>> russia's defense ministry's have said its forces have taken control of soledar. the eastern ukrainian town could be strategically important for russia in the donbass region. an explosion hits a key natural gas pipeline in central lithuania. the operator says no one was injured and there is no immediate evidence of an attack.

new research finds oil giant exxon made highly accurate predictions about global warming back in the 1970's and then spent decades dismissing the science to protect its own business. football fever has swept iraq as the nation hosts fifa's gulf cup once again. ♪ i'm nicole frolich. it's good to have you with us. russia claims its forces have captured the town of soledar in eastern ukraine. if true, this would mark a rare victory for moscow after months of setbacks for its troops. ukraine's military leaders have

rejected the claims, saying it's soldiers are holding the russian advance in the battle is ongoing. >> amid ukraine's freezing winter, soldiers in soledar face oblique battle to fend off russia's constant attacks. the fight here is proving bloody and brutal. russia is determined to take control of the small mining town, a rare push forward after numerous setbacks. its defense forces already claiming victory. >> the complete control of soledar makes it possible to cut of the supply lines of the ukrainian forces located in the southwest. and to block and enclose the ukrainian units located there in a pocket. >> those claims have been swiftly rejected by ukrainian forces, who say their soldiers are holding the line.

the loss of solid art would be a major setback for ukraine after months of successes retaking towns and territories. but the fighting comes at a high cost. >> its close combat. we have gunshots. we have grenade shrapnel and so on. these kind of wounds increased. >> russia claims to have killed hundreds of ukrainian soldiers in the battle for solid are, but there have been no confirmed death tolls. there were reported to be more than 550 civilians still in the town living in horrific conditions with no running water or electricity. >> a defense analyst with london's king's college talked to me about the military significance of soledar.

>> thank you for having me. first of all, for russia it was politically important to take soledar because that will increase the morale of the army after so many sent acts. in military terms, the plan was to take soledar and basically cut off ukrainian logistics and advanced towards --. some russian military analysts point out that their artillery would be able to reach. it remains to be seen. however, it would give them a stronghold there and at the same time as has been pointed out, defenses of the ukrainian forces might suffer a collapse in that region because that's right in the middle. so they will have to fall back to the other position.

militarily it would be a setback and it would affect the morale of the ukrainian forces, especially because the ukrainian government says soledar wasn't that important in the question is why were those true there and why hasn't -- withdrawn the troops as he wanted to but zelenskyy didn't let him do that there are a lot of questions in terms of how the ukrainians will handle it. >> russia has acknowledged that the mercenary group's efforts were crucial in this mission. how remarkable is that? >> i guess there is no other way but to acknowledge the fact that wagoner was responsible for this. -- wagner was responsible for this. precaution was claiming that only wagner fighters had taken soledar without any

reinforcements from the regular troops and he's been posting videos. so at some point if the ministry of defense keeps on lying and it has done it on repeated occasions, it might lose its credibility. it has to sometimes tell the truth because all evidence points to another direction so that was an important step for them to admit that wagner is actually militarily perhaps more effective than the russian armed forces. >> there has been a lot of talk about whether ukraine's allies are going to send battle tanks. poland has offered but want to do it alone and needs german approval. why do you think we are seeing this hesitance still? >> that would be the first time the western allies would be sending something to ukraine that is not designed for defense. rather for attack.

britain has been talking about sending the challenger two to ukraine. we should interpret it as more of a political gesture as a way to open the floodgates for these kinds of weapons and equipment sent to ukraine. because essentially up to this point, ukraine has received equipment to defend itself, but not to attack and the reason why the u.k. gesture is symbolic, 10 challengers will create more problems for ukraine. because they need an additional supply line for the special ammunition, the two piece ammunition these tanks are using. and they will have to integrate them into their system. you cannot just use the tank on its own. he will need to have a platoon of tanks -- you will need to have a platoon of tanks.

politically it is important because that might set a precedent and it will help to test russia's reaction. >> thank you for all those insights. an explosion has damaged a key natural gas pipeline in northern lithuania. flames up to 50 meters high were seen shooting from the amber grid pipeline. the operators say it saw no indications of sabotage, but supplies to lithuania and latvia could be disrupted. a nearby village has been evacuated. i spoke earlier with a correspondent about the explosion. >> it happened about 5:00 p.m. local time. flames were about 50 meters high. i've been living in lithuania for more than eight years and i haven't seen a fire like that in

my life. it was quite scary, frankly speaking. but there are no casualties. basically the authorities were quite quick to react and organize transport roundabouts and evacuation. it's interesting that the authorities are saying that repairs may be already next day. they hope that gas which is contained within an 18 km section of the pipeline by that time will completely burn out. that is a must for repairs. >> the operator said so far there is no indication of sabotage. what else could have caused a blast of that magnitude? >> i think the investigation will show it, but indeed what

the operator said immediately is that no sabotage is suspected. in lithuania, bordering putin friendly belarus, this kind of idea is the first thing that comes to mind. but what the operator of the company called amber grid described is that the pipeline is quite old. it was built in 1978 and it is hidden underground. so essentially sabotaging it will demand quite an effort. what they are saying is they suspect for now more technical reason. also what they are saying is the impact will not be felt because basically like a kilometer or two nearby, there is another pipeline which doubles as a supply route. basically northern lithuania and southern latvia will probably

not be affected. also not far away there is a gas storage tank which will probably pump gas into the neighboring regions while the mainline is being repaired. >> thank you. let's have a look at some of their stories making headlines around the world today. swedish climate activist greta thunberg has appeared at the demolition of a village being cleared to allow for coal mining. she criticized the decision to remove people from the village. germany has extended its use of coal power generation in the past year due to the energy crisis. a court increase has dropped espionage charges against rescue workers who helped migrants across the mediterranean sea. the case was widely criticized by human rights groups.

the united nations said it set a dangerous precedent. german government has called on russia to provide urgent medical assistance to alexei navalny. his family and supporters say they are increasingly distressed about his health and that he's being denied care. he is serving a nine-year sentence at a penal colony north of moscow. researchers say that one of the world's biggest oil companies made highly accurate predictions about global warming while publicly dismissing any link between fossil fuels and climate change. the study says exxon mobil scientists knew about the risks of fossil fuels from the 1970's but chose not to disclose them. the researchers say their findings amount to a smoking gun. exxon denies the accusations. for more on this, we spoke to a climate scientist at the potsdam institute for climate change

research. he told us what exxon knew about global warming but failed to reveal. >> we examined some internal papers as well as journal publications by exxon scientists since the 1970's which the internal papers have come to light in 2015 through journalistic investigations and we analyzed the computer simulations of future warming as a result of fossil fuel burning that the exxon scientists presented and we compared these climate projections to observations. and the projections were that there would be a warming by 0.2° celsius per decade, which is exactly what happened. of course they predict that

before there was any clear observational evidence that there was even global warming. >> the german and french foreign ministers have called on the african union to condemn russian aggression in ukraine. they are on a joint visit to ethiopia, but their calls for solidarity against russia are likely to meet with mixed sentiment. several countries have been reluctant to distance themselves from moscow. >> at today's meeting, annalena baerbock and catherine colonna insisted on more african-european cooperation. the foreign ministers called for solidarity in russia's war of aggression against ukraine. but many african countries do not want to distance themselves from russia. one of these is ethiopia. they did not agree to various

u.n. resolutions against russia last year. there is a common course regarding the un security council which deals predominantly with african conflict. the au is calling for reform. baerbock agrees. >> they are supporting two permanent seats in the security council also for the african continent. >> after two years of civil war, the host country ethiopia is now in a piece process -- peace process. the foreign ministers are now optimistic that the government is on the right track. in november, the ethiopian government and the people's liberation front had agreed on a deal. the war was triggered when i'll be off med took power -- abbi ah

med. took power. they had dominated the country for three decades. their discontent turned into a revolt and eventually a full-blown conflict, sparking one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. millions of people are starving. hospitals have been damaged or destroyed. water, electricity and medicines are in short supply. but now urgently needed aid is flowing once again. telephone and internet connections are being restored. for the europeans, ethiopia is once again a potential partner since the cease-fire. but the foreign ministers are demanding that the east african country come to terms with the consequences of the civil war. >> teenagers shot during antigovernment protests in peru died thursday, bringing the death toll to 49.

supporters of ousted president pedro castillo have marched and barricaded streets demanding new elections and the removal of the current leader. >> they carried mark offense and effigies of their unwanted leaders in jail cells. thousands of noisy protesters hit the streets of the capital to demand the resignation of their president. >> there is a lot of indignation, pain and suffering having a psychological impact on those of us following what's happening in the provinces, especially our brothers and sisters being killed. it's a total massacre. >> in the ancient capital of the inca empire, the caskets were real. locals bid a public farewell to a killed protester. elsewhere in the city, clashes

broke out yet again. police fired tear gas. protests responded with stones and slingshot fire. by night, the violence escalated. the terminal was triggered by the arrest of former president pedro castillo last month after he tried to seize emergency powers to evade impeachment. the crisis has rocked the country. he was protesting at the airport when he was killed. >> the police shot him. i don't know who gave the orders. we want people responsible for his death to pay for it. >> most of the victims hail from working-class heartlands loyal to castille. -- castillo.

>> and some other stories. prosecutors in japan have formally charged a man suspected of assassinating former prime minister shinzo abe. the suspect will stand trial after the prime minister was shot during a campaign speech last july. the men confessed to carrying out the killing because of his links to a religious group. south korean authorities are seeking criminal charges against 23 officials over a deadly crush as people celebrated halloween. the charges related to a lack of safety measures include involuntary manslaughter and negligence. more than 150 people died in the capital when revelers got trapped in a narrow alleyway. germany's economy grew by 1.9% in 2022 according to the latest data. the country managed to stave off

a full recession last year with the economy performing better-than-expected. that's despite supply chain problems. russia's war in ukraine and high energy prices acting as a drag on growth. after 33 years, international football has returned to iraq. fifa banned iraq after saddam hussein ordered the invasion of kuwait in 1990. the ban was lifted last year and now iraq is hosting the much walk -- watched gulf cup this year. >> after decades of waiting, iraqi fans are celebrating the return of international foot tall. the rocket is hosting the gulf cup for the first time since 1979. -- iraq is hosting the gulf cup for the first time since 1979. >> everyone who lives here was so excited that when the tickets

were posted online, they were sold out in just a few hours. >> fifa banned iraq from hosting internationals after the invasion of kuwait. it was only fully lifted last year. now locals in the host city are excited to show the world a brighter side of life in a country emerging from three decades of a people. -- upheaval. >> we want to show that our life is more than just war. a part that loves happiness, life and positivity. that's the most important thing. >> the iraqi government has canceled standard $200 visa fees to try and further encourage foreign fans. >> we used to hear a lot of things about iraq. when we came here, our view totally changed. there is security. our journey to get here was safe.

we feel as if we were in kuwait. >> iraqi fans are hoping to see their team succeed in the brand-new stadium. they want the world to feel at home as they resumed their role as international hosts. >> earlier we spoke to the iraqi foot of federation ambassador and she said hosting the gulf cup is an important step for the development of football in her country. >> iraq is actually looking into posting hopefully the asian cup and that's also a huge thing. obviously it will open up more cities within iraq hosting this tournament. given the huge impact this has had on the country and the positive impact from the gulf nations, now we want all the arabs and even asia to be part of this and we look forward to

hosting the asian cup and hopefully the arab and more in the coming years. >> other sports stories around the world. the short list for the fifa's best awards. argentina features heavily. lionel messi leads the awards while england is well represented. in tennis, cameron norrie has pushed through to the final of the atp auckland classic. he ranked 12th in the world, was born in auckland new zealand but now hails from britain. germany's top tennis player alexander zverev was hitting

balls with a guy who could still be germany's top basketball player. former nba all-stars dirk nowitzki group playing tennis -- grew up playing tennis. he gave up tennis to focus on basketball, eventually winning an nba title. his first match in melbourne is tuesday. lisa marie presley, the only child of rock 'n' roll legend elvis presley has died at the age of 54. the singer-songwriter who inherited her father's estate reportedly suffered cardiac arrest. >> lisa marie presley pictured at the golden globe awards just this week. the 54-year-old apparently in good health. only days before, she was at graceland, the home she inherited from her father elvis presley. crowds had gathered to mark what

would have been his 88th birthday. >> i keep saying you're the only people that can bring me out of my house. i'm not kidding. >> lisa marie presley was born in february 1968, exactly nine months after her parents elvis and priscilla married. they later divorced and when their daughter was just nine years old, elvis died. it was a traumatic start for the only child. presley was married four times, including to singer michael jackson. that ended two years later. her marriage to actor nicholas cage lasted only a few months. she had four children in total. one of her sons died by suicide in 2020.

presley forged her own singer-songwriter career, but she could never escape her father's iconic status. >> i feel that he would have been proud, but i think he would have also understood the path that i had to lead to find myself here. i needed to know that i had my own audience. i need to try on different things for myself. i think he would have understood the path. >> lisa marie presley was very close to her mother priscilla. in a statement following her daughter's death, priscilla described her as the most passionate, strong and loving woman i have ever known. >> here's a quick reminder of the top stories. russia says its forces have taken control of soledar, an eastern ukrainian town.

ukraine denies the claim and says severe fighting is ongoing. an explosion has damaged a key national pipeline -- natural gas pipeline in northern lithuania. new research has found that exxon made highly accurate predictions about global warming decades ago but went on to publicly deny climate science. the company is being accused of purposefully misleading the public in order to protect its business at the planets expense. stay with us. after a short break, i will be back to take you through the day. ♪

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>> liberte • egalite • actualite . >> welcome to the france 24 newsroom. these are our top headlines. after months of military defeats, pressure claims a much-needed morale boosting but kyiv says its forces are still fighting. the u.s. attorney general appoints a special counsel to investigate president joe biden's handling of executive documents after second stack of papers discovered in his garage in delaware. and breathing a sigh of relief

as the u.k. court finds a not guilty on six counts of rape and sexual assault. to counsel go to retrial in the summer -- two counts will go to retrial in the summer. ♪ thank you for joining us here on france 24. i am alexander all court. six months of setbacks by taking control of the mining town. it's forces will be able to take off 10 kilometers to the south and truck remaining forces. kyiv denies and says forces are still fighting. we have details.

>> it would be the first major battle field for russia in months. moscow says russian forces have soledar in eastern ukraine. >> the capture of soledar became possible by launching of missile troops and artillery. >> fighting is still ongoing in the area. located in the donetsk region, which russia continued -- considers part of its territory. intensifying has been taking place in the mining town for the past few weeks, tearing it apart and causing a strain of ukrainian casualties. it would be more vases collect win van a strategic one but it's capture could open the gateway to a larger prize, which russia has been targeting since the summer. even then, the u.s. is confident the impact of the war itself would be limited. >> even if both fall to the

russians, it is not going to make, it is not going to have a strategic impact on the war itself, and it will not stop ukrainians or slow them down in terms of their efforts to regain their territory. the ongoing view between ale, leader and his rivs from the russian ministry of dense. dismissing the idea that regular russian military forces hav participated in the battle for soledar. it came a few days after he announced that his men had already captured the city, a claim that was ignored by moscow and rejected by kyiv. alexander: there have been is certain amount of infighting amongst the various russian forces. one claims it alone is responsible for the victory in soledar.

we are joined by our moscow correspondent, daniel hocking. daniel: it is finally a success story they can present to the audience. hundreds of ukrainian vehicles destroyed, hundreds of ukrainian troops, and russian casualties, focused on a cnn report a focus on ukraine troops retreating from soledar as well, but the real story is the head of the kremlin, openly very strongly emphasizing that this victory is theirs and theirs alone, posting in a telegram today that the victories solely belongs to wagner's group, the parent company, where he made his name,

actually posting a statement from the leader veterans association which was, which said, i'm going to quickly expose as i am speaking to you, they are very surprised by the boards here that russian forces were involved in the taking of soledar . there was not one soldier taken by wagoner and wagoner alone. stop motivating the fighters. it is time to stop. reap from that what you will. these are strong words from the association, and in regard to the russian leadership on the high commander, how unusual this is from russia, a rigid sort of top-down taylor commands including their information frozen, and they have been proting, marketing this pr campaign, really reached fever pitch levels, and it is telling

of the split, if you like, between the old guard of general gas mobs, and these more cherry pickers, like from the chechen republic. and he does not hold any office, he is not a general, he does not hold any titles, but he seems to be holding more power, not only militarily, in terms of operations, but also now politically in terms of russian pr domestically. this is something that the kremlin will be watching very closely and taking seriously, particularly, if you remember, presidential elections coming up next year, potential political power plays just starting to open up this year. liberte • egalite • actualite staying on this -- alexander: staying on this topic, we are looking at pictures in the u.n. security council in new york where members are discussing the war in ukraine and the effect it is having on the civilian

population in the country, food and security. we will bring you more on what comes out of that meeting as it comes through. for more details, we are joined senior fellow at the atlantic council and author of "the new rules of war." shawn, thank you for being with us. the winter is currently slowing wn the fightin whe do you sethings going next? sean: a definite stalemate that could go well past 2024,nd putiis tryindesperately to figure out how to move this forward. alexander: so you have got ukraine and its allies increasingly willing to help with equipment and training, russia perhaps going to its own traditional tactic, just thwing bodies at it. sean: yeah, so, i mean, what

russia tried to do almost a year ago was a traditional war, a woods creek invasion. that failed miserably, as we all know. they switched to a russian unconventional war in april, which is flattening cities, essentially, and massacring civilians. that has not produced the results it wants. meanwhile, the united states' position on this -- i don't speak officially -- is to create a quagmire for russia and a leadership dilemma within the kremlin that could potentially get putin removed. i think that is what is that play right now. of course, inside the kremlin, you have your old guard, as you were just talking about, versus proposed draft -- pogotion and his mercenaries. when the world sees success, even mercenary success, somebody is bound to imitate it.

alexander: we have western allies sending armored vehicles, on the other cycle we hear quite regularly that russia is exhausting its supplies. what do we know about this date ofhe russian military as it stands at the moment? sean: the russian military is in dire straits. remember, they are trying to basically stall the war right now, may be the u.n. is still trying to explain, because they are trying to equip and train soldiers for a spring offensive. meanwhile, the u.s. and others are giving lots of equipment to ukraine, but let's not forget that the patriot missile that are given to ukraine, they may not be online until mid-summer. it takes about six months to train ukrainians on how to do that, and that is optimal. alexander: sean mcfate, thank

you very much for that analysis. we move on to other world news, and u.s. department -- justice department has appointed a special counsel to look into allegations joe biden miss ala documents during his time as vice president in the obama administration. papers were discovered at his office, his former institute in washington, as well as his garage at his home in delaware. leaving the justice department simultaneously investigating two presidents further handling of classified documents, of course after papers were found at donald trump's mar-a-lago residents. we take a look at the two cases. >> u.s. president joe biden and his predecessor, donald trump, each had classified documents they should not have had. files were found at the personal residences, biden's in delaware, trump at his mar-a-lago in florida people have special counsel's investigating, but there are some key differences

between the two cases. the first is how the documents came to light. a professor of historical udies told france 24 -- >> in some cases, the nationa arives reali that storical significant documents were missing, and they said "where are these documents? let's contact trump's team an find out where they a." idea ty were misng, bidensno found the advice, that we should not have these, let's call the lawyers, let's call the national archives. >> another difference -- the number of documents found. trump had hundreds of files marked classified. biden appears to have had a much smaller number. finally, how biden and trump responded. trump and his team resisted turning over the documents, it is believed trump took some of them himself, as mementos. biden says he was unaware of the documents and his team is fully cooperating. >> he was surprised that these records have been found.

he does not know what is in them. >> we are still learning details of the biden case, but if either man has proven to have deliberately broken the rules, it could lead to serious legal consequences. alexander: -- closed due to ongoing deadly protests. more than 40 people have been killed in the weeks that have followed the ouster and rest of former president elect castillo last month. there have been violent class with police, and supporters have called for special elections. the attorney general has now launched an investigation to identify those responsible for the deaths. and benjamin mendy has been cleared of rape and sexual assault and six counts by u.k. court following a six-month trial for the 28-year-old who

denied all nine counts involving six women showed relief as the verdict was read out, but the jury failed to reach a result on two of them. they will be held in june. >> after a six-month trial, benjamin mendy has been found not guilty of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. the unanimous verdict by the seven men and four women on the jury was found after 14 days of deliberation. the prosecution had accuse the french footballer of being a sexual predator who raped women as young as 17 years old. he said any sexual act was consensual. the footballer was at the peak of his career between 2018 and 2021 when the allegations came flooding in. he won the 2018 world cup with

france and the premier league with manchester city. mmendy was arrested in november 2020 and suspended by manchester city in august 2021 after being charged with rape. he has been cleared of seven charges but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on two other charges against mendy. the alleged rape of a 24-year-old woman in october 2020 and the alleged attempted rape of a 29-year-old woman in 2018. a retrial has been set for june of this year. alexander: let's discuss today's business with yuka royer. it is heating up. yuka: alexander, a new satellite launch site has been escalated. it will booster -- bolster the u.k.'s capability.

the e.u. hopes to launch thousands of many rockets. >> lift off from sweden's spaceport in preparation for what could be the first tellite launchrom mainland europe, the eu has inaugurated a new facility, a big step in the space race. >> it is a big moment for europe's space industry, the first orbital launch site on european mainland. this is exactly the infrastructure we need not only to continue to innovate but also to further explore the final frontier. >> the inauguration comes at a time when space cooperation with russia has been curtailed by the war in ukraine. >> the current geopolitical situation, not least, of course, the russian invasion of ukraine,

has demonstrated how important it is that the european uon s access tspace. >> the satellite industry is booming. in 2021, more objects were launched in space than ever before, and europe has been developing smaller, cheaper micro rockets. the eu is looking to revive their space program after italy's rocket failed on its second mission. britain's rocket launch also ended in disappointment. the swedish corporation will launch in the first quarter of 2024, but the competition has heated up. other european nations are in the race, such as portable, norway, and spain, among others. yuka: back down on earth, tesla is getting out to boost demand by offering a heavy discount. the electric car maker/the price of his vehicles -- slashed the

price of its vehicles globally by 20%. the carbuncle -- the carmaker has been grappling with delays and recalls any value of its shares have fallen by 70% from its peak. apple's tim cook will see a pay cut of 40% this year among criticism from shareholders. the target for 2023 is set at 49 million dollars, with $9 million base salary and cash incentives. the remaining $40 million will be in stock, three-quarters of which will be how it performs on the stock market did last year to pose a figure was 75 million dollars, with half depended on shares. in the past year, apple lost $1 trillion in market cap. that's a look at the market on the final trading day of the week now, and u.s. stocks accelerate gains with all three major indices ending in the

green after dropping earlier. the dow industrials, as you can see, the dow jones ending up .3%. germany's economy did better than expected last year and will likely dodge a recession -- at least for now. 3.9% in europe's largest economy in 2021, during the post-covert recovery but faster than pre-pandemic levels seen in 2018 and 2019. mild winter weather has helped resist the energy crisis caused by the war in ukraine. household spending increased 4.6% year on year and the creative and entertainment agencies grew three -- 6.3%. finally from me, tough times call for big dreams. in the united states, someone could win $1.35 billion in the mega millions lottery drawing

this friday. it is the frth larges lottery jackpot ever, at least after no one got the winningumber i24 drawings since october. here is what some players in new york had to say about what to do with all that money, if they win it. >> first of all, you know, i got to get myself something good, a nice house, not too much, because when you put yourself through, y're going to have to much friends. >> would definitely buy gifts for friends, the children, and aspca, for the animals. >> i've never been to disney world. [laughs] i know, but i've never been and maybe also would like to give some money to some people that i know, that i know that deserve it. yuka: it is all about modesty and generosity, i guess. alexander: tim cook should buy

one to plug the gap in his salary. [laughter] this is really a treating thing to look into, viral content claiming to show secret images of the arctic satellite. what have you found? dheepthika: this tiktok compilation that included several and one has been particularly popular. these photos are from the antarctic expedition and their existence proves to us that they are the boss forgotten civilization from antarctica, according to claims. like i said, there were claims like this all over the internet. we have got some tweaks here, again, this user has posted the same picture, i've seen this across twitter with various photos like this.

one of the largest things i saw with this, on youtube, where people have actually taken to compiling these photos and creating montages and explaining videos of a lost civilization, and as you can see, that is really the scale of what we are looking at with these claims. alexander: that is really fascinating. tell us, is this really proof of a forgotten civilization? dheepthika: the main thing that combine attention was the name, admiral, this is he himself, and according to this website about him, admiralbird.com, dedicated to the legacy of the last great warriors, admiral richard byrd was a american aviator and explorer who worked with 20 years of 1920 nine to about 1956, and in these five

exhibitions, he has been integral to helping math as we know it and advance and extend scientific research. there were plenty of official archives online of byrd's expeditions. this is one of them from the ohio state university library. these are really well-documented, in fact, and in all of these archives i looked into, i could not find any of those photos that we saw earlier claiming to show the lost antarctic civilization. that led me to a post by a user who wanted to remain anonymous, claiming to show these top-secret photos, and his name is just "lost books." linked to this is also a link to an e-book available for purchase called "mysterious antarctica," and you can see ai publisher.

that was fascinating to me appeared when i clicked on that, i found a name, tim boucher, and when i looked into that come on his personal website, this was in the about section, so you can see hyper realist ai artist and writer, specializing in alternative reality. we reached out to him, and he was transparent with us. he told us all of the images we saw were created and generated using artificial intelligence, and the reason he did that was to show people the dangers of spreading misinformation on the internet. these photos were not taken in the antarctic, but they were not even taken in the 21st century. alexander: what you are saying is all of these highly realistic photos that could anyone at first glance are actually from artificial intelligence? dheepthika: yes.

he told us these photos were generated using artificial intelligence, specifically this program called dall-e, and artificial intelligence system that creates images based on keywords and textual descriptions for when we spoke to him earlier, this is exactly what he said, that keywords included specific phrases, archival photos but also theme elements for things like "ruined temples," and when he gave specific instructions, like scientist justin park us, that created the images that we saw. he was extremely transparent about the use of ai, and it does say in the print throughout that there are disclaimers about the use of ai in the links, so when we look at how we can find

visual clues to further the fact that whether something is authentic on the internet. he told us about a watermark that was created when he -- when the ai-generated images first started. it is interesting that nobody who shared this picked up on that. he also talked about the grainy, blurry quality of these photos, which, again, weakens the, but it is interesting, because i feel like that is something that internet users might see as a mark of authenticity, but he actually said that is something with the ai software and how it blurred photos into a very grainy, he called it a squishy texture on the film. he also talked about faces within ai and how it fail to create a perfect face, and in this case, he said the faces are completely indiscernible. we can't really see anything there.

again, that is also a tricky one, because with photos claiming to be as old as the, that can also be seen as something as a mark of authenticity. the lesson he mentioned, which is very interesting, is the use of things that do not really fit into the timeline of an ancient civilization here, we do have helmets that do not fit in the chronology of the. overall, i feel like the depths of these on land claims -- online claims really prove the point of what he was trying to show here, that it proves the point about alternative realities and the dangers of sharing online misinformation like this. so that is really what we are looking at today, alex. alexander: thank you very much. more fake news busted there by truth or fake team. thank you very much for that. we will take a short break and be back with more news in just a few minutes time. ♪ >> welcome to iceland, a country

where equality is no empty word. >> i would love to be a stay-at-home dad. the most you get his one year that he can spend with his parents, and it is divided into six months for dad, six months from on. >> here little girls -- six months for mom. >> here come a little girls are taught not to be afraid. >> yes, yes. >> and even if all is not perfect -- >> sometimes i am asked, how can you explain in this equality paradise of iceland, th gender-based violence still exist? >> icelanders determined to serve as role models to the world. >> we still have a way to go, but we are undeterred, i think -- on the path, i think, to the future of gender equality. >> iceland, a gender equality paradise, on france 24 and france24.com. ♪

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01/13/23 01/13/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> keep on fighting. i think democracy is something we need to keep on fighting for. amy: "argentina, 1985." that's the name of a remarkable