has been man so many good people are helping us. it makes us feel very proud that we are in it together with a top stories right now for the headlines when arthur international, western media abandoning the principles of leaving politics out of sport with some surprising war mongering comment tree during the opening ceremony of the beijing winter, olympic, russia and china jointly, coal on western powers, to stop expanding nato, saying the alliance is continued eastward push is creating tensions reminiscent of the cold war. will you just come out and say this, and they expect us to believe it? without you showing a shred of evidence that it's actually true, the u. s. and the state department spokesperson is a grilled by journalists for failing to show any evidence for u. s. claim that

a rupture is preparing a false flag attack as a pretext to invade ukraine. and in the u. k. household electricity bills are about to sol by more than 50 percent off to the regulator lifts up price gap, potentially plunging millions of people into fuel poverty with choosing between the feeding myself and my family or heating it. this is another increase, this another bird in governments and with all right, just after 5 pm in moscow. now, and as most people are heading home with cranking up your top stories with this, our live or nazi international. so lavish opening ceremony has just drawn to a close in beijing, but that of the 2022 winter olympics, rather than celebrating a global sporting event. certain western commentators seem to have

a well war and politics on their minds. let's learn more right now with aussie saskia taylor joining us in the studio. now. saskia, you know, sports and politics are supposed to be entirely separate entities, but it's not exactly what we're seeing right now in beijing. is it? well, exactly, if you some things were beyond politicization, you would be wrong. dia winter olympic games have officially kicked off in beijing . and so far, really, they've been a sight to behold. we've seen some bold, colorful, dramatic performances, which of course matches the mood. this is after all, a celebration of sport, and there was so much to talk about. we got a $109.00 event $91.00 competing countries, almost $3000.00 athletes participating. you won't hear much of that though in the mainstream media in the west. what you will hear instead is the drum beat of roar. it seems that media pundits have just not been able to help themselves when it comes to commenting on the presence of vladimir putin in beijing. so as the smiling

athletes knew, the pride of their nations were parading across in the opening ceremony, commentators were talking war, russian aggression, troops, guns, sanctions. i want to hear just a little glimpse, a taste of what nbc said. russia has a mass more than a 100000 troops on 3 sides of ukraine. u. s. officials have written severe sanctions in russia. makes a move. well, this is not an exception. i've been falling through websites and course looking at social media. i found, for example, of photo of putin as she ging paying shaking hands with a joke. underneath that, the chinese president was asking is washing counterpart to hold off on any invasion until after the figure skating? the daily mail also seems to think that president putin's diplomacy involves taking a nap while the ukranian athletes when making their way across the stage. so it seems they are not even allowed to blink anymore. and if it's not the media making these kinds of jobs, normally i pick up this crisis in ukraine than they are lashing out asian,

they pulled at the genocide games. they've talked about the countries, human rights record, and if they really talk, they've criticized disinfecting robots that you fuel over the city and hotels of dystopian. so it seems that you call when i the way you try and fight code that you are lose could lose a to the point is, is there is a time and a place to talk politics. but the olympic games just isn't one of them. it's an astonishing feet. you know, it brings together an effective way. an astonishing number of, of people all over the world, not just yankees, but people who view as well. so millions of people and what, what's going on seems to be, i mean, a cynical appropriation to jam packed the waves with as much of this political angle as they want. which of nothing else seems pretty distress disrespectful to those sportsmen who have spent their lives dedicating themselves to preparing for this moment. but it seems in eyes of the western media, any opportunity is a good opportunity to criticize the stabled russian aggression aggressor and talk

about an invasion, which isn't that sounds good taylor. thank you. well, the russian president vladimir putin and his chinese counterpart have together urge nato to stop its expansion, or they want a failure to do so we'll just aggravated cold, warm and how that he was standing by engaging with the latest as our correspondent equals down. well, a friendly and cordial outcome from the meeting between the russian president vladimir putin and his chinese counterpart teaching thing was kinda expected. but to find out that the to lead is the i to, i own so many things on so many topics and with the ones i was somewhat remarkable, i should say. and again, the key outtake here is that china agrees that nato should stop expanding the party as opposed the further expansion of nato and call for the north atlantic alliance to refrain from ideological approaches from the time of the cold war. we originate,

owe to respect sovereignty security and to deal with the peaceful development of other governments objectively in fairway. the jing has also revealed that it shares most closely sons, and that it supports most of demands will some actual guarantees from the military alliance over security that would be put on facebook in turn. russia has said that as we treated it's dedication to the principle that china is one nation, and that taiwan is an integral part who china and any sort of independence for the island is absolutely out of the question. also the 2 nations rush in china have called worrisome the formation of a trilateral pact between the u. s. the u. k. and australia called all cars. and just a quick reminder for you basically its main purpose. is it for the u. s. and the u . k. to help australia to bolster its capability, including in the nucleus, fear. so both nations, russia and china have called this worrisome and that it is undermining regional and

indeed global security. but it wasn't just politics that was on the table. business was discussed as well. brushes, energy, john gas prone, has signed a deal according to which it will ship a $100000000.00 metric tons of gas to china through catholics don't go again. the big development russian energy companies are already seeing a rise in their stock prices following this piece of new. but again, the initial meeting between the 2 leaders. it didn't, it didn't last long. and after that, i'm approved and then changing thing, they left the entourage behind and they proceeded to have pets. i said to just the 2 of them over lunch and what is yet to come. let them said to witness the opening ceremony of the winter olympic games after all, officially, this is why he's here. this is why he's in the chinese capital are, are crossing live out benjamin child, professor of asia, programs of the parish school of business. great to see you today. thanks so much

for joining us on the program. the last time you and i spoke, you said china is neutral on ukraine, but now we have this statement, beijing making a joint statement with moscow against nato expansion. so my question to you is, is china still neutral on this issue? well, it's true today. china has supported russia in cause for nature to stop expansionist . it seems reasonable to interpret china as saying, please nato, leave your criminal and do not force russia to react with military actions to maintain your political political balance in debt region. the chinese know that ukraine to russia is low taiwan to china. russia now supports the one china principal, i think in the same way china, we also support russia interest in ukraine. now i saw a corresponding was just explaining that there's already some highly politicized commentary coming from some broadcast is typically in the west on the beijing

window games, or some of them talking about russian aggression, chinese human rights violations, and so on and so forth. did you think politics and or especially with the olympics should be kept separate or is it ok to to blend them together? why is clear india olympics charter? that politics should be our sports now literally outside my window. i just heard fireworks, you know? and she is celebrating the window olympics from people all over the world in front they live. we see a lot of technology is put into place to protect the safety of the athletes. but these are not being reported in the west. so we can imagine how much of what kind of picture can be painted by the, with a bow, how 10 se situation in ukraine. so i think i would leave it to the audience to think about what can be said, what,

how much truth in the us propaganda on the reach your politics, india, ukraine region. let's talk about some of the reaction if you would, coming out of washington right now. where the u. s. is warning chinese firms against helping russia against possible sanctions over ukraine. but if chinese companies did step into help, is there anything washington could do to stop them? well, the, i don't know, we nurse, in many of the us engines already be putting in place. people spend more money with choices of products and more people die independent to get their strongest nations do not work together for the common good of the world. infective us has failed miserably in trade with china, china's tre surface has rising to a historic height achieved ever by any countries in history last year. and we've recently price chinese goods that inflation in us has rich new height in decades. so there are less and less more the u. s. can make if the u. s. is now not as cheap

in goods sporting ship, but no, the u. s. has fell. many of the computers are promised support overnight for whatever countries, not all the court interests of the us. so i think we need good sportsmanship back into international nations professor child let's. let's get back to ukraine just for a moment here, because we know how is europe going to view a joint statement from china and russia, essentially taking a united front against nato? is it possible e u countries might perhaps think twice, but escalating any, any confrontation in the east ukraine? what they are a long history between russia and euro b o understand. and it is not new that the u. s. wants to and so co, russia and but, but she's so strong in a tree. so do you need some help from europe to help? and so russia, especially to us attorney, is now urgently needing to compensate the losing inference in the middle is exemplified by the withdrawal, the trips in

a county us with more inference in eastern europe. so this pushes this, russia and china even want to get a lot, a lot of the european countries, the actually, they don't care how much david us can influence the world any more then. yeah, and they are no longer is the strongest powers. the most of the citizens want their lives in troop. they want to work if countries, especially china, to improve de economy. i think this will surely be a very important way to goal for the next few years. as the situation develops, benjamin child, professor for asia programs at the powers school of business. joining us live on the international. appreciate your time and your commentary. thank you. well, president, her gigi and pink was just declared the beijing winter olympics open after a ceremony walked by millions worldwide. but there is sadly plenty of controversy

bubbling beneath the surface. several countries refused to send diplomats to the event, with some even accusing china of spying on their athletes, alexia, chefs, you know, reports from the host city. for decades, the international, limbic committee claimed that sports has nothing to do with politics and all the games, all the olympic games are absolutely free of politics, but in the case of aging 2022 games, it seems like it's a 3 way abas, where politics, sports and cove it come into one now of course we know about the political boy called several states and not willing to send their leadership into the opening ceremony of the beijing winter, 2022 games. those the countries include, of course, the united states, also canada, u. k. and australia jumped in now in the latest news. also denmark and the netherlands refused to send their diplomats to attend the opening ceremony. and

even the athletes who are going, getting bombarded by the press not to use their phones not to open their mouths and be extremely wary off the fact that they will probably be surveilled upon by the chinese government and summer. even taking a step to 5 bill, any george soros, even come pad seating, been the leader of china, 2 adult hitler saying that these games are a good chance for him to use his strict control propaganda. just like out of hitler did in 1936 olympics just before the start of the 2nd world war. and let's of course, not forget the issue of russia, the spirit dissipation in these games. russia is not allowed to fly its flag because of the water decision at several years back. in fact, 2022 is the last year that russia can perform at international competitions under a different name on the different flag in this case. just like in tokyo, it will be r o c. and one of the prominent wind to athletes of russia,

history figure skating olympic champion. let's say you're good in launched an online petition saying that enough is enough that athletes already suffered enough and that the country should be allowed to fly its flag and thing its national anthem in the olympics. the petition has already been signed by more than 40000 people anti cove. it messes, of course, have been restricted the chinese capital. but sol, horrible walk. especially compared to the arrival when at the airport. the tests were really, really difficult to take, but now every day i leave the hotel i have to take a p c r test. and i'm going to show you just exactly how easy it is to make hello supposed to have to. brent is mine station and out time for some fun sitting in

a booth and doing my p. c. r test. now. that's it. very simple. and pretty much every half hour. this little chap here is traversing across the hotel space, disinfecting the air. everything is pretty much automated here in beijing. ah, of course i'll be keeping track of everything happening here in beijing for you. alexey rush, husky, r t, reporting from the olympic capital of went to 22 games. beijing and china electron is cov, at measures of apparently affected one russian by athlete. she complained about health problems due to the quality of food given to her in a quarantine hotel. that's where she ended up after testing coping positive on

arrival in china. we spoke to alexia gooden at the 2002 olympic figure skating champion, and now a commentator at the beijing games. i honestly don't mind about masks, i don't mind about the quarantine. of course, it's a pity for the athletes, but in my opinion, it's better this way than there being no competition at all. as a former athletes and the person who understands what athletes go through, i would be happy to wear space suit if i had to in order to compete. i would take any tests in the nose, mouth ear, wherever. as long as this sports festival takes place, it seems to me that athletes don't really notice all these tests bubbles and so on, because it's part of their daily routine to train and perform. the main thing is to be safe. you can watch, or the full interview with alexia, good in on alexia shasky into social media. so, russia is accusing washington of making things up again,

as after the u. s. alleged, there would be a false flag operation in ukraine to create a pretext for an invasion. the lack of evidence for the latest claim has certainly left some journalists just a bit confused. what is the evidence that you have that suggested that the russians are even planning this man? i'm not saying that they're not, but you just come out and say this and expect us to still do to believe it. without you showing a shred of evidence that it's actually true other them, when i ask, or what anyone else us, what the information you said, well i just gave it to you, which was just you making a statement. we do so we declassify information only when we're competent in that information. if you doubt, if you doubt the credibility of u. s. government, of the british government, of other governments and wanna you know, find solace and information that the russians are putting out. that is i, that is for you to do. we are not surprised by the new creative scenario outlined by the press secretaries of the u. s. department of state on the u. s. department

of defense on february, the 3rd about russia's alleged preparation of an operation under false flog against ukraine. this is typical of united states. the international community remembers the forgeries, the u. s. use for their military interventions around the world, including the well known file of colin powell. well, we now have us intelligence officials who are coming forward and saying that russia is planning to develop a propaganda video. now the state department spokesperson was pressed on this specific evidence supporting the video claims on ned price said that once the white house is sure this information is accurate, then they will disclose what evidence they have. now, there has been a barrage of headlines and accusations from western leaders against russia over the last several weeks. and russia has responded with com to many of these allegations . now at this point, we've got kremlin spokesperson dmitri past gob who has pointed out that there had

just been so many claims over the last few weeks. and most of them, and all of them really have not added up to anything, were turned into anything that could be proven. ukraine now says the situation along the border with its break away, eastern regions is not as tense as its being portrayed. the president, even though urging the media to dial down the panic, we spoke with investigative journalist, david lindell. he gave us his take on washington's claim of a russian false flag attack pending in ukraine. i had to laugh when the uh, the, the spokesman was saying, you know, when we released these intelligence things, we're always, we always wait till we're sure. they've released a lot of stuff over the years. and in recent years and months that's been brazenly untrue. and, and including, you know, during the attempted counter, coos against them, maduro government in venice. well, it poignantly false from the u. s. intelligence agencies. so for them to say that

is just laughable. meanwhile, the u. s. government says it does not believe, let me put and has decided whether or not to go to war. the white house on the state department is starting to qualify their language off to previously insisting an invasion of ukraine was, quote, imminent. putin has a lot of options available to him if he wants to further invade ukraine, and he can execute some of those options, eminently when we said it was eminent, it remains imminent. but again, we can't make a prediction of what decision president will make. we said he could invade at any time. that's true. we still don't know that he's made a decision or not describing it. i haven't. and over a week the white house we did not use the word imminent in terms of invasion. is that perspective changeable? so i, i think there's been some confusion around this because we've always been consistent that in so far as we know, vladimir putin has not made

a final decision. so until and unless he makes a final decision to invade, this will not be imminent. one of the major reasons is that jen, saki has had to walk back the word imminent regarding a possible rush. they claimed russian military invasion of ukraine. so lensky was, i had a press conference at and said that this was counter productive to the interest of ukraine. it wasn't about to happen. and so i think that the us and the white house looked completely deranged and out of place. and this kind of, this kind of disconnect between the us and its allies, makes for the rest of the world to ship back and, and dos everything that the us is doing. and it makes us look more and more adventurous and reckless energy bills for british households are about to.

so by an average of $700.00 pounds a year, it's off, the national regulator lifted a price cap. it has raised the specter of mass fuel property at a time when energy firms are cashing in on near record fuel prices. a shot it was dr. picks out the story. if the eating or hating die, lemme move fast enough people in britain and not worry, they might not be able to do either. that says the energy price capital rise by 54 percent in april to just shy of 2000 pounds cores. it worries me because, you know, as a worker and governance worker, we don't have enough salary. and if this is another increase, there's another burden to, you know, to comply with the payments for the energy. we're paying too much for our energy, in particular, on the, on the red line and poverty. you know,

i can't imagine me like here is choosing between feeding myself or my family or heating and keeping warm tens of millions of households will face paying 693 pounds more making bills almost double what they were just a year ago. the changes will have a chilling effect on people's finances, so the government has unveiled a support package. what we can do is take the sting out of a significant points shop for millions of families by making sure that increase in prices is smaller initially, and spread over a longer period without government intention. the increase in the price tap would leave the average household having to find an extra $693.00 pounds. the accident i'm announcing today will provide to the vast majority of household just over half of that amount. as we come out of koby to be face a real cost of living, crunch,

particularly in energy. and the government has to help people. so what richie has announced is a 9000000000 pound package to help people with the cost of their energy. and then $27000000.00 households will benefit from a council tax rebate with $150.00 pounds and then a $200.00 pound loan on top of that. and while that may sound re simple, it's actually somewhat limited to next dog and includes a discount on pills, wealth $200.00 pounds, only. it's not a freebie, it will have to be repaid and 40 pounds installments is obviously not enough in the bill is going up by more than $200.00 pounds. so it's going to make some difference . but unless they find other mechanisms to helping those people on benefits and very low income's, most people are going to find it hard as a proportion of a low income, much, much bigger than it is to somebody on hiring. none, not sufficient needs to be at least $1.00 to $5.00, to $6.00 to the regulators. calculation is based on soaring gas prices due to

a high global demand. but brits, the paying for it only cat this u. k. gas exports have doubled in a year. information on natural gas exports was tucked away in government files indicating sales of british gas. so from the north sea and oversee, have increased twice compared to the year before. and what small it's shipped off to foreign buyers willing to pay more. it will probably come as a surprise to many people that when gas as i watering li, expensive gas exports from britain to the continent have been unusually high. the reason is very simple. the gas doesn't belong to britain or the british people, even if brits are in dire need. actually the energy cap announcement came on the same day as shell was celebrating, a 14 fold rise and profit a mix soaring prices for gas with shareholders, lining up for a bumper payday. 2021 was a mom man this year for shell. while the energy price kept may lead you to believe

there's some sort of deficit. actually, the market is so lucrative that the government hasn't waited a moment for yet another oil feel to be approved. and given the not so green light, just 2 months after cop 26, by the way. mean all the energy companies don't even have to pay a winful tax. so the price caps, or $693.00 pounds, for dual fuel homes to 1971 pounds, making energy, and affordable to millions. why the hell is it the government considering the windfall tax on runaway north c profits? he's not asking the oil and gas companies who are making the most of all this to be a single penny towards this needs to be addressed and the governments with through citizens is so much harder to unfold. i think when companies are given the choice of making money, they gave it to that. well, it seems like 4 still says fullness. that gas bills would be cheaper,

post wrecks. it was just smoke and mirrors because to the poor in the u. k. the cost of living sweet is as bad as fit, although the worst is yet to come. charge edwards darcy, r t. london. we heard from my prem, seeka, a member of a house of lords representing the opposition labor party. he says that energy firms a prioritizing profit over people in the last decade, u k. orland, gas companies are paid out to 100000000000 pound and dividends are the irony is that the u. k. does call it even produce enough electricity to meet its own needs. it has to import it from places like oil and trans belgium and so on. it is same with the energy companies who deal with the retailing off energy. and what's happened is are the energy companies i've reduced their storage capacity. so that means people are exposed to price instability and supply swings, and indeed food prices are also rising. so it is really,

really devastating. and the other point to remember is the 693 pound increases, the 1st installment further increases to come in autumn. this year, and i am afraid we will see some debts from cold and possibly from malnutrition as well before long. yeah, mora opinions about the u. k. is energy crisis in europe. energy issues, which are the all pets section of r t dot com. also, if you missed any cool videos that we like to show here at our t, our youtube channel, it's packed with the mean time with actually, with join me every thursday on the alex salmon. sure. i'll be speaking to guess what the world politics sport business. i'm sure business, i'll see you then a

digital smart city is a city that's using technology to make people's life easier to happier, collecting a lot of data to try to improve the way things are. in theory, these big organizations that are now remaining and pulling all that data together, they're not looking at you as an individual necessarily. people's data being collected so much data that there's a real possibility of privacy violation with something most of us wouldn't want to wells transparent, but we must live with communist surveillance.