in the headlines this morning from arts international the u.s. state of alabama looks into whether or not a pro democratic party operation involving thousands of fake russian bought violated campaign laws and crucially if it cost republican candidate seat across it like me coming up. nother story to keep your eye on over the next couple of days we think syrian forces say they've entered the northern city of man that move comes at the request of civilians and kurds in the area while the same time masses of troops for a potential offensive. france plans opposed to this riot control despite a number of serious injuries among those protests as of late caused by.

the morning very early saturday morning one am on the twenty ninth of december now here in moscow life marti international news h.q. is kevin i'm with you for the next thirty minutes first of the u.s. state of alabama is looking into a discredited pro democratic party operation whether it illegally impacted on the senate race there back in twenty seventeen the operation of more than a thousand fake russian language twitter accounts designed to appear as if they were backing a republican rival the information is concerning the impact it had on the election is something that's significant for us to explore and we'll go from there. those behind the alabama scheme were meant to be tracking fake russian accounts because caleb maupin reports they in fact created their own some of the activity pointed to as alleged russian meddling in the united states was actually being carried out by the cyber security form new knowledge that this new knowledge outfit was carrying

out activity designed to look like russian meddling in order to hurt roy moore the republican candidate democrat jones who won the race against roy moore he has come forward and said he supports a federal investigation into these new revelations i'd like to see the federal election commission and the justice department look at these to see if there were any laws being violated and if they would prosecute those responsible linked in's co-founder reid hoffman has come forward and actually apologized to the republican candidate roy moore for the fact that he contributed money to an outfit that apparently worked to discredit roy moore during the election hofmann contributed seven hundred fifty thousand dollars to american engagement technologies of which one hundred thousand dollars went to a cyber security firm known as new knowledge and now new knowledge during the election created over a thousand russian language accounts on twitter and then had those accounts follow roy moore this created then the impression that roy moore was getting russian

support it's no surprise that trump a supporting more they both have a deep love of country the country's russia but still a rock critic of good points united has for you know it's pretty alarming when a guy's lips in a fluent russian or speaks fluent russian and it's russian it's everywhere year later it's moving closer to the oval office new knowledge is tied to hamilton sixty eight which is a web site that apparently purports to be tracking the activity of russian bots and trolls on the internet and apparently new knowledge this entity tied with hamilton sixty eight which is widely quoted in u.s. mainstream media the new york times the washington post c.n.n. and other outlets turned and. and sixty eight which works with new knowledge in order to report on the activity of russian trolls and bots.

d n n apparently has not chosen to run with this story the revelations were revealed they came out they became public on december nineteenth but it was only on december twenty seventh that c.n.n. chose to report on this this information they only did so after there had been some outcry the daily caller and others had written articles about cnn's ignoring of this story and their reporting on it was very short now we've reached out to c.n.n. to see why they haven't jumped on this story and we are waiting for a response now at this point the twenty seventeen senate scheme just surfaced last

week so we're waiting to see what else will surface. next thing i suppose that's because with social john william louden former republican member of the missouri senate he thinks the time today to this festive season was appreciated all the more so the obama attorney general launching a probe into whether this is this information campaign against roy moore violated campaign laws until to the election would you see this heading is going to fizzle out it was going to blow. i see it blowing up this is a huge scandal you have democrats in congress that are calling for mueller to continue to get to the bottom of this russian collusion and they were employing what appear to be the exact same tactics in alabama so they've got egg on their face and and i don't see this fizzling out this looks like it's going to be way bigger and i suspect this is not the only place they've used this tactic it's just alabama's going after it wrong we heard from our correspondent there was not much

coverage certainly amongst the mainstream media you expect you've got to continually have to pick it up some point down the line say. well you know it these are complex media times there are so many different outlets such a diversity and we hate to see news suppressed and i'm glad that you're reporting that the news outlets are having a hard time not cover getting more it's going to get bigger and bigger and the outlets that don't want to cover it are going to have egg on their face too if they don't get with the program yes so it was a pretty the how little you can actually get it home for now but they're going to so it was interesting to see what people picked to put it off an hour isn't any of the people you know this ball to operation say was merely an experiment sounds a bit like an experiment gone wrong does that sound like a convincing defense to you an experiment. with no not at all what i find so incredible about this is this is

a cynical as is politics could possibly get you have the democratic party that is say that is running all these voter registration drives in every vote counts and they want to get more and more people out to vote and then at the same time they're taking these new low information voters and trying to trick them into voting against their own self interest so it's just i've never seen anything so cynical in politics is what's happening. here i was two years old this is all kicked off of the medications of russian meddling in the u.s. election to what extent is this latest story no home sold in the mind those allegations you think. well you know i personally i hope that people make that connection and i hope that we can have a deeper conversation about about whether it's more important to have lots of people vote or more important to have informed people voting you know we've kind of re elevated to this kind of virtue that that the you know the the person that's

never voted before that comes out votes with very little information should be canceling the vote of somebody who's actually taken time to study the issues and i don't think that's the case we want people voting who care and that necessary it's not a virtue to vote if you really don't know what you're voting for which way back to the voting swing story in both six senator misinformation this. republican kind of it roy moore ended up not really losing the alabama state election do you think that was because the pope ration or it was just close to call it could go in that way anyway i.e. does this boat thing make much difference anyway. well certainly alabama suffered the republican party in alabama suffered a very you know a perfect storm of bad events that led to roy moore being the flawed candidate that he was and certainly there were some issues but we did see the democrats use

a playbook that they used on cavanaugh the judge in throwing out this you know all the all the sexual allegations so there were a lot of other factors in that race and actually lived in alabama for a while i can tell you this this will senator should be center joan should not get too used to that seat because i'm quite sure that there will be a solid candidate head to head with him that will not have the flaws of judge moore in that he'll be replaced. well with joy of the office christmas card list john william logan a former republican member of the a missouri senate i think spoke a lot international and making the time this festive time thinking it's. ok no story watch we think over the next couple of days will be the syrian military says government forces have entered the northern city of mandate to the request of civilians and kurdish fighters in the area it comes as the kurds try to strengthen the city's defense amid a what could be upcoming turkish offensive and crick considers kurdish fighters to be terrorists full stop is our middle east correspondent paula sleep. what we see

happening is that the conflict in the northern syrian city of monday's continues to escalate now we are receiving reports from the syrian military that they soldiers have entered the city at the request of the kurdish fighters and civilians who live there and the concern from locals is that they need assistance against a possible upcoming offensive from the turkish side we invited the syrian government which we belong to to send its armed forces to take over these positions and protect man beach and the freeze of turkish threats. in response to the request of the population of man beach the syrian government and its armed forces announce it is sending in troops to man page however right now we are receiving reaction from the turkish side and they say that the claims from the syrian military that they have taken control of the city of members are nothing more than psychological warfare and that the situation at this point in time remains for some definite now all of this comes as the american president donald trump made the surprise

announcement that he was withdrawing american troops from syria of course the americans have been giving a lot of support in the form of weapons and the like to the y.p. who are the syrian kurdish fighters and what we now hear happening is that what this possible upcoming turkish offensive those on the ground many locals fear and feel that they have been betrayed by the americans who are this over the past couple of years americans give the best safety and stability for the north of syria this region and all syrian tire we are going to be the stable our people shall flee and terrorism will prevail the american withdrawal will destabilize the security we have had for a couple of years in this region is. the american withdrawal from unleashed by donald trump was disappointing for him to see to as i said allman because residents are afraid they are there's more to come to loot just as it happened during the era we want to say situation meanwhile the russian front. mr sergei lavrov on saturday

will be meeting with his turkish counterparts to discuss the situation in the region and specifically in syria iraq has already commented on the growing tensions and he has said that he feels that the allied forces will need to bear the brunt of the american withdrawal from syria so it seems like washington wants to shift responsibility onto its called partners in syria and put additional financial burden on its allies in the region now as the situation continues to escalate on the ground we are bracing for potential showdown between the united states and turkey amongst others. it depends more on the turkish russia meeting here in moscow i spoke earlier to security and political analysts are going to share that you believe that the kurdish crisis can only be resolved with a political solution the syrian army. can be flexible and inflexible at the same time it can be flexible if there is a situation that can create stability there is an agreement to morrow is

a decisive day foreign minister lavrov will meet with his counterpart from from turkey it is important to see if agreement can be reached to control the situation if the syrian army is capable i think it is capable but with the backing of the russian army and the iranians to actually control the situation for all and create you know certain dialogue. that turkey the kurdish problem there is a kurdish problem in the north part of syria and in the north part of it are going to affect in the security in turkey and this matter will have to be resolved it can only be resolved politically that is the position of the foreign ministry russia however you know the turks would have to pay a proper price for their miscalculations by delving into syria and creating this chaos and contributing to this chaos. the french interior ministry is planning to boost its wired control arsenal purchasing more weapons that fire rubber bullets most despite a number of serious injuries of late among the yellow vest protesters caused by those non-lethal i mean asians and numerous warnings on top of it too from human

rights groups. they use ski reports come this morning from paris for you. there are lots of dangers from these l b d forty's or more commonly known as flash for weapons that they use to launch things such as tear gas grenades sound grenades and even these rubber bullets and those can all do significant damage if they hit people in those protests people with broken bones fractured teeth bruising internal injuries we even saw a number of crew being injured over the last few weeks by some of the items that are being shot out of those flash balls but the injuries can be even more serious and that and for some people they competed life changing around the mike they were going to come or are. going to do it. why would the french government want to bolster its all still all these flash walls they can as i

say launch things such as this the rubber bullets well that's largely due to the protests that we've seen in france over the last few weeks the country has been having gulf biden's violent protests for some people describing them as being who post riots in half a century. and they've actually been some specifically into the injuries caused as a result of rubber bullets with many civil liberties groups just saying that they shouldn't be used now a group of u.s. academics published a study in december of last year saying that fifteen percent of people who were

injured by rubber bullets specifically. actually ended up with permanent injuries with the majority of people losing their sight they said three percent of those injured specifically by rubber bullets actually went on to lose their lives so the question is why is the french government still deciding to go with using the flash tools which have been proven in some cases to be deadly and still wanting to spend more than two million euros on its version of protecting the state. the common stereotype that we sometimes hold of terrorists is being challenged by a new study out in the united states after nine eleven the so-called average terrorist was often portrayed as being muslim or of arab descent with arabic is the language of choice as you could put it and they also are commonly thought to have beards but no a study by a global policy think tank called the rand corporation found indeed that the reality could be very different they claim that the majority of terrorist recruited

in the u.s. are caucasian or from african-american background further the study also indicates that young males are more likely to be radicalized but we kind of knew that before but crucially they also said those being recruited had nothing particularly distinctive about the findings come in contrast to the stereotypes we're familiar with and social g. professor safe down there believes this is led to some dangerous assumptions along the way but tribute inc n e n e n e issue two a 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 or the people of the middle east was actually necessary for the for the u.s. 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 bring up 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.

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 very racist right ahead here a so-called golden era in british chinese relations is being put to the test again over a smart phone giant will tell you who that is what it's all about when we come back .

thank. you. that's guys are. going to use it this is the central plank support diagram is a good problem right now so you stop. the

british defense ministers voiced his deep concerns about a possible spying threat from the chinese tech giant weiwei it comes amid a confrontation between the company and the u.k.'s closest ally the united states. reports they seemed like the best of friends one side with cash to flash the other keen to court chinese investment you have a golden era china relations what about the relations between britain and china very good issues in the past i think we've come to an understanding over. premier li 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 or 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 there's been recently exposed the chinese state does sometimes aren't in the maligned way while our way is 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 by the way has raise 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 ones you now faces extradition to the u.s. over possible violations of sanctions against iran but the case appears more than a little politicized the u.s. president suggested he. might use china's tech princess as a bargaining chip with beijing if i think it's good for the country if i 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 kayne of security hope something it can. russia for we have other work you know sees itself in a vulnerable position where it doesn't have secure access to this particular market over the margin or having talks in the background between the american state department and the british foreign office trying to pressure raise or put leverage on the british government to come out and support the years sanctions tires of the have been shown but i don't think for one second that britain. america's foreign policy to dictate to the policy that britain needs for true true to world after broke so there's little hard evidence of why our way 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 and up until now fruitful friendship as well as slowing down the rollout of vital new technology for london it'll be a tough choice between wa way and the us way. so kind of tough for the eighteen was a tough if cryptocurrency bit cohen experts called it the year woods bubble burst and the predicted to complete demise and fight no less than ninety. thank you. thank. you out. to our.

rose was that say what goes up must come down or will it but it was the first musty centralized digital currency creating a more comfortable condition for trade for transactions and again wide popularity we spoke to bitcoin enthusiastic boss who told us what he expects from the cryptocurrency after his rocky ride this year. if you look at the big clean 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 block in itself had twenty eight years actually been a really good year for big corning maybe again not so much for the price but if you're looking at the technological aspect of the blace an underlining because great year. i think that was more like the mainstream media's portrayal of the big point is like you know the get rich quick aspect of it during the run of twenty team but i think that's kind of segue to into the mainstream more so moving into the 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 thank the mainstream media. i don't think it's much more of a risk than it was when a incorporate the internet into their business model what i think is it provides in credibility it may overpower any kind of security falls 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 at banks would benefit from banks using open ledgers and getting that you know trust listening specked 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 about trading with emotional money perish the thought was always looking for bosco so father saw thanks ever so much for watching for me and the rest of the table here festive greetings to you feel celebrating this tommy this is. it enough.

keep my. sleep. when our mind when the content of our mind is changed there are physical

outer a shunk of 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 but also the rest of our body responds. 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 advise president george h.w. bush on the former soviet union he has taught russian studies at princeton n.y.u. published columns in the washington post reuters and elsewhere he recently said

that relations between the united states and russia are worse now than at any time says the one nine hundred fifty s. what's behind that claim and who of anyone does he think it improved the relationship between the two countries let's find out as for physical and 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 of 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 ally generate.