seeking to the rail science, it's ruling using sy against the shell. ah, this ours headline stories. facebook admits in court that it's a 3rd party fact checks are nothing more than opinions. fueling further allegations of bias and censorship on social media. also at i 9, grandma and cindy, u. k, over new restrictions being brought into combat. the fast spreading all me. kron kobe variant some m p. 's. i've even compared the proposals to nazi iraq. germany on the pentagon said it won't hold anyone liable for a butch drone strike in afghanistan. let kill 10 civilians, including 7 children, one form

a u. s. military drone pilot told us of his frustration over that this to see that nothing has changed, even when it's blatantly out in front of everyone's face, how we operate and no one's being held accountable. like we been talking about this for 10 years now. ah . oh, just after 10 at night, here in moscow this choose the december, the 14th. i'm you know, neil, this is the news hour on rti in a lunmark court case. facebook has admitted not a it's 3rd party fuck checks are just opinions. journalists who's post something flagged as false, are waging a legal battle against the social media giant, accusing and of defamation. our t southgate tiller takes up the story. facebook might have got a self and new name matter, but it seems that it's up to its old trick. the age old question of whether it's

a free, an open platform or in fact, a giant tech company that is to censoring anyone. it does like, has yet again, re and much now, the latest revelations transpired from a neural suit filed against facebook by john list. and that's because one of his posts from about last year's california wild fires was fact checked and labeled party false. so he said for defamation as he said, but the social media platforms response has been to lift up. it sounds and say when it can't be defamation, because these frank check has, we're packing out to rid the wild of nasty misinformation are actually surprise 3rd party people who decide what is false, not based, not on facts, but on opinion. because this is america opinion is sacred. still soils claims focus on the fact check articles written by climate feedback. note, the labels are fixed through the facebook, but for the labels themselves are neither false nor defamatory. to the contrary, they constitute protected opinion. so facebook has essentially admitted that,

for fact, check, has facts, opp, optional. and of course, it does have a right to do this facebook as a private company. so it's policy is an internal matter. but the point is, is that it does have responsibility on accountability before it's roughly 3000000000 users wild wide. and actually speaking of that and undoubtedly who feel misled at best and may be downright night to it was they've been sharing that take on these latest developments. court filing, facebook admits it's fact checkers. don't check facts. is facebook admitted here that it's fact checks are not really fact checks at all, but merely pin him assertions also by facebook clement it's labels constitute opinions than doesn't that make it a publisher. facebook, your opinion piece is not exempt from being fact checked, even when they are clearly labeled as op eds or editorials. also, facebook or fax labels can not be false or defamatory because that constant sheet protects it opinion, even though we present them, as fact. we don't facebook to put

a whole section on its website dedicated to fact check isn't it really does salad while you know a 2 organizations, watkins, 60 languages fighting lies together. it's a rigorous process and that process involves identifying the problematic post and then reviewing it. and apparently, and wanted to decide whether this post is accurate or not, it goes straight to the source and into these people consult data. and then on the basis of these findings that determines whether that content needs to be filtered or allowed to circulate. so it really does sound like a thorough a scientific process, no way in all of that. and bleeping actual lives of tool through that was a lot of it is absolutely no use of words like opinion, subjective, you know, personal perception, judgment does nothing like that speech more widening. you know, if you do listen to some, the top ross at facebook, you believe that they never really feel to any content because that's such great champions of free speech. if your democracy can't tolerate the speech of people, i'm not sure what kind of democracy it is. i do believe in giving people more

access to information and more access to connect with one another and not reserving those as tools for some small number of lead people. i don't feel comfortable at all saying they don't get to have a voice because i don't agree with what they said. our ability to know what is misinformation is itself in question and i think reasonably. so i think many people would agree with that. a party sentiment from him, but the question hara is, is facebook trying to get us out out of a tight spot with this will soon by suddenly amending the job description of fact check i in order to escape any liability or has it actually just been lying on its website for this time on the way it's not a good look for the company, and it's certain does absolutely nothing to count all of those accusations for all these years that they have been silencing voice says arbitrary belkin content quite frankly stray and to the dangerous territory of censorship. a little earlier i spoke with radio host and political analyst day perkins. he thinks that facebook is desperately trying to avoid a barrage of further lawsuits. and to the idea that they are fact checking in court, they're going to lose. and not only is it going to cost them big dime,

but it's going to open the door to a flood of similar lawsuit in the near future. and it could be more than they can handle. i think they're hoping that by admitting that fact, jack just means opinion jack, when facebook puts a label on there, hoping to get out of this lawsuit without harm. and then just sink the story into the daily fountain of news events and hope people forget about it. in due time and in the, in the future, you'll see changes in their labels. they'll stop using the word fact and they'll come up with some other way to express it where they still exercise their dictatorship right to control speech on their platform. but it won't be a false presentation like the word fact jack is also the u. k. has started to record only chron cases in their thousands, the krona virus variance, not kinds for 20 percent of all infections in the country. and as you can see, there are almost half of those in london one death in total has been confirmed

linked to the so name newton string bars johnson has not brought in his plan b new restrictions and on accelerated rule out of mr. champs, but many members of his own party are not convinced. it's the way forward. we are not a papers please society, this is not nazi germany. well, the prime minister lake is instruction to the nation is get to boosted and now the aim really is to get everything go at all in the country, vaccinated with that boosted job. by the end of this month, the is quite ambitious then really because that would mean i'm 1000000000 people need to be jobs every single day, and i'm outside saint thomas hospital here in central london. and as you can see, the queue is really piling up. now this morning in fact being a chances are telling people to stop trying to book their booth online. the system has totally crashed and why. 7 may you ask about the acceleration of this booth to program now? well, according to the how secretary the on the chrome variant is now the dominant one.

no, very old code 19 has spread this fast. oh me pond. expect it to become the dominant code. 19 parent in the capital in the next 48 hours. so the 2nd of this week is to get a boosted now and it's all part of a drive of the plan. b covert restrictions that include face mouse being made mandatory again cove. it possible it's co, that oscillation rules, but also the most controversial one is trying to get the n 8 just to get vaccinated, making that compulsory now many people in the public se that's an attack on civil liberties. that's something that some m p 's agree with. and so we're expecting a huge tory rebellion. many people saying compelling the public to get immunized as simply a step too far. not to mention the temporary emergency measures that don't seem to be so temporary anymore. we were told these measures might be left before santa took to his sleigh, and suddenly, before half the country was pinged into the gulag, there seems no lead up to this kind of self defeating dystopian logic. well,

just yesterday, then the government put the owners back on the public saying we must all be playing our part. but that's quite a difficult message to the public to take, especially after the last few weeks or revelations that some politicians don't to be playing. that part and try to get on the other side of this pandemic. and yes, i'm talking about those downing street christmas parties of being the headline news there in the united kingdom. but many people, as you can see, the q directly behind me, they all following the rules. they want to get that booster now, perhaps as a long ditch effort to save that christmas's. now there was a brief moment of panic earlier and choose the after in person pcr tests where a temporarily unavailable sites are crossing and the government's website has not been updated showing new time slots. and despite the u. k. efforts to ramp up testing to counter the new chrome variance. there are still plenty of questions over how potent or otherwise it actually is. well, on that point,

we spoke with simon clark, simon, some microbiologist, that reading university in the u. k. is inevitable when you, when you turn up the volume on these measures, one of these things take time and that to you have to change what's available and what's delivering that to that program. and i think that's what we need. i think that what we see is, is government being nervous about leaving the stable door open for the horse, the bolts because that's what happened before. and they don't want to happen again, much more transmissible. so that trans miss ability could more than take any central drop in virulence, inability to cause disease issues. in fact, more people then you'll end up with a big burden on, on society and health care systems. none of the us military personnel involved in a botched drone strike and of gamma stone which killed 10 civilians. back in august

we'll face any kind of punishment the pentagon making not a nice spin on monday. did you not anticipate there being issues of personal accountability to be had with respect to the august 29th here strength i . busy lot of the 7 children who died, the youngest was just 2 years old. the mom targeted in the strike was zamora act monday, an aide worker who was mistaken for a terrorist. we heard from his grieving brother, that's the key you're personally themselves so. so this news came as a shock for us, it's humiliating to hear that no one will be prosecuted. they should have kept

their word. we hope that the people who ordered and carried out this attack would face justice. the americans claim they can spot a needle on the ground from their satellites. so how could they not see the innocent family? they were about to kill her that they found no connection between us in islamic states. so why didn't they do those checks before launching a bonus? us like they promised us justice and compensation that they would take us to the us little money, but it looks like no other countries forcing them to seek justice. there is no want to challenge them because they're superpower, me. that's why the americans failed to keep their promises along. here on rti, we've been speaking with more people who lost their loved ones in the bombing raid on the eve of the u. s. withdrawal from afghanistan there. still hoping for justice . you can watch those interviews an unheard voices available at r t dot com. additionally, the pentagon initially defended the cabal strike lemming. it was aimed at is law

makes 8 members more than 2 weeks later though. a tragic mistake quote was acknowledged. we discussed all that with former u. s. military drone operator brandon bright. you know, it's been 10 years since i blew the whistle on the u. s. drone program will be 10 years in 5 days actually. um and to see that nothing has changed, even when it's blatantly out in front of everyone's face, how we operate them and no one's being held accountable. like we've been talking about this for 10 years now. when i 1st started talking about it, people called me a liar. people tried to defame me, and now that we see it for what it actually is, innocence had been killed. not just innocent and innocent aid worker who was there trying to help. i really think that the united states has lost knowledge on how to conduct warfare. and it's now a business. they're not going to punish the people that make them money. they're

just going to punish the people that are so the supposed enemies in the ones that they test this, munitions on who should be punished are the officers. they said that there's a breakdown in communication, but that is mostly a lie. i am must have been that there was there and there must been someone miscommunicating something but they have everything should be in a chat program like it's not just a radio call instantaneous. you spin up your mess when you shoot. it takes like 5 minutes to get ready to shoot a messiah. this was not an emergency situation. none was under spire. no one was under duress, no one was under stress. and so they had all the time in the world to make the decision on whether to shoot or not. additionally, the cabal incident, we need to say, followed to a long string of similar disasters. according to the bureau of investigative journalism, up to 900 off guns civilians have been killed by you, astro. and since 2014 game,

including dozens of children at brandon bryant again thinks it's partly done to the extreme disconnect between true operators and what's happening on the ground. there is no way that anyone who has ever done this job and sit there watching these people live their day daily lives. i cannot look at them and say, these are not people there. people because you go home when you go out into your own community and you see the same, keep the same types of people doing the same thing. they're going to coffee shops, there, go into bookstores, they're hanging out with their friends and family. there is no disconnect for a drone operator. there's so much connection. like if, if a drone operator were to go over there and to meet the people that they interacted with. visually, they would probably have a emotional break down and cry because they would see these people are suffering and no different than themselves. and that we're perpetuating that suffering because of our actions. we're doing it. the british government is planning to reform its human rights laws by adding

a healthy dose of common sense as the just the secretary put it. some of the proposals have long been called for, including deporting foreign criminals, but have drawn a wave of criticism from the opposition and rights activists to this bill represents the biggest legal assault on international refugee law ever seen in the u. k. a future where the u. k brakes, his international law obligations, an ox out of human rights protections is a very bad future. these conservative governments attacks on the rule of floor must top the human rights ad does not stop us to port in serious criminals threatening to weaken people's ability to challenge the government. just because the course sometimes rule against you is the act of dictators and despots. not democrats. the proposed changes would apply to the u. k. human rights act, which has been in place for 20 years. among other things that conservative government wants greater powers to curb foreign criminals ability to appeal

deportation. and to give british courts more flexibility in interpreting rulings from the european court of human rights option returns a host of going underground r r c told me earlier, the timing of the proposals is significant. this is just coming days after a british court accused of corruption by some overturned to previous judgment, that the julian assigns of wiki. these can be sent to the united states to phase 175 years for revealing war crimes. so why, why so soon after we learn of that judgment and his stroke in a high security prison? do we suddenly hear a reform or consultation document on the human rights act? one of the reform, it's one of the main points of it, is that the u. k wants to make it easier to, to port foreign offenders. that's something that a lot of conservative voters have been asking for for many years. why should that one be a problem? the numbers of foreign offenders that have been coming to britain. if you look at

statistics, our miniscule in terms of over turning the entire human rights act, one could maybe say that britain is acting quite intelligently about this britain. after all knows exactly the scale of the refugee crisis from countries that it participated in the annual bombarding of it was britain, of course, that destroyed africa's riches per capita. country libya on the mediterranean, there were thousands untold thousands of drowned, and course england and france were involved in that. we have refugees drowning in the english channel. and of course, england and britain was responsible partly for the aerial bombardment of iraq, afghanistan off syria, that britain knows where and why refugees are seeking solace and asylum from countries whose economies and whose entire populations have been destroyed. so why

would britain not want to stop refugees from taking asylum in a country like britain? phil, i had an art see an american diplomats wife accused of killing a british teenager in a rude crush is finally jude to stand trial last story more few shortly. ah ah ah ah ah ah a

ah with it when i was sure seemed wrong when oh, just don't move any world. yes to shape out these days because the advocate and engagement it was betrayal. when so many find themselves world, the more we choose to look for common ground. oh, hello. again. the u. s. homeland security department is under fire. after it was revealed, the agency had secretly obtained information on journalist congress members and

possibly even its own stuff. the associated press, whose reporter was one of those targeted is demanding actors. we're deeply concerned about this apparent abuse of power. this appears to be an example of journalists being targeted for simply doing their jobs, which is a violation of the 1st amendment. what we have in question is a secret border patrol unit called counter network division. and apparently it had very few rules, very few guidelines. it operated and well abided by and according to the report that has well, that has made the headlines, bused partly some of the america's most sensitive databases to look into and to vet people. when i say people, i do not mean known criminals on poor people, charged with something or even people suspected of committing a federal crime. when i say that people, they were rather vetting journalists or, well congressman or congress people or just angio workers. they were vetting them as they were considering working with them this well counter network division and

the sort of information they could get they could obtain from databases like for example, a terror watchlist is well, quite expansive. for example, they could get their financial logs, they could get their travel logs, they could even pry into their personal affairs. for example, the apparently used they're the most sensitive databases and all sorts of tools to look into well into a journalist than a political reporter who was well, romantically involved with a senior senate staffer, they called the operation a whistle pig, apparently inspired by a very particular brand of whiskey, and they used the information that they had obtained to ensnare said senate staffer . now these revelations, they have caused quite a stir and are they have been condemned. these practices have been condemned by journalists by privacy advocates, and even officials if true, this abuse of government surveillance powers to target journalists,

elected officials, and their stuff is deeply disturbing. if multiple government agencies were aware of this conduct and took no action to stop it than needs to be so various consequences for every efficient involved and department of homeland security and the justice department must explain what actions they're taking to prevent this unacceptable conduct in the future official, as they have said, that quote unquote, they do not condone the investigation of reporters and one person who was singled out as a member of the secret unit. jeffrey rambo has also dismissed the reporting as sensationalized. he has said that they did not do anything out of the ordinary that it was all common practice. this secret unit by the way, it is still operational to this day and a party operates according to the same rule book. another big story of the week, you k, prosecutors say the wife of a us diplomat charged with killing a teenager will face criminal proceedings after all, answer coolest. fled to america after her car collided with motorcyclist. hurry

done, i'd side a pentagon military base in england. the tragedy happened more than 2 years ago, then mrc willis was accused of causing death by dangerous driving. she claimed diplomatic immunity and was allowed to leave the u. k. that done suddenly, then file an extradition request that was rejected by washington. lawyers acting force a cooler some previously admitted that she drove in the wrong side of the road before colliding with hurry done. they say that's because she had only been in the u. k. 3 weeks and took the right hand lane. instinctively rud seager, an advisor for the done family earlier spoke to the program. he thinks their long campaign for justice is finally making progress. we sort of feel this is a combination of almost 2 and a half years now of relentless, tireless campaigning. and for this appalling decision by the u. s. government should deny mary's family justice. we don't know why this happened. all we know was

that it was a, it's a terrible decision on the part of the u. s. government. and supposedly our strongest ally, why you would want to condemn a totally innocent family to, to this torture. this mental torture is beyond me. but i'm, we're very pleased now that i'm with your help and your colleagues helping the media that they have now clearly been left with no choice other than to change their decision and allow justice and whatever form that takes to now take its, its natural course. i think the turning point was when president biden came into office and we know he suffered a, a similarly similar family tragedy himself. and we, we, we learned from, from him that he was going to take a different approach to the one that president truck took. i think my other theory is that inevitably, governments, when they make a decision,

find it very difficult to change their minds. but the, the courage of this family and the help of the media all around the world. the americans ultimately were left with no choice and other than to change their decision. these things, unfortunately, do take a lot of time. there's no let up to america's inflationary spiral. wholesale prices in november were almost 10 percent higher than a year earlier. according to the latest data anomalies have come up with some rather surprising advice for castro consumers as caleb my can report with prices on almost all goods and services rising. some media have come up with some advice that isn't going down too well. they say copy inflation ravaged argentina and simply blow all your money before it evaporates in high inflation economy. money that sits in the bank is losing value each day, those $100.00 in depth as it by

a little bit less. as a result, many argentines spend their paychecks as soon as they receive them, cards in a way, weeks worth of groceries in a single shopping trip. even if some of it excess me chicken fish will sit in the freezer for months. so won't burg, offers us to spend more. that's as consumer inflation costs of jumps, 6.8 percent the highest and 41 years. no doubt, many have pointed out how disconnected from reality such a solution is. in the weimer republic, the price change so fast to customers bought beer for the whole day in the morning . it's coming, or the fed can stop printing trillions of dollars, making us all poor in the process with a decline and currency that also works. yeah, you definitely should start live in a hand to mouth because of temporary blip in inflation. it's not the only example in a recent washington post article, a leading columnist, aptly suggested, not expecting very much. rather than leaving constantly on the verge of throwing

the fit and risking taken it out on the la well m service strengthen shall pony later ivan delivered it pupil. we do ourselves a favor by consciously lowering expectations. a recent article from locks recommended reducing holiday requests in order to not field a crunch of by nomics. the mission to buy last with more intention is achievable for everyone, especially african shoppers. it's incumbent and americans to val face people in the world to car, back on and be crucial of their consumption. many c biden's policies as being directly to blame while an infusion of treasury bonds may have been necessary at the beginning of the pan, an egg. the strategy of printing money seems to be backfiring. everything costs more, the grocery stores of pretty much everything universally costs more. everything's got up gas, food, everything. so it's not, then i'm a small, you know, black home business owner and all the prices are my products, have a coffee shop in brooklyn, in prime grand coffee and like all the,

all the beans or more expensive. and it's harder to get like even little products like napkins and cups and all those stuff. so it's kind of bad. you know, i dont think biden has been handling any situation. i think biden has just been sitting in office, says kind of a doddering man. joe biden seems bored of explaining how he sees it, not too interested in defending his actions. if we were all going out and having lunch together and i said, let's ask whoever, whoever's in the next table, no matter how were what restaurant ran, haven't had them explained the supply chain to us. think did understand was what we're talking about. why wouldn't biden be trying to stop inflation if apparently he's the only one who knows what it is, but even economics nobel laureates writing to the new york times, say they did not see the inflation coming. trying to clarify my own thoughts on inflation. i got inflation wrong, i didn't see the current surge coming, but why?

i didn't take the fiscal stimulus early this year would boost demand as much? is summers. that's how predicted. and in fact, so far it hasn't. now, at this point, 60 percent of americans blame joe biden for the crisis, but mainstream media seems to disagree and tell them they should blame themselves, not the people leading the country. there's nothing that upsets american voters more than having to pay for ever higher prices that are going up dramatically. vitamins patricia can try to blame the energy companies and private is all they want. but it's all happening under his watch. and i expect that the democrats are going to pay a very serious price for this and the next election, if we make it that long, we don't know what inflation is going to be at. by that time, i'm very much afraid that that.