trying to pressure raise and put leverage on the british government to come out and support the years sanctions tires of the haven't shown but i don't think for one second that britain will own america's foreign policy to dictate to the policy that britain needs for treats root the word after broke so there's little hard evidence of weiwei ever having engaged in any spying or handing over of data the company denies any ties to the chinese government beyond paying its taxes for the u.k. following washington's lead and banning way risk souring up until now fruitful friendship as well as slowing down the rollout of vital new technology for london it will be a tough choice between wa way and the us way. twenty

eighteen was a tough year for crypto currency bitcoin experts called it the year its bubble burst and predicted its demise ninety times the top investor says a long dark winter is coming from paper because i'm a bit coy in freefall the court has slumped to its lowest level so far this year the price continues to plunge as the collapse in cryptocurrency has got his pace losing to seventy five percent of its value so far this year are we seeing that death the big one as we know it bitcoin was the first mass decentralized digital currency that created more comfortable conditions for trade and transactions and wide popularity of bitcoin enthusiastic told us what he expects from the cryptocurrency after its rocky ride this year. if you look at the big you know price bubble as you would say yeah you could say that that maybe is has happened but the user adoption merchant adoption advances in

the technology of the box in itself had twenty thousand has actually been a really good year for before and maybe again not so much for the price but if you're looking at the technological aspect of the blace in underlining because great year. i think that was more like mainstream media's portrayal of the big point as like you know the get rich quick aspect of it during the boron of twenty team but i think that's kind of segue to into the mainstream more so moving into the interest in the technology like how to block chain work where does the price come from other than speculation the actual technological advancements so i guess for that i could think the mainstream media. i don't think it's much more of a risk than it was when they incorporated the internet into their business model what i think is it provides in credibility it may overpower any kind of security

flaws there's a lot of things that happened behind the scenes in banks i think that you know a lot of end users and customers of banks would benefit from banks using open ledgers and giving that you know trust listeners specht of a try when it comes to banking. just don't put more in than you're willing to lose and you won't have to worry too much you go trading with emotional money. people in new york. blazing across the sky line they posted videos of the bluish horizon with some even wondering whether were some kind of. by the phenomenon. though it turned out it had nothing to do with any galaxy far away rather just the result of a transformer explosion. story still to come here on the program on international

in less than one minute. when. changed there are. the level of the physiology that is at the level of the brain the brain as a form of plasticity can rewire itself and not just the brain.

right now quarter past the hour here in moscow while millions celebrate the festive season in the united states the government is in the midst of a shutdown of a cash for trump's border wall the president claims the stalemate is not about funding of the n.t. immigration barrier at all. this isn't above the wall everybody knows that a wall will work perfectly in israel the wall works ninety nine percent this is only by the democrats now letting donald trump and the republicans have a when they may have the town senate votes but we have the shoe border security two

thousand and twenty if you thought there would be a christmas truce in the washington wars then you were wrong christmas is over and new year's is coming and the government has already been shut down for a week and it's all because of the wall we have a little bit of a shutdown because we believe in walls and we believe in borders and we believe in barriers and we're going to have a wall going to see if we have to close down the country over border security i actually like that in terms of an issue that all workers are furious they're telling horror stories on social media about a penniless christmas they're blaming it all on the man in the white house whenever i talk about my air traffic control has been working without pay on twitter all i get is hateful remarks about how he will and won't lose a di i know that but were we supposed to buy christmas and bells in the meantime feeling so sad for you know not really you destroyed christmas but eight hundred thousand employees no one cares about you well if my husband who works for this day

doesn't get paid we won't have money to give our elderly cat his insulin shots so would have to put him down it seems that the hysteria is not going to end trump says the government won't be open for business until he gets funding for his border wall. and the democrats are still resisting that he cannot accept the offer they made to put a billion dollar slush fund for the president to implementing his very wrong immigration policies and that would happen the trump temper tantrum may produce a government shutdown it will not get him his will moreover the mainstream media is turning up the heat during the discussion of the recent death of a seven year old migrant girl m s n b c s got a heart wrenching clip of border patrol agents dumping out water left for undocumented immigrants to illegally cross the border everyone in the trumpet ministration has done everything they possibly can to make the trip more dangerous

more deadly they destroy water supplies that are left in the desert by samaritans who are doing what donald trump's bible tells them to do yes that means spiritedness is put squarely on the shoulders of donald trump except if you look at the clip it's from way back in two thousand and eleven the border patrol agents in that clip were actually accounted didn't stop m s n b c from playing the clip somehow as an example of the brutality of the trumpet ministration some border patrol dumping water that was meant for desperate migrants being dumped out on the ground this is sort of extravagant cruelty is unusual for any administration but for this administration they seem to think it's affective for their base and severe dehydration with this cannot be dealt with with just water of wind when you and yet they are out there destroying the water supply as the good

samaritans put out there for people who find themselves in the situation there is folks who are inclined to view trump is this unique evil and he certainly you know does a lot of terrible things including you know having were children being taken from their parents but at the same time people forget. obama was not in why i was there is to know again when he did or did to now knowing why was there a scandal when he was instrumental in the coup in honduras in two thousand and nine which has helped lead to this migration crisis obama got a pass on all of these issues in again a lot of it was people like him personally and therefore we look at all these types of terrible things where as one truck does them they take notice it may be winter but that he didn't washington over donald trump was just keeps getting time table r.t. new york. the common stereotype that we sometimes hold of terrorists is being

challenged by a study in the united states after nine eleven the so-called average terrorist was often portrayed as being of muslim or of arab descent with our big being the language of choice and they were also commonly thought to have beards as well but a study by global policy think tank the rand corporation has found that the reality may be all too different in fact they claim that the majority of terrorists come from a cook asian or african american background the study also indicates that terrorists can either be black or white while also not highlighting any particular attributes and the findings come as a contrast to the stereotype we're familiar with a professor of sociology at the university of wisconsin parkside sigh of dana believes this has led to some dangerous assumptions. but tribute inc n e n e n e issue two race basically is intended primarily to result and blanket

condemnation and blanket condemnation of the people of the middle east are up some muslims and all the people of the middle east was actually necessary for the for the us policy in the region although it was from day one understood by most social scientists to be based on a false premise but obviously it was serving a political strategy and the political strategy required a blanket condemnation and a mass generalization or the notion after to apply to any person coming from the region or the middle east region north africa and southeast asia and the study that uses race as a primary viable to explain or to just default to. find out facts about crime or about terrorism is actually highly misleading let alone actually is a very basis. brussels says it's granting the french president emmanuel macron

a one time exception after paris admitted they may break the euro zone deficit limits next year taking a closer look at the story charlotta and. some strong criticism coming out of brussels to woods president matt korn of france with the european commissioner with budget responsibility describing matt corn as losing his authority this is because of the concessions he's given to yellen vesper testis off two weeks of violent protest of fronts now paris has already made those concessions costing billions of us over at the going to push the two thousand and nineteen budget for two point eight percent of g.d.p. all the way up to three point two percent meaning it breaches the european commission stated objectives of three percent now brussels is said it will lose. not tolerate any breaching of these rules post two thousand and nineteen under this

condition move tolerates a national debt higher than three percent as a one time exception however it must not continue beyond twenty nine team and it's not the first time that france has actually breached these limits in fact when we look over the last ten years they've reached the limits more than they've been within them and spot the fact that penalties are supposed to be applied to a country that breached these rules so far none have been of plight france that's also the same for germany which breached the three percent barrier back in two thousand and three but spare a thought for italy that's been struggling to try and get its two thousand and nineteen budget approved this year past the allies the eagle eyes of the european commission and that's when their budget was only going to be two point four percent of g.d.p. now of course italy has huge debts and it's been trying to tighten its belt but it was well below that three percent and even then that wasn't good enough for the european commission and that's led some people to suggest that the european union

remains to be a two tier system where some of the big guns can get away with anything without being penalized and everybody else countries like italy have to play according to the rule book. a sharp manic ritual has marked the upcoming new year in power. just so. since so. that on a beach in the proof in catholic alema where they chanted over the portraits of the leaders of russia the u.s. on north korea it was an annual ceremony intended to bring strength and energy the entire world. is. roughing up the program but only for this hour here on r.t. international many more of your friday headlines still to come at the top of the hour.

financial while i don't buy a i pod on a. friday as a last minute buy it from the future cracker. welcome to unique edition of cross talk weekends for questions from you the viewers some of you sentiment very interesting question. he has been described as brilliant and blistering a putin apologist the most controversial russia exploited america he's stephen cohen author of the new book war with russia he joins us for a provocative one on one on this edition of.

good politicking on larry king scholar stephen cohen advised president george h.w. bush on the former soviet union he has taught russian studies at princeton and n.y.u. published columns in the washington post reuters and else. well he recently said that relations between the united states and russia are worse now than any time since the nineteenth histories what's behind that claim and who if anyone does he think it improve the relationship between the two countries let's try and out as professor cohen joins me from new york his latest book is war with russia i'm showing it to you from putin and ukraine to trump and russia gate ok steve invasive words for joining us. i thought everything between russia and the united states was going to be better because the relationship between putin and

trump and the fact that russia wanted trump in the office. well i think larry you and i are what's called veterans of the previous cold war which lasted forty years it's kind of nice to talk with someone approximately of my generation i'm old women you cause the oil i don't know about that good you look but you look better so where are the same generation the point is is that the younger generation didn't live through the preceding cold war it's history to them so they don't understand or feel the need to explain how we ended up in a new cold war particularly since we were told you and i and we told our kids who are now in their twenty's when the soviet union and communism ended in one thousand nine hundred one we were now going to have friendship and partnership in

fact clinton's presidency bill clinton's presidency his policy with boris yeltsin then president a post soviet russia was premised on this notion that we now have and i quote a strategic partnership and friendship with russia and yet today what is it i can't do the math but going on thirty years later we are told in washington that russia is now a x. or stanch or an excess tensional enemy of the united states and a grave danger to our national security so that's what my book tries to deal with because it was written during these last five years when things got worse and yet it's not easy to explain george w. bush said i looked into to use our eyes and i trust him. obviously in theater in our elections he wanted trump in office. and you're going so far as you call a book war with russia washington wrong what went wrong. so

you and i there a have a history here which you may not fully remember when trump we came the candidate in two sixteen before the election you invited me on to comment on what i thought might mean for relations with russia i don't know if you remember that i do and i said something that upset many of my liberal progressive friends that i was not going to vote for trump on i didn't approve of a lot of things he said and did and maybe most things but when he campaigned and i quoting on the need to cooperate with russia i thought that was very very important because by two sixteen relations with russia had become dangerous mrs clinton on the other hand during the campaign promised a very hard line toward toward russia even going so far as to bomb syria

where both were russian troops were operating that would have been an act of war against russia so i said to you on the air we can say what we want to bow trump but i have a priority because i see the dangers i want a president who wants to cooperate with russia not you and i remember that in the twentieth century this was called detente and we had episodes of detente so think back with me larry the three presidents of the twentieth century who pursued with soviet russia major episodes of detente were all republicans as is trump first eisenhower in the fifty's with khrushchev then nixon with brezhnev and then most successfully we thought ronald reagan with.