if the rail science, it's roy, using science against the shelf ah procurement and britain's prime minister to quit over his party's christmas gatherings last year when strict coded rules of bands, such events for everybody else. also this hour up to a 100 affair, dead after tornadoes rip across american states. but the disaster also underlines the country steep political to fight with some politicians already trying to score points from the tragedy and the to stop in 3 classic 19 nathan's for is getting a sequel of sorts. this time from a feminist perspective, we discussed though whether it's a timely update or perhaps a glimpse into the rewriting and revising which george or well had all just said that. i don't see any reason why any book shouldn't be subject to revisiting well in the smart world of love. don't worry, we're going to kill

a mockingbird which we all written when we would do the outlook. and it's now been bad since races because some of the language it really is, but the deck and the cd to say they've been betrayed and had their dreams destroyed . we have a special report into the 1000 strong protests gripping the capital since october scope. ah, hello, they're just gone for o'clock in the russian capital. you're watching archie international . i. britain's prime minister moorish johnson has just announced that the 1st person has died in k with the omicron code. the parent. the strain has spread widely across the world, but no death had been detected before. now the news that might drown any remaining

to cheer for the beleaguered prime minister as his government is facing growing anger at christmas party se allegedly held during last in strict cave with long time you allegations have come to light over. suppose a quiz party involving bars, johnson himself, resulting in a fierce reaction from the public and also from the opposition. he's the worst possible leader. but the worst possible times for his johnson presided over a culture of gifts regarding the roof at the heart of government. so pretty strong was there, as you just heard from the opposition last week was obviously all about the rumors and this week it's all about the reality so much so far is johnson is really trying to bat of accusation of the accusation, but now he's embroiled in it totally himself, he really is in the spotlight. off the pictures now emerged of boris johnson, the prime minister himself hosting a christmas downing street quiz party, totally against his own rules the time. now the image shows the prime minister,

sat with 2 other people. the time london was in kit 2 of the restrictions, meaning no social is mixing with any other people in doles. in fact, the official guidance actually stated, you must not have a work christmas party or even a lunch. well, the government spokesperson says that throughout the pandemic, officials have abided by the rules. and that this christmas party downing street quiz was a virtual one. while the education secretary is defending the prime minister, many people would have had similar zoom quiz nice around the country. yeah, i would have been next door and i haven't done it. no, i had done it. hold on. i would be in monster trouble. while this is around one of 6 or 7 parties that i thought have taken place in the festive season last year, causing so much controversy. in fact, the cabinet secretary is already investigating these potential parties, including one that might have happened on november the 27th and downing street another on the 10th of december, where the department of education. and of course,

the december, the 18th christmas party in downing street that sparked this absolute spiral of a sock. and now already we've seen one casualty, one resignation after all emerged. and just before all of this was unraveling, the prime minister was still the public to abide by the roles and what from home a for many people. but why would you see your contact in the workplace will help oversee this comes as the prime minister. instead, it was all about the booster program, but as he was delivering it, and i think it's quite important to mention a hash tag on twitter was trending here in the united kingdom. national switch off was trending. it was aiming to boycott or the prime minister speech entirely, basically. no one wants to hear from the prime minister because nobody really trust forrest johnson any more. and that's really translated in the polls. now it's more than 50 percent of voters say that johnson master resigned. that's 9 percent in

just 2 weeks. and for the 1st time since 2014 the labor party have the biggest lead in the polls. ironically, it's 2 years to the day now that forrest johnson one that general election, he won the public's vote then. but the polls suggest if he had a general lecture right now at be a very different story. moscow has slammed the group of g 7 countries after they released the statement warning, rush of severe consequences if it perceives it. suppose it military aggression against you cry. russia should be in no doubt that so the military aggression against ukraine would have massive consequences and severe costs in response to the of around the threats towards russia, warnings or threats. we absolutely understand the position and there is no need to repeat it 10 times. we would like that position to be more balanced. if we are

talking about the need for the escalation ukraine, we want to see coal for kit to stop the provocative activities on the demarcation line. west, the media and high ranking senior officials have recently been alleging that moscow is planning an offensive on it's now you but ukraine, citing russian treat movements near the ukranian border. the kremlin, though, has consistently denied these claims and notes. it can move. it's true for ever. it wants to on its own territory with a foreign ministry spokeswoman adding that ukraine is being militarized. but going even further to germany's foreign minister isn't i stated that russia gas pipeline, nor string to might not be given. the green light in case of any escalation will be very pleased to say, because i talked with camera now. i saw a form of foreign minister of austria who's in the studio in moscow, and you're very welcome. you appreciate you coming in this afternoon. turn a lot to talk about surrounding your stream and ukraine. but let's start with

nordstrom, because we've heard for a long time, the west warning russia that it should never be able to use the pipeline for politics, for political gain leverage. but here we are. western politicians saying, we can scrap this if you don't like your activities, new crime, hypocrisy, a lot of confusion because they said text that was written by the american and by the german government in july, in my reading. it's a rather unreadable text because it's very complex. and into it's mentioned if there is some sort of military sation of your conflict, then the trauma government could 3 consider sanctions. so it's very ambiguous the whole thing and nobody has a real definition. what is such a situation that the germans will go back the call to sanctions oral that the u. s . government, which you sanctions president biden has even used the district term of the mother of all sanctions. i mean, it's

a very strange wording because i remember that hussein was using such a terminology for the mother of all defeats. so there's a lot of unilateral world of threats around and the situation is very ambiguous. effect is that contract treaties have to be kept, have to be preserved. and if ever, they would now start to impede the consortium of companies to make this pipeline operators, which is the expansion of an already existing pipeline than that would yield tremendous problems. and has have a tremendous impact on german economy in general. because it would mean a complete loss of credibility in general is a strange threat to me then, isn't that, i mean, you see it more of a more of a bluff at this stage where we are when everyone is trying to negotiate something on ukraine or is he really serious when he says is because as you say, there's

a lot of blowback for germany. i definitely, and when we look back at the meeting between president put in and president biden in mid june in geneva, one could have the impression that that is and now a response out of communication on 67 levels on technical level. and most probably a more sub approached and to have been in spring of this year or before. and i simply cannot imagine that the u. s. government is ready to exercise such a pressure on the german government and thereby losing some whole germany in the over or trans atlantic framework. because it's not just now about this political issue on ukraine. the world has got, i would say, a long list of other priorities of cooperation. and here one should be fully aware of what other warranties with regard to the importance of the pipeline to germany. just just go through how important it is because i don't think people,

many people understand as i understand it. it was something that was sort of suggested by germany in the 1st place. russia said ok, this is a project we can do. we know you need more gas. we know you need more energy in. we know you won't. cheap gas. here it is. and yet away seems to be here. a political will can block it. this political blow to block it has been rising. was president trump 20172018 because it had less to do with russian supply of gas to the europeans. that has always been the case ever since. 900. 68. first for the union and down without any problem in the transition period, the russian federation continues to be a supplier. it has more to do with creating market for north american alan chief. now the, the ironic aspect of his, of the star is that north american gas and oil from fricking goes to asia. it

doesn't reach to europe in market for the simple reason that the asian clients pay more. again, it's more a politic a game. and it's a risky game than it really has to do with fundamental laws of market economy, supply and demand. and i mean, demand alternately comes from the consumer which would be the voter. i mean, why would they want to spend more money on american gas when they can get it from russia? what 3 times as cheap. exactly. this is one aspect and the other one is got storage is very tight. it's much below what it should be at this time of the year. that's even talk about temporary cop downs of gas probation, or even risk of something like a like out. so in case households will be freezing, industry will be told to cut down. this has already been the case in the u. k, than that of course would also have an impact as you say on the electorate. plus, the average through an industrial client already pays double of the electricity

bill off his french competitor. so the whole issue of energy provision is turning more and more into for some, into an existential question over into industry. a small sized money which has not yet bought its electricity for planted $21.00 will have to pay for $1.00 gig of up of electricity. 60000 years more than it would have paid in spring. so it's really an existential issue for some small company. and the irony is that europe is saying to russia, you know, this pipeline is bad, but can you give a small gas place? i mean, it just doesn't make sense when you look at it. it's full of contradictions. and if, if something should happen in february, january, as if you remember 2009, it was an ukrainian problem that then led to the destruction. but who was to blame? it was the russians. and if something will happen,

most probably the plain game will be once more on the russians, as it has been in the seventy's on the arab. it's a completely home mate. crisis of mismanagement of energy. 2 supply because what we do, we have now in many countries, we have 1st and foremost a climate policy where energy provision is one ex, instead of doing it the other way around. it should be an energy policy where climate change climate clean and she plays an important role. but the state has to provide for energy security. that's what we pay taxes for. that's why we fail electricity bills. and it's a clear role here. then from what you say in the transition, then from where we going from using fossil fuels to green energy. i mean, so clean, natural gas, we're as clean as it gets in terms of fossil fuels, will play a vital role here presumably. exactly, and that's an interesting change of mind already to be observed on top level into

europe in commission a year ago, president come commission president from the lion was completely into korean. so went and sola. now at the last summit, she has already been shifting how opinion being more realistic and thing gas, natural gas will play and fund a month roll and all the nuclear. and she has to come in if they want to implement their plan for electronic mobility as they would like to see it. so there's a tiny bit of more realism, there should be much more realism in the whole and debate. and here comes in another problem that will most probably stir up. so the one of the other divergence inside the european union because the incoming german government is definitely sticking to moving out of nuclear, as has been decided by mrs. macro 10 years ago to the comp reversed up about the french government has already said no, no, we have to increase nuclear misses from the lion who was

a french invention. it was presidents, my calls idea to have her appointed as commission of president as a german cabinet member. she was against nuclear as commission of president. she has to be in favor of nuclear. and that could already be the 1st political walk. why a defeat for the government of johnson sholtes on that topic? so they have not stream on one front to have the nuclear issue on the other. and the whole, i would say the underlying problem is really the crit, the german electricity, crit needs renovation and expansion. of at least 25 percent. it leaves the tremendous investment so that they should finally get to something like a sensible and achieve policy which has clamor doesn't importance, dimension and listening to what you say there. then i mean, would you expect this new stream to gas pipeline to go ahead sooner rather than

later? because it sounds like it's needed, but politically, it's awkward. you're right. and if the german or regulator, the bond is nets are going to or would have continued its procedures as calculated still in september, when the construction work was accomplished, the deadline was 8th of 10. 2022 than the regulator said, no. that's a problem with the you legislation on, on liberal topics like the transporter and to supply of energy an old problem. but they brought it up on the table. the consortium promised to solve the problem. but that means that instead of meeting the deadline of 8th of generates might be if everything works smoothly than a print made by april, may we don't have to same pressure on, on the gas provision. as we do have right now, it's most probably going to be a cold winter. it's most going, most probably going to be some sort of problem,

which, whether it's on the territory issue of ukraine or others where people will try to politicize. the energy supply will just be directly linked, isn't it at the moment to the crisis in ukraine? let's talk about that for a moment. from your perspective, this is all blown up again. hasn't it? over the last month or so. i mean, standing back from it, how did you see this playing out? are we going to see a lot of politicians trying to game what they can are we going to see perhaps a complete new agreement for eastern europe and russia in terms of security? which way is it, how did you think it's a stalemate? we see a sequence of unit that was statements by different protectionists. whether it's mister on the line with a person, then biden, whether it's different voices in the german parliament and all that is it's not very helpful to say the least because all of those unit actual statements feeding

the media. you have some german media which even publish a question plans, a tech plans from which day the russian army is going to invade. i mean it's, it's really getting so reality and, and in that a situation, i'm wondering whether the people who make statements like this us sen last week, or who even threatens russia with a nuclear attack. primo, if you do something like that, like saying if one individual says the other, i will kill you. this according to penal law, is already subject to penal law, such a threat. and he is irresponsible language at work. and. 6 such a language was not present in the cold war days in the seventy's eighty's. maybe because we still have people in office who knew what was meant. some of them well of the 2nd world war to ration. so they wouldn't play around with words like

nuclear at tech or a fully fleshed war because they knew what was most about. and these people was such a responsibility and, and, and, and the sub mature approach towards the work as politicians. they are not really present. unfortunately, and the other topic is yes, we are in a stalemate, no doubt about that. but in such a stalemate, it takes people with some sort of creativity. that's what diplomacy is about international relations and not only about the power of national security interest and so on. they have a role to play, but beyond that, we need we have to seize this more moment now to do really something like confidence building back. and i thought that the us side, what would put it priorities in

a different way and that ever since the june meeting some more saba and pragmatic approach. what, what, what will be on the agenda on rushes, put forward proposals and miss asked nay to provide legal guarantee that it willing to expand further east. is that concession ever likely to be met by nato? i fully understand this legal approach due to the history because what happened in the early 990 s, it was not even written. it was more kind of political announcement and we have some protocols that then chairman gorbachev was given the promise by chance for la handled call, for instance 5, president middle, all that need to would not expand to east. what about levels? no, no, treat no contractual obligation. and the lessons learned for the russian side is we

don't want to see that repeated, we want to have some norma teeth and some normative solution. so i understand this russian demand for, for legal clarification. on the other side, i'd like to say that unfortunately, somebody was been teaching international law. so sometimes already can you see what remains of international thought, because it's, it's crumbling. this legal one could even cindy ballistic approach is not at all present in, in the european commission, not at all present in the united states. it's, it's all about shifting interests. it's all about maybe not being bound and international law. self and legal principle is the fundamental faces off modern civilization. i mean, this is not an invention of 21st century that goes back to antique times. and

speaking as somebody who we understand here the just this russian demand. i also know why the, on the native side you won't have you won't have a concession on that because it's not in the mindset. so what, what would be in that mindset? i mean, assuming let's assume that, you know, they would like to find a solution. what, what sort of things would they be hoping that russia would concede, or what would be the starting point? because at the moment we have both sides saying, russia saying, look, we've got great security concerns about night. we have eastern european countries saying we've got great security concerns about russia and a potential invasion. so what was the meeting point where the meeting points can only be achieved by saba, pragmatic, diplomatic trust building. and for that, we need a lot of back channeling, we need creative minds who are not reading out only to speaking notes at,

at the table, but really looking for converging, interest converging and, and also understanding the other side. i mean, there's simply a complete disregard for historical contemporary worries on, on, on the russian side. so that i think that to be taken into account and, and to overcome that state made, it requires genuine diplomatic creativity. also on the side of nato officials, you and, and the us special we see matter to anywhere. unfortunately, we are in times of the decline of diplomacy, diplomatic practice. if we are in a world of unilateral statements, the 2 phosphate, now we're having a genuine conversation. we look into each other's eyes, listen, which other i've tried to reach some sort of synthesis throughout this program.

maybe we come to a synthesis, but this is not anymore to case and high level may to counsel you, etc. meetings. i didn't see it, and that is a dramatic needs tool to bring it back because that the stakes are simply too high . i don't understand of somebody who still remember because war days, i remember that the 98 isn't a shadow off. there might be a fully fledged show down and nuclear war and we started school and university and that balance of fear impeded it from happen 1st before this looked at this alma amount of words. i mean, this terminology is kick cannot be continued as it has been the case over the last few weeks. the media should act in a more responsible way, quoting this, this german paper, the bids which, which had effect plan and so on. so there is many people are required to act in,

in, in a more responsible way because the fakes are simply too high. i mean, just looking history as well. let's just talk about the last couple of years. we've seen the us walk away from very psalms treaties to now we're seeing it saying that, you know, perhaps nato might to, the set up in ukraine is a possibility you could set up in georgia. i know you've talked about people just having, you know that statements, but surely they can understand rushes concern. the 2000 and events of summer, 2008. i linked also to what happened in february 2008, named it to the combination of the independence of, of course, of all. and, and a lot of things started to happen in the international arena into 990 s, with different human carrying interventions, which then, but even worse, given the turns of action, turning it regime change in libya, trying and syria. so this,

this long of not only misunderstandings, but full fledged war through channel sides, whatever has happened it's, it's really amazing and deplorable that in this see many people live world we, we are so speechless we, we lack the sound of mental attribute of diplomacy to put one stuff into the shoes of the other and to understand the other side i'm teaching right now of course, for young students with diplomacy. and this is so important. put yourself into the shoes of the other for a few moments to understand the reasoning behind. to put it into some sort of historic geographic setting and, and refrain from being cynical that's so much cynicism or in on that topic and others and this into counsel meetings. i had the opportunity to attend.

i was irritated by the fact that it was the opposite of diplomacy. why hasn't reached that point? well has to play see, come. the dollars has maybe gone because good manners have gone. curiosity has gone. a talent has gone missing a life. you need a talent. and we definitely have a lot of untenanted people, a minister of foreign affairs. we have too much political science to much security studies that very few governments that still teach diplomacy with all what it takes a diplomat is not the expert off the topic. a diplomat in this, on my mind, on the negotiations of course has to lots of figures, but it's also about being creative, finding the, maybe the tiny little denominator of convergence. and also having this human dimension of creating an atmosphere in which certain things can become possible and

so that you need some sort of talent over true. i mean this joe biden is flooding mutation and both working hard to try and resolve the training conflict. what are your concerns? i've heard people say that, you know, there's a potential for large scale conflicts. me vladimir putin does not. she said that don't bring rail about it. is that, is that a possibility? i mean, things potentially could sparren out of control and we reach that point. where do you think there's enough in between enough common sense now to prevent us reaching that point? common sense is the key word, you know, in terms of really assessing, being fully aware of the stakes which are at stake and as an observer from far away i, i believe that the president put a president biden are aware of the stakes, but there are many many other wars this, whether it's inside need or whether it's inside ukraine in process who are making

this unhelpful unit at 12 statements. and if i say there's not enough talent, i'm thinking more of my colleagues, i've met into european councils cause it takes this, this certain human touch oval that you need in order to find solutions in a stalemate. okay, we'll, let's move on to junior sanchez instead of because this is another major story. it's happened over the last few days to the u. k. caught his rule that assange is no longer or his health is no longer a barrier to his extradition, to the united states because of the assurances they've and i received from the us. i know you for this case closely what, what are your thoughts on that really? when i saw the reporting on friday, i was saddened and shocked. and as far as i've been following your channel, it's the only one that really speaks and spoke about short. and i saw she was not

in the headlines in most european papers. it's, it was, it was not breaking news there. and julian assault is punished for having revealed walk crimes and the decon leaks revelations of december 2009. i remember them very clearly because what was published showed to my reading and we are here back to the topic of diplomacy more. they're rather low level or the superficial level of the, of the cables from the u. s. embassy. so, i mean, there are some which were interesting, but many others which were more the summing up of the daily press review and the to, to come to, to make that tantamount to espionage to high treason. if it's really a very weird interpretation of his work.