[000:00:00;00] a all ah, it ah, the president of croatia claims his country will withdraw from nato. if there's a conflict between russia and ukraine. it comes as the west, frank, south. it's military presence in the region over a legit plans buying moscow to invade its neighbor pounds? ah, tear gas and clashes with police and the premium capital as people take to the streets up here to demand economic reforms

with solutions to pursue job id is called on a hot mike insulting a journalist who had been trying to get answers from the president over record inflation. prime ministerial party police in the u. k. launch on investigation into potential lockdown breaches by boris johnston's government. following a series of revelations about losing shindig. with wherever you're tuning in from across the globe. this our welcome to moscow on to the news our and our team, my names, you know, name croatia said it will withdraw its forces from nato in the event of a conflict between russia and ukraine. the statement from the country president

came just hours after the u. s. put more than 8000 troops on high alert. over what it claimed would be the russian invasion of its neighbour. moscow continues to deny any such plans will as cross live now to our europe correspondent, peter oliver in berlin. evening. peter, an interesting and i would suggest significant development. this brings up the speed yeah. incendiary comments from zone milan given the president of ukraine. he said that should there be a conflict between russia and ukraine than he would order the armed forces of ukraine to pull out of any deployments that they're currently on with nato. now, in a statement that sure not only to upset allies within nato, but also very much upset of many in ukraine as well. what he went on to say was that the 2014 might done revolution was

a coo and that ukraine had no place within the nato alliance. not only will we not send trips, but if there is an escalation, we will withdraw every last creation soldier. everything is happening on moscow's doorstep, so it is necessary for an arrangement to be found that will take into account russia, security interests. i worked in the european council when the democratically elected president unicode, which a scoundrel who sat on 3 chairs was overthrown in a cup. it was encouraged primarily by the you and the united states. it was a lot more diplomatic here in berlin on tuesday evening. and manual micron was welcomed by chancellor all at schultz. the french president on the german chancellor essentially emphasizing the importance of dialogue when it comes to taking the heat out of tensions between russia and nato over ukraine. what we heard from the french president was saying that he would never give up on dialogue when

it came to sorting out this particular problem. he did say that the costs would be high if there was any aggression boy from the german chancellor. what we heard was him repeat again, and again his message that there would be no sending of german weapons into ukraine after all boast. looking ahead to a big meeting of representatives of the norman defore in paris on wednesday. also talking about ukraine in europe on tuesday was the british prime minister boris johnson. he stress parliament in westminster. he said that he would be speaking further with the russian president vladimir burton, that it was important to continue to seek a diplomatic solution to listen to the concerns of the russian side. he did say though, that an invasion of ukraine would result, potentially in the worst bloodshed that had been seen in europe since world war 2, and could end incredibly badly for the russian side. there is a,

a standpoint that britain has taken in. it won't be shaken from it. there is nothing new about large and powerful nations using the threat of brute force to terrify reasonable people in giving way to otherwise completely unacceptable demands. well, so far this week we have seen a stepping up of nato forces either in europe or prepared, potentially to be sent to europe 8 and a half 1000 us troops placed on high alert that could be sent over here. should the situation get any worse? but according to the pentagon in washington, we've also seeing the continuation of giant nate. so navy war games that are going on in the mediterranean, the u. s. s. s. harry truman, the american aircraft carrier at the center of those while the netherlands, denmark can say, no promise, that they would be sending military hardware to the east of nato at some time in the future. all of days. according to dmitri best golf,

the kremlin spokesperson is being watched very closely by moscow and nato actions and increase in nato activity. now, borders cannot be ignored by a military response for, for the security of our country. there is a constant process of drills, maneuvers and military build up, which has never stopped and will continue while the search for a diplomatic solution to what's going on in eastern europe concerning russia, ukraine and nato goes into well move on to paris and those normandy, 4 talks it's the 1st time that talks in this format will have taken place in 2019 that involves representatives of the russian, ukrainian, german, and french governments. keeping you up to date on those. here on off the of course . yeah, peter much appreciate taking us through all the sar teeth. peter oliver in berlin. well, veteran m p r t, who's george galloway believes we are seeing the law of unintended consequences

coming true and say the alliance could see some very challenging times ahead. does a splintering all the european side of the nato alliance. germany has made it plain that it does not support the build up of war materiel in ukraine and does not want a confrontation with russia to turn into a war. they want a new european security architecture that is not led by the nose a by a senile american president, that most people wouldn't send out to the shops for a low for bread, but may well lead his european allies into war with the hypersonic cell more nuclear superpower called russia. so it's all beginning to break apart the law of unintended consequence that they don't hate russia. you know,

i made this point you before they hit putins, russia, because putin has dragged russia up from the floor where it was lying, having its pockets picked and restored prestige and respect, self respect to russia. that's not the kind of russia they want. now while the world's worries about how ukraine is being threatened from the outside, ukrainians themselves have got concerns. little closer to home ah, small business owners among others have clashed with police in the center of kiev, one person was reportedly killed in the violence. protesters attempted to enter the country's parliament, thus the brother police resorted to tear gas to try and stop them. media reports claim m. p. 's have been evacuated from the building, demonstrating our demanding tax breaks,

and that at mandatory cash hills and stores be abolished. so that a good tax doesn't have to be paid can other story we're across to day a hot mike moment has caused some amount of embarrassment for joe biden. out a media conference. the president was asked about the record inflation gripping the us with the journalists getting an insult in reflect. oh, great. super lawyer, my colleagues neal harvey, on rock, as they have talk through what sparks a che strong reaction from the u. s. president? well, it was a nasty booster, baby and befitting the president, but that is the imagine he was, he was stressed right he, he, he needed an outlet,

but silly moment we will have moments like that. but the issue here is the subject neither not is inflation because there are, there are 2 explanations for what but, and said the 1st is that perhaps he was kidding. you know, he was angry. this is an outlet, again, again for his stress, for his ag, unless the 2nd option, which is even scarier is that he actually believes that inflation is a great asset. i'm you felt right. you felt that the inflation that has gripped the world, not, not only of over the past year, but over the past 2 years of the course of the pandemic. you walk into a shop, you look at the process. this is, this is evelyn fuel, for our cars, clothes, for food, the prices and in supermarkets, i mean cars, computers. everything's gone up into the stratosphere. nobody's gaining from this. people are literally watching that their salaries, their wages, especially people on fixed income, or even worse, poor people, low income people. they are watching their salaries,

they're purchasing power evaporate. that say, as an example, say you were making $10000.00 just just for supplier simplicity, said $10000.00 a month, right? given this inflation in the united states and of 7 percent over the past year, you're effective. so so, so what you can buy is worth $9300.00. this is in the, in the span of a year. so again, if, if someone gives you a raise, if you get a raise, well that's just, you know, getting back lou and back. what you've already lost, and so it is incredibly strange reading, reading what some and the media wrote. and i'd like to note that this is, this is left wing media. that inflation is somehow a good thing, why inflation can actually be good for every day americans in bad for rich people. why the inflation we're seeing now is a good thing why inflation might actually be good for the economy. jain enter,

that is. so someone telling me why you can afford to put food on your table is a good thing. it's, it doesn't contrast well, well it's essentially the same thing and those headlines that some of them have apologize. the office, they have been ridiculed to such an extent that they had to, they had to go back on what they wrote because there is, there is no justifying this. so the refresher we, we are seeing in the united states, right, inflation that is an absolute record in 40 years and 40 years. i mean the, the numbers are absolutely tremendous how much people are using that you'll hear some say this is even worse for bill. there, billionaires, they have no problem affording or buying whatever they want. sure, they made me. they might make in a year 5000000000 dollars instead, instead of $6000000000.00. they, they are feeling the old, seamless as a catastrophe. that the reason that this is all happening will part of the reason

because there is the pandemic. but there is also the printing press on which the united states to, to a greater extent than the european central bank to a lesser extent, quintin trillions, trillions. they ran these for, for so long. they give our people checks, covered checks, and more people used these covered checks for it is a by basic necessities. they, they went for electronics, they went from for luxury things. and what this did is these caused inflation been a supplier. supply chains already disrupt that. there's less things for more people, which means higher prices and people are people have raised prices of people are willing to pay the my not now, but we've said all of this, the only way to combat all of this is to is a for central bank. we, we've all heard, you know, central banks, high rates or whatever, and we'll wait for what the hell that me, what it me is that by way of increasing the interest on all loans,

central banks cool off an economy by making sure there's less money to go around the problem here is that the united states, as now $29.00 trillion dollars in debt, $29.00 trillion dollars in debt. and if they hike rates, they, if they hi, grades long term. so for example, for, for 56 years, the issue will be that they're going to make much more payments, many more payments on the existing debt. so for them it would be like, shooting themselves in the foot. so they're trying to balance the needs of the economy versus the, the outcry from the public them from the people, and try to squeeze by are either pleasing, ultimately, no one. meanwhile, biden's crude words after the press conference calls outreach online, where people, seeing the insult was directed at anyone who's concerned about rising inflation

levels. joe biden may think it stupid to care about inflation. but a whole lot of americans disagree and they are going to vote this november working families are being crushed by this white house and their solution is to curse out anyone who questions them totally out of control. biden's message to americans concerned about inflation. very stupid son of a big is left himself open to more criticism about being a hypocrite about, you know, how we taught for, you know, during the, during the campaign and over the last year about how he was going to be more respectful with reporters. and then he acts this way, i think, frankly, what we saw was frustration, frustration over the fact that his policies have helped lead to this inflation that we're seeing this record inflation frustration over his rhetoric about shutting down the virus meeting up with the reality of the fact that the virus isn't getting shut down frustration over the fact that now he seems to be flirting with a direct conflict with russia. not only is he acting rattled, he's cheery, picking data, and trying to whitewash what's happening. americans are hurting. and i think an

underrated element to all of this is the fact that his energy policy is also contributing to the rising prices of consumer good. you know, at his 1st day in office, you know, he went ahead and revoked the license for the keystone pipeline that drove up and then american energy costs the cost of energy for transportation for creating goods for running factories for everything. i mean, that has a direct correlation to the prices that americans pay in terms of at the retail level. so you combine that with the inflation from all the printing of the money and all the paying them expanding. and we wind up in a very tough situation. yeah, another story. the bring you today, you k police sub launched a formal probe into parties held out the prime minister's residence in apartment, violation of cobit at locked on restrictions. parallel to the results of an

internal government inquiry are expected to be released this week, piling further pressure on bar as johnson. let's cross live now to our tea. shabbier. edwards dash t in london shall be a things to appear to be asked, living now with police involvement. take us through the latest, if you will, from westminster. while what a day it has been in westminster, all kicked off this morning when the metropolitan police chief was asked directly whether or not the police were covering up for those in power. while she hit back saying, and launching an official investigation into all of the downing street party allegations as a result, firstly of the information provided by the cabinet office inquiry team. and secondly, my offices own assessment. i can confirm that the matt is now investigating a number of events that took place at downing street and watch hole in the last 2

years in relation to potential breaches of covet 19 regulations. well, this is a huge move from the metropolitan pace we've always heard from them that they don't normally investigate retrospectively. so many people are saying this really does go to show that there must be significant evidence to at least show an element of criminality here. but the prime minister for is johnson, he actually welcomes this investigation and he says, this is an opportunity that will help draw a line under all of these issues and allegations and that finally the government. once all of this investigation comes in, i can finally move on. but that's pretty bold words coming from the prime minister, a man whom many people and politicians think his time is up much more or less embarrassing. sup, just calling a move of mind from office government, a success,

the prime minister or 40 is in tatters. really, he advised his boss to do the right thing in the national interest, and to resign. as a prime minister, not simply compounding his previous terrible mistakes by continuing to deny culpability leading to on necessary and expensive police inquiry when he could do the decent thing and reside well this week we were indeed expecting to see to graze investigation as the independent investigation into all of these downing street party allegations, but in light of the metropolitan police investigation, some people thought that would be kicked into the long grass, but throughout the day, the metropolitan police has announce is happy to see, to graze investigation and have findings. and actually they really want to see it quite soon. and so it's really a matter of time till we cease to graze findings. we do know it's almost ready. so it's

a very sketchy time for bar. as johnson downing street has said today that the prime minister does not believe he broke the law, of course, quite reminiscent of last week's comments. when boris johnson said he didn't know he was going to a party, he actually thought it was a work event. and then the latest birthday party allegation that surface over the last 24 hours is being played down by some saying it was just a bit of cake during the working day, although allegedly 30 people were indoors at the same time when the rules at the time only permitted to, needless to say, it's a very difficult time for boys johnson and the government. but what is clear now is that the prime minister would possibly be interviewed by the police himself. he could even see a fine, a fixed penalty notice and sama even saying he could be interviewed under caution. now that would be absolutely huge. we will wait to see how the police investigation

or pans out it could take weeks. so all i go back to that su, gray investigation have findings that really could come within the minute it could happen at any point in time. but politically speaking, then putting those investigations to the side. some politicians from the opposition . yes. as far as johnson's time is up, it's time for him to go. but it's the tory voices that would be the loudest. a few of them in recent days of put that has the off the power pet, but it would really need a lot more today. it feels like members of parliament have somewhat been quiet that kind of looking to see how this will go and then thinking about vocalizing reaction to it. so it does really feel like it's a waiting game. but we have heard from some politicians in this particular quote, stood out for to me from a tory m p. he said, it's another now in the coffin for forest johnson who's almost lying in that coffin, all ready? yeah, an anxious we had for the pm, as you say,

it could be this week that's to grade reports. thanks very much art. see shown the at risk dusty in london, the director of the u. k. center for migration and economic prosperity. stephen wolf believes the police investigation is a tipping point in the part of gates campbell. this is a critical part of the campaign for those who have been seeking to oust horace johnson as the prime minister of the united kingdom is very clear that has been a strategy of leaks and other stories to damage his credibility and to ensure that he feels on the pressure consistently, so an apology has not seem good enough and the brand is damaged. and so there is a feeling with the new piece on the old hand that by protecting the conservative party requires the removal of forest johnson. and that is why they are now leaking more information. there is so much going on there. now that i think more

revelations about to come ok, let's get through some big figures here. tech giant spent a record amount on lobbying in 2021 and i was according to filing submitted to congress. the top 7 firms spent a combined $70000000.00 while finding legislation aimed at limiting their market power. up the top of the list were amazon on facebook, now known as mehta. they spends around $20000000.00 each persuading law makers not to adopt tough new regulations. and in the process, they used dozens of intermediate tree firms deploying professional lobbyist with close ties to members of congress and biden administration officials. but not all of those efforts have succeeded. last thursday, the u. s. senate judiciary approved the bill preventing tech giants from giving preference to their own businesses on their website. although the innovation choice

online act has to pass a full senate vote now to become law, it's actually unclear whether that is going to happen. well, i'm glad to welcome on to the program benz one benz and investigative reporter and host of been bust on our see ben tech giants. they're trying to resist congressional efforts to crit til at their power. i think that's perhaps the best description. do you think these lobbying efforts will achieve that goal? i think they very well could remember there are about 5 different laws that have been suggested in terms of being able to rein in these tech companies. because obviously when we say tech company, we're talking about a whole host of companies with different services, different products, and they're designed in different ways. in this particular case, this, this freedom of choice act essentially what it's saying is if you're amazon, you can create your own product on your own marketplace and then compete directly

with the other sellers who are on there. especially since amazon is constantly deriving information and data from those sellers. so they're essentially utilizing someone else's research, someone else's market position, someone else's understanding of price points to basically copy all of that and then compete directly. i think that bill of all the bills has gone forward, has the best chance of becoming law. because again, i think it making that argument is an easy argument to make. but if that one does become law, do the others, i think the others have a much more difficult road ahead of understood. yeah. a facebook, whistler, i think was francis hogan was her name last year said congress has done zilch at to make big tech more transparent because those firms are quote, throwing a bunch of money around this time. how much political power do they now have? well, i think it's increasing political power. you know, you mentioned some of the numbers here at the top,

amazon yet spending 20000000 dollars last year in lobbying efforts, meta, another $20000000.00. those are record numbers on top of the record set the previous year. by the way, google, it cut, runs more around 10000000. but the point is, it's a lot of money, but as an increasing amount of money, and that i think is what it really is the point here for a lot of years, companies like facebook and amazon and twitter and google didn't have to spend a lot of money to lobby lawmakers because they were essentially left alone. so you could throw a little money here and there in key positions. i don't think what we're seeing now is a much wider swath of congress, receiving donations and receiving money from those tech companies because they recognize where they really have to do as muddy the waters. you don't want one party to be on your side because when the other party gets into power, then you have problems. instead, you wanna as white have a swath of both democrats and republicans in order to influence them. and then you can't really get legislation passed. you can't get it in front of committees and you can't get the votes that you need because as you know, we have

a very divided congress here. so if you play that game, which is what i think that these companies are playing them, you have an increased ability really to create more kind of muck up the system. muck up the works. so that bills don't become long. yeah, that's the critical point is not knowing where that line is and whether or not they're going across it. because if i put it into layman's terms, if an ordinary citizen tried to buy that much influence for their own gain, it might be considered bribery. how much of a difference is there in reality, between lobbying and bribery? i think there is very, very little difference, especially when you consider the fact that not only do these lawmakers receive money directly from these companies in order to push their agendas. many of the lobbying firms that do this, this bidding also right. the bills that go before congress, many lawmakers don't write the bills themselves. it's a lobbyist on behalf of those companies that write the bills that ultimately become

law. would you dictate the laws that govern and regulate the companies if that makes sense? so it's such a backward system that you've created here in this country where there is very little accountability and very little ability for the average person to actually have a representative. that's what we're supposed to have in this democratic republic representatives who stand up for our interest, not the interests of these companies. and in the other point of this is we have an ongoing debate right now about the fact that law makers are themselves trading stocks in many of these companies are called things stocks, right? facebook, apple, netflix, google, these companies that are the most highly traded and most profitable companies in the world will many of these lawmakers are buying stocks actively in these companies. therefore, they wouldn't want to do anything that would hurt their own personal investments in those companies as well. so that becomes another entirely thorny issue. just to find a lot on the number's been if i spoke to an amazon or met,

say executive and unplugged to them that $70000000.00 huge number at for lobbying them. i pushed back at me and say, well, hold on, oil companies spent more. i run 90000000 last year on this is just the at the scope of the business, the world that we live in today. what would you, what would you say to that? i would agree, i think that is the scope of business in washington dc. as i said, the numbers continue to get higher and we're going to see them continue to grow year over year. because of the fact that now these tech companies are coming into the cross hairs of those politicians. but i would again submit that an even bigger problem than the lobbying is the ability of law makers to own a financial stake in the companies for which they are passing laws and rules. because as long as that is in place, you will not see substantial change in this country because he would ultimately hurt the stock price of those companies that lawmakers own. benson investigate

reporter on host all boom bust on our secret out the on the program. thanks ben. thank you. and it is indeed supposed the brand been bus next as we check in with the crew for all the made us goings all from the business were i'll say close, this is art. ah . bring you the very latest every out the day this is are no fun. everyone had with

her all those german by drink shaped bankers,