an inaccuracy in the carter page warrant applications and furthermore they included in dr documents and concealed information there were so many errors. we couldn't reach a conclusion or to make a determination on what motivated those failures although we did not find documentary or testimonial evidence of intentional misconduct we also did not receive satisfactory explanations for the errors or the missing information and the failures that occurred now james coleman who was the f.b.i. director at the time of the investigation it limited that his bureau was sloppy and how they investigated donald trump and his team furthermore the infamous cia which started the entire russia probe was not as important as it was made out to be it was one of a bunch of different facts to resemble to a part of the court it was the one that convinced the lawyers that they had enough now with that added to the pile to go forward guess the question is it seems that

you were minimizing the role of the of this field if i was sorry that i did that now call me also said that he does not care how credible steals allegations were do you conclude the reporting from steele was bunk they concluded there were significant questions about the reliability of some of the sub source reporting that should have been included in the renewals when i reached the president i briefed him on a small part of it that i told him i didn't know whether it was true or not i didn't care and in fact he didn't care about the investigation at all in general i didn't know what they'd learned from the sub source i didn't know the particulars of the investigation isn't that investigations this is an investigation of the campaign of the man who is the president of the united states while the narrative that donald trump colluded with russia in order to win the 2016 elections hasn't really panned out however the narrative that donald trump has been in appropriately in best a gaited by people who have an agenda of trying to bring down his presidency. it's

getting stronger by the day now some people might look at this case and say to the democrats stop meeting a dead horse just let this russia stuff go already but it could be more dangerous to travel to rivals when they realize it could be a case of stop beating this dead horse before it comes back to life turns around and sinks its teeth into you. r.t. new york. today as every year vladimir putin is holding his annual end of the year press conference with the foreign and national media there almost 1900 journalists in attendance and we've been listening in throughout the day to see what topics r.b.c. touched on they've gotten from everything from climate change the russian economy u.s. politics ukraine to break all this down we go live now to our correspondent who's been listening to in 2 hours now a lot has been said break it down for us. well it's a lively and energetic press conference as the you know this is putin's 15 these

had a lot of practice but questions keep coming and. giving he's giving the odds accounting for himself accounting for the past year as is tradition now and we just had very recently a very interesting question read me putin was asked by a journalist who suggested that perhaps the executive branch the presidency should be de powered compared to the parliament or the parliament should be empowered. in order to sort of bring more balance to the russian government. the parliament the power that the expense of the presidency and here's what i've had to say to that. view which we have in a room and truly serve 2 terms then resigned. to return to the presidency because it was not. as you mentioned almost 1900 journalists in attendance you you know this is this is shy. screaming people

waving signs and banners never to catch that his spokesperson to get them to get their question this is not. not only 3 federal channels and international journalists but for remote russian regions to ask their questions as well regions that are many times the ones away from moscow we had all sorts of questions about 'd the trash problem trash all over russia about medicine and there's also a painful issue raised and that is the decision to bar russia to ban russian athletes from competing at limited various. competitions sporting competitions under the russian flag and vladimir putin said that this decision to bar russian athletes from competing under their own flag including you know 14 year old figure skaters that you knew were duping is to bar them is unprecedented in its injustice. was decision is not only unfair but also

not consistent with common law as for doping with decision to compete under a neutral flag was made it previously to the same thing once again never before have we seen a president like this in international law secondly any punishment must be individual this is natural and that an overwhelming majority of athletes in russia clean how is it possible to play someone else's guilt on limb to. this is the press conference itself started off with a topic that's hot today in modern times and that is climate change and was asked about what should be done what is being done and he said that this is a very serious issue for russia especially it is a woman and 2 and a half times the global average and cities that are built on permafrost threatened this is a huge challenge to russia but he said identifying the underlying causes is still

problematic we can't just blame everything on civilization on emissions he said there's also a host of other factors could be affecting it but nevertheless russia is acting. together with other countries to address this issue. in international topics there was ukraine. this side of the world and. the challenge by ukrainian journalist as is tradition these last several years and the journalist asked them what russia plans to withdraw its mercenaries from eastern ukraine to which led me putin said why why all mercenaries wild wild why not the french and german mercenaries that are fighting and both sides of the front line that are fighting with kiev and with the republics in the eastern ukraine and he mentioned republics because the journalist said that there are unrecognized which live near

putin pointed out that it was. the previous ukrainian president that insisted on their signatures and to the 2 republics signatures in the minsk agreements and talking about the minsk agreements divide me putin's words worried that ukraine doesn't want to commit that it doesn't want to fulfill its obligations and bring this conflict to a close without violence. which in the stars it was very low and didn't use words about the possibility of revoice. the key to. to a call is it special status we should be implemented in the constitution the ukraine however neither the previous government nor the new one wants to do this we need a direct dialogue with a dumbass but it is not. now today impeachment is on everyone's lips again and put in had a chance to get his thoughts on that what exactly did he have to say well he dismissed it he said that trump likely isn't going anywhere he said that this is

this is a political thing a political spat between the democrats who lost the election still bitter about it and now they've invented a story about trump ukraine a conspiracy between them he pointed out the russia trump unusual story which made the rounds in the media for many years pundits talking about it for years with straight faces and let me put and said what did we have was a dud in this case he said it's the same thing nevertheless we've got to we've got to admit the reality in russian american relations and that reality is that those relations aren't good and they aren't going to improve anytime soon especially you know with with sanctions more sanctions potentially in the pipeline we're talking about the health sanctions as they started calling them because if these sanctions which it's just been approved by a committee in the senate brought into law by trump signatures they would be

devastating for russia and these sanctions are affecting almost every aspect of russian russia's economy businessmen businesses entire industries the banks the government sovereign debt this these would be catastrophic and russia said it that putin said that russia will reply in kind of the night for 9 so any sanctions that come that are leveled against russia russia will answer back with the same as i say where to. hours in just over 2 hours there's plenty to go record the press conference lasted for 4 and a half hours for 4 hours 40 minutes and we'll see how long on his 15th such press conference. bringing us the latest from q. and a of course as you said that's only 2 hours and still plenty to come will be bringing you more on that throughout the day. u.s.

tech giants among them apple microsoft and google are facing a lawsuit from 14 congolese parents and children human rights groups accuse the companies of being complicit in the deaths of children who are working in cobalt mines in the company supply chains cobalt is in high demand as it's widely used in batteries for devices such as smart phones here some of the testimonies from children who for legal reasons have all been given the same name a warning you may find some of the upcoming photos upsetting. the chamber ceiling collapsed on people in a coal mine john doe 5 was one of only 2 survivors john doe 3 was living in the mine area on his motorbike loaded with 3 bags of cobbled he was hit by a large global transport truck and his leg was amputated after 2 weeks of working john doe will never there was severely injured he was 14 years old when he was rushed into mine. the families and injured children are seeking compensation for forced labor negligence and emotional distress some also claim they suffered

serious injuries walk crawling through tunnels or carrying heavy loads are to taylor has more on this. we're now actually going to take a break from that story to go back to our top story a lot of reporting is giving his annual conference so we're going to listen in now to see what he's been speaking on now it's going to. be very. soon contradictions between the information received from moscow and from berlin that's why i would like to ask you 1st of all. regarding the murder of a cause of it turns out. the informal germany says that they didn't receive relevant information from russia turned out that this person. is. identical to the person who already served a sentence in russia so you are supposed to have info on him now secondly

regarding the person. you sat in paris during that press conference just the normal day for meeting. has on your multiple occasions over the course of which raised the question of. giving this people are giving this person to. the german authorities in but we haven't heard what there hasn't been anybody trying to you want to do to reach this person who is correct in this situation both because we did discuss the level of our intelligence agencies indeed we did not send fisher requests from the prosecutor's office because our intelligence office thought it was useless because they got basically a negative reply and. what i said of the press conference in paris there was

a blog thursday terrorists in one of the attacks we took part in the caucuses he killed 98 people just think about it 98 people killed by one person there are countries which would call a national mourning when fewer people are killed he was one of the most to mine participants in the bombings the moscow metro. has been complicit in other crimes they did we raise the issue of his extradition at the level of the special or the intelligence services when you go back to corporations. is that it needs to be a full cooperation it needs to be 2 way street. but . it takes syria.

if you look at the camps look at what's happening in a way you have militant isis militants with the. city and with most of those. militants or those who come from from central asia even russia. but there are also people from western europe from france germany. what we seen is that these people the one that you mentioned that terrorist the killer. walked free. he was on the main european capitals from what i know he was killed right in the center of he was freely in one of the european capitals. what about those people who sit in jail so what if they come to your country would you like it we would just let them walk stroll you knew or. noted to avoid that we need to establish

a highly efficient. reciprocal card that's what we're calling for we hope that this will we will assume the future does mean that it's not imply. the level and the manner of cooperation is not sufficient. work. that if you were to ask a question there now you're not even raising your hand i wait a minute wait a 2nd we want the u.s. on the 2 brothers for whatever their name is we asked. them and we want them they are our sources of danger we are serious we were ignored and then they. the boston marathon people who died. and who have those terrorists walking. please introduce yourself. thank you mr. thank you for giving me this opportunity to introduce yourself my name is saddam

a drug. chief editor of. a newspaper of i used to work in a russian newspaper in and even in pravda i only. works everywhere. mr putin mr president. i don't have my glasses on. but it was to be expected. we've just been listening and again to a lot of important as here holds his annual q. and a marathon he was just touching on a diplomatic spot that's taken place between germany and russia over the murder of a man in berlin and augusts he said of course that reciprocal cooperation needs to be enforced in these type of situations and i will be touching back on that press conference throughout the day as he touches on pressing international issues. and other news israel has been christians in gaza from visiting holy sites such as bethlehem and jerusalem during christmas there reportedly around 1200 christians in

gaza last christmas 700 were granted permits to travel to the holy cities artie's paul slayer has more. with christmas almost upon us some peoples faced of plans are having to be aborted because of israel over this holiday season it's banned christians in gaza from visiting some sites that for them embody exactly what christmas is about basically him which jesus christ was born and here in jerusalem where he preached was crucified and resurrected after consulting with all security bodies in israel it was decided that this year departure permits through the allenby crossing will be issued to goals and christians off to christmas however it is important to emphasize that every request received from the palestinian civil committee in the gaza strip is checked individually and accepted after a security diagnosis procedure that moves by these radial thirty's is unusual as typically commission is given every easter and christmas we have to petition for

travel through the palestinian civil affairs ministry who in turn poses our applications to the israeli side with and wait for a long time to receive an obituary decision of approval or rejection without further explanation there are almost a 1000 christians living in gaza ever since hamas took control in gaza israel has cracked down on travel if a few are gazans are being given permission to make pilgrimages in 201-8700 were given permission to visit holy sites of a christmas this year the number is 0 the decision has been condemned by the israeli based organization which protects the rights of palestinian residents the persistent disrespect shown for the needs of the palestinian civilian population stands in violation of fundamental human rights and also points to an ongoing into speak ation of israeli separation policy between the 2 parts of the palestinian

territory gaza and the west bank there's been little international reaction to the christmas battle for example the us state department which prides itself on protecting religious freedoms around the globe has remain. silent let's ask people here in jerusalem what they think about the ban do you think it's a diversion because everybody should be able to visit the holiest places. to reach to the sickness and where wherever they want to be. even the christian nation the jews even the most of them many people do coming from there for christmas and the bag when it's a war place and all that everybody a muslim and christian this. because of the war saw. is that. it's not fair to be. deprived from your own religion and that's why. they are invading everything. including religion including

your privacy including you believe christmas is supposed to be about bringing people together but israel it seems has turned it into an occasion to keep people apart. artie chouest him. we're now going to jump live again to moscow's world trade center where present lot of reporting is holding his annual and a beer q. and a let's listen. over recent times this is ration has deteriorated and we can see this and the way that russia is treated in europe and everywhere else abroad do you think the situation can change for the better especially since we all understand how pointless these sanctions really are and also how strong does this pressure. change how does it affect russia we have discussed it multiple times. and here's what we have there are different assessments. i mean assembly settlement of the

consequences. in the case of the e.u. . it's about 50000000000 euro that's the losses. that. we lose. $50000000000.00 for germany it's about $700000000.00 a month. these are the losses they're huge. and it's not just the money which jobs. markets are lost they're shut out of the russian market. we just have other companies from other countries who come into our markets we favor a full normalization of our relationship. and there are disadvantages for us but our process to their r.v.'s take agriculture for example much leap.

24000000000 exports. fits that we go from explore our believe aboard. feel believe it's a couple of years ago are also truly an ice is only import substitution if you take all of the up with him but he got the sources but the outcome is staggering we've never built engines for our helicopters we now have a plant including in st petersburg and the 1st of all in st petersburg we've never built 4 or ships. that's a dedicated industry we now have. next generation very efficient industry production facilities academies about one take defense. there's been

a huge progress not all of. our progress has been really on ends. it's been just definitely to get politically motivated restrictions and try has a huge. weighs in heavily on the global economy. where serious dixon's against china there's a sanction to the fact that. the entire economy. the world try to shrink. the world trade will continue to decline finally we're seeing. prospects definitely has an impact on us because there's. so there's nothing positive about it but our economy. i can assure you has adapted to external shocks. currency.

against. shocks prices for sources. and this is how we try to work. about global energy prices. defense industry. but. even. the times of the soviet union we had a number in the factories and enterprises in the defense. in the. we've been listening in again to a lot of reporting here just commenting there on the f.x. sanctions entire world this is a end of the year and you press conference for vladimir putin and so far he's

touched on everything from climate change to crane to russian diplomatic relations and he's been going for just over 2 hours now our correspondent has been listening to everything that's being sad and he's here to break it down for us. well there's a very interesting question from a journalist who suggested to the parliament the russian parliament be empowered the expense of the presidency and. putin while he was on spring he hinted that he won't be running in 2024 when his 3rd ends and this is this is something that you know there's a lot of debate about because the russian constitution limits a president from running for. president. for 3 terms in a row. but in his case he became prime minister and then he right again so he suggested that perhaps in the future the constitution you might be amended after

the jew consideration limits a president to 2 terms. what could be done is to cancel the. amendment we have 2 terms in a truly 2 terms then resign and have the constitution to return to the presidency because it was not. confusing some of the political scientists and public figures. and just a little bit a bit ago we also heard a question regarding the diplomatic spat that we've seen between germany and russia recently over the murder of a man in berlin in august tell us a little bit more about that. well vladimir putin was asked about about confusion in the case about cooperation between russia and german authorities on the issue of his murder. and then also touched upon his extradition to russia vladimir putin

said that this. was a bloody murder that he had blood in his hands that he was he was engaged in terrorist activities and he pointed out he put out a popular in the way that europe approached this case version of. it. was recently we also had that decision handed down from what about the 4 year ban on russia from international sport always climbers response on that. well this is this is an issue that has that is embarrassed humiliated i would say russia and many russians if they took the decision very close to heart and it just seemed so unjust to many russians the bad. our athletes the entirety of the olympic team from competitions from the olympics and many other teams you know 'd

sporting teams from events all over the world in all sorts of disciplines i mean. to made an example of a 14 year old figure skater what would she know about she was too young to compete when when the decision when the scandal erupted and now russia has been banned twice in a row something that is unprecedented in its injustice. was decision is not only unfair but also not consistent with common sense and law. with decision to compete under a neutral flag was made it previously to know the same thing once again never before have we seen a president like this in international law secondly any punishment must be individual this is natural and that an overwhelming majority of athletes in russia clean how is it possible to play someone else's guilt on them to. no less

vladmir putin said that there are still avenues open to appeal the decision to work around the baton to discuss it further. those also a question to start the press conference of just over 2 hours ago about a very hot topic today and that is global warming climate change and pointed out that russia is especially. by the issue because it is warming at an average of 2 and a half times the global average that entire cities that have built in permafrost are a threat and let me putin said that action must be taken we all know the of the live causes a tally whether it's just human activity whether it's you know geographical geological astronomical events that are. promoting climate change and nevertheless action must be taken but there was also a question about. the divide near putin saying that he doesn't see any chance of

trump actually being impeached he says that the underlying causes for impeachment are completely made up it is a political spat between 2 factions of the democrats lost the election and the republicans who won it and this is the democrats trying to try to get their revenge as petty as it may be 1st he said we have the trump rush of collusion conspiracy going around what did that turn out to be after years and years of circulation in the media a complete dud and now they're trying to try to go with a trump ukraine conspiracy theory but let me putin pointed out that russian american relations they they're they're in the doldrums and they aren't going to improve anytime soon especially with the with the commission in the united states senate approving health sanctions against russia those are sanctions that would hit every aspect of russian lightly what they would touch on every single russian they would.