ah, joy, that's right, fell out it will dest slavery? with breaking news at this hour. here when asked he international natural gas prices in europe, leap to a 13 year high, sending household pill, skyrocketing and pining pressure on governments to green light hood new russian gas pipeline. facebook denies a whistleblowers claim that is spreading hate and weakening democracy while us senators, cough a topic controls on big tech. it is the latest sign of a tide turning on social media giant a decade after they were hailed for bringing about the arab spring. also in the program, us republicans cried double standards as

a marine is court martial for slamming the biden administration's handling of the afghan, pull out 2 years after another officer with the praise standing up to the trump administration. also from to threatens to cut power supplies to the u. k. that made a post predicate route over fishing. right? ah, it is noon on wednesday here at moscow. this is auntie international and a very warm welcome to you. we do start this hour with some breaking news for you. now. the natural gas price in europe has surged to a 13 year high. it is now double what it was just 6 months ago. and it's certainly for the continent, on course, for a major energy crisis just ahead of the winter heating season will learn more about this now across life, the berlin, where peter, all of

a joined us here on the program. peter, a window, he's just around the corner and it seems the average joe is getting pummeled with high gas prices. i'm sure it's no problem for the top one percent. but do tell us how bad is this going to get well, when wholesale prices go up, ultimately, those costs get passed down to the consumer in bills in houses will go up as well. what we've seen though, over the last few hours, not really what it is, is a dramatic increase in the price of gas per 1000 cubic meters. it's rocketed to levels that it hasn't been in over a decade. it shot up at such a speed that it's been over a matter of hours that it's, it's clocked or pass levels that it has been in a long, long time. we're also hearing from the, the european commission that they are and ready for and say we are experiencing a 25 year high when it comes to demand for gas country simpson, who's the

e. u commissioner in charge of energy has warned that it's not a of that sort of very positive prediction that these gas prices will continue to rise throughout the winter. she does expect that they'll tail off in the spring time, but just how much they rise by while it could come down to something as fickle as the weather. a cadre simpson saying it should it be a particularly cold winter, where we could see those prices hitting record after record after record. and of course, as i said when wholesale prices increase at these levels, ultimately that filters down and it's the consumer that pays the bill at the end of the day. and those are consumers in europe that are already really feeling the pinch. anita frost bichon but also hits the 2nd increase this year and this one is worse than the last one. we have a gas boiler and our heating bill will go up from january. the 1st i've heard it could rise by 150 to 400 percent. i feel angry about this,

especially as we're told us just the beginning. and bills could shoot even higher in spring. people who already struggling are going to suffer the most for an average pensioner. it's going to be very significant falling from the wrong low. all the nod stream to gas pipeline, the major infrastructure project that would take russian gas from russia under the baltic sea, directly into europe, through germany. while it's going through the certification process at the moment. it could be the solution in some ways to taking up the slack of the demand for gas that currently exists. it is not going to be a quick process though, just this week. we heard from the danish energy agency that they'd greenlit part of the project already. the german side have also said that they've an accepted that the stiff occasion is underway. and that this process is a, is an ongoing one, but they're still hoops to jump through before this pipeline could be up and running. and it could provide as much as 55000000000 cubic meters of gas to europe

every single year. that's around and off for $27000000.00 homes in us. we're seeing there is certainly a demand for it right now. i peter, thanks for that. well, facebook as an damage control mode of a claims of spreading hate and division. an employee turned at whistleblower has testified before the us senate after leaking a trove of company documents, and in a lengthy response on his page c, omagh zak, a burg denied prioritizing money over the platforms uses. we care deeply about issues like safety, well being and mental health. it's difficult to see covers that miss represents our work and our motives. i don't know any tech company that sets out to build products that make people angry or depressed. the moral business and product incentives all point in the opposite direction. facebook exploited teens. do you think the teams

are profitable for their company? i would assume so those dangerous algorithms that they admit are picking up the they stream sentence, the division, their product. it is often destructive facebook's products, harm children, stoke to vision and weak in our democracy. the damage to self interest and self worth of inflicted by facebook to day will haunt a generation. it is pulling families apart. and in places like ethiopia, it's literally fanning ethnic violence. well, it's a very different picture from a decade ago when platforms like facebook and twitter were being lauded by liberal commentators for helping to bring democracy to the middle east. during the arab spring. social media play a role. social media is much broader than sending a $144.00 characters or twitter, or updating your salesforce on facebook. those are use your giving facebook a lot of credit for this or yeah, for sure. i want to meet mark zuckerberg,

one day and thank him actually indeed, social media did have some very pronounced impacts on the arab spring. earlier, my colleague neil harvey discussed the shifting opinions on facebook without a contributor nico house. it does seem a little bit peculiar that in 2011 with countries like tenicia libby, an egypt facebook was not only celebrated for put like for helping spread the news about the process. but the algorithm seemed to be for perpetuating the protests and propelling them for the millions of people are able to react to notice what was going on. now, interestingly enough, about 3 of those countries to protest there actually benefited united states interests. so what it seems like is on the like, now that the script has been flipped 10 years later. censorship actually benefits the united states. so i guess you could say it's pro democracy, i guess if you wanna call facebook, you know, a democratic institution, i guess you could call it that because the government seems to be on the side of censorship. facebook as readily pushes the ship. is it

a very different base these day? so what it was is, again, does less freedom of conversation, freedom of exchange, freedom of discourse. ah, there seems to be no consistent application of rules or principles or guidelines on any of these platforms. and i would say that at least on the surface now, it looks like the government, at least their opinions have much more influence. i mean, just a couple of weeks ago, jim pa, sanky was actually saying that it was time to come down harder on facebook and regulate them more fast forward this whistleblower who's actually represented by a firm that the sac he actually worked for. or as a senior advisor, not even not even a year ago, is now sitting in front of the senate after going on 60 minutes getting a lot of air time. so i would say at the bare minimum, what it looks like is there is a lot of coordination going on behind the scenes in one way or another that everybody seems to be involved in, except for the people who are most afflicted by which i would say is the average working class individual and maybe potentially activists organizing protesters

a do you think you ask of an festival has the, has it the powers at its disposal to, to limit to rain in facebook? i think the thing that they need to do the rain facebook and is to hold them to the standards of a publisher. ah. whereas in even escaping a lot of accountability for the, for the how they selectively apply their rules. i like their editorial lists, but they, but the federal government hadn't done anything about it. now on the other side of that fence, they do have the capability, the force of the sensor more to but it does seem like they've had to. they fit every time. one of these is, this is happen. facebook seems to sensor more on their own. so even though they have the power, they have an exercise it. and they've been able to get face with the kind of do what they want more and more without ever having to hold them accountable. and in legal matter, throughout tuesday, hearing us senators cold for tougher controls on facebook and other social media giants. there are plenty of questions about how the government might use or even

might abuse that controls aussie host been sworn has more on the congressional hearing. what they're essentially saying is government needs to get involved and government needs to decide what content is allowed and not allowed on social media in order to make it the word they like to use. safe problem is, is that there are so many tens of millions of americans who do not believe that government is trying to keep them safe, but is instead trying to manipulate them and push political messages on to them. should social media b, a public square where people are allowed to get up and speak and into voice their opinions and their worldviews and where rigorous debate can take place as he would have in a public square? or is social media supposed to be contrived and controlled to the point where a few government entities and bureaucrats decide what is acceptable thought and acceptable belief? and i think that's the real core problem here. when government bureaucracy decides what is dangerous and what is not in the public interest, it breeds all kinds of corruption. and it reads

a situation where the average person doesn't have a right to speak or to think in any kind of public scare. and i think that's hugely problematic you, as republicans, are accusing the military of double standards over a marine facing a court martial for criticizing the biden administration pull out from afghanistan . it is in stark contrast to another officer who was hailed as a hero for standing up to the trunk administration office that came up and takes a closer look at both of the cases. $2000000.00 from over $27000.00 different donors. that's how strongly people are feeling the case of lieutenant colonel sheller. these facing potential criminal charges over criticizing commanders over the withdrawal from afghanistan. now, his hearing has been delayed until next week, but his family is not very optimistic. or we have been told to prepare that it could be a long prison term. sheller was an active duty u. s. marine,

who's frustration over the bungled retreat from cobble lead to making videos, bashing biden. and the pentagon brass that quickly went viral. people are upset because their senior leaders let them down and none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability are saying we messed this up. i'm not saying we've got to be in the in afghanistan forever, but i am saying, did any of you throw your rank on the table to say, hey, it's a bad idea to evacuate bob graham airfield, the strategic air berries before we evacuate? everyone. i am submitting charges against general mckenzie for his bad assumptions . not because i've been did, but because the senior leaders need to be held accountable to the same standard as us. he's now accused of breaking for laws, though there are not formal charges yet. now sheller is not the 1st military man to raise a voice about issues. lieutenant colonel alexander vin damon was on active duty when he 1st spoke up against the pentagon. brass,

he testified at trumps impeachment proceedings as a pentagon whistleblower. he claim the donald trump had made a quid pro quo with the president of ukraine. he was anointed by mainstream media and the democrats as a st. this guy 0. this guy is a patriot. one of these 2 men, the president and lieutenant colonel whitman, devoted his life to duty and honor. right matters what an extraordinary statement from an immigrant who served this country proudly his entire life. now the answers from the white house quickly turned evasive when they faced some tough questions about parallels. person been called for tenant colonel alexander vin minute hero, for speaking out against his manners. she even has for the capitol hill in uniform . so how is this different, especially since you just said the president welcomed the candor and the advice of his military adviser? does the president also see with sheller hero?

i dont have all the details on these circumstances. i understand that can be frustrating to you. um, but we will work to get you an answer on republicans or speaking up saying that they see a double standard if you speak out against the democratic president who get thrown in the brig. but if you're doing something against a republican president, you are lord of the hero. this is double standard. lieutenant colonel vinland was celebrated by media while of tenant girls sheller is in prison for demanding accountability on the disastrous withdrawal. both challenged leadership. one was treated as a hero and the other punished. i remember when military leadership wasn't an oxymoron, it's no wonder they can't see the obvious coming any more. the best bureau cuts on the absolute worst wolf, i says, of the ones that get promotes it and make the decisions. military leaders who criticize donald trump got talk, show appearances and book deals treated almost like heroes. while one who just criticized biden is facing a hearing and

a potentially long term spell behind bars. the dentist seeing that we see be an exercise here today. it's a very dangerous precedent. mesquite, or gets the dull standard by democrats, 1st of all it but also manifests tremendously by the mass. media tends to be predominantly left leaning in. yeah, very much in the cochran or b o, the democratic party, anything that was an antique trump was hailed. and so it's not surprising that anything republican, as the chase has been a min was, was treated with kid gloves now. and as a consequence, or he gets off scott free, having no leak classified information. the political landscape has certainly evolved from what it was a year ago. democrats are no longer celebrating those with the courage to speak up against those in power. being a hero isn't so much about what you do,

but who you do it against. caleb mauppin, r t new york. what about down here at moscow? france is threatening to cut cross channel electricity supplies to the u. k. it's over a post bricks it fishing dispute ortiz, or shall i do? mosquito reports from paris in a fight. it threatens to offend a series of crucial agreements between the 2 neighbors. france could be about to slam the brakes on the relationship with the u. k. as this right over fishing rights is pretty much imploding. last week the u. k. refused the majority of licenses that came from french, smaller fishing vessels to fish in its wood. it only approved 12 out of $47.00. and as a result of that, iris is furious. it's now saying the bilateral agreements that cover everything from security, border control to trade in energy are now under threat because paris says that

london simply cannot keep its commitments under the brakes. it deal. bruton does not respect it some signature month after month the u. k. presents new conditions and delays given definite if licenses this cannot be tolerated. we know the u. k is facing this unprecedented energy crisis. just like pretty much all of the countries across continental europe. and it could be a back to get even worse, because france has said that it could in the next few days decide to turn off electricity supplies to the u. k. well, how significant is that? pretty darn significant. according to you, k governments own papers in july of this year, france supplies almost half of the energy for electricity for the u. k. to this really could see the lights being turned out while you mean it, both the u. k depends on our energy exports. they think they can live alone while also beating up on your own. and given that it doesn't work, the engage an aggressive one. upmanship, we negotiate

a commie nicely or 9 months in our shots or not little don't and add to this pretty much perfect storm, a threats that are coming directly from the french fishermen themselves. now we know that boss johnson has already wound the u. k. to, to put the supply issues in the lead up to christmas. that with energy that's with petro, that's also with products in stores. and now french fishermen the same. you know, what, if you do not a proof of fishing license as we are going to block the ports, we'll make sure that there'll be no imports and no exports between europe and the u . k, which really could add to, boris johnson was and those are threats that the u. k. should also take pretty seriously, given that we know that the french one, they like to protest and 2, that have already been tense stand offs in the last year over this issue over fishing licenses. now the u. k, for its part says look, we've done nothing wrong. in fact, we're keeping to our commitments and we're keeping the agreement over fishing

licenses. we have granted 98 percent of the license applications from e u boats to fish in our waters. so we do not accept the we are not abided by traded cooperation agreement. we have been extremely generous and the french folks in, in, on a small category of boats and claim. and we have behaved, unreasonably, i think is not really a fair reflection of the efforts we have made. france as well as pulling out the big guns with those threats over energy. and bilateral trades has also asked for the european commission to take a much tougher stance when it comes to the u. k. over this and other issues. the you commission though, isn't sort of really wanting to get into the murky waters over at this particular spot. it's saying what it's going to do is to ask the u. k. can explain it's methodology and it will sort of go from that or limp from that. the reality is though, in this pros, bags it will as the issue surrounding that are beginning to bite. there is

a real threat coming from france at the moment, and it does seem as if boris johnson has a really tough decisions to make. he is essentially caught between the devil and the deeply se. hi, tony. pasta out here on the russian capital. still, penny bought a. com on your program today on this wednesday, i just bought a american lawyer gets a prison sentence for criminal contempt. as years off to winning a case for ecuadorian villagers against oil giant chevron, i will lift the lid on that story and a few more. just a moment. a join me every thursday on the alex simon, she'll. and i'll be speaking to guess in the world of politics, sport, business, i'm show business. i'll see you then.

oh, when i went to the wrong one, all 3. just don't hold a sheep out disdain because the african and engagement equals the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart, we choose to look so common ground m a c o. the answer, but allows only been problems and much was going to invite everybody's lloyd. that wasn't the glitch. that was the feature that the people who does owings the internet is owned by it as a feature. oh,

good to have you with us today. american human rights activist and former lawyer steven dons ago has been sentenced to 6 months in prison on charges of criminal content. it's after he waged a decade long crusade on behalf of ecuadorian farmers and indigenous people against chevron. earlier he even $19500000000.00 judgment against the oil giant and equitable over pollution in the countries rain forest. the reason i marked up is because we were successful. okay. i, along with other lawyers helped indigenous peoples america or when a historic 9500000000 dollar pollution judge, when a good chevron for the deliberate dumping of billions of goals or cancer causing waste into the amazon. mr. dawn's ago was charged in 2019 placed under house arrest and dis bought last year. i previously represented villagers in ecuador, amazon region, who accused chevron of knowingly dumping toxic waste into lakes and rivers between

19641992. aside from the environmental devastation, the pollution is believed of cause serious health problems including that of cancer . as for chevron, it refused to pay their multi $1000000000.00 fine, claiming misconduct by danziger on the ecuadorian judiciary. a u. s. court blocked enforcement of the fine in 2014, saying the 2011 ruling in ecuador was one through bribery. but mister danziger has plenty of outspoken supporters, including his friend, a pink floyd co founder roger waters. he thinks that his ruling against the lawyer sets a very worrying president the questioned, arises for his soul is, what is the law for? and is it available to all of us, all members of society, irrespective of the depth of our pockets or are or are connections politically he spent 7791 days now under house arrest. and it's way too much

punishment, because all he did was deny judge louis a kaplan access to his computer and his cell phone to give those 2 pieces of equipment to chevron corporation, who are the people who we are fighting this battle against. on behalf of his clients, it would completely contravene all the rules of client privilege. if he had done that. the initial pollution case was 1st brought against texaco petroleum or tax pet, which chevron bought in 2001. chevron has denied any wrong doing, saying tax pat. it's share of the clean up. and most of the damage was apparently caused by the state oil firm, petro ecuador, the government that could go over, saw, and certified the successful completion of tax, pets, remediation, and fully released tax pets from further environmental liability. petro ecuador, however, failed to conduct the clean up it promised,

and has continued to operate and expand all operations in the former concession over the past 20 years. but mr. don seiger's, supporters are not entirely persuaded or roger waters again, things the oil giant should still be held to account stephen and i have become friends through all of this. i met him back then and, and immediately it smells fishy. the whole things melt wrong to me and it israel and it is wrong and it will be go on. it'll go on being wrong and tell chevron pay those $30000.00 ecuadorian people there. it's now about $12000000.00 with interest with interest and damages. it's gone up to about $12000000.00 that eroded reparation and they needed a die. you know, poor pansy nino who represents the amazon watch said that he said, what was the quote. he said this is like very,

very slow motion. mass murder is what chevron of a guilty else and it is the head over u. s. africa command paid a surprise visit to libya this week to meet officials from both sides in the well long running conflict. washington is pushing for a unified government in the war torn nation, still reeling from the consequences of 8 western backed uprising a decade ago. i, his richard met hust. so libya is again, one of these countries where the west goes and destroys it. and then never mentioned that again in 2011 they were screaming about gadhafi, how evil he is hyping up this bombing campaign. and then they go in and you never hear a word again. there never really was an arab spring in libya or syria, like there was in egypt, denisia. we're talking about much, much smaller numbers and a tiny minority of extremist groups backed by the west. so under the pretext of this arab spring in human rights,

nature comes in to support the so called rebels. but the real goal here is to get rid of gadhafi takeover libya's resources. and of course, under operation timber sycamore. the cia begins funneling tons of weapons and ammunition to syria, to support al qaeda and other groups there. so why could afy well could off? he was an anti imperialist. he believed in pan arab ism, and pan african ism in the 970 s. he tried to emerge libya with egypt and syria to form a unified arab state. in 2009, he suggested that africa adopt a single currency. the golden dinar. gadhafi wanted to give african countries their own currency. the libyan central bank, which was 100 percent state owned, had a $144.00 tons of gold, which he wanted to use for this purpose could off he proposed that african countries buy and sell their resources exclusively in this new pan african currency . so that they can move away from the u. s. dollar. and the c a f, a frank, which is a colonial currency used in 14 african countries,

but controlled entirely by front. the west new about this. you can see this in hillary clinton's emails, how they discussed this in great detail than you perfectly well that african countries having their own currency would undermine the i, m, f, and french, and american monetary imperialism. you can see this has nothing to do with the arab spring or the so called war on terror. western intervention has created more terrorism and instability in libya, just like a did in iraq and syria. gadhafi was libby as leader for 42 years after carrying out an officer's coo and 1969. during his tenure, he increased the literacy rate from 25 percent to 87 percent. libyans enjoyed free health care, free education, and a high standard of living basic necessities, like electricity and gas were cheap, and the country had a strong social safety net and welfare programs could off. we want to provide fresh water for consumption and agriculture after libya, so called revolution backed by nato. libya has none of these things any more. there

are constant power cuts, the healthcare system has collapsed. there's no infrastructure. the standard of living has plummeted on top of that, you still have isis and all kinds of fighters running around all these various other jihadist groups. i'm malicious and that's what has been for the last 10 years . the country has been one giant mess of armed groups fighting each other for control over libya and its resources. there are literally opened slave trade markets. libya has lots of migrants from refugees who passed through trying to get to europe smugglers and human traffickers. know this and i've taken advantage of the situation selling people off into slavery in 2008 during a speech and damascus. qaddafi spoke about what the u. s. did to iraq, and he warned other arab leaders that they might be next. america, north america full to long. so sadam hussein against khamenei, he was their friend. cheney was a friend of saddam hussein rumsfeld us defense secretary at the time. iraq was

destroyed was a close friend of saddam hussein. ultimately they sold him out and hanged him. you are friends of america. let's say that we'll not you for one of these days. america may hang us off. back then they were laughing, but he was right. cut off his words proved to be eerily true. because 3 years later, the west would kill him and destroy his country. nothing could be more emblematic of how dirty and evil this whole situation is than hillary clinton jumping for joy . upon hearing of cut off his demise, after he was brutally sodomite, lynched and executed by nato backed rebels, we came, we saw how he died. people don't like to hear this when you say that libya was doing better under qaddafi because it's incompatible with all the propaganda they've been fit. but this is the truth could off his biggest sin is that he dared to nationalize his own country's resources and threatened us monetary had gemini and the international banking system. he was always a thorn in the side of western colonial interests. now people look at libya and say

it's a failed state, but libya.