was it was. it was and. the u.s. state of alabama launched an investigation into meddling in a senate election campaign in twenty seventeen a pro democratic group is reportedly behind more than a thousand fake russians social media accounts that used to discredit the republican right. to turkish vehicles are reportedly seen entering a city in northern syria near to kurdish held territory and this is a high level delegation from turkey is in russia for talks on syria and the u.s. plan to pull out of the country. and the scandal surrounding the disgraced advisor to the french president why don't we do a report came out xander but knowledge has been using his diplomatic passports long gone after he was dismissed for beating up a protester. a

very warm welcome to you you're watching r.t. international with me becky arun very good to have you with us today top story now the u.s. state of alabama has launched a probe into an alleged meddling campaign during a twenty seventeen senate election which was earlier blamed on russia it turns out that a pro democratic billionaire funded a u.s. group they created more than a thousand fake russian votes on social media allegedly to discredit a republican rival with more on this his kaleb often. the attorney general for the u.s. state of alabama is looking into democratic party dissin for mation during the twenty seventeen special election it appears that roy moore the republican candidate may have lost due to some shady activities that did not come from russia the information is concerning the impact it had only election news something that's significant for us to explore and we'll go from there it's been revealed that

during the special election democratic party operatives worked on facebook and twitter to undermine roy morris campaign now doug jones the democrat who won is backing a federal investigation 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 for this scheme to undermine him was pretty simple create fake facebook pages and russian accounts on twitter to confuse republican voters this gave the false impression that roy morse campaign was backed by the kremlin and it put it into the mix of anti russian hysteria and the operation was carried out by the pro democratic party cyber security firm known as new knowledge jonathan morgan the c.e.o. of new knowledge is actually considered to be an expert on these kinds of issues he apparently is the mastermind behind hamilton sixty eight a website that frequently reports on social media activities which it blames on

russia saying that they're intending to sow discord at the same time new knowledge helped release a senate report that was considered to be a bombshell about alleged russian meddling in the us presidential elections the irony is that jonathan morgan who says he's against dissin from asian is now banned from facebook for just that we take a strong stand against people who were guys ations to create networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are or what they're doing it seems that these companies have all become meddling experts for the mainstream media that frequently covers reports about alleged russian descent from a ship to get out paris of. has not chosen to run with this story the revelations were revealed 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 that 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 i wonder how much coverage this new piece of information will get as we

uncover some of the mystery behind the alleged russian bots and find out they didn't come from russia at all cable mufon r.t. new york media analyst i knew in the entente is that the mainstream media uses the russian meddling as a political instrument. media are so heavily invested in this russia gate story which is turning out to be a non-story or actually a very misleading story but they're not willing to admit it they sort of can't process this new information because it goes counter to their narrative so they're trying to ignore it we have the spooks booking themselves i mean everyone is pointing to russia they're putting out dubious information about russian influence and then they're trying to use. the specter of russian influence in order to influence american elections so it's like you know it's like it's media

disinformation squared mueller has been looking investigating this story this question since may of two thousand and seven team are he has not come up with one bit of evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and the kremlin all along it was quite evident that the the story was very different the story was how the russia gate story was being concocted in order to were ordered to for other purposes. top diplomats and high ranking military officials from turkey are in moscow to discuss the situation in syria tension has escalated since donald trump surprise decision to pull u.s. troops out of the country meanwhile turkish armored vehicles have reportedly been seen entering the northern city of jarrah bootless turkey has been boosting its military presence on both sides of its border with syria since trump announced the troop withdrawal there a pillow says just over thirty kilometers from the city of man beach where the

syrian army says it is now in control they were deployed there after pleas from civilians and kurdish fighters who fear a turkish offensive. of explains the crucial role the kurds play in all this they call themselves freedom fighters. turkey calls them terrorists the us use them as their proxy army well after this used to there will be a strong deliberate and orderly withdrawal of u.s. forces from syria very deliberate very orderly turkey has already begun massing its forces on the front line and the kurds know all too world the consequences of that they've been there with afrin back in january the turks launched operation all of branch against the minorities northern most territories there were reports the syrian army could have intervened but in the end the kurds put on

a brave face and decided to go it alone and their friend fell and quickly for the turkish army the operation was hardly more challenging than a drill. the turks almost move deeper to another major kurdish stronghold of man bitch their u.s. generals literally had to put their bodies between the two to prevent bloodshed now the u.s. is abandoning syria and the kurds while erdogan has been making it clear that a kurdish held man bitch just won't stand with him. these terrorists have to go to the east of the euphrates if they do not leave we will send them that was postponed eventually but not indefinitely unless the kurds leave man bridge so we didn't we

already again serious division entire aim is to make terrorist organizations leave the area if the terrorists leave then there is no work left for us anyway the american withdrawal has left the kurds with a limited number of options really so they've turned to damascus asking to shield them we invited the syrian government which we belong to to send its armed forces to take over these positions and protect month beach in the face of turkish threats . and 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 bitch and so there they are the government forces have entered the kurdish kingdom for the first time in years with russia being a major influence on damascus turkey's once again turning to moscow so the cards have been dealt and now it's down to turkey if they will go all in. investigative journalist max blumenfeld broke down for is why a kurdish assad collaboration worries turkey so much we've heard conflicting

reports of actually the syrian government entering the city of men being which was recaptured from isis in two thousand and sixteen by the kurdish and this would indicate that there is on the ground collaboration between the kurdish s.d.f. and the syrian government a lot of people are troubled by this in turkey the u.s. didn't consider this a possibility but the fact is that these kurds are syrians they're syrian citizens and actually this is a natural partnership against a common enemy in isis and so both the syrian government and the s.d.f. are determined not to see isis return and i think it's actually a positive development as far as stabilization. u.s. stock markets stories worst christmas eve trading day ever this year and analysts think they found the culprits computerized trading system they say that the programs which have gained popularity since the two thousand and eight financial

crisis that fell to understand market demand. big paper led by. the lab rats go made a spectacular amount of money. around eighty five percent of all trade is controlled by machines all formulas which are programs to buy and sell according to market data algorithms work much faster than human think can check huge volumes of numbers in seconds financial commentator charlie boyle thinks there is more up evil ahead for wall street. the next year is going to bring a crash much worse than two thousand and eight we had a lot of systems algorithmic based trading and a lot of financial products that were basically made up and systems were enhancing that but then you have the human nature side of markets which which corrects and asic as it should these these bubbles are going to correct again and this is why we're experiencing a dip in the stock market at the moment we've got these artificially inflated

stocks all around the world and interest rates have been crazily low the only people who have been benefiting from that is the is the rich institutions. but it's going to come to a head but the biggest the biggest one issue over the next half a half the year i'd say is the is the debt we've gotten more debt than we've ever had multiple times and the problems are much bigger than we had in two thousand and eight so they can't print any more money they can't reduce interest rates any lower and most of the banks even if you increases the interest rates a small amount that affectively been in the insolvent. it's two thousand and eighteen drawing to a close it's time to take stock of the old year probably boyko only in case you missed it team taking that back now. twenty years. to remember sex trim. and two men on a mini break to look at the big clock it is twelve one and if i see why my eyes look back at the last twelve it's

a christmas miracle. there you go to off to a sexy start making january a scary time for rich men me to draw on you to store these fred that you can defy the secretary gavin williamson was involved with a married woman when he was a manager at a fire place it was fourteen years ago and consenting you can do i sympathize with him until you realize it's kevin williamson january was also a high point in a trend that so immediate seating toilet bowl it's. just natural selection working its magic in february an official report declared that the u.k. was facing brags that. that's paraphrased president secretary david davis calmed everyone down by saying the president in the u.k. into a mad max style distaste c.m. a few months later he quit and oddments britain is still very very also mocked the best major u.s.

school shooting in this time florida would be plenty more but the u.s. made the brave decision to do about machos when twenty eight really got going someone normally child. and his daughter yulia pads that got much less attention though even the reagans ignored and then blame for the cells reporting squarely on russia and soon russian diplomats was sent packing from western capitals moscow denied any involvement and did a couple of cloak loving cathedral enthusiasts neighbor was busy this group. in the u.s. the u.k. and france launched airstrikes against syria but in my full way the armed groups in that brazen welcome to know the results. i do remember in may donald trump announced that my children serve out in the british capital that is practically a war zone in this case because it is really angry they insisted that just because the moderator is the highest it's been in a decade that does not mean the us president can be so mean also the ginger only

treats and celebrities lastly rosie wearing a dress that didn't fit in here in the great romance of the year reached base politically speaking donald trump finally met north korea's cuddly tyrant kim jong il in a single poor hotel the best bugs agreed to denuclearize north korea and world war three was delayed by a week at least although it's in the first six months of twenty eighteen. now there's a dozen or so would do young at heart and for one russian grandmother that means more more and.

i. knew it can be said here to provoke your neighbors at the chance of your near should learn you have to be ruthless. yet he would want to. thank you i do not live in the. eye but i. i. was a brave lady plenty more still to come including a new scandal brewing around a former french presidential advisor who was sacked as some off the base at a protest with old details for you coming up after the break.

what politicians do you should. put themselves on the line. to get accepted or

rejected. so when you want to be president. or some want to be rich. but you'd like to be his wife before three more people. interested or was it why. should he. welcome back french politicians are demanding explanations from president mccrum they want to know why a disgraced former advisor still has diplomatic immunity and represents wrong so broad and xandra banal of reportedly used a diplomatic passports during business trips all stay his dismissal the former presidential security advisor was fired in the summer off the video emerged showing him viciously beating a protester politicians in front say people with this status can't travel without the knowledge of the ministry of foreign affairs. last because when you want to

visit a country with a diplomatic passport you need to send a verbal note your ministry of foreign affairs informs the embassy when you're arriving to facilitate the visa process if the ministry is not able to provide us with a verbal no then the must have been an intervention from outside maybe from a higher government or body which allowed mr ben-ami laughter to make visits to the countries via standard diplomatic procedures if person a call in the thought it may seem couldn't get any worse off the weeks of violent protests engulfing france think again now he's disgraced former bodyguard alexander pope another is back for a second bite of the cherry it's emerged he may have been using diplomatic post boards obtained during his time working from that call one of which is said to have been issued trusted confidant only weeks after being filmed beating up a protester was

. was the french foreign ministry says it's just for their return and says they should only be used for official for it any use of these passports since then would have been despite the commitments made by the person in question it's alleged he used them doing a trip to africa including a visit to chad where he said to have met the country's president that meeting came just weeks before corn made an official trip to chant and was forced to red faced to give an explanation this person was a no win official or an official intermediary on the foreign minister that diplomatic advisor to the president and his africa advisor representing the head of state in africa president macron wants to end. teil

a void the use of intermediaries especially in africa though the former aide maintains he never represented himself as anything but a private investor corns office has formally rubik been allah with regard to current personal it to the does ask you to ensure the conducted with strict respect for the confidentiality and ethical responsibilities of your time in this office. despite the elisa trying to distance itself even further from bella opposition politicians are now questioning whether a month on still has ties to his former confidant so this is having them as this could potentially short circuit french diplomacy but some of the knowledge could be a danger for the republicans this man is different from the others his own image of someone who was sanctioned after what happened in maine and who after this action has received two diplomatic classrooms when you have a diplomatic passport means that you go to speak for the country so of course on

this one level why use the meeting you know people official people you know in africa if this person is no one you know according to him to do to the government if it's not a diplomat if it's not a friend if it's not an advisor then what he is and who is i mean otherwise you know why he had those passport back and who given this passport back so obviously there's a connection like somehow somewhere with one person or different people maybe the president's else i don't know but if what has been revealed you know for the past few hours about his few trips in africa if this is true then it's very concerning. u.k. government has been slammed for its latest push to reduce the use of plastic in british schools the country's education secretary has called on all schools to drop single use plastic items by twenty twenty two and to use environmentally friendly

alternatives but critics were quick to point out that the government's own national program to deliver fruits and vegetables to schools makes the extensive use of plastic packaging sean sutherland's co-founder of the campaign group a plastic planet believes the government is anything but a paragon of eco virtue. if the u.k. government is going to encourage or going to. stations like schools to reduce their plastic usage to create plastic free schools then of course they must also show by leadership by cutting out as much plastic as they can possibly do it is not defensible for the government of the u.k. to send out calls to schools to say let's cut down on plastic in communication that is that should be plastic it's matt i think at the moment the u.k. particularly there is a huge amount of noise about plastic i think we're probably the noisiest nation

about plastic in europe is not the world and it's very easy for people outside b u k to think that we are actually showing extreme leadership in this issues that noise is translated into action but the reality is we are in the u.k. and we need to speed up the target for schools as part of a wider drive to reduce the use of plastic in the u.k. among other things it wants a ban on plastic strolls ons qassam bud's as well as an increase from five to ten pounds for plastic bags the possible changes could come into effect in january two thousand and twenty and vironment still journalist all of it's a celts holders that although commendable putting out plastic in a single shorts could pose challenges. indeed real problem is that passing his cheek than it does such a good fuel is in keeping food fresh and in reducing food waste in the

supply. and so if we have to take past you know it's true what you deny that we shift to another material which we also have. zero although we will find that the cost of food goes up and that we are more food is it is being damaged in the food wasted in the supply chain and that show floyd's shoot. and that we are repo's one problem with another. where you can have your say on all stories by following us on social media and if you know comments that we always love to hear your thoughts about the latest news with my colleague column break let's hope that.

seems wrong. to me that he's yet to shape out just to cut education and engagement equals betrayal. when something find themselves worlds apart. just of the common ground. my son was doing drugs my nephew's was doing drugs my sisters with doing drugs it was like an epidemic of drug abuse america's public enemy number one in the united states is drug abuse we started going after the users in a prison populations who are we started treating sick people people who are addicted to these drugs like criminals while i was on the hill i recently became bents that the war on drugs was a mistake there are cruel with numbers of people who are in prison for.

warrants sins for whom minor minor offenders in the drug trade it's a lot watching your children grow up and miss you in waves and say bye daddy as you're walking out of the business it's just it doesn't get easier. you will be in the lottery show not just us do you know that was what gave she doesn't it with the people most of conus are going up all what i mean. i mean it was not. and the.

you know the yellow superman from him he can see as you know in my life. if you're in the form of a really. almost human with them with their baby when within the model move north and even when he was up in the mile in few months it was a defense. imax has or this is the kaiser re you know twitter's got a lot of crazy things going up a lot of people. twitter arising and occasionally somebody pops up with something really insightful really interesting story yes i had

a very interesting engagement on twitter right before christmas and it's really relevant to all of our stories that we've been focusing on including cantillon a fact money printing by the central banks around the world of course the european central bank has stopped. asset purchases this month so they're ending quantitative easing for the moment anyway and here's a tweet that i responded to this is from mark j. valid gigantic e.c.b. money printing q.e. program will and after one thousand three hundred and seventy one days that was from march of two thousand and fifteen to december twenty eighth seen total money created two point six trillion euros that's per day and an amount equal to euro one point eight nine six point four two five nine six so almost two billion euros per day per person in the euro zone that equal to seven thousand six hundred

fourteen euro's he asked everybody who did not receive this sum of money was robbed inflation is theft the thing that really interested me was that per person amounts seven thousand six hundred euros if you're not richer by that in those three years of love of money printing by the e.c.b. then that's been stolen from you that amount has been stolen from you francis coppola who is not francis ford coppola but a woman she's an economist in the united kingdom and she responded to my reach we what inflation i've pointed out just the quickest inflation that i could find which is from the actual euro statistics website the european union keeps all their own data and this is what they had on their own website and this is house prices across the euro zone i pointed out that's march twenty fifteen exactly when they started money printing quantitative easing from the e.c.b. men. they were quite late to it house prices had been falling so they started soaring and she wrote back correlation does not equal causation. yeah yeah that's

right that's that's how this whole thing got started and yes is there a economists she turns to go against anyone who who has a real world experience in the economy she's an academic she still if you tell or hey you know your house is on fire so quick look at a book and decide whether or not that's true or not and how to act right so she has no practical experience with anything so half the time she makes comments that are somewhat germane to what's going on half the time which is like a lunatic but this was the beginning of this of this exchange it seemed to me quite obvious that ok correlation does not necessarily always equal causation but that was pretty convincing that something changed in march of two thousand and fifteen the central bank started printing well we happen to have interviewed and i happen to know he follows me on twitter danny blanchflower he was a member of the bank of england's monetary polly.