problem their problem right now is to score quick political gain yes alex let me go back to you in cyprus quick political game and of course they're getting it but the implications in the long term are are fundamental because i think now that it's a generational thing i mean why in the world with russia want to have better relations with the united states it doesn't have much trade ok the issue is that there are the bring them together russia co holds most of the cards here and you have a political establish in the united states that is at war with itself so i mean detente is possible but the americans and the foreign policy blob assume that russia wants that i don't think that's the case go ahead alex and how can you have detente when just the other day you had this bizarre white house press briefing there were all the guys were there you had christopher rah you had coats you have bolton and once again they're pushing out the narrative of russia election involvement keep in mind they're not saying meddling anymore they're not saying interference now it's involvement and of course you kno

that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate it let me go to alex first in cypruswe have a new phrase that's popped up in the last latest news cycle and that's criminalizing diplomacy and and a steamed expert probably the greatest living expert on russia in the western world stephen cohen was on c.n.n. with well someone with a very dubious road record when it comes to foreign policy mr max boot before i go to you alex let's have a watch at this clip. i've been studying russia for forty five years i've lived in russia and i've lived here and you're going to be actually was it all actually for us and we would want our viewers sure hasn't read. it excuse me what did you say to me i said you've been consistent in apologies to russia in those last forty five years. i don't do defamation of people i do serious analysis of serious national security problems when people like you call people more like me and not only you maybe people more eminently apologise for russia because we don't agree with your analysis you are criminalizing diplomacy ok alex criminalizing diplomacy

analyst we also have dimitri bobbitt she's a political analyst we spoke nick international and in cyprus we cross to alex was four zero he is the director and writer for the duran dot com are a gentleman crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want i always appreciate alex let me go to you first then in cyprus interesting trend going on we have european leaders speaking out about a future without the united states and turn. the security arrangements specifically nato and with the impending sanctions visa v the iran situation some europeans were thinking out of the box for a janes for example we have president mccrone of france talking about aggressive isolationism what's your take go ahead. no chance that they'll be able to do anything without the united states i think it's all talk by opinion i think that you're up to intertwined to all and by the united states and to me this is just this is all about trump you know these these leaders. these guys these neo liberals what's been left of the obama crew so to speak they just don't like trump they don't like to deal

to listen to them you really have to really go there are going to alex we're going to go back to cyprus one more minute before we go to the break here so it looks like russia russia russia is was going to be continued.

right let me go back to alex in cyprus here alex you and i few. days ago i had a long conversation about what's going on in south africa and then lo and behold again it's our conversation was about the. reported murder of white farmers the x. the seizure of land without compensation and how the south african government is dealing with it grappling with it politically and internationally and then number of sources particularly tucker carlson over at fox news talked about a few other people did well known you tubers you and i talked about it and lo and behold the south african government seems to be pulling back your thoughts yeah they they are taking notice and you noted in our discussion peter that it's the p.r. part that the south african government is very worried about and president trying to tweak it brought a lot of attention to what's going on in south africa it's a very complicated issue but what we're seeing now is south africa trying to explain how the how the land expropriation what other people are calling theft is going to take place a

that sounds like something like cyprus hill would -- >> questlove: it was an easy e song. >> jimmy: it an .sy e song, he always had good riffs too, man. but it almost sounds like -- can you play it again? ♪

you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciated let me go to alex first in cyprus we have anew phrase that's popped up in the last latest news cycle and that's criminalizing diplomacy and and esteemed expert probably the greatest living expert on russia in the western world stephen cohen was on c.n.n. with well someone with a very dubious road record when it comes to foreign policy mr max boot before i go to you alex let's have a watch at this clip i've been studying russia for forty five years i've lived in russia and i've lived here and you're going to actually most of all actually russia and we would want our viewers sure hasn't right. excuse me what did you say to me i said you've been consistent in apologies to russia in those last forty five years. i don't do defamation of people i do serious analysis of serious national security problems with people like you call people like me and not only me but people more eminently apologist for russia because we don't agree with your analysis you are criminalizing diplomacy ok alex criminalizing diplomacy i think it really hits t

he explained he set up those 15 cyprus-based bank accounts and helped lie to an accountant for manafort to reduce the income and filed false tax returns. he expressed he did it, quote, each time at the direction of mr. manafort. gates revealed he actually defrauded manafort. he said he had stolen several hundreds of thousands of dollars from manafort by filing false expense accounts. this showdown comes as the two men have known each other for over 20 years. first met manafort when he was an intern work going his company at an office christmas party. he worked closely with him for ten years -- this showdown is expected to continue tomorrow. prosecutors say that they have about three hours worth of questioning to gates and then it will be the defense's turn where manafort's lawyers will be able to question him. we're expecting that to be pretty aggressive, erin. >> all right. certainly so. we'll hear from cara on that tomorrow who is going to be in the room. i want to go to rick gates' former lawyer and former assistant to the u.s. attorney general for national security and john avlon, o

and having some control over one of manafort's accounts in cyprus. >> right. never going to be that president putin having conference calls with manafort. right? probably going to be an oligarch, somebody with money, close ties to putin, the government doesn't work there like it does work here. all the ties. what is interesting here is i think anybody could have told you that manafort was a corrupt guy with ties to questionable governments before he was hired by the trump team. >> that wasn't exactly new. >> that wasn't exactly new. not surprising. i was joking with josh and probably wasn't the rising star of the republican party either. so the fact that he was hired by the trump team with these russian ties is also something that should raise questions and google. you didn't need a big investigation to know that. >> yeah. it was an odd pick. >> we wrote about it at the time. if the case is no collusion, whatever how we define collusion, but i think we are getting closer and closer to overall the entirety of the information we know now suggests not a lot of in

that use cyprus as an intermediary. the trial unfolding as the president questioned why manafort was being prosecuted to begin with. while neglecting to mention that paul manafort managed his campaign for five critical months. i want to begin our conversation former u.s. attorney michael moore, former u.s. assistant attorney glenn kirschner and jennifer rodgers, also an assistant u.s. attorney. we have lots of attorneys to take us through this legal case. thank you for joining us. good evening. michael, you're first. negotiations for the possible trump/robert mueller interview moving ahead. here's what "the new york times" is reporting that the president's lawyer rudy giuliani sent his latest proposal and write this, they say, "investigators stood firm on the scope of and topics for their questions to mr. trump, possible coordination between his associates and russia's election interference and whether he tried to obstruct the investigation." adding this, "they did shift slightly on format. including they want to have m

analyst we also have dimitri bobbitt she's a political analyst we spoke nick international and in cyprus we cross to alex cross who for oh he is the director and writer for the duran dot com are a gentleman cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want i always appreciate alex let me go to you first then in cyprus interesting trend going on we have european leaders speaking out about a future without the united states in terms of. security arrangements specifically nato and with the impending sanctions visa vi the iran situation some europeans are thinking out of the box for jane's for example we have a president of france talking about.

want to listen to them and i really have to really get a really good alex you're going to go back to cyprus one more minute before we go to the break here so it looks like russian russian rushes is going to be continued all the way to the mid terms or in lieu of the mule the report go ahead alex. yeah i think even when the mueller report is is finalized and i think we are coming to an end it's very apparent that the whole russia thing is just going to last until probably until trouble either wins reelection or that's going to go on for another four years or until they get rid of trouble because if the russia thing is not dying down you can see it in the white house press briefing they're going to scapegoat russia for everything but the most important point to all of this is that the american people don't care we've seen poll after poll alex shows that russia ranks very low just real quick do you think paul manifold will go to federal prison because he has good taste in clothes but. he definitely i think good taste in clothes and i think when everything wraps up he will get a part of it from

he diverted the plane to cyprus where he was arrested.ld not face a fair trial in egypt. in the us, the former director of the ciajohn brennan is considering taking legal action to stop president trump from revoking security clearances. mr brennan was head of the agency under obama, and mr trump removed his security clearance because of what he called "a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations" about his administration. mr brennan had criticised the president for attacking a former white house aide who's written a book about her time in the white house. here's john brennan on nbc‘s meet the press. i think this is yet another example of his egregious abuse of power and authority. just because he has the ability to revoke one's clearance doesn't mean that he is doing it for the appropriate reasons. indeed, he violated the process that he himself, his administration put out last year, in terms of the basis for revoking security clearances. so i think it was just designed to distract the press from some of the other things that were go

members cyprus and malta and their findings could have a big impact on the flows of people and capital across europe and the world critics of characterize immigration policies in malta cyprus and six other e.u. nations over citizenship by investment policies that criticize that critics call citizenship for sale now the e.u. commissioner for justice or bust says brussels will examine similar policies and practices across the e.u. especially in relation to money laundering and corruption while residents permits can be purchased in more than half of the e.u. nations brussels is especially concerned about the combination of pay for passport policies with lax transfer policies by natural transfer policies that is mr georgia says clearly signaled geo political concerns behind the probe telling the financial times quote it's a big concern when a russian citizen who has worked its whole life in middle or senior management were salaries aren't very high. suddenly has the money to buy citizenship in malta. and speaking of russia finance minister anton still says he has his colleagues are reactin

want to listen to them but i really have to really go to really go to alex i'm going to go back to cyprus here one more minute before we go to the break here so it looks like russia russia rushes it's going to be continued all the way to the midterms or in lieu of the mule the report go ahead alex. yeah i think even when the mueller report is is finalized and i think we are coming to an end it's very apparent that the whole russia thing is just going to last until probably until trump either wins reelection or that's going to go on for another four years or until they get rid of trouble because if the russia thing is not dying down you can see it in the white house press briefing they're going to scapegoat russia for everything but the most important point to all of this is that the american people don't care we've seen poll after poll alex shows that russia ranks very low just real quick do you think paul manner for it will go to federal prison because he has good taste in clothes and. he definitely i think good taste in clothes and i think when everything wraps up he will get a part of

he was basically draining money out of his country and says out of serbia and down to cyprus and you have these people doing this all the time so this is really nothing new but when it comes to these companies what's interesting here is that a lot of companies are complaining about it and the ones that are complaining about it are not necessarily american companies it's european companies that feel that these this type of tax these tax measures might affect them negatively i mean they've already talked about how taxing that they have been treated fairly by the u.s. so this is just another step here and and this is of all a part of a bigger plan if you look at it really i mean we remember just last year that was signed into law one point five trillion over ten years and this was a part of the tax reform so that part was reduction in taxes at home so of corporate taxes dropping from thirty five percent to twenty one percent so again another mechanism to make money even though you're reducing here you know you've got to fill those those coffers from someplace else and what's interesting

members cyprus and malta and their findings could have a big impact on the flows of people and capital across europe and the world critics of characterize immigration policies in malta cyprus and six other e.u. nations over citizenship by investment policies that criticize that critics call citizenship for sale now the e.u. commissioner for justice vera jo orbit says brussels will examine similar policies and practices across the e.u. especially in relation to money laundering and corruption while residents permits can be purchased in more than half of the e.u. nations brussels is especially concerned about the combination of pay for passport policies with lax transfer policies by natural transfer policies that is mr georgia says clearly signaled geo political concerns behind the probe telling the financial times quote it's a big concern when a russian citizen who has worked at all life in middleware senior management were salaries aren't very high suddenly has the money to buy citizenship in malta. and speaking of russia finance minister anton still in awe of says he has his colleague

and buying a mercedes-benz sl 550 for $123,000 partly in cash wired from cyprus.courtroom today. evan, what was the key take away today? >> reporter: well, the key take away, erin, was the way the government was really trying to use these eight witnesses that we had today to try to show how paul manafort was using these offshore accounts to fund this lavish life-style. we heard from home renovateers, we heard from the mercedes dealer, real estate agents. people who were furnishing these expensive high end men's clothing. we caught up with one of the witnesses after he testified. take a listen to what he had to say. >> you said in your testimony there that mr. manafort was not the only client who sent wire -- international wire transfers. >> i can't go into client privacy issues. >> but was he an important client to your business? >> as i stated, he was a very good customer. that's all i can do now. >> thank you. >> reporter: and that was one of the managers for the house of bijan, a very exclusive store in beverley hills that calls itself the most expensive store

the bank of cyprus.f a million dollars in shrubbery, this is not typical spending, this is lying to the bank. he is the chairman of the presidential campaign, but spending in this type of race, it is not just about that, but i understand you have some o ostrich. >> we have an counselled this is not about russia and russian interference, but a lot of his income came from russian money. it >> this jury is not sequestered somewhere, they have not been held hostage, and the role of the prosecutors because they cannot say, because they cannot talk about the conflict resolution, they cake make this about mueller, and they're going to plant some seeds. they have their own minds to talk about a connection, this of all of the campaigns of the world, there is was this, could it be a coincidence. yanukovych was pro putin and it is all plying out there. they can't technically say connect, this trial is about that, but that entree, the port of entry, is what is important. >> that's why the federal court has a take in

members cyprus and malta and their findings could have a big impact on the flows of people and capital across europe and the world critics of characterize immigration policies in malta cyprus and six other e.u. nations over citizenship by investment policies that criticize that critics call citizenship for sale now the e.u. commissioner for justice vera door of us says brussels will examine similar policies and practices across the e.u. especially in relation to money laundering and corruption while residents permits can be purchased in more than half of the e.u. nations brussels is especially concerned about the combination of pay for passport policies with lax transfer policies by natural transfer policies that is mr georgia says clearly signaled geo political concerns behind the probe telling the financial times quote it's a big concern when a russian citizen who has worked at all life in middleware senior management were salaries aren't very high suddenly has the money to buy citizenship in malta. and speaking of russia finance minister anton still in awe of says he has his colleag

>> cyprus is important in the west debate and for turkey and the european union, cyprus has been a crucials been constraining the relationship for a long time. you have to remember that turkey started negotiations in the european union in 2005 and ciphers has been a major stumbling block for the relationship to advance. developing the energy resources offshore in the eastern mediterranean and turkey is strongly opposed to the unilateral exploration from their authorities and have threatened several locations, to possibly even use force to prevent that. erdogan is important -- in partnership with the nationalist party which advocates a tougher stand on the issue. the european union is no longer there as a partner to turkey, then the constraints of the policy will not be there. tom: this has been extremely valuable. control risk. marilyn watson and chris turner of ing. do you have a dollar level that is critical? we have seen stronger dollar. you can use euro yen, but are we at a critical point for dollar breakout? >> yes, i think the biggest dollar level out there at the moment is against t

fewer foreign knows there's a big fear of foreigners and this is for example this is the case in cyprus we saw in a report that politicians are searching for answers and we heard chancellor merkel say there is no place for hate on the streets what do you think her government is going to do well i'm going to machall is faced with this challenge of countering and immigration sentiment she is faced with it on the day to day level. right party won tremendously in last year's federal elections they're now the biggest opposition policy on the national level so they are very much selling this idea of their cause failed immigration policy the open door policy they call it and so she is trying to take this very seriously she spoke out against right wing extremism her interior minister has come out and later this week a family minister will also travel to chemist is that what you exactly looking at kevin itself there are supposed to be fresh demonstrations i had as you said politicians will be traveling there what can we expect what we can expect this story to continue for at least a couple of mo

it's quite interesting that desperate times whenever you have a desperate situation whether it's cyprus or argentina or china with their capital controls people are that individuals are flooding to. bitcoin as a way to escape these sanctions now maduro is introduce this unit of account which is the petro against which their new currency is pegged but that this is supposed to help people escape some sort of sanctions and circumvent the sanctions but by the way president donald trump in march signed an executive order barring any u.s. based financial transactions and valving the petro with officials warning that the venezuelan crypto currency was a scam which is quite interesting because if you go to any read it board or twitter twitter everybody's talking about scams and pumps that pump and dump and. well this is an i c.e.o. to take the cake in terms of. i see those that are running into trouble this is like mates file calling mates all the all the top big you know them as well it's got a lot of oil but there are many refineries and this is packed oil they're trying to leverage their oil

the start of the presentation with a number of vendors that manafort paid through accounts in cyprusister or even declare. then he is paying for real estate, closing, all because of personal expenses. very bad. then they followed with the bookkeeper. and two accountants who essentially, just give information about his financial dealings. at one point an account of the given immunity by the government said she was complacent in the bank fraud. the government has been put in the case together it has been coming clean. not good for manafort. arthel: mercedes, your summary of week one. >> is amazing because at the very crux of the defense it is all going to be about the plea deal that have been done. the cornerstone of the prosecutors defense is prosecution is rather, looking at one of the counties that came forward and testified against manafort. as she was she said she was complicit in making these tax forms that were illegitimate. and obviously unlawful. but at the final analysis with the defense they will come forward and say it is a plea deal. if you bring rick gates to testify agai

we now have two murders of local men whether people have fled to northern cyprus and it is time thatt month. tfl says it's looking at how it can "adjust and reorganise the network to ensure it reflects a rapidly changing london." let's have a look at the travel situation now. there's a good service on the tubes this morning. 0n the railway: south western railway services are disrupted through staines because of a signalling problem. 0n the roads, the m25 is closed anti—clockwise between junction 27 and junction 25 because of an overturned lorry. there are diversions via the m11 and north circular. in lower holloway, the traffic lights are not working on the a503 southbound at the junction with york way. two lanes are closed on gloucester place between marylebone road and melcombe street due to emergency gas leak repairs. lets have a check on the weather now with lucy martin. hello, good morning. the last of the very warm weather today before we see a switch to something cooler, fresher and more unsettled. today there will be good spells of sunshine and again feeling very warm, temper

>> it's odd he gets over $60 million that's funneled to cyprus, and everything is supposed to be on thehat's what the client wanted. they wanted to show the kind of circles he traveled in. that's why devine came there. one of the things sticking out to me is the fact that many of the trump supporters are saying that this is just a witch hunt. but this is not about speculation. for mule toeller to bring this, feel they have an airtight case. at the same time you have to remember, there's something called the rule of law. to work for someone who was an underling politically and bring them back to the top and get $60 million for this and then evade taxes for 15 million, that's just one piece. that's tax evasion. and then have the money funneled to cyprus, because that's what the client wants, something -- it doesn't pass the smell test. that's not a hitch wasn't. and -- witch hunt. there are russian connections. people have to understand this is not playing out in the court of public opinion because someone says something. there is a thing called the rule of law that has been broken. so i

of dollars flowed from ukrainian businessmen controlled entities into manafort's bank accounts in cyprus and gates also testified the fbi interviewed himn as part of an investigation conducted bayou cranian authorities and the fbi. >>> the state of california in federal appeals court today arguing against president trump's border wall, specifically california contends the trump administration overreached by waiving environmental reviews to speed construction of the wall. those reviews are subject to prolonged legal challenges that can delay or even derail projects. in february a u.s. district judge sided with the administration leading to today's appeal. >>> san francisco becoming more proactive to address homelessness. a three month assessment blitz is now under way. in november the people with the biggest need will be placed into supportive housing. this is all part of mayor london breed's $60 million effort to address homelessness in the city. >>> despite the name it's not quite like uber still. it will get you around. >>> and investigators keeping a close eye on tesla after elon musk

both told the court they were paid with wire transfers from cyprus.udge also took issue with prosecutors using the term oligarch, suggesting manafort was working with criminals while in ukraine. depending on how testimony unfolds, its star witness rick gates may not testify. the government also says it is moving ahead of schedule and expects to rest its case next week. joining us, dan ny savalas. >> this is a yak wool sports coat. they're having a sale. >> not an ostrich jacket. >> let's talk business. what stood out in yesterday's testimony? >> i think one of the most brilliant strategic moves by the government may be avoiding using rick gates. >> why so? >> i'll tell you why. >> yeah. >> because the defense's opening statement centered on rick gates being a liar. in any cooperating witness case, and i have handled these, they're very challenging. one of the things you have to do is put the cooperating witness on trial and say, this person is a lie wrar, they are motivated lie, they have a deal with the government and they don't get the benefit of th

paul manafort paid these bills with money from cyprus.ot clear because the prosecutors won't talk to us whether they're tailored their case to respond to this defense of hail mary trying to blame rick gates but that's certainly what's happening. and now we don't know if rick gates is going to testify because one of the prosecutors raised the possibility that he may not testify at the end of the day. >> the evidence that was presented today, yes, you had people on the stand, but it was a lot of paper that was presented to the jury today, right, which seems to indicate you may not need rick gates for this. they may have him just with ledger sheets. >> i think that's a very important point. yes, each of these witnesses were used to enter into evidence documents, invoices, e-mails, describing payments of the aand government indicted paul manafort and rick gates together so they are prepared to go to trial and convict both of these men. gates was gravy, he flipped, he turned state's evidence. it would be nice to have gates to walk through this

yes, i knew there were foreign ejt t entities, but i had no idea these foreign bank accounts in cyprusisted. when i compiled their tax returns, i did so without knowing all of their income. that was a definite piece where miss manafort realized there's some trouble here in what he's saying. >> we learned a little bit, i guess did the word "trump" get uttered today because manafort's trump tower condo and rent on that was some part of some falsified documents. where did that come up today? >> reporter: i did not hear the word "trump" but definitely what they referred to was the howard street property was under big question today. that was really a business property. they used it as a rental. they rented it out to make more income. but paul manafort asked his tax preparer, phil aliff, to say that this was a private residence for him and his wife in new york and that they were there many days of the year when they came to new york to do business. philip aliff refused to do that. he said if you are trying to get a loan and you want me to falsify this information, i won't. i won't do that.

they channelled some of that through offshore bank accounts including one in cyprus and today rick gateseard that paul manafort lied about properties so he could get a lower mortgage interest rate and asked him to fabricate invoices. the defence has begun their cross—examination of rick gates and they are trying to undermine his credibility. they talked about an affair he had more than ten years ago. questioning how rick gates was able to fund the lifestyle which included a flat in london and questioned whether he was drying from the bank account in cyprus as well. why does this matter to the rest of us? this is the first trial or relating to the larger investigation that robert mueller is undertaking at the moment. into whether or not the donald trump campaign colluded with the russians. this is not specifically about that but rick gates yesterday told the court that he is cooperating with the investigators and has met with them on 20 occasions. the question eve ryo ne them on 20 occasions. the question everyone wants to know is what other information is he feeding into the wider robert

an area in cyprus amazon rain forest this been badly hit by deforestation. is on his way to visit an indigenous community they can only be reached by boat hires heads up the federation of native communities in this part of peru he grew up in a village here but he doesn't come back often as it's become too dangerous. i received a lot of death threats. left a message in my house saying a prior opposed their activities again better not see me in the village. i believe i am in great danger. he opposes the large scale deforestation in his region and that has earned him some powerful enemies he never comes here alone this time he's with star from the organization poetica the peruvian transparency international they visit santa clara. residents here have come under pressure from companies looking to set up cocoa palm oil plantations. the village chief calls everyone to a meeting to discuss the latest development. they're taking legal action to try to stop new palm oil plantations opening nearby. we never thought that we would have such problems with trans national