the west to essentially underwrite this entire military and now economy. this is like pouring in. good money after bad. ah, with 8 people are dead and 3 more injured after a fire breaks out in the southeast, moscow high rise. we report from the c as a u. s. g d p meets the terms of recession. the white house tries to put on a brave face, claiming the economy is not struggling. another us senator urges the house speaker to proceed with our schedule trip to taiwan. despite growing threats from china to tape for school measures, if nancy pelosi follow through with her plans with brands hosting saudi arabia's crown prints on his birth, you trips in a scandal over a high profile journalist of murder,

human rights advocates blast the french president for wooing him to get energy deals. ah, 5 am here in moscow. welcome to the program from wherever you're catching us. i'm here all is about and here are the top stories this hour. we begin with 8 people are dead and 3 more are injured in a fire that tore through the ground floor of moscow, residential building, our ts. rachel blevins. reports from the seed were here outside of this hostile here in the southeast part of moscow, where a fire broke out just after midnight local time. so far, authorities are saying that 8 people have been pronounced dead and that at least 3 people are being treated for injuries. now, when it comes to the fire, they say that it was likely due to some sort of an electrical malfunction. witnesses on the scene have said that they heard some sort of a loud bang before

a fire broke out. we live on the 2nd floor and i woke up to the sound of explosions from the 1st. it was like fireworks were going off. i looked out of the window and there was thick smoke pouring from above. there were lots of explosions. i ran into the hallway and told the neighbors that the building was on fire. the amount of victims may be due to the fact that there were bars on the windows. people tried to knock them out. there could be many reasons for the fire. now this is a 16 story building. however, that fire did break out on the 1st floor. and it looks as though it was able to be contained largely to just the 1st floor with some residents being taken care of from the 2nd floor as well. now as far as the cause of death, its being reported that it was likely due to carbon monoxide poisoning. that the people who were here on the 1st floor that they were unable to get out due to the bars on the windows. and that in addition to that, while there was

a fire alarm and place reports are saying that it did not go off as land by state. the fact that there were bars on the windows, that's why evacuation was impossible. in this situation, the main cause of death is the fact that there were bars on the windows. the last inspection of the building was carried out in june this year, after which recommendations were issued. the investigative team cannot yet say what caused the fire. everything will be established after the prob asked for the identities of those people of those casualties. those have yet to be released. however, reports are saying that there were likely a number of migrants staying here. again, this is here in the south east part of town in moscow. and so far the fire has been contained and emergency services are responding. are the scenes situation the united states economy has now met the conditions of recession. that's according to the latest statistical data which shows the countries g, d p, declining for

a 2nd consecutive quarter. but the white house is in no rush to accept the economic downturn. most economists and most americans have a similar definition of recession. substantial drop losses and mass layoffs, businesses shutting down. private sector activities slowing considerably. family by chance, under immense strain in some, a broad based weakening of our economy. that is not what we're seeing right now. when you look at the economy. the u. s. economy shrank once again in the past 3 months, unofficially, signaling the start of a recession. i mean, that's simply how people define recession. if you look at the data, the gross domestic product of the united states shrank at an annualized rate. a point 9 percent in the past 3 months,

after having decreased by an annualized rate of 1.6 percent in the previous court, that's 2 consecutive quarters of decreasing gdp in the united states. that means that the day, the world largest economy has entered a recession. however, high officials in the united states, a reassuring as that is not the case. here's what they said, that doesn't sound like recession. i don't, i do not think the u. s. is currently in a recession, even if that number is negative, we're not in a recession. now, i will say that the textbook definition of recession is not, is not too negative quarters of gdp. the by the ministration is reassuring that everything is fine. as you heard the secretary of the treasury, janet yell and she is saying that this isn't a recession, this is quote, a transition in which growth is slowing, a transition in which road is flowing, she's not a recession. now this is

a similar thing in response to the issue of inflation, inflation in united states that a 40 year high and we've been reassured by us officials. this is simply a matter of transition. however, the inflation has continued. it has continued to be an issue. it's not simply a temporary issue of transition, it's continuing to go on now at this point in response to this issue, inflation, we have the buying and ministration spending billions of dollars with a law that they call the inflation reduction act of 2022. this is how americans responded to this bill. democrats just unveiled the inflation reduction act. someone please tell dems that tanking the economy with tax hikes and bad policy is a crappy way to tackle inflation. only the government could propose a bill to increase spending and call it the inflation reduction act. remember, they always named the bills the opposite of what they actually mean in any other business, this would constitute fraud and false advertising. so to combat inflation,

the government is about to approve $750000000000.00 in new spending and calling it the inflation reduction act. spoiler alert, democrats, new spending bill that they're calling the inflation reduction act will only increase inflation. now they saw a prices for just about everything are squeezing america's working families, as they're struggling to pay their bills, pay for necessities, and keep the households running amid the rising costs. at this point, we've seen the u. s. stock market tank, the s and p 500 is down by 15 percent. home sales have slipped this year and consumer confidence is low. many are looking on and wondering if this could be yet another nail in the coffin of the, by the administration. for mar, let's cross live to investment manager mich, fire sign. welcome, mich. oh, great. so i have a couple questions. can we trust the white house on this one and agree or said that

the continuing decline of the ttp does not necessarily equal recession? well, look, i mean, that's the historic textbook definition of it. but you know, you played the clips from, i guess the glass ceiling, breaking presidents, mouthpiece, and janet yellow new has never been right about anything. you mean jenny? ellen was the chairman of the fed that caused all these problems with her reckless fed policies for over 2 decades when she was involved with the federal reserve policy. so, you know, this is the route the root causes of the problem are too much debt to much credit to much leverage and too much money printing for 2 decades. now it's coming by them . i think the recession started long before this g, d, p. net negative g d p for so you know, if they want to put lipstick on a pig, it's never going to turn into a c model. recession. we're in a recession, we've been in a recession. we can lie as much as they want. it wouldn't be the 1st time. i don't know why anybody shocked about it. so this is be trying to put out

sound bites that are fundamentally true. it's the same thing with you here. and i heard that clips that inflation is at 40. your highest inflation is not 40 or high . inflation is that all time. you're not comparing like in like 19 eighties. if you use the same method ology, you calculate current inflation. now it's probably closer to 20 percent 9.9 point one percent or 9.3 percent. and those numbers, of course, are wishful thinking. the inflated, the real inflation numbers are actual inflation, numbers are much higher and it's just rating the middle class. so, you know, the, a leach the political leads irving, them at all. but when families go to the grocery store and they realize most prices have doubled or butter prices have doubled and they can afford meet in the other scene with the w, b, f. once you get rid of your cars, because you need to take public transport while people fly around the world for

climate change, because that's next crisis, it's always a crisis. the credit crisis, the climate crisis, you can do this. we can do this, we're going to fly. what was a 1000 private jets in europe to talk about the climate? one rule for the and another for me. you're seeing around the world, you know, a global economic recession that's going to buy. now interest rates have risen. nobody's talking about that. what people are not talking about as well is the amount of debt that's been accrued during the negative interest rate years. so now you've got debt from the zombie corporations and there are a lot of them that can never be repaid. so you've got probably 6 trillion dollars worth of triple b and junk bonds that have to be refinance. so you will see a massive amount of defaults and bankruptcies that will cause the coming crisis. so janet yellow and inconsistently wrong. when she was the chairman of the fed and

when she was on the board in the fed. now, as a treasury secretary, he's even more wrong. we're are going to, you know, she said, i think 2 years ago or 3 years ago, we'll never see another crisis in a lifetime, right before me, she's been consistently what she's been saying, inflation is transitory. lation is transitory, taught 6 months ago. so why would you believe people that are consistently wrong? the problem is we're going to the same people who created the problems for a solution and they have no solution and we have no leadership. right, so is this a bite in administration? have any success in convincing the american public that the economy strong because of what you just mentioned, high gas prices at the pump, high inflation, increased prices in grocery stores. do you believe that there is any chance that the bite and administration will succeed in convincing the american public and what can they do with the up for the upcoming mid term elections? if anything?

well, i mean, he keeps ranting on about the total price hike, but, you know, it's joe biden. hi, who am i? where am i am? why am i here? i mean, you know, the real question is, does you know what he's talking about? i don't think his popularity, i would, i would be dock if his popularity is above 20 percent in the country and they're saying with it's around 30 percent. but i doubt that so his popularity is a historic low for any president, especially in the cycling going on. this is the guy who allegedly got 1000000 votes and warning and election by eating the 81000000 vote. so, you know, it doesn't look good and do people believe haven't the people believe lives? some people will believe it. i think most of the people, especially the ones that have to go to the supermarket and fill their tanks up, do not believe it. and i think that the crucial point that we're talking about the most valuable commodity in the world, the most expensive commodity, most elusive commodities truth because truth doesn't seem to exist anymore. now if

you talk about oil prices, just you're buying in office until february of this year. well, prices went up about 200 percent. and as you know, gasoline prices are direct directly correlated to oil prices and energy prices. no energy prices will go much higher. this winter i think that we will also see change . we had supply chain issues. we will see many prices go much higher. so i think we can see inflation going a lot higher. i don't see any kind of rest bite from the information that we have right now. and i also think that the, the way the interest rates have been raised by the united states is export of inflation and to the poor nations. the west is just the export of their inflation around the world for actually you're going to see defaults in those countries in a lot of really non james and get her on the lines. the interest rate increases because us dollar some relief base that going to be more expensive to repay,

especially in contracting economies. so i think we have a lot of problems generic and a lot of pipeline was there's nobody's talking about, of course they're not going to address the issue in colorado investment manager mich fire sign. thank you so much for coming on. sure. thanks a lot o francis. the latest you country to attempt to woo saudi arabia with his crown prince in paris for tots that says european leaders desperately seek alternative suppliers of energy to replace russian imports. however, human rights watch dogs are crying foul over the cording of the prince. a washington based group called democracy for the arab world now has filed a criminal complaint against the top saudi official. the organization established by slain journalist jamal cas shogi is urging paris to investigate the prince over his alleged role in the 28 team, killing of the dissident. the don watchdog that tracks human rights violations and golf countries and promotes democracy, says vince,

all men should be stripped of diplomatic immunity, with 2 other advocate groups, reportedly supporting the initiative. earlier amnesty international criticized france for hosting the prince. i feel profoundly troubled by the visit because of what it means for our world, and what it means for jamal to shall g, and people like him. the visits by mohammed ben salman to france and joe biden, to saudi arabia, do not change the fact that m b s is nothing other than a killer. if environmentalists thought they were the only ones who were going to get short changed with his energy crisis, it looks like they're now joined by human rights activists. but a madman, nicole french president is constantly evoking the importance of human rights in different contexts. like, for example, up paris is the birthplace of the universal declaration of human rights. how the defense of human rights is woven into europe's very fabric. but today mohammed been salman or effectually notice m b. s is at the french presidential palace,

which may or may not by the way, pale in comparison to the home, where m b. s. is staying during his visit. we're talking here about a home that the new york times says m b. s. owns through shell companies, and it's dub the world's most expensive home by fortune magazine. the 7000 square meter, shocked to louis kent tells that it's really not far about a 40 minute drive around a kilometers from the famous chateau duff sire. which apparently inspired m b s is french home. now the crown prince of oil rich to saudi arabia was directly tied by western intelligence services to the murder of washington post columnist, activist and prominent saudi government critic jamal cash o g, who is reportedly lured inside the saudi consulate in istanbul, turkey in october 2018 and then dismembered with the bones, saw french presidents always have been very pragmatic, casually, inconveniently,

just, you know, setting aside lofty values when they happen to clash with french economic interests . and that seems to be the case here. francis big problem right now is that it's caught up in europe's energy crunch the wake of you sanctions on russian gas. francis nuclear energy was on the verge of a programmed decline. about half of the reactors were out of commission and deliberately neglected when paris did an about face earlier this year and lobby brussels to reclassify nuclear energy as green energy. but questions remain as to whether those reactors and the liquefied natural gas that france has been ex, forwarding in massive quantities from russia. since the start of the conflict in ukraine will be enough to power france through the fall and the winter. it makes sense that m b s gets to an invite to the abc right now, as the crown prince of an energy rich country, human rights optics. be down to obviously desperate times call for desperate

measures. and while it may be even desperate fis bumps with m b s, which u. s. president joe biden would know something about he set precedent for that earlier this month. a little bit controversially, didn't seem to do much good though, and be asked to give biden any of the oil production guarantees that by him was looking for and a maximum by then and other western leaders are a he, a big show for their citizens about trying to mitigate the energy crisis and with middling results, this is what this is all about. you know, we're bringing everybody in who can potentially help us with this problem. even ignoring human rights. we need to, but it's all for one goal to make sure cost of living stays low. but the one thing that is within their power is to lift their own sanctions on their own energy supply. and they don't seem to be make any moves to do that. a former senior advisor to saudi arabia's minister of energy told us that new contracts with the you are a positive that but really cannot cover europe's huge demand on its own. if we

increase our production, we can do it alone. denise, that all of last can do is doing at the same time or would one decision. and since the oil market is fungible, what if you take from either amount, if it's still franz, then the sam situation would continue to be. euro now is paying a high price for the sanction that they put on the oil you is. and the big, big, big problem is energy shortage is the problem with the economy. and we think that the and the united states at auditing the you to do this and that, and there are now and a top. so

e that they abolish all the sanctions in order to the to relieve the that economy or they would be and the recession and becoming months if not the it's a us senator is urging how speaker nancy pelosi to proceed with a scheduled trip to taiwan. a visit which has already stoked us. china tensions. speaker pelosi should absolutely go for her trip to taiwan. we can not allow chinese threats to deter a mere visit. my member of congress of high one. earlier china told washington that policies visit to tie one plan for august would lead to serious consequences. beijing says it will take quote, forceful measures if the house speaker follows through on her plans. it would be the 1st visit to taiwan by such a high profile american official and 25 years. just recently, joe biden held a phone call with his chinese counterpart. the phone call lasted more than 2 hours

. meanwhile, taiwanese service men have taken part in annual military drills, simulating a foreign invasion amid growing concerns over tensions in the region. and while some us officials are fearful of a potential conflict with china, other american politicians are pushing for serious confrontation. you know, the whole idea that we're worried about chinese rhetoric shows how misplaced our policy is. this is a question of how america conducts its own foreign policy. and thank you very much . decision king will conduct, it's a way we want to conduct it. can we send a constitutionally denominated official. busy to china, are we going to back down because she shouldn't paying is shaking his fist. if we can allow the chinese to dictate who can visit taiwan and who cannot. then we have already seated, tie one to the chinese if they can veto every one in the world who wants to come to tie one than taiwan will be isolated. so i think she has an absolute right to visit,

and i think the support of taiwan is important. ok, let's cross lived to christopher holly and american political analyst and researchers. christopher, what do you make of the latest statements coming from washington and the push to encourage nancy pelosi to go through her visit in spite of the tension it's causing . this is just the, the continuation of the project for a new american century. this is what the near liberals and the neoconservatives one . they want to shoot up the pressure. they want to stay burrell, not only against china, against russia, against iran, against a whole host of nations. but china is the main target for part of the ruling class in united states. and as you heard in the clips and things like that, you have people like john bolton, you know, qu leaders and war mongers who are, who are openly saying that, you know, nancy pelosi should go through with this, as are other leaders in washington. and this is a very dangerous escalation,

the united states after recognize the people's republic of china in the seventy's with the opening. and the diplomacy that happens between president nixon and the chairman mouth. what we're seeing here is, is a, is a big betrayal of that openness and that dialogue and move towards confrontation. the problem is that these 2 powers, like before with the soviet union, are both a nuclear powers. and it's, it's dangerous it's, it's very dangerous of what they're proposing. and nancy pelosi should not go. they should respect that. one is, is part of china, we believe in the one china policy. and what they're doing now is just pandering and saber rattling, and it's bringing us to the precipice once again of nuclear exchange and china has said it will take, quote, forceful measures in response to the visit. do you think washington believes this? i think that washington recognizes that china is no longer, you know,

the once former colony that it was when it was divided in can tons between all the european powers it understands that china has stood up. now, china is strong, is the 2nd largest economy. it's going to quickly overtake the united states in the next few decades. it's built in road initiative has made it friendly with many, many countries because of course, chinese foreign policy is not done with the barrel of the gun or we drones. it's done with diplomacy and respect and, you know, mutual cooperation and exchange. whereas the united states has led, you know, the world for the past 30 years and a unipolar world with bombs and crews, and the regime change and forcing democracy down people's throats while stealing their oil and gold and natural resources. so i think that what we're seeing now with the escalation, we just saw that the u. s. s. ronald reagan and it's a strike group is headed back to the south china sea. and of course, this is, this is escalating the situation. i think the united states recognizes this. i, i don't know why they are. they are still pushing to go through with it though.

that's the bigger question, but of course they have their friends in the military industrial complex to fat in their pockets and line their pockets with all of the weapons and new systems that they want to use against china. yeah, and just to, to go on that the us lawmakers do claim that it's been common practice for congressional representative, the travel to taiwan. so if that's the case, how can be g justify the reaction? this isn't just any congressional leader. this is the speaker of the house who is, you know, what 3rd in line the presidency, should something happen to the president, the vice president? i mean, this is a very, very high profile visit and it comes at a time of increasing tension. it's not like the u. s. is things china, you know, let's sit down, let's work things out. let's deescalate everything will remove, you know, our carrier strike groups and will open up and recognize, you know, china sovereignty in the region. what they're doing is the complete opposite.

they're forcing countries that are making agreements with china like small pacific island nations, to go back on their deals with china to close the door to china and slowly to in circle china. the, the, the, the chinese have not surrounded the u. s. military bases in the military plains and worships the united states is doing that to china. so this is just heightening the tensions in an escalating the situation. it doesn't need to happen now. and the united states is doing it on purpose to provoke china. right? this is clearly a red line for china, right. and so do you think while you can really afford to cross china's red line, since especially they've seemed to have cross rushes red lined with this in russia, ukraine conflict? yeah, i think that you know, anything, anything to help raytheon boeing and lucky martin at this point. i mean, they are willing, they were willing to push the red line on ukraine and still with georgia and with other countries violating, you know, russian, russian, federations, a strategic interest. and it's, you know, area of, you know, historic, you know,

basically it's, it's strategic depth. you know, the coming right to the border. now the u. s. is doing the same to china and i think that they want to call the chinese bluff, but i don't think the chinese are bluffing at all. christopher hall, ali political analyst and researcher. thank you very much. thank you for having me . ah, now to the latest from ukraine, russia, defense ministry says kids forces are sustaining significant losses with the latest that pull reaching at least $200.00. as a result of high position russian strikes on the ukrainian military positions in the harrison region. and inside the john yes republic. moscow says its missiles have destroyed 9 ukrainian military command post in the past 24 hours as well as 6 ammunition warehouses. this comes a day after more than a 100 rockets for western supplied highmark launchers are said to have been destroyed with 120 ukrainian troops also killed. meanwhile, in the dawn bass,

the city of e low advice in the dawn. yes, people's republic was reportedly shelled by ukrainian forces. local media have shared videos of a huge fire in the city, which is believed to be the result of the attack authorities or get to comment on the blaze. this is as ukraine continues its relentless shelling of civilian areas in the don. yes, republic leaving little but ruins in areas locals used to call home are tease roman closer. f reports from the city of gordon cup, which has recently faced heavy shelly ukrainian artillery attacks continue against civilian population. here in this city of foot, gore lapka, at least that 14 private residences and a 16 multiple apartment buildings have been damaged as the result for people had been injured here and girl of god alone. this particular building has just 8 apartments, and 4 of them are now lying in ruins with

little to wish ease them. we had just gone out to get water when there was an explosion right there under the balcony, left to pillage. everything went flying, which for apartments were destroyed all of us. all of the residents are still alive because we had stepped out. my neighbors had gone downstairs, which they would have died in their apartments. the 4 apartments on this side of the building were destroyed. the other side was left unharmed. when we came back home, there was no home to come back to, which is such a misfortune as i bought it. but i got a call and was told that either your home is gone, your apartment is gone. i'm happy to be alive,

the owner of this apartment. how recently did renovation here. however, as you can see, all of that work was futile, as it now lies almost completely destroyed. now, shores, like these can be found everywhere. now it might look small to you, but it weighs at least a 100 grams. no one was killed during this ukrainian attack. however, there were several wounded people here in goal of car and are now in the hospital, brahman cauthrin, r t, the nest people's republic. thanks for tuning into the program, those were this hour's top stories and just be sure to stay tuned for more great programming on r t and follow up on twitter and instagram bye for now. for a.