indeed, i close the trail. ah, when so many find themselves will depart. we choose to look for common ground. ah, headlines are right now here were naughty international croatia, brakes ranks going against nato's bough to help ukraine against russia saying it will withdraw its troops from the alliance. if a conflict breaks out you k, it's hospital waiting time crisis worsens. during covered, we speak to a mother who lost her son after he was made to wait for over 4 hours. last january, the price of gasoline and manhattan was roughly $2.37. but now, here at the p in midtown manhattan, they want $4.79. most americans say that top concern right now is rising prices.

while the overwhelming majority of small businesses, se spiraling u. s. inflation is damaging them very badly. you have to make concessions to, to fit your budget by drive the car almost every day. the cost, the gas is going up. oh, food nicholas is really going up really quickly, really high with well, your news is already piling up today here at auto international. busy wednesday for all of us here at moscow, it's good to have you with us. so courageous president has said that he will withdraw his country's troops from nato in the event of a russia ukraine conflict. that's ultimately prompted key f to label him as an anti ukranian propagandist. meanwhile, joe biden has reiterated that thousands of nato troops are now on high alert for possible deployment in eastern europe. should russia invade his neighbor ortiz. peter oliver now takes a closer look at a parent dissension among the ranks of nato corporation president zora milan. of

ich, making so many century comments on tuesday. he said that if there is a conflict between ukraine and russia, he would order the croatian troops to pull out of deployments that they're involved in with nato. now this was a statement that's not only unlikely to have gone down particularly well and nato headquarters. it's also unlikely to gone down particularly well in ukraine either because mr. milan of each also went on to say that the 2014 might done revolution in ukraine was a coo. and he said that ukraine had absolutely no business in joining nato. not only will we not send troops, but if there is an escalation, we will withdraw. every last corporation, soldier, everything is happening on moscow's doorsteps. it is necessary for an arrangement to be found that will take into account russia's security interests. i worked in the european council when the democratically elected president young coverage,

a scoundrel who sat on 3 chairs, was overthrown in a cou. it was encouraged primarily by the e. u and the united states. i feel obliged to be proper presence. little present in an easter front was forces i learned. are there part of our nato operation now saw you, us operation. the language was a lot more diplomatic. here in berlin on tuesday as the chancellor all f sholtes welcomed french president emanuel macaroni to discuss further how to calm down how to take the heat out of the tension surrounding russia, nato, and everything to do with ukraine. now, the 2 of them use their press conference to emphasize the importance of continuing dialogue, the french president saying he would never give up on the dialogue. however, he did say that there would be a high cost if there was any aggression, also emphasizing the importance all fit be good to talk with olaf sholtes. but he

did also use his time at the podium to say then to again clarify that germany would not be sending any weaponry to ukraine. also talking about this ongoing situation in europe on tuesday over in london with boris johnson, the british prime minister, he was speaking in westminster to parliament. and he said this essentially diplomacy was the only way that there should be a solution. he said he'd be having further calls further contact with the russian president vladimir burton. and it was important to listen to the concerns that russia had. however, he did say that if there was an invasion of ukraine by russia, they said could well end up being the resulting in the worst bloodshed that had been seen in europe since world war 2. and it wouldn't end well for russia. there is nothing new about large and powerful nations using the threat of brute force to terrify reasonable people into giving way to otherwise completely unacceptable

demands. i think the americans are desperate to try and pressurize a new government to come on board, but it's new cold war against her and against russia. but clearly there are still some in the german government who work at russia and see not as a threat as a potential. i'm sorry, my business partner. we don't wanna meet no great those links. and if the germans don't come on board, what the situation is going to be, it is gonna be a very classic situation of the american stake, annoyed for by the poodles in france and britain, and with other various are eastern european states, rossi, and to help and we are seeing now, america and britain pumping arms pumping its misers into ukraine and making threats, racial sanctions and so on. there's also major military major navy war games underway in the mediterranean. those nato ad drills surrounding me and revolving around the badly american aircraft carrier. the u. s. s. s. harry truman ongoing in

the mediterranean, there was also promises earlier this week from the netherlands, spain, and denmark to send military hardware to the east of the as the nato alliance, the searcher diplomatic solution moved to paris on wednesday and normandy foreman talks will be taking place in the french capital, it's the 1st time that this type of talks have taken place since 2019. what that means is representatives of the russian government, the ukrainian government, the german and the french governments will meet to try and find a solution party host and a former british m p. george galloway believes as a split between european nato members on exactly how to deal with ukraine does a splintering of the european side of the nato alliance. germany has made it plain that it does not support the build off 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, or 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 thermonuclear superpower called russia, so it's all beginning to break apart the law of unintended consequence that they don't hit russia. you know, i made this point year before they put ins. russia, because putin has dragged russia up from the floor where it was lying, having its pocket picked, and restored prestige and respect, self respect to russia. that's not the kind of russia they want. and as our

tensions with the west continue to mount, russia has now announced colossal drills in the atlantic the arctic pacific and the mediterranean. if i got russia northern fleet has already launch wargames in the barren see their forces there are holding their oxen, combat skills. as we understand that exercise will evolve some water and with the credit crisis, ultimately gripping the media outlets are getting a little bit ahead of themselves, cnn labeling, ukrainian territory as russian read more about that confusion right now. what are the dog come for? now? here on the program to the u. k, where hospitals are suffering from an admission waiting times crisis. one case back in october 27 year old norman bako was taken to a and e with chest pains. he died outside the emergency unit waiting to be seen after being told you have to wait before hours. we did speak to his mother. now tommy, and i can't just find, they said they'd bang for a number line,

but they got told it was going to be a chill out. why i was actually told this to sit down, but there was no way to say that people was standing outside normally patch, you know, given a week 9 leave. wow. well, i was not given my whole symptoms and i'm only wasn't able to tell. now need to be told, we have to wait for was a come across to me in a call, wait to drop down in your stop, stay in for another. it's just come to you. that is, you know, not the one that a lot of lunch because of some reports a, the situation is only getting worse with videos having a boat, which a claim for so ambulances are lined up outside hospitals. i waiting to deliver patients that as a new research find that the u. k. national health services struggling to meet the demand for treatment. well, according to the study, more than 40 percent of u. k. hospitals failed to meet the 4 hour waiting time target. so far this year,

6000 patients have had to wait more than 12 hours and a any a patients waiting more than 5 hours are considered out far greater risk of death. okay, says similar to norman bark as are on the rise, as i covered for ordinary service on hold. its 1st year more than $53000.00 had their cancer treatment delayed. and over the same period more than 4000 excess that's were recorded. i, we spoke to i joined the grover and emergency medicine consultant about the situation last 6 to 8 months. so within the united kingdom, as in many other countries, i'm sure there has been around 10 to 20 percent. oh, hospital and see that it did only 2 cubic patients, which has meant that it is no slow processing of patients, less availability of this for people who come in with problems included. which then leads people are spending much longer in the emergency augments before they can go

to the hospital. so that is a problem. if you look at the end, it is in a data last to last year and they were about 80 to 90 percent of patients who came to the emergency. hotman's did less than 4 hours on the last 6 to 8 months, not dropped significantly from 90 percent to 65 to 70 percent. so that's a significant problem. the only difference is ottomans in the united kingdom office . and you survey shows small businesses and the usaa being crushed under the weight of spiraling inflation, despite upbeat messages from president biden on the issue of an overwhelming majority of entrepreneurs. say that financial health is deteriorated. in the last 6 months households also having to tighten a belt as well, reporting from new york caleb hoffman. as the saying goes, a dollar ain't a dollar anymore, an american families are being squeezed by inflation. there has been

a 7 percent increase and consumer prices over the past year. that's the fastest increase that we've seen since 982 joe biden has promised that he is going to fight these increasing costs of pretty much everything. and he has already found someone to blame for the crisis. so bottom line, this isn't just about quick winds. it's about reversing decades of concentration of her workers, consumers, and small businesses. it didn't happen any one time. it's been over a period of time now a long time. the average cost of bread in new york state and 2021 was $0.88 here and a popular supermarket in manhattan. there's bread for sale for roughly $3.48 or $4.27. now, prices in manhattan are locked deeper even in good time. that's a pretty significant increase in cost for the consumer. i food thickly thumb is really going up really quickly, really high. and the fruit check, we got

a phone going up with the lawn. just a regular trip to the supermarket, as it is becoming a, becoming more difficult. you have to, you have to make concessions to, to fit your budget, to, to buy the essential things through a feeder family's got 3 kids in the cost, the food is going up. i drive the car almost every day, the cost, the gas is going up. i don't think there was anything last january, the price of gasoline and manhattan was roughly $2.37. but now, here it be p in midtown manhattan. they won $4.79 per gallon to fill up your tank. if i could get this under control, a lot of people would breathe a huge sigh of relief. but judging from the way he reacted to a reporter's question, not inflation. that is not likely anytime soon, a more inflation. the super, some new survey shows that 76 percent of small firms in the united states have felt

the negative impact of inflation over the past 6 months. there's nothing natural about it is the result of political decisions. and the result has been vast borrowing of money to speculate in the stock market. it and some of that money has now fallen over into the rest of the economy. and so we have an inflation mostly because businesses have wanted to offset profits last in 2020, and the 1st half of 2021 by raising their prices. now it is a profit driven decision not to be clear. it's not like biding did all of this personally, this is a result of supply chain issues and a sudden increase in demand as we come out of the pandemic and lot downs. and some of the i n f are warning that it's not over yet, and it might actually get worse. the emergence of new coven 19 variants,

could prolong the pandemic and induce renewed economic disruptions. moreover, supply chain disruptions, energy price volatility and localized wage. precious mean uncertainty around inflation and policy policies, high serious public health disaster. colvin and an economic crash on a scale with the great depression of the 19 thirty's to have these 2 things at the same time was excruciating. and now at the end of those 2 years to have the added to it on inflation currently rising 7 percent per year. when workers, wages on average are rising between 3 and 5 percent per year means that the working class is now hurt by the new 2022 already in the 1st month. yes, this is going to be a very rocky

a year and the stock market vibrations this last week or more evidence. now in 1971, u. s. president richard nixon imposed a 90 day price free is to curve inflation. now, economists are debating what the results would be. biden was so bold and how that would affect the economy. but regardless, so far, jo, biden's protest has to tackle the problem of inflation or just words. prices are still rising. caleb martin r t new york tech giant spent a record amount on lobbying and 2021. this, according to filing submitted to congress, are the top 70 firms spend a combined 70000000 dollars fighting legislation aimed at limiting their market power at the top of the list to amazon on facebook now known as mehta. and i spend around $20000000.00 each persuading lawmakers not to adopt tough new regulations.

and in the process, they use dozens of intermediary firms deploying professional lobbyists with close ties to members of congress. and of course, the biden administration as well. but not all of those efforts have succeeded. last thursday, the u. s. senate judiciary approved a bill preventing tech giant from giving preferences to their own businesses on their websites at the innovation and choice online act as is known, still has to pass a full senate vote to become law. we did speak with ben swan host of our business show boom bust. remember, there are about 5 different laws that have been suggested in terms of being able to rein in these tech companies. in this particular case, this, this freedom of choice app, 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 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 what 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 of 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. 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 law makers don't write the bills themselves. it's a lobbyist on behalf of those companies that write the bills that ultimately become law would 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. oh, i'd roughly half way to the show here in asi,

international phil to come. if you love italian food, i'm afraid i've got no good news for ya. energy prices in coven restrictions are proving a bad mix of ingredients for italian restaurant owners. many now employees to go bust a story and much more as 20 minutes past the hour. we are back in just a 2nd. ah ah, join me every thursday on the alex salmon show and i'll be speaking to guess in the world politics sport, business. i'm show business. i'll see you then. mm. oh seemed wrong when oh please. just don't move any world. yes, to see proud disdain,

because of the answer to an engagement. it was the trail. when so many find themselves worlds apart, we choose to look so common ground. now we know you do this is he is a sphere. is your fast, you're far off the end and up until the side already came home and you're back home . so i would like to envision that, you know, does it actually address if you live in? it's just like that your one direction to i'm from the other side of you to join us today for this program live from moscow. italian restaurants are struggling to make ends meet as record energy bills, compound the impact of the cobit crisis, many fair. they have got no choice but to shut their shops unless you don't see the

situation is not sustainable. so raising the law, we compare the bill of about $1500.00 euro hot in turns 19, you know, the last 2 months i how cost triple november. i went up fivefold in december. how late to spill is the 5300 euro, which is the price which we just can't afford at the moment when a 5 fold increase is ordering the death the business, the on that key because we're seen fewer people go to restaurants since coby cancellations. have been rife and the future is uncertain with the next few months look in particular. so, and i will say we're not going through a good time with all these restrictions that we are getting, penalize the future for business is also at risk. and due to an increase in electricity and gas coves, it is given as a big problem pick on the noise. they want to see i to get some perspective, i hear a some electricity bill costs. so one restaurant to us shared with us you can see right here there's a raw, the big jump from november to december last year. although the amount of electricity use was roughly the same competitive october 2019. the bills have more than tripled over those feeling the pin showed the italian government has set up

a public pot of 5 and a half 1000000000 euros to offset some of the burden for households and businesses that we spoke to. italians who said that help is really made very little different so far. classy what i meant there. hey, it's a dramatic situation with many companies on the brink of closing and others already closed. the government aid has also not arrived and if it doesn't arrive, there will be chaos unloading hey, or if we continue like this, i don't know where we will end up on the economy is collapsing, that it would be a serious blow for all of us to effort different their own. this bill increases an attack on families and businesses that don't term much of the low income coupled with the cost of these bills will force them to lay off work. haskell in mississippi though he's right. so now if i'm situation is true, a dramatic, i received a very high bill and in a family we're only one person workers, but it's really hard to get to the end of the month. the dutch government is calling for the european court of human rights to ignore russia's objections in the

trial of the mh 17 tragedy. the court is currently here and complaints against moscow lodged by ukraine and the netherlands. russia, though, is seeking to get the case dismissed as ours is donald quarter, now explains. the european court of human rights is now considering a complaint lodged by ukraine and the netherlands against russia. in connection to the downing of malaysian airlines flight made 17. but russia's representative to the court says that this complaint should actually be completely disregarded. he also says that the higgs belief that moscow has not been cooperative throughout this investigation is just nonsense. let's take a listen to what he said. unfortunately, the dutch authorities are clearly misleading the court by saying that the requests were left and answered by the russian authorities. 29 requests for legal assistance from the netherlands have been received so far and 28 of them have been answered. now just to remind our viewers, mh 17 was on its way to qualon poor from amsterdam when it was shot down over done

yes, this was shortly after the conflict in ukraine broke out in 2014. unfortunately, none of the nearly 300 passengers on board survived, and kiev was close, was quick to blame this, this tragedy on the militants in the breakaway region. the kiev said that they were using actually, russian provided equipment to shoot down this plane. this is something that moscow denies, and the millet and the militants, the mill, the militia from the self proclaimed people's republic of done, yet also said that they didn't have the equipment that would make it possible to shoot down a plane at that distance. a number of theories have floated around since then one, including even the possibility that perhaps ukrainian jets fired on that passenger plane and shot it down. now, the court process surrounding this tragedy has been going on since 2020. and since then, ukraine has still refused to provide any radar data connected to the event. washington has yet to provide the satellite images that it says capture the exact time of

launch of the rocket that hit the plane. but this court process is still going on, were set later in this specific meeting to see a representative from though of those who lost their family members in that tragedy . so it'll be interesting to see how the core process plays out. returning to our top story right now, here we're not see him at all the tensions over ukraine, including us threats of fresh sanctions, for example, limiting moscow's ability to buy foreign currency. a russian foreign minister says a, his country is now reducing his dependence on the u. s. dollar and fight that has been now for quite some time with 3 mutual. secular, should lucian, mr. we strive to reduce dependence on the dollar. and the americans are actively helping us unless because they are doing everything possible to undermine confidence in this currency and make it risky in general for international settlements. we are doing everything possible to stimulate the transition, to settlements in national currencies and our sharpie,

reducing our foreign exchange reserves, closures i political analysts, dimitri babich, are joining us here. live on our tea international. good to see you to say to today . dmitri love rougher just speaking now about reducing dependence on the u. s. dollar. well, they've been talking about that for quite some time as you well know, but for now though, is comments today, do you think it's a, a reactionary measure to the current tensions over ukraine? i think a big step is the reaction by day. in fact, you are right, russia has been reduced and is depend of on the us dollar. and on the us treasury bills, you know that before 2014, a lot of our assets were held in us treasury bills simply because they were considered to be reliable. and that was the policy over the fall, finance minister, lexi goodman, and liberal. now, you know, during the last 7 years, president kept talking with his partners in china, in india,

in the framework of brakes. how do, how can we reduce dependence on the us currency, because threats against both russia and china. we're doing all of these years basically. so can i jump in? probably just say i'm really sort of jump in and go central time. but i wanted to mention because apparently one sanction western professional partners are apparently considering imposing against russia would be a restriction on russia's ability to purchase. foreign currency is that possible and how could that affect russia? well, everyone knows that the night, the states for some reason considers all concessions in us currency. as somehow with the united states. it tries to impose sanctions on the people with that they don't blame which, which makes transactions in dollars. let me remind you of that. iraq, was that shortly after saddam hussein switched from door in here,

you know, all sales. you're starting to get money for that in euros, and just if you want, later on, iraq was born. in fact, everyone in europe is very concerned because most of the russian banks had, they were not with american bank, but when you repeat banks and now the europeans are asking, that is public. they're asking now to state to somehow soften the measures possible matters against russia. so that european banks now to me, when i was, i wanted to pick you up. if i may, i'm so sorry to jump in again. but, you know, for example, we talk about the dumping of dollars by russia. putin, as you said, has been doing this for years now. put in said russia has no choice. russia has no choice when the dollar has become weaponized unsanctioned to delay. but then you have no choice but to diversify and find other currencies to work into russia, solver, and well fund as you well know,

was it last year it dumped all of it's us dollars? absolutely. billions of us dollars. again, put in saying, we have no choice. meantime, people, countries like russia and china, a buying lots of gold, i guess, as a potential, a hedge against the geopolitical state and crisis in the world right now, but also other european countries. poland, for example, very quietly, is stockpiling gold as well. are you seeing perhaps a possible trend of other countries as well moving towards diverse vacation to more reliable financial assets? well, gold is usually considered a safe asset in the periods of instability. but also let me remind you of that the huge plants which president biden has for no change in the infrastructure in the united states. the huge investments which are which are expected and.