from the possibility of amending the russian constitution to the doping scandal from e.u. sanctions to impeachment proceedings stateside the russian president's annual q. and a session wraps up in moscow spending more than 4 hours. also this hour u.s. tech giants are being sued for allegedly abetting in the deaths of children in cobalt mines and the democratic republic of the congo parents of those killed say the company has had all the means to prevent the deaths. and while democrats vote to impeach trunk the latest poll shows the president's popularity has in fact been on the rise since the saga began but the commander in chief himself smelling blood . this lola's partisan. is

a political suicide bomb for the democratic party. a very warm welcome to the program from all of us here at moscow thanks for joining us this hour. the russian president's annual q. and a session has wrapped up at the moscow world trade center spending well over 4 hours this year a lot more putin fielding questions on both domestic and international issues with the latest stepping scandal and the impeachment proceedings against donald trump among the topics raised now let's cross live to our correspondent in the a franco lots of topics have been covered what did we learn. hey there jack well 1st of all let me bring up the russian constitution because this is something that lot of our putin does and talk about quite often well this time he actually hinted that some parts of it may be changed and in particular he spoke about changing the

cost to sion to make it up allow only 2 presidential terms now why is that a big deal while there was a lot of public debate about this specific aspect after mr putin was reelected in 2012 and he once again be game president it was his 3rd term after a break when russia's president was dmitri medvedev here's what mr putin said about that in particular. still more than a little bit easier which could be done is to come to a room and didn't we have 2 terms in a row ules truly civil 2 terms then resigned and had the constitutional right to return to the presidency because it was not to to lose in a row them humans when confuses some of all political scientists and public figures so we could become sort of. the russian president was also asked about a potential successor but we didn't get any specific answer although mr putin did

go on to say that. there is a possibility that aged woman he could become the leader of this country there were a lot of questions about domestic issues because i can tell you that in this massive audience. most of the reporters were from russian region so we did hear about loads of things ranging from the pension reforms in russia to issues with medicine but let me move on to something that's probably more exciting for the international audience what are putin's was asked about is the each man's proceedings in the u.s. while of the russian president believes that. the attempt to end ph donald trump while lot actually succeed and even went on to say that he believes the reasons for all these proceedings were invented so let's take

a lesson which. is just a continuation of political infighting each one party that lost the elections the democratic party is looking for is all through other methods accusing trump of collusion with gross shows when it's discovered that there was no inclusion that could be the basis for impeachment so i see now they've come up with pressure on ukraine i don't know what union representatives have a better idea of. we heard a question from the b.b.c. and it was about alleged attempts to interfere in the elections and other democratic process in these. other countries what we heard from mr proving it was that regarding interference or noninterference as he put it many times officials already and the representatives of various countries including great britain made their assessments of what's happening in russia mr putin asked

the question whether that's interference or not and he believes that it's actually not interference and mr putin said that russia reserves the right to behave the same way in the opposite direction now part of that question was also about. boris johnson just secured. a very good result during the parliamentary election in the u.k. he was asked about some of the nasty things that the british prime minister once said about the russian leader and here's what their response was. it was look asserts it was. as for statements from certain people various political figures about russia about me as the head of the country and i've been used to treating this accordingly but i know what the interests of my country own and that it doesn't matter at all what anyone else says there is absolutely no value in

comparing what they say with the fundamentalists which russia is interested in solving congratulations to boris johnson nevertheless he turned out to be the winner he understood the mood of the british people better than his political opponents but if you can move it on to some tensions that moscow currently has with berlin that is. a result of a killing in germany of a drawer georgian sorry national which. led to 2 russian diplomats being expelled from berlin and also some new cracks appearing in the relationship between russia and germany are broken denied any kind of russian involvement in this case but he also reminded of this particular man's reputation and his terrorist background. not just going to him to get upset in the can he was a criminal and

a killer in one attack alone in the caucuses he killed 98 people in other countries they hold mornings there are many where there are less victims and this is far from the full list of his evil actions and we raised this question that multiple times in syria we see what is going on in the coming jails well i still fighters oh. being killed people from central asia russia and 2nd place but there are also many people from western europe from france from germany we see that these people terrorists move freely into european capitals. we also heard questions about pressure on the russian media in european countries in particular or anywhere there are some real issues where the russian sputnik news agency. staff members of that news agency said that they were being pressured into leaving this particular outlet if they want to continue working in that country which in response referred to as

a real disgrace. you know. what you do a lot all sorts of attempts to still pure activity can go unnoticed i'm very surprised because russia is always accused of all evils including pressure on independent media and they do the same that they accuse us of this is cynical government measures such as restrictions can't work because you will hold those who want to spoke to school between our countries we can't allow it you must try to work in those countries that are scared of your information. these were the key international issues that were brought up by the many journalists that were inside the room which is on my right and a lot of our putin's replies to all of these questions jacquard back to. bring us all the highlights from that 4 and a half hour presser then. another

headline news u.s. house democrats have stuck to their guns adamantly going ahead and impeaching. donald trump is accused of abuse of power and obstructing congress but the whole impeachment saga could backfire on the democrats as it appears to a bra lead russian support republican support excuse me something the u.s. president has been quick to note. the 230 the nasal 197 president is one. article one is adopting. this lola's hard assume is a political suicide march for the democratic party have you seen my pose of the

last 4 weeks and trump may have a point according to the latest polls he is gaining more support from the public since october just after the democrats started their impeachment inquiry against him is approval ratings have grown by 6 percent at the same time the number of people who think he should be impeached is declining from just over half in october to 46 percent now it's up to the republican dominated senate to decide whether to remove term from office however mitch mcconnell who leads the majority there said that's unlikely he anticipates a partisan outcome just like in the house which wrote it almost entirely along party lines after 8 hours of heated debates with only 3 democrats saying no to impeachment. this process has been partition vindictive dishonest the president's actions seriously jeopardize not only america's national security but security of our closest allies this investigation was unfair the articles of impeachment are not based on facts but instead are entirely politically motivated president trump

abuse the power of his office for his own personal and political gain history books will tell of this day. it will tell of a purely partisan effort to remove the president of the united states. we're now joined live by dr robert a senior lecturer in u.s. politics at the u.k.'s lancaster university you're very welcome to the program now considering they're facing a republican led senate what are democrats hoping to achieve here. well you know i think democrats are wanting a more somber clearer approach to the wrongs that they say donald trump did you know the house debate had some really crazy moments of people comparing donald trump and his treatment to the treatment of jesus and others bringing in latimer putin as somebody who should have actually been in the room under fire for his alleged involvement in the senate and here it is going to be a lot more civil in that respect and i think they're hoping to sway some voters by

saying look here's the evidence here's how serious this is we're not just bloviating and take this under under consideration if it's not going to be the removal of donald trump from the office by the senate then don't vote him back into the white house next november and it's not the same time trump says democrats are committing political suicide to agree with that well i think that's a very a very honest assessment i don't know if the democrats really have brought in the best case you know they tried to look at multiple areas where there there have been you know certainly strange behavior from what we're used to as a u.s. president but i don't know that this was the actual case sounds more like a case for censure a reprimand of sorts for a president and certainly that may be what democrats have actually done is reduced

the impeachment process to another form of censure particularly if this is all going to go back to the polls next november and donald trump is shown by voters to be the winning man and that that may happen but when it comes to the poll of how do you explain trump's surge in the wake of the impeachment proceedings well you know democrats have a history of maybe being to some people on the moral right side of things but they don't do. very good job of explaining the ills of the world outside of some emotional appeal they don't connect very well with the average citizen and they certainly don't connect well with republicans people who they need to sway and so. just that there was a phone call or send e-mails that we were going to withhold some sort of military support well most americans don't even understand what that what that is where ukraine is unfortunately and i don't think that democrats have done

a very good job of explaining how this actually relates to the everyday life of u.s. citizens dr robert gallucci of lancaster university thank you for your time on your comments. now amid fears that the senate will not remove the president from office time across have a plan b. when it comes to undermining donald trump they're ready to return resort to some old tricks like the reports and explains difficult to understand the purpose of last night's impeachment vote why should the upper house of the u.s. congress pass judgment on donald trump when democrats already have a plan b. the house judiciary committee says it will continue to investigate donald trump regardless of the outcome but what else is left to investigate well the house judiciary committee is saying that they will resurrect the dead i.e. the moeller report this will give them a chance to get back to their roots and bring up that old russian collusion agenda

and they can get the impeachment hearings going all over again the public version of the miller report contains numerous rejections these rules 60 redactions withhold information about president trump's knowledge of his campaign's contacts with russian officials and wiki leaks and therefore bear on whether the president committed impeachable offenses yes same old same old even though bob muller found no evidence of trump russia collusion it's all about belief these days the democrats should look into some very solid facts like the recent ruling from the foreign intelligence surveillance court regarding the surveillance against carter page now that's the very carter page who is transforming a foreign policy adviser just the very next day michael horowitz inspector general of the u.s. department of justice were due to the f.b.i. for failures during the early stages of the russian probe he revealed 17 different omissions and inaccuracy is in the carter page warrant applications and furthermore

they included doctored documents and concealed information there are so many errors . we couldn't reach a conclusion or to make the determination on what motivated those failures although we did not find documentary. 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 with that added to the pile to go forget 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 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 some source i didn't know the particulars of the investigation this isn't some investigations or 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 gaited by people who have an agenda of trying to bring down his presidency is 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 rush go already but it could be more dangerous to try to rivals than 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. our to new york. us tech giants among them apple microsoft and google are facing a lawsuit from numerous congolese parents and children human rights groups accuse the companies of being complicit in the death of children who were working in cobalt mines and the company supply chains cobalt is in high demand as it's widely used in batteries for devices such as smart phones here are 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 images 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 kabul he was hit by

a large global transport truck and his leg was amputated after 2 weeks of working john doe whenever there was severely injured he was 14 years old when he was rushed in to mine the families and injured children are seeking compensation for forced labor negligence and emotional distress some claim they suffered serious injuries while crawling through tunnels are carrying heavy loads are just ask a tailor has more. how far would you go to make your fortune hire a child a child kill a child these are the questions the world's most famous tech giants will be on in court as part of the landmark legal case that's off to a human rights organization allege that complicit in the injury and deaths of hundreds if not thousands of children in the democratic republic of congo all to feed the wild insatiable appetite for the very latest gadgets defendants ample google bill microsoft tesla are knowingly benefiting from aiding and abetting the

cruel and brutal use of young children and democratic republic of congo to mind called the young children are not merely being forced to work full time extremely dangerous mining jobs at the expense of their educations and futures they're being regularly mean been killed by tunnel collapses and other known hazards common to call gold mining in the d.r. see the case has been brought forward on behalf of 14 congolese families 6 of who have lost children walking and mines the document makes 5 harrowing ranting with stories of broken spines paralysis and people buried alive and collapsed tunnels children as young as 6 false to walk up to 24 hour shifts using tools the human rights group brandt's as from the stone age many of these children while also trafficked.

and while the latest i phone retells around $1000.00 these children were being paid as little as 2 for that troubles if they survive the watson day as i've never encountered documented more severe a similar. in the elocution of income between the top of the supply chain and the bottom it's dad disconnect that makes this perhaps the worst injustice of slavery and child exploitation that i've seen in my 2 decades research what could be watch these lives through cobol apparently a metal that is essential to those in lithium batteries found in every smart phone every laptop every electric car and as the tech boom continues to monta has sought the d.l.c. as one of the poorest countries in the world but also a mineral gold mine has been only too willing to power at this for

a shift market it produces around 60 percent of the wallets coble supply mining the thought of it by hand now some of those giant corporations which signed a contract with these mining companies say they had no idea what was going on those people in silicon valley can't be big readers than because this has been news before further the horrors of the plight of these children has been widely reported in the media defendants all have knowledge of the forced labor dangerous conditions and extremely low p. provided to child coble minors then you have reports like the one by amnesty international back in 2016 which documented how child cobalt minors were over exposed to hazardous chemicals while walking with no protective gear and basic hand tools apple's promise a year later it's not use mines that didn't provide professional quit meant must have gotten lost in translation even worse than just standing idly by though pretending you are all the good guy indeed taking

a major peach from the corporate cover of god defendants apple alphabet dell and microsoft have joined in support of modal mining program cindy or seek to create the false impression that they have acted to prevent the known horrors of kobold mining in the deer sea by children but when you are raking in hundreds of billions every year what are a couple of lives over 9000 miles away from you though of course they'll have. i believe they really do care people should have values companies are nothing more than a collection of people and so by extension all companies should have values you know apple has always been at the core about changing the world it's no coincidence that a company dedicated to free flow of information was founded right here in the us as an american company we cherish the values and freedoms that have allowed us to grow and serve so many users we always knew that we were losing our money now was life

and our eyesight technology but how could we know it was costing lives too we asked the companies in question for comment they said reports of misconduct are always investigated with appropriate action taken they also told us that they are committed to being responsible in sourcing materials but a.d.r. say journalists claims that companies know exactly what they're doing. innovative world this system is not good enough and they are taking profit from this of course they nor very well done the most of demining the mind coming from the d.r. see cobalts or gold or any kind of minerals from the instant they nor the government is less territory or core tribute directly to the death of 100 millions of people walking illegally kids walking illegally in the mine on 100 percent i think 80 percent of those minerals are coming from illegal way and in a very difficult area we can't even call it the bloods minerals and the did they

have a direct responsibility on those blood minute was because they are do want to buy and they want using it by knowing it which could be sure those mining mine is extracted from the us that is the place where we are talking about dispy people directly from the big company is. a shocking case of child abuse has come to light in a small village in western russia 8 local children were imprisoned at home by their father. which was very special family very well mannered children mostly go to church after sunday a couple of listeners to this enough least on top of the burgeoning aziza use.

the children were always very shy one of the boys told me he could only go out when his father was away. at us the question is what are your relations with the children of respectful wonderful climbers raising them. and why didn't they go to school full time i was protecting them that awful. lot which ground just goes with that your girl has told us about the atrocities her own father committed against her considering the fact that these crimes were 1st committed a long time again when she was very young could not comprehend the character and

the meaning of those actions she was just opening my country to criticism her such a surface to surface shit. that's a global news update for this hour thanks for turning it. you know world of big part of the movie lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to. deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now we're watching closely watching the hawks.

argentina loving it this country is phantasmagorical the people are extraordinary the government and the central bank maybe not so much because of the central bank but let's get into this a little bit more detail. hello and welcome to all the part of the jews running the world may be one of the dirtiest conspiracists for some but not for our guests today a scholar of jewish history him and take the jews are indeed over represented in many patients and played

a vital role in all major pursuits of the 20th century from capitalism and liberalism to nationalism and socialism moreover the future too belongs to the jews isn't that to rescale for an argument in this age of political correctness to discuss that i'm now joined by you professor of russian history at the university of california berkeley professor good to talk to you thank you very much for coming over here that you are one of the very few western scholars who dared to make the city and what you call ethnic particularism consistent subject of your study before we discuss your work why do you think this is such a to both topic today. i don't think it's a boot up and can among scholars people study nationalism studies in the city. there's a lot being written about it maybe at the mood topic in some political circles

in political rhetoric with regard to particular yes nuke groups as well speaking about pretty killer ethnic groups your book the jurors century god the national jewish book award but if you look for example at the reviews at amazon there are lots of reviews but almost every reviewer calls your book controversial and i would have to i think there are hasn't been enough of the public discussion about your very interesting thesis so i wouldn't stand by the germans for example would be sort of tip toeing around the issue or trying to avoid it altogether but why would the americans feel any hesitation at around the jewish question well actually the book was translated into german and the with some discussions in germany and reviews. but of course it is controversial because i discuss the role of jews in the modern world i discuss this.