the q.'s are downplaying a scandal. to reveal that this information twenty seven. the u.s. state of alabama. republican smear operation meeting. reportedly seen entering a city in northern syria territory as a high level delegation from turkey agrees to coordinate with russia. here in moscow. a journalist trying to fill the yellow vest protests in the french city. reflect

back over the weeks demonstrations in france for the. new series. approaching. this is our. first in the headlines the u.s. state of alabama is open to an investigation into election meddling during the twenty seven thousand senate race it comes off the new york times journalist who first revealed an anti republican dissin from ation campaign sat in on a meeting between those behind the operation he's now being accused of playing the scandal and another person being highlighted in this probe is the co-founder of linked in reid hoffman who allegedly donated millions of dollars to the project aimed at making a thousand fake russian bought some social media reportedly to discredit

a republican candidate. picks up a story. so it's official now that our earlier this week came out the apology from the sponsor of project birmingham that's how they call it americans not the russians have at least in one case been behind setting up an army of pseudo russian bots for dirty election tricks for the scheme to come to light it took more than a year while now buzz feed has revealed war details that could make this story much more serious scott shane the author of the new york times piece that shed light on what the democrats were at an alabama last year it turns out spoke at an off the record event of that very same group behind project birmingham none of that was mentioned in his article though mr shane explained he thought that wasn't necessary i don't think there's any kind of disclosure that's relevant but i'm happy to be

corrected if you've been to meet with intelligence or defense official of an off the record meeting it's always a tradeoff as to what the ground rules of whether you get something useful for your readers and in this case i did get something useful well what's even more important is the question why the event the new york times journalist took part in happened back in september however the article only came out ten days ago there will be people wondering why it took mr shane three months to write about this plus buzz feed is now citing a report with assessments and conclusions of how well project birmingham worked and if you compare the language of that report with the language in the n.y.t. article you'll find many differences the journalist calls the operation a secret experiment however in the cited report it is referred to as an operation

to influence the out. of the alabama senator race as to how much influence the project had on the actual election tallies the journalists wrote that probably it was too small to have a significant effect however the report says that it enormously affected the turnout our producers have reached out to both the new york times and scott shane himself however they haven't gotten back to us yet. image around a list and told me that the mainstream media of things is using supposed rush of meddling as a political tool. 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 us 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 the story this question since may of two thousand and seventeen 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 story was very different the story was how the russia gate story was being concocted in order to order to for other purposes. top diplomats and high ranking military officials from turkey have agreed to

coordinate with russia on the syria crisis after holding talks and here in moscow they finished this morning those talks comes after the situation in syria escalated following donald trump surprise decision to pull u.s. troops out of the country with more on today's discussion the marine financial. despite the meeting taking place in snow in moscow that is now as you can see totally into new year holiday season very serious topics on the agenda series fate and russia turkey card you need to work on the ground now off to us and nouns joe it is expected to take up to one hundred days but certainly tastes change in this situation already now specially in the area east of the euphrates river and this is where the american military have been present once they're out this territory that is now officially under the control of the kurdish forces may become especially vulnerable and that's especially after cherokee say it's he's getting

ready for a military assault against kurds in syria's north korea's that and kara's sees as terrorists so the russian and turkish delegations that included intelligence chiefs defense ministers and top diplomats met in moscow to discuss how to avoid any military confrontation on the ground in that area what should be done to boost joint work to return the refugees back to syria or displaced people back to their homes in syria's north speaking to media following the meeting russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov has specifically mentioned the work being done regarding syrian constitutional committee that plays a very important role in a political solution to syria's crisis from let's take a listen. during the talks we specifically mentioned that russia and turkey with the participation of iranian colleagues did everything promise to

create a syrian constitutional committee this is being done by all states as mediators between the syrian government and opposition and we hope that those including our western partners he called the estonia group to finish his work as soon. as possible would not interfere in his continued work i know there was a feeling that based sides both russia and turkey are rather optimistic on how things develop on the ground and they have expressed their hatred and believe that the new year will bring more positive changes to syria and maybe a long awaited peace will finally return to this war torn country. meantime vehicles reportedly been seen entering the northern city of. turkey's be boosting its military presence on both sides of its border with syria since donald trump announced the troop withdrawal. forty kilometers away from the city of mum bridge with the syrian army says it's now in control they were deployed there after

an appeal from civilians and kurdish fighters who fear a turkish offensive next he goes down off explains the crucial role the kurds play in all of 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. we're already again serious division our 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 man beach and the feet of turkish threats . and in response to the requests of the population of man bridge the syrian government and its armed forces announced 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. of the weeks of turmoil of violent protests in france the anti-government yellow vests movement says it isn't finished and that the simply taking a break for the holidays. what everyone needs to understand is that we've decided that we wants to talk the movement it's not all there will be a small break over the holidays and in january it will start all over again so we

are showing that we are here we are showing that we are not tired not quite the same scale as before but some yellow vests are out in paris for seven weekends in a row it is saturday there were a number scuffles with police said the restroom and all thursday city officials said that the new year's eve celebrations of the show will go ahead despite protests being planned they actually started in november when thousands of people gathered to demonstrate against a fuel price hike. it's not just protesters but journalists who've been caught up in the police is crowd control techniques and one got a little too close to the authorities about see that another flash bore device aimed at him in the northwestern city of ruah police and demonstrators faced off

with each other on its offices moved in so quickly dispersed. when levey was pushed away by riot police and had that handheld non-lethal weapon pointed right at him test as venting their anger at some media outlets for their coverage of yellow vests to one suburb on the outskirts of the capital protesters burned cars in front of newspaper le parisien sage q while some yellow vests could also be heard praising the work of other journalists. i as protesters gathered outside a french media building they seemed to be praising us r.t. for shining a spotlight on the protests plus first experience flexing on the french protesting mood in a new r.t. mini series just launched called how to watch the news he says the whole political system needs an overhaul for you can watch part one of that program on our new chub channel. if you had to ask ordinary people what do they want they would have said

we want a stronger horse we eat less or whatever no you have to all four of them something dead they don't even know they teach them a set of them this is my dish protest get your best out of inflow because they seek to know that we are approaching a deadlock. thank you card a good thing but i think we need in light. leadership and not afraid to say he might forward i'm not being bureaucratic socialism this is a side the i would like to believe in a society where the state bureaucracy or some kind of whatever the public good are going to be somehow organize this basic theme in a way which we've known impenetrable to me somehow want to come electricity comes

very tell the parents i don't have to know how old this works i can leave my own needs i think that defeats the future and we shouldn't be afraid to prove as our motto again if you spend bureaucracy and a level of idea nation it's very good watch if you want to catch it is on you tube channels to say still to come here later this coverage of islamic state killings causes outrage in sweden but views ignoring other issues we put the story up for debate and when we come back. i've been saying the numbers mean something big matter the u.s. has over one trillion dollars in debt more than ten times happy each day. eighty

five percent of global wealth you longs to be rich eight point six percent markets thirty percent. some with four hundred to five hundred three per second per second and bitcoin rose to twenty thousand dollars. china is building two point one billion dollars ai industrial park but don't let the numbers overwhelm. the only numbers you need to remember is one one doesn't show you can afford to miss the one and only. welcome to the crystal ball edition of cross talk what can we expect in the new year we have a great lineup of guests telling us they think. a

pro cost in sweden has come into fierce criticism over its coverage of the murder of two scandinavian girls but i still fight as a morocco of usa the channel downplayed that incident one norwegian and one danish girl brutally killed while hiking in the atlas mountains the video that death spread online that sold the s.p.t. channel for not mentioning that one of the girls was beheaded or that islamic state had claimed it was behind it costed did warn the people against sharing the video for legal reasons. have now seen this very strange report and you look at the has been created to protect the rape victims from having video of the crime spread is now being applied to the beheading of the denish and the region girls in morocco i myself would never watch such a video let alone share it now we're more upset about the proliferation of crime

instead of beheadings to sum up s vitis coverage of the muslim terrorist attack in morocco and dieth warriors one you'll be sent to prison if you spread the beheading film to die as worries have returned home to sweden three they died of knife wounds sort of for the murder in morocco has nothing to do with islam. it's fifty years give any comment yet on the accusations or gut reaction from this compromise complex story from crime lawyer mohammad congi and also political and social commentator mo and it is just a part of the chat that happened. yeah i think it's a tricky one because it brings into question. ideas around editorial impartiality bias do national broadcasters like s.p.t. and others have a responsibility to report carefully on such issues and so we've got three main

issues the first is under article ten of the european convention on human rights the second issue we have is about editorial freedoms for broadcasters to report responsibly and lastly why on earth would we show such brutal horrific killings because it's exactly what terrorists and exactly what the far right who want to demonize muslims foreigners americans migrants that's exactly what they want to do we cannot play into their hands. i come from a difference review point in the sharing of something that is quite that horrific is certainly not something you'd want to see thrust upon you without any sort of warning but also the mainstream media doesn't cover these things in more graphic detail means that the content stays online and people organizations like i.i.s. can close the narrative around these with these images and this these images have gone viral internationally and the commentary around it is now being effectively

hold by the far right and some of the more extremist elements rather than the mainstream media being able to pull pull out conversation so that it could be properly discussed if these type of images were to be shown they would radicalize the far right white supremacist which is burgeoning across europe it would also radicalize islamist inspired now that that. remember these are not muslims this has nothing to do with islam the same twisted ideology is used by the likes of the terrorist is used by the likes of the right wing anti muslim islamophobia lobby to peddle the idea that somehow muslims are the edwards side other that they need to be held back at the borders we cannot let them in they can integrate. french politicians to run the explanations from president mccrum they want to know why discreet former advisors still has diplomatic immunity and apparently represents france abroad and example in our reporter they used a diplomatic passport during business trips after his dismissal from

a presidential security advisor was fired in the summer after a video emerged showing him viciously beating a protester or the preliminary investigation is being launched in paris politicians say people with the status can travel without the knowledge of the foreign ministry . 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 governmental body which allowed mr bernard law to make visits to the country via standard diplomatic procedures if person a called the thought in this year couldn't get any worse off the weeks of violent protests in golfing france think again now his disgraced former bodyguard alexander 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 but not caught on one of which is said to have been issued trusted confidant only weeks after being filmed beating up a protest 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 to doing a trip to africa including a visit to chaired where he said to have met the country's president that meeting came just weeks before korn made an official trip to chad 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 to him. i live with 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 banal or with regard to current personal it to that is ask you to ensure that conducted with strict respect for the confidentiality and ethical responsibilities of your time in this office. despite neely's a trying to distance itself even further from the nella opposition politicians i'm now questioning whether matt corn still has ties to his former confidant this is heavy as this could potentially short circuit french diplomacy boots on the banal

a good bit of danger for the republic this man this clearly different from the of those images someone who was sanctioned after what happened in me and who after these actions received two diplomatic passports when you have a diplomatic passport means that you go you speak for the country so of course on this one like why you see meeting you know people official people you know in africa if this person is no one you know according to a 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 then 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.

it's been a bumpy ride for u.s. stocks in recent months with markets hitting historic lows blue chip companies market leaders like facebook like amazon and google started a slump back in october investors were apparently reacting to the ongoing trade war between america and china and christmas eve so another plunge with u.s. democrats quick to blame the president. today's events have made one thing clear president trump is plunging the country into chaos the stock market's down another five hundred points general mattis is stepping down. i don't trump those seas the u.s. central banking system the federal reserve is the main source of the problems in a tweet even compared it to a powerful gopher account purt some as well other things school of thought here blaming the market instability on another source computer technology now ninety five percent of all trade is controlled by programs designed to buy and sell according to market data the algorithms work much faster than humans that can check

huge volumes of numbers in seconds with an economics professor richard vernon who says central banks are behind the instability. i think mostly we're witnessing the results of this policy of central banks massively expanding their balance sheets creating a whole lot of money and purchasing financial assets and investors realising that at some stage you know there's this game can't go on you know there's this game can't go on. in the us the central bank has already over the past year given clear signals that they want to change things and they have tightened and they have reduced their credit creation their money creation and also the signal that most people watch interest rates which actually follow growth they've they've been raising as a result of strong economic growth in the us i don't think that the trade war. with

china or other. you know interventions that we've recently had are really the key factor here sunny's rubs so far over so much more who cause a loss like r.t. dot com and other social media variously in moscow this late saturday night twenty some puzzle of note kevin owen saying all best if you're a celebrating the festivities from when the rest of the team. seemed wrong. but we're all just don't call. me. yet to stamp out this day become educated and engagement equals betrayal. when something find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground.

my seven years doing drugs my nephews was still in drugs my sister just with doing drugs it was like an epidemic of drug abuse america's public enemy number one in the united states is drug abuse you started going after the users in the prison population who are we started treating sick people people who are addicted to these drugs like criminals while i was on the hill i increasingly became convinced that the war on drugs was a mistake there are with numbers of people who are in prison for. certain sins for minor minor offenders in the drug trade it's a lot watching your children grow up and miss you in wave and say by day as you're walking out of a business it's just it doesn't get easier. imax

has or this is the cause or for you know twitter's got a lot of crazy things going on a lot of people you know. twitter arising and occasionally somebody pops up with something really insightful really interesting stacey 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. programme well 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 on.