>> it is 10:00 p.m. in the french capital and you are watching france 24. the eu and the u.k. sparring for a st brexit radio. london wants tscrap the deal entirely and the eu has promised to tweak parts of the deal. the deal is centered on the flow of trade into northern ireland. friends entering the final stage of its withdrawal of some 2000 troops in northern mali. 70 stage for the army to take over a key military base. energy prices are soaring all

across the globe. this is meant to protect member states against those surging costs. we will have the latest coming up in our business segment with kate moody. you are watching live from paris. thank you for joining us. the united kingdom left the eu more than 1.5 years ago but the battle over a post brexit trade deal is not over yet at the center of the dispute is the northern ireland protocol which gives the land up in between the two islands. the u.k. wants to scrap the deal altogether and the eu is now offering some concessions. e tweaks to the agrment included is an of border checks,

reduction of british products coming into northern ireland and less paperwork. >> the eu has an unwavering commitment to the people of northern ireland and for this reason, the implementation of the protocol brings about unique advantages for dual access of the u.k. and the eu markets. we want to make sure that the hard earned gains of the belfast agreement are protected while avoiding a hard border on the island of ireland and maintaining the activity of the eu market. >> joining us is our correspondent in belfast. how are officials in northern ireland reacting to all of this? >> pretty well. before making this announcement

you just heard the representative of the eu came to northern ireland and talked to local politicians behind me. he talked to local businesses. these proposals are the result of his findings over here. the largest party here, the largest unionist party which was hostile to this protocol, the democratic unionists have welcomed broadly this -- these proposals. the leader talked to france 24 here. he said after weeksnd months of wrangling that brought this protocol and this implementation close to chaos, this was a resolution. the offer is for a cutdown of 85% of checks on goods coming

from great britain into northern ireland. most unionists here would like to see 100% of cuts and not just 50% less red tape, 100% less red tape because as far as they are concerned, ty can't accept a border within the united kingdom because northern ireland has one foot in the eu common market. of course, this is just the start of negotiations. mr. donelson sees these negotiations going all the way to mid-nember but at least a good start. bringing this whole negotiation back from the brink. on the other side of the break here, a very good welcome to these proposals. they want to recall this to scuss this and implement the protocol as quickly as humanly possible. the business community gave a

these ideas because thihis may t solve the identity side of the problem but they are solving most of the business problems and easing the flux of goods and medicines in particular from great britain into northern ireland. paicularlyor smaller business groups, this is indeed what they wanted. >> the eu appears to be able to bend quiet a lot. we have been hearing about these proposals. will that be enough for london? >> i am pretty sure it won't be enough, it will be too little and too late. his particular problem is with the eu court and the role via disputes that may happen between

the u.k. and the eu. he wants to scrap any role from the eu court into the jurisdiction of northern ireland. as far as theu is conceed, if northern ireland keeps a position within this market, the european court should have say over what is happening over here. that is the start of the negotiation. we will see where that is in mid-november. monte: thank you. in norway, several people are dead and others were injured by a man with a bow and arrow. the attack happened in the town of kongsberg. the man walked around the city randomly shooting people with arrows. police did confirm that the attacker was apprehended. the french army has started winding down its operatns in northern mali.

that is where french troops have taken part in the fight against jihadists known as operation barkhane. france is reducing the number of troops from 3000 to 500. . >> a shakeup of france's military presence in mali. the process of handing over the base in caddell has started. the malian army will take over in a few days. 400 million soldiers was -- will maintain a presence at the base. the military is also planning to leave the other two bases.

they are planning to start drawing down the operations. as part of that plan, the mission's french contingent will be reduced from 5000 soldiers today to 3000 by 2023. this comes amid worsening tensions between france and mali. the prime minister of mali accused paris of abandoning the country. that sparked a furious response in france with emmanuel macron accusing mali's government of having no legitimacy. paris worries that moscow may be trying to fill the vacuum of french troops. monte: thank you so much for being with us, france will still have a role there but given that it is withdrawing some 2000 troops, what does it say about its presence there? >> it is partly a reflection of

the change in strategic picture on the ground. when france first intervened in 2013 at the request of the malian government, the big problem was the jihadists had taken over the northern part of the country. initially, the struggle against jihadist groups was largely focused in these northern areas in the zahara -- sahara. the situation has evolved since then. now, a large part of the jihadist activity is concentrated in the three frontiers region. what the french army is doing is reducing its overall manpower but also keeping the manpower that remains in the area where the main current struggle

against the jihadist groups are concentrated. that is to say in this border region. around the city of gaul, toward minorca and then at the border. that is the area where the ench will remain very active and with their forces integrated into the european special forces thatas been built up over the last year or so. monte: this withdrawal has led to a war of words between the prime minister of mali and the french government. the pm accusing the french of abandoning his government. in the long run, how do you thinthis will affect the two countries? >> for the rest of the time of transition before mali gets back to an elected democratic

government which is supposed to happen early next year but now looks like it may only get postponed by the transiona government for a few more months beyond that, i think relations are sure to remain difficult. there is a degree of mistrust in paris about the commitment of the transitional government to that timetable. it is a mistrust that is shad many other wesafrican that will make things difficult. at a practical level in the field, even during these last few weeks of diplomatic spats and rows at the u.n., on the ground, the practical cooperation between the melian army and the french has continued as effectively as ever before. that is likely to remain the case because far too much is at stake for all sides in terms of

maintaining the struggle against the jihadists. there will be pressure on the millions -- mullions from other countries. -- the malians from other countries. they wo't want a political squabble or political position taking to get in the way. there will be a lot of pressure to sustain that cooperation. monte: the u.n. and the international army are poised to take control of this key military base in northern mali. in your view, are the of for t job? >> the u.n. is already -- up for the job? >> the u.n. is already there. molly has a plan to gradually return to this town of great significance. it is the town in the sahara desert which is seen as the

center of the long-running campaign for tuareg peoples in northern mali to have greater autonomy. this has at times moved to a seratist agenda. in the run-up to the crisis, back in 2012 and 2013, the tuareg separatist armed groups were active in this area. they entered into a peace agreement with the mali government. a key stake in maintaining stability that region will be building up the autonomy arrangements that have been agreed for the other regions of the far north. essentially keeping that peace process on track. there is a big push from the northern armed groups that are not jihadists. the ones that are former separatists and the ones that

are nominally aligned with the government, they are now together in a group. they want that process of autonomy to go on. that will be the critical issue. if that political process can be sustained, it will be much easier for the malian presence to be accepted. they want water, they want electricity, they want development in a region that the government has not done much for and has tended to neglect. monte: that was paul. thank you so much for your time. he is one of the world's best-known and highest-paid living artists. british painter david hockney spent most of his time in the northern region of france during the pandemic. now he is revealing his works. >> 60 years ago, british artist

david hockney discovered california. his paintings make him the most expensive living artist in the world. recently he has had a change of scenery. finding refuge in normandy. since 2019, the painter has devoted himself to her presenting the northern french landscape. the textures and changes in nature. part of his inspiration came from the water lilies in paris. the same building that is now exhibiting his painting that is 90 meters long. it represents the passage of the seasons in his normandy garden. particularly the arrival o spng. >> it is a marvelous activity. >> how did he end up moving to

this quiet corner of france? he was advised by our friend, a gallery owner and his now neighbor. >> he wanted to take a step back but that was difficult in the places he usually lives -- london and california where he is well-known so he is constantly bothered. >> in normandy, hockney found tranquility. he painted this on his ipad before printing on paper. a techniquee has beensing for the past decade. he has not lost his appetite for creation and his use of vibrant colors from his swimming pool days -- liverpool days remain his trademark. >> the eu has released some

measures to combat the rising price of energy. >> the commission has not enacted any of these changes, they are just making them available to governments. the toolbox includes, deferrals and temporary tax reductions for the most vulnerable households. it ensures safeguards to avoid being disconnected from the electricity grid and a probe of potential anticompetive behavior in the market. in the meantime -- medium-term, they want to step up their energy efficiency. that may be a hard sell if ergy prices continue to soar. the european commission said it would look into the possible benets of buying natural clas -- gas jointly. the block needed to look ahead to the longer-term problem of energy independence. >> he is asking for important

changes in the energy markets. we don't want the price of electricity to be dependent on the price of gas. >> let's check it on the day's trading action. wall street shrugging off some higher than expected inflation. tapering could begin as soon mid-november. the dow jones closing flat. the s&p 500 and nasdaq had some gains, the tech sector outperforming. the european indices closed with higher gains in each paris and frankfurt. the international monetary fund is defending herself after surviving an ethics scandal. she was cleared and confirmed in her job. the scandal dates back to her time as one of the top officials at the world bank. she and her staff were accused of pressuring researchers to give china a higher ranking than reflected by the data in his

2018 business climate report. net annual survey has since been discontinued. ternational institutions must always strive to approve according to her. she says the incident should not impact the credibityf the imf or world bank. >> the problem was with one specific rather controversial report at the world bank. not with the research at the imf. we were very explicit in recognizing the integrity of imf staff and research. >> two ports in california will begin operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to ease a backlog. the ports of long beach and los angeles are seeing similar

traffic jams. -- will be the ones. >> the port handles a third of the united kingdom's freight. but the bottleneck of cargo has led to a backlog that could take months to shift. >> i think there will be some disruptionhis christmas as a result of the shortage. retailers are adept at making sure that they prioritize things people want, making sure that ople's christmas favorites are available to buy. >> the world's largest container shipment firm is available for transfer to avoid the queues. such problems are global. the u.k. exit from the european union on top of the pandemic has exacerbated the problem badly. at shops. used to empty shelves

40% of the container tradeove and the u.s..se ports to eope as demand outstrips supply, workers are struggling to stay >> we have a supply chain that has been focused on cost and efficiency. there has not been a lot of select capacity. right now, when we have these surges in demand, that really kindf exposes the risk of not having enough slack capacity. >> in the united states, though white hou has been rolling out measures intended to relieve the logjam. these two major west coast ports will be 224 hour operations along with the nation possible three largest transport firms >> the united states has taken over china -- largest transport firms >> the united states has taken over china --

over a third of bitcoins came from the u.s. in the month of august. that is up from around 4% the year earlier. kazakhstan, russia and canada were the other 80 desperation for bitcoin minors. this process of getting bitcoins out of the computer system is very energy rich and it is something that is a growing source of concern for environmental activists. monte: it is a growing concern. we will now turn to james with our daily fact checking segment. you are showing as tube videos that have been circulating on facebook since september. they show muslims praying in the street and blocking traffic and supposedly this is happening in the u.k.? >> that is right. the first video happened on the 21st of september and was shared on facebook.

all of the claims are that it is happening in the u.k.. it says lend him -- london in the grips of islam. if i play the video, you can see that there is a man praying in the middle of traffic on the motorway. he is commenting on at is going on. you can see in the background, the context of all of this, there are quote a lot of clues as to where it may be. the claim that it is in the u.k. is incorrect. the details are this car passing by. this is an online taxi service in istanbul. you also have this water brand. bottled water also in turkey. this is audible in the background. there is a man speaking about

the e five. the uncle is conrned with the e five this is an incident that did not create any major consequences. it cerinly did not happen in the u.k.. >> that clearly wasn't london. there is another video with the same claim. muslim street prayer. was it actually in the u.k. this time? >> we will let you sit on the edge of your seat and wonder what the answer to that might be. i am being tongue-in-cheek at first because usually these videos are fake. we have the claim that this is in the united kingdom. that was not in that particular chair there. see if you can see where this particular scene took place. there are some clues in the background. the name of a bank.

they are seeing some in paris. that is a scene that took place in the northern suburbs of the city. there again where our observers team -- our researchers looked into most of the clues. you have a clothing store and another one here, neither of these stores are present in the u.k.. they are very familiar to those familiar with paris streetscapes. most of these are being shared in india for the most part. people in india may be fooled more easily about the urban landscapes and the backdrops of those images. the question remains whether it was done on purpose or done accidentally. one might question the motives. >> this is happening with the

context of increasing fake news in india concerning the muslim population there. >> images get a lot more traction if it elicits a lot more emotion. this is in the context of fears in india. there is a degree of hate speech going on and then pick videos accompanying it. the print talks about antique muslim fake news factories following anti-semitic playbooks. there is one example they refer to which is a pretty awful story . it was the story of a teenager that drowned in a river. that was attributed completely

falsely to him being sacrificed to make local mosque. there were also posts saying that people were purposely spreading covid-19 through coughing and licking. there is some white sinister stuff. some of it is during -- being done on purpose. whether they were spread accidentally or on purpose is archana. -- hard to know. monte: thanks a lot. that is it for now. stay tuned for more world news here on france 24.

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amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i don't think i can make it all the way up there, all the way up the peak, all the way up the hill. amy: as t world wches, as star ek actorilliam shner blas off int space, w spend the hr lookgelow at tragic