it may be possible for the film oh thank you bill for all for your thank. you just a small experiment democratic party group explain away alleged interference in an alabama state election they investigate has been launched over the group of fakes more than a thousand russian social media boards to allegedly discredit a bit of the good candidate. fury in france as yellow vests protesters have been out in the streets for seven consecutive weekend in running battles with police. the freedom of information act has helped expose high level corruption and one doing in the u.s. comes under pressure all parties want the right to with just requests they think are burdensome.

a very warm welcome to you you're watching the weekly here on r.t. international the latest and a roundup of the stories that shaped the week good to have you with us now we start this hour in the u.s. where a scandal surrounding alleged meddling in an alabama state election campaign continues to unfold what's being called a small experiments by a pro democrat cyber group the fake balts is now suspected to be a planned effort to influence the vote and as the state's attorney general launches a probe into the case artes you need to try and go investigators to. americans not the russians have at least set up one army of pseudo russian bots to sway opinion and boost election turnout it's the big story this december and as more and more details come out as the new year gets closer those involved are having to do more

explaining. scott shane started the domino effect by writing about the whole false like scheme in the new york times a week later another outlet reveals his scoop was from way back in september when he was invited to speak at an off the record event for the group behind the bots project but the journalist didn't see a thing about that in his article i don't think there's any kind of disclosure that's relevant so i'm happy to be corrected it's always a tradeoff as to what the ground rules of whether you get something useful for your readers journalists also eventually got hold of a report assessing how well the scheme worked and it the experts don't call it an experiment like scott shane did the journalists also wrote that the whole thing was likely too small to have a significant effect on the race compare that to these words enormous effect on the

turnout that's the phrasing from the report. the venture cost one hundred thousand bucks pennies compared to the money usually splashed out on campaigns but that doesn't take responsibility of the man who stumped up the bill reid hoffman billionaire co-founder of linked in and big democrat donor he ended up having to admit he had no idea where his cash was flowing i find the tactics that have been recently reported highly disturbing for that reason i'm embarrassed by my fee there to track the organization i did support more diligently as it made its own decisions to perhaps fund projects that i would reject and so there you have it we have an apology from. the head of the firm behind the technical side of the op jonathan morgan is another person still under pressure he came up

with a blog post where among other things he wrote this this seemed to us to be the work of internet trolls not russian activity just to remind you this came from the man who during the actual alabama senate race yelled on twitter the russians were busted russian trolls truck by hamilton sixty eight and taking an interest in the alabama senate race what a surprise this tiny detail aside jonathan morgan keeps defending their false flag experiment after all they've said it it's in the name of democracy now it's up to the probe to judge if these people crossed the line in their noble endeavor and in any case america's definitely learned the masterminds of meddling could very well be home grown. from the us congressman michael flanagan expressed doubt that the case would have any real consequences. now it's water under the bridge there's no

chance that the election can be invalidated less of course they can demonstrate that the sitting senator and self participated in some sort of illegal activity or subterfuge which i doubt can be done or more is even done it was even done on his part the first tenet of democratic politics is they will accuse you of what they are doing them selves in an effort to to distract in an effort to confuse those who might be honestly reporting it if they're saying it they're doing it and i think i'd like to have mr moeller look into this and come after this in the same way. you know best protesters have been out on the streets of france for a seventh weekend in a row more than twelve thousand people joined the anti-government demonstrations. oh.

well there are lots of dangers from these l.b. de foodies or more commonly known as flash for weapons now they use to north 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 shocked out of those flash pools but the injuries can be even more serious and not for some people. they can be life changing oh wow mike you were

going to. come all right. why would the french government want to pull states of 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 in gulf by these void the process for some people describing them as being the worst roi it's in half a century and they've actually been some studies 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 she 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. dozens of protesters were arrested in paris but city officials say that new year's celebrations will go ahead despite the arm rest below vest a movement started in november against a fuel price hike and continued even after government concessions but demonstrators claim they're ready to take on their own fighting. i organize all souls in this way we use called the messengers we're now trying to make the police job more complex there were easier because they did not make it easy to remove all mosques protected losses were ruined being the target during peacetime. streatch the protection that they want us to mix down last week so it wouldn't look good number

one hundred fifty two two hundred two two hundred one school that is truly naked can withstand super people will not to do it or to surf. or. to. staying with french affairs now judges have called off a decades long probe into the deadly attack on the former rwandan president's plane which ultimately led to genocide in nine hundred ninety four the investigation has been a stumbling block between the two countries it was looking into several rwandan officials close to the current president in connection with the death of the country's former leader the decision comes all to reports that france also rejected a bid by human rights groups to reopen a separate probe into whether the french military shed any of the blame for the deaths of hundreds of people they had promised to protect.

today we're being asked to leave with the people who killed our families were told they're sorry they will do it again and some people believe that i'm not one of. the fighting was triggered by the downing of a plane carrying the french backed president in one thousand nine hundred ninety four hutu extremists blamed the rebels and the rebels denied involvement for the past twenty years paris has pursued those responsible for the assassination but not anymore the inquiry has reportedly been dropped over insufficient evidence. we have

to interpret this decision by french judges as a form of resignation faced with a political context which prosecutors did not know how to fight over the years france suggested the tutsi rebels headed by the current president paul kagame they were behind the attack they even charged seven people close to the leader. of the physical elimination of rwanda's then president was seen as the only means to achieve his political ends a total victory this process of the massacre of the. so-called interior the rwandan government flatly denied the allegations and cut diplomatic ties with france fast forward and roll wanda has some nice words for the french. president. put it. different.

i think. how times have changed the world bank considers rwanda to be more business friendly than much of the developed world and france seems to have an interest macron even back to rwanda's pick for the head of francophonie group of french speaking countries. if there were to be an african candidate to head the francophonie that would make a lot of senators think that the rwandan foreign minister has all the expertise for that role france and rwanda have had their different since and twenty five years since the genocide to justice has never been fully served but for the present it looks like that doesn't have to stand in the way of a little money making. but if he does not know africa or its history he was a teenager during the tragic events in rwanda in one thousand nine hundred. because the stones to befriend him is rwanda. michael holmes advisor there.

a seasonal alert from girl scouts in the united states now who are warning parents not to encourage their children to hug guests over the holidays the organization says this could pressure girls into showing other types of physical affection instead the child herself should decide whether to give a hug or not a psychologist we spoke to say is learning about consent early on is k. sadly we know that some adults prey on children and teaching the daughter bought consent early on can help her understand her rights know when lines have been crossed and when to go to you for help the girl scouts movement in the us was founded in one thousand and twelve the group calls itself a leadership development organization promoting confidence courage and character to discuss its latest advice we spoke with conservative media personality gina loudon and women's rights advocate reese epithet. if you don't teach a child early on that they are in control of their bodies and that they are in

control of their boundaries then there are subject to later on not be able to set healthy boundaries i think that this is all about communication and that's the key if parents are having the age appropriate conversations with their children that are well documented and data driven then they shouldn't have to have any sorts of concerns for thirty percent of the sexual abuse that happens to a child happens by a family member so here's the fact of the matter children are often not the around people that we would like to think are healthy people unfortunately we don't always know as adults what the appetite a person may have for a child in a sexual situation these conversations need to be taking long before any gifts are exchanged and any expectation is made i'm not saying that anyone should be lackadaisical about the cues that children are taking but it is a balance and it is something that is really important and we're not going to solve it by telling our little girl on christmas day that she doesn't have to say thank

you to grandma for her gift i just don't think that that's that's when we present that as a solution we're missing out on what is really happening here in my opinion or putting children at greater danger fortunately most times when a person is being molested the parents have no idea if the grandfather uncle is molesting them and so it the onus is on the parents to be aware cognizant of what the child is communicating to you as a parent have determined that these people are safe for your child to be around that the child this taught respect and manners and respect of elders and whatever whatever the appropriate response is for that child in that moment because some children have a natural bent toward inward and we need to teach our children to be. parents don't always know when a person is a safe person or not and we can't teach girls to put grace before being able to protect and said healthy boundaries no one saying that we should respect for elders before protecting our children but again if you decide only to protect your child

on a holiday when they're already exposed to this relative that there are uncomfortable around the mistake has already made. plenty more coming up after this very short break stay with us. playing. i've been saying the numbers mean something they matter the u.s. has over one trillion dollars in debt more than ten light colored time stamped each day. eighty five percent of global wealth you longs to be rich eight point six percent market saw a thirty percent raise last year some with four hundred to five hundred three per second per second and one rose to twenty thousand dollars. china's building two point one billion dollars a i industrial park but don't let the numbers overwhelm.

the only number you need to remember in one one business shows you can afford to miss the one and only. welcome to the crystal ball edition of crossfire what can we expect in the new year we have a great lineup of guests telling us what they think. it'll . welcome back they trumpet ministration is proposing changes to the freedom of information act which could make it harder for the public to access sensitive records out of the public domain activists have voiced that outrage at the move.

this is a wall run transparency this is a calculated attempt to shield the interior department from scrutiny to shield it from watchdogs and to shield it from accountability the u.s. government says the changes are needed to handle an unprecedented thirteen freedom of information requests and to improve customer service if approved the new rules would allow the interior department to reject what it considers unreasonably burden some applications on impose limits on the number any one person can make and twenty sixteen a request revealed that in an american supplier was substituting would pull for parmesan and its products hillary clinton's government related e-mails that she had kept on her private account were made available information requests also uncovered cia director gina hospital's links to waterboarding of terror suspects investigative journalist dave lindorff says the plans go against the spirit of the act but it's going to do is force people to have to go to court to get action and

freedom of information request which is totally antithetical to open government and to what the foyer. of the freedom of information act was designed to do it had been set up so that you could write and get information and not have to go to court so you get anything other than classified information these are not classified things that people are looking for there they're open government things that should be freely available and quickly available if they say it's to be more efficient and to respond better to quote customers meaning citizens it's a complete joke they're doing the opposite it reflects. basically the fact that they're trying to run a secret government. but in sunday times newspaper has named and shamed staff at the russian funded sputnik news agency in the u.k.

it's. cited a leading member of the scottish parliament to accuse the organization of being a kremlin stooge the paper published the names of eight sputnik employees along with their photos the journalists named in the article were left stunned by the exposure. and initially it was it was a bit of a shock on the other hand it's kind of hardly surprising given the anti russian saying to me but it's yes not nice to see your picture up there with your name except under the headline of being part of a crime when stooge but as i say you know it's very much part of what's going on just sayin you key the sunday times has been so thorough in its reporting of the threat of so-called russian descent from ation that its latest story about the russian funded radio station sputnik which has a bureau in edinburgh carries the photographs of the journalists that work there labels them kremlin stooges and quotes a politician who suggests that their assets should be frozen i would good for

school harassment i think putting the pictures of hota graphs of people who work on a newspaper like that i think is tantamount to almost it might put those people's lives in danger i'm a member of the national news journalists and are we write into my unit in the new year to ask what do you need is planning to do about these journalists working for russian media organizations here in the u.k. have had to develop a thick skin over the past few years as tensions between london and moscow have heightened articles calling for outlets like r.t. and sputnik to be banned have become a regular occurrence but recently the big papers have gone a step further and they started singling out the journalists working for russian media outlets this is the london bureau chief for russia's channel one more series of last month he did some filming outside the gates of a british military base first story about the british army's cyber warfare unit

aimed at fighting so-called. russian propaganda he didn't break any laws gave his press credentials to all the security guards he met and left several weeks later the u.k.'s daily mail newspaper printed his personal details and accused him of being a spy the story was reprinted by a plethora of papers it ratcheted up so much that the u.k.'s defense secretary issued a statement for citizens to stay vigilant and. we sent an inquiry to the defense ministry there's a form on their website but we didn't get any response filming near the base is not illegal it's a public area of public land you don't need permission to film there you need permission to get inside talk to the stuff we didn't record our interaction with the security personnel we didn't try to penetrate the b.b.c. correspondent did the exact same thing as us it was broadcast and i want things of punishing him there's nothing illegal and you don't even have to work for the russian media to find yourself in hot water just expressing views that the

mainstream is enough to be labeled a kremlin stooge putin's poor or useful idiot in the information war nowadays you have extreme language and if you find someone with an opinion which you object to and you don't agree with you then abused him or her by causing by causing them a stooge or to use the famous explosion about lennon they were useful idiots the sputnik story isn't the first time the sunday times has used the naming and shaming tactic back in october the paper to came at the tongue in cheek i see why in my you tube channel which is funded like r.t. by russian taxpayers and fronted by yours truly the paper didn't shy away from printing my photograph and labeled the project the blue peter of russian propaganda the times didn't request a comment from r.t.

or. for myself it seems that naming and shaming doesn't carry a right of reply. disgraced german journalist clause that well o.t.s. broke his silence on thursday denying through his lawyer fresh accusations of appropriating readers donation money some of the money collected was allegedly destined for fictitious characters and his fake articles and initial scandal broke when claus well over two years he was awarded cnn's journalist of the year title and twenty fourteen was discovered to have been fabricating stories for years the us ambassador to germany weighed in accusing dish spiegel of being flaunted against america. stories largely for us policies and certain segments of the american people it's clear that we were told that it was institutional bias the anti american bias that the magazine has exploded since the election of president trump the spiegel reacted to the ambassador's archy's ations

with an apology to all americans who may have been and salted by his articles are saying however that just because it takes issue with some of washington's policies it doesn't mean it has any anti u.s. bias and if president trumps words are anything to go by he's been plagued by fake news all year long. you are fake the level of dishonesty you said. mr. bush is and how fake the press can be very. that one from famous catchphrase fake news has dominated the headlines ever since he first uttered it why does it drive his detractors so crazy well some would argue that it's true false information and deceptive reporting seems to be everywhere let's review some of the fake news of twenty eighteen. well one of the most

outrageous examples was the cover of time magazine it depicted a sobbing toddler representing donald trump's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents however it turns out that the girl in the photograph was not separated from her mother. who was not separated from her mother but yeah that she's the face of this immigration problem of me that she has helped to create awareness. but let's go through some other examples now folks had a good laugh when it was revealed that the washington post that actually cited the satirical publication known as click hole when reporting on the fact that british people were trying to make the song american idiot by green day go through the charts when donald trump was visiting the country and in other instances we've seen journalists just straight up making things up. for example a reporter for the web zene known as mike claimed that maria know who's just pled

guilty to charges of being an unregistered lobbyist for russia was in a meeting at the oval office i thought this was a photo show but it's not this is my review. of the in the russian spy on me in the oval office with trump turned out that she was wrong the person in the photograph was actually a national security council staffer but in the journalist defense they both do have . red hair and we all know that all of us gingers look the same. how about a paper on canine rape culture in dog parks or a feminist rewrite of hitler's my struggle it turns out that this year fake news was used to make a political point people were submitting fake research in order to expose what they believed was a bias in ak and damia some of the fake research got through. or . go.

and one trend we saw throughout the year was fact checkers retracting their fact checks what could be more embarrassing those who claim they are stopping the spreading misinformation actually spreading misinformation themselves and admitting to it based on what we've seen throughout the year it seems pretty clear that fake news will be well alive in twenty nineteen. r.t. new york on christmas day don't trump was probably hoping for at least some or spite from the fake news onslaughts we took a guess at what present and what presents the us president might have received. for.

a. good.

hollow. teacher it's. great that they have. we're back at the top of the next hour. it's hard to imagine.