many victims' families want the death penalty to be the reason we have to keep the death penalty here is because that's what murder victims' families what that's going to give them peace that's going to give them justice and we come in and say. not quite true this isn't the way. after nationwide protests on the most violent riots in paris and half a century the french government yields by suspending a controversial hike in the cost of fuel for six months also to come. has been trying to complains about an uncommon controllable arms race between the us china and russia branding pentagon spending crazy it comes just

a few months after the washington's military budget precisely to counter a law school and beijing. and isolated intentions the danish government announces plans to send. to mind one is to a new asylum center on a remote island. it's eight o'clock here in moscow and you're watching international live from a studio with me in a day or two to welcome to the program. the french government will suspend a controversial increase in the cost of fuel in the wake of nationwide protests the u.-turn comes off to paris witnessed three weeks of the worst riots in half a century. well it seems that opinion polls show that most people are favorable to those concessions. given by the government and announced by the french prime

minister today but as with many of them have said this is not enough and they will push for further that tax reductions and it looks like the protest that was planned for this saturday will still go ahead so what did the prime minister see in total well first of all he announced a moratorium on fuel tax hike that was due to take place in a month's time in january and said that that would be suspended for six months he also announced that there would be no increases to utility bills so that's gas and electricity in the hope that will help and many working class british people who say that they just struggling to live with the high costs of living here in france let's take a listen now to water it would really have to say both has been this fiscal measure for six months and introduce it on to has been discussed with. no tax is worth putting the nation's unity in danger well these protests have been going on for

france for the last few weeks or into the week and now i know over the last two weekends there has been a lot of violence moring those protests particularly in the saturday just go on hundreds of thousands of people out in the streets and people on saturday burning cause buildings smashing in new ching shorts and coups ing millions of euros of damage to different economy into the city of paris let's have a flavor now and see what's happened over the last few weeks.

i. i. it was. french prime minister also who said today you'd have to be day nazi here the rock all the french people and he says the government has been listening to them although many of the protesters feel that this is probably too little too late and they feel that this concessions that we don't think she did come in this protest movement as i mentioned for the moment that the protest on saturday will still go ahead and it looks like this movement hasn't yet got the concessions from the government it's. the so-called yellow vests riots have incurred

a large financial losses in some areas shop profits for instance are down fifty percent protesters road blockades have cost transport companies nationwide and isolated four hundred million euro and four million euros worth of damage was done to paris on saturday alone as demonstrators ran riot smashing property across the capital. fury at the fuel price hike has sent emanuel micron's approval ratings to their lowest level in less than one in four now approve the french president chop it down in just a month while we are joined live now by head of justice and liberties for all committee. thanks for coming on to the program now. let's start with a victory or not a victory for the us what's your opinion on this. oh absolutely not dinars of the he's back i just mentioned it. to me when you were mark or you just you know it will only be what you still have and yes i mean something from the past

a year since he's election and you have to remember that when michael was elected there was the fifty one percent of the french voters abstaining from who were going to the borders which means not too many when mccall's from the beginning has luck than it should to see the ins to do that cause for him to resign and for him to do to say we are going to put on hold this attacks on us with this taxation on if you would how about for example or you know talking about the lack of money in the friendship budget we care for example to get one hundred forty six billion a year as a buck but that seems financial transactions thirty six billion tackling that's a beige and that business between sixty to eighty billion euros are getting back to forty billion dollars they give to the if the duration of the employers were supposed to hire and million people which they appeared to do you know of course the subsidies are of ten billion euros or to the force on energy a sector which was even more problematic is that the biggest polluter is not the

ignition industry and it's a protector is a are tax exempt from being eve taxes and today people are marching because they can win or go forward with the great skyrocketing and rent skyrocketing food expenses and of course the high unemployment or throughout the country which means people now are facing the high costs of living and of course job insecurity and for a minute mark or his government to say we are going to put these unpopular measures on hold for six months i think i really don't get the message to people how to be watching and communicate to develop his government all for the government changes and so forth if i can quote to you before adviser to emanuel might call mr believe that we do not care about the poor people to have done something. i mean you know you mentioned he should resign is obviously not going to do that remember what he has done is this u. turn and you've rightly pointed out that is turned into

a much bigger issue for the people there protesting it started off initially about fuel tax and has become so much more hasn't yasser what does it mean for the demonstrations how likely is it that they're going to continue despite the fact that he has put this halt for six months. why do we have to see that your money remark was not legit to what we now is against seem the far left and the far right if they help poor people who watch together against in my name of course you have to be very gifted there to manage to bring this people are together now for this movement into the government or going to a city. to last longer in time is going to be quite a problem why because i got as a said that you had the floor left on the one hand and you are right on the other and each side of the political spectrum is trying to get a hold on the movement the other problem is that there are no spokespersons for this movement in money when michael managed to bring

a few of them and they did not choose a new pool fight as it shows some profiles of fifty percent of which are are white activists one of them even calling for the army to rule the country and so does going to be a shortage of letting the the the situation are going to see a rotten in of the same time you see the movement gets a more fragmented the danger for him i do not call is if you there is a sense of cohesion in this movement and by force are you getting rid of the far right elements and those going to be problematic are not in the boat and not in the band and the other four with me there was also brought the movement but also all four of the afore the unions to come into into a deal going in and joining the scene and so far they are still behind the curve right now the movement is completely informant and not where destructive duck could be as it's ruined and the week was on the long run yeah like in the south after sal a fact this hold. had of

a justice and liberties for all corrections thank you very much for coming out of the private. don trump says he's confident that future talks will be held with china and russia to stop what he called the uncontrollable arms race he also described u.s. military spending as crazy despite being the very person who increased it just a few months ago precisely to counter moscow and beijing kelly more pain has been trying to make sense of trump's moves. pouring money down the pentagon hole has been one of the donald's few consistent policies and since taking office trump has been serenading the military we took care of the military like it's never been taken care of before new equipment is coming in we're going to have the strongest military we've ever had by far and hopefully will be so strong we'll never have to use it and i'm talking about tremendous defense capability offensive capability it's in space so we're going to do the space force. but now he's changing his tune

he's singing i have a dream and he's talking about harmony and peace between russia china and the united states. sometime in the future president g indicts together with president putin of russia will still talking about a meaningful halt to what has become a major uncontrollable arms race the u.s. spend seven hundred sixteen billion dollars this year crazy yes why spend so much money on bombs and tanks well this is for a president who just signed a bill in august for a twenty nineteen military budget of seven hundred sixteen billion dollars that's sixteen billion more than in twenty eighteen so why the increase is it to protect our citizens from terror well actually according to the pentagon it's about russia and china but we will continue to prosecute the campaign against terrorists that we're engaged in today but great power competition not terrorism is now the primary

focus of u.s. national security no new arms race nobody wants a new cold war well if that's the case it might be smart not to pull out of the nuclear arms treaty especially one that was essential in stopping the old cold war right now to here to the agreement they should have been done years ago but still people come to this that we have more money than anybody else by far we'll build it up until they come to this and when they do then we'll all be barred and won't stop and by the way. not only will we do so let's take trumpet his word and assume that he's just trying to steer a sinking ship well arms race may not exactly be the best term to describe it after all the us military budget is bigger than russia and china is combined and this year russia actually decreased its military spending not exactly an aggressive move but yet somehow they are the aggressor.

meanwhile while trump is gushing over his friendship with president xi imposing tariffs and staging military drills in the south china sea is not exactly a friendly move if u.s. policies have be some possibilities that are granted it would be very irresponsible and dangerous to the united states to seriously violated the basic norms of governing international relations and damaged by no u.s. military relations so no need to prove to a song of peace but as the donald looks brightly into the future and imagines washington last gallon beijing walking down the yellow brick road together he might want to try out a different strategy cable poppen artsy new york director the trans national

foundation for peace and future research told us trump should know better than to send conflicting messages. if it was some leader somewhere with a low power or other countries low influence and personality and their political style it would not be a big problem for the world but when the united states president. runs his office that way he does i think it is a huge problem there is no one foreign and security and defense policy of the united states that seems to be mainly you don't know what mom and it's some kind of an is a very impulsive humanity and very contradictory statements coming out of him all the time i think that there is dangerous you know it's very difficult to find out what is going on in this one predictability and predictability this erratic irrational statements one day and one another nuclear weapons or that something

else it is not good for the world. the boss of microsoft says his company will supply the u.s. army with all the technology it needs the decision was taken even though some of the tech giants employees have expressed concern. we are going to provide the us military with access to the best technology to all the technology we create full stop we have to win people's hearts and minds we want silicon valley to know just how ethical in our noble tradition the military has many microsoft employees don't believe that what we build should be used for waging war when we decided to work at microsoft we would doing so in the hopes of empowering every person on the planet to achieve more not with the intent of ending lives and enhancing lethality last week microsoft won a four hundred eighty million dollars u.s. army contract to provide all granted reality systems is also bidding for

a controversial pentagon tail corps jet i the joint enterprise defense infrastructure cloud is expected to cost ten billion dollars it will be part of the u.s. defense department's efforts to upgrade its i.t. systems at microsoft as not the only one competing for the lucrative contract. amazon also has its sights on the jet ideal google was in the running but dropped out saying the contract would be inconsistent with its principles technology analyst roger caper leaves that lucrative contract for microsoft outweigh the concerns of its employees. it's interesting that in silicon valley which is one of the younger culture or old line terror on it there's a sort of. studiousness about ethical things and certainly some of what mrs say is directed at existing employees i think the message there is pretty much we're going to be an important part of our portfolio and we

you bond with if you have an issue with that we may decide to do something about that but i also think it's important to understand that knowledge terry and and technology. technology ever since timers are what military activity is all about gaining technological edge on your adversaries . it's not at all surprising to find the technology industry engaged with the military here and in other countries as well. the right wing danish people's party is planning an island gets away from microns but it's no five star holiday all the details after this break.

still seem wrong. just all in. the world yet to shape out just days after. and in the game. trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart. just to look for common ground. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race is on the spear in dramatic development only really. i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk.

welcome back to the program the danish government's announced controversial plans to house some migrants in an asylum center due to be built on a remote island one isn't wanted in danish society one cannot be a burden for ordinary danish people that's why those who are deported because of crimes will get a new address that means will send them to the uninhabited island off when home they're not wanted in denmark and they should feel it the plan by the danish immigration minister has the backing of the center right government the right wing danish people's party posted a video on twitter where it praised the decision the video portrayed a man with a middle eastern appearance who is left to balad and on a small island. linda mine and is located around

a kilometer from the mainland not far from copenhagen the only infrastructure there at present is a research center and two contagious animal diseases some stables and an animal from a tourism the government plans to spend one hundred fifty million dollars to build an asylum center there by twenty twenty one. only certain groups of migrants will be sent to the island there are people with visas that allow only very restricted movement around the country certain types of criminals including war criminals and those who pose a threat to state security will find themselves island bound to there's no detail on whether the various groups will be isolated from each other or held together. well to discuss this now we're joined by political activist and social this campaign a father and media commentator neil wallis thank you both for coming on to the program to discuss this further start with you george the danish government says all the necessary conditions will be provided for those kept in asylum how likely

is it that they're going to keep their promise george. well i think the biggest problem here is that as usual you have asylum seekers conflated with criminals the right wing media in the u.k. is jumped on top of this story and that all the headlines you know foreign convicts to be put on an island put in an island in the daily mail the sun that my. interlocutor used to work for and of course only in the sort of small print further down and you find out that it's also a failed asylum seeker pretty much so you have this terrifying conflation of people who are fleeing awful circumstances across the world in greater in greater numbers because of the wars that the west is responsible for and increasingly because of climate change and increasingly they're being they're being criminalized and i think a so-called center right party you know getting into bed with the far right party and allowing them the opportunity to you know put these horrible right. cartoons

out there i think just fuels the flames of this kind of divide and rule way more and more the social problems in european countries are being blamed on you know muslims generally and it's not just somebody of middle eastern appearance in this cartoon it's somebody you know specifically to try to as a muslim and so this is i think a deeply disturbing development from a country that from the outside many progressives across the welt see as a beacon in many ways for how other countries could be doing things much better in terms of having a decent economy but also a compassionate society neal if we look at. the london facility and it says in the house the house projected it will house rejected asylum seekers who've been convicted of crimes as well as foreign citizens who do not have permission to stay but cannot be deported for legal reasons so that when a man's life. how moral is it to allow those who aren't criminals to be in the same facility is as george has rightly pointed out. well

i think the idea of. conflating morality into this whole debate becomes quite difficult because what may be. moral to. george who spent his entire life virtue signaling and running around telling the rest of us what we should do. it doesn't reflect war the vast majority of people. actually think. the reason this government has done this. is because that's what people want the people of denmark are fed up with people like. george telling them how they should think of what they should think and who they should welcome in to that country when he said truly it comes down to this if you have no right to be here if you. you have broken the rules if you vented here and you have broken the rules then it

makes perfect sense for the society of you intruded into to say no you stand aside and. stand out of our midst while we deal with you and they'll. mention that you know you think that it's what the people want they're all lawyers and said that such a violates the human rights raising that the sting the distinction between asylum and prison how does that how does that help your comment. level to be honest there's lawyers everywhere who very happily take taxpayers' money to what are baby spurious lines like rot i mean you know a few jumped up lawyers telling the majority of people in the country. no

we metropolitans. know better than you do and we don't down on nose at you and we tell you what you should think or how you should feel or what your view should be and listened to was because romo is well the truth is mother is as we've seen increasingly across europe and we saw here in britain with bricks that those people are increasingly telling the soft liberals the metropolitan suddenly it's. the param and those people who were kind of. n.g.o.s. you know telling them we're going to take a running jump frankly. i want to come back on this this isn't just a few lawyers saying this this is virtually all the progressive parties in sweden and i think it's rich finial well it's to talk about people like me telling people what to think and when he worked for a very very long time for the mother that many people a program that have a sort of progressive politics as i see it recognize to be if you have been

a huge part of creating this incredibly divided society in the first place where where the spectacular concentration is one of the well. being you know being used quite that clearly. refers to bodies really that is all you don't want people to like i want to gobble them these let me finish my point and i let you write all they let you expand think now please. yes so what i was saying is that the vos concentrations of wealth and power that happened in the last few decades have been mosque's especially by corporate media giants like rupert murdoch for whom neil wallis well. the vulnerable people in society some of the most vulnerable people in this world where about seventy million refugees at the moment and we're headed towards about two hundred million by mid century and it is a tragedy in the making that sweden is following places like the u.k. where increasingly you're criminalizing people who fled very very difficult circumstances in just one of these in life this is not

a solution to the problem of immigration to demonize we're talking about so-called center of center right party to go into bed with a far right party on this i think is deeply tragic and the real issue is that people everywhere are struggling to meet their daily needs including the u.k. and sweden because there are vast concentrations of wealth in the hands of people like rupert murdoch and that's really the truth this is not about virtue signaling this is about standing up for the most vulnerable people in the world and this is not a solution neil neil let me jump in there were for no nail let me just we're nailing out which will get about denmark neal let's let me jump in here joel facts might be useful. neal this is a. well if you and. i would like to say. gentleman. george mentioned the demonization of a specific type of people and the video and not is a fact the video that is being used on twitter is depicting

a middle eastern looking man being dumped on an island what message do you think that is sending to the danish people and the rest of the world for that matter. well. disappointing to see the people who can see really suggests the. video which you haven't actually seen but i take your word for it is going to change the views and. somehow greatly affect the people of denmark who let's remember this is the elected government of dunmore not sweden incidentally george not some other country but it's the democratic crutching elected government of denmark that has made this decision it is dummies because what people want now with george is right into you about sweden is because you are seeing similar sorts of swings to. about the difficulties

of illegal migration oh. illegal asylum seekers the issues that are raised by deduce wrong shouldn't to western society of this wholesale. engagement over large numbers of people from other parts of the world that cools these stresses simply to chance endless clichés about multinational is more does not take away those basic things people are unhappy that this is why they smoke it's an elected government that has done this till it's i'm. i'm going to. mention point he said that it's and i think government they feel they've got a problem and you know i have to state that when you look at some of the thinkers there is a disproportionate number of immigrants making it's

a smaller percentage obviously in the country but they looking it looks like they're committing more crimes if you look at those. that have had what's meant it is. ok i mean i think a lot of a lot of these figures. are very influential but the simple fact is that the main places that people are fleeing to denmark from places like syria afghanistan iraq such a pretty much a map of the countries that we've been bombing and also by the way some of the countries that are most significantly affected by climate change are already and to say this is a democratic government is show that it's true and the coalition system that means the center right government has had to include the far right as a kind of kingmaker in its government and i think that's deeply worrying but the fact is we need to see the historical parallels here when you have spectacular inequality and elites effectively transferring the wealth from everybody else they seven hundred years ago.