♪ anchor: thank you for tuning into france 24, this is live from paris and these are your headlines. more raids at european parliament as belgian authorities a probe alleging bribes by qatar. eu friendly leaders accusing foreign powers of trying to corrupt european democracy. iran executes a protester in public, hanging his body from a crane. the barbaric killing believed to be an intimidation tactic by the regime. and ukraine continues to face

the bloodiest fighting of the war with russia. we take you to the region to see how residents are surviving. ♪ belgian authorities searched european parliament offices on monday, seizing computer data from 10 parliamentary staff. investigators are undertaking a sweeping investigation of suspected bribes by qatar. so far, four people have been charged with criminal organization, corruption and money laundering, including greek parliament vice president eva kaili. members were warned that alleged corruption by a foreign power is an attack on democracy and will

not be tolerated. >> there will be no impunity, none. we will launch a reform process to see who has access to our premises. how ngos and people are funded, what links with their countries they have, we would ask for more transparency on meetings with foreign actors and those linked to them. anchor: our correspondent in brussels is following the story and told us more about the reaction inside european parliament. reporter: this was a barnburner of a speech. she is normally plainspoken but this was extremely from and direct. another thing, she did not do political point scoring. it's not just eva kaili, it's basically everyone caught up in this. the belgian m.v.p. is from the same group, her partner, and you

could see it from garcia while she was giving the speech, you could see the strain in her face for sure, but she also said her group would consider it self prejudice party. one thing, she said the line you mentioned, we would rather be cold than botts. she could be referring to the recent energy deals qatar has done with germany, for instance, but she could also be talking about russia. one thing i have heard in brussels is this investigation, if it goes further, could uncover similar tactics by russia. we've heard anecdotal tales about this for a while. i wondered when i heard that line whether she was actually talking about the future for

russia getting ensnared in this as well, particularly since her whole speech was so focused on foreign malign actors as being such a threat to european democracy. anchor: that was dave keating in brussels. iran executed a second freedom protester on monday morning, and in a gruesome warning to others, publicly hung him from a crane. he allegedly fatally stabbed to members of a paramilitary force after a crackdown on demonstrators, but activists say he confessed under torture. we have more. reporter: it is iran's second execution of a pro-democracy protester in less than a week. this man was publiy hung from a construction crane early on monday. authorities said cct footage shows him stabbing security force agents to death last

month, although activists say he confessed under torture. >> i hated the security forces because i sell videos on social media that showed them eating and killing people. i wash the clips and believe what i saw was troop you -- saul was true. reporter: authorities have been cracking down after days of unrest, after the killing of a young woman killed by police. trials are held behind closed doors, and the defendants cannot pick their own lawyers. they have been labeled some as sham trial's. this latest killing could have the opposite effect of what they want. >> i completely reject the death sentence. >> we need authorities to hear us and respond reasonably. reporter: the eu also condemned the execution and said he would be working on a fresh round of sanctions targeting the

revolutionary guard. >> these executions are a blatant attempt to intimidate people, not for committing crimes, but for taking opinions to the streets, for wanting to live in freedom. reporter: dozens of other antigovernment protesters are also expected to stand trial and could face the death penalty. anchor: joining us now to further discuss this is our guest, a human rights researcher with a focus on iran, and her own family was forced to leave the country when she was a child. thank you for being with us this evening. a public hanging like this, it is so barbaric and it appears that was the point for the regime. is this kind of execution rare in iran or not azadeh: thank you for having me. iran is one of the key executors in the world.

hundreds are executed every year. when we look at execution of the protters and this case, the second known one in the past eight days, it is clear it is being used as an intimidation technique and a kind of weapon against protesters. it is clear the islamic republic is sorting to what it knows well, which is the use of the death penalty against in particular the less affluent and those marginalized and minority groups in order to make an example for them -- of them for the rest of the population. since legal force on the street and thousands of detentions have not put an end to the protests. anchor: in your opinion, could this deter protesters? azadeh: i believe not.

i believe iranian women and the people, while they have not yet achieved a revolution, per se, they certainly have shaken the core of the islamic republic during this unprecedented protests that have taken now about three months. these kind of intimidation techniques, this level of our barracks brutality is simply going to make the average protester more frustrated and determined to seek change and continue their demands. of course the format of the protests may meander around oppression and crackdown and brutality. it may take the form of protests, neighborhood level strikes, students being more active at the unirsity level, and so on, it definitely will not end the protest and the

demand for fundament change in today's iran. anchor: do we know how many more protesters are at risk of being killed? and doing no details about them? azadeh: we know thousands of protesters have been detained. we know many of them are under very bad conditions. there's reports of sexual harassment, torture, to the point that some have left prison and committed suicide. prisons are overcrowded. in terms of the numbers at the moment, those at the risk of execution, what we know is about 17 or so individuals who have either been sentenced to death in trials that amnesty international has called sham trial's, sometimes 2, 3, 4 minutes long.

there is enough evidence for human rights organizations to determine they may be at the risk of receiving capital offense allegations and a death seence as a result. a lot of these death sentees are issues for heavily marginalized and less affluent segments of the society, and sort of anonymous to the international community, human rights community. this is a risk the human rights community is trying as hard as possible to get information about them to expand their stories and profiles to introduce them to the international community, to raise the political cost for iran, the islamic republic, when they decide to execute them. it is proving very difficult cause the families are being intimidated and harassed, not to

speak up about the conditions of their loved ones. anchor: really appreciate you joining us today. azadeh: thank you. anchor: next to the war in ukraine. ukraine support of odessa on the black sea resumed operations monday. activity was suspended over the weekend after pressure used drones to hit to energy facilities. russia continues to target the energy grid, some 1.5 million people across the country are without power. in eastern ukraine, funding continues to rage around the city of bakhmut, currently the most active and violent front line in the war. our correspondent is reporting from the region and told us how civilians are surviving under constant assault. reporter: indeed there are evacuations, and volunteers paint phone numbers on the wall, offering a free lift to other

cities, and basically giving around of a to the local population. the outskirts of bakhmut, to take them out and what we saw was a some people, young people -- a young couple had decided to leave, saying the situation in the town had become too difficult. each of them were living in a separate flat. she lost her house two days ago. his house was bombed two or three days ago as well. they said we have nothing left to lose. let's just leave the city, just packing a few things and going off for what will be a temporary life. the population of the city of bakhmut has fallen from over 70,000 before the war to, it depends on which expert you listen to, 2000 to 7000 people. most have left, and they are in the dark, in the cold, very little food and drink, and under

constant shelling. that's why people are making the decision to lead. some would argue the battle for bakhmut started in may and intensified in august. yes, the situation in the city is extremely difficult. when you are there, you just here constant shelling, every several seconds you hear a shell crashing into the city or fire departing from the ukrainian side. it is of course an impressive sound in itself. this morning, as we were driving into bakhmut, there was a building in flames to the right of the main road and we were told minutes later that the building had just been hit by a shell. it is a random global shelling of the city constantly. the situation is very tense in the eastern part of the city, on the others of the river, and there is very intense, bloody fighting for a few meters on the

outskirts of the city, with the russians are trying to enter the city and the ukrainians holding onto their positions. anchor: james ande in eastern ukraine. peru's new president giving into protesters's demands they pledged -- demands. they pledged to move the general elections up to april 2024. this did not placate protesters. hours later, they blocked access to an international airport and occupied the runway. the country has been thrown into political crisis after the then president last week decided to dissolve congress, was impeached, and replace by the vice president. protesters are demanding elections as soon as possible. at least two people have died in demonstrations. covid cases surging in china

after the government you turned on zero covid strategy. this brings strains of disruption to china's econo. authorities continue to pull back on restrictions, including a virus tracking app that had used cell phone data to track travel history. they started to lift covid measures last week following protests that grew into calls for leader xi jinping to step down. time for business. hello. europe's energy crisis seems to be under control for the moment, just as it has gotten really cold on the continent, but that doesn't mean it will go away. yuka: a sigh of relief now but we should not be too happy about it. the head of the energy agency says the continent will weather the crunch this year with some

economic and social bruises. they said despite russia cutting natural gas supplies this year, europe has managed to fill storage, but warned the continent needs to speed up renewables for the market as it faces a potential gas shortfall of up to 40 billion cubic meters next year. in a press conference, the european union president renewed presses for natural gas. >> this winter it looks like we are off the hook, the message i am bringing up to you today is that the crisis is not over. next year, 2023, may very well be much more difficult than this year. >> we are safe for this winter. russia's black male has failed. however, some of our proposals are still under discussion and

are essential for energy preparedness. therefore i call on the council to adopt them swiftly because preparing for the next winter, 2023/2024, starts now. yuka: sam bankman-fried, the disgraced founder of crypto exchange ftx, says he will testify remotely at a u.s. congressional hearing on tuesday that will examine the collapse of the company. this will be his first public appearance before u.s. lawmakers. the ftx bankruptcy triggered a currency route and calls for tighter regulation th n lder has bee called to testi as well, and will detail what because unacceptable management practices. >> never in my career have i

seen such an utter failure of corporate controls at every level of an organization, from the lack of financial statements to a complete failure of any internal controls or governance whatsoever. the ftx groups collapse appears to stem from the absolute concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals. yuka: a quick check on the markets now. wall street shares rose this monday ahead of tuesday's inflation data and the federal reserve's policy meeting, with all three indices accelerating gains in late trading. you can see, the dow jones up more than 1.5% at the close. the s&p and nasdaq also rising more than 1%. some more of the days business stories for you at this hour. the holiday shopping season is in full swing in many parts of

the world, but this year's if bonanza is tempered by decades high inflation. in australia, despite a slowing economy, consumers are still spending big, with analysts predicting a record holiday season. we have more. reporter: dreaming of a bonxo christmas. australia's inflation rate might be at a three decade hi, but sydney's shopping malls are like a lizard or drinking. >> you just want to spend. we do feel it but not as much because it is christmas. reporter: consumer prices up in the land down over -- a down under, 6.9%. the gdp growth slowed to success of a percent from july to september, remains on track for a 4% annual rate. most of the growth powered by consumer spending, with savings

rates down for four straight quarters. average wages were up 3.2%, the fastest pace since 2006, as the country gears up for its first holidays since the end of covid lockdowns. the wallets are coming out. >> we believe people will spend a record 66 billion dollars this christmas, which is $2 billion up on our previous forecast, 6.4% up on last year. at this moment, people are continuing to spend, and that is music to our ears. reporter: economists expect australia's growth will slow down significantly in the new year, but that unlike u.k. and other western economies, the country will manage to avoid recession. yuka: finally for business, amid fears of electricity shortages, candles have been flying off the shelves in france as consumers turn to the time-tested lighting alternative. demand has risen significantly

since september with people stocking up on the commodity just in case. france's electricity output has been the lowest in three decades , with the state owned utility racing to reactivate as many nuclear plants as possible. many of the reactors are now back in. i'm going to take out my hot water bottle. anchor: me too. [laughter] thank you. next, it is time for truth or fake, our daily fact checking segment. were going to head over to our reporter. you've been looking at fake news around charlie hebdo. >> just over a week ago, out observers team noticed an interesting cover of charlie hebdo circulating on twitter. let's look at that.

this user went on to say france is associated with ukraine, charlie hebdo rolled out a special issue to do with nazis in ukraine. a little decking -- a little digging showed me this cover never existed, it was created in the style of the original magazine, but it was impossible to find online. this magazine cover had no mention in recent issues, not available on the website, and even in the public archive of the magazine, it does not exist. this is supposedly the cover 1584, but that is not the cover on the official media. it is about french politics. what is really fascinating is there are layers of fake news within this story. it is fake news inception.

this cover, just a couple of weeks ago, in an episode, i debunked this same fake news story that has now been impacted on the fake cover of charlie hebdo. we saw a social media video created in the same style as al jazeera laming that ukrainian supporters at the world cup in qatar had vandalized and defaced world cup property with nazi slogans and imagery. but this was never published by al jazeera, they denied it came from them, and no such graffiti was reported in qatar and it is likely this footage was extremely well doctored. the reason this is relevant is we can see a carbon copy between what was created in the fake al jazeera video and this fake charlie hebdo cover. we can see the world cup mascot

with the same hitler mustache, and even similarities in the graffiti. it is an extremely well-done copy. this is a great example of how fake news can continue to build until the real story is not recognizable anymore. this isn't the first time we have seen a fake cover of the magazine charlie hebdo in the last few months, there have been at least six we have managed to find. charlie hebdo had come out to condemn and announce a couple of them in particular. here is a look at three of them we found. a couple of them have gone out -- they have gone out to say we haven't done this. there are quite visible spelling mistakes in a couple of these fake covers. this one has an obvious french mistake, this should be feminine with e on the end, that is an unlikely mistake they would make. there should also be a c here.

these covers also have a similar theme. we have boris johnson being vomited on either u.k., we have a menu omicron, we have king charles at the queen's funeral, we also have a similar face, and that is president zelenskyy depicted as a dog in all three covers. that is interesting. it's also fascinating to see all the fake covers, even the one we saw with the false al jazeera n azi defacement, they are on themes relating to ukraine, so it's definitely anti-ukraine sentiment in these fake covers. anchor: we've established they are fake, do we know who was behind them and who is sharing them? vedika: earlier i spoke to an independent russia media outlet and they have been investigating this in great detail. this is their website, where they've been doing an extensive investigation into the fake

covers. they found that with every fake cover that emerged, was first appearing on russian language telegram channels that openly support the kremlin. some of these accounts have hundreds of thousands of followers, getting exclusively shared on this website, and most exclusively shared on a russian telegram account. some even by famous russian television presenters. earlier, i spoke to the editor in chief of the fact checking site, and he told me he believed there is a strategy behind the way this is being done. let's take a listen. >> first of all, internal, that russiansust think there is a huge wave of support for russia and opposing ukrainin the west. the cond ones external, to create, they are trying to

create artificially some kind of this wave in the west. vedika: that was the editor i n chief of the fact checking site. he believes the objective of the fake covers is to convince a russian audience that western media is on their side regarding a stance on the ukraine war, as well as externally to amplify voices sympathetic to russian and foreign-language is and overall provide alternative facts to the russian public. anchor: busting myths, fact checking in our truth or fake segment. thank you. stay with us on france 24. i will be back in a couple of minutes with more news from around the world. ♪ >> between 1970 and 1980, a

number of japanese citizens mysteriously disappeared, a mystery that was in fact a kidnapping program orchestrated by north korea. >> in 2002, kim jong-il acknowledged 13 kidnappings. but how may people were really abducted and in how many countries? while the united states supports the victims, north korea has broken off talks. many gray areas remain in this international story of espionage. watch on france 24 and france 24om. ♪ >> france 24, a different point of view. liberté, égalité, actualité. ♪

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12/12/22 12/12/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we are receiving the nobel peace prize during the war started by russia. this war has been going on for eight yea, nine mths, 21 days. for millions of people, torture,