i think the people need to take responsibility into their own and be prepared is those kinds of weapons who are less available. we wouldn't have a lot of the shootings and we certainly wouldn't have the number of deaths ah rush of als retaliation after germany expels to diplomats accusing the kremlin of ordering a murder on german soil. 2 years ago, moscow dismisses the claim as baseless a frosty future. the you plans to drop all long term natural gas contracts after 2049. despite concerns that much vaunted green alternatives won't be able to meet european energy needs and jailed for trying to protect young girls. denmark's former immigration minister gets 2 months behind bars for separating refugee child brides from their husbands.

we debate that issue if they'd been valid. married in another country, then this is not for us to split them up on the basis that they don't comply with lee the laws in our country. what we've done now is we've created to societies probably who is the society to be immigrants, what they have that rules, and then the society for essentially the white people who have that rules. ah, oh it's 5 am here in the russian capital and you're watching r t international. i'm your host donald quarter. welcome to the program. start this hour with some breaking news in libya. a group of armed men surrounded the headquarters of the government of national unity and the ministry of defense and tripoli on wednesday evening. that's according to the country's state news agency.

a philly ation of the armed group is not yet clear, but on verified videos, circulating online appear to show military vehicles patrolling the city, rti has not been able to independently verify that footage, though several areas of the libyan capital have also reportedly been left without electricity comes just 8 days before the country's 1st presidential elections are set to take place. now the story is developing and will keep you updated. of course, as more information becomes available, moscow says it will retaliate after germany throughout 2 of its diplomats and summoned the russian ambassador on wednesday and comes after a berlin court convicted a russian citizen of murder. the presiding judge stated that moscow ordered the 2019 killing of a georgia national in the german capital and claim a claim that the kremlin fiercely denies our european correspond. peter oliver can tell us more about that. the courtier in berlin ruled there to well sentenced

vadim kasey cove to life imprisonment for his role in the murder of zaman hunger. surely back in august of 2019 hunger freely was shot dead in a central berlin park in provide and hunting down that sentence. the court said that the killing had been carried out at the behest of the russian government. this is something that moscow has denied since the arrest was made of cassock cove. now it prompted analynn burbock, the new german 4 ministers to summon the russian ambassador to the foreign ministry here and which she told him, but swell to rush and diplomats would be being declared. persona non grata. these are much in startling mass murder on behalf of the state as determined that quite a day represents a serious violation of german law and of germany sovereignty the russian ambassador wasn't formed that to members of the diplomatic step of the russian embassy were being declared undesirable. while there is a kind of a spokesperson for the russian foreign ministry in moscow is said that there would

100 percent be a reaction to the expulsion of these diplomats. moscow again maintains they had nothing to do with the murder of han, gosh really now. he was a georgia passport holder of chechen descent and was wanted in russia on tara charges. he was here in germany with asylum status now he'd be wanted in moscow and connection believe to be directly responsible for the killing of almost 100 people in russia's north caucus region. he was also understood to be part of the planning for the 2010 moscow metro suicide bombings. now, speaking more about this, the russian ambassador to add to germany said that the evidence that was presented by the prosecution and the timing of this announcement were all politically motivated. the absurd thesis about the involvement of the russian federation in this case was never confirmed by convincing evidence to accept pseudo

investigations and unsubstantiated statements of the biased media such as belin, cat, an insider, and other speculations is at least strange the time chosen for the announcement of the verdict is hardly accidental. obviously, some one is interested in overshadowing the dialogue between russia and the new german government. as yet to be amazing, not even a phone call, yet between all our shoulds, the new german chancellor and russia's president vladimir putin. an awful lot to talk about his relations between moscow and berlin are strained at the moment between the future of the nord stream to gas pipeline, the ongoing situation regarding ukraine. and now the hun gosh, really case, certainly going to be a lot to discuss when those 2 leaders finally get in contact. we discussed the issue with the former greek ambassador to canada. he thinks berlin is taking its lead from washington. i would be less diplomatic than the russian or busted the written berlin was. i have the impression that berlin is

receiving instructions from washington on this issue. i don't forget that washington has expelled very many russian diplomats and we must almost take. we went sullivan was taken to consideration that 2 days ago to berlin stopped the pipeline, which shows that m. berlin is going to follow instructions from washington to be tough on, on, on moscow. because i don't think that germany would, would like it's such a critical face to create such an issue with, with russia. but of course, germany needs a washington's support job. particularly these are you covered with now. as part of the eaves pushed to go green and consign fossil fuels to history, the european commission has suggested an end to all long term natural gas contracts

. after 2049, they use sam, electricity, gas, and hydrogen next to the plant and developed in may integrated manner. avoiding lock in nonstandard assets, and long term gas contracts should not extend pipe and 49. however, the new energy commissioner went on to warn of the risks to europe's gas supplies, if particularly cold winters like this one are seen. european energy prices have searched since autumn due to market volatility rising more than 6 times compared to the same period last year. europe's largest gas supplier, russia has repeatedly spoken in favor of long term deals, saying they bring much needed stability subs. no good if you that was to this. if they made mistakes, we talked about this with the previous european commission. all of its activities were aimed at containing long term contracts for gas supplies, giving priority to exchange trading. and it turns out this policy was wrong. russia

is ready to work to stabilize the world energy market, but this activity should be built on a commercial basis. taking into account the interests of old buttons happens, let's assume, and electricity bills and in europe are skyrocketing along with the price of natural gas in spain. they're approaching in all time high despite government assurances to bring rates back to 2018 levels. the cost of a megawatt hour is expected to be $7.00 times higher than last december. and electricity bills in spain, in november were up 50 percent compared to a year earlier. people across the country are feeling it in their pockets. i'm dental exam. yeah. well it valerie's mm hm. and it changes every tomorrow. if you have a sorry that only covers terry didn't thinks it a proxy and everything else. if you how 500 euros and spend t 100 on electricity, he barely have anything left over. what are people going to do? you live in the if i were in cherokee, i would eat people in government,

a low salary and see how the quote is very low. julius reached this level because no one regulates it or go glad of. okay, of course if you pay a lot for electricity and charge declines, hello price to fact he a lot. if you charge lions 15 euros and you have to pay ran to electricity cetera. what do you have left being so we're struggling to make ends meet, but hopefully things will be fixed. good. i mean i get them. we spoke with independent journalists, luke reggae, and he thinks the decisions coming from brussels are only making the energy crisis worse unit would be completely crazy if they decided to suppress long term contracts for gas, or to try to suppress gas b, a fossil fuel, you know, to, to be discarded. this is wrong. why? because they choose their renewables, wind energy, and solar energy. these are intermittent. so if you're billed when turbines you need to st capacity in gas turbines, when there is no wind,

they will take over. so you absolutely need gas if you bet on renewables, everybody understands that a long term contract brings you better prices over a long term and stability. it's the same for gas prices. i mean, the price of gas now all the spot market in europe is incredibly high. easy, what you're wants, is it, what is this fall delay once you'd be crazy to go that way? completely crazy. so this is really something which is trying to enjoy moscow. flash of cultures has seen denmark's ex immigration minister jailed anger. story berg was sentenced to 2 months behind bars for illegally separating refugee couples . back in 2016. under danish law couples can marry from the age of 18, but during the migrant crisis, girls as young as 15 years of age who had legally married in their home countries arrived in denmark. they then the then minister ordered the young wives to be

separated from their husbands. a danish court ruled that that was unlawful, as the decision was made without consideration of individual circumstances. destroy berg says she was only trying to protect children and has no regrets. yes, i can, i see i can only say that i am very, very surprised by despair. and it is as it were, the only scenario i had not prepared for before because i thought it was completely unrealistic. but here we are, and i take my punishment and i do it without bending my neck. oh boy agnes, i don't know there is nothing over that. so i mean, simply one has a moral and compassionate obligation to protect the girls, and that was what i did. we heard from our guests on whether the danish ex ministers, actions were warranted is absolutely justified what she did. just think of the morality of a country that says that it's wrong to separate people in the case where one of

them is a child drives and the fact that we are making, you know, had to stop about something that should be something we celebrate not throw ministers in prison for if they've been valid married in another country, then it is not for us to split them up on the basis that they don't comply with the, the laws in our country. there needs to be pragmatism. but where there has been a marriage that has been sanctioned under the lower of another country, then there is already existing provision to to actually accept. and to legitimize some of those marriages, i mean, marriages, for example, under sharia law. and what we've done now is we've created to society subway, who is the society to be immigrants, where they have their rules and then the society for century, the white people who have their rules. i think that is not acceptable as it should be. a universal sense of morality, who should be universal set of laws thought. i mean, at the end of the day,

we can't impose our own laws on the rest of the world. what they want his own controlled immigration in order to destroy europe, that they not bothered about the damage system to civil society. and they want to find a way of attacking any politician that attempts to stop people coming out of the border and look at the end the day. we are perfectly happy not to port illegal ladies who are perfectly happy to take on foreign criminals. and the idea of what comes to jail, the midst of that sentence to stop it, robin j, all the people responsible is obviously bothering well. ringback it does seem very severe um, but if i it sends the message the immigration ministers around the world. busy have got to be more careful about the way they make decisions and to act lawfully then it, he has a welcome and a safe if every time an immigration minister made an illegal decision on the being quite a number of those of right over the years, the if they was sent to jail,

if it would really. busy change things quite dramatic. kit is a very, very worrying trend. this criminalization of politics. well, what you do with your potency is rob the debate. them. you attempt to find a criminal offense to compare them all the idea that you're not strong to take action against people that have buried children. i think really just shows a moral bankruptcy. if this whole immigration debates, facebook users may have to reassess the information. they've been getting from the site after its parent company, meta admitted in court, that so called fact checks are simply based on opinions. the revelation came during a journalist's legal battle launched after his posts were flagged as misleading r t. saskia taylor reports turns out the famous fact checkers who are busy labeling things false party, false misleading. i've actually been a bit loose with well, the facts. facebook yet again found itself in court. this time up against

a journalist. he didn't like the day slapped a partly full sticker on one of his post, so he sued for defamation. i'm because facebook where he spent millions of dollars on legal fees over the years and got creative this time and claimed that front checkers. don't decide what's false, so not based on fact, what a ridiculous idea, but on their opinion, hence the title fact checker. and because opinion in america is sacred, you can't so it, it's a very, very nifty loophole. but just to really escape any liability whatsoever. facebook double down on how it gives it fact checkers a very long leash. so meta identifies potential misinformation, for fact checkers to review and rate. it leaves the ultimate determination whether information is full so misleading to the fact checkers. and though meta has designed its platforms so that fact checker ratings appear next to content that the

fact check is, have reviewed and rated. it does not contribute to the substance of those ratings. now you won't find any of these details in the giant fact checking section on facebook talk. com. instead you'll learn about how they interview sources and consult data and look for facts, you know, to really drive home. the point about how it's all based on opinion. i think some of it's 3000000000 uses worldwide, want very pleased. after all, many of them had probably used these facts when arguing with their friends. and now it's turned out they were just quoting some random person's opinion, a bit embarrassing railing, so that campaigning for facebook not to be let off the hook. court filing. facebook admits its fact checkers. don't check facts. is facebook admitted here that it's fact checks are not really fact checks at all, but merely opinion assertions also by facebook clement, its 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, our fax labels cannot be false or defamatory because they consist sheet protected opinion, even though we present them. as fact, my question though is, what does facebook need these opinionated fact checkers for anyway, after all, over the years, it's proved, it's committed to free speech. it is giving people a voice, especially donald trump. it's dedicated to openness, transparency, and of course, democracy. i mean, it says all the time 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 really people's, i don't feel comfortable at all saying they don't get to have a voice because i don't agree what they said our ability to know what is misinformation is itself in question and i think reasonably so fact checkers. facebook's favorite friends protecting it from defamation, setting it free for accountability, someone to hide behind and times of trouble,

but most importantly, always ready to get their opinion. facebook has found themselves back against the wall and if they try to cling 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 time, 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 false. ah,

you are more analysis and insight into the facebook revelations. it's just a click away for that and plenty more. besides head over to r t dot com. now the author of harry potter j. k. rowling has landed herself in hot water. she is infuriated the transgender community by criticizing the police in scotland, who allowed rape suspects to identify as women. that's even if they haven't legally or physically changed their gender saying only that their female rollin channels. george orwell is novel. 1984 on twitter to make her point. where is peace? freedom of slavery, ignorance, his strength, the penis thing to vigil her aim to you is a woman. many people have shared rawlings concerns saying that the new approach will clearly distort crime statistics and thereby render them useless. but the authors faced a heavy backlash from activists and people on social media for her views. vast majority of sexual souls are committed by men who don't identify as anything other

than men. perhaps you might consider using your public profile to come by this. instead, you created an entire universe filled with wonderful characters, fantastical beasts, magic and wanda. but can't fathom the trans people exist. you've gone downhill from the inspiring woman who wrote harry potter from her call. why does it sound like yom upset about trance people's and rapists feels like you appro. it's is a wrong here babe. it's also not the 1st time rawlings been chewed out by trans rights activists back in 2020, she was accused of trans phobia. after ridiculing an article that used the phrase, people who meant straight instead of women, that prompted prov, prompted protests outside of her house and even death threats all the while the writer insist she has nothing against transgender people themselves. earlier my colleague niel harvey spoke with the director of the project. keep prison, single sex who believes

a dangerous precedent has been set in scotland. i think this is another example of institutional katcha, of our public and private institutions by the transgender low bay. the intention was to then be able to roll out to other sexes. so i think the capturing of the criminal justice system, whether it's crime statistics or the prison service has been very key tactical made within the crime statistics. we know that sex is an incredibly important variable for analyzing the causes of crime and the response to crime. so if you substituting gender identity to biological sacks, you're really messing up the data right at the beginning and you can never formulate an appropriate response. some men are just exploiting a loophole here to get themselves into female prisons, and that is great danger to the family mates. i mean,

how do you feel about that side of the argument? once you start pretending that biological sex doesn't matter, then you start opening up space is team males to men and to boys on the basis of what they believe about themselves on the basis of gender identity. and that puts women at risk as j. k. rowling says, this is fundamentally, it's about protecting the rights of women and girls is about protecting the safety of women and girls. now we're going to go back to our breaking news story from libya this hour. a group of armed men surrounded the headquarters of the government of national unity and the ministry of defense and tripoli on wednesday evening. that's according to the country state news agency, and the affiliation of the armed group is still not clear. on verified video, circulating online appear to show military vehicles patrolling the city, but r t has not been able to independently verify this footage yet. several areas of the libyan capital have also reportedly been left without electricity. this all

just comes 8 days before the country's 1st presidential since our schedule to take place. the story, of course, is still developing and will keep you updated as soon as more information comes in . how to get some more insight on this. we're gonna go live to american journalists, dave linder, who is the founder of the online news site. this can't be happening. dave, thanks a lot for joining us on the program. so reporter, news reports are coming in at suggesting the to government buildings have been surrounded by armed men. what can you tell us so far about what's going on in libya? not too much debt. we. what we're seeing is a military coup. what's not clear, is there a lot of different military forces within libya? so you know, if this happens, there's likely to be, you know, shortly after, at fighting among different military groups for control. that would be one prediction. the other thing i think that needs to be pointed out is that this is

all the result of the us having backed a code that over through the leader from long term leader of libya. mark and asi, who had turned the country into probably most well off and stable of the arab states, you know, introducing education for women and schools and all kinds of things, whatever, whatever, you know, you bad, you can say about him. he had a stable country, they, when people were killing each other and they were, were basically achieving a middle class. and now it's just fail state. well, as you said, we don't know a lot about the situation right now. we don't know who the militias actually are. and a lot of chaos followed the, the downfall of the market off the but this move specifically come shortly after the libyan prime minister dismissed the commander of the tripoli military district

. could there be a connection between these 2 incidents? do you think? well, why one would suspect that there would be a reason for firing the commander and reason why then you would have a militia coming and surrounding the president. so, you know, if you put one in one together equals 2 or $2.00 and $2.00 equals 4 and would seem like the militia is upset at the firing of the commander. and it would seem like the firing of the commander probably had to do with shares of the coke. but that's total speculation on my part. and what do you think? i mean, people who've been following libya very closely, obviously know that the son of colonel gadhafi was reinstated recently as a presidential candidate. do you think that could have anything to do with these events, or is it too early to speculate on that? for me, it's too easy to split it too early to speculate. i mean, obviously that is going to be

a factor and there was some pressure behind his being reinstated. i mean, i'm not sure what his popularity is in the country. i don't, i kind of doubt that you know, that he said popular, but if he was, you know, there was an effort to stop him from running and now he's back. but now they can't have the election so it could be connected. well, there were some reports as well, of blackouts and some areas of tripoli. do you think that this is an indication of some sort of wider campaign in the libyan capital? you know, i think the black achieving were further than just simply triple 8. but yeah, i mean there may be a broader strategy. there are tick. so chaos as this happens. and of course, we have to remember that the presidential elections and you know, are due to take place in just 8 days time. to what extent do you think they can

still happen? hard to see it happening. if you have a clue underway and you have the president's palace surrounded, we don't know what they're going to do at this point. i'm are there, are they going to move in? the palace is the, is there a palace guard that will stay loyal that this could go in a lot of directions at this point? they've linda or founder of the online news site. this can't be happening. thanks a lot for joining us on the program. thank you for having me. a lot of my putting in his chinese counterpart teaching ping have held a video conference both publicly committed to strengthening ties. i mean increasingly strained relations between the east and the west. rushes leader also reiterated his desire to attend the beijing winter olympics. opening ceremony in february ortiz acres donna has more. it comes amid as both nations they face very similar geopolitical challenges,

and most of them are coming from half the world away from the united states. both nations, both russia and china, are no stranger to nato, bolstering its military presence, either close to the national borders or when it comes to china in the asia pacific . hence, in an area, the china that bay ging views as its own backyard. here both vladimir putin and changing ping, they criticize the so called all cause deal saying that while essentially it undermines the well the global nuclear stability and that it is essentially a threat to global security. have listen concern was expressed by the activity of the americans in re configuring the current situation in the asia pacific region. and in this regard, both from our side and from the chinese side and negative assessment was expressed about the creation of new alliances such as the indo pacific quad and the american anglo australian union orcus basically this orkin deal is the united states and the u. k. uniting and helping

a strayer create its own basically expand its nuclear capabilities, expand the nuclear capabilities of its fleet. so this is an attempt by washington and london to make us trailer, into more into more of an atomic superpower. in fact, on the side note at this deal has already caused quite a scandal between the allies, because initially, france was about to do more or less the same, but washington and london, well, they muscled out their partner, their ally, paris, out of a very lucrative contract but going back to the meeting between our herb, going back to the spiritual conference between vladimir putin and changing ping, they also express a desire to move further away from exchanges in dollars when it comes to bilateral trade and will increase the volume of deals or in our local currencies, in fact, staying was the, the subject of economy. vladimir putin has revealed that more than a 150000000 of doses of russia's vaccines against covert. sputnik v and

sputnik light will be produced in china as contracts with 6 chinese firms have been signed and in general, during 2021 the, the, the amount, the volume of bilateral trade has increased by 31 percent, which is basically it has reached to levels higher than a before the pandemic. so there you have it. it seems both lead as they well they see i to i and this meeting, this virtual summit seems to have lamented the alliance between moscow and beijing . we heard from politics, professor joseph gregory mahoney and he thinks that russia and china are reacting to us aggression frankly, with the orchestral, basically, a polar trading nuclear weapons to australia, ostensibly against china. with reports, the u. s. troops are now in taiwan with biden, undermining.