a with a boy that never was the western media is left with egg on its face after a flurry of predictions that there would be an invasion of ukraine this wednesday. instead, russian troops are returning to braces after wrapping up drills at the border. but some can't seem to stop banging the drums of war. the president, for one who is interesting that the threat of an attack remains very real. let's remind the prime minister. this is canada. this is not a dictator. he has politicize pandemic and get biting palatine when we should be working together. it's really about the minister with acceptable and the canadian prime minister faces mounting pressure from empties over his

decision to trigger emergency power is meant for times of national crisis. but instead in response to a protest by truck drivers with kathy was direct from a studios market, this is art international. i'm sean thomas. certainly glad to help you with. no. russia may have started withdrawing troops from its border with ukraine on tuesday, but that is not stopped. western officials still talking about the imminent threat of war. they say there's still no proof of a pullback. this is despite the russian defense ministry releasing video of departing tanks, showing a battalion of russia's western military district returning to its permanent base. the withdrawal came after the defense ministry confirm plan military exercises had been successfully completed earlier on are teak royce or shake and don quarter discussed why the west is still not viewing any of this. as signs of de escalation,

the russian defense minister reporting today and some military units are leaving their positions near ukraine. that would be good, but we have not yet verified that we have not yet verified the russian military units are returning to the numbers. but i think what we haven't seen is evidence of withdrawal that has been claimed by the kremlin. in fact, we've seen continued build up of things like field hospitals. so far we have no clue psion in the d escalation on the ground. on the contrary, it appears so to our shore continues, the military buildup law. at this point, it seems like whatever you tell western officials, they're just going to believe what they want to believe. it doesn't matter that the russians defense ministry said that they're going to be bringing their ha of their troops home on tuesday or that vladimir putin and survey laughter. i've actually confirmed that the west doesn't even care about video footage, showing that actual withdrawal. joe biden is still harping on this invasion hysteria that has been plaguing the west over the past several months. we are ready

with diplomacy to be engaged in diplomacy with russia and our allies and partners to improve stability security in europe as a whole. and we are ready to respond decisively to rush an attack on ukraine, which is still very much a possibility. now, what kind of attack are we talking about here? nobody really knows. but biden is far from the only person who still counting on the russian invasion even after moscow said that its withdrawing its troops the british tabloid. the sun said that an invasion was going to happen on february 16th at one a. m g m t. and that claim was outrageous. even the spokes person for the kremlin, dmitri pasco of jokingly remarked that ukrainians who actually believed that should set their alarms in anticipation. but obviously that time has passed. and all we can hear on the border between russia and ukraine. right now. is basically crickets, but still it seems like these media outlets really love the hysteria because the son is still writing that, that, that brush might invade the baltic states if it's given the opportunity to attack

ukraine. so all the while, i mean this circus is going on in the west. it really looks crazy. the people that are in the, in the east stood horses gazette. what can i say to day we mock another non invasion day. like yes, the west tried their best to make it happen. maybe there was to be a fightin and then use papers pages, but it has nothing to do with reality. i t z a shameful to washington post the new york times. bloomberg the daily mirrors build the sun, but now the disinclination museum that there hasn't been any war, but they aren't given up and they have become obsessed with waiting for a war. donald, you know it's one thing to politicians on the media to to play the games of brinkman's ship. but what about the every day joe? like you or me, for example, if, if you will from i would take us to ukraine and how other people there fairing amid all this rhetoric and attention. right, that's a good question. you think that this hysteria, media hysteria, campaign would be aimed at russia, but it doesn't really affect moscow all that much. it's the ordinary ukrainian people who have been living through

a conflict drawn out conflict and on boss in just one piece that are being affected here. i mean, this is sort of a media campaign. it created hysteria throughout ukraine. there are people organizing malicious training for an alleged russian invasion that has failed to play out. and you know, it makes it seem like the western powers that have been time and time again saying that they're trying to defend this country or actually destabilizing it. well now some of this is in fact who has been observing a, a nick situation where the west i, you the united states in london, the anglo saxons. you will try and tell a dish, heather. and in doing so and to mind their own grandchild is the new ukranian government within this place of the month of 6 weeks in the slow. so after months of the western media and politicians accusing russia of planning to invade ukraine, specifically because they had troops near the border between ukraine and russia, you'd think that the withdrawal of those troops would calm people down. but unfortunately, it looks like that situation is not playing out. russian drills and crimea have also now finished with the troops. they're heading back to their permanent basis.

this comes a day after units of the southern western military district began pulling back from russia's of western border where exercises were also held in other reaction, china is also growing frustrated with americas constant war talk over ukraine, the foreign ministry, calling it a propaganda failure. the underline may fall in recent days. the united states has hyped up the threat of war and created an atmosphere attention february 15th, as the day of the propaganda failure for the u. s. and the rest of the way was taking, i think, the united states and nato have really hope to opposite ation clamoring that russia is. on the brink all invading russia has a legitimate point in opposing the continued expansion of nato and china supplies rush us position. war breaking out would not be good for the european countries, and it will be very destructive. you can make some changes and you can make,

i believe it is. we want to see peace prevailing between russia and ukraine, which you don't want to see in the war breaking out. but more importantly, we want to see ukraine become a need to remember, because we know for sure ukraine becoming a natal member will constitute a vital threat to the russian legitimate security interest. and i think countries with decency in the world should sympathize with the position of russia, and we should oppose the continued expansion of nato into ukraine. i've called for ukraine to become a neutral country. so i would call upon all the stakeholders, including ukrainian, or russian, all the needle members to embrace peace, stronger them, talking about war themes. sports are also rising above the current international tensions. tooth gears from russia and ukraine were seen at the winter olympics in

beijing, hugging and congratulating each other after they both won metals. now this comes despite ukraine provoking criticism after it told us athletes to avoid approaching any competitors from the russian olympic committee team. if they were holding flags, as russia pulls back its forces from its western border, nato is doing the opposite. the secretary general said he doesn't believe the russian withdrawal is actually happening and announced plans to deploy extra units in eastern europe. we do not see any sign of de escalation on the ground, nor withdrawals of troops or equipment ministers decided to develop options for further strengthen naples to turn on the fence including to consider establishing new natal about the groups in central and eastern and southeast and europe. those deployment plans were discussed on wednesday at nato defense ministers meeting in brussels. one option is to send $4000.00 troops to romania and bulgaria and

possibly so vakio and hungry. that's after the u. s. since an additional $5000.00 soldiers to poland and romania, as nato up, the anti western media outlets have been celebrating the ukrainians reportedly preparing to fight off russian invaders. one of them is this 78 year old grandmother who has been featured by the times, the bbc and nbc, brandishing firearms. now, what none of those outlets mentioned is that she is being trained by a far right militia group called the as of battalion. some communities are taking matters into their own hands just across from russia in the city of maria, pull some ukrainians, are preparing who's ah

and here's another so called ukranian hero, profiled in the british tablet. the son website features a video of a sniper called eliana. below jessica, shooting at people in the east of the country. not apparently dates back to 2017 but their ask i am is active on social media frequently expressing far right views, including hate, methodist target, getting black people and homosexuals, and praising adolph hitler. and yet in 2019, she was invited to speak at the nato headquarters independent journalists. martin summers thinks the media should tread more carefully when handling such stories. well, thank you. k media particular has a responsibility to be, to be more responsible. they've been very a response about their reporting on this rule. so do i believe with the new stream see pipeline coming on stream, which if it becomes a normal thing, we'll normalize relations between russia and germany. and this is not really in the interest of the military industrial complex in the west. so they're not are

dredging. all of this up as part of a strategy to prevent pace from breaking edge. and i think in front, on the ground in the ukraine, there's quite a lot of ordinary people who are very skeptical when the war is going to happen. it's very much a western media phenomenon. and of course it's being pushed boy western intelligence services on the far right. ready of the ukraine for many years, but they do not represent the majority of the people in the ukraine while the west . so the panic over and the legend, russian invasion of ukraine. russia is investigating the damage of what vitamin put, and has called genocide in the east of ukraine. the intent to tell the people who don't boss is obvious. russian investigators found hundreds of such facts qualified, his usage of prohibited means of warfare. the report by russia investigative

committee says that the mass graves in the separatist republic of dunbar and eastern ukraine belong to the civilians, killed by ukrainian showing the white house responded to the findings by saying it could be disinformation ortiz robin. cassandra was in the village of conquer, done yet republic, where showing is part of daily life. the vintage of sonco used to be a home, so about 1200 residents before the war began here 8 years ago, less than 300 people remain year to day. the rest have fled due to the ongoing conflicts. the building behind me is the local village club has been shared by the ukraine and military several times from their position though situated less than a kilometer behind me. at 1 point, one person was killed here, and 2 children were heavily wounded. theme was a horror off as one of those kids who nearly lost their lives in the artillery attack. today he walked with a visible limp but for more than a year. he had to wear

a cast and use crutches. zima doesn't like to talk about the war, but remember what happened to him vividly. it was may the 7th 2020, my cousin and i came to visit my godmother that a military truck arrived and it got shell. and i was coordinated. i was stood on the stairs in the house. i remember hearing construction workers building the roof that i had a bang and fell down the stairs. i was lying there for a while before the military metix arrived. they moved me to another town. even though there are only 23 students left at the local school had seizure asana some marco says it's doors remain open to it. today there are a massive destructions here. we didn't have the with windows and doors on the gym was often undefined. the windows were blown out, the dining room is still nowhere came because of the destruction. the cabman, people came and did repairs for us to carry on walking despite days, we have 44 glasses from them. the scars of artillery bombardments are everywhere in

hunger. the kindergarten village club, people's homes, all are in need of repair. building materials are supplied by the self proclaimed government, along with red cross, and volunteers, local men organized groups and do the work themselves. through there, there's a lot of work going on here. there are 5 villages and they and 90 percent troy were waiting for the restoration. people are staying at their relatives places. when we finish they will move back. why is it scary working here? of course it is. but that's our job. so hunger is on the front line of the self proclaimed and as people's republic and the sound of weaponry is nothing. you musician, we hear explosions almost every day and we're scared to my yard was under fire 3 times. i know we are afraid of every explosion because after hearing it in 2 seconds, your home would be destroy, took over and i hope it all went some time because i'm so tired of it and life is passing by the. despite living in hardship and uncertainty for the last 8 years,

people who chose most of the con, refugees firmly believe that obese will soon come. and there was thriving village will forget the sound of artillery fire, remind golfer of archie. so honda, it is self proclaimed the nest people's republic. us officials have accused a popular news website of spreading kremlin propaganda after questioned washington's line on an impending russian invasion of ukraine reports in 0 hedge have been flagged by us intelligence officials. this, according to the associated press news agency, 0 hedge is known for its right leaning political and financial coverage. it has $1200000.00 followers on twitter and articles are written under pseudonyms. often you will see the name, tyler durden, a character from a book, and movie fight club. the site has ridiculed the idea that it is a russian propaganda arm. well, now we've done it. we've angered the ca and for what for publishing views that

challenge the conventional narrative, such as disputing that an invasion of ukraine is actually eminent as the us state department and it's mainstream media conduits repeat day after day. we will repeat this once again. this web site has never worked, collaborated or cooperated with russia, nor are there any links to spy or any other agencies. we heard from journalist daniel lazar who was recently threatened with a have defined for writing for a website that ended up on a u. s. blacklist, he thinks the by the ministration targets. anybody who disagrees with it's a foreign policy by the ministration accuses anybody who disagree. who questions u. s. foreign policy of somehow working for russian intelligence. the a p report in question did not not say that 0 hedge was actually in cahoots with russian intelligence. but all it said is that the articles published

somehow overlap with the, with criticisms of nato that emanate out of moscow was. this is ridiculous. i mean, you know, i mean, people are free to say what they want in the fact that the u. s. line has gotten increasingly ridiculous in recent weeks. i mean the u. s. as in predicting invasion any day now for the last 3 months and it hasn't come true. washington is a laughingstock. the world realizes that the u. s. is putting out nothing but scare stories here. but the point is that anybody who questioned this narrative was being accused of this loyalty and in my case threatened with, with massive funds still had on the program, europe's top court ruled that funding can be slashed to countries that breaking you law. the movie sparked outrage in poland and hungary, that story much more short breaks where this is our national

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for months the u. s. in the u. k. of warned and russia may invade ukraine, and yet there has been no invasion for their part. the russians submitted abundantly clear. europe's current security arrangement is untenable. saxon powers, total war, russia pops about secured. ah, welcome back. this is our t international. now, canada's prime minister is feeling the heat after m. p. 's rounded on him for triggering never before used emergency powers to deal with an ongoing protest by truck drivers against the vaccine mandates. canada's opposition leader accused the prime minister of escalating the situation in the country to my the prime minister . this is canada. this is not a dictator. 3 gasoline on embers, things are d escalating as we speak. so why is the prime minister using this hammer on

canadians? isn't it true? he's doing it just to save his own political skin. the threshold was met with the emergencies, and now across the country, releases of jurisdiction have the tools necessary to keep people say he has politicized his pandemic and divided canadians at a time when we should be working together when we should be supporting one another . his lack of leadership has divided stigmatized and traumatized canadians. yes, there have been people who've been harassing and intimidating frontline worker. yes . there are people involved in frontline, illegal blockades. but the vast majority of canadians continue to stand alongside each other and supported under 2 thirds of canadians are united because they weren't an end to mandates and walked down. but i said they're great this massage, a fringe, who quote, take up space and he said, shouldn't be tolerated if it's really about the prime minister. taking

a sledge hammer to canadian said he thinks are unacceptable. what assurances will the prime minister provide so that legal protests are not impacted by the invocation of the emergency? of course, we will always stand up for canadians charter rights. we will always stand up for freedom of peaceful assembly, a freedom of expression that is extremely important, but we also know that is the police of jurisdiction. you need to do their jobs and not canadians taking things into their own hands. to end these illegal protests, that's what we're ensuring with this measure emergencies. and you're supposed to be applied only in case of a national crisis to gives the government additional powers for 30 days, including the ability to freeze bank accounts. but it's not meant to be used against peaceful demonstrators which the truckers have been though they are accused of causing disruption. canadian police have started handing out leaflets to protesters in downtown ottawa,

ordering them to disperse. the notice says that anyone obstructing the street is committing a criminal offense and could be arrested and charged. but protestors, in ottawa say they are determined to stay and a freedom conway representative as slammed the government. we are here in peaceful, lawful protest seeking the restoration of our fundamental rights and freedoms. all canadians should be surprised no matter your political opinions, that the federal government has resorted to such an extreme and authoritarian measure like the emergencies act. and that the government wants to use force against a peaceful demonstration. if it means that i need to go to prison, if i, if i need to be fine in order to allow freedom to be restored in this country, millions of people have given far more for their freedom. and in my mind, personally, at the small sacrifice to make,

in order to ensure that the freedom to this great nation are restored, the drivers here are very determined. i mean, many of them have already lost their jobs. their, their businesses are struggling and they're prepared to, to stand here until the end. they call it that were destructive and a threat to society. but, you know, it's not us walking around, we're not the one throwing stuff. the tires were not the ones where people's lives were now the ones making a mess of people's lives. we gotta fix, you know, we get some changes. do we get the freedom back? the protests were triggered in january by vaccine mandate for cross border truckers and later snowballed into broader anti government unrest. meanwhile, there's plenty of support for the canadian truckers south of the border. american activists have formed their own convoys traveling to the peace bridge. crossing in

new york state. a several fundraising websites have been set up for freedom convoys in both of the us and canada. he spoke to the co founder of envoy to save america, who thinks the canadian protest inspired people to finally fight for their freedom . candidate is now the leader of the free world. kidding aside. it struck a lot of people because the world look at this part of the world, they look to the western world here to see what they've done and it inspires so many people right back. it's a lot more than that mandate. it's about all the mandate. it's got the lock down, it's about the masking or children, it's about. he overreach and be very, very stringent government. the people who do the delivery, the people who have dirty thing, and nails of the people that have been ignored by all government for 2 years. they were the people that didn't matter, and these are the people who do matter, the blue collar working class, the 1st few founders, nurses, the paramedics,

better people who do matter. they teachers, teachers to, we matter. so what's happening here is the global effort to fight for freedom. in the landmark case of the european union's top court has ruled brussels, can slash funding to member states that failed to uphold the laws. it's a major defeat for poland and hungary, which had challenged the use freezing of billions of euro's earmarked for the countries pandemic recovery with more. here's our struggle. kaminsky, its ruling is likely to provoke a massive tension between the in you and poland and hungary. what the ruling does is essentially means that the cash handouts to the member states across the block will be dependent. it says can be dependent on them, trusting in the rule of law abiding by the rule of law, the primus, you know, which some say is the cornerstone of this block. it's been

a source of contention for you. and the court made that decision today saying that the primacy of, you know, had to stand. now what we have heard over the last year from the news that poland and hungary are countries which are sliding back when it comes to democracy. that they are undermining the primacy of laws the laws, but the countries that joined the you see that they will abide by their attention to the whole ways of things such as that you'd fishery me dear independence women's rights and also migrant. so many, many issues and now the court is keeping the european commission this ability to, with holes payments in the future. that has, of course, already been quite extreme reaction on that from poland. let's have a listen to what the country had to say. we need to defend ourselves against an attack on our sovereignty. poland has to defend its democracy against blackmail that aims to take away on right to the side of our selves. now,

many countries have welcome a big decision by the court saying that this is a vital step to perfecting the law. the prime is speed of the you, but it is not a clear cut as it might seem. the court has said that that money can now be withheld from countries that don't respect the rule of law. but we'll have to wait until april for the european commission and the bomb delayed. to make a decision as to whether she wants to wield that power, power, that would be new for the 1st time. again, a member of faith and poland is also id to hate back to saying essentially if that's the case, it's going to look at withholding its contributions to the e. you know, that could be a bit of cutting its news off despite its face. so because poland is the largest beneficiary of in you funds at the moment, but the story still not over. despite that decision by the court. we spoke with political analyst nicole america, which he thinks a funding cut would shatter,

that use image as a free and democratic block. maybe can be the surprise for some people in poland and hungary tonight, who don't know the real nature for that in your opinion. they are just shown today through this decision, this court decision that today the find the man in matters of democracy. the european union decides and not the people of the nation states, members of the european union. we do see that the european union is full of reach with crisis. it's having a very difficult time getting everybody around the table on agreeing on different matters now. and so it wants to give a strong senior that does anyone boss and that both of those boxes are the commissioners in brussels. if you want to stay in the club, there's no problem. a bay bay, the survey, and you'll get the subsidies if the values are financial and they want the money, then they will say that if their real values are defending democracy and freedom, then they have to get out of it. that isn't for me, i'll be back in about 31 minutes with another full and 1st look at your news. this

is our to international the join me every thursday on the alex simon show. and i'll be speaking to guess in the world, the politics sport, business. i'm show business. i'll see you then me. ah, the democratic republic of congo is among the richest countries in the world and natural resources. but he cannot mclee, it's still one of the poorest cobalt is an essential material in manufacturing batteries for modern devices like electric cars, mobile phones and computers. 60 percent of the world's cobalt reserves are in congo . but 20 percent of it comes from small scale mines. unicef figures confirm that in 2017. more than $40000.00 children, worked in cobalt mining in the republic to earn

a living and paying for schooling. next time you use a fancy gadget like a smartphone camera laptop, and just remember that there's a chance it works. thanks to a child, hard labor children like john michelle, henrietta. oh countless others like them ah, or the white house is on the face of their meaning of a foreign policy. as it looked at more to be a crisis of the bite administration. and there continued a wrong intelligence in the event of ukrainian border. yet the narrative of a future invasion is still in the. meanwhile, the confirmation assigned by the hilary clinton campaign in 2016 has now been confirmed yet, and very few media outlets are willing to broadcast the details. but why is there a link between the 2? what we're going to discuss in the media is also following silence on another topic

which just last week.