RT News - December 21, 2018 (18:00 MSK)

A secret project by US Democrats to test online tactics during a state election is revealed in a New York Times report. It's claimed they used the methods of an old adversary those much-maligned Russian bots.  Another hit for the Trump administration - Defense Secretary James Mattis announces he's stepping down, just a day after the US president surprised allies by saying he's withdrawing American troops from Syria. And, an acclaimed journalist is sacked from one of Germany's most-respected news magazines and stripped of his international awards after admitting he'd been faking articles for years.