ah, in terms of security and defense, your stance at a crossroads should outdated cold war era structures be maintained like nato in over. we line on the u. s. court, and should europe define and shoulder responsibilities for its own defense? and what about russia? mm. breaking news. our new german language channel r t. d is embroiled in a legal dispute. now it's europe's media regulator. questions are broadcast license r t management however stressed the license was obtained and full compliance with european law also had russia, publishes a list of proposals to nato, from maintaining security, with the countries deputy foreign minister saying the ball is now in the alliance's

court when it comes to de escalation and also we dig into disturbing revelations that the manchester arena suicide bomber had links to a former nato soldier. turn terrorist ah all live across the globe or run the clock. this is our t. my name's unit o'neill, and you're welcome to the program. we begin with breaking news. our new sister channel r t d. just one day old has been caught up in a legal dispute in germany relating to licensing. our team management has responded . seeing the license was close obtained in accordance with all applicable european laws and regulations, official for the european media watchdog had some ominous words for the new channel

. the license must be issued in germany and the application must also be filed her . first of all, this is a real irritant, and we will take care of it some context here. then the new channel was taken off youtube on the very day it was launched yesterday. technically there's no link between that on the german t v broadcast dispute. but as you can see, it's been a rocky start for r t. d. earlier i spoke to r t deputy editor in chief and head of communications on a balcony. she explained what the disagreement is all about just to start, but what is the head of the european regulator can complaining about in particular? well, 1st of all, this was a very interesting interview. very interesting comments that we saw him give where he called the r t d. essentially a pesky, neat little nuisance that is going to be taken care of. so that is some interesting

language there right off the bat. but the crux of the issue is that in his view, we have no business broadcasting in germany. he is claiming incorrectly that our t v news channel is actually based in berlin, when in fact, it is based in moscow, quite literally down the hall from, from the studio. and the news programs are coming out here being filmed here, edited put on the air and so forth. and they are, they're doing got via a license through in other countries and serbia through another european license and are in full right to broadcast across all of europe. including in germany, various media outlets authorities in germany are saying there's an issue, but where are td's license such he just mentioned there was obtained you said it was obtained in serbia. so what's the, what's the problem there?

that's a legal, correct? absolutely. so our license was obtained under what is known as the european convention on trans frontier trans frontier television, which under that convention gives us the right to broadcast to $33.00 countries across europe. as long as from us go. and those countries include germany, but they also include other countries with majority or significant german language populations such as austria, switzerland, luxembourg, and so forth. now the issue that these various commentators are saying is that we're not in fact broadcasting from moscow, which is just absurd. but then we're doing so from a from berlin, which is home just to a production company, r t d e productions that makes some of our content. yeah, but the lion's share of the news broadcast that's being done here. exactly. and

legal action has been launched by the german regulator. i think that's the situation as it stands. can you tell us more about what you know of a? yeah, so this is a, this is where the separation is really important. the legal action is being launched against our tv productions, which makes some, you know, make some of the shows but it is being launched for not applying for a, for applying for essentially, for a serbian license, not applying for the german license because they're a channel broadcasting in germany, which is absolutely false. r t d e productions does not need a license because our tv production is not a channel. it channel is our tv that is coming out of here and thus moscow, our headquarters, our parent company applied for i applied for the for the license in serbia. that's a significant distinction. it's not a, it's no, that's a little and this is where it seems that they do. yeah. they're taking issue with

them broadcasting and germany went, they're just not doing such a thing. we are broadcasting in germany and we're doing so in accordance with absolutely all the laws and regulations of europe, of that convention that i mentioned and, and absolutely, every territory we're, we operate and have always done. so i'm a big question. do you expect the shuttle to be shut down? we believe that the law is on our side, that the right is on our side because we data all the i's and cross the t's and did everything exactly as we should have. and so, believe that at the end of the day, we will prevail. that said, the amount of pressure that our new german channels has faced even before it went on the air. difficulties with banks, difficulties, not just with licensing, but the pressure on, on our guest and so forth has been really unprecedented pressure again, as you've mentioned, the beginning on our digital platforms. so we just launched the channel yesterday

or you can see everything that's happening. so we don't know what tomorrow will bring, but that said, we're ready to keep to keep fighting on the boat. can us? well i'm delighted to welcome live onto the program. no patrick henning, sin editor of the 21st century wire news website. patrick, welcome to you. why do you think the german media regulator is targeting r t d? if all the paper works in order, which is what r t is claiming, why would they have a problem with the channel? well, it's not just the german regulars also as it sounds like the i e u, the european regulator is also involved. but i think this follows as sort of a general pattern as there's a lot of has been a lot of political brings been ship in germany. i, i really believe that there's a geopolitical element to this. and i think the development of the nord stream to pipeline is in the background that looming large that's also going to attract

a lot of pressure from washington or from nato member states in general. and you have radio free europe in the german marshall fund. you only have to watch their websites to know where that nato block, where the u. s. is standing on how that pressure might be applied to germany with germany, to really important a language block for media. as your previous commentator said, in covering all of these other countries, including austria and the other german speaking enclave in europe. so it is a really important in terms of soft power in terms of influence. and this is the, this is what media is all about. all countries exercise all power, not least of all, the western european countries and britain, for instance, with the b, b, c, the united states doesn't globally as well, but they do have a problem with russia being in that game. it does appear to be that way. if the regulator does go ahead and revoke the license,

which as we been going through from now, we know it was obtained legally. what precedent would that set? it's a dangerous precedent, but it's not the 1st time press tv was also kicked off of a. you tell sat as well, i believe that was in 2012 and then it was wiped up from the sort of the cable airwaves and what not the preview airwaves in the u. k. and also in the united states as well as also a foreign language. english language, international news network that does serve similar content. that's a r t and other foreign language al jazeera, for instance, similar programming as well. so it has happened before in the problem is not always in a dangerous precedent, but the, you know, the language is also disturbing when you have this sort of blogs, a ah dismissal and dismissing off and r t simply because it's russian. it's what it does sound like the words of to my schmidt there. it does sound like there's a bias there, an inherent bias. they don't give any specifics of why they don't like the content

. they just say that, oh, it's because, well, they must be up to no good. in general, it's a prelude to hostilities when you have all out media war. that's a prelude. sometimes you could say to hostilities, it means that they're going to be escalating and other areas and could be of diplomatically, could be militarily. it's definitely diplomatically because we've already seen that happen this week in germany with the ocean of the diplomats, a just briefly haunting the language. it was eye opening, wasn't it the, the official from the european regulator describing the new channel as an irritant, i suppose, pondering. he could call at a new salts or maybe a compliment. well, at the end of the day, you have to understand that it's not just an information war. it's also a credibility war, and r t is normally popular in the sort of nate native overseas language markets. first, for a number of reasons, the, the most obvious is because it does slightly different style of reporting and it

how it presents. it's news, it's documentaries, and so forth. so that's going to attract its own sort of viewership. the certainly, you saw the popularity of r t deutsch, youtube youtube channel, and that was summarily taken off of the youtube where waves are by google for no real reason. if you go and actually look at the details of that particular claim, so it is a credibility war. and they do want to, i think, push because of geopolitical considerations. broader political considerations. they want to push russia away from that soft power lane that so important in terms of making your, your case as a, as a nation, as a culture of political legitimacy internationally. geopolitical analyst, patrick henderson live on our team to national contract. thanks very much. well, we've reached out to one of the main european authorities dealing with press freedom for its views on the r t d dispute. the o. s. c representative on freedom of the media told us our requests will be

considered as soon as possible. russia has published a list of proposals for di, escalating tensions with nato, amid fears of a conflicting ukraine. among the demands are a scale of back of military activity near russia's borders. the western defense alliance has already responded, saying it will consider the documents, but any i'd come will require input from ukraine. our senior correspondent, iraq gasdio reports on what moscow has put forward. for years now, we've heard the same thing. oh, things have gone too far. a, we don't want war. we want to be friends for both nato and russia. but things keep getting worse. escalating the russia has taken its step publishing proposals for the u. s. and nato, its wishlist for return to normality. something to start talking about that it begins with the call to de escalate. to end the constant threats and true build ups,

which only lead to more of the same. the parties shall not use the territories of other states with a view to preparing or carrying out an armed attack against the other party judge for yourself. where in previous years they threatened each other with, with sanctions or legal action. now, openly booth russia and nato, a talking in fearful tones about war, another cuban missile crisis. i'd like to believe that this is rock bottom, but there's no guarantees and guarantees are what russia wants. guarantees, for example, that u. s. missiles aren't stationed within a few minutes flight time to moscow. the parties shall not deploy land based, intermediate and short range missiles in air is allowing them to reach the territory of the other parties. moscow sees nato slow and unexplainable encroachment towards russia's borders. as an existential threat,

nato argues that it's peaceful but right then the u. s. military doctrine, russia is referred to as an adversary. the close of that nato and u. s. troops and tags and missiles moved to russia, the more unpredictable the game gets, which is why putin has set his red line. nato states committed themselves to refrain from any further enlargement of nato, including the accession of ukraine, as well as other states. not that nato thinks much of russia's concerns. not long ago, secretary general stockton berg announced that roger has no vito, no sane nato operations and no right to any sort of security. buffalo fear of influence, which sets us back all the way to square one. at the nebulous motor, this is not an attempt to revise the post cold war order. it's a response to western expansion which has been conducted in

a hostile manner. the gist of the proposal that the u. s. nato and russia have a requirement for security as essential as food, or would that, that they must all, equally respect. nato has received the proposals and says that a little disgust them amongst themselves and with input from ukraine. that there isn't much cause for optimism. russ's requests of largely been rejected, summoned in private, some in public and some mockingly for the cameras. but perhaps this time sense will prevail. geopolitical analyst, reiner rough 1st, brought up an interesting point. he believes it's actually in europe's interest to strike a compromise with moscow on nato. let's have a listen. i think that at least the european branch in nato should accept this offer. happily gladly because it's of great interest, of course, for europe to live in good partnership and peace with russia. but the question is,

whether nato will decide in a way that you, europeans, at least, should wish. it may well be in the interest of the united states government. to raise the tensions between europe and russia in order to or keep europe as close as possible independence off the united states. instead of watching a good relationship building of evolving between the european neighbors of which also a russia is a part of this may well explain why nato behaves in a way that is against the interests off the europeans. and which drives russia into ever closer relationship with china?

you're with the news, our on our team. more stories coming up after the break. stay with me. ah. join me every thursday on the alex salmon. sure. i'll be speaking to get us on the world of politics, sport, business, i'm show business. i'll see you then. oh, is your media a reflection of reality? in the world transformed? what will make you feel safer? isolation, community. are you going the right way or are you being that somewhere?

direct? what is true, was his way in the world corrupted. you need to descend, have join us in the depths. will remain in the shallows. oh if you minutes into that program. welcome back. the manchester arena, bummer! may have been radicalized by a former nato soldier, turned terrorist not was revealed during an inquiry into the atrocity on thursday senior figures from the case counter terrorism police on the home office, gave their closing submissions. now, at, let's go through what actually happened, not tragic. they 2017 selman bady detonated explosives in the stadium, hosting and arianna graham day counselor,

22 were killed. many children the youngest in nature or girl. hundreds more people injured. eager shadonna flicks. not the latest fax to come to me. he murdered 22 people in one suicide blast. now a public inquiry is trying to establish what turned a hard cool potty go into a suicide bomber. and how it could have been prevented. the probe was yet to deliver concrete on, says, but over the past couple of years it has yielded plenty of disturbing revelations. ah, these pictures unearthed by the inquire, relieve little to the imagination the bomb. his whole family himself included, have been gun toting maniacs, thoroughly radicalized according to the findings. this is his father and the m. i. 5, they admitted they knew about the trigger. happy father who apparently was turning his sons into extremist,

am i 5 also knew about the bomb his contacts with not one or 2, but 6 people who were just short of being placed on the terror. watchlist. and my 5 were also reportedly warned by the f b i that cell mana betty was planning an attack in the u. k. which in fact he was none of that was apparently good enough to ban him from entry in 2015 and my 5 received information that summoner baby was in contact with the subject of interest as so i see a so i see was a long standing a so i, because of his previous affiliation with an extremist group in libya, from mid 2015 onwards. and my 5 received information or someone, a baby on several occasions which included conflicting information about his a spousal of pro eisley views. ah, this is abdul rove. abdullah, a convicted terrorist, suspected of radical ising the manchester terrorist. he was friends with the bomber with the bomb his father. more than that,

they were brothers in arms within one of libya's largest militant groups. the february 17th martyrs brigade, that's where they learned how to shoot, kill and bomb. not without the help of natal instructors, it was a group that had taken up arms to fight against us in deep. we had to forced us as we were backed up by the whole world and we were fighting. and nature was frightened. actually, widows long sighted us as the british government. also actually i was trained by and actually natal. it was just normal, basic training. it wasn't a basic train and yet our to ain't you and reload militant groups that lay to birth. terrorists have been ones favored by western officials. the inquiry has shown, when of dallas commander was done with fighting in libya,

he formed an anti government militia in syria on irish government, money. and did he subsequently lead a group from libya to syria? yes. her son manna he did under before that he was in island, is it? he was a live is a live in irish. i live and, and he was aided by the irish government with money. and i believe the british government also knew of others well to go and help syrians, if against the fight against asset during the libyan conflict in 2011, the british government was in communication with a wide range of libyans involved in the conflicts against the cathy regime forces it is likely that this included former members of the libyan islamic fighting group and the 17th of february, march, this brigade is part of our broad engagement during this time. the you case helped

you rebel groups of various degrees of extremism did not. and there britton's elite troops were caught on camera in libya, despite official assurances at the time that there were no boots on the ground them . there was no other choice but to admit the reality. if the malicious and or herb bellinger had not been there playing a key role, i'm not so certain that eric bala would have resulted in good of his downfall in the way that we had a few people embedded with them. not of france, so to speak. but beckoned earlier areas, rebel groups firepower grew. nato was dropping bombs by the 1000 and qaddafi while eventually fell. and with him went down libya's security and rule of law. as all this myriad of militias turned against each other vying for power, the country turned into a free for all. so the u. k. began to evacuate its citizens, including militants. well guess who boarded the royal navies

h. m. s. enterprise. back in 20. 14 in tripoli. none other than the future. manchester, boehmer, solomon abedi, lar, t, has asked nato on u. k. officials to comment on the revelations will let you know what responses given for more on the inquiry head to our website, which also has plenty of stories. we just couldn't fit into our bulletin, including how the u. s. and ukraine voted against the un resolution condemning naziism not just the click away at r t dot com k to the united states were co bids on the rise again. the country's nearing a 150000 daily infections, and president biden has given this warning to millions of vaccine hesitant citizens . prom back to me. we are looking at a winner of severe illness and death, unvaccinated for themselves, for families and the hospitals will soon over. well, well, apart from cove, it concerns people in the u. s. are doing battle with soaring inflation and living

costs, all of which is having a pretty negative impact on the popularity of the american leader. here, snail t's nicky, are in a tragic milestone bind and cold it unties right. the number of covey, dest in the u. s. is now about equal to the population of atlanta and st. louis combined. the toll stanza, more than $800000.00, a grim figure, which has doubled in a single year. it's a heavy burden for any president to carry and his 1st year in office. but it seems that president biden took some convincing on the gravity of the situation. was was 200000 where preventable death live looks when vaccines wo readily

available. and the old habits of blaming donald trump is no longer going to work. just over 4 weeks ago, america had no real plan of action that most of the country, my predecessors, my mother would say, god love them failed order, and vaccines fail to mobilize the effort to administer the shots, fail to set up vaccines centers that changed the mobile we took offers as by to now use it, his influence to encourage people to get vaccinated. one can help it. wonder whether trust in the presidents woods has been undermined, vaccinated 57 to me, 570 to me. i want to read, i'm not sure i got the right number. the total number of boosters is what i have a 77000000 boosters. we have a roughly 350000000 people that actually united stage. and

as biden comes to the end of what was expected to be a common gear off the trun post, so that almost at 70 percent of americans have reservations, where the bind and is elidah. they can believe in no doubt not helps by his multiple fo par, like cracking jokes about kentucky after the state was ravaged by killer tornadoes . by kid say, the best thing ever came out of kentucky was my sister in law. the president's performance this year has also been enough to turn some of the mainstream media against him just months ago. the future look to bryant, his full cost is spoke optimistically, about how life with bind and at the helm would play out. but the tune has changed with some media outlets now, urging bitin against another run. combined president joe biden's age. he'll be a to, to shortly after the 2024 election and his ongoing political struggles. he's mired in the low fourties and job approval and you get this

a series of stories examining with abide and runs again, and if not, what might take his place. so was the president to do? you should announce much sooner than later that he would not run for a 2nd term. the argument against this is that he would instantly turn him into a lame duck presidents. and that's undoubtedly true. bought news flush right now, he's worse than a lame duck. the white house press secretary, however, se if the president has every intention of keeping his job, whether the country will concur, is another matter. american society being split along party lines could be, quote, irreversible, and extremely dangerous. that's the finding of a new academic study, which concludes that the vision in the u. s. is close to tipping point it say's because polarization has gone so far. americans will find it difficult if not impossible to unite even when faced by a serious threat such as war. physical commentator,

an rti contributor lauren chin gave us her, taken her things got to this point. political division in america is at an all time high right now, and it is no secret that by and large the corporate press are not fans of conservatives. after all, they have been calling them nazis and white supremacists for going on 5 years now. and perhaps it is because the rhetoric against republicans was already so strong that now leading up to the 2020 to mid term elections. and yes, even 2024 general elections. it seems like the new way to demonize anyone who would dare to support donald trump. is not just by calling them ideological extremist as we've been seeing, but to actually go so far as to imply that they are physically a literally dangerous and an actual threat to democracy. and if you think that's just hyperbole, check out this op ed from the washington post in his piece. our constitutional crisis is already here. writer robert kagan lamented that quote, the united states is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis

since the civil war with a reasonable chance over the next 3 to 4 years of incidence of mass violence, a breakdown of federal authority and the division of the country into warring a red and blue enclave, and to be clear, a far from believing that potential political violence could be a both sides situations where democrats and republicans alike end up taking arms for their respective causes. commentators like kagan and m. s. n. b c's. john heilman, make it clear that in their opinion, the threat of violence comes solely from the right, at least 8 percent. and maybe as many as 12 percent of the american people now say the job was illegitimate and that violence was appropriate tool to remove human restore. donald trump considering that throughout 2020 a large scale, political violence was almost exclusively left wing arena. with many american cities being burned or looted under the guise of b, l, m, and t for activism here in the corporate press. now trying to paint conservatives as the real threat of domestic terrorism in the country.