was his face ah, in the world corrupted, you need to descend, who join us in the depths or remain in the shallows. ah, ah, breaking news this hour on archie, natural gas prices in europe, leap to our record high sending household bills, skyrocketing and prompting some members, states to question the block to push for renewable energy. brussels lo double is done on it. green policies also ahead u. s. republicans claimed double standards as a marina's court martial for slumming, the bite and administration's handling of the afghan followed 2 years after another officer was praised for something up to the trump administration. facebook

denies a whistleblowers claimed on its spreading, hayton weakening democracy, while us senators call for tougher controls on big tech. it's the latest sign of the tide and turning on social media giants a decade after they were heal for helping bring about the art of spring front. threatens that cut power supplies to the u. k. a made a post that breaks it. route over fishing, right. ah, 247 use live from the russian capital. this is ortiz, pleasure to have your company today. my name's unit o'neil. we begin this hour with breaking use. the natural gas price in europe has sort to an all time record. in fact, it's not a 6 times higher than it was in the spring, and it's put the continent on course for a major energy crunch. ingbert internal divisions within the block over brussels,

green policies. ortiz peter oliver report. while prices are as high as they are on the commodities markets, this isn't so much going to trickle down to consumers as perhaps these prices are gonna fall upon homeowners from a more domestic home uses, form a great height to what we've heard from the european commission president ursula found a lion is that she recognizes that there are major problems that we're facing right now and problems that are coming down the pipe further along. but says that in the long term, it's renewable energy that are going to keep energy prices low across europe. i think we have to be very clear that the gas prices are skyrocketing and her, but then the renewables, the prices have decreased over the last 2 years and are stable. so fast is very clear that with energy in the long term,

it is important to invest in renewables. that gives us stable prices and more independence because gas is important. 90 percent of the gas is important to the european union, the renewables we are the master without plans being dismissed out of hand by hunger as prime minister, victor or bon his country just assigned a new deal with russia to import gas into hungry for the next 15 years, victor or bonds blamed these problems on the european commission, saying they have far too many restrictions in place. far too much regulation. and that is what's causing the issues when it comes to buying gas. you must change is policy because partly partly the reason why the prices are up is the 4th of the, of the commission. so we have to choose some regulations. otherwise, everybody do suffer. the problem for hunger is other the new regulation of greenville, which is an invite expectation for flat owners, owners and cart order for the e. u energy commissioner has warned that prices will most likely continue to rise

throughout the winter. won't see any respite until the spring of 2022. just how high prices rise. well, come down to something as fickle as the weather. if it's particularly cold winter, we could well see prices soaring, higher and higher. and what we've also seen though is a number of european countries coming together and saying things half the change, france paying grease, the czech republic and romania, all their finance ministers signed a joint statement saying that there needs to be a complete overhaul of the way energy is purchased in europe, that isn't going to be a short term solution though. perhaps in the long term it may change something. it's not gonna change energy builds or this coming winter. what we're also seeing is the european union is saying that they're going to investigate claims that russia is behind attempts to manipulate the gas price that they've been trying to drive up prices. this is something that's being fundamentally denied by the kremlin,

the spokesperson for the russian government saying that russian suppliers are living up to the very letter of contracts that have been signed. we insist that russia is playing no role in what is happening on the european gas market that could not happen. russia has fulfilled and will continue to fulfill to the letter all of its obligations on existing contracts. there is one way to get more gas into europe and that's through the nord stream to gas pipeline. that huge infrastructure projects. construction was completed this summer. however, it still awaiting the green light in terms of all of the certification and approvals from various agencies before it can start providing energy. once that does get the approval that it's needed, while it could provide as much as 55000000000 cubic meters of russian gas to europe every single year, that's around enough to power $27000000.00 european homes. another story to bring you today,

u. s. republicans have accused the military of double standards over a marine fixing a court martial for criticizing the biden administration's pallet from afghanistan . now it is in stark contrast to another officer who was earlier hailed as a hero for standing up to the trump administration. ortiz came up, my pen takes a closer look at the 2 cases. $2000000.00 from over $27000.00 different donors. that's how strongly people are feeling the case of lieutenant colonel sheller. he's 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, whose 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 vendor min 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. and 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 by incompetent colonel alexander vin minute hero, for speaking out against his commander, she even has for the capitol hill in uniform. so how is this different, especially since he just said the president welcomes the candor and the advice of his military adviser? does the president also feel 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 see the obvious coming any more. the best bureau cuts on the absolute worst wolfowitz is of the ones that get promoted 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 double stay in that we c p, an exercise here today. it's a very dangerous precedent escort or gets the doll standard by democrats,

1st of all it, but also manifested tremendously by the mass media tends to be predominantly less leaning in very much and pocket a b o the democrat carter, anything that was an antique trump was hailed and so it's not surprising anything republican, as the chase, with minimum, lisa was treated with kid gloves now and as a consequence, or he gets off scott frame, having oh leet, 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? kayla mopping. r t. new york. a spook is in damage control mode following planes of spreading hate unofficial. on employee turn,

whistleblower testified before the u. s. senate on tuesday after leaking a trove of company documents in a lengthy response on this page. to that seo mark zuckerberg denied prioritizing money over the law forms users. 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 exported teens. do you think that teams are profitable for their company? i would assume so those dangerous algorithms that they admit are picking up good that 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. and that should be pointed out. it's a very different picture from a decade ago. that was when platforms just like facebook and twitter were being loaded by liberal commentators for fueling the pushed towards democracy in the middle east during the ard spring. go to media play. a role in social media is much broader than sending 144 characters or twitter for updating your stows post on facebook. those are use your giving facebook a lot of credit for this or yeah, for sure. i want to me look at that one day and thank him. actually indeed, social media did have some very pronounced impacts on the arab spring. under earlier, my colleague need harvey discuss the shifting opinions on facebook with our tea contributor nico house. it does seem

a little bit peculiar that in 2011 with countries like tenicia libby on egypt. facebook was not only the celebrated for put like for helping spread the news about the process. but the, the algorithms seem 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, just the sac. he was actually saying that it was time to come down a harder on facebook and regulate them more fast for this whistleblower who's actually represented by a firm that 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 disposals, it to limit to rain in facebook? i think the thing that they need to do the rain facebook in is to hold them to the

standards of a publisher. ah. whereas enabling escaping a lot of accountability for the for the how they selectively apply their rules. i like back their editorial lists on what date, but the federal government hadn't done anything about it. now on the other side of that fence, they do have the capability to force 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 basically the kind of do what they want more and more without ever having to hold them accountable. and in legal matter, nico, how is swell up? this week's hearing us senators call for a tougher controls on facebook and other social media giants. but there are plenty of questions to over how the government mike use or abuse that control r t o spence won't break stun how damp aspect was approached in congress. what they're essentially saying is government needs to get involved and government needs to decide what content is allowed and not

a lot 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 to voice their opinions and their worldviews and where rigorous debate can take place as he would have in the public square or his 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 spirit. i think that's hugely problematic. this is artie still lots ahead. this hour, including

a disbarred american lawyer, is slapped with a prison sentence for criminal contempt. years after winning a case for ecuadorian villages, against oil at china, chevron, or in that to the shortest to print. ah, ah. i see. on the internet, the allows only problems and much was a to invite everybody's lloyd. that wasn't a glitch. that was the feature that the people who designed the internet does always i in join me every thursday on the alex, simon. but i'll be speaking to guess in the world of politics, sport, business, i'm show business. i'll see you then. mm.

oh, when i was showing wrong, when i just don't hold a sheep out disdain because the african engagement equals the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart, we choose to look for common ground. oh, here, let's start back with another energy crisis brewing in western europe. france is threatening to cut cross channel electricity supplies to the u. k. over a post that breaks it fishing dispute. charlotte to pinsky reports now from paris on the fight that threatens to opp, end

a series of crucial agreements between the european allies. france could be about to slam the brakes on the relationship with you. k, as this raw rover 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 it's wooded, only approved 12 out of 47. 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 on 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. presented new conditions and delays given definite if licenses list cannot be tolerated. we know the u. k is facing this unprecedented energy crisis. just like pretty much all 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. what you mean? it both buquet depends on our energy exports. they think they can live alone will also beating up on your, on a, given that it doesn't work the engage an aggressive one. upmanship. we negotiate a commie nicely 9 months in our dotson all of them and add to this pretty much perfect storm of threats that are coming directly from the french fishermen themselves. now we know that boss johnson has already warned the u. k. that the could be supply issues in the lead up to christmas. that with energy that, with petro, that's also with products in stores. and now french fishermen the same. you know,

what, if you do not a all fishing licenses, we are going to block the ports. we'll make sure that they'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 to they 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 for me, your boat to fish in our waters. so we do not accept that we are not a biden by traded cooperation agreement. we have been extremely generous and the french folks in, in, on a small category of bows 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 u commission though, isn't sort of really wanting to get into the murky waters over this particular spot . it's saying what it's going to do is to ask the u. k. can explain its methodology and it will sort of go from that or limp from that. the reality is though, in this prose bankers 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 forest johnson has some really tough decisions to make. he is essentially caught between the devil and the deep, please say american human rights activists on former lawyer, steven danziger, has been sentenced to 6 months in prison on charges of criminal contempt. he had

earlier wage the decades long crusade on behalf of ecuadorian farmers and indigenous people against chevron. during that time he won a $9500000000.00 judgment against the old giant in ecuador over pollution in the countries reinforced. the reason i'm locked 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 of cancer causing waste into the amazon. steven danziger was charged in 2019 place the under house arrest on disbarred last year. as mentioned, he previously represented villagers in ecuador is amazon reaching the accused chevron of knowingly dumping toxic waste into lakes and rivers between 964 and 1992 aside from the environmental devastation that pollution is believed to have caused health problems including cancer. as for chevron,

it refused to pay the multi $1000000000.00 fine, claiming misconduct by danziger on the ecuadorian judiciary. a u. s. court blocked enforcement of the fine in 27. 14. excuse me. saying that the 2011 ruling in ecuador was one through bribery. but mr. danziger has plenty of outspoken supports, including from his friend, pink floyd, co founder of roger waters. the rock legend told us, the latest ruling against the lawyer set, say, worrying precedent. the questioned arises for a 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 a orac 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 grant privilege. if he had done that. the initial pollution case was 1st brought against texaco petroleum or tex pet with chevron, took ownership of in 2001. chevron has denied any wrong doing, saying ticks. pat did a chair of the clean up and remediation. on the rest was the responsibility of states oil for him. petro ecuador, the government that could all 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 stephen danziger supporters are persuaded. roger waters, again says the old giant should still be held accountable. i've become friends through all of this. i met him back then and and immediately it smells fishy. the whole thing's melt, roll 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 $12000000000.00 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 pads the nino who represents the amazon watch said that he said, what was the quote. he said this just like very,

very slow motion. mass murder is what chevron hook up are guilty of and it is everything you ever wanted to know about. the pandora papers are by reluctant to ask, next in going underground. i'm, you know, neil by for now. imagine picking up a future textbook on the early years of the 21st century walter, the chapters cold gun violence from school shootings, homelessness 1st, it was my job and then it was my family didn't was my savings. i have nothing, i have nothing and it's not like i don't try. i look for resources, i look for jobs, i look for everything i can to make this pass. and i end up doing is passing time. the road to the american dream paved with dead refugees. it's this very idealized

image. all this older america makes americans look past the deaths to happen every single day. this is a modem. history of the usa by america, so naughty with i'm african returns. what going on the ground coming up with the show as british prime minister bars johnson addresses his party conference. how much of his party

is bankrolled through corruption. we speak to the managing editor of the i, c i. j, behind the pandora papers, the reputed, largest ever league of offshore dated to shed light on the shadowy world of capitalists deletes and corruption. and after the european union responds to the vendor vapors by proclaiming probity, the lawyer of cattle and lead a call, please to more tells us why sardinia set him free this week and what it means for democracy from edinburgh to barcelona. as they fight london and madrid or more coming up in today's going underground. but 1st, today, british prime minister bars johnson addresses his conservative body conference in manchester. but while he refuses to stop a key cut in welfare for the poorest families, new revelations, from the reputed, biggest ever off shore data league alleged corruption at the heart of his party, the so called pandora papers were leaked to the international consortium of investigative journalists. they shed light on the dark money world of elite capitalism, the ica j's managing energy. fergus,

she'll joins me now from washington, dc. thank you so much reg server. joining us just before we get into the tip of the iceberg of these complex and voluminous revelations, just for the sake of the poorest people watching this, the significance of them in what it tells us about elite and the very idea of democracy around the world. war we know about the ocean world is it drains trillions of dollars from the economies of countries around the world. and the consequences of these are poorer i'll schools, poor schools for universities. and it's a recognized problem. it's a problem that governments around the world have said that they intend to tackle. and what we're showing now is that any efforts to tacklers have failed. now there has been some publicity about individuals oversee listed and there are so many, i mean you can tell me her how much data there is. obviously there's been immediate react.